“Horrific”

Cambodia
Through Harold’s Lens:
1975-79

WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT!

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Pol Pot Regime
Khmer Rouge
Terror
Killing fields
3,000,000 people slaughtered!

Society
Confiscated: private property
Burned: homes to the ground
Banned: family relationships
Separated: children from parents
Relocated: different parts of Cambodia
Relocated: collective farms, forced labor
Banned: personal utensils
Eliminated: privacy, sexual relations
Death: family members communicating
Banned: religion, Buddhist temples destroyed
Murdered: 60,000 monks
Abolished: freedom to travel
Abolished: postal service, telephone service
Closed: hospitals, factories
Closed: schools, books burned
Closed: banks, money burned
Destroyed: bank records, claims to funds
Isolated: Cambodia from foreign countries.

Family
Grandmother, Grandfather
Mother, Father
Daughter, Son
Infant.

Long marches: days through countryside
Died: children, elderly, sick
Work: 12 hours non-stop, no rest, no food,
no medicine, no medical services
Death: disease, illness
Death: exhaustion, overwork
Death: starvation
Murdered: offenders
Murdered: intellectuals, city-dwellers
Murdered: teachers, minorities
Murdered: merchants, suspected traitors
Murdered: practicing religion
Raped: females
Torture: children taught methods with animals
Torture: children carried out torture, executions.

Torture
Mass graves: 20,000, 1,386,734 victims
Torture centre: 16,000 sent to death
Secret prison: S-21.14,000 prisoners, 12 survived
Small cells: shackled to walls & concrete floor
Large cells: collectively shackled to long iron bars
Food: human feces
Water: human urine
Torture: sliced with knives
Torture: electric shocks, searing hot metal
Torture: suffocation in plastic bags
Torture: fingernails pulled out, alcohol poured on wounds
Torture: alive, bled to death
Torture: alive, sliced open, organs removed, no anesthetic
Torture: alive, skinned
Torture: heads held under water
Execution: pickaxes, spades, sharpened bamboo sticks, machetes
Execution: heads of children, infants bashed against trees.

30 years later
Widows: tens of thousands
Orphans: tens of thousands
Living: severe traumatization

Pol Pot Regime
Khmer Rouge
Terror
Killing fields
3,000,000 people slaughtered!

May our world never forget this horrific event.

Documentation Center of Cambodia
http://www.dccam.org

“Soft Side Of Love”

Egypt
Through Harold’s Lens:

Small Coptic Orthodox Church
Slowly with reference
Little boy
Grandmother
Pass through holy
Portals.

Idolizing eyes look up
Into proud eyes
Respect.

Aging slim legs
Young tiny feet
Quietly
Down long hallowed carpet.

Kneeling together
Deep prayer.

Aged dark wooden pew
Small family
Shufflles sideways.

Not alone
The Father
The Son
The Holy Spirit.

Alone moment
Quiet moment.

Crinkled hands
Folded
Young fingers
Folded.

Quietly arise.

Candles aglow
Beckon.

Little hand
Guided by
Wilted hand
Touch flame to flame.

Prayer
Deep thought
Rolling tears.

Connected by blood
Connected by love.

Husband remembered
Grandfather honored.

The soft side of love.

“A Great Tree Has Fallen”

South Africa
Through Harold’s Lens:

On this day
When the great man is laid to rest
May the famous baobab tree
South Africa’s “Tree of Life”
Spring forth
Another
Nelson Mandela.

“Pondering The Loss Of Nelson Mandela”

.

Guatemala
Through Harold’s Lens:

Today
Our world lost
Truly great man
True hero of our time.

Let us never forget

One-of-a-kind stature
Wisdom
Grace
South Africa’s
Nelson Mandela.

His final walk to freedom has begun.

“Dear Daddy.” Alcoholic: The Dark Side.

Your Town
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Daddy
Is it cold down there?

Are you asleep?
Can you breath?

It’s very quiet here.

A man just threw dirt
On top of your box.

Mommy says
It’s a coffin.

A man in a black suit
With a white collar
Has a black book
Open

He’s reading strange words
In an creepy language.

Mommy says
It’s Latin.

A man with a weird horn
Is squeezing a big bag
He’s playing music.

Mommy says
It’s Amazing Grace.

Everybody is
Crying
Hugging
Holding hands
Leaning on each other.

Other Mommies
Are whispering.

They are saying
You
Drank yourself death.

Other Daddies
Are talking.

They are saying
You were
A drunk.

Why Daddy?
Please help me Daddy
I love you Daddy!

Ring. Ring. Ring.
“Hello
Alcoholics Anonymous.
May I help you?”

“May name is Jason.
I’m an alcoholic.”

“Stages”. Alcoholic: The Dark Side.

Your Town
Through Harold’s Lens:

Shock

Pete!
Dead?
Mom, I just saw him!
What happened?

Story

Pitch night
Old man
Alcoholic
Drunk
High speed
Head-on.

3000 pounds
Into
3000 pounds.

Metal rips metal
Metal smashes glass
Smashing glass tears tender skin
Sharp edges saw bare bone
Chards puncture eyes
Blood
Rivers of blood.

Denial

No Mom
This can’t be
This can’t be happening to our family
Pete! Pete!
My dear brother Pete!

Anger

@$#&%*
@$#&%*
@$#&%* liquor
@$#&%* alcoholic
@$#&%* alcoholic driving a car.

Tears

Streams roll over soft cheeks
Tongue tastes salt
Lips tastes mucous
Shoulders shake
Body quivers.

Eyes stare into space
Howl
Long, low, hollow
Nooooooooooooo!!!!

Depression

@$#&%* life
I can’t do this any more
Pete was my strength
My best friend
My God.

Acceptance

Mom
Dad
I have you
We have each other
We have love.

Ring. Ring. Ring.
“Hello.
Alcoholics Anonymous.
May I help you?”

“My name is John.
I’m an alcoholic.”

“Life Destroyed”

Poland
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Inside a chamber of horrors
The little girl shrieked
“Mommmmmmmmmmmmy?”
“Daddddddddddddy?”
Where are you?

Wave after wave
Luftwaffe bombers
Rains of bombs
Blasts!!! Blasts!!! Blasts!!!
Tons of concrete crashed on tons of concrete
Explosions, fires
Historic buildings destroyed.

Screams!
“Grandpa?”
“Grandma?”
“Help me! I’m all alone”
Fear had dug talons deep.

Tanks crushed fresh bodies
Men, women children
Deboning corpses
Bits of bone everywhere.

Thirty degrees
Hair frozen
Covered in blood
Severe pain
Shredded pink dress
Horrific.

The day the world went to war
Hitler, Nazi claw
Storm troopers, SS, Secret police
Terror, tears executions
Concentration camps
The planet was never the same.

Cookies, Christmas
Hugs love, friends
Mommies, Daddies, little children
All gone.

Gdansk
September 1, 1939
Germany invades Poland
World War II begins
Five years
Five million humans dead.

A woman’s memory
Could never be a little girl again
Life ripped from her soul
Macabre memories.

“Mommmmmmmmmmmmy?”