Perpetrators: Encountering Humanity's Dark Side

276 Pages·2023·12.024 MB·English

by  Antonius C.G.M. Robben

PERPETRATORS
Stanford Studies in Human Rights
Perpetrators
Encountering Humanity’s Dark Side
Antonius C. G. M. Robben
and
Alexander Laban Hinton
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2023 by Antonius Cornelis Gerardus Maria Robben and Alexander Laban
Hinton. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or
in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written per-
mission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free, archival- quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Robben, Antonius C. G. M., author. | Hinton, Alexander Laban,
author.
Title: Perpetrators : encountering humanity's dark side / Antonius C.G.M.
Robben and Alexander Laban Hinton.
Other titles: Stanford studies in human rights.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2023. | Series:
Stanford studies in human rights | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022022364 (print) | LCCN 2022022365 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781503630673 (cloth) | ISBN 9781503634275 (paperback) | ISBN
9781503634282 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Crimes against humanity—Case studies. | Political
atrocities—Case studies. | Crimes against humanity—Cambodia. |
Crimes against humanity—Argentina. | Political atrocities—Cambodia.
| Political atrocities—Argentina. | Genocide—Cambodia. | Argentina—
History—Dirty War, 1976-1983.
Classification: LCC HV6322.7 .R63 2023 (print) | LCC HV6322.7 (ebook) |
DDC 364.15/109596—dc23/eng/20221021
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022364
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022365
Typeset by Elliott Beard in Minion Pro 10/14
Cover design by Derek Thornton / Notch Design
Cover image: Shutterstock 208029595
We dedicate this book to our fathers,
Ladson Hinton and the late Antonius Johannes Robben
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword xi
Preface xv
Introduction
Approaching Perpetrator Research 1
Part I
INTERVIEWING
1 Spectacular Perpetrators 39
2 Seductive Perpetrators 61
Interludes
The Perpetrator and the Witness 86
“They Were No More. None of Them. 95
They Had Become Disappeared.”
viii Contents
Part II
DREAMING
3 The Night Stalkers 105
4 Ruin 130
Interludes
“For the Sake of the Fatherland” 154
Interrogation: Comrade Duch’s Abecedarian 159
Part III
WRITING
5 Nearing the Paradox 165
6 Curation 189
Conclusion
Six Guideposts for Perpetrator Research 209
Notes 219
Bibliography 227
Index 241
List of Illustrations
FIGURE 1. Navy Lieutenant Alfredo Astiz, 3
alias “the Blond Angel.”
FIGURE 2. Unidentified woman, speaking at a 42
People’s Republic of Kampuchea commemoration event.
FIGURE 3. The remains of victims at a genocide memorial 43
site located in Svay Pha- Em pagoda, Svay Rieng Province,
Cambodia, around 1983.
FIGURE 4. A dead guerrilla after the attack on 68
the Twenty- Ninth Mounted Infantry Regiment in
Formosa, Argentina, on October 5, 1975.
FIGURE 5. Matilde Herrera and her children, 98
José, Martín, and Valeria.
FIGURE 6. Officers’ Mess at the Navy Mechanics School 108
(ESMA), Buenos Aires.
FIGURE 7. Letter by Jo Robben from Dachau 110
concentration camp, in Germany, dated July 2, 1944.
ix