NEVER FORGET PRESS

ONE TEEN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE RWANDAN MASSACRES

This is the true story of Christine, a young woman who grew up in two very different Cultures and survived abuse, torture and massacres. Christine’s Catholic father, Leonard, was a Black Tutsi tribe member from Kigali, Rwanda and her White Jewish mother, Lilian, was a child of Holocaust Survivors from Cluj Napoca, a city in Transylvania, Romania. Christine’s parents were both rebellious and troubled children from the experimental era and turbulent times of the 1970’s. Leonard and Lillian both left their homes to be free of their parents and restrictions, and met each other in college in Bucharest, where they moved in together about one week after meeting. Two children later (first came Marie-Chantal and then Christine), Leonard and Lilian got married and then soon split from their extremely rocky and volatile relationship. Leonard returned to Rwanda and Lilian stayed in Romania. Lilian was not interested in being a mother. She wanted to live a care free life without any responsibilities and rejected both of her children, Marie-Chantal and Christine. She wanted no parental burdens and denied her daughters existence. Leonard, who was physically and verbally abusive and a sexual child molester, took both of his daughters to Rwanda. After several years of extreme abuse in the home, civil war broke out in Rwanda. In April, 1994, the Hutus of Rwanda attacked the Tutsies and massacred between 800,000 – 1 million people within a three month period. The United Nations sent troops who were under orders to do nothing other than observe the massacres. Tens of thousands of Tutsi victims begged for help but the UN troops who could’ve made a difference did nothing other than watch the murders of civilians in silence. Christine’s story begins with her parents and we follow her as she develops and grows up from an abused childhood into a tough 14 year old teenage survivor of the Rwandan Massacres. Christine tells her amazing and harrowing personal story of capture, escape and survival, using her wits and instincts as she roams on foot throughout Rwanda to escape the Hutu death squads which sought her out and hunted her like an animal as an individual prize and a hated Tutsi tribe member.