Writer/Journalist Heidi Kingstone Reflects on War Reporting and the Lessons of Genocide at Farringdon Club Gathering in the City

By Kaliph Anaz

Members of the Farringdon Club gathered at the Rising Sun for their monthly networking meeting, where foreign correspondent and author Heidi Kingstone delivered a compelling talk on conflict reporting, human rights, and the enduring lessons of genocide.

Kingstone, an experienced international journalist, has reported for some of the world’s leading publications, covering human rights issues, conflict zones and political upheaval across several continents. Her reporting has taken her to some of the most challenging regions of the world, including Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Bangladesh, Mali, Darfur and the wider Middle East. Over the course of her career she has interviewed global figures ranging from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Princess Anne to renowned architects Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind.

Recently appointed as an adviser to the Mantraya Institute for Strategic Studies, Kingstone spoke candidly about her experiences reporting from conflict zones and about the inspiration behind her writing. Her first book, Dispatches from the Kabul Café, is a memoir chronicling four years spent reporting from Afghanistan. The work offers readers a vivid portrait of daily life in a country shaped by decades of war, as well as the stories of the many individuals she encountered there. Alongside the book, she also produced a series titled 100 People, 100 Places, capturing the personalities, landscapes and cultural encounters that defined her time in the country. However, the focus of her talk at the Farringdon Club centred on her second book, Genocide: Personal Stories, Big Questions, which explores the history of genocide over the past 120 years and its continuing relevance in today’s world.

Kingstone explained that the inspiration for the book came from a deeply personal encounter. In 2020, she met a woman named Paulette who worked with an organisation in Toronto helping survivors of the Yazidi genocide rebuild their lives.

Paulette herself was the daughter of survivors of the Holocaust. The connection between two atrocities – separated by generations and geography – left a profound impression on the journalist.

“That moment made me realise how empathy can pass from one generation to the next,” Kingstone said. “Paulette’s family history had sensitised her to the suffering of others and inspired her to help.”

When she first began telling people she was writing about genocide, she recalled, many reacted with discomfort or indifference. Some assumed the subject referred exclusively to the Holocaust. But genocide, she emphasised, is a recurring tragedy that has affected many peoples and societies throughout modern history.

Her research led her to the work of Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish lawyer who coined the term “genocide” in 1944. Lemkin dedicated his life to ensuring that the systematic destruction of peoples would be recognised as an international crime. Yet despite his extraordinary contribution, he died largely unrecognised and in poverty after decades of campaigning for legal recognition of genocide.

Lemkin’s thinking was profoundly influenced by the Armenian Genocide of 1915, during which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the collapsing Ottoman Empire. At the time, Winston Churchill described the atrocity as “a crime without a name” – a phrase that underscored the absence of a legal framework to define or punish such acts until Lemkin later created the term.

Kingstone noted that the failure of the international community to fully confront such crimes has had dangerous consequences. Dictators often assume that the world will forget. Adolf Hitler is widely reported to have asked, “Who remembers the Armenians?” shortly before launching his invasion of Poland – a chilling reminder that impunity can encourage future atrocities.

Two personal stories in particular shaped the narrative of her book. One is that of Anne Frank, whose diary revealed the human reality of the Holocaust to millions around the world. The other is Aurora Mardiganian, an Armenian survivor whose life was shattered during the Armenian genocide.

Aurora grew up in a prosperous Armenian family in the Ottoman Empire, where she loved theatre and performed plays with her siblings. When the genocide began, her life changed dramatically. She endured imprisonment, slavery and a brutal 1,400-mile death march before eventually escaping. After reaching safety in the United States, she shared her story with the world. Her memoir was serialised in newspapers, a Hollywood film was made about her life, and significant funds were raised to help Armenian orphans.

Stories like Aurora’s, Kingstone said, reveal the human reality behind the word genocide. They transform statistics into individual lives and remind readers that behind every historical tragedy are people with dreams, families and aspirations.

During her research, Kingstone also noticed disturbing patterns repeated across different genocides—from Nazi Germany to Cambodia and Rwanda. In each case, the language used to describe victims was strikingly similar. People targeted for destruction were first dehumanised, often described as insects, vermin or parasites.

“The first step toward genocide is always the same,” she told the audience. “The victims are no longer seen as human. They are seen as ‘the other’.”

Her hope, she said, is that the book will help readers recognise the warning signs of such atrocities. History shows that genocide does not begin with mass killing but with words, ideas and indifference.

By encouraging empathy, critical thinking and global awareness, Kingstone believes societies can better recognise and challenge the forces that allow such crimes to emerge.

See: London Daily