Tuol Sleng genocide museum, Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison

A visit to Cambodia would not be complete without visiting the country's most recent history. Though horrific, the genocide under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, has deeply shaped the people and culture of current day Cambodia. From 1975 to 1979, only 30 years after the holocaust under Hitler, between 1 million and 3 million people were murdered in Cambodia. Most of them were ethnic Cambodians, but some were foreigners who happened to be in the country when the regime took power.

After independence from the French in 1953, Cambodia became a constitutional monarchy. After several prime ministers, the ruling government was ousted by a coup d'etat in 1970. From 1970 through 1975, there was a civil war in Cambodia between the group that conducted the coup and a group called the Khmer (term for Cambodia/Cambodians) Rouge. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge gained full power in Cambodia when they invade Phnom Pehn. Initially, citizens apparently welcomed them and many cheered in the streets when the Khmer Rouge stormed Phnom Phen. However, within hours people were ordered to evacuate the city. This is when the terror began.

(For an excellent first hand account of the years under the Khmer Rouge, I strongly recommend the book First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung)

I won't go into the whole history here, but what began in April of 1975 was one of the largest, most organized genocides of modern history (pretty terrible that I must write "one of" and not "the" - why don't we learn from history). People were beat into submission using force, violence, fear and distrust. Families could not talk to problems or love. People were ripped from their beds in the middle of the night. Under the name of "socialism" people were starved and made to work like animals. Women were raped. Men, women, children and babies were killed in cold blood. It was horrific.

We visited the Tuol Sleng genocide museum. "Tuol Sleng" translates to "supplying guilt" or "bearing poison" but before this place was named Tuol Sleng, it was called Ponhea Yat highschool. The Khmer Rouge took over this school, renames it Tuol Sleng or detention security center S-21 prison. Tens of thousands of men, women an children were brought to this center, "interrogated", tortured, imprisoned and then taken to nearby fields to be killed. Many confessed to false crimes against the state and associations during the brutality of their torture.

Here are the grounds of the museum/prison/school:

In the foreground are seven coffins. These bodies were found and identified when this center was broken up. The tens of thousands of other bodies were dumped in mass graves in the countryside. Only 12 people survived their trip here.

the graves

The (class)rooms in the building you see in the first picture were used as interrogation chambers. Some beds, shackles and instruments of torture are still housed in the rooms. The tile floors and blackboards add disturbing irony.

left from the days this room functioned as a place of learning and growing

interrogation bed, mat and shackles in one room

The floors had been nearly scrubbed away, but light traces of dark (blood) stains could still be seen under and around each of the beds. In each room were pictures that were taken by the "security staff" - most were bloodied bodies attached to the beds. Sometimes it was difficult to recognise different parts of the body. I am not posting those pictures here.

Outside building one, were posted the "rules" given by the guards and interrogators. They are as seen below:

One prisoner who's life was spared because he was a painter (and was employed by the guards to paint for them) stored scenes in his mind and after the country achieved peace, began painting some of the horrific scenes he had witnessed. Here is one:

One method of torture

(I purposely placed the window reflection over the worst part)

Building two was dedicated to the victims. Records were very carefully made and kept of each person passing through S-21. Each person posed for a mug shot and then their biography was recorded by the staff of the prison. The first floor of building two displayed thousands of pictures of some of the victims of Tuol Sleng and the second floor displayed pictures with biographies as well as statements from loved ones (who weren't killed) of the victims.

Looking in the first floor window at some of the mug shots

In the third building were housed the jail cells. There had been holes/doorways knocked into the walls between the classrooms which made each floor into a continuous row of cells. Some brick and some wooden

rows of brick cells

wooden cells

This building was flanked with barbed wires to prevent "prisoners" from running away or jumping to try and commit suicide.

from the outside looking in

from the inside looking out

This was an intense and upsetting experience. We decided not to take the trip out to see the actual killing fields, as we'd seen them in the movie and preferred to end our trip to Cambodia on a lighter note. However, if you are ever in this part of the world, this museum is worth the trip and $3 entrance fee. History and genocide keeps repeating itself. When will it stop? What can we do to help? Be aware - that is the first step.