Choeung Ek (a killing field outside of Phnom Penh) was our first stop after getting off the plane. That was moving. See previous post. From there we went straight to Tuol Sleng, a former prison turned museum in the city of Phnom Penh, about 15 kms away. People were held at this prison before being shipped to the killing field.
Upon arrival we paid our $3USD for entry and asked for an English speaking guide. Teresa and I joined up with three other ESL Spanish speakers and waited for our guide to whom we each paid $2USD for her services. What made this experience "extra" moving was the heart and authenticity with which our guide spoke (we absolutely can not remember her name). She broke down multiple times as she explained the museum to us because as she told stories she remembered her personal connection to the brutal Cambodian history.
She was ten when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge soldiers invaded and took control of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. She was forced out of the city with her mother. Her father was killed because of his association with the former government. Her older brother and sister were also killed. By the time she and her mother arrived at the community farm, her mother was adamant that she needed to save her daughter and herself. I don't know how, but they escaped in the middle of the night, along with a handful of other people, and walked for three days to Vietnam. She and her mother stayed in Vietnam for nearly ten years (I think) before returning to Cambodia. Our guide lived and was personally affected by much of the history she was telling us.
Tuol Sleng (Security Prison - 21, or "S-21") used to be a public high school until April 17 when the Khmer Rouge invaded the city. Pol Pot believed education was a waste and should be abolished so taking over the high school was practical because of space but it was also symbolic of the Khmer Rouge reform. He transformed the high school into a prison and torture chamber. it was eery as we entered as it had a high school campus feel.
The grounds:
Graves of some of the last people who were killed at S-21. They were killed as the Vietnamese were coming, but without enough time to send them to a killing field.
This blog was also very difficult to write for the same reason as the last one. What I will write and show from here on out may be disturbing. Continue at your own risk.
One building contained classrooms turned into solitary cells for the more important prisoners: usually government officials. The rooms have been left in nearly identical condition to when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia in 1979 (after five years of brutality). Prisoners were held here and tortured for information. Prisoners were tortured ceaselessly until they admitted to false crimes and until they admitted people who worked alongside and/or believed the same things they did. They were tortured until the guards heard what they wanted to hear and/or until the guards had names of others that they could hunt down. And the cycle continued.
Another building was haunting. The Khmer Rouge regime, similar to the Nazis, documented all who came through S-21. Each prisoner's picture was taken and then they gave their biography. I'll talk more about the biographies later. One building displayed black and white pictures of faces. Hundreds. Each face representing a life. A person who was here. A person who was killed. It made me nauseous but I couldn't turn away.
A third building showed classrooms that had been sub-divided into about 11 individual cells. In each cell was a bucket for a toilet (if they're lucky). That's it. Prisoners were forbidden to talk to each other. A classroom turned prison. This was real and eery. To be honest, it was difficult to go back to school at the end of August for as I looked at classrooms I saw prison cells and people's faces, even though my school is thousands of miles away.
Upstairs was also fascinating as it was full of individually signed biographies. I started by reading those of Khmer Rouge soldiers. They explained why and how they became a part of the army. Hearing their stories humanized them and shed light and gave understanding into why and how they got involved in such a regime. Many had regrets, some did not. it was what they needed to do to survive. Participating in the Khmer Regime was, apparently, their only option.
In S-21 there were foreigners who also got trapped in the Khmer Rouge regime. Parts of their authentic biographies, with their hand-written signatures verifying the information on each page, were on display. Reading through their accounts was disheartening. The Khmer Rouge had suspicions on what their prisoners were involved in and would torture them until the admitted to whatever the Khmer Rouge was looking for. Many were suspected of being spies. The trouble is the prisoners didn't know what charges were being brought against them and didn't always know what to admit to. Reading the accounts of the foreigners was especially interesting. A 26 year old British man was sailing with a New Zealand friend and a Canadian friend, got caught in Cambodian waters and were captured by the Khmer Rouge boats. They were brought to S-21 and tortured until they confessed to having CIA connections. When reading parts of their biographies it became clear that they were co-erced into saying certain things. The biographies are extremely detailed: they talk about where the prisoner was born, where their parents were born, where everyone worked, different addressed they had, schools attended and significant events, even dating back to pre-school events. At one point in the biography Kerry Hamill, the New Zealander, talked about her schooling and she listed all the courses she took in University. She said she took Mathematics because in America all students were required by the CIA to take Mathematics. She took Psychology and her professor was a recruiter for the CIA. He tested his Psychology students to see who would be good CIA spies. The more foreigner biographies I read the more it became clear that the Khmer Rouge was looking for any and every connection to the CIA possible. Every part of a biography could relate to being a CIA spy or being indoctrinated by anti-communist beliefs. And each page was signed.
Here are some pictures of the biography of an Australian journalist. Read it. The CIA ties are fascinating.
I left S-21 exhausted, nauseous and appetite-less.
Upon arrival we paid our $3USD for entry and asked for an English speaking guide. Teresa and I joined up with three other ESL Spanish speakers and waited for our guide to whom we each paid $2USD for her services. What made this experience "extra" moving was the heart and authenticity with which our guide spoke (we absolutely can not remember her name). She broke down multiple times as she explained the museum to us because as she told stories she remembered her personal connection to the brutal Cambodian history.
She was ten when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge soldiers invaded and took control of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. She was forced out of the city with her mother. Her father was killed because of his association with the former government. Her older brother and sister were also killed. By the time she and her mother arrived at the community farm, her mother was adamant that she needed to save her daughter and herself. I don't know how, but they escaped in the middle of the night, along with a handful of other people, and walked for three days to Vietnam. She and her mother stayed in Vietnam for nearly ten years (I think) before returning to Cambodia. Our guide lived and was personally affected by much of the history she was telling us.
Tuol Sleng (Security Prison - 21, or "S-21") used to be a public high school until April 17 when the Khmer Rouge invaded the city. Pol Pot believed education was a waste and should be abolished so taking over the high school was practical because of space but it was also symbolic of the Khmer Rouge reform. He transformed the high school into a prison and torture chamber. it was eery as we entered as it had a high school campus feel.
The grounds:
Graves of some of the last people who were killed at S-21. They were killed as the Vietnamese were coming, but without enough time to send them to a killing field.
This blog was also very difficult to write for the same reason as the last one. What I will write and show from here on out may be disturbing. Continue at your own risk.
One building contained classrooms turned into solitary cells for the more important prisoners: usually government officials. The rooms have been left in nearly identical condition to when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia in 1979 (after five years of brutality). Prisoners were held here and tortured for information. Prisoners were tortured ceaselessly until they admitted to false crimes and until they admitted people who worked alongside and/or believed the same things they did. They were tortured until the guards heard what they wanted to hear and/or until the guards had names of others that they could hunt down. And the cycle continued.
Another building was haunting. The Khmer Rouge regime, similar to the Nazis, documented all who came through S-21. Each prisoner's picture was taken and then they gave their biography. I'll talk more about the biographies later. One building displayed black and white pictures of faces. Hundreds. Each face representing a life. A person who was here. A person who was killed. It made me nauseous but I couldn't turn away.
A third building showed classrooms that had been sub-divided into about 11 individual cells. In each cell was a bucket for a toilet (if they're lucky). That's it. Prisoners were forbidden to talk to each other. A classroom turned prison. This was real and eery. To be honest, it was difficult to go back to school at the end of August for as I looked at classrooms I saw prison cells and people's faces, even though my school is thousands of miles away.
Upstairs other classrooms were used to hold hundreds of prisoners each: there would be rows of prisoners with their feet shackled to a pole and there would be three or four poles in a room. They would lay on the ground, tightly packed, unable to move, with a solitary drain in the middle, and stare.
Another building showed how people were tortured to admit to the information that the Khmer Rouge wanted. Some people may wonder why you would incriminate family and friends. When you see the modes of torture I can only imagine the grief such procedures would cause. The idea that admitting to a false-crime or giving names would stop the torture is...understandable, I suppose. They had multiple forms of torture but the only one I can clearly remember was: they would put the prisoner's hand in a lock so they couldn't move it, pull their fingernails out and then pour alcohol on the fingers. I can understand why a prisoner would admit to false accusations.
When the Vietnamese came in 1979 there were only 7 surviving prisoners. As we were walking through the buildings our guide casually said, "did you want to meet one of the survivors?" I thought I misheard until Teresa said she had heard the same thing. Away we went and we approached an elderly man who was selling his books. Chum Mey lived in one of the cells in the sub-divided classrooms (the picture of the cell posted above is his cell). He spoke no English. I bought one of his books for $10USD. As I was getting my money out he shakily took a copy and a pen and signed and dated it. Awe. Not Ahh, but awe.
Another building showed how people were tortured to admit to the information that the Khmer Rouge wanted. Some people may wonder why you would incriminate family and friends. When you see the modes of torture I can only imagine the grief such procedures would cause. The idea that admitting to a false-crime or giving names would stop the torture is...understandable, I suppose. They had multiple forms of torture but the only one I can clearly remember was: they would put the prisoner's hand in a lock so they couldn't move it, pull their fingernails out and then pour alcohol on the fingers. I can understand why a prisoner would admit to false accusations.
When the Vietnamese came in 1979 there were only 7 surviving prisoners. As we were walking through the buildings our guide casually said, "did you want to meet one of the survivors?" I thought I misheard until Teresa said she had heard the same thing. Away we went and we approached an elderly man who was selling his books. Chum Mey lived in one of the cells in the sub-divided classrooms (the picture of the cell posted above is his cell). He spoke no English. I bought one of his books for $10USD. As I was getting my money out he shakily took a copy and a pen and signed and dated it. Awe. Not Ahh, but awe.
Upstairs was also fascinating as it was full of individually signed biographies. I started by reading those of Khmer Rouge soldiers. They explained why and how they became a part of the army. Hearing their stories humanized them and shed light and gave understanding into why and how they got involved in such a regime. Many had regrets, some did not. it was what they needed to do to survive. Participating in the Khmer Regime was, apparently, their only option.
In S-21 there were foreigners who also got trapped in the Khmer Rouge regime. Parts of their authentic biographies, with their hand-written signatures verifying the information on each page, were on display. Reading through their accounts was disheartening. The Khmer Rouge had suspicions on what their prisoners were involved in and would torture them until the admitted to whatever the Khmer Rouge was looking for. Many were suspected of being spies. The trouble is the prisoners didn't know what charges were being brought against them and didn't always know what to admit to. Reading the accounts of the foreigners was especially interesting. A 26 year old British man was sailing with a New Zealand friend and a Canadian friend, got caught in Cambodian waters and were captured by the Khmer Rouge boats. They were brought to S-21 and tortured until they confessed to having CIA connections. When reading parts of their biographies it became clear that they were co-erced into saying certain things. The biographies are extremely detailed: they talk about where the prisoner was born, where their parents were born, where everyone worked, different addressed they had, schools attended and significant events, even dating back to pre-school events. At one point in the biography Kerry Hamill, the New Zealander, talked about her schooling and she listed all the courses she took in University. She said she took Mathematics because in America all students were required by the CIA to take Mathematics. She took Psychology and her professor was a recruiter for the CIA. He tested his Psychology students to see who would be good CIA spies. The more foreigner biographies I read the more it became clear that the Khmer Rouge was looking for any and every connection to the CIA possible. Every part of a biography could relate to being a CIA spy or being indoctrinated by anti-communist beliefs. And each page was signed.
Here are some pictures of the biography of an Australian journalist. Read it. The CIA ties are fascinating.
I left S-21 exhausted, nauseous and appetite-less.
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