Phnom Penh day two. Part two. Tuol Sleng museum and the Khmer Rouge Rule.
After taking Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of a society ever attempted. The goal was to transform Cambodia into a place dominated by the lower class agrarian cooperative, without any remains of the previous ways. Within days, the entire population of Phnom Penh and the surrounding towns, including the sick and the elderly, were forced to march into the countryside and work as slaves for 12 to 15 hours a day. Intellectuals were systematically wiped out. Having glasses or being able to speak a foreign language was reason enough to be killed on the spot. Leading the Khmer Rouge was Pol Plot. The man behind the movement had won a scholarship to study in Paris, which was where he began developing the radical Marxist ideas which later became extreme Maoism. Under his rule, Cambodia became one big concentration camp with slaves working incredibly hard all day and night with only a little bit of food being provided for them in order to survive. Disease ruled those work camps. Malaria and dysentery eliminating whole families.
Tuol Sleng, which was once a center of learning, was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces in that same year. They transformed the classrooms into torture chambers and renamed the facility Security Prison 21 (S-21). At the height of its activity, around one hundred victims were tortured and killed every day.
Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge leaders were excellent at keeping records of their victims and each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed. When the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in early 1979, there were only seven prisoners alive at S-21. Today the long eery corridors of Tuol Sleng display haunting photos of the victims with their faces staring back at you from the not so distant past.
Walking through them, you can really feel the agony and the pain that is soaked into the walls of Tuol Sleng. There is also just a general eery feeling surrounding he whole place. As you are walking in and out of the different torture rooms, you can feel all the anguish and history wrapped up around the barbed wire covering the whole compound as well as many rooms. The aftermath of the tortures was obviously death but from the original photos I've seen, it seems that the Pol Pot's prison guards who were also the executionist, really took their time with the torture part of their job. People were hung up by their legs upside down, left there for hours but as soon as they would pass out, their heads were lowered into some disgusting water which was used for fertilizing the grounds. Yes, they actually had nice gardens with beautiful flowers blooming just outside. While on the inside, the unimaginable was taking place.
Although going to the museum on my own, definitely was a heavy experience which left an imprint in my heart, I learned a lot about life and death of the Cambodian people throughout the past hundred years. I left the Tuol Sleng Museum with a renewed sense of gratitude and appreciation for life.
The photos below are of the actually torture rooms and the photos are of the images displayed inside the Museum part of the compound.
Tuol Sleng, which was once a center of learning, was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces in that same year. They transformed the classrooms into torture chambers and renamed the facility Security Prison 21 (S-21). At the height of its activity, around one hundred victims were tortured and killed every day.
Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge leaders were excellent at keeping records of their victims and each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed. When the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in early 1979, there were only seven prisoners alive at S-21. Today the long eery corridors of Tuol Sleng display haunting photos of the victims with their faces staring back at you from the not so distant past.
Walking through them, you can really feel the agony and the pain that is soaked into the walls of Tuol Sleng. There is also just a general eery feeling surrounding he whole place. As you are walking in and out of the different torture rooms, you can feel all the anguish and history wrapped up around the barbed wire covering the whole compound as well as many rooms. The aftermath of the tortures was obviously death but from the original photos I've seen, it seems that the Pol Pot's prison guards who were also the executionist, really took their time with the torture part of their job. People were hung up by their legs upside down, left there for hours but as soon as they would pass out, their heads were lowered into some disgusting water which was used for fertilizing the grounds. Yes, they actually had nice gardens with beautiful flowers blooming just outside. While on the inside, the unimaginable was taking place.
Although going to the museum on my own, definitely was a heavy experience which left an imprint in my heart, I learned a lot about life and death of the Cambodian people throughout the past hundred years. I left the Tuol Sleng Museum with a renewed sense of gratitude and appreciation for life.
The photos below are of the actually torture rooms and the photos are of the images displayed inside the Museum part of the compound.
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