As part of my job orientation, I spent a day visiting Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek Genocidal Center — more commonly referred to as the Killing Fields. It is impossible to walk through either of those places without feeling the heaviness of the Cambodian Genocide. However, in order to fully understand Cambodia today, it is vital to understand the history of the country. During my visit, I quickly realized how little I had previously known about the reign of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979.
Tuol Sleng is in the heart of Phnom Penh. Under the Khmer Rouge, it was named security Prison 21, or S-21, and used as an interrogation center where innocent people were imprisoned and tortured. It was one of at least 150 execution centers run by the Khmer Rouge.
S-21 had been a high school, but the Khmer Rouge outlawed schooling and murdered anyone who was highly educated. The Khmer Rouge blindfolded people before taking them to S-21, and the people had no idea that they were still in their beloved city.
Prisoners were shackled and packed into cells. Every morning, they were searched to see if their shackles were loose or if they had any objects that they could use to commit suicide. Barbed wire covered every possible opening to prevent prisoners from jumping to their death.
When people arrived, they were photographed and required to give a detailed history of their lives. People were imprisoned and tortured until they confessed to the "crimes" they had committed. They were then sent out of the city to be executed. Almost 20,000 people passed through S-21, but only 7 people survived.
This small graveyard houses the remains of the last 14 people to die in S-21, found when the Vietnamese invaded the prison in 1979.
The Killing Fields lie outside of the city, where prisoners of the Khmer Rouge were brought to be executed.
Visitors from all over the world leave bracelets to pay their respects to those that died here.
Many of the mass graves were exhumed in 1980, yet human bones and clothing still litter the site. Some graves are untouched, but heavy rains often cause remains to surface. Although there are believed to be more graves surrounding the water, the decision was made to simply leave them be.
The Khmer Rouge hung a large speaker from this tree. At night, they would play nationalist songs to cover the sounds of executions.
A commemorative stupa is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls.
In a 4 year span, the Khmer Rouge murdered an estimated 2 million people — nearly a third of Cambodia's population. There are almost 400 known Killing Fields throughout Cambodia.
Decades later, Cambodia is still struggling to recover from the loss of their educated class at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
