Tuol Sleng (the Genocide Museum)

**Trigger warning: This post talks in detail about the acts of genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge and there are also some pictures of human remains that some may find disturbing**

Before it became Prison S21, Tuol Sleng was a high school, as you can see evidenced by the original blackboard.

So the second place I visited in Phnom Penh was Tuol Sleng (the genocide museum). What a cheery start, right? But really, it was truly fascinating and gave me a new context in which to view Cambodian culture.

Graves of some of the prisoners who died within S21's walls.

 Between 1975 and 1979, the former high school was used as a Security Prison. It housed "enemies of the people," who were tortured, starved, and ultimately executed. The prisoners were forced to give confessions for crimes they did not commit. Most of the prisoners were Cambodian, but there were quite a few foreigners who died at Tuol Sleng. Twenty-six year-old year old British national John D. Dewhirst was the youngest foreigner to die within S21's walls.

1. You must answer accordingly to my question. Don’t turn them away.

2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.

3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.

4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.

5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.

6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.

7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.

8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.

9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.

10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.

Tortures were carried out in former classrooms.

Over 17,000 people were imprisoned in Tuol Sleng. We only know of 12 survivors. Tortures were carried out on metal cots in the old classrooms. Car batteries, beatings, and pestilence broke the morale of the prisoners. Some of them managed to commit suicide. Most were not so lucky.

Shackles and torture devices.

Prisoners were strung up by their feet and their heads were submerged in pots of water until they lost consciousness.

The Khmer Rouge has had a lasting effect on Cambodian culture. Children of victims and perpetrators grew up next to each other. Together they had to try to piece their country back together after Pol Pot's reign of terror finally ended. We are just starting to see a generation people whose lives weren't directly impacted by the Khmer Rouge. Seeing Tuol Sleng gives you a sense of what Cambodian people's parents and grandparents went through. But still, their suffering was unimaginable.

Pictures of some of the innocent people held at Tuol Sleng.