Tuol Sleng Museum (warning--disturbing images)

In 1975 Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). This soon became the largest center of detention and torture in the country.
It is strange to look at it and know that it was once a school and then a prison. The Khmer Rouge regime was cruel and senseless in their dogged attempt to force communism on the the country, trying to totally recreate the society practically over night.

The bottom floor of one of the buildings had the photographs of the prisoners. Like the Nazis they kept meticulous records. Prisoners were all photographed, often before and after being tortured.
The photographs represented a variety of emotions that were in reaction to the events happening to these people. All but eleven of the thousands kept here were killed.


The prisoners included not only adults but also children who for whatever reason were considered enemies of the state.

This was the torture wing. Room after room had just one metal bed in it, where one by one prisoners were questioned and tortured. The intent was to get some kind of "biography" out of them that was basically an admission to their status as enemy.
The Khmer Rouge were able to seize power because of the discontent over the ongoing American War that bled over from Vietnam. It was an anti-capitalist attempt to create China's Great Leap Forward. But the people running it were cruel and senseless.

Speaking is discouraged at the museum--most visitors are shocked into silent contemplation.
This is the wing with the barracks. It is so strange to see barbed wire over a high school.

Doors were cut from one classroom to another and individual cells were constructed on the first floor using bricks.
This is the first cell I looked in, and I was frightened to see this realistic looking figure of a prisoner staring back at me. I almost broke the rule of silence by crying out in surprise.

The second and third floor cells were constructed of wood.
The third floor included artistic renderings of what took place at s-21. These are explained in the documentary "S-21" that we had seen at the hotel.

Torture devices.

The upper floor also included photos of Pol Pot and his three highest leaders. The photographs were scrawled with Cambodian grafitti, no doubt curses and insults. The photograph of Pol Pot was not on the wall--I suppose it had been destroyed by angry and bitter Cambodians who had lost loved ones.

The display also included testimonials of former Khmer Rouge workers. Some of them just said something like "It was a job", but their explanations seem to have fallen on deaf ears because their photographs were also defaced.

This visit, along with the visit to Choeung Ek, was a profoundly disturbing experience. But I think it is important to remember atrocities like this and try to elect leaders and pass laws that will prevent something like this from happening again, or at least make it as infrequent as possible.