S-21 and The Killing Fields: A Hypnotic Hellraiser

Before I begin writing, I would like to warn you that this blog contains extremely disturbing material. However, I don't believe that shying away from a harsh reality is any way to understand the world, either past or present. For that reason, I would like to ask you to please read. Education is the first step towards putting an end to any present or future situations comparable to the Cambodian genocide. Thank you!

It's impossible to visit Phnom Penh in Cambodia without making a stop at the Choeng Ek Killing Fields, and Tuol Sleng, the genocide museum. Since I booked my flight, this was never a question for me. I knew that it would be an emotional day, and I was going to see things - things that a culture had done to its own people - that were incomprehensible. But it felt like something I needed to do.

There are tours throughout the prison and the Killing Fields. Although it would have been nice to have a guide providing facts, I liked being able to explore at my own pace. I met up with a moto driver at my guesthouse who provided transportation, but I felt that I would rather witness this particular sight independently.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge made it their goal to round up intellectuals, doctors, foreigners, peasants, workers, women and children - basically anyone they suspected of associating with the CIA or KGB - and sentencing them to prison. The children were arrested and murdered so that they would not seek revenge as they grew. The people were tortured in the most inhumane, gut-wrenching ways imaginable: beaten with bamboo sticks, strapped to tables and given electric shocks, and having finger- and toenails removed (just to name a few). The officers made rules that people were not allowed to cry, moan, or protest, even as they watched their own families being murdered. If these rules were broken, people would receive slashes or electric shocks. In short, the Khmer Rouge created a mountain of bones, and an ocean of blood.

Upon entering the Tuol Sleng museum (a former high school in Phnom Penh), it's hard to imagine that such atrocities had occurred right there. At first glance, it looks like an ordinary building - save for the rusted barbed wire at the top of the outside walls and outside the balconies of the school buildings. This prevented desperate prisoners from committing suicide.

I was afraid to go in at first. I paid my $2 entrance fee, and immediately felt doubtful. Based on what I had read in textbooks, seen on TV, and heard from other travellers, what waited inside the museum was almost impossible to believe.

After a few deep breaths, I was ready. Immediately after walking into the museum grounds, I saw the gallows, where people were tortured by being hung by their feet until they fell unconscious, only to be awakened by being plunged headfirst into water filled with fertilizer.

I then walked into Building A. The classrooms had been converted into prison cells, which contained one or more tiny, rusted beds. On the wall of each cell was a single black-and-white photograph of a prisoner - a former inmate of that room - shackled to the bed, unconscious, defeated and bleeding. Most of the rooms contained heavy, iron shackles, which had been attached to each prisoner's feet.

One of the most amazing things I noticed about the prison was the way you could see and hear the outside world from the barred rooms. Palm trees blew lazily, and the sounds of traffic and people carried through the air. This would have been the same during the days of the Khmer Regime. The few citizens who remained free would have lived their lives - literally - all around the prison.

The next building housed wooden and concrete cells. The concrete cells on the first floor were so tiny that I could stand up, but barely move about. I could not fully extend my arms. There were iron loops in the floor where prisoners would be shackled to the floor, as if being shoved into a cramped, dark, stuffy space wasn't debilitating enough. The wooden cells on the upper floors were similar. Hundreds of prisoners spent their final days here. In many of the cells there were stains on the floor that I believed - though I could be wrong - were blood.

The next buildings displayed information about the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. All over the walls are hundreds of the infamous photographs of each victim, taken as they were brought to S-21. It's indescribable to look into the faces of men, women and children who must have known they were going to die. The looks of terror and hopelessness in their eyes grab you, and won't let go.

In these buildings, there is a pile of clothing retrieved from the prisoners...much like Auschwitz and other European concentration camps. S-21 is exactly that: the lesser-known answer to the Holocaust of the 1940s. There are also photographs of victims before and after torture. On the walls are posters with testimonials from some of the few survivors, as well as background information on those responsible. Keep in mind that the genocide occurred in 1975 - 1979. That's only 35 years ago. A number of these people are still alive. For example, Duch (the head officer at S-21) was sentenced to 35 years in prison only last year.

There are paintings on the walls of prisoners being tortured. One of the most disturbing is the portrait of a woman crying as her small baby is ripped from her. The looks of anguish in the paintings are incredibly disturbing and realistic. When S-21 was liberated in 1979, there were only seven survivors, one of them being the artist of the paintings. He was kept alive to paint pictures of Pol Pot.

At the end of the museum visit, there is a display of skulls, arranged by age and sex. It's amazing to see how each and every one of them has a crack or hole, from gunshots, or being beaten to death.

After the museum, it is essential to see the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek, 15 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh. The first thing I noticed when I arrived was the laughter of children at a school nearby. As you walk through the gate (pay $2), the first thing you see is a beautiful white stupa (Buddhist tower), with seventeen tiers. The first level (the very bottom) has a pile of clothing. Tiers two through nine or ten all contain human skulls, once again arranged by age, sex and cause of death. Tiers eleven to seventeen contain various bones. This monument was built in 1988 to celebrate and commemorate the millions who were killed in Cambodia during this dark time.

After the Cambodian people were liberated in 1979, almost 9000 people were exhumed from mass graves at Choeng Ek (more people all over the country). The largest one contained over 400 bodies. Another one contained 100 headless corpses. As you walk through the Killing Fields, look down at your feet. Chances are, you're stepping over bones and pieces of clothing. There are huge holes in the ground all over, which are remains of the other mass graves that were dug up. A little ways away is a mass grave, which contained hundreds of corpses of women and children, all naked. Beside this is one of the most disturbing and famous parts of the genocide: the tree where soldiers would hit babies' heads against, before tossing them into the mass graves. The tree was used to preserve "precious" ammunition.

When the Killing Fields were in use, prisoners were brought to Choeng Ek at around 6:30pm as it was getting dark. They were detained in a dark, crowded space for hours, and then brought to the Killing Fields, where they were executed. As prisoners arrived, they could not see what was happening, but could hear, in the distance, people being killed. To prevent this, the Khmer Rouge created the "magic tree". This is a tree where they would hang a loudspeaker, which made noise to cover up the moans and screams of the people.

Walking through the Killing Fields feels like walking through the set of some sick, perverse film director. It's hard to imagine that this is real, that people have the ability to do this to each other.

Many thoughts rushed through my head and I visited the sites of such sadness, but one thought overpowered all the others: "Why?" There is no explanation in the world that could make me understand how anyone could make sense of the breaking of body and spirit of a fellow human.

Back home, learning about Cambodia's history is not in the textbooks. We learn the basics: where Cambodia is, and that there was a genocide in the 1970s. But that's it. I wish that I had learned more about this when I was in school. Education is the first step to learning from history - in this case, a history which every Cambodian over 35 lived through. Everyone should experience Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields at one point. It's the first drop in the bucket towards helping us prevent another Khmer Rouge.

Questions? Comments? Criticisms? I'd love to hear them all!
the-wanderingjew@hotmail.com