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Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21):
• Start your day by visiting Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former high school turned into a prison and interrogation center by the Khmer Rouge regime.
• Spend a couple of hours exploring the museum exhibits, including photographs, torture devices, and personal belongings of the victims. Learn about Cambodia's tragic history during the Khmer Rouge era.
• Consider hiring a guide or audio guide to provide insights and context as you walk through the museum.
Lunch Break:
• Take a break for lunch at a nearby restaurant or café. You may find several eateries within walking distance of the museum offering Cambodian cuisine or international options.
Afternoon:
Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (Killing Fields):
• After lunch, head to Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, commonly known as the Killing Fields, located approximately 15 kilometers south of Phnom Penh.
• Spend the afternoon exploring the memorial site, which serves as a mass grave for victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. Walk through the grounds, visit the memorial stupa, and observe the various commemorative monuments and displays.
• Consider joining a guided tour to gain deeper insights into the history and significance of the site. Guides can provide detailed explanations and personal accounts of the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime.
In 1975, Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security force and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). It soon became the largest such center of detention and torture in the country. Over 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the extermination camp at Choeung Ek to be executed; detainees who died during torture were buried in mass graves in the prison grounds. S-21 has been turned into theTuolSleng Museum, which serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rough. The museum's entrance is on the western side of 113 St just north of 350 St, and it is open daily from 7 to 11.30 am and from 2 to 5.30 pm; entry fee is US$ 8 including Audio tour for explanation. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rough was meticulous in keeping records of their barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S.21 was photographed, sometimes before and after being tortured. The museum displays include room after room in which such photographs of men, women and children cover the walls from floor to ceiling; virtually all the people pictured were later killed.
You can tell in what year a picture was taken by the style of number board that appears on the prisoner's chest. Several foreigners from Australia, France and the USA were held here before being murdered. Their documents are on display. As the Khmer 'revolution' reached ever-greater heights of insanity, it began devouring its own children. Generations of tortures and executioners and were in turn killed by those who took their places. During the first part of 1977, S-21 claimed an average of 100 victims a day. When the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in early 1979, they found only seven prisoners alive at S-21. Fourteen others had been tortured to death as Vietnamese forces were closing in on the city. Photographs of their decomposing corpses were found. Their graves are nearby in the courtyard.
Altogether, a visit to TuolSleng is a profoundly depressing experience. There is something about the sheer ordinariness of the place that make it even more horrific; the suburban setting, the plain school buildings, the grassy playing area where several children kick around a ball, ousted beds, instruments of torture and wall after wall of harrowing black-and-white portraits conjure up images of humanity at its worst. Tuol Sleng is not for the squeamish.
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