Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

On a sad note, today we went to Tuol Sleng - a school turned into a prison under the order of Pol Pot in 1975 (not very long ago!) It was run by the Khmer Rouge and "designed for detention, interrogation, inhuman torture, and killing". 

Tuol Sleng Museum

There are 4 buildings - many classrooms were split into prison cells made of brick walls, and all balconies were lined with barb wire to prevent the desperate victims from committing suicide.

In 1978 there were 5765 prisoners, not including the estimated 20,000 children killed.

It was an extremely heartbreaking and shocking experience as the museum holds pictures of all the prisoners mugshots, the torture tools used (for methods such as stretching and water boarding). Some buildings include stories from family members or prison guards forced to work for the Khmer Rouge. A woman recalls having to tell 4 - 10 people (every night) that they were relocated to pick fruit in a neighbouring village when in fact they were to be killed.

Ten prison cells in one classroom

The pictures are extremely graphic, and are what I imagine any concentration camp in the Holocaust would look like. There are scenes of terrain covered in the skulls and bones of these people whose faces line the walls of the museum.

There remains a plaque listing the rules the captured had to follow, including number 6  "While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all"

We all were left feeling slightly stunned but agreed that it is key to understand the history of Phnom Penh before we begin teaching.