The Killing Fields and S-21

I visited two Genocide Museums: Choeung Ek, commonly referred to as The Killing Fields, and Tuol Sleng, commonly referred to as S-21 or The Schoolhouse. Although I took pictures, I decided not to share them. There are plenty of photos in the linked Wikipedia articles.

Although I’d read the history of the Khmer Rouge and the atrocities they commited, reading facts and figures about history is not the same as reading personal stories. The first I read, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.) , really brought home the horrific nature of the Khmer Rouge policies towards their own people. Stay Alive, My Son is a more straightforward, personal tale, but equally disturbing. And, of course, the movie The Killing Fields brings visual elements to the tale that are also very disturbing.

Going to the places, though, that are discussed in these books is an eye opening experience. Talking to the guides whose intimate knowledge of the history comes through in all of the details they share really brings home the sheer impact of these atrocities. Seeing the implements of torture on display with pictures of them in use brings you closer to the history then you probably want to get. (As an aside, anybody that thinks waterboarding is not torture (I’m looking at you, Dick Cheney) is welcome to come take a look and try it out. They’re also welcome to take a look at the other atrocities commited by a group that thinks nothing of a little waterboarding…).

Any museum with the word Genocide in its title is not going to be a happy place. These two museums are not uplifting at all, except when you step back and admire how far Cambodia has come since the Khmer Rouge were stopped.

One comment from an American tourist: “In New York, people are trying to raise money to build yet another monument to the World War II Holocaust. Maybe they should use that money to try and stop the holocausts that are happening now, in places like Darfur.”

George Santayana said: “Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”