Choeung Ek & Tuol Sleng

The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre

This is where the Khmer Rouge regime, led by Pol Pot, killed thousands of men, women and children between 1975-1979. During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, 2-3 million Cambodians perished, some killed, others dying from disease, malnutrition and mistreatment.

This is one of the many sites known as The Killing Fields where 120 mass graves were found. The victims were killed using various weapons, poison, even sharpened bamboo sticks and tree leaves while the music blared in the background to drown out the screams. 

Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa in order to remember the spirits of the victims at the site as well as other victims throughout the country.

Mass grave + bracelets left by visitors for the victims

8,000 skulls were found on site

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

This museum was a high school that was converted into the S-21 prison and interrogation facility. Inmates were systematically tortured, sometimes over a period of months, to extract confessions, then executed.

Prisoners were chained to the bed and tortured for a confession

1 of the 4 buildings + the gallows

Rooms filled with photos and of the victims which had me in tears

It was a very somber day and it's hard to wrap your head around what happened here. It is enough to make you sick to your stomach. These museums exist because the Cambodian government wants to keep the memory alive of the atrocities committed and prevent such things from happening again.