10. Toul Sleng Genocidal Museum

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 (S21). It soon became the largest 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 and executed; detainees who died during torture were buried in mass graves in the prison grounds. S-21 today sits as Toul Sleng Museum, which serves as a reminder to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. The museum’s entrance is one the western side of 113 St just north of 350 St, and it opens daily from 7 to 11:30 am and from 2 to 5:30 pm, entry is US$2. Much like the Nazis, The Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of their barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed, either before or after tortured. The museum walls are lined from floor to ceiling with photographs of men, women, and children; virtually all of whom were 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 United States 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 torturers and executioners and were in turn killed by those who would take their place. During the first part of 1977, S-21claimed an average of 100 victims per day. When Phnom Penh was liberated by the Vietnamese army in early 1979, only seven prisoners were found alive at S-21. Fourteen other had been tortured to death ass 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 Tuol Sleng is a profoundly sobering experience. There is something about the ordinariness of the place that make it even more horrific and unsettling; 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 would overwhelm even the least imaginative visitor with images of one of humanity’s darkest chapters. Tuol Sleng is not for the squeamish. Yet, is should not be missed.