Our final visit of the trip was to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Originally a high schools Pol Pots turned the buildings into a prison and torture facility during his reign from 1975 to 1979. This place is eerie and has largely been untouched since his departure. People were held here in tiny cells, shackled and dirty. They were fed very little. Many died here and were taken to the Killing fields or simply tortured before being taken there to die. At the killing fields they were thrown into mass graves.
Photographs of all those who were held and subsequently killed now line the walls of this desolate place along with drawings made by a number of survivors depicting life in the facility. The last 14 bodies found were buried here and countless skulls and bones were found, now they are piled inside cases. Photographs of the excavated killing fields also line the walls.
It seemed a sad way to end our two week holiday. However, these things certainly shouldn’t be ignored especially when things of this nature are still, sadly, happening today.
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