Visit to Prison S-21 on 1.2.2018

This morning after breakfast at 9:30 am, we visit Prison S-21, also known as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Vanessa, whom we met in Pakxé, recommended the visit with an audio guide. And so we book exactly this tour for 8 dollars per person. The audio guide is available in perfect German.

The site is a former high school that was used by the Khmer Rouge regime as the infamous security prison S-21 from its rise to power in 1975 until its fall in 1979. During these years, an estimated 17,000 people were detained (some estimates put the number at 20,000, although the actual number is unknown). Countless files were destroyed by the prison guards during the invasion of the Vietnamese army. Most classrooms were converted into tiny cells, and all windows were equipped with bars and barbed wire to prevent escape and suicide.

The buildings in Tuol Sleng are preserved as they were left when the Khmer Rouge was expelled in 1979. There are four main buildings, known as Buildings A, B, C, and D. Building A contains the large cells where the bodies of the last victims were found. In each cell, there is an iron bed on which the victims were tortured. Buildings B and D house countless photographs of detainees and those responsible. The small cells can be found in Building C.

The man in the ear has something to say about every room. It is oppressive to look at the photos and see the horror and fear, but also the hope of liberation, in the eyes of the subjects. I am glad that I have the opportunity to sit under a tree in the small park surrounded by the four buildings and process what I have heard and seen. If you look at everything and listen to everything, the tour takes about three hours. A visit is definitely worth it, as it is a part of the history of this country that should not be forgotten.