The Killing Fields

A must for travelers to Cambodia is a visit to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, one of the countless Killing Fields. Particularly, the prisoners from the Tuol Sleng interrogation prison were transferred to Choeung Ek after they 'confessed' to the crimes they were accused of under torture. They were mainly bludgeoned to save ammunition and to avoid causing much noise.

An excellent audio guide in German leads us through the memorial. The extermination is reported chronologically on boards at each station.

As during our visit to Tuol Sleng, there remains the oppressive feeling that Cambodia is wrestling hard with how such a genocide could occur. A genocide that was not committed against a foreign people but represents an act of self-destruction. A auto-genocide.

Choeung Ek offers no certainties but serves as a memorial to stay alert to what humans are capable of doing to each other. This is explicitly connected with the hope that similar cruelties never happen again.

This hope connects us as Germans with Cambodia. We, too, must keep the memory alive: in Auschwitz, Dachau, and elsewhere. One thought lingers with me after visiting the memorial: Wasn't the meticulously organized extermination of the Jews during the Third Reich profoundly an act of self-destruction? Committed by Germans against Germans!

The images in this post need no further explanation; the boards at the stations speak their own language. Not all mass graves have been opened; the pits still reveal bones and clothing and other items, especially after heavy rainfalls.

And I would like to refer to Anja's blog (vakantio.de/oneway2025), who can express the personal impressions far better than I can.