We’ve been learning a ton about the history of Cambodia. If you can get your hands on a movie called “The Killing Fields” you should watch it. It’s definitely not easy on the heart. I had no idea that any of this happened. The events of the past 40 years in Cambodia were for sure not in our history books! Throughout the 1970s, under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, over 2 million people (1/3 of the population) were massacred through genocide. Those that survived where affected for the rest of their lives, many were orphans or widows, and hundreds of thousands were victims of land mines, now trying to survive with depilating disabilities. There’s not a day that goes by here that we don’t see the lasting effects of this horrendous violence. Beggars on the street with missing limbs, adults around the age of 40 that have horrible scars from burns, hundreds of orphans – a fatherless generation. It is evident in just how much of the population was wiped out when you look at the statistics: roughly 80% of the population is under the age of 30. Only 3% of the population is over the age of 65.
Through the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, in 1975 these buildings were taken over and designated for detention, interrogation, inhuman torture, and killing after the detainees were received and documented. The buildings were once a thriving school but then became a prison during the genocide. Classrooms that once were filled with children learning and growing were turned into prison cells where people were interrogated, tortured, and executed. We walked through the cells and the chains and shackles were still there. Other rooms were filled with large boards filled with pictures of thousands of victims. In other rooms there were human bones and skulls with pieces of cloth still tied around their eyes for blindfolds. The whole thing was so heavy!
