The Killing Fields: Grave Memorials
On Friday February 10, 2023, around 50 of Logos' high school students had the privilege of attending a field trip at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. The day began with typical student bustle, each student antsy to step in the bus, out of the sun, and away from the school. Only a few hours later, it ended in grave faces and newfound respect for the history and people of the country that housed them.
On the open yard of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, students stood crowded before a statue, the voice of their tour guide explaining the history behind them. The previously excitable crowd now looked around silently, their eyes fixated on the horrors around them. The verdant fields held fourteen graves-the last fourteen government officials of Tuol Sleng. It was an introduction to the atrocities and crimes memorialized in the museum. There were also large stone barrels and wooden poles scattered around. The tour guide explained that those objects were torture devices used to force confessions from prisoners. As the tour went further into the fields, and approached the tall, looming buildings of an abandoned highschool, the students noticed barbed wires encasing the walls and windows. The message was clear: there is no escape from Tuol Sleng.
Near the entrance of the building, rows of photographs of prisoners lined the hallway, a memorial to the victims and warning of the horrors that the students were about to witness further into the halls. The students then had the opportunity to independently explore the building. Although it was once a highschool, they barely comprehended its former purpose prior to the Khmer Rouge; the regime had transformed classrooms into interrogation and torture chambers. The rooms were bare of furniture except for rust-covered beds and chains. Pictures hung on the walls, detailing the gruesome methods of torture inflicted on the inmates. There were blood splatters on the ground, haunting evidence of pain and suffering of the prisoners victims detained there. At the end of the halls, another row of photographs of inmates were displayed, marking the end of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum tour.
The tour continued to Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. The entrance had a large glass chamber erected at its center. The chamber contained hundreds of human skulls, victims executed in the regime. To pay respect to the victims, the students took off their shoes and hats as they observed the glass. Like the open yard of Tuol Sleng, the field of Choeung Ek was overgrown with vegetation. However, large, shallow pits also littered the field. The students learned that Cheoung Ek was the execution ground for the sentenced prisoners of Tuol Sleng. The empty pits used to be mass graves for executed prisoners, but the bones were unearthed and memorialized in other glass chambers. There was also a large tree with colorful bracelets in the field. This was the Killing Tree, with which the guards executed infants and small children by beating them to its trunk. The bracelets were to pay respect to the deceased children.
By the end of the field trip, the atmosphere of the students was grim and grave. Yet within the turmoil of sorrow, the students realized respect for the citizens of Cambodia and appreciation for their current opportunities. Although a catastrophic genocide had wiped out one-third of the population and nearly destroyed precious culture and heritage, Cambodia's tenacity and perseverance as they rose from such unfortunate circumstance to bring about an era of peace and (relative) prosperity is beyond admirable.