If you don’t want your “daily dose of depression” (as Ethan and Logan say), you might want to skip this post.
I read “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers” when it was published in 2000. It stayed with me in a way that few other books have. In preparation for our trip to Cambodia, Logan and Ethan read it too. Logan read it first, back when we were in Ecuador. I remember this vividly because that is when she was sobbing on the sofa.
During our Cambodia trip, we visited The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and S21 prison. Both had excellent audio guides that allowed us to pass through the sites at our own pace while listening to survivors tell their stories.
Close to two million out of eight million Cambodians died during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Before visiting, we stressed to the kids that everyone in the country our age or older would remember this period. However, we did not appreciate how present the atrocities would still feel, nor how much fighting and displacement continued after Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979 and removed the Khmer Rouge from power.
Our Angkor Wat tour guide mentioned that he did not know if he was 32 or 33 years old because he was born on the way to a Thai refugee camp. Three of his older siblings died before he was born. His family stayed in the camp until he was around ten years old but was never able to get resettled. They returned to Cambodia where his father fought in the military against the remaining Khmer Rouge fighters. He was shot five times and survived.
On another day we got in a taxi and asked the driver how he was doing. He remarked that he was good now since no one was shooting at him anymore.
The above sign reads, “THE TREE WAS USED AS A TOOL TO HANG A LOUDSPEAKER WHICH MAKE SOUND LOUDER TO AVOID THE MOAN OF THE VICTIMS WHILE THEY WERE BEING EXECUTED”
We did not take photos at S21 prison. It is not a place you want to remember vividly, and I won’t repeat the stories we were told there.
If you do want more information:
“First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers”
http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/s21-victims.html
I have to admit I did not read this post at first because I new it would be sobering. But knowledge is power and these are important stories to know about. Thanks for providing some history in this post.