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All Cambodia Phnom Penh Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Khmer Rouge's high security prison.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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NathanRisinger
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Originally a high school, Tuol Seng was converted into a high security prison.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tuolslen...
Spools of barbed and razor wire enclose most of the buildings.  
Outer hallway along one of the upper floors.  
One of the water boarding stations used in the prison.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Waterboa...
A top-down view of a typical holding cell. Prisoners were shackled in place rather than locked up.  
The skull map.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:S-21_Sku...
Block C had barbed wire on the open terraces to stop prisoners escaping, by jumping to their deaths as a way to escape the torture they endured here.   katielou106 / Atlas Obscura User
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Tuol Sleng is nestled within in the heart of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. From the outside it looks unremarkable: a multi-story former high school with whitewashed walls and grey shutters. However, inside, Tuol Sleng holds a dark history.

Under the Khmer Rouge, Tuol Sleng was transformed from a school into Security prison 21 (S-21), a place in which some of the most violent atrocities of the Pol Pot’s regime were perpetrated. Originally named Chao Ponhea Yat High School, the complex includes five buildings in total. Several months after the Khemer Rouge took power in 1975, they implemented measures to convert the high school into a high-security facility. Between 1975 and 1979 it is estimated that over 15,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. The prison held between 1,000 and 1,500 occupants along with a large security force.

Life within the prison was terrible, and the people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng were treated cruelly. Prisoners were shackled into their cells, forbidden to talk to one another and frequently beaten and tortured by the guards. All prisoners were interrogated during their stay at Tuol Sleng. These interrogations normally included torture: Prisoners were shocked with electricity, burned with irons and water-boarded.

In 2010, Cambodia convicted Kang Kek Iew, the chief of Tuol Sleng Prison, for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and died while still in custody in 2020.

Today, the former prison stands as a monument to the brutalities of the Khmer Rouge. It is now a museum dedicated to preserving the memory of those who passed through its gates. Several of the implements that were used to torture the prisoners are also on display along with a "skull map," a map of Cambodia made entirely from human skulls and bones. Rooms that were once used to torture and abuse are now lined with thousands of photographs of those who were incarcerated there.

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Memento Mori Disaster Areas Prisons Murder Crime And Punishment Crime Museums

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Located in the heart of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The museum is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Added By

NathanRisinger

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Blindcolour, bparkm, xinc, Apocalypse Yana...

  • Blindcolour
  • bparkm
  • xinc
  • Apocalypse Yana
  • katielou106
  • MissBez

Published

September 2, 2010

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  • Wikipedia: Tuol Seng: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng
  • Wikipedia: Khmer Rouge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge
  • https://www.flickr.com/photos/apocalypseyana/
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Tuol Seng
Phnom Penh
Cambodia
11.548725, 104.91788
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