Tuol Sleng - S 21
The school in Tuol Sleng was used during 4 years as a interrogation and detention center, better known as S-21. On the same level than nazis concentration camps, it's a place that deeply moves you and makes you forget any logical thoughts. It brings back a collective memory and you can just swear never to forget.
I walked around the school. I saw the walls, the cells, the beds. I was wondering whether the violence, the cruelty and the suffering could have been so strong that objects would have kept a memory of it, deep inside their frame. Could I feel the pain and the despair, if I tried to touch this bed ? I didn't dare to touch anything.
Lost in front of the pictures, lost in the cells, I could just imagine what happened to all these faces looking at me. I saw the skulls and I wondered to which pair of eyes they belonged. I saw the bullet impacts or the pick strokes on the bones. I saw the torture instruments and I imagined.
And I cried, in a corner, sobs blocked somewhere in my chest.
Security Agents Rules :
Tuol Sleng was also used against former Khmers Rouges leaders, so-called "spies" but more likely suspected to be planning a coup against Pol Pot.
In 4 years, between 17 and 20.000 prisonners were kept in S-21. Among them, 12 survived. Victims were taken in picture at their arrival and were asked to give an account of their whole life. The black-and-white pictures are haunting the walls of the school. Giving eyes and a soul to all those who were tortured and killed between the walls you are currently looking at.
- 1. You must answer accordingly to my question. Don’t turn them away.
- 2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
- 3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
- 4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
- 5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
- 6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
- 7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
- 8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.
- 9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire.
- 10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
Tuol Sleng was also used against former Khmers Rouges leaders, so-called "spies" but more likely suspected to be planning a coup against Pol Pot.
In 4 years, between 17 and 20.000 prisonners were kept in S-21. Among them, 12 survived. Victims were taken in picture at their arrival and were asked to give an account of their whole life. The black-and-white pictures are haunting the walls of the school. Giving eyes and a soul to all those who were tortured and killed between the walls you are currently looking at.
When the Vietnamese took Phnom Penh, the last Khmers Rouges ran away from S-21, previously killing the last 14 prisonners. A Vietnamese photographer found the jail and took pictures of the class rooms as he found them.
Today, the rooms are exactly the same. The torture bed is still there, the shackles too. On the walls, a picture. The one of the last victim of this room, taken by the Vietnamese photographer. You look at the picture, look at the bed besides you, and you shiver. In the courtyard, 14 white graves. The last deads of S-21.
Today, the rooms are exactly the same. The torture bed is still there, the shackles too. On the walls, a picture. The one of the last victim of this room, taken by the Vietnamese photographer. You look at the picture, look at the bed besides you, and you shiver. In the courtyard, 14 white graves. The last deads of S-21.
I walked around the school. I saw the walls, the cells, the beds. I was wondering whether the violence, the cruelty and the suffering could have been so strong that objects would have kept a memory of it, deep inside their frame. Could I feel the pain and the despair, if I tried to touch this bed ? I didn't dare to touch anything.
Lost in front of the pictures, lost in the cells, I could just imagine what happened to all these faces looking at me. I saw the skulls and I wondered to which pair of eyes they belonged. I saw the bullet impacts or the pick strokes on the bones. I saw the torture instruments and I imagined.
And I cried, in a corner, sobs blocked somewhere in my chest.
This video is an attempt to make you feel the place.
But nothing can substitute the memory of the walls and bars of Tuol Sleng.
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