When Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia in 1975, they took over a local school and turned it into a prison for political prisoners, renamed Security Prison 21. By 1978, around 17,000 people had passed through the place, been tortured and killed, or driven to the nearby Killing Fields for execution.
Breezeway. Classroom. Yup, chalkboards still hanging on the walls.
Other classrooms were turned into prison cell areas. Wood or brick, does it matter? Holes were punched between walls to create one long cell block.
The museum curators have placed images of the torture in the classrooms, giving a harrowing sense of place and the grim reality that unfolded.
The former school/prison, a set of standard concrete buildings situated in a small campus within the city.
Breezeway. Classroom. Yup, chalkboards still hanging on the walls.
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Typical torture scene. Desks removed, bed brought in. Add prisoner, chains and let the interrogation commence.
Other classrooms were turned into prison cell areas. Wood or brick, does it matter? Holes were punched between walls to create one long cell block.
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