On Saturday we visited this old prison.
In 1975 the khmer rouge turned this high school into a prison. It was the largest centre of detention and torture. between 1975 and 1978 more than 17,000 people held at the prison where taken to the killing fields. Each prisoner was photographed, sometimes before and after torture and all were made to write a biography.
When the Vietnamese arrived there was only seven prisoners alive who used their skills as painters or photographers to stay alive. 14 others were tortured to death. Photographs of their horrific deaths are on display in the rooms where their decomposing bodies were found. Their graves are in the courtyard.
Visiting the prison is a very depressing and gruesome experience. There are signs up saying no laughing or smiling but it is not a place you have any need to smile about visiting! In rooms you see rusted beds with shackles and instruments of torture. in another block the rooms are filled with the photographs of prisoners and another contains the tiny cells they were kept in.
Alot of the workers at the prison became prisoners themselves for acts such as being lazy or accused of being a traitor as the Khmer rouge became very paranoid.
