S-21

Cambodia is a country that has faced major conflict and only recently has come to a point of functionality. Prone to military uprisings and its history as a pawn in many war conflicts the nation and its people have experienced major atrocities we as Westerners have never experienced.

Phnom Penh is known as the center of conflict in the past few decades and only in the last decade has become a symbol of Cambodia’s new beginning. The S-21 war prison, a former primary school converted into a death camp, exhibits the savagery of the country's past. Here is a glimpse into my experience while visiting this death camp.

I’m cringing as I hear the words of a Cambodian man, the brutality of genocide, imprisonment, torture, and death. Beads of sweat fall down my face joining my watery eyes forming tears of empathy. Only 20 years prior innocent human beings were tortured and murdered in the space before me. We cannot comprehend the horrors these people faced. As I left the room sick to stomach, I could not get the blood stained cement and iron shackles out of my mind. My heart ached even more as I heart his last mention of small children being murdered...