A site all visitors to Cambodia should visit is Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh. Once serving as a high school, the site was converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge and used as a concentration camp between 1975 and 1979.
Over those four years, an estimated 17,000 - 20, 000 people were imprisoned at the complex.
Up to 1500 prisoners were held at any one time and would be repeatedly tortured to reveal the names of family members and close associates, who were then also arrested, tortured and killed.
At first, most victims were from the previous, non-Communist regime. Soldiers and government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, engineers and monks were all put to death.
That visitors must be reminded to refrain from laughter while at the site is hard to believe.
Eventually, paranoia within the party led to members from its own ranks being imprisoned, along with their families, and subsequently exterminated.
Tuol Sleng in Khmer means "Hill of Poisonous Trees."
A site all visitors to Cambodia should visit is Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh. Once serving as a high school, the site was converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge and used as a concentration camp between 1975 and 1979.
Over those four years, an estimated 17,000 - 20, 000 people were imprisoned at the complex.
Up to 1500 prisoners were held at any one time and would be repeatedly tortured to reveal the names of family members and close associates, who were then also arrested, tortured and killed.
At first, most victims were from the previous, non-Communist regime. Soldiers and government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, engineers and monks were all put to death. 
That visitors must be reminded to refrain from laughter while at the site is hard to believe.
Eventually, paranoia within the party led to members from its own ranks being imprisoned, along with their families, and subsequently exterminated.
Tuol Sleng in Khmer means "Hill of Poisonous Trees."
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