A disturbing look at life in the Khmer Rouge's notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh during the Cambodian genocide.
During the invasion of Cambodia in late 1979, Vietnamese soldiers uncovered a hastily abandoned prison in Phnom Penh containing meticulous records of each inmate, complete with a portrait photo and detailed “confessions” of their crimes committed against the Khmer Rouge.
That prison was Tuol Sleng, or Security Prison 21, a former high school in the Cambodian capital that was converted into a prison and interrogation center upon the Khmer Rouge’s ascent to power in 1975. Under the guise of building a classless agrarian economy, the Khmer Rouge targeted anyone that was incompatible with their vision of Cambodia including intellectuals, ethnic minorities, religious figures, and city-dwellers.
In the following four years, Cambodians perceived to be saboteurs or traitors to the state — some simply because they worked in factories or wore glasses — were taken to the prison to be tortured until they provided a full confession along with names of their collaborators. After confessions were made, almost all inmates were executed: of the 20,000 prisoners taken to Tuol Sleng, only seven survived.
Below are some of the portraits taken of prisoners upon their arrival to Tuol Sleng, which help us understand what life was like in one of the most brutal parts of the Cambodian genocide:
From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people accused of crimes against the state or of espionage were taken to Tuol Sleng. Offenses that could lead to such a fate could be as minor as breaking a factory machine or mishandling farming tools.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
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Often times, the entire family of a prisoner were captured and taken to Tuol Sleng, where their fate was shared with their accused relative.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
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Upon arrival, prisoners were asked to provide a detailed biography of their life up to their detainment, and were then photographed before being placed in the prison.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
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Tuol Sleng held up to 1,500 prisoners at a time. All lived in unhygienic and inhumane conditions. Prisoners were forbidden to speak to one another and spent their days shackled to either the wall or each other.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
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Prisoners were given two bowls of rice porridge and one bowl of leaf soup a day. Once every four days, prisoners were hosed down en masse by prison staff. Image Source: Patrick Aventurier / Getty
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Interrogations began within a few days of incarceration in the "cold" unit, which could not use torture and instead relied on verbal coercion and "political pressure" to elicit confessions. Image Source: Patrick Aventurier / Getty
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If the confession taken by the cold unit was not sufficient, prisoners were then taken to the "hot unit," which employed torture to get confessions.
Their methods included "beating with fists, feet, sticks or electric wire; burning with cigarettes; electric shocks; being forced to eat feces; jabbing with needles; ripping out fingernails; suffocation with plastic bags; water boarding; and being covered with centipedes and scorpions."
Image Source: Patrick Aventurier / Getty
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The confession process could last for weeks or months, and since full confessions were required, the medical unit was primarily tasked with keeping prisoners alive during interrogations. Image Source: Patrick Aventurier / Getty
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The product of these interrogations revealed more about the paranoid state of the Khmer Rouge than the prisoners: Confessions became intricate stories of coordinated attacks against the state with hundreds of perpetrators and international support from the CIA and KGB.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
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Confessions concluded with lists of co-conspirators that sometimes ran over a hundred people long. These supposed co-conspirators would then be interrogated and sometimes themselves brought to Security Prison 21.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
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After confessions concluded, prisoners were handcuffed and forced to dig shallow pits that would be used as their own mass graves. Image Source: Patrick Aventurier / Getty
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Due to international sanctions and a collapsed economy, bullets became scarce in Cambodia. Instead of guns, executioners were forced to use makeshift weapons like pick axes and iron bars to carry out mass executions.
Image Source: Patrick Aventurier / Getty
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Initially, prisoners were executed and buried near the premises of Security Prison 21, but by 1976, all available burial space around the prison had been used. After 1976, all prisoners were sent to the Choeung Ek execution center, one of 150 used by the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian genocide. Image Source: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
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While the prisoners in the first years of the prison's operations were primarily members of the previous government, Khmer Rouge members suspected of being a threat to leadership were increasingly detained at Security Prison 21 during its later years.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
When spared from the fate of their parents, children of executed prisoners were forced to become the staff responsible for growing food for the prison.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
Similarly, prison staff had to obey nearly impossible regulations with fatal consequences if they failed to comply. From prison records, 563 guards and other staff of Tuol Sleng were executed. Source: Richard Ehrlich/Getty Images
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Image Source: Patrick Aventurier / Getty
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Image Source: Patrick Aventurier / Getty
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Non-Cambodians were also taken to Tuol Sleng, with 11 Westerners' cases being processed and then executed in the prison. In the above photo is Christopher Edward DeLance, an American who mistakenly went into Cambodian waters in 1978. DeLance was forced to sign a confession that he was a CIA spy and was subsequently executed a week before the Vietnamese invasion.Phnom Penh Post
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Killing Fields Museum
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Ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai were targets of the Khmer Rouge, which sought to remake the country into a strictly Cambodian agricultural society. Of 450,000 Chinese in Cambodia in 1975, only 200,000 remained by 1979.The Killing Fields Museum of Cambodia
By the end of the Cambodian genocide, an estimated 2 million Cambodians had died, which was about 25 percent of the total population. Image Source: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
26 Haunting Portraits Of Prisoners During The Cambodian Genocide
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To date, only one person -- prison chief Kang Kek Iew, better known as Duch -- has been prosecuted by the United Nations for the crimes committed at Tuol Sleng. Upon returning to the prison as part of the trial, he broke drown while saying:
I ask for your forgiveness – I know that you cannot forgive me, but I ask you to leave me the hope that you might.
In 2012, Duch was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity, torture, murder, and his participation in the Cambodian genocide.
For a deeper look inside of Tuol Sleng, watch the below documentary, "S21 - The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine," which chronicles the lives of former prisoners and prison guards, culminating with their face-to-face reunion inside the prison:
Next, learn about five lesser-known genocides the history books tend not to cover. Then, see perhaps the most haunting photo of the Rwandan genocide. Finally, learn about the brutality of Belgium's Leopold II and his genocide in Africa.
Alexander is a cofounder of All That's Interesting with an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in History and Economics and an MSc from the School of Oriental and African Studies in Economics. He specializes in American history, the Cold War, and true crime.
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.
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Baldwin, Alexander. "26 Haunting Portraits Of Prisoners During The Cambodian Genocide." AllThatsInteresting.com, May 15, 2016, https://allthatsinteresting.com/cambodian-genocide-portraits. Accessed February 23, 2025.
