S-21
Be warned: this page contains disturbing images.
The staff of S-21 kept careful photographic records of all prisoners entering and leaving in order to ensure that they would never be accused of losing or freeing any prisoners.
S-21 has four blocks: A-D. Block A was reserved for members of the Khmer Rouge suspected of treachery and spying. These prisoners had a room to themselves. This one was photographed by the Vietnamese just as they found him, his throat cut.
A half dozen westerners, mainly Americans and Australians suspected of spying for the CIA, were tortured at S-21 before being taken to the killing fields.
The background of this photo shows how the prisoners in the other blocks were shackled together in groups of twenty or forty, riddled with disease.
Many prisoners did not survive torture - they were photographed then buried in mass graves in the school grounds.
The chief torturer at S-21.
The director of S-21.
One of the 7 survivors of the 20000 prisoners processed at S-21 was a painter - he has painted several pictures depicting conditions at the center. This one shows how prisoners were shackled together in one of the prison blocks.
Water tortures, burning and electrocution were favored at S-21 but this image shows a prisoner's fingernails being ripped off.
To save the cost of bullets, prisoners (even babies) were beaten to death.
Sometimes killing became a sport - guards would kill babies by throwing them up in the air and catching them on their bayonets.
This map of Cambodia was made using the skulls and bones of some of the 2 million victims of the Khmer Rouge.
