Is there a limit to what humans are capable of?

Memories come alive.

Of the kings of Cambodia - brothers, relatives? – who either replaced or fought each other. A terrible, brutal, inhuman time during Pol Pot and his entourage sent millions of people to the Killing Fields where they starved to death or were killed.

But more about that later.

 

Phnom Penh,

Monument of a Duran fruit?
Could it be a durian fruit? As a monument? Very strange

I am now in Phnom Penh, the capital, and I don't know what to expect.

At first glance it looks like a normal Asian city, with millions of inhabitants, a lot of traffic, a lot of hustle and bustle. And pompous buildings and indefinable structures.

They are left by this kind of rulers as inheritance of their mostly wretched reign. The first one greets me shortly after arriving on my TukTuk.

I have no idea what it's supposed to represent. I'm not really interested in finding out either.

First impressions are known to be the most important, so I don't feel comfortable at first. What I intend to find out this afternoon won't help improve the city's image either, I'm sure.

 

 

TukTuk in Phnom Penh  Houses in Phnom Penh

And then, with a TukTuk, I end up at my quarters .

It doesn't really look inviting. What does that mean for my ideas for the evening? Let's see ... I've obviously landed in an area that doesn't particularly contribute to a relaxed state of mind.

It's lunchtime now, it's bright day, I'm being watched, but the interest doesn't seem to be that great. Apparently I don't look like a potential victim. However, how it will be tonight when I return from dinner remains to be seen.

The poverty in Phnom Penh is great ...

 

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh
The entrance to a completely normal building ...

In the afternoon I set out for something I'm afraid of.

Because almost at the end of this journey - the worst ... the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

There's no way I'm going to join the lemming bandwagon visiting the Killing Fields. I want to avoid these kinds of tourist attractions. They are for voyeurs.

The Genocide Museum is something different. It shows objectively and without emotion what happened. In all its cruelty.

And it is above all intended to remind us of the bloody deeds man is capable of.

From the outside, one gets the impression of a completely normal building. Which was exactly the intention of the torturers. No one should know or suspect what is going on behind the walls.

Maybe nobody really knew. Just like the Nazi concentration camps. In hindsight, no one knew anything about it.

Thirteen men and a woman

Magnolia trees bloom in the courtyard. Their blossoms hanging down heavy and limp, like a colored umbrella over fourteen graves, which look like white-painted coffins. Thirteen men and a woman. No longer identifiable due to the strong decay.

The last victims of the prison Tuol Sleng.

 

Fourteen Tombs
Fourteen Tombs

 

The evil in itself

Tuol Sleng. Even the name sounds like a threat, like evil itself. Next to the tombs is a kind of carpet hanger, as it was used in old times. Nothing special at first glance.

However, hooks are attached to the crossbar, underneath each a clay pot, about a meter high. You have to look it up to understand the horror. The prisoners' arms were tied behind their backs and pulled up until they lost consciousness. To make them responsive again, they were plunged into the clay pots, filled with water containing pesticides ...

 

Read it yourself
Read it yourself... and shudder

 

Torture methods in Tuol Sleng
Especially perfidious torture methods

 

Classrooms

The buildings, almost a bit dilapidated.

Former schoolrooms lined up on each floor. Inside are rusty bedsteads, empty cartridge boxes, each with a chain, hanging on the floor.

 

The Security of Regulation
Testimonies of horror

 

prove of the cruelty of the human species  One of the last victims

Increasing the horror

Each building represents an increase in terror. The images of the murdered.

Neatly numbered, like the Nazis. bureaucrats at work. What you do, you do right. Old men, women, children, many men. Some with terrible wounds. Is it dignity what they exude or are they unaware of what awaits them?

 

Faces of victims
The faces of the victims

Then the photos of the leaders, of Pol Pot, whose body was burned on a pile of old car tires. Most of the others are still alive. Almost ordinary faces, if it weren't for the eyes. The banality of evil. The worst scenes are painted, but you quickly walk by or stop after all. In horror.

The fascination of evil.

 

Prison cells
Cells

Then the cells. Two meters by eighty centimeters. Stains on the floor. The air is stale, but one believes to smell the scent of death. It is silent. Hardly anyone speaks, even the young backpackers are out of words …

Then slowly walk back to the city center. Not in the mood for anything...

Eventually, far away, where the Tonle Sap River meets, the Mekong. At least that …

 

Taking a deep breath

But Cambodia's capital doesn't just have depressing sights and bad memories to offer. There are beautiful houses, perhaps from the colonial era, and families playing on the banks of the Mekong. They make up for some of the morning's evil.

 

beautiful houses in Phnom Penh  Families

 

Homeless children on the banks of the Mekong

But it' s not only Tuol Sleng, there are other scenes and images that cause the heart to ache. Children play on the sidewalk near the bank of the Mekong River.

But these are not just some kids spending the afternoon here. They are parentless, homeless children - street children (see Kathmandu).

Despite the fact that the poverty can be seen from afar, they don't give the impression of hopelessness, on the contrary. They play, fool around, laugh.

I don't feel like laughing. I feel bad, once again I don't know how to deal with it. As do we all when faced with a problem that we recognize but cannot change.

Or am I wrong? Trying to take responsibility?

A Swiss doctor named Beat Richner recognized the misery and set up a clinic for children in Siem Reap many years ago, where everyone can be treated free of charge. In Switzerland he is rightly revered as a hero. What would he do in my place?

I don't know it …

 

Street kids in Phnom Penh
Street children in Phnom Penh

 

PS Matching film: The Killing Fields

And here the journey continues ...

 

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