The Killing fields and the Khmer Rouge are still a very sensitive topic in Cambodia as the Pol Pot regime was probably the most ruthless communist regime of the late 20th century. Within the course of a day Pol Pot, the leader of the democratic republic of Cambodia, cleared out the entire city of Phnom Penh, a population of over 2 million people. Many people were taken to concentration camps and for the next four years Pol Pot would go on to be responsible for the deaths of a quarter of the population of Cambodia estimated at around 2-3 million people.
One of the biggest and deadliest concentration camps in Cambodia was the S-21 camp. The camp was originally a school called the Tuol Svay Pray High School on the morning of April 17th, 1975 however over 20,000 citizens had died leaving the city of Phnom Penh and that school started serving its new purpose, Housing and executing anybody and their family who disagreed with Pol Pot's new communist movement. The camp has a giant gate around it so the only really visible part of the camp are the school buildings from the outside. Once walking in one starts to get an eery almost overwhelming feeling of grief especially after walking around a bit.
Within the walls there were many extreme horrors that took place over the course of Pol Pot's Regime. There is a tree inside the camp, This tree was given the name "Chankiri Tree", which loosely translates to,"The Killing Tree" in Khmer. The Cambodian soldiers were ordered to take the women and children relatives of the men that he had executed and smash their heads against a specific tree inside the camp so as to not waste bullets on peasants. The Killing Fields are some of the most gruesome sights in Cambodia and are really true testaments to just how evil the human mind can be when given the right opportunities.
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