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The Master of Confessions: The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer
Renowned journalist Thierry Cruvellier takes us into the dark heart of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge with The Master of Confessions, a suspenseful account of a Chief Interrogator's trial for war crimes.
On April 17, 1975, the communist Khmer Rouge, led by its secretive prime minister Pol Pot, took over Cambodia. Renaming the country Democratic Kampuchea, they cut the nation off from the world and began systematically killing and starving two million of their people.
Thirty years after their fall, a man named Duch (pronounced "Doïk"), who had served as Chief Prison officer of S21, the regime's central prison complex, stood trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Unlike any other tribunal defendant, Duch acknowledged his personal responsibility, pleaded guilty, and asked for forgiveness from his victims. In The Master of Confessions, Thierry Cruvellier uses the trial to tell the horrifying story of this terrible chapter in history.
Cruvellier offers a psychologically penetrating, devastating look at the victims, the torturers, and the regime itself, searching to answer crucial questions about culpability. Self-drawing on his knowledge, and experience, Cruvellier delivers a startling work of journalistic history—by turns deeply moving, horrifying, and darkly funny.
On April 17, 1975, the communist Khmer Rouge, led by its secretive prime minister Pol Pot, took over Cambodia. Renaming the country Democratic Kampuchea, they cut the nation off from the world and began systematically killing and starving two million of their people.
Thirty years after their fall, a man named Duch (pronounced "Doïk"), who had served as Chief Prison officer of S21, the regime's central prison complex, stood trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Unlike any other tribunal defendant, Duch acknowledged his personal responsibility, pleaded guilty, and asked for forgiveness from his victims. In The Master of Confessions, Thierry Cruvellier uses the trial to tell the horrifying story of this terrible chapter in history.
Cruvellier offers a psychologically penetrating, devastating look at the victims, the torturers, and the regime itself, searching to answer crucial questions about culpability. Self-drawing on his knowledge, and experience, Cruvellier delivers a startling work of journalistic history—by turns deeply moving, horrifying, and darkly funny.
339 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 18, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 3, 2018
'We need only watch how men and women of all social classes react to the trials of torturers and executioners to gauge our collective lust for the gallows, for the firing squad lurking in a football stadium, or for watching women with the shaved heads in 1945 at the French Liberation. In every trial I've covered - whether in Africa, Europe, or Asia - I've felt the breath of that bloodlust, the hatred that exists even among the most well-educated, on the back of my neck. It is the same as the rush of air that preceded the blow of the pickax handle that was the last thing felt by the victims at Choeung Ek, on their knees at the edge of the pit.' (p. 296)
March 23, 2018
Compelling reporting but too circular and poorly organized at times. Lots of weird pseudopsychology thrown in that could have been cut. Still, a fascinating portrait of a mundane monster.
September 24, 2018
A careful and comprehensive view of thought, following, and catastrophes.
February 27, 2019
Cruvellier is a journalist specializing in crimes against humanity and international criminal courts. This book, self-consciously modeled after Eichmann in Jerusalem, follows the 2007 trial of Duch / Kaing Guek Eav, the commander of the notorious S-21 prison. S-21 was one of over 150 facilities established by the Khmer Rogue for the torture and execution of internal enemies. As commander, Duch oversaw the deaths of an estimated 20,000 people. The killing was meticulously organized and recorded, with an extensive archive of files containing photographs, biographies, and confessions of the doomed.
Revolutions invariably wind up eating their own, starting with Robespierre being lead to the guillotine, continuing through the 20th century, and culminating in the extraordinary bloodshed of the Cambodia genocide, which killed between 21 and 25% of Cambodia's population. S-21 was a central node in the machinery of death, where high ranking cadres were dispatched when they had run afoul on an internal power struggle. Pol Pot's paranoia was infinite. A single accusation would bring down subordinates, wives, children, in an ever-expanding web of death.
Two questions weave through the book. The first is about what type of man Duch must be, to commit such crimes? Eichmann was a bureaucratic nonentity, but Duch is somehow worse. Both before and after the revolution, he was a teacher, beloved by his students and peers as kind, reliable, and intelligent. Yet for a decade, he was an enthusiastic member of an apparatus of death, devoted to 'smashing' (the literal meaning Cambodian word used for execution) the enemies of the revolution. He handwriting is all over the archives, demanding more torture, proscribing executions, listing more victims to bring in.
The second is what manner of justice is possible, or even appropriate. The dead can never be brought back. The survivors will carry their wounds with them for a lifetime. I'm not even sure what manner of healing is possible for Cambodia, and neither is Cruvellier. the trial becomes a psychodrama, a grueling struggle which Duch initially controls, and then which takes its own momentum and breaks him. He acknowledges responsibility, but cannot find forgiveness. There are parallels between the obedience to authority which lead to Duch's crimes, and the obedience to authority on which the court runs. In the end a confession, whether extracted by torture or in a court of human rights, is a coercive bargain struck between those with power, and those at the mercy of power. Beneath the pomp and bureaucratic starch of the ICC is the mob, howling for blood.
Revolutions invariably wind up eating their own, starting with Robespierre being lead to the guillotine, continuing through the 20th century, and culminating in the extraordinary bloodshed of the Cambodia genocide, which killed between 21 and 25% of Cambodia's population. S-21 was a central node in the machinery of death, where high ranking cadres were dispatched when they had run afoul on an internal power struggle. Pol Pot's paranoia was infinite. A single accusation would bring down subordinates, wives, children, in an ever-expanding web of death.
Two questions weave through the book. The first is about what type of man Duch must be, to commit such crimes? Eichmann was a bureaucratic nonentity, but Duch is somehow worse. Both before and after the revolution, he was a teacher, beloved by his students and peers as kind, reliable, and intelligent. Yet for a decade, he was an enthusiastic member of an apparatus of death, devoted to 'smashing' (the literal meaning Cambodian word used for execution) the enemies of the revolution. He handwriting is all over the archives, demanding more torture, proscribing executions, listing more victims to bring in.
The second is what manner of justice is possible, or even appropriate. The dead can never be brought back. The survivors will carry their wounds with them for a lifetime. I'm not even sure what manner of healing is possible for Cambodia, and neither is Cruvellier. the trial becomes a psychodrama, a grueling struggle which Duch initially controls, and then which takes its own momentum and breaks him. He acknowledges responsibility, but cannot find forgiveness. There are parallels between the obedience to authority which lead to Duch's crimes, and the obedience to authority on which the court runs. In the end a confession, whether extracted by torture or in a court of human rights, is a coercive bargain struck between those with power, and those at the mercy of power. Beneath the pomp and bureaucratic starch of the ICC is the mob, howling for blood.
February 3, 2021
Kaing Guek Eav, who were more infamously known as Comrade Duch, was the head of S-21 Prison, in which more than 12.000 people, real or imagined enemies of Khmer Rouge, were sent to their deaths, with only 3 known survivor. A teacher by profession, Duch zealously signed for the ‘smashing’ of many innocent people. Ever the meticulous man, he kept a large, haunting archive on S-21 prisoners, and failed to destroy them when Khmer Rouge fell, turning those files against him later. This book tries to describe Duch and the proceeding of his trial by Khmer Rouge tribunal.
While the atrocities done by Khmer Rouge were certainly horrendous and the motives behind those were morally indefensible, I found it quite hard to see that Duch gleefully sent countless people, many of them were his acquaintances and friends. After all, within Khmer Rouge, paranoia rules over all, the torturer can easily turned into one of the tortured. Duch himself gained his position after his superior got purged. So, it can be inferred that Duch had to keep condemning people to their deaths in order for himself to survive, and in this he succeeded, albeit getting tried by international court.
Other interesting part of this book was the proceeding of Duch’s trial, we see the three S-21 survivors, the audiences, relatives of Duch’s victims, his trusted companions and fellow gaolers, and most importantly, his defense team and prosecutor. From this book, we can see that in this human-made catastrophe of Cambodian Genocide, morality and justice can be seen as simply white and black.
While the atrocities done by Khmer Rouge were certainly horrendous and the motives behind those were morally indefensible, I found it quite hard to see that Duch gleefully sent countless people, many of them were his acquaintances and friends. After all, within Khmer Rouge, paranoia rules over all, the torturer can easily turned into one of the tortured. Duch himself gained his position after his superior got purged. So, it can be inferred that Duch had to keep condemning people to their deaths in order for himself to survive, and in this he succeeded, albeit getting tried by international court.
Other interesting part of this book was the proceeding of Duch’s trial, we see the three S-21 survivors, the audiences, relatives of Duch’s victims, his trusted companions and fellow gaolers, and most importantly, his defense team and prosecutor. From this book, we can see that in this human-made catastrophe of Cambodian Genocide, morality and justice can be seen as simply white and black.
December 9, 2020
i saw a review on goodreads for this that said it “reads like a textbook”. this person either has some wildly engaging textbooks, or read a different book than i did. from start to finish this is gripping, thorough, and unbelievably well written. i’m not sure if it’s an artefact of the translation from french to english, but several times while reading i was struck by turns of phrase that the author used, and how they were poetic without seeming frivolous or disrespectful.
the book is about a man and his trial, and the author does a fantastic job of interweaving relevant information as things progress. this definitely isn’t meant as a history of cambodia or the khmer rouge, it’s more of an exploration of what happened at s-21 and the man who made it happen. the book itself is neither defending duch or attacking him, seeming to respect the readers intelligence.
for a comparison i would recommend We Regret To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Phillip Gourevitch, which is more broadly about Rwanda rather than a single trial
the book is about a man and his trial, and the author does a fantastic job of interweaving relevant information as things progress. this definitely isn’t meant as a history of cambodia or the khmer rouge, it’s more of an exploration of what happened at s-21 and the man who made it happen. the book itself is neither defending duch or attacking him, seeming to respect the readers intelligence.
for a comparison i would recommend We Regret To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Phillip Gourevitch, which is more broadly about Rwanda rather than a single trial
November 30, 2025
At the library, I was looking for looking for a book on a country in Southeast Asia as a contrast to the modern China of "Private Revolutions" by Yun Yang. Unsurprisingly, the local library's section on Southeast Asia was mostly comprised of books on the Vietnam War. I understand the emphasis on the Vietnam War as it has more interest from American readers than other events in the region because it cost American lives. However, as I browsed the section for something other than the Vietnam War, this book appeared and intrigued me because of its focus on the less-covered, but equally infamous, Khmer Rouge regime that disrupted Cambodian society over fifty years ago.
"The Master of Confessions: The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer" is an account of a trial of a prison director at an international tribunal in Cambodia. Taking place decades after the torture inflicted on victims at the infamous S-21 prison, Duch, the prison director, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The author Thierry Cruvellier masterfully crafts a battle between two competing narratives at the trial. Even though there is little question of the crimes committed by the prison director, which included directing subordinates to torture and kill political prisoners based on tenuous and/or fabricated confessions, the real skirmish revolved around the character assessment of Duch that would determine the sentencing for his crimes. The prosecution and plaintiffs' lawyers for the civil parties sought to present Duch as a devoted servant to the communist cause who possessed great agency as a prison director and chose to use that agency to inflict the worst pain imaginable on multitudes of victims. On the other hand, the defense attempted to paint a picture of Duch as a ordinary person who was a mere cog in the machine who had to conduct the ugly job as prison director in order to survive the regime.
Through the over three-hundred pages of this battle, many witnesses representing victims of the dead at S-21 as well as colleague and acquaintances of the defendant testified on front of the court. The author's portrayal of the documentary evidence, witness testimony and closing statements taught two valuable lessons. First, justice is fleeting, especially when the events preceding the trial take place several decades prior, most of the perpetrators are dead and records are incomplete. Here, the account of the trial was remarkable in that it was able to portray Duch as someone who was so meticulous that he kept extensive records of the prison's victims and preserved them so that when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979, the records would survive to the day of the trial. Those who would want to hide their crimes probably would have been more keen on keeping less records or destroying them entirely. Furthermore, the account of the trial went into great detail to emphasize how difficult it would have been to secure a conviction without the extensive cooperation of the defendant in the prosecution of his crimes. However, one that is more sympathetic to the arguments of the prosecution and civil plaintiffs could argue that his cooperation came from a place of trial strategy, to secure a lesser sentence, than one of genuine remorse and soul-searching. Without the extensive evidence and cooperation, justice may have fled from the victims of S-21 who, at that point, have been haunted by over thirty years lost memories and loved one.
The second valuable lesson of this portrayal of the trial is that individual agency exists and it can and should be exercised for good. However, there are limits to said agency, because we are born into a system that is greater than ourselves and that anyone can be turned towards barbaric actions if the material incentives are sufficiently strong. In one sense, Duch was a teacher who chose to join the communist revolution to fight the military coup that overthrew the monarchy after being jailed as a dissident. Perhaps he could have fled to Thailand or Myanmar, but it is difficult to ascertain whether Duch really had the resources to flee Cambodia entirely. On the other hand, had Duch avoided the fight and remained in Cambodia, perhaps he would have been subject to continued detention and death regardless of the outcome of Cambodian civil war. The same could be said about his work as an employee of the Khmer Rouge prison system. In one sense, Duch has shown an ability to exercise agency when he spared the life of a French researcher that was imprisoned or spared artists and a mechanic because they were useful to the operation of the prison or the regime. In another sense, Duch took orders from his superiors in the senior leadership of the regime, and if he did not enthusiastically support his superiors' initiatives, he would have been on the other side of an accusation and put to death. Based on the evidence and testimony, I am more inclined to believe that Duch had the agency to avoid his predicament entirely by leaving Cambodia, but Duch's agency and judgment were completely clouded by the experiences of his early adulthood that convinced him that communism was a path towards a more equal and just society. This lack of clear judgment led him to becoming the cog in the machine that commit the atrocities described in the book.
I would recommend this book for those who are looking to read on Cambodian history or on the greater region-wide fallout of the Vietnam War. I also recommend this book to those who want to read on international law or the operation of international tribunals.
"The Master of Confessions: The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer" is an account of a trial of a prison director at an international tribunal in Cambodia. Taking place decades after the torture inflicted on victims at the infamous S-21 prison, Duch, the prison director, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The author Thierry Cruvellier masterfully crafts a battle between two competing narratives at the trial. Even though there is little question of the crimes committed by the prison director, which included directing subordinates to torture and kill political prisoners based on tenuous and/or fabricated confessions, the real skirmish revolved around the character assessment of Duch that would determine the sentencing for his crimes. The prosecution and plaintiffs' lawyers for the civil parties sought to present Duch as a devoted servant to the communist cause who possessed great agency as a prison director and chose to use that agency to inflict the worst pain imaginable on multitudes of victims. On the other hand, the defense attempted to paint a picture of Duch as a ordinary person who was a mere cog in the machine who had to conduct the ugly job as prison director in order to survive the regime.
Through the over three-hundred pages of this battle, many witnesses representing victims of the dead at S-21 as well as colleague and acquaintances of the defendant testified on front of the court. The author's portrayal of the documentary evidence, witness testimony and closing statements taught two valuable lessons. First, justice is fleeting, especially when the events preceding the trial take place several decades prior, most of the perpetrators are dead and records are incomplete. Here, the account of the trial was remarkable in that it was able to portray Duch as someone who was so meticulous that he kept extensive records of the prison's victims and preserved them so that when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979, the records would survive to the day of the trial. Those who would want to hide their crimes probably would have been more keen on keeping less records or destroying them entirely. Furthermore, the account of the trial went into great detail to emphasize how difficult it would have been to secure a conviction without the extensive cooperation of the defendant in the prosecution of his crimes. However, one that is more sympathetic to the arguments of the prosecution and civil plaintiffs could argue that his cooperation came from a place of trial strategy, to secure a lesser sentence, than one of genuine remorse and soul-searching. Without the extensive evidence and cooperation, justice may have fled from the victims of S-21 who, at that point, have been haunted by over thirty years lost memories and loved one.
The second valuable lesson of this portrayal of the trial is that individual agency exists and it can and should be exercised for good. However, there are limits to said agency, because we are born into a system that is greater than ourselves and that anyone can be turned towards barbaric actions if the material incentives are sufficiently strong. In one sense, Duch was a teacher who chose to join the communist revolution to fight the military coup that overthrew the monarchy after being jailed as a dissident. Perhaps he could have fled to Thailand or Myanmar, but it is difficult to ascertain whether Duch really had the resources to flee Cambodia entirely. On the other hand, had Duch avoided the fight and remained in Cambodia, perhaps he would have been subject to continued detention and death regardless of the outcome of Cambodian civil war. The same could be said about his work as an employee of the Khmer Rouge prison system. In one sense, Duch has shown an ability to exercise agency when he spared the life of a French researcher that was imprisoned or spared artists and a mechanic because they were useful to the operation of the prison or the regime. In another sense, Duch took orders from his superiors in the senior leadership of the regime, and if he did not enthusiastically support his superiors' initiatives, he would have been on the other side of an accusation and put to death. Based on the evidence and testimony, I am more inclined to believe that Duch had the agency to avoid his predicament entirely by leaving Cambodia, but Duch's agency and judgment were completely clouded by the experiences of his early adulthood that convinced him that communism was a path towards a more equal and just society. This lack of clear judgment led him to becoming the cog in the machine that commit the atrocities described in the book.
I would recommend this book for those who are looking to read on Cambodian history or on the greater region-wide fallout of the Vietnam War. I also recommend this book to those who want to read on international law or the operation of international tribunals.
June 17, 2018
One of the most difficult reads of your life but definitely a meditative and important look at a man who was Cambodia’s Eichmann. But unlike Eichmann, Duch alternates between the confession he knows the court wants, he Eichmann defense of following orders of a corrupt and dangerous regime, and finally his own revolutionary ideas. Which Duch will win? Which defense is appropriate? Cruvellier gives you a complex ending worthy of the courts Duch faces. If only he author would stop commenting on witnesses’ physical appearances I would have finished it sooner. I found it the one flaw in an otherwise spellbinding analysis.
August 10, 2018
Read on a van from Siem Reap to Sen Monorom -- absolutely riveting and one of the most thoughtful examinations not only of Cambodia, but the phenomenon of international human rights trials I've read. One of the many details Cruvellier hammers home is that most of the Khmer Rouge's victims were themselves Khmer Rouge cadre. I am hard-pressed to think of another genocidal regime that did the same. I disagreed with some of his analysis, but overall this belongs in the library of anyone interested in probing the inner depths of the worst human beings can do to each other.
December 15, 2017
One of the most amazing books I've ever read, and one of the most incredible interviews I've ever done. Cruvellier is the only journalist to have covered all of the post-Cold War war crimes trials. He both shows how mundane most mass murderers are, and how a unique set of factors and circumstances have to come together to make them what they are. Really amazing reporting and writing.
May 4, 2024
Dark Emotional Secret Smashing Pursuit of Justice
I am going to start this review with one of my thoughts about this hellish movement in history "Anybody who makes a good soul like Vann Nath and his wife suffer, lose their children during a spree of horror is an enemy of humanity! I'm in the fight to reduce suffering! Fight against the enemies of humanity! The suckers of the weak and fighters for clinging must be fought against so that people like Vann Nath and his wife won't be sucked dry of life! Go away with your exploitation and vampiric clinigings! The righteous must fight because the righteous are the only ones who can bring just, holy strengthening progress to not only humanity but their loved ones and future generations that deserve many things including care from their community that should do their best to forgive and protect the ones who are relying on them..." The Khmer Rouge had so much opportunity to help so many souls in their nation that they claimed to have so much care for... they didn't have any sort of warm emotion to any of their people even the ones shouting love for "Angkar!" The crimes talked about here included "smashing" the intellectualsl that were at first enthusiastically teaching their revolutionary thought just like the minorities in the forest who gave their young to fight not only against the bombs, the persecution being done by the monarch and other bigoted driven souls... Brother Duch... he was cried for by an old schoolmate that said he was "a kind sweet soul that did much to help his fellow students, he is shocked that he is in court speaking against his old friend." That moment and other moments in this emotional pursuit of justice makes me believe that when Duch said that he felt shock, shame, remorse and all other painful sensations when persecuting his fellow intellectuals and others that thought that they and everyone in their nation would benefit from these yelling hyped up young pretty souls...
"But I don’t like people saying, ‘Look at those evil people over there! We wouldn’t—oh no, we would never do that, ever.’ I don’t want to say that what was happening at S-21 was done by another kind of people operating far away, but I want to suggest that under certain conditions—conditions that have happily been nonexistent in my own life—almost anyone could be led to commit acts like these. There is a dark side to all of us." -David Chandler. The crimes, the described feelings in this book made the young shout anger filled phrases such as "“You sons of b****, the Angkar will destroy you all! Don’t worry about your families!” What was being fed in this movement was finely brought up in this court experience... there are many times when a lawyer pryed out something from the master of confessions, Duch knew all their tricks and while they couldn't do what he has done to his own Khmer it was entertaning seeing how this complex soul confessed to some of his crimes, ducked others and hearing what made him believe in this form of "Communism." With all that said I will leave with another thought that I found in this justice seeking journey... "I would hate to start a movement and the comrades that were fighting for change have nothing but tears about the things they pushed for... just like this... young souls crying because they believed they wouldn't be thrown into the closest anymore and ect..."
I am going to start this review with one of my thoughts about this hellish movement in history "Anybody who makes a good soul like Vann Nath and his wife suffer, lose their children during a spree of horror is an enemy of humanity! I'm in the fight to reduce suffering! Fight against the enemies of humanity! The suckers of the weak and fighters for clinging must be fought against so that people like Vann Nath and his wife won't be sucked dry of life! Go away with your exploitation and vampiric clinigings! The righteous must fight because the righteous are the only ones who can bring just, holy strengthening progress to not only humanity but their loved ones and future generations that deserve many things including care from their community that should do their best to forgive and protect the ones who are relying on them..." The Khmer Rouge had so much opportunity to help so many souls in their nation that they claimed to have so much care for... they didn't have any sort of warm emotion to any of their people even the ones shouting love for "Angkar!" The crimes talked about here included "smashing" the intellectualsl that were at first enthusiastically teaching their revolutionary thought just like the minorities in the forest who gave their young to fight not only against the bombs, the persecution being done by the monarch and other bigoted driven souls... Brother Duch... he was cried for by an old schoolmate that said he was "a kind sweet soul that did much to help his fellow students, he is shocked that he is in court speaking against his old friend." That moment and other moments in this emotional pursuit of justice makes me believe that when Duch said that he felt shock, shame, remorse and all other painful sensations when persecuting his fellow intellectuals and others that thought that they and everyone in their nation would benefit from these yelling hyped up young pretty souls...
"But I don’t like people saying, ‘Look at those evil people over there! We wouldn’t—oh no, we would never do that, ever.’ I don’t want to say that what was happening at S-21 was done by another kind of people operating far away, but I want to suggest that under certain conditions—conditions that have happily been nonexistent in my own life—almost anyone could be led to commit acts like these. There is a dark side to all of us." -David Chandler. The crimes, the described feelings in this book made the young shout anger filled phrases such as "“You sons of b****, the Angkar will destroy you all! Don’t worry about your families!” What was being fed in this movement was finely brought up in this court experience... there are many times when a lawyer pryed out something from the master of confessions, Duch knew all their tricks and while they couldn't do what he has done to his own Khmer it was entertaning seeing how this complex soul confessed to some of his crimes, ducked others and hearing what made him believe in this form of "Communism." With all that said I will leave with another thought that I found in this justice seeking journey... "I would hate to start a movement and the comrades that were fighting for change have nothing but tears about the things they pushed for... just like this... young souls crying because they believed they wouldn't be thrown into the closest anymore and ect..."
August 13, 2025
#The Killing Fields of Communism: Read between 2013 and 2025
I came to The Master of Confessions, in 2020, after already knowing Duch’s name from other readings on the Khmer Rouge—but Cruvellier’s book forced me to see him not as a faceless “war criminal” but as a man who spoke, thought, reasoned, and, disturbingly, sought forgiveness.
Thierry Cruvellier attended Duch’s trial in 2009, and it shows. The prose is lean but precise, honed by years of war crimes reporting. You feel the hush of the courtroom, the weight of testimony, and the strange tension in watching a man who had overseen the systematic torture and execution of thousands admit to it all.
Duch didn’t deny or hide—he pleaded guilty and even expressed remorse. That alone makes him an anomaly among mass murderers, but Cruvellier doesn’t let that become redemption. Instead, he circles the moral puzzle: can a man be both butcher and penitent?
The portrait that emerges is unnerving. Duch was methodical, disciplined, and bureaucratically exact. He wasn’t the blood-spattered executioner of crude imagination—he was an administrator of death. In this sense, he was Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” in the flesh: ordinary on the outside, extraordinary only in his capacity to serve an ideology without question.
Cruvellier captures the judicial theatre of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia—the defence urging the world to weigh Duch’s remorse, the prosecution pressing for full acknowledgement without mitigation. He’s unsparing about the tribunal’s limits: these trials are symbolic, yes, but symbolism matters in a country where mass graves still breathe under the rain.
What struck me hardest wasn’t just the scale of Duch’s crimes but the normality of the man himself. Cruvellier never lets you forget that this was a former schoolteacher, someone who could talk about pedagogy one moment and efficiency in interrogation the next. That human familiarity makes the crimes colder, not warmer.
Reading it, I kept thinking: survivor memoirs give you the cost of atrocity; this book gives you the machinery.
And sometimes the machinery is a single man at a desk, filling out forms, setting quotas for death, believing he is doing his job.
That’s why The Master of Confessions lingers—it makes you see that evil doesn’t always come with a snarl. Sometimes it comes in pressed shirts, speaking politely, and asking for forgiveness.
I came to The Master of Confessions, in 2020, after already knowing Duch’s name from other readings on the Khmer Rouge—but Cruvellier’s book forced me to see him not as a faceless “war criminal” but as a man who spoke, thought, reasoned, and, disturbingly, sought forgiveness.
Thierry Cruvellier attended Duch’s trial in 2009, and it shows. The prose is lean but precise, honed by years of war crimes reporting. You feel the hush of the courtroom, the weight of testimony, and the strange tension in watching a man who had overseen the systematic torture and execution of thousands admit to it all.
Duch didn’t deny or hide—he pleaded guilty and even expressed remorse. That alone makes him an anomaly among mass murderers, but Cruvellier doesn’t let that become redemption. Instead, he circles the moral puzzle: can a man be both butcher and penitent?
The portrait that emerges is unnerving. Duch was methodical, disciplined, and bureaucratically exact. He wasn’t the blood-spattered executioner of crude imagination—he was an administrator of death. In this sense, he was Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” in the flesh: ordinary on the outside, extraordinary only in his capacity to serve an ideology without question.
Cruvellier captures the judicial theatre of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia—the defence urging the world to weigh Duch’s remorse, the prosecution pressing for full acknowledgement without mitigation. He’s unsparing about the tribunal’s limits: these trials are symbolic, yes, but symbolism matters in a country where mass graves still breathe under the rain.
What struck me hardest wasn’t just the scale of Duch’s crimes but the normality of the man himself. Cruvellier never lets you forget that this was a former schoolteacher, someone who could talk about pedagogy one moment and efficiency in interrogation the next. That human familiarity makes the crimes colder, not warmer.
Reading it, I kept thinking: survivor memoirs give you the cost of atrocity; this book gives you the machinery.
And sometimes the machinery is a single man at a desk, filling out forms, setting quotas for death, believing he is doing his job.
That’s why The Master of Confessions lingers—it makes you see that evil doesn’t always come with a snarl. Sometimes it comes in pressed shirts, speaking politely, and asking for forgiveness.
December 14, 2025
At first glance, the title of the book can be a bit misleading if you are looking forward to reading about a skilled interrogator prying information out of Khmer Rouge criminals. The book is not about a master interrogator but ironically about the worst kind of interrogators, one of whom goes by the name Kaing Guek Eav aka Duch. He was a prison head of S-21, where "confessions" were routinely drawn out of prisoners through coercion and torture and where all prisoners eventually faced execution. For such a meticulous, zealous and hardworking high-ranking member of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, Duch made the mistake of leaving the S-21 prison archive intact when he fled from the Vietnamese invasion. The prison archive stores biographies, photographs and the false confessions extracted from the victims whose families haunt Duch throughout his trial.
As an audience member of the public gallery in the court, the author paints the atmosphere of the trial from beginning to end in a way that could not be captured through video recordings alone (which are available online). He manages to vividly illustrate the way Duch looks, how he walks, how he talks, his micro-behaviour and -expressions that give insight into his emotional journey that would have flown over my head given how stoic Duch always seem and his reputation that precedes him. As I was reading, I realised the book is aptly named as Duch is indeed the master of confessions. He gave what every person at stake wanted: to the people of Cambodia his sincere apology; to the prosecutors his full accountability of the crimes as a leader; and to the victim's families his willingness to accept whatever punishment deemed satisfactory. However, near the end of the trial, Duch's defence took a weird turn. Duch asked to be released by emphasizing his role as a mere servant of the party, another cog in the machine. The individual vs collective crime of genocide is one of the many themes being addressed in this book but this particular change in Duch begs the question: would he have admitted to his crimes at S-21 if they were not as documented in detail as in the prison records? And would he have ever surrendered himself if he was never caught in hiding by the photojournalist Nic Dunlop?
P.S. I love the mention of Tiger Balm in the court and that "Pol Pot's pot" remark.
As an audience member of the public gallery in the court, the author paints the atmosphere of the trial from beginning to end in a way that could not be captured through video recordings alone (which are available online). He manages to vividly illustrate the way Duch looks, how he walks, how he talks, his micro-behaviour and -expressions that give insight into his emotional journey that would have flown over my head given how stoic Duch always seem and his reputation that precedes him. As I was reading, I realised the book is aptly named as Duch is indeed the master of confessions. He gave what every person at stake wanted: to the people of Cambodia his sincere apology; to the prosecutors his full accountability of the crimes as a leader; and to the victim's families his willingness to accept whatever punishment deemed satisfactory. However, near the end of the trial, Duch's defence took a weird turn. Duch asked to be released by emphasizing his role as a mere servant of the party, another cog in the machine. The individual vs collective crime of genocide is one of the many themes being addressed in this book but this particular change in Duch begs the question: would he have admitted to his crimes at S-21 if they were not as documented in detail as in the prison records? And would he have ever surrendered himself if he was never caught in hiding by the photojournalist Nic Dunlop?
P.S. I love the mention of Tiger Balm in the court and that "Pol Pot's pot" remark.
August 15, 2022
Thierry Cruvellier's The Master of Confessions: The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer is a fascinating book that will push many readers outside their comfort zone to ponder what truly makes a murderer, and what crimes can be attributed to the individual versus the collective.
Cruvellier's work follows the war crimes trial of "Comrade Duch," the infamous administrator of S-21, an interrogation and execution center in Cambodia. The book covers the entirety of the trial, as well as vignettes seen through the lens of the witnesses who testified for and against Duch.
One notable thing about the author is that as opposed to taking a position, he forces the reader to grapple with the Khmer Rouge's crimes, whether or not the perpetrators bear personal responsibility for following expectations/orders, and whether Duch's confession is legitimate. The Khmer Rouge is not something I knew much about prior to reading this book, so I appreciated the author's tendency to explain things thoroughly, and letting the reader come to their own conclusion.
Cruvellier's work follows the war crimes trial of "Comrade Duch," the infamous administrator of S-21, an interrogation and execution center in Cambodia. The book covers the entirety of the trial, as well as vignettes seen through the lens of the witnesses who testified for and against Duch.
One notable thing about the author is that as opposed to taking a position, he forces the reader to grapple with the Khmer Rouge's crimes, whether or not the perpetrators bear personal responsibility for following expectations/orders, and whether Duch's confession is legitimate. The Khmer Rouge is not something I knew much about prior to reading this book, so I appreciated the author's tendency to explain things thoroughly, and letting the reader come to their own conclusion.
June 12, 2021
An interesting portrait of a bureaucrat whose obsessive and meticulous nature made him an ideal candidate to in the machine of mass murder. Given the author didn't have direct access to Duch he instead bases his book around his trial. The horrors he presided over in the s-21 detainment centre are laid bare by both those who suffered from and those who inflicted them. The book can be a little disjointed and the author's psychoanalysis problematic at times but overall a chilling look at one of the cogs of an evil regime.
September 17, 2020
I think it was a pretty good and interesting book it had many accurate facts about the Cambodian Genocide. It used many trials that happened after WWII like the Nuremberg trials, It should be at least relevant to the story what is going on. It talked about how this man killed thousands of people in these Torture Prisons. It also talked about the ideology of why this man killed people and what person he followed and used those ideas in a country that they have won in a civil war.
August 11, 2018
Duch is without a doubt a disturbed killer . He hid behind the cloak of "I'm doing this for the Communist Party" while torturing and murdering hundreds. Then, after he was no longer needed, he "found" Christianity and disappeared. Thankfully, he was sent to trial and sentenced to life in person as an old man.
December 27, 2018
While the book did get a bit tedious in the middle (I took a break and read another book haha) it was a really interesting look at humanity. I was surprised to find the arguments of the defense so compelling, and to feel such empathy for someone guilty of such horrific crimes.
April 18, 2021
Not as well organized as it could have been. It sometimes feels more like it's organized by the author's itenerary traveling through Cambodia & witnessing the trial than by an internal logic. The author also included a lot of his own commentary and interpretation on the topic that didn't seem particularly necessary or useful. But maybe this is an issue of what I expected versus what this book was intended to be.
March 9, 2018
A well written and engaging look at the trial of a Khmer Rouge officer. If you’re interested in psychology of trials this is the book for you.
February 6, 2019
Reads like a textbook and gets very dull very quickly. Does however give a detailed picture of the horrors perpetrated by the Kmer Rouge.
November 10, 2020
Content important; overly wordy
January 22, 2025
It's not super well written but the topics and stories that are covered make up for that. Really good if you want a perspective on what the Khmer Rogue was like during that time period
August 14, 2025
How do regular people become such monsters? Will humanity ever stop committing genocides? Incredibly bleak but informative.
June 14, 2014
My Amazon review...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3KZFXOO...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3KZFXOO...
August 4, 2021
Definitely not 50 shades of grey
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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