Voices From S 21 Terror And History In Pol Pot's Secret Prison

by David P. Chandler

L'un des plus grands spécialistes de l'histoire récente du Cambodge analyse les archives de la " prison secrète de Pol Pot ". Au sein de S-21 ont été enfermés, torturés, et dans la grande majorité des cas, tués près de 14 000 Cambodgiens, soupçonnés d'activités contre-révolutionnaires. Au-delà de l'étude des archives, David Chandler tente de nous faire entendre les voix de ces victimes, des rares survivants et surtout d'un peuple décimé par les siens au nom d'une rationalité qui dépasse l'entendement.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Asia, Politics, True Crime, Crime, Biography

254 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 1999

About the author

David P. Chandler is an American historian and one of the foremost western scholars of Cambodia's modern history.

Reviews

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

This is definitely not a book for the squeamish. This is a non fiction book that brings to light the horrific background of the Cambodian Communist Party of Kampuchea and the Director Pol Pot of S-21, located in Phnom Penh. The code name S-21 is a prison built from a high school for the purpose of torture. Over 14,000 men, women and children were warehoused at S-21 over a four year period. Of everyone interned at S-21 only seven prisoners emerged alive.

During this 5 year Civil War in Cambodia it is said that one in every five Cambodian natives died. Pol Pot was a former school teacher, before becoming the Director of S-21. S-21 is known as Quote~" the place where people went in, but never came out" ~ unquote. The purpose of S-21 was to cleanse the population of political enemies.

This torture palace was found and brought to light in 1975. The history of S-21 is told by documents found within the prison, signed confessions, execution records, mug shots, instruments of torture, photographers who took those mug shots and guards from the prison. Then after it's clean up was made into a museum, curated by a man who had been held and tortured within the facility.

As I said this book is not for everyone, but it definitely paints a picture of the horrors of war and shows how man can turn on man, in the name of country. Cambodia - at it's worst.

[Matthew Errico · Rating 5 out of 5]

When visiting Phnom Penh over the break, a scholar told me it would take over a hundred years for Cambodia to overcome the insanity of the Khmer Rouge's reign. It's estimated that almost one out of every four Cambodians died during their regime. S-21, in the heart of the city, was just one out of nearly one-hundred and fifty torture/interrogation centers throughout the country at the time. This book meticulously explains how it all happened in, often, graphic detail.

[Roderick Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers one of the lowest points of Cambodian history. It is truly sad and horrific, and this was a difficult book to read.

While the events and psychology of the Pol Pot regime were well covered, I was a bit disappointed that the "voices" mentioned in the title were for the most part silent. I suppose part of that is understandable since so much was lost, but I think the narrative aspect of this was lost to more of the factual. Comparison between Stalin's regime and China were well done, but this read more like a thesis than the narrative the title advertises.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read while I was in Cambodia and at the S-21 site, which made it a more visceral experience. A studious book about tortuous events, it's necessarily plodding and unpleasant. I'm glad I read it, but I don't know that I'd evangelize for the work.

I especially appreciated the context of the history of the museum at the site, and at the killing fields: the Vietnamese involvement and propagandistic purposes re-contextualized the museums in Phnom Penh for me.

This book is well-researched and worthwhile.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even having read loads already about Nazi concentration camps and Stalin gulags I thought I'd become immune to the shocking nature of these things; but not so, as this still hit me like a ton of bricks. Crikey, I just can't quite believe What Pol Pot managed to do in quite a short space of time, in pushing to create the most radical Marxist–Leninist land the world will ever know, and in the end dishing out one the biggest experimental political/social fuck ups the world will ever know. This book gives a detailed account of the inner workings of S-21, with it not shying away from both interrogation and torture techniques, as well as Chandler giving a more detached view of what happened at S-21. The 20th century had its fair share of complete and utter lunatics, but I'm convinced now that Pol Pot was the biggest nut-job of them all.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected. (Even though I wasn't sure what to expect... haha) The first half(or more) of the book was... well... repetitive. There is A LOT of talk about how prisoners were arrested for made up reasons and tortured to make false "confessions" in writing. And I mean A LOT. I almost gave up on this one. I was literally to the point where I was thinking "OK!!! I get it!! They were arrested because of paranoia and forced to make false confessions. I GET IT!!! Move on!!" Once you get past that(finally) it gets a little more interesting. I just feel there as way to much time spent on the tons of documentation(confessions) left behind in the prison. And even though the chapters change... the topic doesn't.(for the first half of the book) Just more discussions about the forced "confessions". I would suggest maybe trying a different book on the subject. This one concentrated to much on the documentation and not enough on the actual actions of the prison.(In my opinion) I just feel that with all that documentation, the author could have painted a better picture of what life(and death)was like in S-21. I was getting pretty bored reading it. Sorry for using the word "documentation" so much.... but that is pretty much what 80% of this book is about.

[Walter Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and annotated history of the S21 prison & interrogation center used by the DK to extract confessions before sending good the prisoners to Cheong Ek, Killing Fields.

It takes a look into the people who were were on both sides and ends with a very interesting chapter on what is to be learned this.

Having visited both Toul Sleng & Choeng Ek this book was even more disturbing when taken into the context of the people who survived the Khmer Rouge. No one we met over forty had not been affected by the period of Khmer history.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a shameful reminder of the possibilities of human existence. Incredibly well researched and given a balanced account of hundreds or frames of reference, it seeks to explain the horrors of Tuol Sleng Prison under the Khmer Rouge. It accurately reflects the confusion and paranoia of that period. Now I have to educate myself with how the regime could even come to existence. Excellent recommend.

[Charlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel weird rating this book amazing but it is amazing in an unfathomable way. I visited S-21 in 2002 and I could barely walk after entering the building. The history is numbing. Thousands of men, women and children were tortured, incarcerated and killed. Only seven prisoners who entered survived.

David Chandler does a superb job describing what happened and how it was universal.

[Khải Đơn · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book is a very good, sharp and detailed pictures of what happened in Toul Sleng, and from that angle, actually reflects very clearly what moved and killed under the Khmer Rogue. For casual readers, it is full of confession and the paranoid atmosphere at the time. For researcher, it is very well written and did the bibliography carefuly with a huge number of resources.

[WIlliam Gerrard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tuol Sleng or S-21 was the secret prison of the communist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Comrade Duch and his workers put to death in S-21 over 14000 enemies of the State. These enemies of the party centre were treated like they were subhuman and animals and eventually all prisoners were 'smashed to bits' or annihilated. Like the horrors of the Nazi death camps, the Stalinist Soviet Purges or Mao's Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot spared no sympathy for those that stood in his way. Once transferred to S-21, a prisoner could expect to have to fully denounce any fellow conspirators and confess totally to either real crimes or most often perceived imaginary ones. The use of torture was inevitable and screams from the prisoners kept neighbours in Phnom Penh up all night. Documentation for S-21 was immense and workers had to detail every confession and their actions to appease the Party Centre bosses and give the detainment and ultimate executions a quasi-legal framework. The author does a very thorough study of that evidence that is recovered and has interviewed the few survivors that escaped after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Chandler attempts to explain the inhumanity. His obvious sympathy for the victims extends into attempts to understand the mindset of the guards. The psychological insights are profound and this most disturbing case study serves as a warning to our race over any future mistakes that can be made when places like S-21 spring up and crimes against humanity are perpetuated. This dark tale of horror is a compelling read and I have given it a five star rating.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this shortly after visiting the S-21 in early 07, and my mind was fresh with the blood-stained floors and rusting chains used to restrain thousands of victims, so it's hard to separate that experience from an objective account of the quality of this book, but, suffice to say---any glimpse, with eyebrows or editing, into what went on at this prison in Cambodia in the late 70's will leave you rattled and in awe of the collective ignorance that the world perpetrated and continues to on atrocities that happen outside of Europe and Africa. The portraits of the victims, meticulously documented by Khmer Rouge captors, displayed in part inside this book, are worth the price of this book alone.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book I wish I'd read before visiting S-21 and Choeung Ek. Chandler shaped his analyses on S-21's development and the unspeakable tortures that took place there using scholarly research and interviews with victims and prison guards. This is not a book that you can take in at one sitting--it requires time to process, and the nature of the subject matter is disquieting, to say the least. Chandler's "final thought" reflects a quote from Zygmunt Bauman (a Polish sociologist of Jewish ancestry whose focus has been the Holocaust):"The most frightening news brought about by the Holocaust and what we learned of its perpetrators was not the likelihood that "this" could be done to us, but the idea we could do it."

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voices from S-21 is an informative, academic (but readable) account of S-21, the Khmer Rouge's secret prison in Phnom Penh where over 14,000 people were tortured, forced to confess to counterrevolutionary crimes, and killed. Chandler reconstructs the prison's grisly history using materials found in the prison's voluminous archives as well as interviews with the few survivors of the camp. Valuably, he also provides historical and psychological context to help us begin to understand how something so terrible could have occurred.

Overall, a worthwhile, lucid read that provides an introduction to a part of history that is all too often forgotten in American school curriculums.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly thorough, eye-opening, and horrifying.

"Over time one begins to see the details. On stairway landings, for example, holes have been knocked in the walls so the stairs can be cleaned by sloshing water down the staircases. Below each of these openings on the building exterior one can still see the stains of the blood that ran down the sides, as if the buildings themselves had bled."

[Igna]

Buku ini pada bagian awalnya begitu menarik karena menyajikan dengan cukup detail tentang apa yang terjadi di dalam S-21, akan tetapi semakin ke belakang ulasannya semakin membosankan, karena penulis terlalu sibuk membuat analisa sejarah, psikologis, dan membandingkan dengan kamp konsentrasi atau penjara sejenis di negara lain.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

After traveling to Cambodia, I wanted to understand the genocide that occurred there and how after everything it could have happened. this is a great book if you are trying to understand man's inhumanity to man in a Cambodian context.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrible and wonderful at the same time. A hard pill to swallow but so worth it if you can.

[Paul Medici · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. Read in English

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chandler provides lots of information on an otherwise unknown subject. This book is wonderful in a painful way.

[Maria Ardiana]

once they were school, then it became prison...

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was hard to read after spending time at S-21 and the Killing Fields. Pretty sickening stuff.

[Tami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knowing little about this country and the war, it was interesting and so disturbing-as it should be. Well documented with comparisons to other equally vile regimes.

[Pascal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrifying daily life in Khmer Rouge's Kampuchea. Very detailed, maybe too much of a documenting book at times, but reflect well the horror of opponents to the regime during 4 years.

[Gary Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good account of a sad period of Cambodian history

[Aubrey Stapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amazing how the author can take such a fascinating topic and make it incredibly dull. I couldn't get through it, only went about 40% in before I finally gave up.

[Alien Bookreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Cambodian man sold this book to me on the street in Siem Reap.

This book captures some recent, brutal history of Cambodia that the rest of the world barely noticed. It focuses in on the torture and interrogation that took place at S-21. Given how few people have survived this prison, but how many documents were recorded there, the book tries to piece together the working of S-21: how people were accused, how the question was posed, how prisoners were assumed guilty despite interrogators having no accusation. The book admits however that some parts of this history must be speculative. Unlike other atrocities of the 20th century, almost none of the perpetrators have admitted their crimes or been put to trial. The voices of S-21 are captured in the the documentations, false confessions and mug shots left behind.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another valuable inclusion in the literature of gulags/political prisons/extermination camps to include an area not well thought of. The author dives as deep as they can with the given documentation into the running of the prison and the experience of both staff and prisoners. Due to the extremely political nature of the prison and the Khmer Rouge regime it also acts as a decent overview of their rule over Cambodia from their accession to the Vietnamese invasion and, in many ways, liberation of those outside the inner circle. It is also the best glimpse we have of any of the 100+ similar regional prisons to understand what was happening inside these places due to the extreme lack of survivors and the reluctance of those responsible to speak unlike some other similar facilities throughout the world.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read plenty of books on Pol Pot, along with many other brutal dictators and leaders of the 20th century, and I've read and seen pictures of some of the atrocities that took place during that century, but even then, this book is still pretty damn disturbing and it can take a strong stomach for some to wade through this. Well researched and written -- very disturbing material.

[Lily McDonnell]

---read for class---
Overall this was definitely and interesting and educational look into Pol Pot and the CPK. However, some of the parts lacked context or were underdeveloped, while many of his points were repetitive and somewhat disorganized. Also he glossed over rape (of course) of the women in the prison.