The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

My Mekong River cruise through Cambodia and Vietnam included a stop in Phnom Penh and a visit to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. I had heard about the Killing Fields, but to be quite frank, I didn’t know very much about them. That trip reinforced for me the importance of visiting places where history becomes more than something we read about.

There are beautiful and life-affirming moments in history that we celebrate. There are other events that must be remembered for very different reasons. They are difficult and painful, but remembering them matters.

Walking Through Choeung Ek

On a beautiful day in October, I visited a place with a very dark past: the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. It is one of many killing fields in Cambodia. Although this is a difficult subject, I believe it is important to remember what happened here and to share what I experienced.

We walked through the gates of the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek in silence. Immediately ahead of us stood the Memorial Stupa. Although it was the first thing we saw, it would be the last stop on our tour.

Instead, we turned to the left and stopped at a lovely old tree standing in the field. Looking at it, who would have guessed that this tree held such a terrible secret?

The sign beside it explained what had happened there:

“Magic Tree. The tree was used as a tool to hang a loudspeaker which make sound louder to avoid the moan of victims while they were being executed.”

We continued along paths bordering the pits, where fragments of bone still rise from the ground. Signs along the way tell visitors what lies within.

Throughout the site, visitors have left colorful bracelets—a small gesture of remembrance for those who died here.

Signs of What Happened Here

As we continued walking, we came to another reminder of what still lies beneath the ground. A sign explained why pieces of victims’ clothing continue to appear:

“Rags of Victims’ Clothes. After the mass graves were exhumed in 1980, the left underground rags of victims clothes come up after raining, and we collect them to keep on.”

As we continued through Choeung Ek, photographs and signs documented what had happened here. Many of the original buildings are long gone, but signs mark where they once stood and explain how they were used.

One sign marked the site of the Killing Tools Storage Room, a wooden building that held shackles, leg irons and the tools used in the executions. The building and its contents are no longer there.

Another marked the site of the Executioners Working Office. According to the sign, this was where the executioners stationed at Choeung Ek worked and where the rosters accompanying arriving prisoners were read and signed.

The Memorial Stupa at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Our final stop brought us back to the Memorial Stupa we had seen when we first entered the grounds. With incense and flowers in hand, I walked silently inside.

The Stupa contains the remains of victims from the mass graves at Choeung Ek. Standing there, surrounded by the evidence of so many lives lost, was difficult to put into words.

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek left a lump in my throat. The remains of men, women, and children tell the story of lives lost during one of the darkest periods in Cambodia’s history.

Before this trip, I knew very little about the Khmer Rouge or what had happened in Cambodia. Walking through Choeung Ek made that history real in a way that reading about it never could.

Earlier in the trip, visiting Angkor Wat had introduced me to a very different chapter of Cambodia’s long history.

It was not an easy place to visit, nor should it be. But some places ask us to stop, remember, and understand. Choeung Ek is one of those places.

For those who would like to learn more, the USC Shoah Foundation provides additional background on the Cambodian genocide, including survivor testimony.