Cambodian Holocaust

http://www.countrywatch.com/cw_country.asp?vCOUNTRY=030

Who is responsible for the Cambodian

Holocaust?

Pol Pot (Soloth Sar)

• lived in Buddhist monastery for six years

• leader of the Khmer Rouge guerrillas

• tried to turn Cambodia into a self-sufficient, agrarian utopia

• took control of Cambodia in 1975

What did Pol Pot want to do?

Pol Pot’s Goal

• Create a Self-sufficient, agrarian, utopia (true communism)

How did Pol Pot do this?

He Started Over = Year Zero

Eliminate all knowledge of the past!!!!

How did he intend to pull this off?

• By enlisting the youth (9,10, 11 year old kids) of the country in his new army known as the Khmer Rouge (the young are easy to influence).

• By wiping the country clean of traces of the past (killing those with knowledge of the past).

• By controlling all aspects of the country (politically, economically and socially)

• By forcing all citizens into collectives to work according to age, gender and skill.

• By holding indoctrination sessions every evening to remind them all of the wonderful rewards of communism.

• By publicly murdering anyone that questioned the Khmer Rouge.

Who are the Khmer Rouge?

Khmer Rouge•The Communist Khmer Rouge came to power in this small Southeast Asian nation in 1975 as part of the vast upheaval caused largely by the spilling over of the Vietnam War.

•The Khmer are communist followers of Pol Pot

•Most are young and enjoy their new power

When the Khmer took over:

• The populations of Cambodia's cities were forced to evacuate the cities, move to the countryside and engage in agricultural labor. = Communes/Collectives/Cooperatives

•They closed most institutions (schools, banks, government buildings, churches) and vowed to provided for their needs in the countryside.•They required absolute obedience from all Cambodians.

Khmer Slogan

• “Keeping new people is no benefit, losing them is no loss.”

What type of person was the most threatening to the Khmer

Rouge’s power?

Who was murdered?

People with glasses

People who could speak another language

People whom had traveled

Foreigners

Counter-revolutionaries

Educated Prisoner

• Intellectuals and anyone else seen as standing in the way of the new social order were mercilessly killed, while many of those who escaped execution died from overwork and starvation.

S-21Prison (Interrogation Center)

(a former high school)

S-21 Prison

• This building is now a museum devoted to helping those impacted by these events.

• Many Cambodians travel here to try to understand what happened to their families and friends.

• http://www.downtheroad.org/Asia/Photo/2Cambodia_Pictures/9Tuol_Sleng_Genocidal_Crime.htm

So what brought an end to all of this?

• The Vietnamese invaded and took over Cambodia ousting the Khmer Rouge from power.

• The country remained communist for some time but not in such extreme conditions.

• Pol Pot fled into the jungle and remained in hiding until his death.

• Pol Pot denied that he had ever done anything wrong and truly believed he held the future of Cambodia in his hands.

The Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979, eliminated approximately 1.7 million people

(21% of the country's population)

A Killing Field

• According to Yale University’s Cambodian Genocide Program

– There were over 200 killing sites

– 9,500 mass grave pits

Pol Pot's death in April 1998 heralded the end of the brutal career of a man responsible for overseeing one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/june97/cambodia_6-18a.html

So what is Cambodia like after Pol Pot falls from power?

• DUMB literally!!!!• For four years all they

have learned about is communism they have been shut out from the rest of the world. They farmed and read Mao’s Little Red Book. Generations of people are dead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/78988.stm

Who is responsible for the Cambodian Genocide?

• Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge (communists)

Where and when did this occur?

• Cambodia

• At the end of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam

• 1975 - 1979

Why and How?

• The communists wanted to purge the country of traces of the past and start over.

• They used young minds and brutal treatment to enforce their ways.

Want to see a great movie on this historical event?

• The Killing Fields