Anytime someone is exposing a public facing organization which everyonehas heard of, they forget to consider the organization behind that organization.
I used to work with a Cambodian man named Sam who went through this. They killed everyone in his family but him. They stabbed him under his chin. The knife went up through his tongue and into the roof of his mouth and he was left for dead along with his family. He cried when he told me the story. It’s horrific what these people went through.
Damn, this man must’ve had a great trust in you to tell you about it. It was probably a relief for him to talk about it, thanks for being an empathic human!
We, Cambodians, are not afraid to tell the story of our horrific past because the world needs to know how much we endured and what we had to go through. For 3 years and 5 months, the world forgotten about Cambodia and leave millions of people to die. We will forever remember the time that we were ignored by everyone. But we will not let the past stopping us from moving forward.
When my parents decided to escape Vietnam during the war, we traveled through Cambodia. During that time we got caught by the Khmer Rouge when my dad was out foraging for food. When the soldiers brought us to the general, my mom thought that were were gonna get killed. Instead the general and a few of his trusted associates hid us and fed us while waiting for the right time to help us escape through the night telling us where we need to go to escape their sight. Eventually my dad found us and we went on our way towards Thailand where we lived in a refugee camp for a while until US missionaries helped us immigrate to America in 1983. I was 4yrs old at the time we immigrated. My mom did asked the general why he helped us and he told her something she’d never forget. He said “ I am not a bad person. I am who I am because it saves my family. It helps me save those I can from a torturous death. I saved you because I know I won’t get caught and my family will be safe. I know I will still go to hell“ Probably not his exact word but it should be pretty close. My mom said he was our savior so she never forgot his words.
My mom and dad are survivors. I never really asked about their past until recently, and the stories of their struggles are unimaginable. They live a very simple and frugal life and I always questioned why they never wanted to do much. After hearing their stories and the suffering they went through every single day, I realize why they live the life that they live and that we take so many things for granted here in the USA. My parents lived a decent life before the war. My mother lived in the capital while my father on the outskirts. My father told me stories where they would drink water from puddles left from a buffalos imprint in the mud. Sometimes the water was fine, sometimes it had urine in it. My father, being the oldest, worked out in the fields from morning until night and only given a bowl of rice throughout the day. It's amazing that his entire family survived - he was 12 years old with four younger brothers and a younger sister. My mother had a different story. She watched her two sisters, brother, mother and father all die from starvation and disease. My mother also watched her friend get blown up by a bomb. My mother hardly even remembers what her dad looks like because she blacked out so many of the horrible memories at the time. My mother now has cancer and is only giving weeks to a few months to live. The fact that she was able to survive the war only for her life to end with cancer is truly unfair. Edit: After two long years of battling cancer, my mother passed two days ago. She can finally eat all the good food in the world and live pain free. Rest in peace, Ma.
Always remember that she loves you and that she was able to move forward with her life and raise you and to insure that you had a better hand in life then she did
God Bless your mother bro, I pray Jesus Christ rids her of all cancer and may she see many more years with you. I really wish you and your loved ones the best.
😢 Mankind’s inhumanity is truly a heart-wrenching evil .😱 God will stop these Satanic acts before long, and the suffering will end. The wicked will not survive. God also will resurrect the dead to an earthly paradise where cruelty will no longer exist. I have complete faith in these promises❣️Love will conquer, and evil genocidal acts will no longer exist. 🙏🏼😊✌🏽
I have visited Cambodia two times and the people there are among the kindest that I've ever met. some of them were telling me about those terrible times and at the S-21 I was able to met Mr. Chum Mey - one of the very few survivors of this awful place. God bless your mom's soul.
My hair cutter here in southern California is originally from Cambodia, and one day while she was cutting my hair, I asked her how she came to the US. I was stunned to learn that she and her younger sister made a dangerous escape from one of the prison camps where people were tortured and executed by the Khmer Rouge. She told me that several members of her family were imprisoned and it was a nightmare in the camp as she saw people die. She and her sister decided they would attempt to escape at night, knowing they would be executed if caught. But the way they looked at it, it would be better to die trying to be free than to await almost certain death in the camp. They had nothing to lose. So, they made their escape and traveled west through jungles for many days, hiding when they had to. Finally, they entered the safety of Thailand and lived in a refugee camp for a time. Eventually, she and her sister sought asylum in the US, and she is today a successful businesswoman and an American citizen. Sadly, however, she and her sister never saw their other family members again. FYI, her eyes were watery as she told me this story, and I had no idea it would unfold as it did. She is definitely a survivor.
My best friend went through that as a child. He moved to the States at twelve years old and could not read, write, or do any math when he arrived. He was one of the smartest people I have ever met, and a tremendous athlete. He became an engineer, scratch golfer, tennis player, and pool player. As he was dying of kidney failure, he told me that every day he thanked God for the United States of America and all the opportunities it afforded him. He loved and appreciated this country like no one else I've ever met. He had such a big heart and would give anyone his last dollar and the shirt off his back. I miss his friendship so much and look forward to the day when we will meet again.
My family had to flee Vietnam after the Communists took over and all the food dissapeared. They love America. And these woke freaks have no idea how offensive their hilarious views on Communism are. They are so dumb.
After visiting the killing fields, I have found that not only was the Khmer Rouge more brutal than I ever imagined, but their crimes were pretty much denied of ignored by much of the western world as Vietnamese propaganda.
Is this worse than what the Black Americans experienced during the slavery period? Also with that of Japan towards China during world war, how do the atrocities compared to what happened in here (I'll watch the video soon) I'm also watching about medieval punishments during medieval ages and wanting to compare what period and events are worse. Edit: No one is crying, guys 🤣 just some questions thrown out in the comments section 🤣
@rcane6841 There is no need to compare them; just think of it like this. Slavery is the epitomy of greed and what humans will do to gain benefits even if it's violates others' rights to live and the rights of freedom The Khmer Rouge is the epitome of human's savagery where people will kill each other just because of their beliefs in a singular twisted delusional individual And the Japanese occupation of china is the pure sadistic nature of a nation being brainwashed into willingly committing some of the worst war crimes to ever exist Major war and genocide events can not be compared to each other simply by the death counts; we can just take the details of the atrocities and acknowledge them for what they are, comparing them is a bit disrespectful to the victims of the atrocities.
@@dogman-fx9ub A made up term used to deflect comparisons in an argument by people who can't intelligently defend what they just said without feeling some type of inferiority. Common use among African Americans.
I read Haing S. Nor's biography 'Survival in the Killing Fields' a few years back and it is one of the most harrowing books I have ever read. When you read what he went through and how his entire family died under the regime, the circumstances of his death are a literal gut-punch. For those that don't know, Haing managed to keep his wifes ID card when he escaped the country, the tiny mugshot on the card was the only picture he had of her and the only thing he could remember her by, so he had the picture cut out and made into a pendant which he wore all the time. When he was robbed, he handed over his wallet and cash but refused to hand over the pendant, so the robbers stabbed him and took it anyway. RIP Haing S. Nor. You deserved so much better! 😔
Some folks believe that he was killed in order to keep him from testifying in the event that a tribunal was held at The Hague in order to punish the members of the Khmer Rouge.
My first job as a teen I had a boss that was from Cambodia, he’d tell us some heart wrenching stories from when he was a kid/teen. Gave me and my friends a lot of wisdom and taught us a lot about life. He was truly living the American dream. Happy to say he and his family are incredibly successful and I’ll always appreciate the opportunities he gave me.
Finally, a history as being taught in modern Cambodia being told properly in English. Watching your video surely make me miss my deceased father (1948-2020) who had always explain to me everything he had been through being a former Lon Nol Commando. "A hellish dream you never thought was real until you realize that you're the only one left" - said my mother. Keep up the good work.
Except for the part where he tries to state that their version of communism was an "extreme leftist" version. All forms of communism are evil and result in mass starvation, mass homicide, suicide, rapes, civil wars ect. Also they aren't "Nationalists." Nationalism has never resulted in what communism has. The argument of, "That wasn't true communism" is silly because it has literally been tried in multiple countries and never worked. Nationalism is never tried because it works and the bagel eaters don't want the people knowing that, so they spread lies through communism which they control.
weird how the english telling of events seem to always ignore the 1970-1975 puppet state, and how the US and the "free world" of the west backed the Khmer Rouge from 1979-1992.
I've been to the Genocide museum in Phnom Penh, it is absolutely horrific, I literally needed to sit down and calm down after the tour and there were people who cried while walking through the rooms. The torture mechanisms, the endless pictures of victims, all the skulls on display. The paintings from an survivor artist are horrific. I was horrified at a painting of a baby being murdered by slamming it, head first, against a tree. These were very dark times for Cambodians and humanity as a whole.
My mum was 11 years old when she was taken away from her family and forced into hard labor. The things she's experienced are absolutely unimaginable. One of the most horrific being was when she and her cousin tried to escape and find their families. My mum was captured and hung from a tree. The soldiers had also captured another man who had tried to run away and they tortured him in front of her. They forced him to dig his own grave before cutting out his liver, leaving him to slowly bleed to death while they cooked and ate the man's liver. During the ordeal, they taunted my mother that she would be next and that they'd do everything they'd done to him to her. However, when they finished the man's liver they decided they were full so they instead settled on beating my mum to death. They finally left when they thought she'd died. My mum's cousin who had been hiding had seen everything and ran to find someone to help her cut down my mum. The injuries my mother suffered back then are still felt today and she still suffers from chronic pain.
As a Cambodian, I would like to show gratitude to you for creating this documentation video and insights. It was a really tragic that is instill in most Cambodian’s memories.
as a Vietnamese, a bit more open and more neutral in political and historical view, i can understand what your elders went through. When we have a chance to lean our backs together again, Pol Pot's legacy still haunts and poison the next generations. Seriously, if we were to invade your country as what they say, they would not have had any chance of winning. It feels very confused when such atrocities only deserves little punishment. This is not only genocide, this is about destroying a country from their cultural roots, hurting it and almost every gens for at least 50 years, even centuries.
I went backpacking in Cambodia several years ago without any knowledge of the killing fields or what had happened. A taxi driver talked me into seeing the killing fields and the museum. It forever changed my view of the world.
As Vietnamese, we were taught about the crime of Pol Pot Khmer Rouge and are proud to defeat them. The stories of their brutalities and cruelties are not only written in History books but also told by adults to children.
My grandparents fortunately escaped Cambodia before anything bad could happen to them and my aunts and uncles. Unfortunately their other extended family didn’t make it out. When my grandparents were alive they absolutely refused to speak a word of what happened during pulpot. They shivered at the bare thought of what happened back in Cambodia. It’s nice to see someone covering a major event that my grandparents never talked about.
My dad befriended a Cambodian refugee at work who escaped from the Khmer Rouge with just the clothes on his back. Was truly a horrifying period of history.
I work for a large construction company that is very large and diverse that has employed over the years, many different cultures from around the world. Back in the 80's, we hired several Vietnamese and Cambodians and to this day are lifelong friends. One of the gentlemen, a Cambodian, told us his story a few years after being on our team. When he was 12, he watched his entire family be executed in their house as they were falsely accused of stealing rice. It was commonly used as an excuse to exterminate outlying communities. The death squads made up of mostly young men, some acquired a taste for human liver and thus would turn their eyes pink to red in color. These were the ones that killed his family, he barely escaped and eventually made to the US. The tales he shared and the things he saw were hell on earth, really disturbing stuff. I do not really know why i took the time to share this, maybe because so much of history is being hidden or untold.
I know about the killing fields of cambodia because its been taught from our history class from grade 1 to 4th year old high school and everyone who went to school knowing about that has developed a hatred for commies(even though we aren't taught to hate cimmies but are taught that they bashed babies heads on the tree trunk to bring despair unto the mothers) which is good so no dumdum would start doing new age stuff pol pot has done.
@@cam5816 I don't know of that specifically but there's lots of records of people getting sick from different forms of cannibalism. A sickness in papa new guinea called the "laughing death" was caused by a protein that when consumed would destroy the brain. The scientists that discovered it won a nobel prize. So I can definitely see eyes turning red or pink as a side effect of cannibalism... weirder things have happened.
@@cam5816 My Mum (who is Cambodian) says it does. She was tied up and forced to watch as soldiers cut out and eat people's livers. She too describes their eyes as being red in color and that you could always tell which soldiers ate human liver.
I feel the need to mention that in one of the death camps, they had a Baby Bashing Tree. A literal actual Baby Bashing Tree. This was a specific tree where Babies and toddlers would be killed by being bashed head first against it. They would be grabbed by their feet and swung head first into the tree. This is one of the most mortifying things I have ever heard of.
My neighbor survived the Killing Fields and she eventually went crazy from the PTSD and killed her granddaughters. I still remember horrible sounds of screaming and gunfire coming out of her house. I remember being so worried about my neighbor, she was just a sweet old lady. Now knowing exactly what she experienced, I get why she went crazy. I wish the killing fields had never happened. It has harmed generations.
When my dad was a kid he moved to the US to avoid the coup d'etat in Nigeria. When he got here, he met another kid who had similarly fled the Cambodian civil war and they became fast friends. This man who I've always known as an uncle told me about the horrific fighting and how his brother swam across the rice fields with him on his back while being shot at, mind you they were just kids. He was separated from his family and didn't know their whereabouts until just recently. Very interesting but sad and horrifying stuff.
Hey, you’ve got me interested in learning more about d’etat. My parents had to escape the heavy bombings in Laos during the Vietnam era, so learning about others and their history is important to me. I live in America and in schools we are barely taught about what goes on in the world and sugar coating tragedies.
A close friend whom escaped Cambodia during this time relates absolutely gut wrenching memories of the Red Army. He survived a village invasion by living in the community cesspool for 5 days, his brother was agonizingly killed horrifically in front of their mother, any food the army didn't take was doused with diesel fuel and human excrement...truly a sad truth that absolute power leads to absolute corruption.
What a frigging Horrendous Time,, I remember the late 70's And hearing abit of this Blood bath.. I was a teenager in western Canada,, Thinking how lucky I was,,, So Sad,,😕😢
I think this is why it’s bad to give the government too much control over the people. History is pretty clear when it comes to authoritarian control in countries, power and money cause man to become evil.
i have a Cambodian coworker and she was telling me about what she went through in Cambodia when she was a child ( i had no idea this had even happened in Cambodia) and she told me about how her and her siblings had to hide in the forest while men killed her father and uncles. She has the nicest heart out of the whole crew and its just terrible to know that she had gone through this.
My friend from Cambodia who escaped the killing fields. Told me he ran away in his late teens. He had to travel at night, because soldiers would patrol at day. He said, what a lot of people don’t realize. The jungle/woods at night we’re just as dangerous because of all the predators. He basically had to take a calculated risk and survived.
As a Cambodian, I sincerely thank you for sharing what truly happened in English, as well as bringing light to the events that reset Cambodia's progress, thank you so much for this video.
I was friends with a guy who survived tje Khmer Rogue. His story is sad and how he ended up in the states(Not bad but not up to the standards he wanted) How own Uncle killed his parents and his Sister-Leaving him in the jungle to bury them with his bare hands. He said he refused to shed a tear because they'd kill him. His Uncle then recruited him to join the Khmer Rogue and so he did. Fast forward a few months later and His Uncle plannes to escape to Thailand and move to the US. He agrees to his plan and in a week or so they make a break for it and sneak into Thailand. After like 5 days he said they finally made it to Thailand and so he makes his Uncle hopeful he is going to escape and go in Thailand. They make it there and he said the Uncle was do excited to finally leave and go to the US but before he can step one foot in Thailand he shoots his Uncle in the stomach about 5 times and slowly lets him die. He made sure he was the last person his Uncle seen before he died-He also said his Uncle cried and begged him to help but he would do nothing because he killed his parents. He then comes to the States and lives a pretty average or mediocre life. He got addicted to smoking, drinking and gambling and he lives in his car but still maintains his job to support his habits(he works for the city) When he told me this story he said he still refuses to ever shed a tear because he got his revenge. He also said he couldn't have kids so his bloodline ends with him.
That's patience. Imagine spending your days with the man who murdered your loved ones. Faking every smile. All while seething with unbrideld rage at being in this persons company. Up until the moment comes where you find your chance to kill the SOB. I imagine it must have been immensely satisfying to look him in the eye while he slowly bled out and died.
@@SoulCrapper Seriously I couldn't even imagine doing that at all! But this Man was very stoic. Very calm and had very deep wisdom which is why I gravitated towards him...I mean you can't buy this type of wisdom. If you ever seen this Man he looks like the typical old Man refugee of Cambodian but much more calm and well spoken and deep in being stoic and Bhuddist. Also another thing is he is a huge Patriots Fan and loves watching football of all sport.
My father was a young Vietnamese soldier who was amongst the first unit to enter Phnom Penh, he was just 18 at the time and just entered a prestige University of Technology, studying computer science. My maternal grandfather right after the Vietnam war, not too long after reunion with family after a long war, had to dispatch to Cambodia and stationed there for 10 years to train the Cambodian army, we still have all his letters he sent to my grandmother during the period. My father still keeps in touch with his Cambodian comrades who fought alongside him during the war.
Computer Science in 1979? Perhaps it was still under some other name, more like 'electronics' or something? Anyway it had to be a really rare/elite direction at that time
@@maciejguzek3442 At that time, in Vietnam, they called that major as "electrical calculation" later it became "Computer science"... in 1973, in north Vietnam, they could build their own personal computer as same as starting point with western country but Warsaw bloc did not allow Vietnam commercializing that product because Vietnamese were not granted responsibility in Computing domain... They had some computing centers with Minsk and IBM 360 computers, after 1975, Vietnam government knew the importance of computing in future then they invested to educate their new undergraduate students in this domain immediately...
I was told about this by my father. He experienced this firsthand when he was about 6-7 years old. One of the stories he told me that I remember the most was about when he snuck out to find fruit to eat to survive. He started smelling something rotten as he climbed a mango tree, and then once he looked, he saw a mass grave with tons of bodies. There were actually still soldiers there beating someone to death. It is horrifying to think about. My condolences go out to all those who lost family members to the Pol Pot Regime.
On my dad’s side he is the only survivor of his immediate family of 9 he lost 3 brothers, 3 sisters and his parents. He only survived because he went on vacation with his grandma to Thailand. On my mom’s side they were lucky to survive but her family had to live through the work camps until they escaped to Thailand. Watching the killing fields at a young age made me understand what they all went through.
I listened to two audiobooks. “First They Killed My Father” & “Tomorrow I’m Dead”. Both were autobiographies of young people that lived through the Khmer Rouge. Both were astounding books. It was the most illogical way to run a society I can think of. It was senseless killings. The books were great, but were tough to comprehend the level of depravity those people went through.
This is why pure socialist and communist countries always implode. They are the stupidest forms of government ever. People in the West complain about, and criticise capitalism without realizing it isn't capitalism they're actually criticising, it's corporatism aka cronie capitalism. True capitalism has Safeguards against trusts and giant corporations forming. Unfortunately, corrupt politicians have allowed private companies to wield far too much power, even having a heavy influence on the making of self serving laws. People need to realize that they are not looking at capitalism when they complain about the west, rather opportunistic corporations deliberately manipulating the market and government in unscrupulous, and nefarious ways. The answer to corporatism isn't socialism or communism. It's a return to true capitalism.
First They Killed My Father is a solid film documenting the Phnom Penh situation. Not a fan of Angelina Jolie but props to her for supporting the making of this film
The irony that Vietnam the old Captialist boogy man was the one that stopped the Khmer Rouge despite the invasion from China that there Reserves(civilian and untrained soldiers) they beat them back too.
I lived in Cambodia for 6 months. People are still recovering from this event and people highly respect the elders who lived through this. The local Khmer still refers to Cambodia as Kampuchea though in their language. They say Cambodia when they're speaking English, but when they're speaking Khmer, they'll say Kampuchea. There's even a beer called Cambodia and they jokingly call it Kampuchea.
My tattooist who is buddhist monk grew up in cambo during the kymer rouge. The kymer rouge were rounding up all the intellectuals in his village, anybody who wasn't a rice farmer essentially and father was a dentist. All he remember is his father, two older brothers and a cousin. Being driven away on the back of flat bed truck to be 'processed'. He never saw them again. Truly heartbreaking beyond words.
@@jamesclark6487 Both Pol Pot and Mao Zedong were also atheists and imposed state atheism on their respective regimes, killing their monks and destroying much of their historical artifacts.
I had a friend in high school who was Cambodian. She told me how her grandmother (super sweet lady) had survived Khmer Rouge and was afraid to ever go back home. They buried her husband alive, and she’s still afraid of land mines.
I've been to the prison and the killing field site. At the killing fields site you can still find pieces of human bone and teeth on the grounds of the site. The stories are horrible.
My mom told me a lot of horror stories about running from the khmer rouge. She remembers being in a village, when the khmer rouge gathered everyone in 1 house to kill them. My grandma hid my mom underneath the floors of the house, with a bag of gold, that if my grandma died, my mom would have a way to support herself. She remembers hearing a man who was deaf, getting hit in the head with a shovel and screaming unaudible noises. And she ran away to thailand, only to come back to cambodia when she was 8. My dad also has a story of running away with his family, but getting lost in the crowd. He eventually travelled with another family, but was caught. He said they had to dig a hole and was promised that they would be fed if they finished. After they were done digging out the hole. The khmer rouge gathered everyone into the hole to be "fed" Then painted a grenade orange and threw it into the hole and killed many people. My dad ended up hiding, before going into the hole, which is how he still lived. He then fled to the jungle and somehow reunited with his mom. But there are way more stories about the khmer rouge from my family then I could possibly explain. Way too many stories. It always crushes my heart when I hear them.
Both of my parents were survivors of the Khmer Rogue. My mom was able to escape when the Khmer Rogue took over Phnom Penh in 1975. She got separated from her family but she did made it to Thailand all by herself. Her mother had miraculously survived all throughout Pol Pot’s reign, but her father was killed during the siege of Phnom Penh, including several of her own family members. Even after all of that, she was one of the lucky ones, who had the chance to escape. My father and his family were captured by the Khmer Rouge, and the only reason why they’re still alive because they were illiterate poor farmers. The Khmer Rouge gave everyone a main job and my dad was a grave digger, and he literally lost count how many bodies he had to bury in those mass graves. Fortunately he was able to escape the prison camp with most of his family and made it to Thailand. That’s when my mom and dad met each other, in a refugee camp along the Cambodia-Thai border.
At 18:00, Pol Pot did not die in a cave. He was kept under house arrest during a power struggle and died in his sleep due to heart failure. And no, Sihanouk does not rule today. He's dead. You even mentioned in the video, that he died in 2012.
@@BobAg_ Really? I Never knew that he was "hung". You mean he was "hung like a horse"? I don't think there was ever any official anatomical autopsy carried out on the lower half of his body.🤣 Now, if you mean that you thought he had been "hanged" then I guess you mean a la Saddam Hussein. A quick Google search would show that Pol Pot was overthrown in an internal power struggle and kept under house arrest in a hut near Anlong Veng, not far from the Thai border. He died in his sleep/committed suicide, according to some accounts. His hut may have been simple, but I wouldn't exactly call it a "cave". Fast forward to the present day, and the former hut and his nearby cremation site have become a macabre tourist attraction.
My 6th Grade PE teacher Mr. Hib lived through that hell. He was only a child about 4 him and his family hid in the jungle covered in fire ants for hours. He believes an angel kept him from screaming and feeling the pain of the ants so not to alert the Khmer.
My living mother survived the Khmer Rouge and she still tells us the horrors of this Regime. She also says that the 1984 film "The Killing Fields" provides a very accurate portrayal of this history
I appreciate that you emphasized that the Khmer Rouge is "very extreme left" instead of just labeling them as communists, socialists, or leftists plainly and moving on.
I lived in Cambodia doing research on social cohesion after “reset buttons” (cultural death) and accidentally stumbled upon Pol Pot’s grave in Anglong Veng one day. He didn’t die in a cave. He died under house arrest with lots of supporters around him. The Khmer Rouge is still alive in the northern mountains and biding time until they can do it again.
Same goes with the CPP-NPA-NDF here in Philippines. The thing is, most of its supporters are loosely directly connected although given their highly organized structure (there are key officials, like Congressmen and Senators sympathetic to the communist movement, too.) They are also bidding time before they might mount another offensive again, although it is far from happening given that more and more rebels are returning to the folds of the law. (Good news)
my father and his siblings was recruited by the npa and force to do stuff when they took over their place they were force to learn on how to use weapons and kill people at a young age. idk how my father escaped and his brothers was force to change their names but he doesnt wanna talk about it that much. as much as i want to know all the things that happened to him i just dont wanna bother him anymore. its hard to think that even today these kind of groups still exist brainwashing native people on doing horrible doings.
@@gfdchugh I am sorry for what has happened to your father and his brothers. I also have my father suffering the similar fate; he lost his father in an ambush. Till this day, those communist terrorists are still present. From what I knew, they are trying to regroup to influence the young people with their flawed ideology.
@@yoooo1358 my father in law owns a lot of land in the Mindanao and paid off the CCP for protection. I'm never doing that. Id rather get rid of them and bury them. Maybe throw them in the Taal volcano 🌋
@@ronnieallie8490 same. Actually, most of them infiltrated the academe. That explains why the military is holding peace forums to explain to the students the recruitment scheme of the CPP-NPA-NDF. Got threatened twice for speaking out about the recruitment scheme of their communist banditry and terrorism whenever and wherever I got the chance to. And everytime that happened, the govt agents got my back and support. Actually, it ultimately led to the attempted abduction of two "activists" whose relatives do have connections with the armed left before.
Every time I revisit the Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime I end up in tears. I cannot even fathom how much PTSD this caused people that actually experienced it. My heart goes out to them.
My mother, grandma and uncles are all survivors of the khmer rouge. They came in 1980 through missionaries from refugee camps. My mother succumbed to schizophrenia and ptsd and my oldest uncle as well. One uncle got psychological help and is doing well. Two of the uncles were too young to be psychologically affected but they're def not quite right.
A couple of years ago I went to Cambodia with my family. While we were there we visited the S21 torture prison. It's very hard to realise that some 40 years before I was there the most horrific acts happened there. It's incredible what one human is able to do to another, especially when you see all the different gruesome ways of torture they used. You also get to see al the different faces of the victims, which makes it harder to watch. The victims are no longer a number but a real person. While I was there I saw an old man with a couple of people surrounding him. Eventually I got to speak with him, but he could barely speak English. He was one of the few survivors of the camp. His name was Chum Mey. He was selling books there and telling people about his experiences. At the time he would've been around 88, now 92 or 93. One of the most incredible places i've been to and really left a mark on me. Please go there (if you think you can handle it). If you're lucky and you go around 12:00, maybe Chum Mey is there selling his and you'll be able to ask some questions
I met a woman on a bus in Cambodia. She spent her early childhood hiding in the forest almost starving. They lost track of time and were frightened to come out. She didn’t know how many years they were there.
There is a family in my neighborhood that survived the Cambodian genocide. Their eldest daughter doesn’t even have a definitive birthday because their lives were in such flux when she was born. They don’t say much about it, other than it was a nightmare.
One of my very good friends in high school, his family escaped the Khmer in the mid to late 70's when he was a small child. It broke my heart when he told me and, yes, especially the part about he has no idea what his birthday is. They just had to kind of guess and pick a date once they came to the US. He became a citizen shortly after we graduated.
My mother is Cambodian, and told me the horrid and fear she had to experience. On how she was separated from her mother and siblings, forced to work in the fields while scrapping for whatever she can eat. On how she had to fear for her life every day. It was truly a horrific regime
Both of my parents were survivors of the Khmer Rogue. My mom was able to escape when the Khmer Rogue took over Phnom Penh in 1975. She got separated from her family but she did made it to Thailand all by herself. Her mother had miraculously survived all throughout Pol Pot’s reign, but her father was killed during the siege of Phnom Penh, including several of her own family members. Even after all of that, she was one of the lucky ones, who had the chance to escape. My father and his family were captured by the Khmer Rouge, and the only reason why they’re still alive because they were illiterate poor farmers. The Khmer Rouge gave everyone a main job and my dad was a grave digger, and he literally lost count how many bodies he had to bury in those mass graves. Fortunately he was able to escape the prison camp with most of his family and made it to Thailand. That’s when my mom and dad met each other, in a refugee camp along the Cambodia-Thai border.
I live in Cambodia. I am Canadian but have lived here for a bout six years. Let me tell you, these people have been through hell but they are some of the kindest people I have ever met in all my travels. True perseverance.
Pepole refuse to learn from the past and the scary part is all these evil acts can happen again anywhere 😢 Poor pepole who suffered under this regime is heartbreaking .
My fiance was born in Cambodia but was adopted and brought to the United States as a baby, her parents talked about how even in the late 90s you could still see the scars from this time on the country. Truly a tragic time and event
I went to Cambodia a year ago for vacation. I ended up visiting the place where 100 thousands to millions were kept and killed. It was detrimental. Many, many boards with at least a hundred faces on each side we're shown. Torture and execution sites and weapons/tools that were used on people. It was horrific. I got to go in many rooms where prisoners were held and it was left untouched, rusty, and a few splatters of blood here and there. It's so scary to know that the place you're standing in is the exact place hundred of thousands of people were trapped, tortured, harassed, and murdered. I got to meet two survivors and have both their books (they're authors). It was a brutal yet very special experience I cherish. Rest In Peace to all who have passed.
I am Cham. Hearing my families stories sbout fleeing the war haunts me to this day. My grandma passed away about a year ago, and they were never able to get the fragments of a landmine out of her leg while she was escaping with my family. I remember looking at her legs and seeing massive dents. She never compalined and was the hardest worker.
I'm Khmer and I find myself telling people often that I'm anti-communist for very Cambodian reasons. They don't get it. Anyway, Thank you so much for making this video. We must know the dark truths in history if we want to avoid repeating them. The cruelty of what a man can inflict on another is so unfathomable but always a possibility.
I think they are a pretty poor representation, considering they were backed by the United States and CIA. A communist regime backed by US is pretty unheard of. They used the popularity of the idea of communism in area at the time to seize control. Also don’t forget it was communists that took them out…Vietnam.
For whatever reasoning, now communism is attempting to make its way into the black community. I am disgusted to think that that row of money can infect my people, we’ve been through enough, why as to the pain?! They don’t know what they’re asking for…I see why more and more Christ asked His Father to forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing
Thank you for bringing light to the topic as being the only pure Cambodian in America in my generation. Only the last of my people who escaped the regime, my mother and father did not forget the horrors, screams and gore that happened. It is heartbreaking that when people hear "Cambodian" we're only known for the genocide. Our people are trying so hard to seem more than the bloody past. Thank you
For me, when I'm hearing the word Cambodia, all I remember is the beautiful traditional clothes tbh😅 Probably because beautiful clothes just fascinates me, especially traditional clothing from Asian countries. Anyway, I hope you and your parents have a very good and enjoyable life overseas, no one would ever know how horrible and devastating that event was without witnessing it firsthand, so I wish you and your family all the best.
For Thais, whenever we heard of Cambodia we mostly think of their dark magic and supernatural tricks. The old big boss that once ruled South East Asia that have fallen from grace and become tragic little country lived next to us.
That's horrible your parents are good people who never deserved to witness such atrocities if it helps in any way when I hear Cambodia I think of amazing food and lovely lovely people I've worked with a few Cambodians and so has my dad and they were some of the kindest people I've ever met aroha (wich means much love in my countrys native tongue) to you and your family
Now it’s all about “feelings” and gender confusion studies , served up by leftist indoctrinators. Who, are fans of the exact ideology that creates these horrible situations.
The US and Nato allies once had their hands in supporting Polpot out of spite for the Soviet and its loss in Vietnam War. If Vietnam occupied Cambodia long term and expanded influence, then US's loss is just further humiliating. There was also a Sino Soviet split at the time and Vietnam was closer ally to Soviet, while Cambodia is an ally of China. US once supported China to destabilize Soviet. Obviously they would never want to bring up the name, for it leads to the fact that for the so called 'democratic' and human rights loving countries to even support such a shameful genocidal regime in the first place.
My father and mother would always tell me stories of what they went through while under the regime. Their stories always hit me hard and made me appreciate where we are today. I really appreciate this video that will inform others of what horrors went on during that time in Cambodia.
Both of my parents were survivors of the Khmer Rogue. My mom was able to escape when the Khmer Rogue took over Phnom Penh in 1975. She got separated from her family but she did made it to Thailand all by herself. Her mother had miraculously survived all throughout Pol Pot’s reign, but her father was killed during the siege of Phnom Penh, including several of her own family members. Even after all of that, she was one of the lucky ones, who had the chance to escape. My father and his family were captured by the Khmer Rouge, and the only reason why they’re still alive because they were illiterate poor farmers. The Khmer Rouge gave everyone a main job and my dad was a grave digger, and he literally lost count how many bodies he had to bury in those mass graves. Fortunately he was able to escape the prison camp with most of his family and made it to Thailand. That’s when my mom and dad met each other, in a refugee camp along the Cambodia-Thai border.
I was always horrified and fascinated by the Khmer Rouge and in college read a stacks of books about the prisons, killing fields, refugee camps, and all of it. The most haunting thing was a database of photographs of prisoners at Tuol Sleng, taken before they were killed. They were all individuals like myself, looking straight at the camera. To this day I haven't read a satisfying account of what happened to humanity at that moment. The horrors are almost unimaginable. My mother worked with a Cambodian woman whose husband was beheaded before her eyes. It's something that makes me believe that evil is an active force in the world and that, deep down, we can go either way and many of us would go to the bad. On another note, much as I was raised in a partisan milieu that's bitterly anti-Communist, I have to admit that one of the Vietnamese Communists' finest hours was their invading Cambodia and putting an end to that insanity. I wish for peace and prosperity for Southeast Asia for a thousand years and for us all.
Read a book by Loung Ung called “First They Killed My Father” and man was I heartbroken and sick reading through what she and the people of Cambodia had to go through. I don’t usually show reactions when reading books but there are parts in the book that left my jaw open in shock. There were even times where I had to stop reading for a bit because of how sick I felt reading the things that occur. The worst part? That was only her story. There are millions of other stories out there, each with their own horrific experiences.
The Killing Fields was a movie based on the true story of the genocide in Cambodia. It won several Academy Awards and was so well done it seemed real at times. Prayers for all the lives lost during the Kmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia. 🙏
@@alexandrasymeon5893 Genocide is genocide no matter when or where it happens. Can you explain your comment further? Do you mean this was worse the the Nazi perpetrated genocide or are you saying the Nazi perpetrated genocide known as the Holocaust didn't happen?
@@thepub245 This was a holocaust. Millions of Cambodians were killed under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. They were tortured and were made slaves and were not allowed to sleep but only rest. WWII was not started by Germany it was started by the Rothschilds who are of Jewish descent but are actually Satanists. They funded both sides of the war and their are reports Hitler was a Rothschild. G. Edward Griffin talks about this in his book the Creature from Jeckyl Island. I didn't spell Jeckyl right. The purpose of WWII was to create the illegal state of Israel in 1948. So the Rothschilds tortured their own people to get what they wanted and God never wanted for Israel to be rebuilt because He knew it would turn into the Synagogue of Satan all over again as told by our Dear Lord Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. The Jewish people went through hell during WWII being separated from their families and the homes and businesses taken away from them. But there are things that they say happened that didn't happen. There were no concentration camps only work camps. There were no gas chambers during the war, those were place there after the war to create the horrific story of 6,000,000,000 Jews being gassed. Zyclon B was used to delouse the prisoners not kill them. The prisoners were starving because the allies wouldn't let supplies get. I'm sure many more atrocities happened so I think Cambodian Holocaust and the Genocide of the Jewish people during WWII were equally just as vile. Now in Israel the Israelis, have created the one, true holocaust when they kill Palestinian, men. women and children at random every single day. Children as young as 7 are being falsely arrested and taken to prison. Palestinian homes are being bombed and at times the Israelis even make the Palestinians destroy their own homes. 80% of the Palestinians live under the poverty line. Children with severe diseases are not able to be treated because their is an Israeli blockage preventing them from doing so. The Israelis have declared they are the master race and we are mere cattle to be ruled over. This is interesting because most of the Israelis are inbred. In 2014, Benjamin Netanyahu oversaw the killings of 500 Palestinian children. Israeli settlers destroy crops of Palestinians who still own land. Many more atrocities happen but I'll stop here. This is truly a Holocaust. In Uganda, Muslims are starving to death and they are mere bodies with bones laying out in the desert. Israel is funded by the United States to the tune of 40 billion dollars a year. Money that goes to NASA goes to Israel. The word NASA in Hebrew means deceit. All the European governments fund Israel and most countries do. This is the doing of the Rothschilds. Russia is fighting these atrocities and that's why he went to war with the Ukraine who supports Israel. Israeli infiltrated the Saudi government and there leaders are really Jewish. Okay there's a lot more but I'm done. Sorry for the harangue.
When I was a teenager I read "To Destroy You is No Loss" and this was my first intro to the Khmer Rouge and their brutal, bloody regime. It was very sobering to say the least.
My mom and her family were apart of it. She tells me stories about how they escaped but sadly she lost her mom, dad and the rest of her family. My mom was 4 when it happen. About 11 years ago she just reconnected with her brothers. Both her dad and brothers fought in the war. My dad escaped before they invaded they had to leave because my grandfather was a high rank military officer that's why they had to leave but sadly he lost his sister. Honestly it breaks my heart that people would do this to their own kind.
It makes me wonder if your family originally supported Pol Pot or not. He came to power by overwhelming support of the people that believed socialism was good.
@@TingTingalingy No my family didn't. My mom didn't know he existed until she ended up in one of the camps separated from her mother. My father escaped before they fully took over they had to leave because my grandfather was a military officer.
I once read a Reader's Digest article about the Killing Fields when I was twelve years old. A very hard read at that age, but definitely something that helped me learn about the negative effects of power, idealism, and violence.
My granddaughters father was Cambodian, I have spent a lot of time with his parents, what they went through was HELL on earth considering the father was a teacher, but let me tell you no matter the crap they went through these people are forgiving and are beautiful human beings.
My mother is from Cambodia, born in 1972 but she told me she grew up in Thailand. Never really thought much of it but as I get older I can understand the history and makes me really curious on her story to America
Don't ever forget that Vietnam troop went to rescue Cambodia and pretty much got internationally condemned and even invaded by China because Khmer Rouge was their allies
Lol i dont see any cambodian that said something about vietnamese troop who risked their life to rescue them . Back to the day without vietnamese they combodian dont have a chance to comment on youtube like this . Shame people 😂
@@tuandoan1969 that's like saying Vietnam wouldn't be united if Cambodia didn't allowed Vietnamese troop walk in Ho Chi Minh trail. Also without Vietnamese, Cambodia wouldn't have this event if the Vietnam war wouldn't happen
I had a girl friend that told me a story of how her father was taken and killed. She told me that the mother and kids were hiding while this happened. It's unbelievable the amount of evil that goes on in this world.
My mom and aunt were born in Cambodia in the early-mid 70s. They were in a concentration camp for a short time when they were 5 (mom) and 7(aunt). My mom told me how they would feed them rice porridge, but only one bowl per family and my aunt would pick out all the rice to eat by herself and would only leave the soup for them to eat. I thought it was funny at first, but it dawned on me and broke my heart that they were only little kids and they were being starved so of course my aunt would be hungry enough to "selfishly" eat all the rice. Thankfully, both my grandparents, aunt and mom were able to escape from Cambodia and move to America to live a peaceful live as farmers.
My father in law went through this with his entire family when he was 8. My wife retold the events when we first met, I then learned more from his first hand accounts. Truly horrific. The only reason his family survived was because his father at the time learned how to repair watches and jewelry the khmer rouge were looting from houses and corpses. He taught the skill to his 2 sons and so the three of them became valuable. He had a couple friends die though when they cut the tongue off a cow to eat it. They were caught and executed immediately. Horrific events and truly a stain on humanities history.
My mother told me that she had watched her whole family burned in their home, most of my dads side of the family survived, he tells me how grandpa was high officer so he was capable of bringing the whole family to america by plane. The story i remember most was how he carried my cousin who had just been born through the jungle to escape the communist. Eventually they all made it to long beach, and about a decade later my grandma introduced my mom to my dad.
As a two-year old, just barely conscious of the world, I remember thinking, “this can’t be the world I am born into!!” Thank God a family of 7 made it out!
My parents were in the Khmer Rouge. They told me about it and i felt absolutley distraught. Their famly members were killed in front of them. My mother made food for them mostly because she was forced to, but also liked their cooking. They forced my father to sing for them and if he messed up, he was shot on spot. I don't know how they managed to survive, but I'm happy they're here with me til this day.
As a Cambodian, I'm so interested in hearing my country's history from Non-Cambodian perspective. Cambodia suffered so much from political struggle. Your video is a theory but there's another side of the story from the people who lived in Pol Pot regime but led a normal life.... it's a complicated and controversial topic regarding our neighboring countries and how the world closes their eyes on us. And there's no exact answer to the question `Who exactly is Khmer Rouge?`. They might not even Cambodian..... A mystery only time could tell and I hope I live to that day...
Late 70s grade school a Cambodian transfer arrives in my school.... good family as I got to know him. He told me his his family made it to America. Horrific stories that shocked me as a teen. Horrific. They literally lost many family members and had to keep running knowing your sister was found hiding and, well just horrific. Put became a good friend and did well in school, lost track of him but never will forget what he told me happened. It changed the way I look at the world.
We knew a family when I was growing up. They went to the same church as my parents. The older family members had escaped from the Khmer Rouge regime. One of the women was describing their escape, down a river, where they were being shot at by the military. Unfortunately, her brother was shot in the head and died. They busted their asses off to ensure their children and grandchildren lived a happy and peaceful life.
This is a very well-made video about Khmer history. Extremely informative to those doesn’t know about this and a great source for a historical reminder to the Cambodian people. Only critique i have, which I can’t really blame you for, is the pronunciation of the words since Khmer is a very hard language. One tip i would give for that is usually a lot of Khmer words written in English have softer tones. For example, in the name Pol Pot, it has a soft sounding P rather than a hard intonation. Great video and thank you for sharing this to the world with very high accuracy to reality
The Cambodian Civil War and Genocide is one of the most haunting chapters of history I have ever learned about. It's difficult to even remotely grasp the horrors and levels of senseless violence that happened but I'd like to share a piece of information that really put it into perspective for me how big the scale of things must've been: in 1978, the life expectancy in Cambodia was less than 14.5 - almost a quarter of the entire population had been killed by the time the genocide ended.
I had to rewind this multiple times, and that's not a bad thing It's rare to come across history docs on UA-cam that are so information dense AND well presented with flashy editing and captivating photos
My dad knew a guy who was a kid when this was happening and he was apart of the professional class and one day his parents went to a farm, gave him an ox and told him to walk with it. And that’s what he did, he walked an ox until the vietcong saved the day.
That rescue only happened because the Khmer rouge crossed into Vietnam and killed innocent villagers. And 150000 soldiers with their families were executed. Leaving the border open
When I taught World History in the late 90s I would teach a lesson in the Khmer Rouge. The students were always completely stunned by what they learned.
I knew a man who had escaped from a village that Pol Pot's goons destroyed. They were the only ones to survive. He got her to safety and went back to fight. I knew him many years later in the U.S. He was scarred for life from the experience, both physically and mentally.
OMG I remember it vividly. Our neighbor walked through those killing fields along with several family members ( over a period of several months apart ) 1 or 2 at a time made it to Thailand's refugee camps. He was an engineer and his wife was a pharmacist. What I know I heard through my uncle , a Vietnam War Vet, who married into the family. You never asked anything about Cambodia from them. The wounds , scars and missing pieces of anatomy spoke volumes. I think most anyone who had served in the Vietnamese War, was related to a Vietnam war theatre vet was very aware what happened.
My grand ma was a teacher and my grandpa was a school principle, they had to hid their identities to survive. They got separated to other provinces at the start of the khmer rouge but the somehow reunited half way during the time they were escaping and was on their way to find each other. They sadly lost their daughter (my aunt) to starvation and my great-grandma (on my grandmother side) was taken away and never return. Back when my grandmother was telling me about her story I was only 6 or 7 so I don’t really remember all of it, but I do remember her telling me that the so call “hospital” was just a place where they left the sicks to the death on their own. My uncle had to crawled under the beds of other sick people to get the little bit of porridge that my grandma left for him from her share which was already very little. My grandma told me that she secretly exchanged her gold jewelries that she hides for a little bit of uncooked rice from the khmer rouge, put it in a glass bottle and buried it under ground, when she dig it out the glass was kinda broken mixed with the rice but she had to cooked and eat that glass mixed rice anyway because they were hungry. When they were escaping they had to run across the bridge while the bullets were flying around and my uncle was being carried by my grandfather, my uncle was already a teenager but because of sickness and starvation he was on only skin bones. Now his left leg is not working properly, my grandmother said it was because of the sickness during that time. I don’t remember anymore of the story and my grandfather never talk about his story but he did said he was one of the cooks for the khmer rouge. When I was young I lived with grandparents I was almost traumatized by my grandma’s cleanliness and very afraid of my her. My grandma she is obsessed with hygiene, everything must be in order, she actually has four phones for four radio channels and her room is full of old stuffs that are very much useless. She is of course absolutely not wasting any bit of food. She also had night terrors very often which absolutely scared me. I always wondered why is is she like that. Only in recent years when I started to learn about mental health that I realized, she might be suffering from OCD and PTSD. The aftermath of the khmer rouge left damage to everyone health mentally and physically.
i am second gen american. my grandpa worked with american forces and allowed my grandmother to seek asylum. the stories my grandma would tell me would bring me to tears. she's such a kind, loving soul and i can even begin to imagine how horrifying it must be to have your family and homes destroyed. i wish cambodia would one day heal from our dark history
From someone who works and lives with modern Khmer people. They are amazing. I have been to killing fields and S21. What they went through. Most of us would be in pieces. Thank you
I learnt about this a few weeks ago, he truly believes in a quote “if you want to remove the weed, you must remove it’s roots too” Meaning killing every potential resistance before they becomes a problem.
When I was in elementary school in the 80s, there were lots of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Hmong Chinese at my school. It wasn't until I started hanging out with them that I understood their parents were mostly refugees. Can't imagine having to go through something like this and then relocate to a country you never thought to even visit.
@@gungalgeno-7077 I lived in the suburbs of Washington DC. I had also heard that most of them moved to California as well as the Minneapolis area. I know that during that time a lot of people were moving to my area from the Midwest because two of my friends had just relocated from Kalamazoo and Los Angeles, respectively. Just remembering my friend from Laos told me years later that lots of them landed in California and hopscotched across the country until they got to NYC, Philly and DC so I guess that's probably what happened with those kids.
S21 is so surreal. You see all the photos of the people taken there and realise they were tortured to death in the very room you're stood in. The driver of the van we travelled in was an older gentlemen who talked about jumping from the back of a truck the rest of his family had been bundled into after the Khmer rouge shot his father and brother. He was younger than 10, never saw his mother or siblings again, nearly starved. Started off melting rubber to fix tires, eventually bought a tuktuk and a van making him a wealthy man by Cambodian standards. What brought me the biggest sadness was he couldn't remember folk songs from his childhood in his old age and he had realised there was nobody left alive who could possibly remind him. Beautiful country, beautiful people, such an ugly but brief part of their history that still scars them to this day.
My parents escape Cambodia to come to the US. They had met in Texas, got married and had me. Whenever I think about what they had gone through and other cambodians makes me sad in my soul. Cambodia is my heart. 🇰🇭
Well DONE👏👏👏 thank you for your accurate information. One of the BEST ones. I am one of the survivors. Was born into it and raised during it😒. He destroyed many lives by murder and even those who survived it, the effects were also felt by the children my generation had because the trauma was so severe our children suffered also.
I visited the museum during my trip to Cambodia when I was quite young. Although I did not know much about the history at that time, the museum was so memorable as I could feel the horror experienced by the victims in that place. Even until now, I still remember the paintings...
My yeay (grandma) was lucky enough to have been able to escape these horrible events. Just listening to her stories was enough to make me understand how horrible these events were.
I one of the first generation of my family to ever grow up in Australia. My parents and grandparent’s being of Cambodian decent moved to Australia during the Khmer Rouge for a better life. I never really knew about what my family had to go through during the time the regime, as whenever i would ask about it as i would either get a response In silence or to never speak about it again. My family often takes trips to Cambodia to check on distant family members but we tend to avoid certain spots of the country as both of my parents have bad memories of those places. I hope that one day I can go to Cambodia and visit the museums to fully understand what my family had gone through.
I’ve been to the killing fields when I went to Siem Reap back in 2019. Being there and learning about what happened there sent chills down my spine. You can still see skeletons on display, like a mass burial site.
The rabbit hole of the CIA runs deeper. Proceed with caution => ua-cam.com/video/P0RgB5QbG-s/v-deo.html
meh i watch deep gore tube i have no doubt the CIA does such things
be careful
Fk this is PhD level of information
Anytime someone is exposing a public facing organization which everyonehas heard of, they forget to consider the organization behind that organization.
@@tickytacky8078this time in history, including the cultural revolution, is some of the most interesting.
I used to work with a Cambodian man named Sam who went through this. They killed everyone in his family but him. They stabbed him under his chin. The knife went up through his tongue and into the roof of his mouth and he was left for dead along with his family. He cried when he told me the story. It’s horrific what these people went through.
Damn, this man must’ve had a great trust in you to tell you about it. It was probably a relief for him to talk about it, thanks for being an empathic human!
This is wat the American lefts wants as well the left always resorts to violence at some point
Poor man living with ptsd
We, Cambodians, are not afraid to tell the story of our horrific past because the world needs to know how much we endured and what we had to go through. For 3 years and 5 months, the world forgotten about Cambodia and leave millions of people to die. We will forever remember the time that we were ignored by everyone. But we will not let the past stopping us from moving forward.
Sam Hyde origin story
When my parents decided to escape Vietnam during the war, we traveled through Cambodia. During that time we got caught by the Khmer Rouge when my dad was out foraging for food. When the soldiers brought us to the general, my mom thought that were were gonna get killed. Instead the general and a few of his trusted associates hid us and fed us while waiting for the right time to help us escape through the night telling us where we need to go to escape their sight. Eventually my dad found us and we went on our way towards Thailand where we lived in a refugee camp for a while until US missionaries helped us immigrate to America in 1983. I was 4yrs old at the time we immigrated.
My mom did asked the general why he helped us and he told her something she’d never forget.
He said
“ I am not a bad person. I am who I am because it saves my family. It helps me save those I can from a torturous death. I saved you because I know I won’t get caught and my family will be safe. I know I will still go to hell“
Probably not his exact word but it should be pretty close. My mom said he was our savior so she never forgot his words.
" i know i will still go to hell" oh god...
Your dad was probably in cohoots with them or you guys had money cause how did you get away?
@@chayo4537 there are such things as luck and miracles. Not sure if our case was luck or a miracle but we are alive and greatful.
@@abimon76 he probably knows that too.
That's funny since the Khmer Rouge had a racial animus against the Vietnamese
My mom and dad are survivors. I never really asked about their past until recently, and the stories of their struggles are unimaginable. They live a very simple and frugal life and I always questioned why they never wanted to do much. After hearing their stories and the suffering they went through every single day, I realize why they live the life that they live and that we take so many things for granted here in the USA.
My parents lived a decent life before the war. My mother lived in the capital while my father on the outskirts. My father told me stories where they would drink water from puddles left from a buffalos imprint in the mud. Sometimes the water was fine, sometimes it had urine in it. My father, being the oldest, worked out in the fields from morning until night and only given a bowl of rice throughout the day. It's amazing that his entire family survived - he was 12 years old with four younger brothers and a younger sister.
My mother had a different story. She watched her two sisters, brother, mother and father all die from starvation and disease. My mother also watched her friend get blown up by a bomb. My mother hardly even remembers what her dad looks like because she blacked out so many of the horrible memories at the time. My mother now has cancer and is only giving weeks to a few months to live. The fact that she was able to survive the war only for her life to end with cancer is truly unfair.
Edit: After two long years of battling cancer, my mother passed two days ago. She can finally eat all the good food in the world and live pain free. Rest in peace, Ma.
Always remember that she loves you and that she was able to move forward with her life and raise you and to insure that you had a better hand in life then she did
God Bless your mother bro, I pray Jesus Christ rids her of all cancer and may she see many more years with you. I really wish you and your loved ones the best.
😢 Mankind’s inhumanity is truly a heart-wrenching evil .😱 God will stop these Satanic acts before long, and the suffering will end. The wicked will not survive. God also will resurrect the dead to an earthly paradise where cruelty will no longer exist. I have complete faith in these promises❣️Love will conquer, and evil genocidal acts will no longer exist. 🙏🏼😊✌🏽
I have visited Cambodia two times and the people there are among the kindest that I've ever met. some of them were telling me about those terrible times and at the S-21 I was able to met Mr. Chum Mey - one of the very few survivors of this awful place. God bless your mom's soul.
wishing you nothing but strength.
My hair cutter here in southern California is originally from Cambodia, and one day while she was cutting my hair, I asked her how she came to the US. I was stunned to learn that she and her younger sister made a dangerous escape from one of the prison camps where people were tortured and executed by the Khmer Rouge. She told me that several members of her family were imprisoned and it was a nightmare in the camp as she saw people die. She and her sister decided they would attempt to escape at night, knowing they would be executed if caught. But the way they looked at it, it would be better to die trying to be free than to await almost certain death in the camp. They had nothing to lose. So, they made their escape and traveled west through jungles for many days, hiding when they had to. Finally, they entered the safety of Thailand and lived in a refugee camp for a time. Eventually, she and her sister sought asylum in the US, and she is today a successful businesswoman and an American citizen. Sadly, however, she and her sister never saw their other family members again. FYI, her eyes were watery as she told me this story, and I had no idea it would unfold as it did. She is definitely a survivor.
She's brave!
@@Daniboy0826that sounds like the stories of people breaking out of North Korea.
who TF says hair cutter 😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@J_Eusebio people who speak English, largely. Hair cutter is obviously not what we say in other languages
@@viktorbirkeland6520 🤣
My best friend went through that as a child. He moved to the States at twelve years old and could not read, write, or do any math when he arrived. He was one of the smartest people I have ever met, and a tremendous athlete. He became an engineer, scratch golfer, tennis player, and pool player.
As he was dying of kidney failure, he told me that every day he thanked God for the United States of America and all the opportunities it afforded him. He loved and appreciated this country like no one else I've ever met.
He had such a big heart and would give anyone his last dollar and the shirt off his back.
I miss his friendship so much and look forward to the day when we will meet again.
Wow! Amazing story.
What a story, seemed like a true gent 👑
Ironically, usa bombing Cambodia give pol pot some boost on his rising
My family had to flee Vietnam after the Communists took over and all the food dissapeared. They love America. And these woke freaks have no idea how offensive their hilarious views on Communism are. They are so dumb.
Wow
After visiting the killing fields, I have found that not only was the Khmer Rouge more brutal than I ever imagined, but their crimes were pretty much denied of ignored by much of the western world as Vietnamese propaganda.
Is this worse than what the Black Americans experienced during the slavery period?
Also with that of Japan towards China during world war, how do the atrocities compared to what happened in here (I'll watch the video soon)
I'm also watching about medieval punishments during medieval ages and wanting to compare what period and events are worse.
Edit:
No one is crying, guys 🤣 just some questions thrown out in the comments section 🤣
@@rcane6842 Do you know what Whataboutism is?
@rcane6841 There is no need to compare them; just think of it like this.
Slavery is the epitomy of greed and what humans will do to gain benefits even if it's violates others' rights to live and the rights of freedom
The Khmer Rouge is the epitome of human's savagery where people will kill each other just because of their beliefs in a singular twisted delusional individual
And the Japanese occupation of china is the pure sadistic nature of a nation being brainwashed into willingly committing some of the worst war crimes to ever exist
Major war and genocide events can not be compared to each other simply by the death counts; we can just take the details of the atrocities and acknowledge them for what they are, comparing them is a bit disrespectful to the victims of the atrocities.
@@dogman-fx9ub A made up term used to deflect comparisons in an argument by people who can't intelligently defend what they just said without feeling some type of inferiority. Common use among African Americans.
@@rcane6842 No, but it's ignorance is.
I read Haing S. Nor's biography 'Survival in the Killing Fields' a few years back and it is one of the most harrowing books I have ever read. When you read what he went through and how his entire family died under the regime, the circumstances of his death are a literal gut-punch.
For those that don't know, Haing managed to keep his wifes ID card when he escaped the country, the tiny mugshot on the card was the only picture he had of her and the only thing he could remember her by, so he had the picture cut out and made into a pendant which he wore all the time. When he was robbed, he handed over his wallet and cash but refused to hand over the pendant, so the robbers stabbed him and took it anyway.
RIP Haing S. Nor. You deserved so much better! 😔
Did he die of the stabbing?
@@vedantmehra6970 Yes, sadly.
Idk but I respect that. That was something worth dying for, for him.
Some folks believe that he was killed in order to keep him from testifying in the event that a tribunal was held at The Hague in order to punish the members of the Khmer Rouge.
Who stabbed him in America
My first job as a teen I had a boss that was from Cambodia, he’d tell us some heart wrenching stories from when he was a kid/teen. Gave me and my friends a lot of wisdom and taught us a lot about life. He was truly living the American dream. Happy to say he and his family are incredibly successful and I’ll always appreciate the opportunities he gave me.
Finally, a history as being taught in modern Cambodia being told properly in English. Watching your video surely make me miss my deceased father (1948-2020) who had always explain to me everything he had been through being a former Lon Nol Commando. "A hellish dream you never thought was real until you realize that you're the only one left" - said my mother. Keep up the good work.
I can't even begin to imagine the things your parents had to endure no one deserves the suffering your people went through
@@thetoecutta5716 I wonder what the young perpetrators of the killings now believe of themselves.
Except for the part where he tries to state that their version of communism was an "extreme leftist" version. All forms of communism are evil and result in mass starvation, mass homicide, suicide, rapes, civil wars ect.
Also they aren't "Nationalists." Nationalism has never resulted in what communism has. The argument of, "That wasn't true communism" is silly because it has literally been tried in multiple countries and never worked. Nationalism is never tried because it works and the bagel eaters don't want the people knowing that, so they spread lies through communism which they control.
@@ernestcote3398 My exact thoughts as l was watching this.
weird how the english telling of events seem to always ignore the 1970-1975 puppet state, and how the US and the "free world" of the west backed the Khmer Rouge from 1979-1992.
I've been to the Genocide museum in Phnom Penh, it is absolutely horrific, I literally needed to sit down and calm down after the tour and there were people who cried while walking through the rooms. The torture mechanisms, the endless pictures of victims, all the skulls on display. The paintings from an survivor artist are horrific. I was horrified at a painting of a baby being murdered by slamming it, head first, against a tree. These were very dark times for Cambodians and humanity as a whole.
And yet things like these still are happening now to Rohingyas, Africans and elsewhere...it just never ends :(
That's what happens when you believe communism
@@sovatty507 somehow all communist countries have decided to went extreme.
@@sovatty507 It is communism. Name a time when it wasn't evil. It's human nature. Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts.
@@maz5557 Rohingyas aren't innocent saints. There's no comparison of this and that.
My mum was 11 years old when she was taken away from her family and forced into hard labor. The things she's experienced are absolutely unimaginable. One of the most horrific being was when she and her cousin tried to escape and find their families. My mum was captured and hung from a tree. The soldiers had also captured another man who had tried to run away and they tortured him in front of her. They forced him to dig his own grave before cutting out his liver, leaving him to slowly bleed to death while they cooked and ate the man's liver. During the ordeal, they taunted my mother that she would be next and that they'd do everything they'd done to him to her. However, when they finished the man's liver they decided they were full so they instead settled on beating my mum to death. They finally left when they thought she'd died. My mum's cousin who had been hiding had seen everything and ran to find someone to help her cut down my mum. The injuries my mother suffered back then are still felt today and she still suffers from chronic pain.
I don’t know how a human could survive such horror and abuse. Please send her my love. Your comment made me cry.
Wait, I thought you said your mom got hung from a tree how is she still alive?
Holy fucking shit I am sorry you and your mother and family has to go through that, that's absolutely barbaric.
@@TheTsdaman She was tied by her shoulders and waist.
@@AnaLucia-wy2ii Thank you, my mum is such a happy-go-lucky woman that it's hard to fathom that she went through such horrors in her past.
As a Cambodian, I would like to show gratitude to you for creating this documentation video and insights. It was a really tragic that is instill in most Cambodian’s memories.
I am Cambodian. I would like to extend my profound thank to you for making this documentation. It is truly heartbreaking for our country.
It's crazy that it wasn't that long ago
Grandma told me great stories back in those day
@@RongDMemer Yes. I'm glad that you understand that story.
as a Vietnamese, a bit more open and more neutral in political and historical view, i can understand what your elders went through. When we have a chance to lean our backs together again, Pol Pot's legacy still haunts and poison the next generations. Seriously, if we were to invade your country as what they say, they would not have had any chance of winning. It feels very confused when such atrocities only deserves little punishment. This is not only genocide, this is about destroying a country from their cultural roots, hurting it and almost every gens for at least 50 years, even centuries.
You're Khmer just like I'm Khmer. The Imperialist call us Cambodian. The proof is in our Khmer language.
@@Cold_Root ....The REAL killers of khmer people are them Viet Kong and the Chinese.....👎🇻🇳👎🇻🇳🇨🇳👎🇨🇳🇻🇳👎🇻🇳
I went backpacking in Cambodia several years ago without any knowledge of the killing fields or what had happened. A taxi driver talked me into seeing the killing fields and the museum. It forever changed my view of the world.
See the 1984 film.
I visited the killing fields in 2019 - very soul shaking......
The world learned nothing from Nazi Germany that's for sure.
How do you go to Cambodia and NOT know about the killing fields?
So you went to a country without knowing anything about it huh
As Vietnamese, we were taught about the crime of Pol Pot Khmer Rouge and are proud to defeat them. The stories of their brutalities and cruelties are not only written in History books but also told by adults to children.
Vietnamese army saved Laos.
Vietnam is a pillar of stability in South East Asia.
What you did for the people of Cambodia did not go unnoticed in the U.S.
@@billcorbell5362 ok commie
Your attractive trang
good, keeping the oral tradition alive is invaluable.
My grandparents fortunately escaped Cambodia before anything bad could happen to them and my aunts and uncles. Unfortunately their other extended family didn’t make it out. When my grandparents were alive they absolutely refused to speak a word of what happened during pulpot. They shivered at the bare thought of what happened back in Cambodia. It’s nice to see someone covering a major event that my grandparents never talked about.
My dad befriended a Cambodian refugee at work who escaped from the Khmer Rouge with just the clothes on his back. Was truly a horrifying period of history.
Bro their snaketounge is something else.
ALL are burning in HELL for eternity!
I work for a large construction company that is very large and diverse that has employed over the years, many different cultures from around the world. Back in the 80's, we hired several Vietnamese and Cambodians and to this day are lifelong friends. One of the gentlemen, a Cambodian, told us his story a few years after being on our team. When he was 12, he watched his entire family be executed in their house as they were falsely accused of stealing rice. It was commonly used as an excuse to exterminate outlying communities. The death squads made up of mostly young men, some acquired a taste for human liver and thus would turn their eyes pink to red in color. These were the ones that killed his family, he barely escaped and eventually made to the US. The tales he shared and the things he saw were hell on earth, really disturbing stuff.
I do not really know why i took the time to share this, maybe because so much of history is being hidden or untold.
I know about the killing fields of cambodia because its been taught from our history class from grade 1 to 4th year old high school and everyone who went to school knowing about that has developed a hatred for commies(even though we aren't taught to hate cimmies but are taught that they bashed babies heads on the tree trunk to bring despair unto the mothers) which is good so no dumdum would start doing new age stuff pol pot has done.
Incredible story. Does eating liver turn their eyes red though or did I misunderstand?
@@cam5816 I don't know of that specifically but there's lots of records of people getting sick from different forms of cannibalism. A sickness in papa new guinea called the "laughing death" was caused by a protein that when consumed would destroy the brain. The scientists that discovered it won a nobel prize. So I can definitely see eyes turning red or pink as a side effect of cannibalism... weirder things have happened.
@@cam5816 Yes, that is the way I understand it
@@cam5816 My Mum (who is Cambodian) says it does. She was tied up and forced to watch as soldiers cut out and eat people's livers. She too describes their eyes as being red in color and that you could always tell which soldiers ate human liver.
I feel the need to mention that in one of the death camps, they had a Baby Bashing Tree. A literal actual Baby Bashing Tree. This was a specific tree where Babies and toddlers would be killed by being bashed head first against it. They would be grabbed by their feet and swung head first into the tree. This is one of the most mortifying things I have ever heard of.
And then raped the mothers underneath that tree! The feeling looking at that tree is indescribable!!!!
Oh yh yh I've got one of those in the garden
what was the reason for doing that?
Jesuit influence?
Such a thing happened I never knew . Now I hate humanity even more 😏😭
My neighbor survived the Killing Fields and she eventually went crazy from the PTSD and killed her granddaughters. I still remember horrible sounds of screaming and gunfire coming out of her house. I remember being so worried about my neighbor, she was just a sweet old lady. Now knowing exactly what she experienced, I get why she went crazy. I wish the killing fields had never happened. It has harmed generations.
🧢
Did this happen in Cambodia?
I'm sorry
@@CW95981na it’s true lol googled it, hectic story lol killed her daughters husband and two daughters, in Seattle
@@HoneyLee-r3q No, it happened in US. I’m sure if you dug around you could figure out where it happened, but I don’t want to share because privacy!
When my dad was a kid he moved to the US to avoid the coup d'etat in Nigeria. When he got here, he met another kid who had similarly fled the Cambodian civil war and they became fast friends. This man who I've always known as an uncle told me about the horrific fighting and how his brother swam across the rice fields with him on his back while being shot at, mind you they were just kids. He was separated from his family and didn't know their whereabouts until just recently. Very interesting but sad and horrifying stuff.
Hey, you’ve got me interested in learning more about d’etat. My parents had to escape the heavy bombings in Laos during the Vietnam era, so learning about others and their history is important to me. I live in America and in schools we are barely taught about what goes on in the world and sugar coating tragedies.
A close friend whom escaped Cambodia during this time relates absolutely gut wrenching memories of the Red Army. He survived a village invasion by living in the community cesspool for 5 days, his brother was agonizingly killed horrifically in front of their mother, any food the army didn't take was doused with diesel fuel and human excrement...truly a sad truth that absolute power leads to absolute corruption.
I don't think that there was a process of corruption, but rather that the person had quite the ugly soul to begin with.
What a frigging
Horrendous Time,,
I remember the late 70's
And hearing abit of this
Blood bath..
I was a teenager in western Canada,,
Thinking how lucky I was,,,
So Sad,,😕😢
I think this is why it’s bad to give the government too much control over the people. History is pretty clear when it comes to authoritarian control in countries, power and money cause man to become evil.
"corruption" is too soft a word for what happened.
@@sisyphus_strives5463 no, that's socialism for you.
i have a Cambodian coworker and she was telling me about what she went through in Cambodia when she was a child ( i had no idea this had even happened in Cambodia) and she told me about how her and her siblings had to hide in the forest while men killed her father and uncles. She has the nicest heart out of the whole crew and its just terrible to know that she had gone through this.
Meanwhile westerners openly welcome communism. Marxism has already taken over the media/education system.
My friend from Cambodia who escaped the killing fields. Told me he ran away in his late teens. He had to travel at night, because soldiers would patrol at day. He said, what a lot of people don’t realize. The jungle/woods at night we’re just as dangerous because of all the predators. He basically had to take a calculated risk and survived.
my father was one of the Vietnamese soldiers to defeat this regime, he is now a retired doctor at the age of 62.
Your father is a communist then.
Wow, he fought that war when he was in his 20's! Good luck to him!
@@kristineandres1093 that war he fought, likely caused your uncle's to be drafted.
@@TingTingalingy nah, I'm not American.
@@kristineandres1093 fair. So why you praising a communist?
As a Cambodian, I sincerely thank you for sharing what truly happened in English, as well as bringing light to the events that reset Cambodia's progress, thank you so much for this video.
It must be horrifying for you to see the west bow to leftist ideologies.
I was friends with a guy who survived tje Khmer Rogue. His story is sad and how he ended up in the states(Not bad but not up to the standards he wanted)
How own Uncle killed his parents and his Sister-Leaving him in the jungle to bury them with his bare hands. He said he refused to shed a tear because they'd kill him.
His Uncle then recruited him to join the Khmer Rogue and so he did.
Fast forward a few months later and His Uncle plannes to escape to Thailand and move to the US.
He agrees to his plan and in a week or so they make a break for it and sneak into Thailand. After like 5 days he said they finally made it to Thailand and so he makes his Uncle hopeful he is going to escape and go in Thailand.
They make it there and he said the Uncle was do excited to finally leave and go to the US but before he can step one foot in Thailand he shoots his Uncle in the stomach about 5 times and slowly lets him die.
He made sure he was the last person his Uncle seen before he died-He also said his Uncle cried and begged him to help but he would do nothing because he killed his parents.
He then comes to the States and lives a pretty average or mediocre life.
He got addicted to smoking, drinking and gambling and he lives in his car but still maintains his job to support his habits(he works for the city)
When he told me this story he said he still refuses to ever shed a tear because he got his revenge.
He also said he couldn't have kids so his bloodline ends with him.
Oh, my gosh!
Wow that’s fucked up…. Unreal to imagine being in that situation
That's patience. Imagine spending your days with the man who murdered your loved ones. Faking every smile. All while seething with unbrideld rage at being in this persons company. Up until the moment comes where you find your chance to kill the SOB. I imagine it must have been immensely satisfying to look him in the eye while he slowly bled out and died.
@@SoulCrapper Seriously I couldn't even imagine doing that at all!
But this Man was very stoic. Very calm and had very deep wisdom which is why I gravitated towards him...I mean you can't buy this type of wisdom.
If you ever seen this Man he looks like the typical old Man refugee of Cambodian but much more calm and well spoken and deep in being stoic and Bhuddist.
Also another thing is he is a huge Patriots Fan and loves watching football of all sport.
Sounds made up
My father was a young Vietnamese soldier who was amongst the first unit to enter Phnom Penh, he was just 18 at the time and just entered a prestige University of Technology, studying computer science. My maternal grandfather right after the Vietnam war, not too long after reunion with family after a long war, had to dispatch to Cambodia and stationed there for 10 years to train the Cambodian army, we still have all his letters he sent to my grandmother during the period. My father still keeps in touch with his Cambodian comrades who fought alongside him during the war.
Computer Science in 1979? Perhaps it was still under some other name, more like 'electronics' or something? Anyway it had to be a really rare/elite direction at that time
@@maciejguzek3442just searched it up it seems that the computer science major came out on the early 60’s
@@maciejguzek3442 apparently, the capital city was very modern
@@maciejguzek3442 At that time, in Vietnam, they called that major as "electrical calculation" later it became "Computer science"... in 1973, in north Vietnam, they could build their own personal computer as same as starting point with western country but Warsaw bloc did not allow Vietnam commercializing that product because Vietnamese were not granted responsibility in Computing domain... They had some computing centers with Minsk and IBM 360 computers, after 1975, Vietnam government knew the importance of computing in future then they invested to educate their new undergraduate students in this domain immediately...
@@maciejguzek3442 I think he thought he was using the right word, maybe something related to computer
I was told about this by my father. He experienced this firsthand when he was about 6-7 years old. One of the stories he told me that I remember the most was about when he snuck out to find fruit to eat to survive. He started smelling something rotten as he climbed a mango tree, and then once he looked, he saw a mass grave with tons of bodies. There were actually still soldiers there beating someone to death. It is horrifying to think about. My condolences go out to all those who lost family members to the Pol Pot Regime.
On my dad’s side he is the only survivor of his immediate family of 9 he lost 3 brothers, 3 sisters and his parents. He only survived because he went on vacation with his grandma to Thailand. On my mom’s side they were lucky to survive but her family had to live through the work camps until they escaped to Thailand. Watching the killing fields at a young age made me understand what they all went through.
I listened to two audiobooks. “First They Killed My Father” & “Tomorrow I’m Dead”. Both were autobiographies of young people that lived through the Khmer Rouge. Both were astounding books. It was the most illogical way to run a society I can think of. It was senseless killings. The books were great, but were tough to comprehend the level of depravity those people went through.
First they killed my Father is also a Netflix Movie as well.
This is why pure socialist and communist countries always implode. They are the stupidest forms of government ever. People in the West complain about, and criticise capitalism without realizing it isn't capitalism they're actually criticising, it's corporatism aka cronie capitalism. True capitalism has Safeguards against trusts and giant corporations forming. Unfortunately, corrupt politicians have allowed private companies to wield far too much power, even having a heavy influence on the making of self serving laws.
People need to realize that they are not looking at capitalism when they complain about the west, rather opportunistic corporations deliberately manipulating the market and government in unscrupulous, and nefarious ways.
The answer to corporatism isn't socialism or communism. It's a return to true capitalism.
First They Killed My Father is a solid film documenting the Phnom Penh situation. Not a fan of Angelina Jolie but props to her for supporting the making of this film
The irony that Vietnam the old Captialist boogy man was the one that stopped the Khmer Rouge despite the invasion from China that there Reserves(civilian and untrained soldiers) they beat them back too.
I bought that book off a lovely man with no arms (landmine) in siem reap. Very harrowing book.
I lived in Cambodia for 6 months. People are still recovering from this event and people highly respect the elders who lived through this. The local Khmer still refers to Cambodia as Kampuchea though in their language. They say Cambodia when they're speaking English, but when they're speaking Khmer, they'll say Kampuchea. There's even a beer called Cambodia and they jokingly call it Kampuchea.
My tattooist who is buddhist monk grew up in cambo during the kymer rouge. The kymer rouge were rounding up all the intellectuals in his village, anybody who wasn't a rice farmer essentially and father was a dentist. All he remember is his father, two older brothers and a cousin. Being driven away on the back of flat bed truck to be 'processed'. He never saw them again.
Truly heartbreaking beyond words.
Both Pol Pot and China's Mao had Buddhist pasts, interesting eh.
@@jamesclark6487 Both Pol Pot and Mao Zedong were also atheists and imposed state atheism on their respective regimes, killing their monks and destroying much of their historical artifacts.
@@jamesclark6487 it doesn't matter, both these leaders were educated, Pol pot had studied in Paris.
@James Clark Marx also had a long family history of rabbais, didnt stop him from wanting to remove their sort from standing in the way of his goals
Yeah my tattooist is an Ex-Crusader Templar commander… I get it…
I had a friend in high school who was Cambodian. She told me how her grandmother (super sweet lady) had survived Khmer Rouge and was afraid to ever go back home. They buried her husband alive, and she’s still afraid of land mines.
I've been to the prison and the killing field site. At the killing fields site you can still find pieces of human bone and teeth on the grounds of the site. The stories are horrible.
Damn that's crazy.
@@cudanmang_theog you clearly know how to write on a foreign language, off to the field you go.
@@cudanmang_theogcry 😂
Not more horrible than what your name represents
@@davywavy6457 My guess is that you are referring to the "666" and assume it refers to the Book of Revelation. It doesn't.
My mom told me a lot of horror stories about running from the khmer rouge. She remembers being in a village, when the khmer rouge gathered everyone in 1 house to kill them. My grandma hid my mom underneath the floors of the house, with a bag of gold, that if my grandma died, my mom would have a way to support herself. She remembers hearing a man who was deaf, getting hit in the head with a shovel and screaming unaudible noises. And she ran away to thailand, only to come back to cambodia when she was 8.
My dad also has a story of running away with his family, but getting lost in the crowd. He eventually travelled with another family, but was caught. He said they had to dig a hole and was promised that they would be fed if they finished. After they were done digging out the hole. The khmer rouge gathered everyone into the hole to be "fed" Then painted a grenade orange and threw it into the hole and killed many people. My dad ended up hiding, before going into the hole, which is how he still lived. He then fled to the jungle and somehow reunited with his mom.
But there are way more stories about the khmer rouge from my family then I could possibly explain. Way too many stories. It always crushes my heart when I hear them.
Both of my parents were survivors of the Khmer Rogue. My mom was able to escape when the Khmer Rogue took over Phnom Penh in 1975. She got separated from her family but she did made it to Thailand all by herself. Her mother had miraculously survived all throughout Pol Pot’s reign, but her father was killed during the siege of Phnom Penh, including several of her own family members. Even after all of that, she was one of the lucky ones, who had the chance to escape. My father and his family were captured by the Khmer Rouge, and the only reason why they’re still alive because they were illiterate poor farmers. The Khmer Rouge gave everyone a main job and my dad was a grave digger, and he literally lost count how many bodies he had to bury in those mass graves. Fortunately he was able to escape the prison camp with most of his family and made it to Thailand. That’s when my mom and dad met each other, in a refugee camp along the Cambodia-Thai border.
At 18:00, Pol Pot did not die in a cave. He was kept under house arrest during a power struggle and died in his sleep due to heart failure. And no, Sihanouk does not rule today. He's dead. You even mentioned in the video, that he died in 2012.
Wait what he died in 2012?! What fucking disgrace of the justice system allowed him to live that long?
@@casecao8412 Yes, Sihanouk died in 2012. Pol Pot in 1998.
"Pol Pot died in a cave" LOL I did a double-take when I heard that.🤣
@@Monatio79 yeah I have no idea where they got that information from. I had to do a double take as well.
@@BobAg_ Really? I Never knew that he was "hung". You mean he was "hung like a horse"? I don't think there was ever any official anatomical autopsy carried out on the lower half of his body.🤣
Now, if you mean that you thought he had been "hanged" then I guess you mean a la Saddam Hussein.
A quick Google search would show that Pol Pot was overthrown in an internal power struggle and kept under house arrest in a hut near Anlong Veng, not far from the Thai border. He died in his sleep/committed suicide, according to some accounts. His hut may have been simple, but I wouldn't exactly call it a "cave". Fast forward to the present day, and the former hut and his nearby cremation site have become a macabre tourist attraction.
My 6th Grade PE teacher
Mr. Hib lived through that hell. He was only a child about 4 him and his family hid in the jungle covered in fire ants for hours. He believes an angel kept him from screaming and feeling the pain of the ants so not to alert the Khmer.
That’s so horrifying. Glad he made it out ❤
An angel hey? Damn delusion is real
Fire ants are absolutely brutal!
Lol
@@MrD1ss666 if u were bitten by a single fire ant, u would be screaming like a mf let alone thousands of them
My living mother survived the Khmer Rouge and she still tells us the horrors of this Regime. She also says that the 1984 film "The Killing Fields" provides a very accurate portrayal of this history
I appreciate that you emphasized that the Khmer Rouge is "very extreme left" instead of just labeling them as communists, socialists, or leftists plainly and moving on.
I lived in Cambodia doing research on social cohesion after “reset buttons” (cultural death) and accidentally stumbled upon Pol Pot’s grave in Anglong Veng one day. He didn’t die in a cave. He died under house arrest with lots of supporters around him. The Khmer Rouge is still alive in the northern mountains and biding time until they can do it again.
Same goes with the CPP-NPA-NDF here in Philippines. The thing is, most of its supporters are loosely directly connected although given their highly organized structure (there are key officials, like Congressmen and Senators sympathetic to the communist movement, too.)
They are also bidding time before they might mount another offensive again, although it is far from happening given that more and more rebels are returning to the folds of the law. (Good news)
my father and his siblings was recruited by the npa and force to do stuff when they took over their place they were force to learn on how to use weapons and kill people at a young age. idk how my father escaped and his brothers was force to change their names but he doesnt wanna talk about it that much. as much as i want to know all the things that happened to him i just dont wanna bother him anymore. its hard to think that even today these kind of groups still exist brainwashing native people on doing horrible doings.
@@gfdchugh I am sorry for what has happened to your father and his brothers. I also have my father suffering the similar fate; he lost his father in an ambush.
Till this day, those communist terrorists are still present. From what I knew, they are trying to regroup to influence the young people with their flawed ideology.
@@yoooo1358 my father in law owns a lot of land in the Mindanao and paid off the CCP for protection. I'm never doing that. Id rather get rid of them and bury them. Maybe throw them in the Taal volcano 🌋
@@ronnieallie8490 same. Actually, most of them infiltrated the academe. That explains why the military is holding peace forums to explain to the students the recruitment scheme of the CPP-NPA-NDF.
Got threatened twice for speaking out about the recruitment scheme of their communist banditry and terrorism whenever and wherever I got the chance to. And everytime that happened, the govt agents got my back and support. Actually, it ultimately led to the attempted abduction of two "activists" whose relatives do have connections with the armed left before.
Every time I revisit the Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime I end up in tears. I cannot even fathom how much PTSD this caused people that actually experienced it. My heart goes out to them.
When I read "Sideshow" by Shawcross, I caught myself tearing up several times.
My mother, grandma and uncles are all survivors of the khmer rouge. They came in 1980 through missionaries from refugee camps. My mother succumbed to schizophrenia and ptsd and my oldest uncle as well. One uncle got psychological help and is doing well. Two of the uncles were too young to be psychologically affected but they're def not quite right.
A couple of years ago I went to Cambodia with my family. While we were there we visited the S21 torture prison. It's very hard to realise that some 40 years before I was there the most horrific acts happened there. It's incredible what one human is able to do to another, especially when you see all the different gruesome ways of torture they used. You also get to see al the different faces of the victims, which makes it harder to watch. The victims are no longer a number but a real person. While I was there I saw an old man with a couple of people surrounding him. Eventually I got to speak with him, but he could barely speak English. He was one of the few survivors of the camp. His name was Chum Mey. He was selling books there and telling people about his experiences. At the time he would've been around 88, now 92 or 93. One of the most incredible places i've been to and really left a mark on me. Please go there (if you think you can handle it). If you're lucky and you go around 12:00, maybe Chum Mey is there selling his and you'll be able to ask some questions
I met Chum Mey and bought his books!
I have met him in that awful place. He is an amazing man. Bought a few books from him and cried while he told us his story.
@@KanałŻyciewKanadzieAnitaBeata You met him too! I bet he stands there nearly every day telling his story and taking the time to talk with everyone.
@@maxsed8827 I think that he is there as often as he can. Let's hope that he lives a long life and is able to tell more and more people.
I was there last month (Aug 2023). There were two different old men, selling their books of their stories .
I met a woman on a bus in Cambodia. She spent her early childhood hiding in the forest almost starving. They lost track of time and were frightened to come out. She didn’t know how many years they were there.
There is a family in my neighborhood that survived the Cambodian genocide. Their eldest daughter doesn’t even have a definitive birthday because their lives were in such flux when she was born. They don’t say much about it, other than it was a nightmare.
One of my very good friends in high school, his family escaped the Khmer in the mid to late 70's when he was a small child. It broke my heart when he told me and, yes, especially the part about he has no idea what his birthday is. They just had to kind of guess and pick a date once they came to the US. He became a citizen shortly after we graduated.
My mother is Cambodian, and told me the horrid and fear she had to experience. On how she was separated from her mother and siblings, forced to work in the fields while scrapping for whatever she can eat. On how she had to fear for her life every day. It was truly a horrific regime
Both of my parents were survivors of the Khmer Rogue. My mom was able to escape when the Khmer Rogue took over Phnom Penh in 1975. She got separated from her family but she did made it to Thailand all by herself. Her mother had miraculously survived all throughout Pol Pot’s reign, but her father was killed during the siege of Phnom Penh, including several of her own family members. Even after all of that, she was one of the lucky ones, who had the chance to escape. My father and his family were captured by the Khmer Rouge, and the only reason why they’re still alive because they were illiterate poor farmers. The Khmer Rouge gave everyone a main job and my dad was a grave digger, and he literally lost count how many bodies he had to bury in those mass graves. Fortunately he was able to escape the prison camp with most of his family and made it to Thailand. That’s when my mom and dad met each other, in a refugee camp along the Cambodia-Thai border.
wtf the same thing with my mum, she got separated from her parents and into forced labour
I live in Cambodia. I am Canadian but have lived here for a bout six years. Let me tell you, these people have been through hell but they are some of the kindest people I have ever met in all my travels. True perseverance.
Got any stories?
@@godrilla5549 Many, but you should come here and make your own. Come see Angkor Wat!
@@chickenfriedrice2932 you're just trying to steal my organs.
@@godrilla5549 Ignorant comment.
Pepole refuse to learn from the past and the scary part is all these evil acts can happen again anywhere 😢
Poor pepole who suffered under this regime is heartbreaking .
My fiance was born in Cambodia but was adopted and brought to the United States as a baby, her parents talked about how even in the late 90s you could still see the scars from this time on the country. Truly a tragic time and event
I went to Cambodia a year ago for vacation. I ended up visiting the place where 100 thousands to millions were kept and killed. It was detrimental. Many, many boards with at least a hundred faces on each side we're shown. Torture and execution sites and weapons/tools that were used on people. It was horrific. I got to go in many rooms where prisoners were held and it was left untouched, rusty, and a few splatters of blood here and there. It's so scary to know that the place you're standing in is the exact place hundred of thousands of people were trapped, tortured, harassed, and murdered. I got to meet two survivors and have both their books (they're authors). It was a brutal yet very special experience I cherish. Rest In Peace to all who have passed.
I am Cham. Hearing my families stories sbout fleeing the war haunts me to this day. My grandma passed away about a year ago, and they were never able to get the fragments of a landmine out of her leg while she was escaping with my family. I remember looking at her legs and seeing massive dents. She never compalined and was the hardest worker.
I'm Khmer and I find myself telling people often that I'm anti-communist for very Cambodian reasons. They don't get it. Anyway, Thank you so much for making this video. We must know the dark truths in history if we want to avoid repeating them. The cruelty of what a man can inflict on another is so unfathomable but always a possibility.
I think they are a pretty poor representation, considering they were backed by the United States and CIA. A communist regime backed by US is pretty unheard of. They used the popularity of the idea of communism in area at the time to seize control. Also don’t forget it was communists that took them out…Vietnam.
For whatever reasoning, now communism is attempting to make its way into the black community. I am disgusted to think that that row of money can infect my people, we’ve been through enough, why as to the pain?!
They don’t know what they’re asking for…I see why more and more Christ asked His Father to forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing
💯 my parents lived through this and I’m anti-communist for the same reasons
Snake
This has nothing to do with communism. Get real
Thank you for bringing light to the topic as being the only pure Cambodian in America in my generation. Only the last of my people who escaped the regime, my mother and father did not forget the horrors, screams and gore that happened. It is heartbreaking that when people hear "Cambodian" we're only known for the genocide. Our people are trying so hard to seem more than the bloody past. Thank you
@xenomorph that is true besides many of them never had a bite
For me, when I'm hearing the word Cambodia, all I remember is the beautiful traditional clothes tbh😅 Probably because beautiful clothes just fascinates me, especially traditional clothing from Asian countries. Anyway, I hope you and your parents have a very good and enjoyable life overseas, no one would ever know how horrible and devastating that event was without witnessing it firsthand, so I wish you and your family all the best.
For Thais, whenever we heard of Cambodia we mostly think of their dark magic and supernatural tricks. The old big boss that once ruled South East Asia that have fallen from grace and become tragic little country lived next to us.
Yeah, not at all. Cambodia makes me think of food and smiles.
That's horrible your parents are good people who never deserved to witness such atrocities if it helps in any way when I hear Cambodia I think of amazing food and lovely lovely people I've worked with a few Cambodians and so has my dad and they were some of the kindest people I've ever met aroha (wich means much love in my countrys native tongue) to you and your family
What breaks my heart is that this stuff isn’t taught in school anymore, my daughter is 18 and has no idea about any of this.
That’s what communists want. Should make your school and all schools suspect.
Now it’s all about “feelings” and gender confusion studies , served up by leftist indoctrinators. Who, are fans of the exact ideology that creates these horrible situations.
Don't look for it to be added to the curriculum anytime soon.
They mention it in history books when I was in high school, but it literally was just one sentence
The US and Nato allies once had their hands in supporting Polpot out of spite for the Soviet and its loss in Vietnam War. If Vietnam occupied Cambodia long term and expanded influence, then US's loss is just further humiliating. There was also a Sino Soviet split at the time and Vietnam was closer ally to Soviet, while Cambodia is an ally of China. US once supported China to destabilize Soviet. Obviously they would never want to bring up the name, for it leads to the fact that for the so called 'democratic' and human rights loving countries to even support such a shameful genocidal regime in the first place.
My father and mother would always tell me stories of what they went through while under the regime. Their stories always hit me hard and made me appreciate where we are today. I really appreciate this video that will inform others of what horrors went on during that time in Cambodia.
Both of my parents were survivors of the Khmer Rogue. My mom was able to escape when the Khmer Rogue took over Phnom Penh in 1975. She got separated from her family but she did made it to Thailand all by herself. Her mother had miraculously survived all throughout Pol Pot’s reign, but her father was killed during the siege of Phnom Penh, including several of her own family members. Even after all of that, she was one of the lucky ones, who had the chance to escape. My father and his family were captured by the Khmer Rouge, and the only reason why they’re still alive because they were illiterate poor farmers. The Khmer Rouge gave everyone a main job and my dad was a grave digger, and he literally lost count how many bodies he had to bury in those mass graves. Fortunately he was able to escape the prison camp with most of his family and made it to Thailand. That’s when my mom and dad met each other, in a refugee camp along the Cambodia-Thai border.
I was always horrified and fascinated by the Khmer Rouge and in college read a stacks of books about the prisons, killing fields, refugee camps, and all of it. The most haunting thing was a database of photographs of prisoners at Tuol Sleng, taken before they were killed. They were all individuals like myself, looking straight at the camera. To this day I haven't read a satisfying account of what happened to humanity at that moment. The horrors are almost unimaginable. My mother worked with a Cambodian woman whose husband was beheaded before her eyes. It's something that makes me believe that evil is an active force in the world and that, deep down, we can go either way and many of us would go to the bad. On another note, much as I was raised in a partisan milieu that's bitterly anti-Communist, I have to admit that one of the Vietnamese Communists' finest hours was their invading Cambodia and putting an end to that insanity. I wish for peace and prosperity for Southeast Asia for a thousand years and for us all.
As a cambodian it still makes me sad knowing most of the world wont ever hear about this but I'm really grateful for this video thank you :))
Read a book by Loung Ung called “First They Killed My Father” and man was I heartbroken and sick reading through what she and the people of Cambodia had to go through. I don’t usually show reactions when reading books but there are parts in the book that left my jaw open in shock. There were even times where I had to stop reading for a bit because of how sick I felt reading the things that occur. The worst part? That was only her story. There are millions of other stories out there, each with their own horrific experiences.
Oh I watched that documentary on Netflix
@sistamyais9981 is it good?
they did a film adaptation of it now
I think you mean you watched a movie on Netflix.
The Killing Fields was a movie based on the true story of the genocide in Cambodia.
It won several Academy Awards and was so well done it seemed real at times.
Prayers for all the lives lost during the Kmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia. 🙏
That should be mandatory viewing for all commie larpers
This was the real Holocaust.
@@alexandrasymeon5893 Genocide is genocide no matter when or where it happens. Can you explain your comment further? Do you mean this was worse the the Nazi perpetrated genocide or are you saying the Nazi perpetrated genocide known as the Holocaust didn't happen?
@@thepub245 This was a holocaust. Millions of Cambodians were killed under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. They were tortured and were made slaves and were not allowed to sleep but only rest. WWII was not started by Germany it was started by the Rothschilds who are of Jewish descent but are actually Satanists. They funded both sides of the war and their are reports Hitler was a Rothschild. G. Edward Griffin talks about this in his book the Creature from Jeckyl Island. I didn't spell Jeckyl right. The purpose of WWII was to create the illegal state of Israel in 1948. So the Rothschilds tortured their own people to get what they wanted and God never wanted for Israel to be rebuilt because He knew it would turn into the Synagogue of Satan all over again as told by our Dear Lord Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. The Jewish people went through hell during WWII being separated from their families and the homes and businesses taken away from them. But there are things that they say happened that didn't happen. There were no concentration camps only work camps. There were no gas chambers during the war, those were place there after the war to create the horrific story of 6,000,000,000 Jews being gassed. Zyclon B was used to delouse the prisoners not kill them. The prisoners were starving because the allies wouldn't let supplies get. I'm sure many more atrocities happened so I think Cambodian Holocaust and the Genocide of the Jewish people during WWII were equally just as vile. Now in Israel the Israelis, have created the one, true holocaust when they kill Palestinian, men. women and children at random every single day. Children as young as 7 are being falsely arrested and taken to prison. Palestinian homes are being bombed and at times the Israelis even make the Palestinians destroy their own homes. 80% of the Palestinians live under the poverty line. Children with severe diseases are not able to be treated because their is an Israeli blockage preventing them from doing so. The Israelis have declared they are the master race and we are mere cattle to be ruled over. This is interesting because most of the Israelis are inbred. In 2014, Benjamin Netanyahu oversaw the killings of 500 Palestinian children. Israeli settlers destroy crops of Palestinians who still own land. Many more atrocities happen but I'll stop here. This is truly a Holocaust. In Uganda, Muslims are starving to death and they are mere bodies with bones laying out in the desert. Israel is funded by the United States to the tune of 40 billion dollars a year. Money that goes to NASA goes to Israel. The word NASA in Hebrew means deceit. All the European governments fund Israel and most countries do. This is the doing of the Rothschilds. Russia is fighting these atrocities and that's why he went to war with the Ukraine who supports Israel. Israeli infiltrated the Saudi government and there leaders are really Jewish. Okay there's a lot more but I'm done. Sorry for the harangue.
That movie was amazing!! That is how I first learned about the genocide in Cambodia.
When I was a teenager I read "To Destroy You is No Loss" and this was my first intro to the Khmer Rouge and their brutal, bloody regime. It was very sobering to say the least.
My mom and her family were apart of it. She tells me stories about how they escaped but sadly she lost her mom, dad and the rest of her family. My mom was 4 when it happen. About 11 years ago she just reconnected with her brothers. Both her dad and brothers fought in the war. My dad escaped before they invaded they had to leave because my grandfather was a high rank military officer that's why they had to leave but sadly he lost his sister. Honestly it breaks my heart that people would do this to their own kind.
It makes me wonder if your family originally supported Pol Pot or not. He came to power by overwhelming support of the people that believed socialism was good.
@@TingTingalingy No my family didn't. My mom didn't know he existed until she ended up in one of the camps separated from her mother. My father escaped before they fully took over they had to leave because my grandfather was a military officer.
I once read a Reader's Digest article about the Killing Fields when I was twelve years old. A very hard read at that age, but definitely something that helped me learn about the negative effects of power, idealism, and violence.
My granddaughters father was Cambodian, I have spent a lot of time with his parents, what they went through was HELL on earth considering the father was a teacher, but let me tell you no matter the crap they went through these people are forgiving and are beautiful human beings.
My mother is from Cambodia, born in 1972 but she told me she grew up in Thailand. Never really thought much of it but as I get older I can understand the history and makes me really curious on her story to America
Don't ever forget that Vietnam troop went to rescue Cambodia and pretty much got internationally condemned and even invaded by China because Khmer Rouge was their allies
Lol i dont see any cambodian that said something about vietnamese troop who risked their life to rescue them . Back to the day without vietnamese they combodian dont have a chance to comment on youtube like this . Shame people 😂
@darren6458 say something ?? Dont be shy cambodian
yep
@darren6458 lol come see me in california baby 😂
@@tuandoan1969 that's like saying Vietnam wouldn't be united if Cambodia didn't allowed Vietnamese troop walk in Ho Chi Minh trail. Also without Vietnamese, Cambodia wouldn't have this event if the Vietnam war wouldn't happen
I had a girl friend that told me a story of how her father was taken and killed. She told me that the mother and kids were hiding while this happened. It's unbelievable the amount of evil that goes on in this world.
My mom and aunt were born in Cambodia in the early-mid 70s. They were in a concentration camp for a short time when they were 5 (mom) and 7(aunt). My mom told me how they would feed them rice porridge, but only one bowl per family and my aunt would pick out all the rice to eat by herself and would only leave the soup for them to eat. I thought it was funny at first, but it dawned on me and broke my heart that they were only little kids and they were being starved so of course my aunt would be hungry enough to "selfishly" eat all the rice. Thankfully, both my grandparents, aunt and mom were able to escape from Cambodia and move to America to live a peaceful live as farmers.
My father in law went through this with his entire family when he was 8. My wife retold the events when we first met, I then learned more from his first hand accounts. Truly horrific. The only reason his family survived was because his father at the time learned how to repair watches and jewelry the khmer rouge were looting from houses and corpses. He taught the skill to his 2 sons and so the three of them became valuable. He had a couple friends die though when they cut the tongue off a cow to eat it. They were caught and executed immediately. Horrific events and truly a stain on humanities history.
My mother told me that she had watched her whole family burned in their home, most of my dads side of the family survived, he tells me how grandpa was high officer so he was capable of bringing the whole family to america by plane. The story i remember most was how he carried my cousin who had just been born through the jungle to escape the communist. Eventually they all made it to long beach, and about a decade later my grandma introduced my mom to my dad.
As a two-year old, just barely conscious of the world, I remember thinking, “this can’t be the world I am born into!!” Thank God a family of 7 made it out!
My parents were in the Khmer Rouge. They told me about it and i felt absolutley distraught. Their famly members were killed in front of them. My mother made food for them mostly because she was forced to, but also liked their cooking. They forced my father to sing for them and if he messed up, he was shot on spot. I don't know how they managed to survive, but I'm happy they're here with me til this day.
As a Cambodian, I'm so interested in hearing my country's history from Non-Cambodian perspective. Cambodia suffered so much from political struggle. Your video is a theory but there's another side of the story from the people who lived in Pol Pot regime but led a normal life.... it's a complicated and controversial topic regarding our neighboring countries and how the world closes their eyes on us. And there's no exact answer to the question `Who exactly is Khmer Rouge?`. They might not even Cambodian..... A mystery only time could tell and I hope I live to that day...
Late 70s grade school a Cambodian transfer arrives in my school.... good family as I got to know him. He told me his his family made it to America. Horrific stories that shocked me as a teen. Horrific. They literally lost many family members and had to keep running knowing your sister was found hiding and, well just horrific. Put became a good friend and did well in school, lost track of him but never will forget what he told me happened. It changed the way I look at the world.
Guess who supported Pol Pot to did all that to your friend and his family ?l 😂😂 Jimmy fkin’ Carter 😂😂
"it changed the way I look at the world."
Pfff. Yeah ok.
Did you take the vacksine?
Do you trust your gov?
Whether it’s over religion, politics, resources, or power, humanity has always found an excuse to do absolutely brutal things to each other.
Excuses are irrelevant, and is sidestepping the issue, power and greed is the problem here
@@thevein4571 About everything Hate for something different is the problem.
@@thevein4571 but the ideology is also the problem here, communism facilitates these things to happen.
We’re the cancer of Mother Earth
@@lavenderface9875 could you shut the hell up about wokeness for one goddamn second? This guy killed professors for being professors
my grandparents survived one of the fields and escaped.Thank you for putting the knowledge out there on what the Cambodian people had to go through.🙏🏾
We knew a family when I was growing up. They went to the same church as my parents. The older family members had escaped from the Khmer Rouge regime. One of the women was describing their escape, down a river, where they were being shot at by the military. Unfortunately, her brother was shot in the head and died. They busted their asses off to ensure their children and grandchildren lived a happy and peaceful life.
This is a very well-made video about Khmer history. Extremely informative to those doesn’t know about this and a great source for a historical reminder to the Cambodian people. Only critique i have, which I can’t really blame you for, is the pronunciation of the words since Khmer is a very hard language. One tip i would give for that is usually a lot of Khmer words written in English have softer tones. For example, in the name Pol Pot, it has a soft sounding P rather than a hard intonation.
Great video and thank you for sharing this to the world with very high accuracy to reality
Also heard Kampuchay instead of Kam-puch-ia
The Cambodian Civil War and Genocide is one of the most haunting chapters of history I have ever learned about.
It's difficult to even remotely grasp the horrors and levels of senseless violence that happened but I'd like to share a piece of information that really put it into perspective for me how big the scale of things must've been: in 1978, the life expectancy in Cambodia was less than 14.5 - almost a quarter of the entire population had been killed by the time the genocide ended.
I had to rewind this multiple times, and that's not a bad thing
It's rare to come across history docs on UA-cam that are so information dense AND well presented with flashy editing and captivating photos
My dad knew a guy who was a kid when this was happening and he was apart of the professional class and one day his parents went to a farm, gave him an ox and told him to walk with it. And that’s what he did, he walked an ox until the vietcong saved the day.
That rescue only happened because the Khmer rouge crossed into Vietnam and killed innocent villagers. And 150000 soldiers with their families were executed. Leaving the border open
Vietcong were filthy socialists, not heroes.
That actually makes total and complete sense.
When I taught World History in the late 90s I would teach a lesson in the Khmer Rouge. The students were always completely stunned by what they learned.
I knew a man who had escaped from a village that Pol Pot's goons destroyed. They were the only ones to survive. He got her to safety and went back to fight. I knew him many years later in the U.S. He was scarred for life from the experience, both physically and mentally.
OMG I remember it vividly. Our neighbor walked through those killing fields along with several family members ( over a period of several months apart ) 1 or 2 at a time made it to Thailand's refugee camps. He was an engineer and his wife was a pharmacist. What I know I heard through my uncle , a Vietnam War Vet, who married into the family. You never asked anything about Cambodia from them. The wounds , scars and missing pieces of anatomy spoke volumes. I think most anyone who had served in the Vietnamese War, was related to a Vietnam war theatre vet was very aware what happened.
My grand ma was a teacher and my grandpa was a school principle, they had to hid their identities to survive. They got separated to other provinces at the start of the khmer rouge but the somehow reunited half way during the time they were escaping and was on their way to find each other. They sadly lost their daughter (my aunt) to starvation and my great-grandma (on my grandmother side) was taken away and never return.
Back when my grandmother was telling me about her story I was only 6 or 7 so I don’t really remember all of it, but I do remember her telling me that the so call “hospital” was just a place where they left the sicks to the death on their own. My uncle had to crawled under the beds of other sick people to get the little bit of porridge that my grandma left for him from her share which was already very little. My grandma told me that she secretly exchanged her gold jewelries that she hides for a little bit of uncooked rice from the khmer rouge, put it in a glass bottle and buried it under ground, when she dig it out the glass was kinda broken mixed with the rice but she had to cooked and eat that glass mixed rice anyway because they were hungry. When they were escaping they had to run across the bridge while the bullets were flying around and my uncle was being carried by my grandfather, my uncle was already a teenager but because of sickness and starvation he was on only skin bones. Now his left leg is not working properly, my grandmother said it was because of the sickness during that time. I don’t remember anymore of the story and my grandfather never talk about his story but he did said he was one of the cooks for the khmer rouge.
When I was young I lived with grandparents I was almost traumatized by my grandma’s cleanliness and very afraid of my her. My grandma she is obsessed with hygiene, everything must be in order, she actually has four phones for four radio channels and her room is full of old stuffs that are very much useless. She is of course absolutely not wasting any bit of food. She also had night terrors very often which absolutely scared me. I always wondered why is is she like that. Only in recent years when I started to learn about mental health that I realized, she might be suffering from OCD and PTSD.
The aftermath of the khmer rouge left damage to everyone health mentally and physically.
i am second gen american. my grandpa worked with american forces and allowed my grandmother to seek asylum. the stories my grandma would tell me would bring me to tears. she's such a kind, loving soul and i can even begin to imagine how horrifying it must be to have your family and homes destroyed. i wish cambodia would one day heal from our dark history
@Vertiegrief how?
From someone who works and lives with modern Khmer people. They are amazing. I have been to killing fields and S21. What they went through. Most of us would be in pieces. Thank you
I learnt about this a few weeks ago, he truly believes in a quote “if you want to remove the weed, you must remove it’s roots too”
Meaning killing every potential resistance before they becomes a problem.
I live in cambodia. The most insane thing about this genocide is the populations strength and willingness to move on.
Hows the situation in cambodia today, man?
'Killing Fields' is a FANTASTIC movie!! Its the only movie that makes me cry....every time I watch it!!! 15-18 times now.
the fact that Ngor had to essentially relive what he went through for the film is incredible
I also loved this movie,
It taught me much-
I think iwas about 18.,
And the year was like 1980,,82,,..
Made me awake to the world..
How did you come up with 15-18 times?
When I was in elementary school in the 80s, there were lots of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Hmong Chinese at my school. It wasn't until I started hanging out with them that I understood their parents were mostly refugees. Can't imagine having to go through something like this and then relocate to a country you never thought to even visit.
Where did you live at the time? I heard most Cambodians moved to California although I’m not sure how true that is
@@gungalgeno-7077 I lived in the suburbs of Washington DC. I had also heard that most of them moved to California as well as the Minneapolis area. I know that during that time a lot of people were moving to my area from the Midwest because two of my friends had just relocated from Kalamazoo and Los Angeles, respectively. Just remembering my friend from Laos told me years later that lots of them landed in California and hopscotched across the country until they got to NYC, Philly and DC so I guess that's probably what happened with those kids.
@@gungalgeno-7077 all the Asians in California … they gang bang out there.
Thank you video creator for educating us in this history. Thank you to the people who commented on the video for sharing stories.
S21 is so surreal. You see all the photos of the people taken there and realise they were tortured to death in the very room you're stood in. The driver of the van we travelled in was an older gentlemen who talked about jumping from the back of a truck the rest of his family had been bundled into after the Khmer rouge shot his father and brother. He was younger than 10, never saw his mother or siblings again, nearly starved. Started off melting rubber to fix tires, eventually bought a tuktuk and a van making him a wealthy man by Cambodian standards. What brought me the biggest sadness was he couldn't remember folk songs from his childhood in his old age and he had realised there was nobody left alive who could possibly remind him. Beautiful country, beautiful people, such an ugly but brief part of their history that still scars them to this day.
My parents escape Cambodia to come to the US. They had met in Texas, got married and had me. Whenever I think about what they had gone through and other cambodians makes me sad in my soul. Cambodia is my heart. 🇰🇭
Well DONE👏👏👏 thank you for your accurate information. One of the BEST ones. I am one of the survivors. Was born into it and raised during it😒. He destroyed many lives by murder and even those who survived it, the effects were also felt by the children my generation had because the trauma was so severe our children suffered also.
I visited the museum during my trip to Cambodia when I was quite young. Although I did not know much about the history at that time, the museum was so memorable as I could feel the horror experienced by the victims in that place. Even until now, I still remember the paintings...
My yeay (grandma) was lucky enough to have been able to escape these horrible events. Just listening to her stories was enough to make me understand how horrible these events were.
I one of the first generation of my family to ever grow up in Australia. My parents and grandparent’s being of Cambodian decent moved to Australia during the Khmer Rouge for a better life. I never really knew about what my family had to go through during the time the regime, as whenever i would ask about it as i would either get a response In silence or to never speak about it again. My family often takes trips to Cambodia to check on distant family members but we tend to avoid certain spots of the country as both of my parents have bad memories of those places. I hope that one day I can go to Cambodia and visit the museums to fully understand what my family had gone through.
Thank you for shining a light on this tragic event. I feel like this was swept under the rug in history 💔
I’ve been to the killing fields when I went to Siem Reap back in 2019. Being there and learning about what happened there sent chills down my spine. You can still see skeletons on display, like a mass burial site.