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History Books
When The War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Regime.
by Elizabeth Becker
Elizabeth Becker is an award-winning journalist who spent much of her career writing about Cambodia. In 1978, Pol Pot invited her, along with two other Westerners, to Cambodia to meet with him, making her one of the only Westerners to interview Pol Pot while he was in power.
In her book, Becker weaves into the history personal stories of Cambodians she interviewed in the refugee camps as well as stories she discovered while researching the S-21 archives. It gives her book a human quality that other history books lack.
If you read one book on the history of The Khmer Rouge, I would suggest this one.
Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot
By David Chandler
David Chandler is one of the most respected western historians and academics on Cambodian history. His biography of Pol Pot is a meticulous look at the events that led to his rise to power and the regime that followed. Delving deep into every detail of the history surrounding Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, Brother Number One is the best source of historical information about the Khmer Rouge Regime and Pol Pot’s life.
Historically, this book is exceptional. However, for the casual reader, it can at times be quite dry as Chandler details each minor historical event.
A History of Cambodia
By David Chandler
Cambodia has a incredibly fascinating history and in this book Chandler goes through everything from the pre-Angkor period up until the present day. Spending only a single chapter on the Khmer Rouge period, Chandler tells the story of how the greatest empire of its time became the Cambodia we know today.
Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare
By Philip Short
Philip Short worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC for 25 years. He has written well respected biographies not only for Pol Pot, but also Mao Zedong and Vladimir Putin.
Like David Chandler’s book, this book spends a lot of time getting into the small details, however, Short’s writing is captivating which makes it an excellent book for history fans who have an interest in the Khmer Rouge.
Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide
By Alexander Laban Hilton
Many history books deal with the events which lead to the genocide in Cambodia. However, you’re often left wondering, “But, what made the Cambodians so violent? What made them do it?”
Why Did They Kill tries to answer these questions. It’s an anthropological analysis of Cambodian culture, identity and the methods they used to normalize extreme violence.
It is essential for those who want to understand how the Cambodian world-view was manipulated to incite a genocide.
Autobiographies by Cambodians
Prisoners of Class
by Chan Samoeum, translation by Matthew Madden
Many accounts of life under the Khmer Rouge are written decades after then events. Prisoner of Class is unique in that Chan wrote down his experiences in the 1980s, immediately after the genocide ended. Originally scribbled in a school notebook, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that Chan was able to self-published his story in the Khmer language, selling copies in the Phenom Penh markets where it got little notice.
Matthew Madden, however, did notice and immediately understood the importance of his story. He spend years slowly translating the work into English and eventually located the author and got his permission to publish it.
Chan is a natural writer and his richly detailed, meticulous account, interspersed with poetry, make this book one of the best personal accounts of what life was like under Pol Pot.
Quoting Chan about his book: “I wrote it in my bedroom with the door closed so that my wife and children would not see me. I feared my wife would think I was crazy, as tears flowed down my cheeks while I wrote. There was not a page of that manuscript that was not soaked by my tears.”
When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge
By Chanrithy Him
Chanrithy Him recounts her experiences as a child growing up as a New Person under the Khmer Rouge.
After fleeing to America as a refugee, she worked with the Khmer Adolescent Project to help Cambodian youth overcome the effects of PTSD. It was then that she decided she wanted to share the story of how she survived as a child. Chanrithy Him has gone on to become an international speaker and human rights worker.
First They Killed My Father
By Loung Ung
Loung Ung was only five years old when the Khmer Rouge arrived in Phenom Penh. Her family has to hide their identity as they are moved from village to village. Eventually her parents are both killed and Ung is trained to become a child solider by the Khmer Rouge.
Stay Alive, My Son.
By Pin Yathay
Pin Yathay story tells of his family’s horrific experience of trying to survive as a “New Person” under the Khmer Rouge regime. Being forced out of their home in Phenom Penh with fifteen members of his family, he is eventually left with only his wife and his son as they try to escape from Cambodia.
Westerner's Experiences
The Gate
By Francois Bizot
Francois Bizot is a French anthropologist who was living in Cambodia studying Cambodian culture before the Khmer Rouge came to power. He was captured by the Khmer Rouge and taken to a prison run by Duch, the man who would eventually run the infamous S-21 prison.
He spoke at length with Duch while in the prison, eventually gaining his favor and being released. Bizot made it back to Phenom Penh and was in the city when the Khmer Rouge arrived.
Bizot’s deep understanding of Khmer culture, his eye-witness account of the fall of Phenom Penh and his relationship with Duch make for a unique and fascinating look at the early days of the Khmer Rouge.
Beyond the Horizon: Five Years with the Khmer Rouge.
Original French title: “Au-Dela du ciel: Cinq ans chez les Khmer Rouges.”
By Laurance Picq
In 1967, Laurance Picq fell in love and married a Cambodian in Paris and became a communist sympathizer. Her husband would return to Cambodia to support the communist uprising and, once the Khmer Rouge took power, he sent for her to come and join him in Phenom Penh to live with the leadership of the Khmer Rouge.
While Picq never experienced what was happening outside of the tightly structured life in the capital city, her first-hand experiences of living amongst the Khmer Rouge working as a translator is the only account by a Westerner who lived in Cambodia and survived Pol Pot’s regime.
Movies and Documentaries
First They Killed My Father (2017)
Directed by Angelina Jolie
Based on the book First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung, this is the personal account of Ung, who survived the Khmer Rouge regime as a child.
The film’s high production value and Angelina Jolie’s attention to detail brings to life what it was like to live under the Khmer Rouge as a “New Person”, evacuated from the cities and forced to work for the regime.
The Killing Fields (1984)
Released in 1984, this movie was one of the first times Westerners became aware of the situation in Cambodia. It tells the true story of New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg and his colleague, Cambodian journalist Dith Pran. When Phenom Penh is taken over by the Khmer Rouge, they are forced to separate and Pran must survive the Killing Fields while Schanberg, back in America, tries to bring attention to the situation in Cambodia.
In the movie, Dith Pran is played by Cambodian actor Haing Ngor, who also survived the Khmer Rouge Regime and had escaped only a few years prior. Ngor provided many specific details to the director to make his scenes as authentic as possible. His honest and emotional performance won him several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll (2014)
After Cambodia gained its independence from France in 1953, Cambodia went through a golden age of music and culture. Through the 1950s-1970s, Cambodia had a vibrant Rock & Roll music scene, with many musicians becoming stars. That was all to change in 1974 when the Khmer Rouge took over.
This documentary is a fascinating look into the golden age of modern Cambodia through its music and how it all came to an end.
Enemies of the People (2009)
Noen Chea was second-in-command of the Khmer Rouge. Up until 2007, he was living in Cambodia, a free man. In this documentary, Thet Sambath, whose family was killed during the Khmer Rouge regime, tracks down Noen Chea and spends several years interviewing him to try to understand why the Khmer Rouge killed so many people. He also interviews Khmer Rouge soldiers who were involved in the mass-killings and speaks with them about their experiences.
While many other documentaries and books explore the lives of the victims, this documentary is exceptional as it tries to understand the experiences and justifications of those who committed the atrocities.
Podcasts
In The Shadows of Utopia
Lachlan Peters majored in International Studies with a focus on Cambodia, history and genocide and has also worked with The Documentation Center of Cambodia. His podcast is an exceptional deep-dive into Cambodia, its culture, history and how both local and international events created the conditions for the ‘perfect storm’ that lead to the rise of Pol Pot’s regime. With topics ranging from the French Revolution, Cambodian culture, the history of Marx, Lenin and Mao, the Vietnam war and more, Lachlan doesn’t shy away from filling you in on all the information you’ll need to fully understand who the Cambodians are and what enabled the Khmer Rouge to come to power.
His podcast style is heavily influenced by Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History and it is, by far, one of the most well-written and informative podcasts about the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia. It’s the perfect accompaniment for those long bus rides.
Online Videos
Extra History’s videos of the Khmer Empire and Angkor Wat. This is an incredibly well-researched and entertaining summary of the history of the Khmer Empire. A must-see before visiting Angkor Wat
A project by The Bophana Center, Acts of Memory are a series of video interviews with Khmer Rouge survivors.
From their website:
“Through documenting and sharing the personal stories of survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime, the project aims to encourage youth to learn the past, and elder people to transmit their message to the younger generation, focusing on the importance of “acts of memory” for Cambodian people to move forward.”
The Documentation Center of Cambodia has collected hundreds of interviews with survivors of the Khmer Rouge period and their work on .genocide education in Cambodia.
John Pilger’s shocking 1979 documentary was originally broadcast on commercial television in Britain and Australia without advertising, which was unprecedented.
Filmed in 1979, some of the information in the documentary is now disputed (The Khmer Rouge never wanted to return civilization to a primitive “Year Zero”, a term they never used. Also, the American bombings are now seen as not having as significant of a role in creating the Khmer Rouge. King Sihanouk support of the Khmer Rouge was much more important.)
Despite that, the documentary made a huge impact and revealed to the world for the first time the horror of what had happened in Cambodia
The British Film Institute lists Year Zero as one of the 10 most important documentaries of the 20th century.
In October of 1997, journalist Nate Taylor tracked down Pol Pot in the jungles of Cambodia and interviewed him. Pol Pot was old and sick at this point, having recently suffered a stroke. Pol Pot would die six months later. It’s one of the only recorded interviews with Pol Pot.
Nuon Chea, second-in-command of the Khmer Rouge, was interviewed by Cambodian Journalist Thet Sambath.
While many of his answers to questions are evasive, when he is asked about why the traitors needed to be killed, he lets his guard down and you can get a real sense of the paranoia and desperation that infected the Khmer Rouge leadership and drove them to such extreme methods.
Duch ran the notorious S-21 prison, overseeing the torture and executions of over 12,000 people.
After the Khmer Rouge fell, he assumed a new identity and lived in hiding in Cambodia.
While in hiding he began attending prayer meetings at a Christian Church. He converted to Christianity, eventually becoming baptized, and working as a lay pastor eventually working with a Christian Relief Agency, assisting Cambodians in the refugee camps.
In 1999, journalist Nic Dunlop tracked him down and revealed who he really was. He was shortly after arrested and stood trial at the United Nations Extraordinary Commission.
Unlike all the other Khmer Rouge leaders who were put on trial, Duch confessed to his crimes and admitted to his involvement, accepting responsibility for what he had done.
This video is the apology he gave during the trials.
In 1994, three backpackers — Briton Mark Slater, Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet and Australian David Wilson — were captured and taken to the Khmer Rouge base in the mountains behind what is now the Pepper Farms near Kampot.
They recorded a video appeal, pleading for the government to halt the shelling of the Khmer Rouge positions in the Voar Mountains. They would later be executed by the Khmer Rouge. Noen Paet was convicted of ordering the killings and sentenced to life imprisonment.