A man looking at photographs of those murdered at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Cambodia

Formerly the Chao Ponhea Yat High School, the five buildings of the complex were converted in August 1975, four months after the Khmer Rouge won the civil war, into a prison and interrogation center. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex “Security Prison 21” (S-21) and construction began to adapt the prison to the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers, and all windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Security Prison 21 (S-21) and former high school, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000, although the real number is unknown). At any one time, the prison held between 1,000-1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed.

VIEW MORE IMAGES of Tuol Sleng Genocide museum and the Killing Fields, Cambodia

Photography  © Quintin Lake, 2003