Choeung Ek Killing Fields, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The rise of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 brought the fall of educational and cultural institutions. The Khmer Rogue’s goal was to socially engineer a fully agrarian society free from race and class. They began with a radical restructure of their population. Schools and universities closed. Pol Pot’s forces moved city dwellers into the country to perform agricultural labor, making up for food shortages. Many of these people died of disease and starvation.
From 1975 to 1979, Khmer Rouge killed minorities and anyone who gave an intellectual impression. This wasn’t just limited to lawyers, clergy, professors, teachers, and doctors, it included ‘intellectual’ things like speaking another language or wearing glasses. Rural areas and prisons, like the prison (now a memorial museum) at Choeung Ek in Phnom Penh, were used to torture and murder anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million people, are now referred to as the “Cambodian Killing Fields.”