Tuol Sleng recalled

I nabbed a few pictures from the documentary film Die Angkar last night (shown at Meta House) as it was taking a close look at the newly-opened Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in 1980. It panned through the rooms at the prison, displayed hundreds of individual mug-shots as well as interviews with some of the seven surviving prisoners that had come forward at that time. The Tuol Sleng 7 have now been added to as more research has revealed a handful of other survivors, but the film footage showing a raw and unsanitized version of Tuol Sleng - which visitors don't see today - was a remarkable record of its time. The survivors were kept alive only because they possessed a skill that was useful to the prison authorities and for a very youthful Vann Nath, it was his talent as a painter that kept him alive.

Above: An animated Vann Nath talks about his experiences at Tuol Sleng on Die Angkar

Ung Pech, an engineer, was the first Director of Tuol Sleng when it opened as a museum. Pech died in 1996

Im Chan's skill as a sculptor kept him alive at Tuol Sleng. He passed away in March 2000

A translator, Phan Than Chan was 65 when he died in January 2002, after serving twenty years in the military following his release from Tuol Sleng
Bou Meng remains alive today, alongwith Vann Nath and Chum Mey. His skill as a painter saved him, though his wife died at the prison