Geocide Museum

Last night I had as much of a conversation as I could with a survivor of the holocaust here. (I don't speak Cambodian and her English is rather rudimentary and she has forgotten her French). She was from an educated family and was enrolled at a good French High School (lycee) when Pol Pot came to power Her parents and schoolmates were murdered in the killing fields She escaped by insisting that she could neither read or write, as her parents instructed her to do. It's affected her emotionally, of course, and she has a hard time functioning, but her story broke my heart.

So this a.m. I decided that it was time to visit the Genocide Museum at Toul Sleng. It was once a high school but the Pol Pot people took it over and turned it into their central prison and torture center, from which they sent people to the killing fields. If ever anyone doubts the depravity of man they ought to visit Toul Sleng. Photographs and paintings depicting the outrageous torture that went on there (and the rules of prison which forbade anyone to cry out during torture with the penalty a beating) make one shudder. It was all so unspeakably evil.

There is a guest book that people can sign at the end. Someone a few pages before me had written: Romans 8:28. For me that didn't quite fit. I wrote, "Lord, have mercy upon us."

Although Cambodians are friendly and gracious when you meet them, there is this terrible grief and fear not far below the surface. How can such a horrendous experience not scar the national psyche? Anyone over 30 actually lived through the Pot regime. Their fear and sadness has also been passed down to their children and children's children. Perhaps their longing for healing accounts for the great spiritual hunger here.

About 35 years or so ago when I was visiting Germany I was in Munich for a weekend and decided on sunny June Sunday afternoon to visit Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp. The Nazis were meticulous in their documentation and had photos of everything. (Khmer Rouge wasn't too far behind, with their photos and dossiers). I remember walking out of the exhibit at Dachau and looking up at the sun pouring through the green leaves of the trees and thinking how unreal it all seemed but it did really happen and right there. It was absolutely shattering and took me a few days to process it, but in the end I think it shows how important the Final Judgement will be to set everything right. There is a holy God who will judge sin and these barbaric wrongs will be put to right.

As Christians, we have hope. As I was leaving Toul Sleng a large group of Koreans came in all wearing black T shirts with Acts 1:8 written on the back (in English). "But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses..." Even in Tuol Sleng.