www.tuolsleng.com is a website dedicated solely to Phnom Penh’s genocide museum. It contains photographs of people who were tortured and killed under the Khmer Rouge regime. According to the site, there are 114 photographs from the Pol Pot’s secret prison, also known as Security Prison “S-21″.
When the Vietnamese Army invaded in 1979 the S-21 prison staff fled, leaving thousands of written and photographic records. Altogether more than 6,000 photographs were left; the majority, however, have been lost or destroyed.
Currently the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, which is located within the former prison grounds, has the original negatives and a catalog of all 6,000 remaining negatives. Cornell University also has one of the catalogs, and the DCCam Project has also incorporated scanned versions of the images into their database, as well as Yale University.
In 1997 an American photographer/researcher identified and located the prison photographer, Nhem Ein, who had been living in a Khmer Rouge stronghold since 1979. Since meeting Nhem Ein, many other former prison staff have been identified and interviewed, adding to our knowledge of this piece of awful history.
Until recently, the museum becomes a major tourism site for those who visit the capital city.
