Witnessing Genocide: Vigilance and Remembrance at Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek

Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek are the two principal memorials to the victims of the Cambodian genocide (1975-79). This article analyzes their effectiveness as vehicles for commemoration. Since both memorials borrow elements from the more familiar model of Euro-American Holocaust memorials, their examination adds to a larger discussion about the political uses of genocide memorials, and their ability to facilitate national reconciliation. The unforgiving, visceral nature of Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek makes them an uneasy experience for the international tourists who visit. For the Cambodian people, these memorials play an uncertain political role, given that little in the way of formal justice or a public culture of remembrance has been achieved so far.