misspalah's review
4.0
Their doctrine gave us no human rights, no sympathy, and no freedom to do anything. Sometimes we made only a small mistake but they pointed us out to the killers and we would be killed. The Khmer Rouge tortured and killed people in many different ways. They sometimes pushed people's heads into a barrel full of water. Sometimes they pulled out the finger-nails. Other times they dug three holes in a triangle shape and buried all of the people's bodies except for the heads. Then they put a pot on the heads and burned a fire until the people died. Sometimes they put people in a pot covered with a lid and built a fire. Many times they killed people by cutting out their livers with a knife. They buried the bodies but used the livers and gallbladders to make traditional medicine for fevers. Often they ate the livers. Sometimes they hanged people, and sometimes they covered their heads with plastic bags. Babies were thrown up in the air and came down on bayonets. Other times they grabbed babies' feet and hit them on tree stumps.
- My Mother’s courage by Arn Yan ( Children of Cambodia’s killing fields - memoirs by Survivors)
.
.
April 1975 - the month that most of these Cambodian kids leaving their home forever (some did come back eventually to their homeland but majority scattered across the
US). Many of them were being saved by the church organisation (i just couldn’t ignore the fact that most of these victims converted to christianity first then eventually were granted the assistance and aid but people do whatever they could to survive) and others were NGO, some ran to the neighbouring countries like Thailand and Malaysia before granted permission to move to US and other countries. This is my 6th book about Cambodian History and shockingly, Pol Pot Regime Atrocious Crime continued to be something new that i have to learn especially from the perspective of these children. They are adult now but the past never leave them. They were haunted by the memories of hardcore labor (forced to work for more than 16 hours per day), their parents, siblings and relatives were killed instantly, their house, land, property and even their childhood forever were confiscated along with the rise of Angkar administration. Majority of them never got to be kids at all when Khmer Rouge seized the territory and ruled with iron fist. Rape, Mutilation, Mass Killing and Death by Starvation is how Angkar instilled fear and for these kids - they survived by hoping that they are going to meet their parents or family one day. The book compiled 30 short stories from the survivors that made it out alive and it varied on how they managed to get out. However, all of them shared the same pain - of losing people that they loved, losing the country and losing the identity as Khmer Rouge kept brainwashing them to prioritise Angkar Propaganda. This is the only book that i have read that were very critical towards North Vietnamese Army. Vietnam War and Ho Chi Minh involvement in contributing the weaponry and also providing training to Khmer Rouge caused the destruction of Cambodian Institution and culture. Overall, this is heavy read - given the subject matters, it needed to be indulged slowly. I am sending love to all of the victims and survivors, may they find peace wherever they are , may their pain heal and may their trauma recover eventually.
- My Mother’s courage by Arn Yan ( Children of Cambodia’s killing fields - memoirs by Survivors)
.
.
April 1975 - the month that most of these Cambodian kids leaving their home forever (some did come back eventually to their homeland but majority scattered across the
US). Many of them were being saved by the church organisation (i just couldn’t ignore the fact that most of these victims converted to christianity first then eventually were granted the assistance and aid but people do whatever they could to survive) and others were NGO, some ran to the neighbouring countries like Thailand and Malaysia before granted permission to move to US and other countries. This is my 6th book about Cambodian History and shockingly, Pol Pot Regime Atrocious Crime continued to be something new that i have to learn especially from the perspective of these children. They are adult now but the past never leave them. They were haunted by the memories of hardcore labor (forced to work for more than 16 hours per day), their parents, siblings and relatives were killed instantly, their house, land, property and even their childhood forever were confiscated along with the rise of Angkar administration. Majority of them never got to be kids at all when Khmer Rouge seized the territory and ruled with iron fist. Rape, Mutilation, Mass Killing and Death by Starvation is how Angkar instilled fear and for these kids - they survived by hoping that they are going to meet their parents or family one day. The book compiled 30 short stories from the survivors that made it out alive and it varied on how they managed to get out. However, all of them shared the same pain - of losing people that they loved, losing the country and losing the identity as Khmer Rouge kept brainwashing them to prioritise Angkar Propaganda. This is the only book that i have read that were very critical towards North Vietnamese Army. Vietnam War and Ho Chi Minh involvement in contributing the weaponry and also providing training to Khmer Rouge caused the destruction of Cambodian Institution and culture. Overall, this is heavy read - given the subject matters, it needed to be indulged slowly. I am sending love to all of the victims and survivors, may they find peace wherever they are , may their pain heal and may their trauma recover eventually.
bookish_skies's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Genocide, and Child abuse
brittbrittcarter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.0
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