Not all travel days are happy days. And today was among the hardest. It was the kind of day that sends your head spinning and a leaves you with a nauseous, sinking feeling in your belly. Today we learned about and saw evidence of one of the greatest human atrocities not only in recent history, but perhaps all time. We had read stories and a synopsis in our guidebook so I should have been prepared, but now in retrospect, I had absolutely no idea what was in store for us.

We began the day at the Tuol Sleng Prison, also known as S-21, in Phnom Penh. It was at this former high school that the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed some 17,000 people. Doctors, teachers, government officials, and pretty much anybody with an education were imprisoned here. Men, women, and children were tortured with farm tools and electrocution by Khmer Rouge (KR) soldiers until they signed confessions stating they were members of either the KGB or CIA. Confession or not, they were hauled off to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (our second stop of the day) where they were killed and thrown into mass graves. The goal of this communist regime was to exterminate anyone who they believed had a good enough head on their shoulders to rebel against them. They wanted only compliant members of society. It was in many ways a sort of intellectual genocide. All in all, an estimated 2 million Cambodians were massacred in the less than 4 years the KR remained in power. And in a country of only 6 million that shakes and shatters your entire foundation (40% of Cambodia is under the age of 18 and it is among the poorest nation in SE Asia).

And like many dictatorships, they recruited the poor and uneducated to do the dirty work for them. They specifically sought out young people from the countryside who had little hope or promise for a better future. The harsh evidence is that similar to the Nazi's, the KR kept meticulous records of the brutality and injustices, as if boasting about the crimes they committed. The former classrooms of the S-21 prison are lined with wall after wall of photo evidence depicting the atrocities committed. As we perused the countless photos of KR prison guards and their victims, I couldn't help but notice how similar the toturers looked to the victims. It was literally Cambodians killing Cambodians.

And where was the world during all this? This is among the hardest things to comprehend. We all stood by and did nothing. In fact, the UN allowed the Khmer to occupy a representative seat in 1979 and the US supported their return to power in the 1980's (in attempt to retaliate on the Vietnamese, who were fighting to oust the Khmer). It sickens me to think our government is aware of such atrocities and turns a blind eye or even goes as far as to SUPPORT such heinous endeavors. And in so recent history (literally only 30 years ago).

As we walk around the large holes that are the mass graves of thousands of Cambodians, bits of clothing and bone fragments emerging from the soil, I can't help but be filled with sadness and disbelief at what I am witnessing. On the verge of tears, I desperately hope that some day "genocide" and "acts against humanity" will be things of the past; a distant memory of what people did before we understood we are all human.