A single Cell

Conditions were brutal, these are the rules and regulations as translated and posted at the entrance to the museum.

The Security Of Regulation

1. You must answer accordingly to my questions . Don't turn them away.

2. Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.

3. Don't be a fool for you ar a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.

4. You must immediately answer my question without wasting time to reflect. 

5. Don't tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.

6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.

7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders.  If there is no order, keep quiet.  When I ask you to do something you must do it right away without protesting

8. Don't make pretest about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.

9. If you don't follow all the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire.

10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes of five shocks of electric discharge.

Van Nath  -  Official artist of Tuol Sleng 

One of only 7 people to live to tell the victims tale,   Van Nath  survived because of his talent for painting propaganda portraits of Pol Pot.  

He was detained for a year before his  liberation and returned to Tuol Sleng on the anniversary of his freedom to recreate the horrendous scenes of torture he had witnessed.  His works still hang here. 

Van Nath  was working at the museum with director Rith Panh on the docudrama Bophana when his path unintentionally crossed with some of the former guards.  This resulted in another incredibly moving film, "S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine," where torturers and victims come together to talk about what happened only 30 years ago.