Children of Cambodia's killing fields : memoirs by survivors

This extraordinary book contains eyewitness accounts of life in Cambodia during Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, accounts written by survivors who were children at the time. The book has been put together by Dith Pran, whose own experiences in Cambodia were so graphically portrayed in the film __The Killing Fields__. The testimonies related here bear poignant witness to the slaughter the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the Cambodian people. The contributors—most of them now in the United States and pictured in photographs that accompany their stories—report on life in Democratic Kampuchea as seen through children's eyes. They speak of their bewilderment and pain as Khmer Rouge cadres tore their families apart, subjected them to harsh brainwashing, drove them from their homes to work in forced-labor camps, and executed captives in front of them. Their stories tell of suffering and the loss of innocence, the struggle to survive against all odds, and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit. "This extraordinary book contains eyewitness accounts of life in Cambodia during Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, accounts written by survivors who were children at the time. The memoirs were gathered by Dith Pran, whose own experiences in Cambodia were so graphically portrayed in the film The Killing Fields." "These testimonies bear shattering witness to the slaughter committed by the Khmer Rouge. The contributors - most of them now living in the United States and pictured in photographs that accompany their stories - report on life in Democratic Kampuchea as seen through children's eyes. They speak of their bewilderment and pain as Khmer Rouge cadres tore their families apart, subjected them to brainwashing, drove them from their homes to work in forced-labor camps, and executed captives in front of them. Their stories tell of suffering, the loss of innocence, the struggle to survive against all odds, and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit."--Jacket Contents 7 Compiler's Note 9 Introduction: A World Turned Upside Down 11 Songs My Enemies Taught Me 22 A Letter to My Mother 28 Worms from Our Skin 32 One Spoon of Rice 40 Memoir of a Child's Nightmare 48 New Year's Surprise 56 The Dark Years of My Life 64 Jail Without Walls 72 Witnessing the Horror 78 The Unfortunate Cambodia 88 Living in the Darkness 94 A Four-Year-Old's View of the Khmer Rouge 104 The Tragedy of My Homeland 110 Hurt, Pain, and Suffering 114 The Darkness of My Experience 122 Survival in Spite of Fear 126 Pol Pot 132 A Bitter Life 136 The Unplanned Journey 144 Motherland 150 My Mother's Courage 156 Escaping the Horror 164 When the Owl Cries 168 The End of Childhood 176 My Sadness 182 Life in Communism 188 The Nightmare 192 The Tonle Sap Lake Massacre 206 Notes to the Introduction 216 Glossary 218