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Summary: Witness Who Miraculously Survived the S 21 Killing Machine
Comment: Meeting Mr Vann Nath, one thinks of Nelson Mandela. He is a human being of binary virtue - gentleness with strength, compassion with durability. This story is told in a direct and unadorned style, rendering his terrifying testimony with a minimum of judgement. When the unthinkable happened to his country in 1975, and an ultra-Maoist fringe group unleashed the most radical of revolutions on a broken, exhausted Cambodia, Vann Nath was not to know that his ensuing story would one day be known all over the world, surpassing any story of surviving the odds thought up by fiction writers. Vann Nath's "Prison Diary" is an excellent doorway for westerners trying to grasp what happened, and what it would have been like to be caught ala Winston Smith by the all-seeing "Angkar" in Pol Pot's psychotic regime. This memoir's purpose, consistent with Mr Vann's life since 1979, is to teach and heal. As one of the most extraordinary examples of first-person survival ever written, his prison diary should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the universal. It is a story of dignity, paradox and the search for meaning in real-life nightmares.
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Summary: Vann Nath Gives a Face to Tuol Sleng Prison
Comment: Vann Nath is one of seven surviors to have left Tuol Sleng prison alive. Prior to his arrest, Vann Nath was the partial owner of a small art business, specializing in landscapes and other illustrations capturing Khmer life.
However, following the fall of Phnom Penh to Khmer Rouge forces, and the subsequent exodus, Vann found himself survinving in the Cambodian countryside, participating in the agrarian "offensive" engineered by the DPK leadership. Like many others, Vann was arrested with no warning and even less reason and transported to Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21.
At first, Vann Nath was no different from the thousands of other Khmer citizens summonded to S-21 for painful interrogation and ultimate execution. But, due to the meticulous record keeping of the DPK's security organization, Santebal, it was discovered that prior to the revolution Vann was an artist; a skill that would eventually save his life.
Although most intellectuals, dancers, etc. were "smashed" at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, it is a strange twist of fate that someone with the ability to create was spared. The comandant of S-21, Duch, brought Vann Nath and other artists out of the mass detention cells and placed them in a small, segregated block were they were forced, under penalty of torture and death to create images of Pol Pot and other high ranking DPK cadre. The smallest flaw would have lead to extermination at the killing fields at Choeng Ek.
Vann Nath was held prisoner at S-21 for roughly one year. During that time he was a silent witness to the mass insantiy that plagued Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime. His first hand experience is captured in a number of paintings on display at Tuol Sleng prison today. His paintings hang next to and illustrate the uses of the assorted torture implements displayed in Building B. The paintings grant the viewer a graphic and intimate aquantince with the whips, cages, electric wires, water tourture devices and the host of other barbaric tools.
Aside from capturing life inside S-21, Vann recreates his time spent in the countryside, working as a human tool in the Khmer Rouge collectives. Although his paintings are slightly crude, they remain extremly powerful. The image of a black clad soldier ripping a baby from the arms of its screaming mother, while other soldiers whip the woman with electrical wires nearly forces the viewer to turn away. The image of masked, imaciated bodies kneeling on the edge of a mass grave, waiting for the resounding crack of a wooden ox cart handle caving in their skulls makes the casaul observer nauseous. His images bring forth the true horrors of Cambodia's bloody past.
Being one of only a few survivors of S-21, Vann Nath was instrumental in the creation of Tuol Sleng Museum, housed in the former prison itself. Due to years of hard work, and the unimaginable task of exorsising past demons, the lessons of the Khmer Rouge and S-21 won't be quickly forgotten. Following the fall of Phnom Penh in 1979, the Vietnamese, with the help of Vann Nath and others, created the Tuol Sleng Museum as well as the Choeng Ek Genocide Center 15 minutes outside of the city.
It is interesting to see the name of Vann Nath appear countless time in the academic works of such notable scholars as David Chandler and Ben Kiernan. Aside from capturing the magnitude of horrors conducted at S-21 though paint, Vann serves as a living well of history, drawn upon by nearly every reputable scholar or other interested party seeking to learn more about the Khmer Rouge regime.
We must truly admire Vann Nath's self-sacrifice in accepting this role and serving it well, for without him and others like him, the knowledge of what truly transpired in those years of national psychosis would be buried along with countless others in shallow graves thoughout the Cambodian countryside.
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Summary: We were just tools for them to use
Comment: This book is a prime eye-witness of the slaughtering at Pol Pot's secret prison S-21 in Red Khmer Cambodia. Vann Nath is one of the seven (!) inmates out of more than 14000, who survived the bloodshed, because as a painter he could provide useful big portraits of Pol Pot.
What is remarkable in this book is the fact that Vann Nath forgives his former torturers: 'We were just tools for them to use'.
Nonetheless, he regrets that 'Pol Pot died unpunished ... and perhaps the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders will never be punished.' (p. 118)
This book contains some pictures of the author's gripping paintings about this horrible prison, where whole families (men, women, children and BABIES) were clubbed unconscious with iron bars before their throats were cut.
The author is one of the main characters of the remarkable documentary movie by Rithy Panh 'S21 - The Khmer Rouge Death Machine'. A chilling masterpiece.
I must also recommend the magisterial analysis of Pol Pot's death camp by Prof. David Chandler 'Voices from S-21'.
A must read.
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Summary: Vann Nath, a wonderful, gentle, survivor.
Comment: Please read this book, then do a web search of Vann Nath and read about him today. I met with Vann Neth 3 times on a recent trip to Cambodia (April and May 2004) and commissioned him to paint my Irish/Cambodian grandson in the Cambodian countryside. He created a beautiful portrait of this 3 year old in a pond with a small village in the background. Now my grandson, the son of a Cambodian refugee, can see himself in his other homeland. I can't speak for Vann Neth, but I can say that it seemed to please him greatly to be asked to paint Cambodian beauty as opposed to the torture pictures he is gets so many requests for.
A painting by Vann Neth is an honor to own, and hopefully, someday, my grandson will realize and appreciate the importance of this art. As for Vann Neth, he seems to desire to paint beauty, landscapes and healthy, happy, thriving Cambodian people. He is also trying to build a retirement community for elderly Khmer Rouge survivors in Battambang. Read the book, know it is his history, respect him for his gift of painting and if you really are touched by his journey, find him in Phnom Penh and ask him to paint you something that gives him pleasure or donate toward his retirement community, which will only cost 50k USD to build!
Peace, Holly
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Summary: Fascinating, first-person account...
Comment: Vann Nath reveals the terrors of the S-21 in the language that only those who have suffered severely can speak. This is a must read for anyone interested in the time and terrors of Pol Pot. I had little understanding of the Pol Pot Regime when I began this book but I came away with a much better understanding of this terrible time in Cambodia's history. Beautifully written and easy-to-read for the layman.
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