The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives are now accessible to the public through a digital database and website. The website is the culmination of a three-year project to digitize and preserve the rich documentary heritage at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which has been implemented by UNESCO in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia and with the generous financial support of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
The museum has completed the digitization of more than 60,000 documents, almost half a million pages, including photographs, biographies of detainees, notebooks, propaganda magazines, forced confessions and other written materials. All the information containing in the documents, amounting to over 4 million data elements, has been compiled in a digital database that now is being made accessible to family members, researchers and the general public through the website that was officially launched on 29 January 2021. At the event, the Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, H.E. Bandit Sapheacha Phoeurng Sackona appreciated UNESCO’s support and collaboration in digitizing and preserving the archives at Tuol Sleng Museum. Referring to the online digital database that has resulted from the project, Mr Sardar Umar Alam, UNESCO Representative to Cambodia, said that “now the stories of the thousands of prisoners that were held at the S-21 prison are accessible to all Cambodians and the global community. Stories that will help us learn from the past and build a better future. Stories of people, that the Khmer Rouge regime tried to erase, and now will live forever”. Along the same lines, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, H.E. Park Heung-kyeong highlighted that “the archives are deeply meaningful in terms of the remembrance of the dark history of Cambodia and to raise awareness of this dark history”.
As part of the project, UNESCO has also upgraded the archives preservation facility to ensure that the rich documentary heritage of the museum is maintained in the best possible conditions for generations to come, following international standards in preservation and conservation. Two multimedia spaces have been installed in the museum premises to allow visitors scroll through the digitized documents and learn more about the importance of the archives. Through its implementation partners, Digital Divide Data (DDD) and Brechin, the project has trained museum staff with the latest paper conservation and digitization techniques to continue the digitization and preservation work of the documents in the future.
The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme inscribed the Museum Archives in its International Register in July 2009 to recognize their historical importance. In 2020 the project to digitize and preserve the archives was awarded with the UNESCO / Jikji Memory of the World Prize 2020, recognizing the role of the Tuol Sleng Museum to promote peace and ensure, through its archives, that such terrible crimes are never repeated again.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives preservation and digitization project
Through the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (TSGM) archives preservation and digitization project, UNESCO has preserved and provided universal access to the historical archives of the “S-21” prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. From 1976-1979, the site served as an interrogation and extermination center, operated by the regime of “Democratic Kampuchea”, commonly known as the “Khmer Rouge regime”.
The goal of the project has been to promote peace and intercultural dialogue, facilitate reconciliation efforts, and expand educational outreach, including through the preservation and digitization of the TSGM archives.
About the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Tuol Sleng, or also known as prison number “S-21”, was one of the most notorious interrogation and extermination centres of the “Democratic Kampuchea” regime (1975-79). Formerly a school building, S-21 served as a prison for more than 18,000 prisoners and their families, many of them Khmer Rouge themselves. Prisoners were systematically tortured and murdered on site or on the killing field of Choeung Ek. In 1979, the premises of “S-21” were secured as an important evidence for the crimes committed under the regime and turned into a museum.
Today, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum hosts a permanent exhibition on the history of the site and serves as a memorial to those who were persecuted and killed under the Khmer Rouge regime.
To access the digitized Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archives, click here, or scan the QR code below.