Through Hell and Back
Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields by Dith Pran is a very moving book about the takeover by the Khmer Rouge under the rule of Pol Pot. It’s filled with stories from survivors who retell their story, and survival of the genocide. All stories were told by adults who went through the regime as children. All were survivors in a part of history. Now the children’s voices of Cambodia’s killing fields can be heard. The book was written to retell a piece of history, and to make sure the history is never lost. The survivors wanted people to be aware of what they had gone through. Sarom Prak wanted people notified what happened to the people of Cambodia (71). They wanted their stories to be heard throughout the world. They don’t want another genocide to happen again in Cambodia, or anywhere around the world. The children are making their stories examples of the pain that can be caused by genocide. They want make sure nobody ever has to go through the pain they had gone through. These children were survivors during a dark time in history in Cambodia. But their stories were not solely to retell their own, but also the ones who couldn’t. The people who died during the regime were never able to let their stories be heard. These stories were also made to honor everyone who died during the Khmer Rouges ruling whether from malnutrition, malaria, getting beat or getting shot. Three different survivors added at the end of their story that they dedicated it to family and others who died in Cambodia (65,91,81). The spirit of the people killed lives on through these stories. They deserve to be recognized, and although they were unable to survive the Khmer rule, they also played a part in the history. People should know how they died, and also what they went through. The survivors do a good job of retelling other stories within theirs.