Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Cambodian National Museum
Former Security Prison 21 by the Santebal
The exterior of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, 2006
Location of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum within Cambodia
Interactive map of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Coordinates11°32′58″N 104°55′04″E / 11.54944°N 104.91778°E / 11.54944; 104.91778
Other namesS-21
Known forGenocide, mass murder and torture of enemies of the Khmer Rouge
LocationSt.113, Boeung Keng Kang III, Khan Boeng Keng Kang, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Operated byKhmer Rouge
CommandantKang Kek Iew
Original useHigh school
OperationalS-21 as institution = August 1975, The buildings of the former high school = beginning 1976
InmatesPolitical enemies of the Khmer Rouge, ethnic minorities, religious minorities and leaders.
Number of inmates18,145 prisoners, probably more
Killed18,133 (source: ECCC list of the inmates by the co-prosecutors in Case 001/01)
Liberated byPeople's Army of Vietnam
Notable inmatesBou Meng, Chum Mey, and Vann Nath
Websitetuolsleng.gov.kh
Part ofCambodian Memorial Sites: From centres of repression to places of peace and reflection
CriteriaCultural: vi
Reference1748-002
Inscription2025 (47th Session)

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum for the Cambodian genocide. Located in Phnom Penh, the site is a former secondary school used as an internment facility known as Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 until its fall in 1979. From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng as one of between 150 and 196 torture and execution centers established by the Khmer Rouge and their secret police.

On 26 July 2010, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia convicted the prison's chief, Kang Kek Iew, for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. He died in 2020 while serving a life sentence.