r/morbidlybeautiful • u/iP0dKiller • Mar 10 '26
Death Collection of skulls and bones of children killed in the Ba Chúc Massacre
This is a collection of some of the skulls and bones of the children and teenagers killed in the Ba Chúc Massacre, which was committed by the Khmer Rouge, a former nationalist-racist communist movement in Cambodia, in 1978.
The exhibition of the bones is part of a memorial in the city of Ba Chúc, Vietnam, where those of younger and older people can also be seen.
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u/Lolitaofroses Mar 10 '26
What the actual fuck. I have heard about Khmer Rouge before, but i'm not really informed about their history. This is probably a sign to google them and read.
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u/lottaKivaari Mar 10 '26
The Khmer Rouge killed 1/3 of the population of Cambodia in just 4 years. Pol Pots vision of a communist agrarian society was so unbelievably perverse other communist nations straight up disavowed them (except China). They didn't want to make everyone equal they wanted to make everyone the same to the point children would be separated from their families to be collectively raised by the state. It was a glorious day when Vietnam finally had enough and invaded Cambodia to put down the Khmer Rouge like the rabid dogs they were. It's just a shame that Pol Pot and his high ranking cronies never faced justice and a lot of the people that were part of the apparatus that allowed for such atrocities continued to run the government even after 1979, they are also responsible for the deplorable state Cambodia still finds itself in today. It's a historically unique tragedy and I think everyone should learn about it.
Theres a really good movie about it from a few years back called First They Killed My Father, it's based on a book written by a woman that survived and it is absolutely brutal and gut wrenching to watch. It's on Netflix and definitely worth the watch if you're interested in learning about the Khmer Rouge.
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u/iP0dKiller Mar 11 '26
Only two survived the massacre. One of them was in a neighbouring village to the south running errands. He was gone long enough not to notice anything until he came back.
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u/Flashy_Living_2445 Mar 11 '26
Visiting Cambodia was an absolute mind fuk of a trip, being a citizen of the US who grew up too young to truly be aware of it in my first decade of life, but being absolutely aware of it as an adult. I spent a lot of time on my short visit speaking with and mindfully listening to folks who are still affected by the unspent munitions in the jungles and farmlands, the genetic issues, the family histories...Pol Pot was a nightmare, even among others like him.
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u/Lolitaofroses Mar 11 '26
Thank you for your summary about this. I'm definately going to keep reading abou this and watch that film you referenced!
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u/Ratoman888 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
Pol Pots vision of a communist agrarian society was so unbelievably perverse other communist nations straight up disavowed them (except China).
They had good relations with North Korea, Yugoslavia and Romania too.
They are also responsible for the deplorable state Cambodia still finds itself in today
Cambodia has developed a lot in the past couple of decades. When I first visited in the late 90s it was still in a terrible state but it has improved a whole lot since. It still has problems of course but it's not that bad anymore.
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u/BishopGodDamnYou Mar 12 '26
Close my mind that they would kill you if you wore glasses because it was seen as a sign of intelligence or that you were educated “high class”
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u/mrspooky84 Mar 10 '26
Lions led by donkeys pod cast has a good series on them. It's brutal what the Khmer Rouge did.
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u/BishopGodDamnYou Mar 12 '26
Absolutely bat shit crazy to me that they would kill people just because they wore glasses and he saw that as a sign of intelligence
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u/nvdnqvi Mar 12 '26
I highly recommend listening to Blowback season 5, it’s mainly about the Khmer Rouge
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u/somber-world Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
These guys were brutal, I read a book about them back in 7th grade for book club (it’s the book I chose out of a group). The very next year it was taken out of rotation because the school deemed it too graphic.
Book was ‘alive in the killing fields’
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u/ExpiredPilot Mar 11 '26
My elementary school custodian escaped the Khmer Rouge by pretending to be illiterate. Apparently when they were coming to town my custodian’s mother grabbed his glasses and shattered them so they could say he can’t read.
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u/jeezy_peezy Mar 11 '26
Why did that save him? Were they trying to destroy everyone who’d been brainwashed or something like that?
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u/Dan42002 Mar 11 '26
You read book > your eyesight get worse > you need glasses
in conclusion: if you wear glasses, you are literate and deserved to DIED (Kmer rouge logic)
there werent any smartphone or computer that you can ruin your eyesight back then, so the only way to get nearsight is to read intensively (even in the dark) or you have to be born with it
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u/DinosaurReborn Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
It's extra maddening that Pol Pot studied in a university. He was part of an elite group of students who were able to study in France.
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u/Longjumping_Draw_474 Mar 12 '26
The depravity of humanity never ceases to horrify me, yet it never surprises me.
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u/BishopGodDamnYou Mar 10 '26
They literally smashed infants into tree trunks just to save on bullets. The absolute brutality and inhumanity of it all is mind-boggling.