Recording
Khmer Oral History Project: Interview with Samphoun Em
The Khmer Oral History Project interview with Samphoun Em records a young man's forced labor under the Khmer Rouge and his escape to Thailand.[1] It is one of 15 interviews in the Khmer Oral History Project, recorded in St. Paul, Minnesota, in July and August 1992.[2]
About the recording
Samphoun Em was 19 when the Khmer Rouge came to power. He and his family were evacuated from their village and separated. He and two of his siblings were sent to work in a camp about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from his home village. Many people there starved to death, among them his sister. He developed asthma and needed medicine, so he escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand. He later immigrated to the United States.[1]
The collection
The Khmer Oral History Project followed a mock trial of the Khmer Rouge leadership, held by the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee at the Minnesota State Capitol on June 9, 1990. Members of Minnesota's Khmer community served as witnesses and told of their lives from 1975 to 1979.[2]
In the project that followed, community members were interviewed on videotape about the genocide years, the refugee camps and their emigration to the United States. The 15 interviews run 16 hours and 24 minutes in all, and each has a transcript in English and, where appropriate, Khmer.[2]
Credits
Samphoun Em is the narrator. No interviewer is named for this recording, and the project lists its interviewers as various. Copyright in the interviews is held by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights.[1][2]
Access
- Minnesota Historical Society collections: interview record
- No item number, access restriction or online recording link is published.[1]