Recording
Khmer Oral History Project: Interview with Thaly Chhour
The Khmer Oral History Project interview with Thaly Chhour records a young woman's survival of the Khmer Rouge years and her new life in Minnesota.[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
The fighting that came before the Khmer Rouge regime drove Thaly Chhour and her family from their home village. They moved to Phnom Penh and lived there until 1975. She was 14 when the Khmer Rouge came to power, and her father and brothers died in 1976.[1]
Her mother and sisters survived starvation and repeated illness, but life was no better for them in the refugee camps near the Thai-Cambodian border. After the family reached Khao I Dang refugee camp, they were sponsored to come to the United States. She speaks of adapting to life in Minnesota.[1]
The collection
The Khmer Oral History Project grew out of a mock trial of the Khmer Rouge leadership held at the Minnesota State Capitol on June 9, 1990. Community members were interviewed on videotape about the genocide years in Cambodia, the refugee camps and their emigration to the United States.[2] The 15 interviews run 16 hours and 24 minutes in all. Each has a transcript in English and, where appropriate, Khmer, for a total of 414 pages in English and 81 in Khmer.[2]
Credits
Thaly Chhour 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]