Testament of the Spirit-Historical Note

Testament of the Spirit
by SpaceCowboy

Disclaimers in Author's Note/Prologue.

Testament of the Spirit
- Historical Clarification-

I received several e-mails concerning the historical event that this story was based upon, so I decided to add this section in order to clear things up. Although the story begins with a passage from Anne Frank, the story is neither based on Hitler nor Nazi Germany. In fact, the quote at the beginning of chapter four is from a novel based on the same historical event as Testament of the Spirit.

“Here we are gentlemen. Plenty of blood around as you can see! Problem is, it’s in the wrong fucking place!”
- Christopher Hudson
‘The Killing Fields’

But unlike my story, The Killing Fields is based on true events, and tells the non-fictional story of real life journalist, Schanberg.

The historical event in my story was based on the Khmer Rouge occupation of Cambodia from 1973 to 1975. The character, Blasius, was imaged after the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot. Khmer is the official language and government of Cambodia, while the Khmer Rouge is it’s communist faction- that being based on Taoist ideals, not Stalinism. Pol Pot’s manifesto was to take over Cambodia, then Thailand and Viet Nam. He did exactly what I described in my story- killing off any intellectuals who might revolt against him. He even killed their children, theorizing that they would grow up to resent him for killing their parents.

He managed to kill approximately 2 million people in a short time span (1973-75) and dumped the bodies in a large field called ‘Cheung Eck’; translated- The Waiting Room for Death. Or more commonly called, the killing fields. What probably shocks most people, is that this only happened in the 70’s. And, like I mentioned at the end of the story, no one was convicted or charged for any crimes. Pol Pot died only a few years ago, and the Khmer Rouge is still active in Cambodia today- although not in power.

People still fear an education because of this presence, resulting in the average age of a doctor being either late 20’s or late 70’s. Pol Pot eradicated an entire generation of intellectuals- as well as monuments, historical documents, schools, and almost an entire culture- of which was also his.

In short, the country was literally bombed back to the stone age. But today, the country is currently re-building. Recently having come back from Cambodia, I was actually able to visit the places (Killing fields and prison) I wrote about in my story. One difference was that of the actual prison. It wasn’t located beside the killing fields, and it wasn’t a cave either. The real prison was actually an old school Pol Pot converted to suit his own means- it’s sadly ironic.

If you want to know more, I highly recommend either the novel or film- The Killing Fields.

Thanks
SpaceCowboy.

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Two folks have made comments

So sad to know that events like this occurred even more sad to know that events as horrific continue to occur... just go to http://www.amnesty.org/ and learn more.

Thank you for sharing this painful but important story. I look forward to your sequel.

you know this.. it makes you sick to think theres people who would do this, thank you for sharing this with me i had not been aware of this event and it really prevents the memory being lost. thank you. this was amazing to read and more amazing to find out the real event.