First They Killed My Father Book Summary – The genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 is almost unfathomable. It was carried out so quickly and on such a scale that estimates of the number of victims vary widely; we may never know the full extent of these crimes. Statistics and secondary sources will never truly convey the horror of what it meant to confront this sudden, brutal reality.
Much like Anne Frank’s diary, Loung Ung’s First They Killed My Father, gives a personal account of what it was like as a child to be faced with a regime that sought to systematically exterminate large portions of its citizens.
Ung’s is a story of resilience that will truly inspire you. Her perspective as a refugee in the United States has allowed her to reflect on and process what she has been through. Hers is a story, above all, about the strength of family bonds.
For Loung Ung, the day that forever changed her life began like any other. The year was 1975, and she was five years old.
She was playing with her friends on the balcony of her family’s apartment. There was nothing out of the ordinary to speak of – but by the end of the afternoon, her old life would be but a distant memory.
Her middle-class family lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. Her father was a high-ranking military official and, as a result, the family could live in comparative luxury, several stories up in a modern apartment block.
In contrast, Phnom Penh’s poor lived without modern conveniences in makeshift tents.
The author and her siblings were fortunate. Not only did they have the luxury of going to school six days a week, they also went to the cinema, ate out and regularly went shopping. Her father even drove a fancy Mazda sports car, a symbol of wealth and status that few in Cambodia at that time could afford.
But on that April day, from her family’s balcony, Ung saw a swarm of soldiers marching into the city.
Her father later told her that they were the Khmer Rouge. This Communist rebel army had been fighting a civil war against Cambodia’s incumbent, democratic government – and the rebels had just won. The Khmer Rouge’s form of communism demanded that Cambodian citizens should all live simple, peasant lives off the land.
The soldiers were equipped with megaphones. As they marched through the city, they hollered at people to leave its confines, or else they would be shot down.
When she went back inside the apartment, Ung witnessed her family throwing their possessions into suitcases. Within a few hours, she, her parents, her two sisters and her three brothers left their family home, never to return.
They piled into an old truck and made their way out of the city. They weren’t alone; tens of thousands of other city dwellers were also fleeing.
Before escaping Phnom Penh, Ung’s family had led comfortable lives, as befitted their high social status. But their world was turned upside down the moment they left the city. Under the new Khmer Rouge regime, they were now seen as the lowest of the low, de facto enemies of the state.
If the family was to stand any chance of surviving, Ung’s father had to keep their identities a secret from the regime.
A few days after fleeing their home, the family arrived at a Khmer Rouge checkpoint. There, soldiers were tasked with asking civilians fleeing the city of their previous occupations. Anyone who admitted they had been connected with the overthrown government was escorted away. Ung believes that these people were all murdered soon thereafter.
Her father, as a military official for the previous government, knew he and his family were at risk – so he lied and said that he was a peasant farmer. Then it was her mother’s turn. She said she sold clothes at a local market. While they were allowed to pass, it was just the beginning of the deceit. From now on, they would always have to conceal their true selves.
Her family wasn’t just a target for……..
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