Survivor Interview and Narrative Assignment
...ent carried out a radical program of evacuating cities, closing schools and factories, and herding the population into collective farms. Intellectuals and skilled workers were assassinated, and a total of as many as 1.5 million died, inclusive of starvation and forced marches. My father survived this by following all of the directions that he was told to do. Each person was to work relentlessly for two lousy small meals each day. My father’s entire family member survived this event. After they were freed my grandpa had died of not getting enough nutrients during the three years the Khmer Rouge took place. Through the whole event Pon had learned that you must value everything you have. He reminds his children constantly that we are so lucky for what we have and tells us his stories of how he had to work so hard for the smallest portions of food he’s ever seen in his life. He has also learned that having intelligence is a very handy thing to acquire because if he hadn’t been so shar...