The Man Who Survived S-21 Because He Could Fix a Typewriter. Chum Mey was born in 1930 1930 in a small village in Kampong Cham province. An ordinary farmer and mechanic, he married his wife Teav Kim Hong in the 1950s and had four children. When the Khmer Rouge took power in April 1975, he was 45 years old and living quietly in Phnom Penh with his family.
Arrest and Arrival at S-21
In December 1978 – just weeks before the regime’s collapse – Chum Mey was arrested at his home in Toul Kork district. The accusation: being a “CIA agent” because he could repair sewing machines and typewriters. Soldiers tied his hands, blindfolded him, and threw him into a truck with dozens of others.
He arrived at Tuol Sleng (S-21) on 28 December 1978. Like every prisoner, he was photographed, stripped, shackled, and thrown into a tiny brick cell barely wider than his shoulders. His wife and children were taken separately – he would never see them again.
Twelve Days and Nights of Torture
For the first twelve days, Chum Mey was tortured relentlessly:
- Electric shocks to his ears and genitals
- Beatings with bamboo sticks and rifle butts
- Fingernails and toenails pulled out with pliers
- Whipped until his back was raw
- Waterboarded until he lost consciousness
The interrogators demanded he confess to being a CIA or KGB spy. Each time he denied it, the torture intensified. Finally, broken and bleeding, he signed a 40-page confession admitting to impossible crimes he had never committed in countries he had never visited.
The Typewriter That Saved His Life
On the thirteenth day, something extraordinary happened. Prison commander Duch needed a typewriter repaired for his office. When guards discovered Chum Mey was a mechanic, they pulled him from death row. For the next two weeks he became S-21’s unofficial repairman – fixing sewing machines, typewriters, and even Duch’s personal fan. This tiny skill kept him alive when almost everyone else was sent to Choeung Ek.
Liberation Day – 7 January 1979
When Vietnamese troops entered Phnom Penh, only seven prisoners were found alive in S-21. Chum Mey was one of them. He remembers hearing gunfire and then silence. A Vietnamese soldier kicked open his cell door and found him naked, covered in blood and faeces, barely able to stand. “I thought I was dreaming,” he later said.
The Search That Never Ended
After liberation, Chum Mey walked the streets searching for his wife and children. He found nothing. All four children and his wife had been executed at Choeung Ek. Their names are carved on the memorial stupa today.
Returning to Tell the Story
In 2009, at age 79, Chum Mey became the first S-21 survivor to testify at the Khmer Rouge tribunal against Duch. He looked his former torturer in the eye and said: “I do not want revenge. I want justice so this never happens again.”
Life Today – Age 95 (2025)
Chum Mey still comes to Tuol Sleng almost every morning. He sits quietly in the courtyard with his book Survivor (US$10 – all proceeds go to his family). When visitors approach, he smiles gently and says: “I am not angry. I survived to tell you what happened. Please remember my wife and children. Remember all of them.”
He has remarried, has new children and grandchildren, and lives in a small house near Phnom Penh. Every morning he returns to the prison that tried to kill him – not for hate, but so the world never forgets.
Chum Mey is the last direct voice of S-21. When he is gone, the story passes to us.