War & Conflict — The Book Roads

Survival in the Killing Fields

Haing S. Ngor

Survival in the Killing Fields is the harrowing memoir of Haing S. Ngor, a Cambodian doctor who survived the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. Before the regime took power, Ngor worked as a physician and lived with his wife in Phnom Penh. Under the new government, educated professionals were persecuted, cities were emptied, and millions of Cambodians were forced into labour camps, where starvation, disease, torture, and execution became part of everyday life. Ngor recounts his experiences of forced labour, imprisonment, and the desperate struggle to stay alive while concealing his medical training. He also describes the devastating loss of his wife and the collapse of the life he had once known. After the Khmer Rouge regime fell, he eventually escaped Cambodia and resettled in the United States. His memoir offers a firsthand account of one of the darkest periods in Cambodian history. It is both a testimony to the suffering inflicted on ordinary people and a reflection on the resilience required to survive war, persecution, and profound personal loss.

Cambodia 2003