Question 1

True or false: Eyeglasses were banned because they were seen as a sign of intellectualism.

Accepted Answer

True. Wearing glasses could get you killed; the regime targeted intellectuals and anyone with signs of education or modernity.

Question 2

True or false: The Khmer Rouge abolished money and all forms of currency in Cambodia.

Accepted Answer

True. They outlawed money, banking, and markets, turning Cambodia into an agrarian barter society with no cash economy.

Question 3

True or false: The Khmer Rouge kept detailed written records of executions in Tuol Sleng prison.

Accepted Answer

True. They photographed and documented over 14,000 prisoners at S-21, leaving an extensive archive of confessions and mugshots.

Question 4

True or false: The Khmer Rouge encouraged religious freedom to maintain public morale.

Accepted Answer

False. They violently suppressed all religion, destroying temples and killing monks; Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity were outlawed.

Question 5

True or false: Pol Pot was a former schoolteacher with a degree from the Sorbonne.

Accepted Answer

False. Pol Pot studied in Paris but never earned a degree; he was a failed student and later a communist revolutionary.

Question 6

True or false: The Khmer Rouge used forced marriage as a tool of social engineering.

Accepted Answer

True. The regime orchestrated mass weddings, forcing people to marry partners chosen by the state to increase birth rates and loyalty.

Question 7

True or false: The genocide killed more people proportionally than the Holocaust.

Accepted Answer

False. While devastating, the Khmer Rouge killed about 2 million of 8 million people (25%), less than the Holocaust's 66% of European Jews.

Question 8

True or false: The United Nations recognized the Khmer Rouge as Cambodia's legitimate government until 1993.

Accepted Answer

False. The UN actually allowed the Khmer Rouge to hold Cambodia's seat from 1979 to 1990, after they were ousted from power.

Khmer Rouge genocide Trivia Questions