Favorites of 2023: Kunthear Mam-Douglas Retraces Her Escape
Kunthear Mam-Douglas of University Park traveled to her birth country, Cambodia, last year to retrace the journey her family and many others took to escape after the Khmer Rouge regime seized power in the 1970s.
An estimated 2 million people – about a quarter of the country’s population – were killed during the Khmer Rouge occupation from 1975 to 1979, according to the USC (University of Southern California) Shoah Foundation.
Mam-Douglas came from a well-to-do family in Cambodia before the regime took power. Her father was an educator and a gemologist.
A story about this escape made former deputy editor Rachel Snyder’s favorite stories of 2023.
(READ: All our favorites of 2023)
