Dith Pran

Dith Pran was born on September 27, 1942, in Siem Reap. Self-taught in English and French, Pran became the indispensable guide, translator, and photojournalist for The New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg covering the Cambodian Civil War from 1972 to 1975, saving Schanberg's life when captured by early Khmer Rouge patrols.

Unable to escape when Phnom Penh fell in April 1975, Pran endured four years of horrific slave labor, torture, and starvation in the countryside, witnessing mass executions that led him to coin the immortal term 'The Killing Fields'. Escaping on foot through minefields to Thailand in 1979, he joined the staff of The New York Times in New York, dedicating his life to genocide documentation and education.