Dith Pran

@Photojournalist, Family and Childhood ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Dith Pran was a Cambodian photojournalist; he was a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide who later emerged as a crusader for justice in Cambodia American Media Personalities Journalists Libra Celebrities Dith Pran was a Cambodian photojournalist; he was a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide who later emerged as a crusader for justice in Cambodia. Born into a middle-class family, he had the privilege of receiving school education, unlike most of Cambodians. After learning French and English, he started working as an interpreter with the United States military forces. In the middle of the war crisis during the early 1970s, he met Sydney Schanberg, a journalist with whom he struck a lifelong friendship. The two worked together and witnessed the horrors of the Cambodian government's war with the communist regime, Khmer Rouge. But these horrors were later eclipsed by much greater ones that followed when the Khmer Rouge came to power. Majority of foreign reporters were permitted to leave the country but he was held back by the troops of the new regime. He was taken as a prisoner, tortured, and put to work as a farm laborer, in starving conditions of slavery for four years. Later, he attained freedom but returned home only to learn that most of his family had died in the Khmer ‘killing fields’. Concerned about his well-being, he escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand and contacted Schanberg, who helped him in relocating to United States. He spent the rest of his life as a photojournalist, advocating justice for fellow Cambodians. His story has been portrayed in the 1984 Academy Award winning movie ‘The Killing Fields’

Personal Details

Birthday: September 27, 1942 Died on: March 30, 2008 Nationality: American Famous: Photojournalist, Media Personalities, Journalists Birth Place: Siem Reap Gender: Male Sun Sign: Libra Information Detail Birthday September 27, 1942 Died on March 30, 2008 Nationality American Famous Photojournalist, Media Personalities, Journalists Birth Place Siem Reap Gender Male Sun Sign Libra Born in Siem Reap Famous as Photojournalist Died at Age 65

Siem Reap

Dith Pran born at Unsplash Birth Place

Dith Pran first married Ser Moeun Dith, with whom he had four children but the couple later divorced. Later, he got married to Kim DePaul but they also divorced. Unsplash Personal Life

He died of pancreatic cancer on March 30, 2008, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the age of 65. Unsplash Personal Life

Dith Pran was born on September 27, 1942, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. His father, Dith Proeung, was a public-works official who supervised the building of roads. Dith Pran had two sisters and three brothers. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He grew up near the ruins of the vast complex of temples called Angkor Wat in Cambodia and although most of his country was poor, he grew up in a middle-class family which could afford his school education. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He attended local schools, where he learnt French. He also became fluent in English on his own, and finished his high school in 1960. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

Dith Pran started his career as an interpreter for The United States Army where he served for five years. But after Cambodian government’s ties with the United States were severed, he lost his job as a translator. Unsplash Career

After that, he worked as a translator with a British film crew for a brief period and later served as a receptionist in a hotel near Angkor Wat. Unsplash Career

In 1970, a war ensued between the forces of Lon Nol, the then President of Cambodia, and the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian communist party. According to Khmer Rouge, the answer to Cambodia's problems was a return to subsistence farming and eradication of western influence on their culture. Unsplash Career

Later, he moved his family to Phnom Penh and started working as a journalist. In 1972, he met Sydney Schanberg, a New York Times writer who became fascinated by the war in Cambodia. Eventually, the two became close friends and, by 1973, he started working exclusively with Schanberg. Unsplash Career

As the war progressed, the Khmer Rouge emerged as a hardened and fanatical fighting force. Sensing that the victory of the Khmer Rouge was imminent, thousands of Cambodian people scrambled for any possible means of escape. Unsplash Career

He devoted all of his later life to activities dedicated to his fellow Cambodians who had suffered under the Khmer Rouge. He founded and became the president of the ‘Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project’, campaigning for recognition of the Cambodian genocide victims. Unsplash Major Works

Information	Detail
Birthday	September 27, 1942
Died on	March 30, 2008
Nationality	American
Famous	Photojournalist, Media Personalities, Journalists
Birth Place	Siem Reap
Gender	Male
Sun Sign	Libra
Born in	Siem Reap
Famous as	Photojournalist
Died at Age	65

Dith Pran

American

Sep 27, 1942

Biography

Personal Details

Siem Reap