Dith Pran was a Cambodian photo-journalist, and a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide. He was born in Siem Reap, Cambodia on September 27, 1942. Pran worked with Sydney Schanberg and was portrayed with him in a movie called "The Killing Fields" a name Pran gave for the horrific amounts of remains of victims he came in contact with on his escape to freedom. The movie shows the journey and struggles Pran and Schenberg went through to uncover the fall of Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge. Unfortunately while Pran's colleagues were able to leave the country Pran could not. Pran had to undergo the terrible treatment in the labor camps, and pretend he was not educated so he would not be executed for four years until he was able to escape after a 40 mile long journey to Thailand. When Dith made it back to America in 1980 he worked for the New York Times as a photo-journalist. In 1986 he became a US citizen. He founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project and recieves the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1998 and the Award of Excellence of the International Center. Dith survived through many rough times and was successful in his works. In March 2008 he died of pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed with it three months earlier. He was 65 at the time, but although his life was not very long he will always be remembered.