At its peak, Phu Quoc Prison (Kien Giang) held nearly 40,000 communist prisoners. The enemy’s 45 cruel torture methods could not overcome the patriotism of the steadfast revolutionary soldiers.
The “hell on earth”
A series of brutal torture methods such as electric shock, burning red-hot wire into the skin and flesh, drilling teeth or throwing into boiling water, burning alive… were used by the colonial and imperialist regimes for communist prisoners at the Vietnam Communist Prisoner Camp – Phu Quoc (abbreviated as Phu Quoc Prison). This place was known as “hell on earth”, causing thousands of revolutionary soldiers to sacrifice their lives.
Around the end of 1966 and the beginning of 1967, the US and its puppet regime built the Vietnam Communist Prisoner Camp – Phu Quoc in An Thoi Valley, south of Phu Quoc City.
The prison was built on an area of 400 hectares, with nearly 500 houses, divided into 12 areas (each area has 2 sub-areas) and 10 zones (each area has 4 sub-areas named in order A, B, C, D). By 1972, the prison had about 36,000 prisoners.
Each camp area could hold about 3,000 prisoners. Around each sub-area were 4 guard posts that guarded 24/24 hours and 10 mobile guard posts. The camp was surrounded by nearly 10 layers of barbed wire.
The first punishment that communist prisoners had to endure was the “tiger cage”. The “tiger cages” were placed outdoors with sharp barbed wire. Prisoners were locked in there, stripped naked, only allowed to wear a pair of thin pants, exposed to the sun and dew outside.
The “tiger cages” were designed to be narrow, with many layers of barbed wire, so if a prisoner moved or changed position, the barbed wire would pierce his body and cause bleeding. In the “tiger cages”, prisoners were only allowed to eat a little rice with salt or plain rice, and were only given 1-2 cups of drinking water each day, and had to defecate and urinate on the spot.
Opposite the “tiger cages” were 10-15 layers of barbed wire fences with a dense lighting system surrounding each housing area. The prison guards and hunting dogs, at their peak, numbered up to four battalions of mobile soldiers, guarding and patrolling day and night.
One of the 45 most horrifying punishments was for the enemy to put prisoners in sacks and throw them into a pot of boiling water and boil them until they died.
They used many savage torture methods on prisoners, from putting revolutionary soldiers in sacks on a coal-heated pan, sprinkling chili powder on their wounds…
The enemy used nails to hammer into the knees and feet of the soldiers.
A form of torture was to bury prisoners alive.
They used wooden sticks to knock out the teeth of the patriotic revolutionary prisoners.
More frighteningly, they threw the prisoners into barrels filled with water, one pressed their heads down, the other used a mallet to hit them hard, causing the soldiers to choke on water and painfully break their ears.
Having nails longer than 10cm into the knees and shoulders was one of their cruel torture methods.
…to pressing on the chest.
Not succumbing to the cruel tortures, indignant at the enemy’s cruelty, the communist prisoners organized hundreds of struggles, escaping by digging tunnels through the prison camp.
The revolutionary soldiers used every possible tool to dig the tunnels such as the lid of the tin can, stainless steel spoons… The tunnel mouth was often located under the bed of terminally ill prisoners to avoid inspection by the prison guards.
After 4 months of persistent digging, the soldiers dug a tunnel about 120m long.
The images recorded all kinds of torture such as hammering nails into the head, joints of the hands, knees; burning red-hot wire and stabbing it into the flesh; chiseling teeth; knocking on barrels; covering with burlap bags, putting them in a pan of water and boiling them; exposing them in tiger cages; burning alive; buried alive…
In less than 6 years of the prison’s operation (from June 1967 to March 1973), Phu Quoc Prison had more than 4,000 deaths, tens of thousands of people were injured and disabled.
Most of the prisoners who were returned had permanent disabilities.
However, the brutal tortures still did not shake the will of the patriotic revolutionary prisoners. The Phu Quoc Prison is a “red address” to educate the young generation about the Vietnamese tradition of “When drinking water, remember its source”.
Source: collected by An
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