camp 14 notes
THE MOST EFFECTIVE FORM OF CONTROL IS VIOLENCE - VIOLENCE IS THE MOST MOTIVATING FORCE
the man who escaped kills time by not having any thoughts - i think he said he prefers to have no thoughts
the outside world was inconceivable to me - thought the bigger world would be the same as the labour camp - ( couldn’t think of any other possibility of how the world would be )
conditions where they lived were terrible - small space that was bedroom & kitchen, had to wear clothes in winter and slept on concrete floor
went to a public execution when he was 4
all the prisoners besides those who were working at the time, were forced to attend the execution
guard said prisoners had to work hard to fulfil or pay off their sentence - so the prisoners were being killed because they didn’t work hard
ppl get imprisoned for petty things
arrests were done in night in secret & if a family is being arrested they can never see each other again
inmates at camps are treated like animals and can’t defend themselves when being beaten
power given to the prison officers to do whatever they want with the inmates
if punished they were given one maize slice instead of 3 a day
5 rules of camp: no one can escape (anyone who has knowledge of an inmate escaping will also be shot), stealing is forbidden, must obey the officer of the state security department completely, men and women cannot be in contact in private (can only be in contact when working), inmates must have the deepest remorse for their own mistakes (those who have an opinion or cannot feel their guilt are immediately shot?)
women are sometimes sexually abused & get pregnant with a guards’ child
according to a former guard, women believe the guards will like them better if they are pregnant with their child
cannot refuse if a guard wants to take a women home
if get pregnant with the guards child, guards will make excuses & kill the woman
children could be executed at the camp as well
once a girl was caught with a few grains of corn in her pocket and was beaten terribly with a cane & so she died because the infection on her head from the beating got infected
when they saw that, the children thought it was normal for someone to be punished that severely
everyone watched anyone so he watched his parents and his parents watched him
when he was 14 his brother and mother were talking quietly at home
brother should have been at work & he was saying he had fled the cement factory
mother said he shouldn’t live with her & should flee to the mountains or escape the camp as quickly as possible
mother cooked some food for her brother from their stash of food for emergency
so he felt hurt because mother did not cook for him when he was hungry
he reported his brother to his teacher
if he didn’t report this to the teacher he and his father would have been accused of helping mother and brother escape - would have been victims of an execution
the next day, he was taken from school & was ‘deported’ to the prison at the camp
would intimidate him at an interrogation room by screaming at him & hitting him
asked him questions about his mother’s plan for the brother to escape
tortured him after
when prison guard asked about torture, he says its normal for suspects to be tortured
but there was another man in his cell who cleaned his wounds & helped him when he was recovering
he & his father were released from prison & were forced to witness the execution of his mother & brother
when his mother & brother were executed, he felt nothing because for so long he didn’t understand the concept of family
thought that they deserved it cuz they committed an offense
so felt angry at his mother cuz believed it was her fault he had to suffer so much in prison
after execution of a regular prisoner, guards were given rations (alcohol & food)
but in political prisons that doesn’t exist
after a man arrived at the camp & told the man who escaped about the outside world
this prompted him to try to escape & experience the outside world
he wanted to experience life before he died (wanted to eat until he was full & wanted to eat chicken)