Until yesterday I wasn't aware that (an approximation of) Nazi concentration camps still exist in 2010, in North Korea. As the descendant of an Auschwitz slave, this is beyond horrifying to me. While the purpose of these N. Korean concentration camps is slave labor (not genocide), the similarities are far too close for comfort. Political prisoners not guilty of any crime are sent to isolated work camps and deprived of all human rights, men separated from women, 18 hour work days, sleeping in cramped communal barracks, starvation, routine rapes and beatings, and even crude medical experiments still take place there today.
While there's nothing you or I can really do about it, the world should be more aware that this sort of thing still exists in 2010. The less people pay attention, the longer this will continue to go on unhindered.
http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/2007-09-atbirth.htm
"...One day when I was 9 years old, my school teacher, always in SSA uniform, searched the children and found 5 grains of wheat in the pocket of a girl. He made her kneel directly in front of us and in full sight, then began to beat her head fiercely with a baton for about an hour until she fainted. It was strange to me that her head never bled but many bumps raised on her scalp from the punishment. We carried her to her house, and were told the next day that she had died quietly the night before.
A child was beaten to death and no one was held responsible nor punished! The school teachers in their SSA uniforms had the right to do whatever they liked. This is a common and almost routine case in the camp No. 14, not an isolated or exceptional case."
"...Sometime in mid-2004, late in the evening, just as the daily punishment session was over, when 4 SSA officers strangely appeared and asked us âWhich cell has the largest army of lice?â Some prisoners responded, âYes, we have a lot of lice.â The SSA officers said, âOk, then, use this water to clean your body.â And they gave a bucket of water to a group of seven women in a cell and the other bucket was given to a group of 5 men in another cell.
Nothing immediately happened when they washed their bodies with the water, except that the water looked somewhat milky and had the same odor as the insecticides used in the fields. However, in about a week, red spots appeared all over their bodies, which began to fester. Within a month, their bodies were covered with running sores.
They simply could not get up for work. When we thought that they were about to die, a truck came one day and carried them away to an unknown location. Had I washed my body with that water at that time, I would surely not be here today."
While there's nothing you or I can really do about it, the world should be more aware that this sort of thing still exists in 2010. The less people pay attention, the longer this will continue to go on unhindered.
http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/2007-09-atbirth.htm
"...One day when I was 9 years old, my school teacher, always in SSA uniform, searched the children and found 5 grains of wheat in the pocket of a girl. He made her kneel directly in front of us and in full sight, then began to beat her head fiercely with a baton for about an hour until she fainted. It was strange to me that her head never bled but many bumps raised on her scalp from the punishment. We carried her to her house, and were told the next day that she had died quietly the night before.
A child was beaten to death and no one was held responsible nor punished! The school teachers in their SSA uniforms had the right to do whatever they liked. This is a common and almost routine case in the camp No. 14, not an isolated or exceptional case."
"...Sometime in mid-2004, late in the evening, just as the daily punishment session was over, when 4 SSA officers strangely appeared and asked us âWhich cell has the largest army of lice?â Some prisoners responded, âYes, we have a lot of lice.â The SSA officers said, âOk, then, use this water to clean your body.â And they gave a bucket of water to a group of seven women in a cell and the other bucket was given to a group of 5 men in another cell.
Nothing immediately happened when they washed their bodies with the water, except that the water looked somewhat milky and had the same odor as the insecticides used in the fields. However, in about a week, red spots appeared all over their bodies, which began to fester. Within a month, their bodies were covered with running sores.
They simply could not get up for work. When we thought that they were about to die, a truck came one day and carried them away to an unknown location. Had I washed my body with that water at that time, I would surely not be here today."
