Not thinking about oneself because of the desire for national unity

Painting of Con Dao prisoners listening to the radio in their cells. (Source: Con Dao National Monuments Conservation Center)

During the years of resistance for the aspiration of a peaceful, independent and unified Vietnam, everywhere in the homeland were bomb craters and shrapnel.

Millions of outstanding people fell, countless people were captured, tortured, imprisoned by the enemy, leaving a part of their body in the smoke of war...

But everyone is ready to sacrifice for the belief of "North-South reunion", to rebuild a more beautiful Fatherland, so that all Vietnamese people can "straighten their backs" to see the free sky and peaceful life today.

Lesson 1: Don't think about yourself

In April, Ms. Phan Thi Be Tu from District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, along with many former political prisoners from Con Dao, returned to visit the place where patriots were once imprisoned and brutally tortured to burn incense for their comrades at Hang Duong Cemetery, Hang Keo Cemetery or Pier 914.

“We cannot forget those painful memories. We want to tell our children and grandchildren, the next generation, that today’s peaceful and independent country was paid for with the blood and bones of many previous generations of revolutionary soldiers,” Ms. Phan Thi Be Tu shared.

The pain behind the prison gate

Before being exiled to Con Dao Prison, Ms. Phan Thi Be Tu was imprisoned in many American-puppet prisons. Wherever she went, this woman from Phuoc Thanh, Chau Thanh, Tien Giang suffered savage beatings from the enemy.

“I don’t remember how many times I was brutally beaten. I only remember that every time I was tortured in my private parts, a woman’s private part, just because I refused to confess,” Ms. Be Tu began to recall.

Reliving the memories of the days preparing for the Tet Offensive in 1968, Ms. Phan Thi Be Tu said that at that time she was the Head of the Propaganda and Armed Forces Team, T4 Public Works Department of Saigon-Gia Dinh Area, and she was summoned to Long Dinh base in Long An province to learn how to use Claymore mines. However, the enemy discovered her, surrounded her and her comrades, and then took them to the puppet army's Security Department.

“They tied my hands and feet and then put electric shocks in my private parts. I didn’t tell anyone, so they poured water down my throat and kicked me until I vomited. Then they put a wet sack on me and electrocuted me. They also mixed fish sauce and chili and put it in my nostrils. They knocked me unconscious and when I woke up, they asked me how the organization was. If I didn’t tell anyone, they continued to beat me,” said Ms. Bé Tư.

Faced with the "stubborn Viet Cong," the enemy took Mrs. Be Tu to the Metropolitan Police Department, then Thu Duc Prison, and Chi Hoa prison.

“In these places, they sweet-talked us and forced us to salute the flag of the puppet regime. But I said, I only salute the flag of the Fatherland, not the three-stick flag. They immediately beat me in revenge. In my cell, there were people who were tortured to death,” Ms. Be Tu recalled.

At the end of November 1969, political prisoners in Chi Hoa prison heard the news of President Ho Chi Minh’s death. “That night, the incense burner was our heart, we found white cloth to wrap around our heads to mourn Uncle Ho. More than three hundred prisoners mourned Uncle Ho at the same time. They were very afraid of this and tried to sabotage and oppress us but could not stop us. The next day, they exiled me and many others to Con Dao,” said Ms. Be Tu.

For former prisoner Le Thi Duc (from An Thanh commune, Ben Luc district, Long An province, currently living in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City), when she was exiled to Con Dao Prison, she was just over 18 years old.

At that time, this woman participated in the second phase of the 1968 Tet Offensive and Uprising in the Armed Propaganda Team, operating at the Cau Kho front, Long An.

“On May 6, 1968, when I ran out of ammunition, they came to arrest me. After nearly a year of imprisonment and beatings in many prisons without getting any information, they took me to Con Dao. During the four years there, I endured all kinds of cruel torture from the enemy. We were beaten to death, but we still did not submit,” Ms. Le Thi Duc shared.

Qualities and character of patriots

The stories of former prisoners Phan Thi Be Tu and Le Thi Duc, along with historical documents, show that after the 1954 Geneva Agreement was sabotaged, our country was divided into two regions with two different political regimes.

The North was completely liberated and gradually moved towards socialism. In the South, the US imperialists plotted to turn the place into a new type of colony.

The US and the Saigon government built a prison system consisting of more than 300 prisons, detention camps and detention facilities to suppress the patriotic and revolutionary movements of our people.

More than 700,000 cadres, party members, intellectuals, patriotic masses, and those suspected of being "harmful to national security"... were detained, tortured, and repressed in enemy prisons and detention camps. In order to force the patriots to choose to leave the Party or be tortured to death, the enemy destroyed them with an extremely inhumane prison regime, never seen before in any prison, making it impossible for the prisoners to live or die.

For example, at Phu Quoc Prison (Kien Giang) - where 40,000 revolutionary soldiers were detained, 4,000 people were killed, an average of 10 people were killed every day. Con Dao Prison (Ba Ria-Vung Tau) detained more than 200,000 people, killing 40,000 revolutionary soldiers.

In Con Dao, the "tiger cages" were extremely barbaric places of detention. When this "hell on earth" was discovered, the American press reported shocking news internationally, describing a 16-year-old high school girl imprisoned in the "tiger cage" for not saluting the flag of the Saigon regime.

The female student was hung from an iron hook, a form of torture that damaged her spine. After a year there, the girl was transferred to a mental hospital in Bien Hoa.

However, in that prison, the communist character shone brightly. As former prisoners Phan Thi Be Tu and Le Thi Duc shared, “with their last breath, they still followed the revolution, determined not to tarnish the reputation of revolutionary soldiers.”

Patriots always believed that the revolution would win and the country would be unified. Imprisoned in tiger cages, they still studied politics, still lived, discussed plans for struggle, still sang songs, and recited to each other Uncle Ho's poems: "The body is in prison, the spirit is outside."

Holding in her hand the book "Death row prisoners, former prisoners of Con Dao - the day of return" published by Thong Tan Publishing House in 2023, Ms. Phan Thi Be Tu told about the origin of the photo, which is also the cover of the book. It is the image of a female tourist in Con Dao, moved to tears and hugging her when she heard her story on her return to Con Dao.

Opening the page with pictures of former prisoners from Con Dao returning to their cells, Ms. Be Tu said that her parents were resistance fighters, her uncle went to the regrouping camp, and her village had many revolutionaries. Her younger brother died fighting the American and puppet troops.

When she was arrested, she was about to become an official party member, and party members "do not allow themselves to do anything against the Fatherland or the people."

“That helped me endure the enemy’s brutal torture. But most of all, we didn’t think about ourselves but lived and were ready to sacrifice for our aspirations and beliefs that the day of national reunification was near,” Ms. Be Tu shared./.