For 22,000 #Vietnamese & some #Cambodians, #CônSơn Island was literally the last stop on a journey that began with their arrest & incarceration on the mainland. Their crime? Resisting #ForeignInvaders du jour & fighting for their country’s independence & unification. In addition to execution, causes of death included disease & torture.
The French built the Côn Đảo prison complex in 1861 to hold #PoliticalPrisoners and handed it over to the South Vietnamese government in 1954. It was a political Alcatraz on steroids, with #inhumane living conditions, barbaric torture methods, no escape and, for many, no survival. The US & its client state collaborators honed this hell on Earth to #dystopian perfection.
Sáu was sent to 3 jails before being shipped to Côn Sơn Prison, because the French didn’t have the courage to carry out her death sentence on the mainland at a time when it was against #ColonialLaw to execute woman. She was the only female prisoner held by the French on Côn Sơn.
Like other Vietnamese who died for the cause of independence, Sáu, a national heroine who is celebrated in theater & song, was elevated to the status of ancestral spirit. Every Vietnamese city & town has a street named after her, as are many schools. She embodies the spirit of millions of Vietnamese throughout history, including soldiers of the First & Second Indochina War, who sacrificed everything, their youth, their health, their love, their personal happiness, & their lives, so that Vietnam could become a unified, sovereign nation.
“The lekima flower in full bloom, we are reminded of a heroine who died for future generations. The young lady so full of vitality fought against our enemies with firm spirit & even death could not force her to yield”. The song echoes in the mind of everybody who visits Hàng Dương cemetary in Côn Đảo district, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu province. Vo Thi Sau, the #heroine mentioned in the song, was #executed by the #French #colonialists at the foot of Chua mountain in the early morning of January 23, 1952. 60 years later, her immortal patriotism & sacrifice still shine in the heart of every Vietnamese person, particularly those who live on #ConDao island, once called “hell on the earth”. (Ref: VOVWorld)
The 20-hectare Hàng Dương cemetery holds the graves of more than 20,000 martyrs, including #revolutionary #martyr Lê Hồng Phong, patriot Nguyễn An Ninh & #hero Cao Văn Ngọc. Visitors are moved to see grave after grave, some named, some unnamed, stretching over the hill. Vo Thi Sau’s grave, set in gravel & soil shoveled by her fellow prisoners, lies in section B.
Sister Sau was already a legend when the ship carrying her docked at Con Dao island in 1952. At the execution, she refused to be blindfolded, wanting to admire the motherland’s landscape & sing until her last breath. Many families on Con Dao island have set up altars to worship sister Sau, whose legend has become eternal in Vietnamese hearts.
