Da Lat city - an ideal tourist destination that everyone in the country knows, only the name "Da Lat Children's Education Center", was given a beautiful name by the Americans and puppets to cover up, hide their malicious plot, it seems not many people know.
Very little historical information about this special place, where unequal battles took place between children's prison soldiers and henchmen with advanced weapons, whips. About half a century ago, when the war was entering a fierce stage, the American - Thieu regime conspired to build a special prison named Dalat Children's Education Center with the aim of tearing apart the forces and destroy the germ of revolution from the bud. Also from here, fierce and fierce wars took place consecutively between political children and American - puppet troops. In the midst of enemy torture and repression, brothers and sisters remained loyal, uncompromising.
Da Lat Children's Education Center - the name that conceals the dark conspiracy of the US - the puppet.
In the early days of December 2019, in the cold of winter, in the heart of Da Lat city, an extremely warm meeting of young soldiers took place in the past. They are the people who fought in a difficult situation of the war and are the heroes who stood up from the special prison for children.
During the tumultuous years after the 1968 Tet Offensive, although our troops had gained advantages, they still suffered a lot of losses in terms of numbers, some sacrificed, some were imprisoned in Chi Hoa, Tan Hiep, Thu Duc, Con Dao ..., among them some soldiers are still in their teens.
Holding a large number of young prisoners of war, but facing our army's request not to hold children prisoners, the US made a plot that was to isolate young soldiers from the guidance of the elderly communist soldiers to quell the revolutionary germ in the bud. Da Lat Children's Prison is the place where 600 soldiers aged 12-17 from all over the country are transferred from all over the world, under the name to hide public opinion, which is the Da Lat Children's Education Center.
Under the guise of being a training center, but the internal mechanism of this prison shows the treacherous face of the imperialists, from the leadership level to the management departments, all of whom are veterans in law enforcement. oppress prisoners such as Le Van Det, Hoang Van Nghia, Nguyen Van Quang... Here they gradually lull them to sleep, suppressing the revolutionary will of the children by forcing them to "study politics", salute the flag, sang their national anthem to acknowledge the American - Thieu regime, slandered the Party and Uncle Ho, falsely used Christianity to guide them... They did these things to shake the revolutionary will, draw you back to their ranks. But that plot failed because of the indomitable, loyal and wise of Vietnamese teenagers.
With bare hands against the US, the small soldiers gradually pushed the Da Lat Children's Prison to the brink of bankruptcy.
Living in the scene of the torture of whips and the conspiracy to reform patriotic children into the enemy's minions, the brothers and sisters at the Da Lat Children's Prison are still steadfast in their hearts with the common ideals of the revolution, ready to sacrifice their lives and blood for the cause of national liberation.
Later, during a negotiation with the prisoners, the enemy's henchman addressed the young soldiers as you - me, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh shouted at him: “You must not call us "you", we have no iron in our hands, but we have defeated you with our army of advanced weapons, which proves that you are losers... Therefore, you must call us Mr or Sir”.
In order to push Da Lat Children's Prison to bankruptcy after 2 years and 3 months of existence, the brothers and sisters here have endured and sacrificed a lot. In the weather of Da Lat 5-7oC, the brothers and sisters were confiscated by the enemy, only wearing a thin set of clothes. Every day, he only ate 2 rice-balls, a little salt, a little rice, a lot of whips, sick, hungry and cold, limbs paralyzed in the bone-chilling cold and constant tortures.
For women, daily life is extremely difficult, eating hungry and wearing cold, water is lacking, especially on menstrual days, it is extremely miserable. Tortured many times, the sisters often suffered nervous convulsions. Not stopping there, the enemy also poured cold water at 9-10 am, when the weather in Da Lat was low, causing the brothers and sisters to suffer bone-chilling colds.
Living in strict prison conditions, exhausted from eating blood-soaked meals and subjected to brutal tortures by the enemy, the will and revolutionary spirit still boiled in each young prisoner. The brothers and sisters of the children's prisoners rebelled right in the enemy's lair, forced them to return their freedom and democracy, and organized small and large-scale prison escapes to escape the shackles of the enemy to the revolutionary movement.
The first wave was a movement against flag salutation, against oppression of prisoners, for civil liberties and democracy by self-cutting. Those winners were Mr. Nguyen Van Thu, Mai Bon and Thai Ba Tro. After this, the brothers and sisters were brutally tortured, poured with cold water, beaten with electric whips, which stripped away the plastic part, causing their skin to tear, their bodies paralyzed, and severely exhausted. Unable to withstand these barbaric tortures, the brothers and sisters gave in to the enemy to prepare their forces for new struggles.
In the second round, the plot to kill the traitor Nguyen Cuong - a henchman who was enthusiastic in denouncing, oppressing and torturing prisoners - and the plan was carried out as expected. With a conspiracy to use "prisoners rules prisoners", the enemy rehabilitated a number of deformed prisoners in order to turn them into effective henchmen in the treatment of patriotic prisoners. Cuong was hit in the head and damaged an eye. After beating the name Cuong, although the brothers were brutally tortured, but somewhat made the enemy more and more panic, the movement began to deepen in a new relationship, showing the maturity of the group of Dalat children prisoners.
In the third, the anti-fingerprint movement took pictures, abolished the prison regime, let the brothers arrange their own arrangements in the prison to ensure security and order, allowing brothers to visit each other throughout the zones, including men's and women's rooms. This was a large-scale uprising, the brothers and sisters gradually mastered the situation, the enemy had to accept concessions and implement the policies set out by the brothers and sisters. After a series of struggles, the relationship between the brothers and sisters of Da Lat children's prisoners and the outside revolutionary movement became more and more closely related, creating a premise for the successful escape and speeding up the prison to end prison.
The fourth wave, organized prison escape, returned to the revolutionary movement. There have been 7 escapes during these years of existence (1971 - 1973) and the night of May 7, 1973 is considered the most spectacular! In that prison break, there were 13 comrades, but they got out and returned to the base with 11 people; The other two people, Mr. Ngo Be and Mr. Tran Cong Khanh, lost their way and were captured by the enemy. After successful prison escapes, the enemy changed the policy of returning all children prisoners to their localities, about 80 soldiers at the forefront of 2 prisons in Quang Ngai and Quang Tin, they were isolated and not included in the list of prisoners. In return, here, inheriting the tradition, our soldiers continued to struggle and also several times successfully organized prison escapes and contacted organizations participating in the resistance. By June 1973, the Da Lat Children's Prison was completely wiped out.
After the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country, all the brothers and sisters in the prison on that day were in one place, some forever lay down for the peace of the Fatherland, some had to leave a part of their body in the battlefield, but in general, everyone is proud of that youth when it comes to it. Mai Bon (Mai Thanh Minh) when recalling the past, his voice could not hide the tears of emotions about a glorious time: "We have the right to be proud of the past, the war has gone and left our bodies so many traces of bombs, prisons ..., our extremely glorious youth made the enemy terrified. Now think about that glory, not just for anyone, but for the whole group of teammates who lived together in the past!"
The war has passed nearly half a century, now in front of us, they are fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers... there are people who hold important positions in society but there are also people who live normally, they come from Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, along to the provinces in the Southwest region, quietly return to each other, back to Da Lat, where they had the best days of their lives to remember about a time of glorious memory, a time of imprisonment and shackles of the enemy. It's only a pity that the joy of meeting was not complete, making the hearts of many soldiers in the past sobbing: "The peaceful country no longer has gun sounds / Meeting happiness overflows / Our brothers and sisters are still dead / The one who silently stayed in the deep forest/ My life! Shine a star forever!”
The prison was built on Chi Lang hill (now in Ho Xuan Huong neighborhood, ward 9, Da Lat) including 8 large cells (including two female rooms), three rows of cells, each row has 4 rooms of 6m2. Under each cell is an underground sprinkler system that cools the cell while torturing our young soldiers.
On June 22, 2009, Da Lat Children's Prison was ranked as a national revolutionary historical relic by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The collective of former political prisoners of the Children's Prison and 3 individuals Dang Bao Xy, Ngo Tung Chinh and Mai Thanh Minh were awarded the noble title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces by the President of the country. On December 5, 2019, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee held a meeting with former patriotic prisoners of Da Lat Children's Prison, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of receiving the title of Hero.