According to the Encyclopedia, guillotine was used from the 16th century in the south of France and in Italy. Perhaps the guillotine was initially too rudimentary, so later Joshep-lgnace Guillotin, a French d commended the French Parliament to produce a guillotine to shorten th nd relief the pain of the guillotine. At the end of 1791, the French legal commission assigned Dr. Louis to research and build a more complete guillotine to decapitate the offenders. From the suggestion of Guillotin, people took his name as the name of this new machine. The guillotine was used in France from 1792 to execute the death penalty of prisoners. Joshep Guillotin once said: "With this machine, you will leave the neck in the blink of an eye and you will not feel any pain." In about 200 years of existence, the guillotine has executed the death penalty with tens of thousands of prisoners under death penalty
In Vietnam, the guillotine was brought by the French colony in the late nineteenth century to execute political and criminal offenders, total number of prisoners executed by guillotine under the period of France were about 150 people.
The guillotine is a special device to execute the offenders under beheading penalty, including a 3.8m high, 70 cm horizontal guillotine frame, a rectangular base to keep the frame steady, a length of 2.4m in each side, there are two rigid bars erected in parallel on the base, with a sharp trapezoidal blade raised and lowered simply by a button. The pulley is placed on the crossbar of the guillotine to adjust the rope and blade when beheading the prisoners under the death penalty. Other detached loose parts include the victim's head container and of the victim's corpse container.
The person directly executing the prisoners under the death penalty was often called executioner. In Vietnam, from the French period, it's often called “đội” associated with that that executioner's name (“đội” Le, “đội” Phuoc. . .), particularly in Cochinchina, (according to scientific records of guillotine exhibit stored at the War Remnants Museum) as follow:
- From 1872-1886: “đội” Le
- From 1887-1919: “đội” Nho
- From 1919-1924: “đội” Nho (main), “đội” Phuoc (apprentice)
- 1924-1958: “đội” Phuoc
- 1959: Phan Van Phoi, superintendent of Chi Hoa prison
- 1960: Le Van Dinh, superintendent of Can Tho prison (sent to Saigon to execute the death penalty against Hoang Le kha)
According to the records in interview with the witness “đội” Phuoc stil stored at the War Remnants Museum, some information about the guillotine and the beheading execution were desbribed asfollows:
- The guillotine has 2 blades, the blades are usually sharpened at Ba Son workshop before cutting.
- Each time of execution, if the victim follows a religion, there is a monk or priest to chant.
- The prisoner under the death penalty is given a last delicious meal before being executed.
- During the execution, the legal representative in western clothes without wearing a hat, the executioner wear yellow khaki and a hat. Victim wears short-sleeved, square-necked shirts.
- The victimis not blindfolded.
- There is no the presence of relatives upon burial.
- The execution time is usually a quarter to 6 in the morning.
In 1930, the guillotine in Hoa Lo Prison executed three revolutionaries: Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ky Con and Nguyen Khac Nhu. According to the annotation in page 46 of "Hoa Lo Prison Hanoi" - collective memoirs of many comrades detained in Hoa Lo - Hanoi from 1930-1945 recorded by Huynh Trai, posted on the Journal of Communist Party's history study, Issue 1, June 1972: The guillotine in Hoa Lo prison - Hanoi was once moved to Hai Phong to execute comrade Nguyen Duc Canh.
In Saigon, the guillotine killed many patriotic scholars against the ruling policy of the French colonialists and the struggle for independence and freedom of the country, such as Ngo Thiem, Tran Chuong and Ly Tu Trong.
When Ngo Dinh Diem took power in South Vietnam, Law 10/59 was enacted by the Republlic of Vietnam regime on May 6, 1995, prescribing the Organization of Special Military Courts for trial in 3 days for "war crimes against the Republic of Vietnam regime. According to Law 10/59, the sentence had only 2 levels: death penalty or penal servitude for life, no sentence reduction, no appeal, the sentence must be executed immediately. In fact, this law targeted a group of party communists, the revolutionary cadres used to participate in the war against France in Viet Minh ranks and those who supported them. The guillotine was used as a tool to execute prisoners convicted under this law.
According to historian John Guinane, only from 1957-1959, there were more than 2,000 people executed by the Republic of Vietnam with crime of rebelling or supporting communist, usually by guillotine. Many executions of the government of the Republic of Vietnam were made pubiic in front of the people, the heads of offenders were displayed to show off. The Straits Times (Singapore) newspapers on July 24, 1959 published a report of the scene of 1,000 people witnessing the execution in Saigon. Morning Newspapers (Saigon) on October 12,1959 posted a photo of the guillotine with the caption: “This is a guillotine that beheaded the Communist Vo Song Nhon, immediately after the court pronounced sentence. Three days later, the newspapers reported "According to a judgment of an absence trial by the Special Military Court on October 2, Nguyen Van Lep, or Tu Ut Lep, a Viet Cong, was sentenced to a criminal penalty. A week ago, Lev was caughtby the police inaforestin Tay Ninh. The death sentence was executed... The head and the livers of the offender under the death penalty were displayed in front of the people”.
The government of Ngo Dinh Diem organized armed force with anti-Communist mission to return to the localities. After that, Rober McNamara; former US Secretary of Defense recorded in his memoir "Looking back on the past - tragedy and lessons about Vietnam" as follows: "On May 6,1959, Diem signed Law 10/59. Ironically, he returned with the way of the French colonial masters who implemented, opened the era of death by beheading, Diem's subordinates went to the countryside with mobile guillotines and the program to quest the communists". Historian Edward Miller described in the book "Wrong coalition - Ngo Dinh Diem, USA, and fate of South Vietnam" as follows: "The bloodthirsty image of Ngo Dinh Diem regime was further strengthened by his decision to use the colonial-era death penalty tool guillotine. The court members brought with them the "portable version" (detachable and pulled behind a military truck) of this terrible tool all over the country ... increasing the fear of ordinary people for Diem government and its representatives".
Gulillotine in the period of Ngo Dinh Diem used in the South to decapitate patriotic people, now displayed at the War Remnants Museum.
In 1960, Mr. Hoang Le Kha, a member of Tay Ninh Party Committee was said to be the last and the most senior member of the Southern Liberation Front in Vietnam that was executed by guillotine in Vietnam. After the trial of Hoang Le Kha, being opposed in an increasingly fierce and climax mamner by the Southern people, Ngo Dinh Diem government put the guillotine into the material storage at Chi Hoa prison.
Mr. Lê Hoàng Kha
Today, the guillotine that once killed patriots and revolutionary soldiers is being stored and displayed at the Ho Chi Minh City War Remnants Museum. Here, we not only see what its physical size, by the combination of wood and metal into a killing device, the size of the crime, the depth of the wound that this guillotine caused in the heart of the nation cannot be calculated by mathematics or measure, it is a traumatic and proud witness of many successive generations, including the endless grief of the survivor for the dead, the descendants for the predecessors. Under this wicked blade, a huge number of heroes and martyrs departed from the life, but they are immortal bloodlines penetrated into the ground of the homeland, making the flame of indomitable fighting for so many generations to fight for the independence and freedom of the nation until the full day of victory.
Students visited a guillotine at the War Remnants Museum.
TS. Trần Xuân Thảo
(Material in the article: records kept at the War Remnants Museum)