February 6, 1978. I had been in jail for over a month without receiving any food supplies nor necessary personal items from my family. My confreres and Juniors had to endure the same fate, I guessed.

At 5:00P.M. the cook team brought dinner into Room #4. There was something extra for the dinner menu: In addition to daily menu, each detainee received half of a bowl of white steamed rice and a spoon of “pork meat juice” more or less smelling good. In seeing it, a detainee exclaimed, “Tonight is Lunar New Year’s Eve!” The schedule also changed. Instead of “quiet time” set at 10:00P.M. after the roll call, the whole camp could play and talk until midnight passed which was “the Sacred Hour of the New Year.”

At about 10:00P.M., somewhere from outside the camp echoed the Tet (Lunar New Year) songs. In Room #4, corresponding to these musical echoes, sniffles with tears were heard from some detainees. The cell head asked, “Brother An, will you lead Room #4 for the New year’s Eve?” Other roommates clapped hands, saying, “Ok! That’s good idea! You are cordially invited, Brother An!” I looked at them, smiling and raising my two hands cuffed. They laughed then said, “It doesn’t matter! Never mind, Brother An. We are with you at your side!” I said, “OK! let’s sing together. By the way, although my hands are cuffed, I can play a drum to keep rhythm.” A roommate brought his little plastic wash-tub that he used to receive daily “Atlantic soup”, laid it upside down in front of me; another roommate brought his pair of chopsticks for drumsticks. I started with a song by the composer Trinh Cong Son, because I thought that “Trinh Cong Son was more or less a pacifist before ‘75, that’s why his songs would be not too “yellow nor too red.” All roommates accompanied in singing, clapping hands so loud and so joyfully that sounds spread all over the detention camp.

I stopped for a while, secretly observing reactions from the guards. There were no reactions. Perhaps, they still enjoyed drinking and eating at their Tet party. I continued with other songs by Trinh Cong Son. There was no need to finish the whole song; there were many songs that I remembered just a few first sentences, and combined them altogether, continuously. All roommates sang like crazy men; some even danced, rhythmically or un-rhythmically. That was OK. The idea was to have fun, and everyone seemed satisfied and excited.

A group of 4 or 5 policemen suddenly showed up outside the window, faces reddened and with a strong smell of liquor. The cell head, very calmly, said, “May I report to Officers. Room #4 would like to wish you Happy New Year!” They nodded, satisfied. The cell head continued, “May I report to Officers. Please allow Room #4 to celebrate New Year in singing...” A policeman, perhaps the head of the group, pointed at me, then said, “That guy! What crime?” I raised my eyes to him without responding. The cell head said, “May I report to Officers. Please un-cuff Brother An so that he can enjoy celebrating Tet.” The policeman said, “We wish you enjoy New Year’s Eve. Continue to celebrate Tet, but don’t be reactionary!” The group of policemen left.

“Continue, An!” Brother Gervais shouted from a small cell in front of Room #4. I was delighted, responding, “OK! Let’s continue!” Then I started the song “Hue-Saigon-Hanoi” by Trinh Cong Son. Singing up to the verses of “On the roads into jails, tomorrow, we will build schools, or market places,” I asked everyone to shout out as loud as possible, and to repeat these verses by three times. Wow! There were lots of fun and excitement.

***

A few days later, red tumors suddenly appeared all over my whole body, from the neck tobig toes. They really itched. “What had to happen, happened,” I said to myself, and my roommates thought the same, too. As mentioned earlier, I was just like other roommates: totally naked, and day after day, some roommates in turns, helped to catch maggot from the sores in order to appease pain and itches.

One night, while I was deeply asleep, I felt an uncomfortable oozing from my right toe where a boil was turgid with pus. It hurt so strongly that I woke up. While I sat up and squeezed pus out of that boil with my finger, a guard stopped by and shouted through the window, “That guy! What do you do there? Lay down!” I looked at him, painfully. He said, “You pray? Freedom of religion is only reserved to good citizens; you lost all the rights reserved for a good citizen. So, you cannot pray either!” I lay down whispering to myself, “Thank you for reminding me of praying!” And I made a short meditation on the Words of Jesus: “A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem... Yet a time is coming and it now comes when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth...”

***

Nobody had disturbed Brother Michel for over three weeks after his sincere confession and his leading the police, with witnesses from the Congregation of the Christian Brothers and from the Church as well, to show his guns and weapons. He was provided with good daily meals, and especially there were no more irons fastening his legs and hands.

When the Tet Holidays were over, the chief of the detention center and the interrogator “invited” Brother Michel Hong to negotiate, “How do you do? We both recognized that you are a talented person. We would like to have you work with and for us.”
- "Thank you. But the first thing I would like you to know is that I have taken all responsibility, me alone, for everything that had happened in La Salle Mossard Community. Have my confreres and Juniors have been released yet?"
- "This problem is none of your business, Mr. Le Canh, the detention center head, replied. Just answer my question: Do you want to work with and for us?"

A little perplexed and upset, Brother Michel promptly answered, “I didn’t think about this issue yet.” The interrogator said, “Think about that. If a talented person like you refuses to collaborate with the government, for the good of the country and for all people, it’s really regrettable. We offer you very good opportunity to contribute your talents to the building up a socialist society. Think about that.”
Brother Michel kept silence while the interrogator and the detention center head discussed something between themselves. In the end, the detention center head said, “On the last interrogation, you said that you alone can safely saw and open the M78 bullet head, is it true?”
- “ Yes, I can.”
- “ Do you dare do it now?”
- “ Of course! At any time.”
- “ OK! Here are a new M79 bullet head, a good metal saw, and a good vice. Do it, now. By the way, how long it will take to have it completely finished?”
- “ About 2 hours.”

The interrogator and detention center head looked at each other, both suspicious and curious. Brother Michel clearly understood that, “they still suspect that I could run risks in order to make them all to die together!” [The M79 bullet is similar to a grenade, Its head is like a small globe formed by multiple pieces of complex and interlacing sharp metal. Once launched out from the gun, its head rotates and explodes when it reaches a certain number of rotation rounds, but it may also explode by friction generating heat.]

Anyway, they had somehow prepared for such a risky adventure. They ordered the guards to escort Brother Michel to a relatively large square room with a door on each side. In the middle of the room, there was a structure like a block-house whose walls were shored up with sand bags. Brother Michel entered that block-house with necessary tools for beginning a risky venture. Policemen stood at the four doors, outside the small room, anxiously following up the work of Brother Michel inside the block-house.

Time passed, too slowly for impatient policemen spectators, but too fast for Brother Michel. After less than 2 hours concentrated on the risky work, Brother Michel stood up, raising his right hand with the M79 bullet head opened. There were sounds of clapping hands interspersed with exclamation and admiration. “Good job! Wow! It’s great! Marvelous!”

Brother Michel’s marvelous success in opening the M79 bullet head brought to him certain ambivalent feelings regarding the police investigator. He felt proud of such a success. However, it was not his main goal and concern. These were about his confreres and Juniors. Several times, he requested the police to release ALL members more or less connected to the “regrettable” happenings at La Salle Mossard. Anyway, some good news did develop:
1. Brother Etienne and Rev. Ngo Dinh Hien, Affiliate, were released from the temporary detention #1 and re-settled at the Retreat House in Mai Thon;
2. My two nephews’ mother who had been so anxious for her 2 sons, received at last good news to come to Thu Duc to pick them up.
3. Nguyen Hien Vinh, 15 years old, was sent to the “labor camp” in Cat Lai. More than 6 months later, he was released and thanks to his parents’ enormous sacrifices, he successfully fled overseas and re-settled in Paris with his aunt. [In 1984, I met Vinh in Paris. He had to work hard for his living. His parents were sponsored to the United States in 1980, and in turn sponsored Vinh to California in 1985. Thank God!]

***

I had been in jail for almost 2 months and still received no news from my family. I guessed my confreres and the Juniors hadn’t heard from their respective families. That meant our case was not finished and closed yet.

On the last Wednesday morning of February, My name was called, “Nguyen Van An! Family visit!” Surprised but delighted, I went to the window. The guard asked, “Who’s Linh Dieu, the visitor?” For a few seconds, I tried to figure out “Who Linh Dieu could be ,” because there was no one in my family and relatives bearing that name. However, in a flash, I remembered that she was my 9th grade student. I promptly replied, “She’s my student.” The guard looked at me, amazed and mischievously said, “Wow! Lucky you to have a girl student so nice and behaving in the most friendly way!” I smiled, satisfied and consoled, and raised my two cuffed hands to receive the gift after writing “Thank You!” and signing the paper that was to be returned to the sender. Cuong and Han helped me to open the gift box. Although it was just a quite big round cake of 4dm diameter and 1dm high, I was really consoled and delighted. “People still remember me!” I said to myself. I realized how awful and cruel was the feeling of being isolated or abandoned or forsaken.

I told to my roommates, “Please share with me a piece of cake. That’s the joy of being loved!” Cuong and Han distributed to everyone a piece of cake. Those who had received gifts, i.e. food of any kind, did the same. We had a really meaningful lunch on that Wednesday.

The next several Wednesdays passed. I hadn’t receive anything else. I hoped that my confreres, too, had received something from their students. They, like me, had to wait for another “lucky Wednesday.”

***

Brother Lucien, Visitor, was not called “to work”, at least initially, after the event of digging up guns and weapons at La Salle Community. However, he had the feeling that the establishments and school in the La Salle Mossard property, sooner or later, would be confiscated.

Indeed, a week after La Salle Mossard had been “visited” by the armed policemen and all of the La Salle Community were in jail, the Redemptorist Community was also “visited” by them. Other Congregations like the Salesians’, the Dominicans’, the Cistercians’, had to “share” the same sort of treatment as La Salle Community received. And all properties were confiscated. But for the Redemptorists, the new government, instead of confiscating the Redemptorists’ property, “suggested” that Brother Lucien, Visitor of La Salle Congregation, yield more than 2 hectares from the property of Mai Thon in exchange for the property of the Redemptorists, i.e. the Redemptorists moved to the lot in Mai Thon which belonged to the La Salle Congregation.

Why was there such an unusual switch? Was it a precursor of worse things that might apply to other De La Salle establishments, especially in the Saigon-Gia Dinh area?

It was true that, before April 30, 1975, there had been some Redemptorist members who, using the slogan “everything for social justice,” had worked for the Revolution, or at least had contributed to the Revolution in one way or another. However, these members practiced politics for their own personal motives, surely not encouraged by their Congregation’s policies. For example:
. Rev. Tran Huu Thanh, Rev. Nguyen Ngoc Lan, etc. had led the demonstrations and the so-called six indictments against President Nguyen Van Thieu, and had disturbed security during these difficult times in counter-attacking the offensive from North. In doing so, didn’t these activists contribute, in one way or another, to the offensive armies of the North by demoralizing the army forces and people’s psychology and mind of the South?
. Especially, Rev. Nguyen Ngoc Lan led some of his students in expelling Mgr. Henri Le Maitre, Delegate of the Holy See in Saigon, out of the country in May, 1975? Was his position clear that he opted to be on the side of the North?

For the Christian Brothers, it was true that no one, at least publicly, engaged in political action. If pretending that because the Brothers had taught and educated two Presidents for South Vietnam, and overall had contributed so much to the education of young Vietnamese people for over 100 years, was considered criminal, then we had nothing else to talk about. Brother Lucien, Visitor, who had studied the situation under several aspects, pros and cons, considered it with his counselors, and in the end decided that “abandoning material in order to save lives” was the best way. He and his council had reasoned that “as long as the forest exists, why be afraid of missing firewood?” The result was the Brother Visitor’s letter to the People Committee, referring to the “offering” the De La Salle Schools, on March 26, 1978.

La Salle District of Saigon
53B, Nguyen Du Q. I
Ho Chi Minh City
No. 85/78/97Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
Independence - Freedom - Happiness
---------------------------------------To : People Committee
Ho Chi Minh City

REF: Offering De La Salle Schools
in Ho Chi Minh City
..........
I am Brother HOANG GIA QUANG, Visitor of the District of Saigon, owner of the De La Salle Schools in Vietnam, resident at 53B, Nguyen Du, Q. I, Ho Chi Minh City.
....
Our De La Salle District of Saigon has handed over to the State, the administration of all the educational establishments in the city, which included the following:
1. La Salle Taberd School, 53 Nguyen Du, Q. I,
submitted documents on December 12, 1975
2. La Salle Duc Minh School, 146 Vo Thi Sau, Q. 3,
submitted documents on December 9, 1975
3. La Salle Hien Vuong, 262 Vo Thi Sau, Q. 3,
submitted documents on December 9, 1975
4. La Salle Chanh Hung, 79 Au Duong Lan, Q. 6, appreciation letter of People’s Committee on October 31, 1975
5. La Salle Mossard Thu Duc, 43 Hoang Dieu, Thu Duc,
submitted documents on November 27, 1975.
We have also offered, before, to the People’s Committee of the Thanh My County (now, Binh Thanh County)1. La Salle Mai Thon, offering documents on Sep 7. 1975
2. La Salle Thanh My, offering documents on Oct 16, 1975.
...
In addition, we would like to offer the following:
1. some rooms at La Salle Taberd, following the suggestion of the administration of the Pedagogy for Secondary Schools
2. the convent area at La Salle [Chanh Hung] on Au Duong St., Q. 8 (where, now, the former administrator family is living)
3. the La Salle Sisters’ house, near La Salle Mai Thon School at Binh Thanh County, which is composed of 5 rooms 3mx6m, following the suggestion of the Education Service of the county, and of the local Front of the State.
....
We do not have any other aspiration other than to have favorable conditions to live and to serve as good citizens and zealous religious people:
- the Brothers, who are still of working age, would like to continue to serve according to their talents and wishes;
- the old or sick Brothers would need the State’s assistance by
a. guaranteeing that they can keep the La Salle Mai Thon for their Retreat House,
b. allowing the Brothers - at least those whose family-register had been obtained from the city, and those although still young, whose services are needed, such as taking care of the old or sick Brothers - the facility to transfer into the Mai Thon family-register.
c. reducing tax, even exemption, or any other help, to assist the Mai Thon Retreat House which is trying to be self-reliant, e.g. with a breeding farm, agriculture, etc.
...

***

On the Monday morning of April 3, 1978, I heard, clearly enough, the Brother Visitor’s voice responding to an interrogator. I guessed it could be the last investigation before closing the La Salle Mossard case. Three months had passed. New hope to be released came to my mind.

In late afternoon of that date, I was called “to work”. Although still handcuffed and affected with sores on my whole body, I felt confident and had peace of mind. “The hour of liberation comes!” I thought and hoped. At the door of Room #4, I looked back at Cuong and Han, smiled at them. I knew they understood what I wanted to tell them. I also looked at Brothers Le and Tuan, and glanced at everyone of my roommates, bowing my head in expressing my sympathy and best wishes.

Sitting on a bench in front of the interrogator who welcomed me with a mysterious smile, I became more confused between whether being joyful and hopeful or being anxious and more careful. The idea of not reading the report before signing it a month earlier came to mind. I tried to keep calm and vigilant. The interrogator asked, “After three months for reflections on the bad works you have done at La Salle, are you now ready to confess?” I started to respond, “I have...”

I didn’t finish talking when, right at that moment, a guard led Brother Michel, passing by, in the direction out from the detention center. I didn’t know whether he saw me or not, but in seeing his shape quite different from a few months before, I couldn’t retain exclaiming, “How come?” The interrogator, still mysteriously smiling, told to me, “He has confessed everything, sincerely, and now he is to be transferred to the temporary detention #1; there, as you know, he will be much relaxed, and perhaps he’ll be free. If you want to be treated like him, just confess everything you know, sincerely.” [Brother Michel was released from the re-education A50, in Tuy Hoa, after 13 years in jail. I met Brother Michel again in 1998, 20 years later, when I went back to Vietnam for the first time after having successfully fled overseas in 1983. He was actually Director of the Scholasticate in Mai Thon. He drove me on a Honda motorcycle for a tour in Thu Duc county, and he related to me everything from the arrest at the irrigation camp (on January 3, 78) to the date he was released from the re-education camp A50.
At the Court, when the judge asked him “Do you have something to say?” He answered, “I am like a son taking care of my mother who has been really sick to death. I have been looking for the ad hoc medicine for her. But I was looking in the wrong direction. I so accept the sad consequences for the wrong direction I have been involved in.”
Brother Michel was condemned to 13 years in re-education, but he was released 2 years earlier, at the same time with Brother Colomban who was condemned to 12 years in re-education camp. After being released, he still had to report to the police every week, about his activities and those of his confreres. He couldn’t stand for long. On a tour in Australia for a Martial Arts Show, he and some of his comrades fled away from the martial group, then was luckily accepted as a political refugee, thanks to the Australian Brothers, his confreres. More than 5 years later, he changed his new life-style in Australia by becoming a priest at Pearl Diocese, and was ordained priest in 2004.
]

I still kept silent. He looked at my two cuffed hands full of traces of sores. He asked, “Do you want to write or just speak?” In turn, I looked at my cuffed hands, smiling and hoping to have them un-cuffed for writing at least for few hours. I answered, “I like to write.” He pushed a file of blank paper and a pen. Hesitating for a few minutes, he ordered a guard to un-cuff my hands. He said, “Write your full name, arresting day, month, year, and location of arrest. Write and answer these three questions:
1- The structural organization of the La Salle Congregation;
2- Full names of close friends with whom you had connection and what did you talk about during the past six months;
3- Do you like the communist system? Why yes? Why No?

There were no problems for the two first questions. The third question really made me confused and anxious. Should I answer “Yes” or “No?” If I answered:
. Yes = It was against my conscience;
. No = It could be tortures, handcuffs, etc.

Frankly, I had not been beaten or tortured except for the two times hung up at the window bars. I considered the first time I was hung at the window bars as a way to revenge from the detention center head, because he couldn’t overcome me in reasoning about the printing machine at La Salle Mossard; I recognized that it was my fault later in not reading the report before signing it, and its result was that I was hung at the window bars for the second time. While thinking about the best way to answer the 3rd question and looking around the room, I saw again the board that read “If guilty, beat until admitting illegal deeds. Not guilty, beat until acknowledging the mistake!” I understood that I would be beaten, or tortured, or applied to any sort of pain and sufferings no matter what I confessed. “If so,” I decided, “why not write what I really think about this communist system? I am ready to be hung at the window, again, or tortured...” Following was my answer to the 3rd question.

NO! I DO NOT LIKE THE COMMUNIST SYSTEM - Please note that “I do not like” does not mean “I am a reactionary” - I offer the following reasons:

1. There is no freedom of travel/moving. Traveling and/or moving is a means the most efficient and essential for the development in economy, technical and cultural tradition of a country. The system of ‘family-register” restrains and even stops such a development.
The most afflicting effect of such a restriction concerns economical and social development. For example, there are many official check- points controlling the transportation of foods and necessary items for living. It would be OK for the sake of taxes as revenue for the administration of a country. But there are more “unofficial” then “official” checking points, thus the problem of corruption is terribly spread out around the country.

Such a system of controlling people’s daily life creates counterfeit of all kinds or pushes people to flee overseas in order to avoid such a difficult living. Radio BBC used to publish news relating to the danger on high seas so that many boatpeople have to endure even death. Despite terribly discouraging news, people continue to flee overseas. Why?

2. In public propaganda, the government reports, always, that the success of any field of production run by the State “achieves more than 100%.” People know that’s not true because the level of people’s living is incessantly decreasing, the cost of life increasing, terribly. Why tell obvious lies? People are smart enough to understand that after war, life is always difficult. There are a lot of “grey substance” (intellectuals and experts) in different fields of life in South Vietnam. If the government knew how to employ them in important tasks, I think they won’t attempt to flee overseas, or just become reactionaries.

3. In the field of education for young people who are the immediate and long term leaders of society, good and committed teachers have been banned from the “socialist schools.” In addition, the criteria “red better than expert” is no more applicable, nor a catalyst for the development, nowadays, because technologies and industries of developed countries have advanced so far that we are far behind.


I read and re-read many times this confession. Even though I was afraid of the reactions of the “idiot intellectuals,” foreseeing pains and sufferings that would be imposed to me, I still stood firm on my position, “Because,” I said to myself, “pains and sufferings will be imposed, anyway; telling about what I had been frustrated about for more than 3 years, isn’t it a way to project unsatisfied thinking?”

About an hour later, the interrogator came back and sat in front of me. The first thing he didn’t forget to do was to handcuff me again. I smiled, bitterly and submitted my papers. He read my answers while I followed the expression on his face. It seemed he pulled a wry face at the end of the papers. He looked at me, angry, “Three months passed in jail and you dare write these opinions?”
- “ You asked me to write, frankly, sincerely. So I did!”
- “ Don’t you think I’ll destroy these papers, do you?”
- “ It’s up to you, I answered, very calm. You told me to write, I did write. Whether you’ll tear it or not, it’s your right to do so.”

He angrily ordered the guard, “Hang him up at the windows for 3 days and 3 nights!” I had been prepared myself for this punishment with which I was more or less “familiar.” The detainees in Room #4 looked at me, all surprised. I understood that just about 2 hours before, they would hope against any hope that I was released from jail, and now saw my “coming back home,” all hope was evaporated. I went to the window, before putting out my two hands through the bars, the cell head and Cuong and Han didn’t forget to undress me like the previous times, except that I didn’t feel any more embarrassed, but rather I felt it necessary because of my body full of sores. The guard seemed so familiar with that job that he hung me up without showing any emotion.

Cuong and Han, again, stood on my right, another at my left. Cuong said, “Pity on you, Brother! How much you have to suffer! Why did you they do it to you?” I looked at him, smiling then said, “Thank you my brother! I’m fine. I told them the truth about what I have thought since the events of ‘75, but they didn’t want to hear or accept the truth.” Han held my hand then asked, “What is the truth?” I looked at him, suddenly remembered the same question that Pilate had asked Jesus. I really couldn’t guess what Jesus would answer this question. Anyway, I replied, “I don’t know!...” then three of us laughed.

After the roll call which totaled 40 detainees in Room #4, everyone lay down and tried to sleep. I stood at the window, re-thinking the written confession without any regret. I suddenly perceived someone who looked like Brother Francois Anh, standing inside the wall bars of Room #7. It was about 11:00 P.M. I raised my two hands in making sounds with the cuffs in order to attract his attention. He got it in nodding his head, and raising his two hands cuffed outside the bars of the wall. He was also hung at the bars, like me. Was it the first time or many times before he was hung at the bars? I really didn’t know.

About half an hour later, a guard walked around on the rectangular court, in front of Room #5 to Room #10. He stood at Room #7, looking at Brother Francois for a while, came closer to Brother Francois and did something I could not see. When he left Room #7, I recognized the man, Mr. Hoa, who had beaten me with his keys chain on my head for my violation of rule #5. I also noticed that Brother Francois, although his hands were still cuffed outside the wall bars, could sit down, “comfortably.” I nodded my head in sign of “congratulations” but more or less with the feelings of bitter envy. Anyway, it was good for him because he was at least 15 years older than me.

Brother Francois didn’t enjoy such a comfort for long. About 15 minutes passed and the detention center head walked around as for a final tour of duty. He seemed surprised seeing Brother Francois able to sit on the floor with two hands cuffed outside the bars. He left, hastily and angrily. Less than a minute later, another guard came un-cuffed Brother Francois, pulled him stand up, and then re-cuffed his two hands again outside the bars, but much higher than previously so that he could not even move his two hands up and down. My experience being hung up to the window bars helped me understand how Francois Anh had to suffer and to endure such a pain for a long time in that standing position. But, on early morning, I didn’t see Brother Francois hung at the bars anymore. It seemed that he was unconscious about an hour later, and the guards had un-cuffed him.

On early morning of the 2nd night I had been hung at the window bars, I saw Tien, the Junior, bringing his luggage and following the guard outward from the detention center. Passing in front of me, he slowed down, looked at me, surprised and moved. The guard pushed him, shouting, “Go! Do you want to be like that reactionary?” Tien rushed to go ahead. He turned back his head, anyway, and waved his right hand as a sign of saying “Au Revoir!” [In 1986, I came to Dallas in Texas to meet Tien. He had been transferred to the re-education camp K5, and released in 1983. During two years looking for the opportunity to flee overseas with the boat people, he earned his living in pedaling a tri-cycle pousse-pousse. When I met him in Dallas, he broke into tears, saying, “Sorry, Brother!” I comforted him, saying, “That’s OK! Everything passes! Do not worry, not anymore!” Then I made a joke, “Do you remember the role of a mad son you had performed on the Tet Show? You had been hung up at the tree, and miraculously un-hung. You can now retrieve your memory and you are no longer a mad man!” We laughed, comfortably.]

About 15 minutes later, another guard led Brother Colomban who brought his luggage, out from the detention center. I was eager to see other Brothers, and myself, for our turns to getting out of the detention center. But no more came. “Where would Tien and Brother Colomban be transferred to?” I was wondering. [Brother Colomban was transferred to Phan Dang Luu detention center. A week later, he and Brother Michel were convicted at Court, along with several members of the so-called Inter-Religion Anti-Communist Front led by Rev. Vang, a Redemptorist. Brother Colomban was condemned to 12 years in re-education camp A50. When asked at the Court what he had wished to say, he answered, “I would volunteer to be the Education Service Head of the District of Thu Duc, in order to help ameliorate and renew if necessary the existing educational system.” He was released from re-education camp on the same time with Brother Michel in 1988.]

***

In the mid-June 1978, I was called by name, “Bring all of your luggage. You are transferred to another detention camp.” I shared with Cuong and Han everything in my possession: 1 plastic cup, 2 towels more or less clean, and 3 shorts. They didn’t accept, arguing that “Brother! You might need them. You are not sure to be released. You’ll need these things in any re-education camp. Maybe you’ll be transferred to the North and it may be several months before you’ll be able to receive these necessary items for your personal use. ” I looked around, smiling and whispering to all my roommates, “Good luck to everyone! Thank you for everything you have done to me during these past months in Room #4!”

From the front door Room #4, I saw Brother Francois bending his back while his two cuffed hands were on a vice: a guard was sawing the cuffs because after more than 5 months, they had become rusty and there was no way to un-lock them except by sawing. I wore cuffs for more than 5 months, too, but to be frank, I was much luckier than Brother Francois: a roommate had helped me un-cuff every night when the roll call was done. I had to hide my two hands, free at that time, and the cuffs, under a towel, always ready to put the cuffs into my hands when a guard suddenly might ask or call me. That never happened, thank God!

At the front gate, there were about 60 prisoners gathered near a big truck. What made me excited and surprised was “that the Juniors Anthony Thanh, Alphonse Minh, “Bobo” Hoang, Andrew Thang and the Brothers Francois Anh, Augustin Phuc, Jerome Diep, Pierre Thang, and Gervais Ha, were there, too. Thus, the whole La Salle Mossard Community, except Brothers Colomban and Michel Hong and the Junior Tien, was to be “together and by association” rallied and ready to a new life-style, somewhere.

***

The Move from the Detention Center in Thu Duc.

The policemen randomly picked up any 6 prisoners, tied them together with an electrical cable and pushed each chain of 6 prisoners on board the truck. Ten chains of 6 prisoners sat on the floor of the truck into 10 rows. The truck started running. Where would be the destination? Nobody could answer.

We arrived at Chi Hoa, the biggest prison of the South. Thirty prisoners, 6 Brothers and 4 Juniors included, were pushed into the large Room #15 at the 3rd floor of the junction of the A-H zones. Chi Hoa Prison was built in an amazing form: 8 buildings of 3 stories annexed to each other formed an octagon, each building was named from A to H; people who wanted to go out from any cell, or room, or even office, must pass through 7 doors. Thus, Chi Hoa Prison had been called as “Seven Doors Eight Buildings.” It seemed that no prisoner could escape from it since the time that French colonizers had built it.

Experienced on the role of the cell head from the detention center in Thu Duc, I suggested that Brother Francois be elected the room head, but he said, “It would be better to elect Brother Gervais.” Unanimously approved, Brother Gervais was designed as the room head.

On Monday morning of the second week in Chi Hoa, nearly all prisoners, the Brothers and Juniors included, except me, received food supplies from their families. I received mine a day later from Dang Kim Quang and Nguyen Minh Phung, my two former Juniors at the Junioriate of ‘72-73 classes. They inserted between 2 cookies a small piece of paper, informing me that they had heard the bad news that happened to La Salle Mossard in general and to me in particular, and they tried to do their best to assist and help me during these difficult times.

In the morning, we were informed that a Catholic priest who had been jailed at Room #9 - perhaps related to the Inter-Religion Anti-communist Front - was giving absolution for those who would like to receive the sacrament of reconciliation, at 11:00 A.M. A few minutes before the set time, some Catholics in Room #15, Brothers and Juniors included, stood, silently and piously onwards the direction of Room #9, and at 11:00 A.M. each one made a sign of cross whispering “AMEN!”

On July 20, 1978, there was a rumor spreading that we would be transferred, very soon, to a labor camp called a re-education camp. “Very soon” could be a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Anyway, July 21st was Brother Francois’s birthday. No matter what, we, the Brothers and Juniors, decided to celebrate his “first” birthday in jail, that night, July 20. Gathering everything we had received from families and friends, it was enough to “cook” sweet soup of soya and green bean powder. The problem was “how to do cooking?”

A roommate, who had heard our discussion about the problem, suggested that we burn plastic bags and drop its burnt carbon on rags, and then use these rags as fire-wood. It was a very good idea. Brother Francois wanted to invite all roommates to participate to the birthday party. “It’s not just my birthday party,” he said, “It’s rather a party of our solidarity, which could be called ‘We are on the same boat’, now and maybe for a long time ahead!” All agreed. A roommate volunteered in stand guard at the door and another at the window to watch out for the guards, while others shared different chores in cooking the sweet soup for the party.

Everything had been so well done that we enjoyed together, each of us, a cup of sweet soup, chanting “Happy Birthday!” and “Long Live to our Friendship!” It was marvelous, unforgettable souvenir of JOY and HOPE for a mutual support and for understanding each other facing an uncertain future...

***

Early the next morning, a guard came to Room #15 and told everyone be ready to go in 15 minutes. Although tired and anxious about the destination “to go”, everyone felt in good mood thanks to the party of last night.

Another truck joined ours at the gate of Chi Hoa Prison. Both trucks passed Saigon city, and drove toward the North. Where would we be transferred? It seemed that most of prisoners had been familiar with life in jail, from whatever detention center it could be, therefore such a question “Where are we transferred?” did not trouble them anymore. For me, personally, I reflected on a statement from the book The Prodigious Discoveries of the Modern Psychology by Pierre Daco: “The secret to happiness for each person is to depend on his/her capability to adapt him/herself to any circumstance of his/her life.” It made me calm and more reliant on the Providence of God.