Torture chamber

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Torture chamber (disambiguation).
The Tower of London and Traitors Gate. In the Middle ages, torture was carried out in its chambers

A Torture chamber is a place where torture is carried out.[1]

Contents

[edit] Torture chambers through history

Throughout history torture chambers have been used in a multiplicity of ways starting from Roman times. Torture chamber use during the Middle Ages was frequent. Religious, social and political persecution led to the widespread use of torture during that time. Torture chambers were also used during the Spanish Inquisition and at the Tower of London.[2][3][4]

[edit] Torture chambers in modern times

[edit] Nazi Germany and South America

The traditional torture users of modern times have been dictatorship governments, such as, for example, the Nazis and the Chilean dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet as well as other South American regimes.[5][6] These regimes have also used torture chambers.[7][8] The isolation felt inside the Nazi torture chambers was so strong that author, and victim, K. Zetnik, during his testimony at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961, has described them as another galaxy.

[edit] Europe

Use of torture chambers was also reported in Europe during the Greek military junta years.[9][10][11] Alexandros Panagoulis and Tagmatarkhis Spyros Moustaklis are examples of persons tortured at the EAT/ESA (Greek Military Police) interrogation cell units.[9] Another example of a torture chamber, not known by many, is "The Thieves Tower" in the Alsace region of France. Once a tower used for torture, it is now a small museum displaying instruments used upon the prisoners to get them to confess crimes.[12]

[edit] Middle East

Under the reign of Saddam Hussein, he reportedly tortured those whom he deemed as a threat. After the invasion of Iraq by US forces, pictures of dead Iraqis, with their necks slashed, their eyes gouged out and their genitals blackened, were located in many torture chambers.[13] Jail cells, with dried blood on the floor and rusted shackles bolted to the walls, lined the corridors. And the screams of what could be imprisoned men in an underground detention center echo through air shafts and sewer pipes.[14]

In November 2004, US Marines found a number of torture rooms in Fallujah by following trails of dried blood, or the smell of death. Some rooms were hidden behind fake walls, or concealed in basements.[15] Marines believe they found the place where British hostage Kenneth Bigley was caged before being beheaded.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Literature

In George Orwell's famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Room 101 is a torture chamber.

In Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, Erik (the Phantom's) chamber of torture consisted of a hexagonal room lined with mirrors on each wall. Temperatures vary inside the room, and soon, without food or water, people trapped in there begin having hallucinations. There is an iron tree in there with a lasso under it with which one can commit suicide, which is the only way out.

[edit] Film

In film the torture chamber is also known as the chamber of horrors with the word horror implying torture as well as murder or a combination of both. A good example is the torture chamber depicted in the classic horror film The Pit and the Pendulum (1961).

[edit] List of chamber related films

[edit] Cultural resonance

Aside from its dictionary definition the term has great cultural resonance, because it transforms an abstract concept (Torture) into a real place (Torture chamber), and is an integral part of pop culture. Related exhibits can also be found in places such as Niagara Falls, Las Vegas etc., attracting millions of tourists each year.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Princeton Wordnet definition of Torture chamber
  2. ^ Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition:Chapter 3. The water cure. by Anthony Bruno. From Crime Library.com
  3. ^ The White Tower once held torture chambers within its crypt From Mysterious Britain website. Retrieved 5 March 2007
  4. ^ There was no permanent torture-chamber. The basement of the White Tower was used. But prisoners could also be tortured in their cells From Tudor website. Retrieved 5 March 2007
  5. ^ "Détournement as Civil Disobedience: Mash-ups, Re-Mixes and the Recontextualization of Sound and Images as Political Statements" A Parapolitical-Cultural Essay by James L. Cypher Presented to the MIT Media in Transition Conference “Disruptive Practices” Session April 28, 2007 quote: The Sexy Blindfold” based on the 1970s Chilean secret police torture chamber underneath a discotheque, where the loud dance music drowned out he screams of the sexual chamber of horrors below.
  6. ^ Fort Breendonk (Nazi Camp): Pictorial essay. Mentions local torture chamber
  7. ^ Torture chamber: behind Pinochet's reign of terror. Christian Century, Jan 11, 2005 by Kenneth P. Serbin
  8. ^ Nuremberg Trials Opening Address for the United States Robert Jackson statement: (Nazi) Germany became one vast torture chamber
  9. ^ a b Athens news on ESA torture chambers 2 May 2003 quote: After weeks of gruesome interrogation in the infamous military police (ESA) torture chambers, Panagoulis was sentenced to death by a court martial on November 17, 1968.
  10. ^ Political prisoners network quote: 12.00 a.m. - 1.00 p.m.: Commemoration and press conference at the EAT-ESA (EAT-ESA is a museum today, and it was used as a torture center of the gendarmery during the military junta)
  11. ^ Reportage without frontiers from ET (Greek National TV) Interview with Vice Admiral Konstantinos Dimitriadis Quote: The fai was filled with salt. Απειλές. Threats. Ορισμένοι μάλιστα υπέστησαν κι απειλές ηθικής τάξεως. Some even suffered threats and Ethic. Ότι οι γυναίκες τους και τα λοιπά και κάτι μονταρισμένες φωτογραφίες με σκάνδαλα να το πούμε έτσι. That women and the other something mounted photos with scandals to say. Με απειλές, με τέτοια πράγματα και υβρεολόγιο. With threats, with such things and profanity. Νυχθημερόν να παίζει κάποιο ραδιόφωνο. Nychthimeron to play a radio. Ένα ραδιόφωνο με διάφορα τραγούδια εκείνης της εποχής και τα λοιπά. A radio with various songs of the time and so on. Και μαγνητόφωνα με κραυγές για να σπάσει το ηθικό, ας πούμε. And tape with cries to break the morale, say. Αυτά και βέβαια ορισμένοι, δεν υπέστησαν όλοι με τον ίδιο τρόπο την μείωση αυτή. Those are certainly some, not all were in the same way to reduce this. Είχανε κάτι ζωστήρες. Eichane zostires something. Το κορύφωμα βέβαια ήταν του Μουστακλή ο οποίος χτυπήθηκε άσχημα και βγήκε εκτός ο άνθρωπος. The culmination of the course was Moustakli who severely beaten and got out of the man.[sic] (Translation by Google)
    Original Greek interview
  12. ^ Overseas Military Portal website.quote:The Thieves Tower wasn’t a hideout for medieval criminals, but a place where they would pay for their crimes. This museum is home to an authentic torture chamber on the tower’s first floor, which highlights the different methods of punishing criminals, and the tools of the trade, which made this torture so agonizing such as the infamous Rack. (article by Michael J. Meese 1/26/2005), retrieved 6-07-2007
  13. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/02/sprj.irq.iraq.torture/index.html
  14. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-04-13-saddam-secrets-usat_x.htm
  15. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/eveningnews/main657134.shtml

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_chamber"
Personal tools
Languages