Lasst mich eure Stimme sein!: Sechs Jahre in Nordkoreas Arbeitslagern

by Sun-Ok Yi

Gebraucht - Wie Neu; Soon Ok Lee; Lasst mich eure Stimme sein! - Sechs Jahre in Nordkoreas Arbeitslagern - bk324; Brunnen Verlag; 2017; pocketbook; Wie Neu!!!; Deutsch

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Asia, Christian, Horror, Christianity

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Babyunagi · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the most part, this is indeed a worthwhile and heart-wrenching book. It's a true horror story, in every sense of the word. Most of the book is justly spent on the author's experience and had she simply included her belief system as an organic part of the story, I wouldn't have minded. But I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention to notice the old bait and switch tactic often employed by the evangelical press--hook an unsuspecting and fresh audience with a really great martyr story (as reviewer Valerie correctly pointed out) & then reel them in with your conversion appeal. The statement that North Korea needs Jesus over food seems like a sales pitch hawked to an already victimized woman by a overzealous, exploitative religious publisher. If such publishers acted honestly and wanted to "sell" their come to Jesus message as much as they claim to, then why not come right out and include that in the book's descriptions? They were careful not to let their end of the book altar call interfere too much with the story (in spite of my focus on it), but as my only complaint, it's a pretty big pet peeve.

[Ken · Rating 1 out of 5]

The meat of this book is actually a very terrifying account of this woman's many years spent inside a North Korean prison. Her tales of torture, starvation, and abuse are nothing short of gut wrenching. As many of these types of stories I've read, they never cease to shock me. It truly is an astonishing way to have to try to survive.

But let me get to the reasons I almost put this book down before even getting in to the actual story. At the end of chapter one, the author is talking about living in South Korea and sending rice to the North, and here is an actual quote from the book, "But more important than rice is to send the love of God to them." I couldn't believe what I had just read. Does this women who has seen her people inside and outside of North Korean prisons starving to death really believe that?

What I'm getting at is that this book and it's author have a very backhanded way of trying to preach Christianity to the reader. It's not just a part of her story. She goes out of her way in many instances to make religious comments and quote the bible. And although I feel deeply sorry that these kinds of atrocities go on in our world still. I also feel deeply sorry that this poor woman went from one brainwashed state of mind to another. Because actually believing that sending the "love of God" to a starving nation is better than sending real food and sustenance is just being brainwashed in a whole new way.

[Valarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though I only gave this book two stars (my usual rating for books "I'm surprised got published"), I don't want to diminish the author's experiences. The descriptions of the torture she endured at the hands of North Korean officials were haunting, and her story is a good example to illustrate how many innocent people are being tormented under Kim Jong-il's regime. Unfortunately, I am not surprised that this book was published - it is a propaganda text financed by a Christian organization dedicated to "modern-day martyrs." I was appalled at how blatantly this book was aimed at converting people to Christianity, and insulted by the fact Lee's survival was attributed solely to the grace of God. Lee even mentions that Christians in her camp who were murdered with boiling oil, and yet she (or more likely, her translators) feels that she was spared in order to be a Christian. If God saved her, why doesn't he save all of the other people in the camps, who are being tortured to this day?

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was difficult to read because of the brutality and horror in it, but is was worth reading and I hope I will not be the same or forget what I have read. Life is very fragile and at the same time the human body can endure unimaginable difficulties! Though this book takes place in the 1980s and 1990s, what is written is still happening today in North Korea.

I recommend this book as it will help anyone who reads it to really put their lives into perspective. I also hope that as it is read it will give you a deeper desire to pray for others.

[Gina Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with my Scholé group. This is one of those books that I’m not sure how to rate. It was hard to read (the content) and I certainly don’t want to say, “oh go read this book!” But I also feel that it’s information that needs to be shared. The author is put in prison in North Korea for not giving someone a bribe and the book is all about the horrors she and other prisoners lived through (or didn’t survive…). The Lord miraculously brought her out of prison and saved her but that’s like the last two chapters. The rest is just horror and torture and evilness.

[Danielle Coelho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro muito impactante, terrível e reflexivo! Vale a leitura! História de uma sobrevivente da prisão norte coreana. Dói na alma!

[Annelot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heel heftig. Mooi einde

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a significant portion of the book is spent relating short histories of many individual people the author met while in North Korea's prisons, the overall book is a valuable read. It details torture methods routinely used to force prisoners to sign self-incriminating confessions to cover the misdeeds of their superiors. (None of the thousands of prisoners the author met had actually broken the law, but they had usually gotten in the way of a higher official doing so). The author documents the unbelievably torturous conditions prisoners are forced (yes - ARE...currently) forced to work under.

What I found most interesting was her account of the mental path she took as she moved from worshiping the party she had been born and raised under, to hating the very thought of the propaganda that had shaped her stilted view of the world. As she discovers, bit by bit, that every piece of information she has ever been exposed to has been false, she documents her human reactions to reveal a change that I, as an American, can never fully understand. She hates that, in a way, her devotion to the Party had, in a way, sentenced her and so many others to such intense misery. She slowly comes to realize this as she endures torture, a mockery of a public “trial”, whispered news from South Korea, acceptance and protection in China, and eventually, a new life in South Korea.

Every time I read a book like this, I realize how much I take my incredible freedoms for granted. Democracy is not the natural end, goal, or pursuit of men with power. We must do everything possible to protect our freedoms

[Erin Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a really eye opener it really touched me she was told she could leave prison to quote " They all looked up at me at once.Their eyes were glowing with heavenly light .I knew their eyes were telling me , " When you get out of prison, be a witness for us. You are not going out just to live a better life. You are going out to tell about the real hell that exists in here." They were begging me to tell about there faith and witness about alll that they were suffering .That is what their eyes reflected to me. Ican never forget the sight of those pleading eyes. end quote ... as i read this i was listening to newsboys the song called there will be a day when every knee will bow. i started to cry i have to admit... really asome book!!!

[Alexys · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very sad book filled with details.of life in a north korean prison. the details seem too horrible to be true but based on what I've read in other books, they very well likely are true. it is written from a christian perspective, so there are phrases in there that could turn off the non-christian or atheist. still, it is good to read and understand, and it helps the reader see the role of faith in difficult situations. even if you don't believe that a god was responsible for her surviving, you can see the effect it had on others in rising to a higher purpose, to maintain their humanness, and to rise above a system that dehumanizes everyone in its power.

[Philip Monroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very HARD read. A graphic story of unending pain, torture and trauma of a woman falsely accused and imprisoned in her country of North Korea. [note: many chapters tell many stories of torture and death of prisoners] The story is written, understandably, to reveal the insanity and brutality of the regime in the late 80s and early 90s. Life is not valued and every slight is assumed to be treason and worthy of death. The story also documents her escape from NK and her conversion to Christianity. I would have liked to hear a bit more of how she managed trauma symptoms after 6 years of prison.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a powerful book. It is very graphic, it is not for the faint of heart. I didn't like it as well as "The Hiding Place" or "To Destroy you is no Loss", but her story is no less important. It is especially relevant given the two reporters in the news right now who may be sentenced to a North Korean prison for 10 years.

[Alysha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This true account of a woman held captive in a work camp in North Korea is an extremely simple read. I had to read this book for one of my Asian history courses in college and although I'm not a fan of most books forced upon me in school I actually found this book interesting and horrifying.

[Melissa Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is utterly heart-wrenching. One of the saddest things I've ever read. And to think that these things really go on today in North Korea. I'm so thankful for this brave woman who was able to get out to share the truth. And I pray God will work powerfully in North Korea!!

[Inis Fal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was perhaps one of the hardest books I have ever read...the terrible difficulties this woman endured are indescribable...yet the end of the book and final escape to freedom make it completely worth reading...this story will bring tears to your eyes...in many different ways!

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want my 3-star review to make it look as though I am downplaying the severity of the testimony of human rights abuses documented in this book, but I have an ethical problem with the way the author illogically, inconsistently, and RETROSPECTIVELY wove God throughout the novel for the sake of making North Korean victims serve the Christian agenda.

The first chapter serves as the author's background and motivation for writing the book, during which she says "Christians are suffering the most". Following this are 12 full chapters in which the author makes no mention of God and writes about the horrific torture, inhumanity and injustice that hundreds of thousands of completely innocent (and non-Christian) North Koreans experience in concentration camps. Finally in Chapter 14 she starts talking about the Christian prisoners at the camps. She says that guards receive "promotions" for getting Christians to deny their faith, but elsewhere in the book acknowledges that guards get promotions for finding reasons to kill ANY prisoner. Then she says Christians receive less food and clothing, but elsewhere in the book she mentions how entire factories of women will be working naked, and multiple times in the book wrote about how small the portions of food EVERYONE received were, and how not meeting your work quote resulted in even further reduced food. In the same chapter she talks about how Christians are subjected to torturous executions, but wrote multiple times in the book how many people she personally knew were taken to the interrogation rooms to be tortured to death for the smallest offenses, including laughing. She claims Christians were given the worst work details, like the mines, but later on in the book mentions multiple times non-Christian North Koreans were assigned to mines for, again, meaningless offenses. The propaganda statement at the beginning of the book is asinine - EVERYONE was treated horrifically, and ANYONE who didn't revere the Kim family as gods were sent to camps.

I also find it insensitive and disrespectful that the author contributed her survival to "miracles" from God, while telling us the stories of hundreds of innocent people who died horrific deaths without any grace from any divine being, and not acknowledging that in other parts of the book she says she was released early due to her arrest being part of a nationwide scandal around a power struggle among the Communist Party and the Public Security Bureau, and also due to the high status she had previous to being arrested (more on that below). She acknowledges she was non-Christian during her entire six years at the camp, yet retells her story with her new Christian lens that things around her were "God's protection" and "answers to prayers".

Finally, in the final chapter where the author is telling her readers what their new mission should be, she writes "I think it is more important to send the scriptures than to send rice." (insert head exploding emoji) What an incredibly unfeeling and ignorant statement to make. For perspective, before her arrest, Soon Ok Lee was a member of the privileged North Korean elite. She came from a highly respected family, had expensive and rare luxuries, was allowed to go to esteemed colleges, and had a high-status and powerful job. She tells us she was one of the country's most successful women. She admits that at the time she had absolutely no knowledge of the suffering and experiences of the common North Korean people, and multiple times in the book she's shocked to see poor people or starving people in the country. How could someone admittedly ignorant and privileged say food is not important? Yes, she did later experience starvation in the prisons, but also writes that in the first few days of imprisonment she refused to eat because she considered the quality of food beneath her. How could someone now safe and well-fed in South Korea, who spent the majority of their early life living in luxury as an elite, write such a thing? This statement is probably the worst bit of self-serving Christian propaganda in the book.

To further understand how projecting the Christian agenda onto North Korean human rights abuses is so insulting, please read Suki Kim's article for the Washington Post (or even her own memoir about North Korea) about how Evangelical organizations are financially propping up the Kim regime through millions of dollars in "donations" to allow them to operate Christian institutions in North Korea.

[Shixiao Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I start, I want to make a disclaimer that some of Lee's descriptions have been challenged by other North Korean defectors and researchers (source: Lee's Wikipedia page. It did cite published research, which interested readers can investigate).

Regardless, Lee's novel is an important piece of first-person testimony on North Korea's politics and corruption. I don't doubt that the core of her testimony—the torture, the suffering, her empathy for other prisoners—is true. Lee's own personal reflections on how her time in prison disillusioned her from her total faith in North Korea's leaders and ideals, as well as how her observations of how the Christians in prison behaved spurred her own conversion are incredibly interesting. I think this novel shines brightest when it comes to Lee's own contemplations.

That being said, however, there is still a gratuitous amount of praise being lavished upon Christianity. It's the most prominent at the beginning and the end (the bulk of the novel describing Lee's time in prison only mentions her own Christianity in passing and her notes on how imprisoned Christians acted despite receiving harsher treatment). In both the introduction and conclusion, Lee states that she believes that one of the cures for North Korea's state is converting citizens to Christianity, and she attributes many occurrences during her escape as "miracles" (e.g. finding a friend's house, tuning into the right radio). I'm an atheist, and it was a bit much.

But despite Lee's personal views, which readers may or may not agree with, I don't think Lee's message of the suffering, corruption, and inhumane treatment of citizens in North Korea is completely lost. For those that want to understand the treatment of prisoners in North Korea, "Eyes of Tailless Animals" is still worth reading.

[Buchstaplerin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Auch heute gibt es noch Konzentrationslager, wie wir sie aus den Geschichtsbüchern kennen. In Nordkorea werden in diesem Moment über 100.000 Menschen willkürlich gefangen gehalten. Sie erleben tagtäglich die Hölle auf Erden. Sie werden gefoltert, missbraucht und Opfer medizinischer Experimente. 
Gefangene haben ein bestimmtes Arbeitssoll zu erfüllen: Sie müssen 19 Stunden am Tag arbeiten. Wer fehler macht sieht sich drakonischen Strafen ausgesetzt. Dazu zählen das Kürzen der Essensration, Einweisung in die Strafzelle. Die Schwächsten werden direkt hingerichtet. Denn, Gefangene werden als „Tiere ohne Schwanz“ gesehen. 
Schwangeren Frauen wird Gift verabreicht, damit die Säuglinge nicht lebend zur Welt kommen. Wenn ein Baby doch das Licht der Welt erblickt, wird es vor den Augen der Mutter getötet und sie hat im nächsten Moment wieder ihr Soll zu erfüllen.
Soon Ok Lee war selbst sieben Jahre in einem Konzentrationslager gefangen. Ihr Wille vom unmenschlichen Leid Nordkoreas zu berichten, hat sie am Leben gehalten. Sie beschreibt auf 180 Seiten die Grausamkeit eines Regimes, das nicht existieren dürfte.

[Skylar]

I DNF this one. I came for Ms Lee's story and to learn more about the NK prison system. I did not appreciate being evangelized at every turn of the page and felt apalled at some of the things that were said in this book, like that the NK prisoners needed Jesus' love more than food.

I am by no means a "militant atheist" but Ms Lee fell from one cult right into another; the Evangelical Church is a horrible institution and I am sad and angry that they prey on vulnerable people like her.

This book is the Evangelical Church's device more than it is this individual's story. Out of respect for Soon Ok Lee and what she's been through I won't give this book a low rating. If others don't mind the constant preaching and are able to set it aside, more power to them. I simply won't rate it at all.

[Matthew Neo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I note a number of reviews have low scores because the book tries to bring across Christianity. I thought that is fine, though admittedly it should have been obvious from the publisher.

But I grew increasingly bored with the writing style, than the content. The main content is about torture, which is itself very captivating. But over many chapters, it became repetitive, same as how the Christianity message was brought in and then repeated thru each chapter. Each chapter was a new form of torture on another helpless individual. I feel I did not learn much about North Korea beyond the incomprehensible sufferings of the prisoners. Or was that the only msg?

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It offers a great perspective of the medieval-like tortures of the North Korean prison system. The last part of the book becomes a bit unglued seems almost patched on, probably at the urging of the editor, as I believe this is supposed to be a book for Christians. One thing that bothers me is the haughty and self-righteous tone and the failure of the author to accept that she too was part of the misery in N.K. as a party official, and even in prison as she ascended to a position to plan the inmates impossible work conditions, she too is responsible for deaths.

[Michelle Oh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a haunting read. I was deeply sad and scared for the women treated like animals in these North Korean prison camps. They were someone's mothers and sisters. Her pretty extreme Christian views were low-key weaved in there and I had to re-focus after getting distracted by those moments, but the bulk of her important accounts/stories far outweigh the trouble of me having to brush off our conflicting religious views.

[Andreas Stump · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very heart wrenching account of what men will become like without accountability and greed in their hearts. At times it made me want to puke at the despicable ways in which these prisoners were treated and to think that it is still going on today and we Americans benefit from the forced labor.
I'm not sure if we can do more for North Korea than pray for them.

[Mirjam Kuipers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gemixte gevoelens over dit boek. De gruwelijkheden zijn bizar, tot in detail verteld en waar gebeurd. Ik kon niet wachten totdat ik het boek uit had, omdat ik de verhalen eigenlijk niet kon verdragen. Toch ben ik blij dat ik het uitgelezen heb.

Gelukkig is dit ook het bewijs van de kracht van gebed voor en door christenen in Noord-Korea. God werkt, ook in de duisternis!

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is TOUGH! Had to skip some parts because of how gory and descriptive it is. Because the book is so factual, the language seems flat. But that might just be because it is a translation. Although this is definitely not a fun read, I think it’s important for the West to read more and hopefully act on it (specifically the CHURCH!!). The battle for NK is not solely for SK to bear.

[Marith · Rating 3 out of 5]

De schrijfstijl is wat warrig, maar doet niet af aan het verhaal. De dingen die gebeuren in Noord Korea zijn verschrikkelijk en dat wordt goed onder woorden gebracht. Een huiveringwekkend boek dat je bijblijft.

[Psyduck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically just lengthy torture porn. It's in a semi-interesting onslaught of people being horribly mistreated.

[Colinde De · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heftig boek om te lezen

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and rated this book years ago, and only now discovered I wrote no review.

This was an astonishing work. It was an amazing read. The stories the author relates are incredible, and absolutely consistent with what we know of the brutal and inhumane Communist government of North Korea. She witnessed so many of the tortures to which readers have grown accustomed, but also things I've seen nowhere else: people burned by molten steel, people forced to lie down while thousands march over them until they are dead, people so beaten by suffering they pluck out their own eyes and the writer sees them hanging against their faces as if on strings, and more.

[Spoiler alert]

The writer was released from prison, tracked down her son, and they escaped North Korea by running across the frozen Yellow River into China, traveled south through China, then snuck into South Korea and from there to the US.

Two things really stood out to me. When the writer found her son, he had begun a journey toward Christ because his friends had gotten hold of several pages of scripture. Knowing it was forbidden, they devoured it and became curious. The son did the same and shared it with his mother, the author.

Once in South Korea, the writer found herself staying with a South Korean Christian family. At some point they sang hymns around the house, while cooking or whatever, and the author was shocked that she knew all the tunes. She knew all the tunes--but NONE of the words--because her own parents had been terrified to speak of their faith to their daughter, knowing the way schools were encouraging children to "turn in" their parents if they ever read from a big, black book, or sang songs about a man named Jesus, etc. But her parents would hum the songs for years, as if to let their daughter somehow know something of their faith.

Decades later in South Korea, Soon Ok Lee discovered the words to the songs she knew her parents had loved so much. It was then that she realized her parents were Christians, but had been afraid to talk to their children about their faith knowing the kids would be taken from them and they would be imprisoned or killed. Having been imprisoned so cruelly herself, I'm sure she understood what a struggle that must have been for them.

The stories I read in this book eventually became the basis for a subplot in a novel I completed in 2007. I found Ms. Lee's story to be so amazing....

[Wedley Godinho · Rating 4 out of 5]

O livro é um relato verídico de uma ex-prisioneira norte coreana, que foi libertada e fugiu para a Coréia do Sul.

A autora narra com detalhes o tratamento dos prisioneiros norte-coreanos, as torturas, as humilhações sofridas.

Fala ainda sobre como são tratados os cristãos nas prisões da Coréia do Norte, como ela conheceu a Cristo e o Ministério que recebeu e vem desempenhando desde então.