Torture chamber

A Torture chamber is a place where torture is carried out. [http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=torture%20chamber Princeton Wordnet definition of Torture chamber] ]

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. [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/torquemada/index.html Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition:Chapter 3. The water cure. by Anthony Bruno. From Crime Library.com] ] [http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/hauntings/tower_london.html "The White Tower once held torture chambers within its crypt"] From "Mysterious Britain" website. Retrieved 5 March 2007] [http://tudors.crispen.org/tower/state_prison.html "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]

Torture chambers in modern times

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. [http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit5/papers/cypher.pdf "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."] [http://www.europebyphoto.com/tours/fortbreendonk/fortbreendonk.html Fort Breendonk (Nazi Camp): Pictorial essay. Mentions local torture chamber] ] These regimes have also used torture chambers. [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_1_122/ai_n8703035 Torture chamber: behind Pinochet's reign of terror. Christian Century, Jan 11, 2005 by Kenneth P. Serbin] ] [http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/resource/document/DocJac08.htm Nuremberg Trials Opening Address for the United States Robert Jackson statement: (Nazi) Germany became one vast torture chamber] ] 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."

Europe

Use of torture chambers was also reported in Europe during the Greek military junta years. [http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=13012&m=A13&aa=1&eidos=A 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."] [http://www.political-prisoners.net/home.php?id=9&lang=en&action=campaign 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)] [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=el&u=http://www.rwf.gr/interviews_senaria-new.php%3Fid%3D152%26interview%3D1%26interview_id%3D323 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)
[http://www.rwf.gr/interviews_senaria-new.php?id=152&interview=1&interview_id=323 Original Greek interview] ] Alexandros Panagoulis and Tagmatarkhis Spyros Moustaklis are examples of persons tortured at the EAT/ESA (Greek Military Police) interrogation cell units. 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. [http://www.oconus.com/Main/eArticle.asp?205 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]

Culture

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.

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).

List of chamber related films

*Chamber of horrors is a 1966 B-movie classic.
*Hostel is a 2006 movie
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0213030/ Cell zero] A movie about the Greek Military Police torture chambers
*The Saw series

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. Also "Torture Chamber" is a song by hip hop artist Edan from his 2005 album Beauty and the Beat.

See also

*Psychology of torture
*Psychological warfare
*The Box (torture)

References

External links

* [http://www.europebyphoto.com/tours/fortbreendonk/fortbreendonk.html Fort Breendonk (Nazi Camp): Pictorial essay. Mentions local torture chamber]
* [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=el&u=http://www.rwf.gr/interviews_senaria-new.php%3Fid%3D152%26interview%3D1%26interview_id%3D323 Google Translation of Vice Admiral Dimitriades' interview] TV series: Reportage without frontiers (From ET Greek National TV)