Not Auschwitz, This is the Boven Digoel Concentration Camp in Papua

Merauke, Papua – Concentration camp does not only exist in Auschwitz, Poland. In Indonesia, there is also a Dutch Boven Digoel concentration camp in Papua. Who does not know Auschwitz? Concentration Camp formed by Nazi Germany on May 20, 1940. This camp is a witness to the holocaust that claimed millions of lives.

Long before that, Indonesia also had a camp like this in early 1927 established by the Dutch by Captain L. Th. Becking It is the Boven Digoel Concentration Camp in Merauke, precisely in the middle of the forest near the headwaters of the Digoel river in Southern Papua.

Similar but not the same. If Auschwitz was formed as a form of genocide on a racist basis, the inhabitants were killed by being put in gas chambers, shot, left to starve and hung. The 10,000-hectare Boven Digoel is a place of exile and a natural prison for dissidents against the Dutch colonial government.

The natural conditions in Boven Digoel are still closed and many wild animals. Many tribes also live in this area, so it is difficult for prisoners to escape.

As sadistic as Auschwitz, at Boven Digoel the Dutch colonial government allowed prisoners to go crazy, die, and be destroyed. Diseases that often attack prisoners are malaria, high fever and black urine.

Hunger also contributed to the death of prisoners. In addition, detainees were required to build their own houses and forced labor.

The harsh natural conditions and the location is far from everywhere, making prisoners experience mental disorders. This causes the prisoners to fight, fight and kill each other.

Although the Boven Digoel Camp does not impose torture on prisoners, but with conditions of mental illness, physical illness and a vicious nature, making Boven Digoel a place of torture by dying slowly.

The deterioration in the condition of Boven Digoel was once felt by major Indonesian figures, namely Mohammad Hatta, Sutan Syahir, Sayuti Melik, Muchtar Lutffi, Marco Kartodikromo, Ilyas Yacub, and other freedom fighters.

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This article is sent by detikTravel reader, Gema Bayu Samudra.