Devil's Island : Colonies of the Condemned

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[Music] it was one of the most feared places on earth a colony of the Damned the final judgement site for tens of thousands of criminals [Applause] it was so hard should broke the spirit of even the toughest convict here was a land of no escape a hell on earth a notorious prison colony known to the world as Devil's Island [Music] on the northern coast of South America lies the colony of French Guiana a quiet backwater this small French outpost has been nearly forgotten by the rest of the world today it's home to over 100,000 people who thanks to massive subsidies of the highest standard of living on the continent but lurking behind the colorful exteriors lies a dark past until the middle of the 20th century this country existed mainly as a giant prison most people knew it as Devil's Island from 1852 to 1947 men were sent here in Chains all were condemned to serve harsh sentences some faced the ultimate punishment [Music] over 70,000 convicts were eventually banished to the prison colony of French Guiana similar fiafia nakata sake was really a living hell especially when you realize that out of 70,000 men three-quarters died here from disease from hunger from mistreatment and one can't deny that some men were sent to the prison camp even though they were innocent and many of them were savagely beaten tied to a bench and whip I hope that God reserves them a place in heaven Devil's Island itself was the infamous home of France's most feared political prisoners but what the world thought was just an island was actually a vast system of cruel prisons spread throughout French Guiana the largest camp was on the mainland in the prison city of saleroom this was where the convicts first arrived and where the majority of them served their sentences many tried to escape some died at sea others perished in the savage jungle most were caught in less than five thousand actually lived to see the day of their release the once formidable prison is today an abandoned ruin it sells deserted but some of its long gone inmates have become legendary one of them was only Sharia he was better known by his nickname the French word for butterfly Papillon society had no intentions of helping me of bothering to find out if I was worth salvaging the world had cast me beyond the reach of Hope into a hole like this where they had only one thing on their minds to kill me off no matter what [Music] and read that be on shalyah Papillon was convicted of murder in 1932 but he always claimed he was innocent determined to escape he made his first attempt in an open boat sailing 1,800 miles to Venezuela [Music] but he was ultimately captured by the Venezuelan police and sent back to French Guiana prison authorities had little patience for Pepe oh and he was condemned to two years in solitary confinement it was a sentence that almost killed him one of the most remarkable convicts ever sent to the prison colony was Rene Bell Benoit Belvin wah had served with distinction in the French army but after World War one desperate for cash he committed a series of small burglaries he was arrested at age 22 and sentenced to eight years of hard labour in French Guiana any other civilized nation would have given us a chance to remake our lives instead of sending us to death some of us committed the first felony in an excess of folly and we I no sense criminals now we are locked up like animals in close quarters with assassins and thieves we are men with energy and self-respect and the confinement was hard with our temperament vonabell Benoit just weeks after he arrived Beldon Hwa attempted his first escape but he was ultimately caught in Dutch Guiana and returned to the French authorities captured escapees often spend six months in the much-feared block house as they awaited trial before a special maritime tribunal the blockhouse was a place of exceptional cruelty each night the prisoners legs would be shackled to a long iron rod [Music] scratched on the walls graffiti still counts off the endless days of waiting some of the men were walking skeletons breathing the hutt tainted air makes them anemic they suffer from cholera hookworm and malaria many of them will be dead when the day of the trial arrives honeybell Benoit but despite his confinement the daring Beldon wah was soon planning his next escape how did such a diabolical place come to be ironically early in its history French Guiana held promise it's thought that Christopher Columbus noticed the coastline on one of his voyages to the New World but it wasn't until the early 17th century that the region was first claimed by French explorers soon there were rumors of a giant city in the interior made a gold called Eldorado in 1763 an official call went out to find settlers for this supposin paradise entire French villages emptied of their inhabitants as they departed for a new life across the Atlantic but catastrophe quickly struck the ill-prepared colonists tropical diseases began to decimate the population within the first year over 12,000 settlers had died those who survived fled to three offshore islands they dubbed it the islands of salvation because the death rate dropped very very quickly they were able to find a way back to Europe and after they came back to Europe it was confirmed that this was not the land of El Dorado but this was the land of pestilence and this was a land of disease this was a colony of the Damned over the next 80 years others would try to settle this inhospitable country but all efforts failed in 1852 Emperor Louie Napoleon the third devised the plan to settle french guiana and at the same time combat a severe crime problem at home his idea was to send Frances criminals to the distance South American possession regulations were established for this new prison colony including the concept of do blah-de-blah required a convict who had finished serving a sentence to remain in French Guiana for an equal period of time the first convicts were sent in 1852 and it wasn't long before female convicts percent as well over a thousand women were transported to the prison camp they were watched over by the nuns of st. Joseph's convent of San Laurel learn to keep house learn to sew the convict who wanted to marry and receive permission from the penitentiary administration would go to look for a wife at the convent [Music] but the plan to encourage convict marriages to populate the colony was doomed from the start this'll soon be from is the main reason that women were sent to the prison colony was because they were condemned for infanticide killing their own babies it seems like a paradox because they were sent to Guiana to bear children the government schemed to populate French Guiana with the offspring of convicts was failing in both of CS mahogany they began to think that if you married female convicts to male convicts the children could only turn out to be damaged so the authorities stopped worrying about colonisation they now worried only about emptying France of its convicts and installing them in Guiana the authorities ended the transport of women in 1903 but by then this ill-conceived plan to rid France of criminals and used them to populate one of her colonies had turned into a folly of monumental proportions and it would take almost a half-century for it to be stopped French justice was harsh and often pitiless a convicts journey through the depths of hell began the day he was sentenced to servitude in Guiana prisoners from jails all of her friends were transferred to the town of San Martin in the northern French coast twice a year a column of condemned Souls with March from San Martin's prison to the pier specially trained Senegalese troops in combat uniforms and with fixed bayonets guarded the convicts as they walk through the town since these were men with little to lose French authorities feared a mask insurrection most went peacefully others did not [Music] the column moves slowly forward policemen held back the curious who had gathered to watch our departure I looked up and there was my wife Nanette I never saw her again neither prisoners guards nor public broke in on this poignant moment everyone understood that these men were leaving the normal life behind whatever and repubiic oh yeah [Music] the prisoners clamored aboard a transatlantic steamer called the Marten year [Music] like cattle the men were forced into the hull of the ship once inside the holding cells only a few hammocks were issued those without were forced to sleep on the steel floor which was often covered in human excrement there was always a tremendous fear by the prison guards that there would be an insurrection aboard the ship anytime an insurrection was about to full Matt guards opened up steam hoses inside the cages and that quiet of the prisoners down very very quickly for half an hour each day the prisoners were allowed out of their cages for fresh air they had been stripped of all personal possessions and wore only prison uniforms but they did have a secret way to hide valuables money and jewels were kept in small hollow tubes called plans Aleph Emet blah this is the famous plan the metal tube opened up in the middle everything valuable that the prisoner owned was inside there they could even keep small tools - saw metal bars with and in order to hide it they would use the plan like a suppository pushing it up into their lower intestine without having a place to keep one's valuables in either be confiscated by the prison guards where else it would be stolen by the other prisoners and prisoners would sometimes be murdered for the contents of their plans after a journey of 20 torturous days across the Atlantic the convict ship arrived at the mouth of the Maroni River entrance point to the prison colony of French Guiana we steamed slowly along the bank towards Aloha we all flocked to the portholes of the cage there were exclamations of many kinds look look over there monkeys look the parrot flying as I gazed out of the green jungle its immensity frightened me for I knew through it I'd have to take my chance to escape I won't even walk the Martin air pulled into the dark as sama wrong many of the town's residents were there to get a glimpse of the new arrivals was the only amusement in this bizarre town on the edge of the rainforest after the material cargo had been removed from the ship the human cargo of convicts was marched toward the prison in French slang it was known as Lavanya [Music] there was a huge gate over the opening I read in large letters come the Latin spot assume it's the banya the men behind me murmured in voice that was robbed of all hope so this is where I live until I die the newly arrived convicts were assembled in the prison's large central courtyard the Commandant of the penitentiary made his traditional welcoming speech you have been brought to the prison colony of French Guiana he said to serve sentences for crimes committed against France behave yourselves and it would be possible to serve your term without suffering unduly first escape attempt add two years to your sentence second attempt at five more but escape is impossible there are two constantly watching Guardians at this prison the jungle and the sea [Music] a few days later our names were entered on the roll velbon wha-la four six six three five the figures burned like a brand in my mind I was the forty six thousand six hundred and thirty fifth condemned man who had arrived in Guiana since 1852 but despite the unimaginable misery and hardship to come the banya could not break bail burn while spirit he kept dreaming of what only few men had done before him escape from Devil's Island [Music] Renai Belvin woz ii escape attempt was not successful either he and his companions were shipwrecked on the coast of Dutch Guiana hungry desperate and without any provisions that killed one of their group and grilled his body parts over an open fire Belvin wad declined to eat the flesh local Indians eventually turned the escaped convicts over to the Dutch police the special military tribunal sentence bail Benoit to the punishment cell this time for half a year [Music] Belvin Wasel was just large enough to fit a wooden bed at its foot the so called bar of justice [Music] city of San LaRon where bellman wah was kept existed solely as a prison city each morning the convicts would leave the compound and go to work in town prisoners kept the streets eerily spotless the little houses freshly painted convict labor helped make Sally raw live up to its nickname little Paris [Music] see I think I said it yeah they raised animals and farm built roads and houses all different chores then after 17 or 18 hours of work they returned to the main entrance of the prison and was searched for weapons [Music] at night they were locked up in barracks that held up to 60 men the guards rarely ventured into this world it was a place of alcoholism rape violence and fear [Music] the men were classified by the administration into several categories [Music] well the classification of prisoners started out with what the French called hospitais that would be the equivalent of felons they were sentenced to French Guiana for a determined period of time or for life a second classification of prisoners were called relegate relegate were petty offenders prisoners who had been sentenced for bicycle theft for stealing food such was the case with my father he was caught red-handed on the highway stealing potatoes and had to pay with the last 15 years of his life spent in the prison camp a convict sentenced to life in prison does not want to have anything to do with the relig a like my father I relegate was considered garbage he's a thief who will die a thief once a prisoner finished his sentence he was considered a libero a freed person but in reality he was only free to live in French Guiana and struggle each day to stay alive in the capital city of cayenne a liber8 band played for meager tips in the cafe see was it William if you are a citizen of Guiana that owns a small business you can have for a modest fee to the penitentiary administration convicts to work for Healy you're not gonna hire a Libre it will cost you more who has already done his ten or fifteen years of forced labor and is worn out the last category of prisoners were the Incas or the incorrigibles these were men with unbroken wills men who rebelled against their captors but once labeled incorrigible a prisoner was destined to a faith it was very likely to kill him he would be sent to the much-feared jungle camps men accustomed to city life in the temperate zone were put to work chopping down huge trees in the heart of the tropics half would quickly break and die to the administration the men are things to be disposed of honeybell penguin [Music] disease would eat away at the prisoners malaria typhus and yellow fever quickly drain the population at night the men were locked in cage like cells deep in the forest here they were in constant fear of predators venomous spiders deadly snakes poisonous centipedes and vampire bats had sucked the blood of sleeping convicts although many tried to escape very few succeeded and a recaptured convict might have a fate even worse than the jungle camps the islands of salvation a cluster of three islands nine miles off the coast of French Guiana this was the final home to hundreds of the most hardened prisoners Royale the biggest island housed the island prisons administration and also held over 400 convicts here life was an endless repetition the bell that strikes at dawn to awaken the sleeping man is the one that strikes at dusk recalling us to ourselves the sound of the bell punctuates our routines we live by it stalling another day no different from any other this is prison life forces legumes Francie's lagron who was sentenced to life imprisonment claimed to be one of the great art forgers and counterfeiters of modern times though he was known to be a compulsive liar one fact is indisputable he was a talented painter following time spent in solitary confinement mcgraw egg an to paint religious scenes on the walls of the chapel on royale but alone in his cell he also created a series of vivid images of life in the prison colony I think it really accurately portrays not only just the physical environment but the agony of many of the prisoners take a look at the prisoner with the double leg irons there he is in solitary confinement with a stub of a cigarette from his mouth we're thinking about the prisoners attached fighting with knives probably over a homosexual lover's quarrel he was telling the world the penal colony was rotten the penal colony was inhuman it was a way that the French government had decided to just get rid of people without thinking about the future or the past [Music] across a narrow strait from Royale is st. Joseph's Island today there is nothing but ruins hope ur grown by vegetation but half a century ago this was home to the reclusion or solitary confinement cells rebellious convicts and captured escapees were sent to this maximum-security prison damp and moldy cells were only 9 feet by 12 the grilled ceiling allowed guards to watch the prisoners from an overhead catwalk to make their punishment even more cruel the men were sometimes forced to remain standing for 12 hours a day if you lifted up your head to look at the guard you felt like a leopard in a pit being watched by the hunter who had just caught you it took me months to get used to that offer sensation the man who planned this place must have been loved some monsters only thought beyond Shire st. Joseph was known as the island of silence the prisoners were absolutely forbidden to talk food served once a day in a small bucket supplied only a minimum of nourishment it was here men came to die a slow death and yet some like the legendary Paul Bruce ank endured this cruelty for unimaginable periods but he was brought into the cells and st. Joseph's and at the end of his first 30 days of imprisonment he spat on the guard so they added another 30 days he threw his bucket on the guards at another 90 days insulted the guards at another 30 days and he spent 11 years in the solitary confinement cells and st. Joseph's half of his 11 years in the black pit dark hole cell which was completely cut off it was just total darkness his name got as far as the newspapers of France and recycle ECAM a symbol for the rebellion of the prisoners sent to the colony there's a small Cemetery on st. Joseph it was for the unfortunate families of the guards children who died of fever wives who died in childbirth [Music] but there was no cemetery for the prisoners when a convict tired the body was rowed out to a point between Royale and st. Joseph islands and unceremoniously dumped into the sea almost instantly sharks long accustomed to the taste of human flesh devoured the corpse eventually the Sharks themselves were caught and fed to the prisoners completing a gruesome and food chain [Music] the final island that made up this nightmare prison colony was Devil's Island it acquired its ominous name when the local Amerindians found it inaccessible because of prejudice currents that made the island ideal for isolating some of France's most feared political prisoners fewer than 50 men were ever imprisoned on Devil's Island the island is only about 1200 yards in circumference and one can almost circle it while smoking a cigarette it looks like a paradise or covered with palms but in reality it is an island hell where many poor souls suffer eternally in torment vonabell Benoit the most famous prisoner on Devil's Island was captain Alfred Dreyfus he was one of the first Jewish officers in the French army [Music] pantie Semitism in the upper ranks was probably a strong factor in his arrest on charges of treason in 1894 a wave of hysteria swept across France Dreyfus was vilified in the press caricatured as a traitorous monster he was soon tried and convicted of treason based mainly on the evidence of anonymous documents he was then publicly humiliated stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island [Music] alone on the island except for a contingent of guards Dreyfus was kept in a stone hut on the edge of the sea he thought that he might never return might never see his family again his wife's children he suffered the greatest harm that a military men could suffer he was accused of betraying his country in the first year and a half of his confinement Dreyfus was permitted to take walks around the island to receive books and letters and to occasionally speak to the guards but the prison administration became obsessed with the irrational fears in Dreyfus might somehow escape [Music] his conditions were changed radically the solitary confinement cell was built just for him outside a machine gun was mounted for added security this was an excessive type of punishment here is one prisoner alone on an island where Escape is virtually impossible and yet not only is he put in a Cell but he's guarded shackled and constantly watched the only movie ever made of the great French writer in 1897 spurred on by dreyfuses wife and family emile zola published his famous article J'Accuse in which he charged the French military with condemning and innocent men the case now commanded worldwide attention and caused an enormous uproar see diffusivity offer me but I think if Dreyfus had been locked up on an island somewhere in France people's imaginations wouldn't have worked quite the same way if you're convinced like Zola the Dreyfus was innocent that this innocent person was on Devil's Island meaning in hell it would strike your imagination very hard it is imagination confined to his heart his mail heavily censored Dreyfus had no knowledge of the storm his case had created he passed his days solving complex mathematical problems [Music] but the long nights were more difficult he would write I was shackled in an unchangeable position to my bed the shackles which were very tight lacerated my ankles the torture was hardly bearable during those tropical nights [Music] on the northern tip of Devil's Island is a bench made of stone it is said that in the days before he was confined to his Hut captain Dreyfus would sit here for hours and stare out in the direction of France I was invited to visit on the 100th anniversary of my grandfather's arrival in Devil's Island and I was very moved of course to see the places where he had spent so much time where he has suffered so much and and looking at these bars and his walls and think that my grandfather had spent so many many days looking at the same wall not knowing when he would ever return to his family so it was difficult difficult for me to fully realize what went through his mind when he was there in 1899 a new trial was granted and after four years on Devil's Island Dreyfuss returned to France although he was again convicted by a military jury the government yielded to international pressure and pardoned him Dreyfus was reunited with his family finally in 1906 the French High Court of Justice cleared him of all charges [Music] he was reinstated into the army and in a moving ceremony captain Dreyfus received Frances highest military award the Legion of Honor thanks to his wife and millions of supporters Alfred Dreyfus had escaped the horror of Devil's Island [Music] in French Guiana there was only one thing worse than imprisonment on the islands of salvation the guillotine nicknamed the merry widow the guillotine was assembled often in San Lara killing a guard or a civilian was almost always followed by a death sentence the condemned man's fellow convicts were forced to witness the execution [Music] [Applause] [Music] prisoner volunteers acted as executioner's and they were often the most despised men in the colony Oh honoree claudia was hated by the prisoners when he walked a condemned man to the guillotine he mistreated him claw Co hit him with his fists swore at him called him a good for nothing but claw Co met a sad end he was murdered by some liber8 they tied him to a tree where there was a nest of ants and covered him with honey then they let him die a slow death burned by the Sun and devoured by the ants to some men being sent to the prison colony was a fate worse than death a few survived the ordeal only to come out broken and irredeemable but there were those whose spirits could not be easily broken for them the only way ever to be truly free was to escape [Music] more than three-quarters of the prisoners in French Guiana would attempt escape there were only a few ways to do this all dangerous escape through the jungle almost an impossibility the convicts become prey to it and perish escape by way of Dutch Guiana must have been hunted down and sent back to Saroja but there is the great and magnificent way of the sea and this is the most dangerous of all our nipple burn one [Music] Renea bell benoit's third escape attempt in 1934 was finally a success travelling by land and sea he carried with him 13 years accumulation of journals and sketches about life in the prison colony eventually bellman wah made it to Panama and befriended the natives the Indians were shocked to find that an escaping prisoner would have all these papers on them completely useless things to carry around while if you had a sea turtle you put that in your back and you would have enough to eat for three days but here is a man escaping from the middle of the jungle with 30 pounds of manuscript and original artwork from the penal colony he was determined to tell the world about Devil's Island [Music] Belvin woz dream seemed finally to be realized when he reached New York in 1936 two years later his manuscript entitled dry guillotine was published the French government was deeply embarrassed by bellman wah story and demanded his extradition he was forced to flee to Mexico but returned to the US with world war ii erupted in Hollywood bellman wah became a technical consultant on several movies about Devil's Island like passage to Marseilles which starred Humphrey Bogart [Music] why should we help you escape I leave that to your conscience in 1956 bellman wah was granted US citizenship by a special act of Congress his escape from Devil's Island had led him straight to the American dream Hori Cheri air claimed to have made eight escape attempts he finally succeeded in 1944 floating off Devil's Island on a raft made of coconuts Cheri air became a citizen of Venezuela and published his book Papillon in 1968 it became an international bestseller translated into 35 languages later a hit movie appeared starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman but whether papillons accounts are true or not remains a matter of debate vt did the truth about Papillon about his book is that it's a fine piece of work there is a part of it that really did happen to him it's been documented but he embellished the story with The Adventures of his cellmates and the convicts he met there however Cheri air came by his story his prison colony experience led him to become a very wealthy man [Music] on November 22nd 1938 the Martin air left friends with 600 convicts it was the last convoy ever to French Guiana World War two brought German occupation and misery to France as the war raged in Europe US troops entered French Guiana to prevent it from becoming a Nazi be checked [Music] and though cut off from the world the prison system continued to operate the French had known for years that the colony was a failure and after the war a plan was developed to shut down the prison by 1947 the last of the convicts was freed most returned to France he's a leader tycoons if you print it back so then they had a lot of trouble reintegrating into modern society because these men had acquired habits that were incompatible with the French Way of life many of them ended up in institutions and asylums they ended their days being taken care of by society Paul Drewes sank the man who spent 11 years in a dark solitary cell could not adjust to freedom he told people that he no longer felt like himself in fact in 1949 he ended his life by throwing himself in the dubrow River his mind was still in prison [Music] 300 ex-convicts chose to stay in french guiana they had been away from france for so long that this was now their home by 1965 less than 100 of them were still alive that year dr. Raja pretinho was assigned to the hospital in San Lauren his home movies of the ex-convicts are some of the last remaining images of these condemned Souls lit the display is awesome but the spirit of the old prisoners very did a viable unikitty there were some who were jokesters and there were others who were rockin tours telling stories about their lives but others were much more discreet about themselves and didn't speak much juliana is laid on morphine i remember one man who was always staring into space and from time to time he cried tears running down his face and you could see that this was someone who had been deeply traumatized someone who had certainly suffered a lot but didn't talk about it [Music] French Guiana today looks upward to the heavens for its salvation seas sank the European Space Agency launches Ariane Rockets from a site across from the islands of salvation luxury cruise ships now make stopovers at Royale where there were once grotesque cells of despair there are now tourists strolling leisurely through the ruins the rest rod now caters to customers who can enjoy a picturesque view of Devil's Island the colony of the Damned is now a country looking toward the future if the buying I knew no longer exists it most certainly exists elsewhere the interest is certain atrocities I saw are being duplicated at this very moment in prisons everywhere it is important to understand this because the prison is a prison whether it is located in Salah or in Paris and Devil's Island or anyplace else in the world [Music]

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Channel: zarcon42

Views: 3,426,493

Rating: 4.6952009 out of 5

Keywords: Devil's Island (Geographical Feature), prisons, worst prisons, prison islands, Papillon, great escapes, hell on earth, worlds worst

Id: lhULvm3TNl8

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 50min 1sec (3001 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 07 2014

Reddit Comments

Prison documentaries are my favorite, because they remind me that my life could be worse, and there are worse things than loneliness in this world. At least I have my freedom.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/clone42 📅︎︎ Apr 21 2017 🗫︎ replies

Super informative.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Apr 21 2017 🗫︎ replies