Book Review: Escape From Camp 14 (5 stars)

Escape From Camp 14 * * * * * by Blaine Harden 

The Ultimate Devaluing of Human Life 

If you are like me who was not aware of the full extent of the brutal regime of North Korea, you are in for the shock of your life! This book is a narrative about Shin who was born and raised in one of the worst concentration camps in the world, the concentration camp in North Korea known as camp 14. The prisoners in this camp are beaten and tortured routinely.  He saw a camp guard beat his classmate to death for stealing five kernels of corn because she was hungry.  Shin is the first person (and I pray not the last) to escape from North Korea's camp 14.

According to South Korean's intelligence agency and human rights groups, there are six concentration camps in North Korea. The biggest is the same size as Los Angeles. Electric barbed wired fence and armed guard encircle most of these camps. Two of these camps, 15&18 have reduction zones where those fortunate in the camp are indoctrinated in the teachings of their leaders Kim Jung Il and Kim Il Sung. If they are good learners and can convince the guards of their loyalty, they are released but monitored for the rest of their lives. The remaining camps are called "complete control districts" where prisoners classified as "iredeemables" are kept and never released. They are worked to death.

Shin's camp 14 is a complete control district. Shin was born a slave and raised behind the barbed wired fence of camp 14 all because his blood was tainted by perceived crimes of his father's brothers. Thus, he lived below the law.   For him, nothing was possible. "......... His mother beat him (when he ate her lunch ration out of hunger) and he viewed her as a competitor for food. His father was allowed by guards to sleep with his mother just five nights a year, ignored him. His brother was a stranger........Love and mercy and family were words without meaning. God did not disappear or die. Shin never heard of him......"

This book showed in gory details, the ultimate devaluing of human life. Western thought has been largely shaped by a Judeo-Christian values that emphasizes the dignity of human life based on the Biblical teaching that man is made in the image of God. Cultures that do not embrace this teaching are left with nothing by the survival of the fittest mentality, which when taken to its logically conclusion will end in situations like this.

Blaine Harden did an excellent job in writing this book. The book is an easy read in terms of the writing style, but a very difficult read in terms of the content. You will come to understand the total depravity of man, once you read this book. The events of this book show us that man is not basically good as some would have us believe, but we are born with a sin nature which can only be redeemed and transformed by Christ Jesus.

Reading level: ages 18 and up