[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 99, Issue 5

[Frank Hoffmann]

As regards to Professor Cumings' note below:

Yes, that is right, until 1949, the year of the 
interview that was the situation. That's the year 
when they all got imprisoned and put away a North 
Korean Gulag, to Oksadôk prison camp. One of the 
books I had just listed in my last posting is a 
record of this imprisonment from 1949 to 1954, 
and about the period before that (from 1944). 
Both, male missionaries and nuns (e.g. Maria 
Gerstmayer and Bertwina Caesar who is still 
alive) were imprisoned there, and some died of 
permanent malnutrition and from the consequences 
of hard labor with no treatment of diseases etc.

Here again the book:
Kugelmann, Willibald, et al: Schicksal in Korea: 
Deutsche Missionare berichten. 2nd ed., St. 
Ottilien: EOS-Verlag, 1974 (reprint 1992, and 3rd 
extended ed. 2009).
The new 2009 edition has new editors: Witgar Dondorfer and Willibrord Driever.

Amazon.de link to the latest, revised 3rd edition (with new editor):
http://www.amazon.de/Schicksal-Korea-Missionare-berichten-1944-1954/dp/3830674031/

There are 24 eyewitness reports in this book.


Best regards,
Frank


>In early 1949 U.S. Ambassador John Muccio 
>recorded a very interesting interview with one 
>Father Hopple, of the Wonsan Benedictine 
>monastery; among other things Father Hopple 
>reported that there was little interference with 
>their activities and that Christian churches 
>were still open in the North from 1945 to 1949. 
>He also said that he and his brethren rarely 
>came across so-called Soviet-Koreans, and if 
>they did they tended to come from the 
>Russo-Korean border area or from Manchuria. 
>Meanwhile secret North Korean Interior Ministry 
>documents from November and December 1947 
>indicate that some 61 Germans, mostly 
>missionaries, lived in Wonsan and Kangwon 
>province at the time. The Muccio interview is 
>dated January 6, 1949 and is in the National 
>Archives, Diplomatic Branch, 740.0019 file, box 
>C-215; the North Korean documents are also in 
>the National Archives, Record Group 242 
>("Captured Enemy Documents"), SA2005, item 6/11.
>
>Bruce Cumings
>University of Chicago

-- 
--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws
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