Baqubah Camp: Life among Nameless Prisoners

A Review of the Book “Brothers of the Castle of the Forgetful”: Memoirs of Taher Asadollahi

Compiled by: Jafar Golshan Roghani
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2025-4-14

"In the morning, a white-haired, thin captain who looked to be twenty-five or six years old came after counting and having breakfast, walked in front of everyone, holding his waist, and said, "From tomorrow on, when you sit down and get up, you will say, 'Death to Khomeini,' otherwise I will bring disaster upon you, so that you will wish for death." Could we insult the Imam?! We were all standing in front of the Iraqis on his command to defend our people and land, and we were ready to endure the most difficult days for the comfort and peace of our loved ones. The person in charge of the cell talked to the prisoners to find a way to both listen to the Iraqi officer's request and not be punished. They all put their thoughts together and said that from now on, when we sit down and get tied up, we will say, 'Khomeini is a man.'" The next day, the thin, white-faced captain of the camp stood next to Hayawi [a harsh Iraqi officer], and when he saw that we were doing what he wanted when we sat down and got up, he went to the other barracks happily and contentedly... Two days later, the thin captain came to us with crooked eyebrows and a baggy face and listened carefully to what we were saying. When he realized that he had been tricked, he told Hayawi and Private Kazem to pull us all out of the line one by one so that we could shout death to Khomeini in front of him... Hayawi grabbed a young man of seventeen or eighteen and told him to insult the Imam. The young man said that he would never say such a thing. Hayawi once again asked him to say what he wanted and to free himself. The young prisoner said: “First you say death to Saddam, then I will say it too”... Hayawi and Private Kazem beat the young prisoner until his head and face were bloody... For four hours, they took all the children of Groups Fourteen and Fifteen on their chests, and Hayawi and Private Kazem beat them with cables. When the camp officer got tired, he went to the sergeant and told him to say death to Khomeini. The sergeant shouted: “Death to Saddam, death to Saddam. By what right do you expect me to insult my leader?”

The aforementioned memory is part of the book of memoirs of the 30 percent freedman (captive) and veteran; Taher Asadollahi entitled “Brothers of the Castle of the Forgetful,” which was published by Sasan Natiq in the winter of 2024 by Sooreh Mehr Publications. The narrator was born in November 1965 in Ardabil. He served for 27 months in the 183rd Battalion of the 58th Division of the Zulfiqar Rangers. On August 22, 1988, during the final days of his service, and a few days after the ceasefire was declared, he was captured by Baathist forces in the border region of Naftshahr, Kermanshah, with a bullet wound and injury. He spent 25 months in Baathist captivity, suffering hardship, pain, torture, and insults, until he was released on September 12, 1980, and returned to his homeland. Although his 125-page memoirs may not seem large, they are important; he talks about the Baqubah camp, which was specifically for Iranian prisoners without names or insignia. The narrator talks about a place that had four sheds for a thousand people and four sheds for five hundred people. It was not on the list of camps supervised by the Red Cross, and several thousand Iranian prisoners were living a difficult life in the clutches of the Baathists. The officers, prison guards, and camp officials did whatever they wanted and did not act under any rules, laws, or international conventions. The Iraqi officer said: “We are missing prisoners and the Red Cross and Iran do not know that we are alive and they can do whatever they want to us.” (p. 52)

There are some noteworthy points in the way this book was formed that are important to consider in terms of the credibility and citation of the memoirs. Among them is that according to the book’s introduction, the memoirs were collected by Mr. Sasan Natiq during a 10-hour and 41-minute interview. To strengthen the content of the memoirs, two of his witnesses and comrades-in-arms, Shahram Al-Tafi and Ali Asghar Khani, who were both captured in Baqubah, were interviewed for 1 hour and 26 minutes, and the book was organized based on the aforementioned interviews. Finally, the book is a fictional and narrative structure and is presented in 19 chapters.

The first chapter contains memoirs of the military period and the manner of captivity. The second chapter discusses the circumstances, the number of family members, the father’s job, and the way of life in Ardabil. Similarly, every other chapter describes the conditions of captivity and the years of growth and development until reaching the military period. The odd chapters of the book include memories of captivity, and the even chapters include family memories from childhood to the time of being at the front.

Although the text and content presented in the book are the result of the narrator's memories, the pen and writing style show that the text is close to the story. Although it cannot be explicitly said that this book is a "memory-story", it is also impossible to ignore the many external and internal manifestations in the literature and composition of the book. The text is certainly not completely historical and is not exactly the result of the words, phrases, and words of the narrator.

To prove this claim, it can be pointed out that the narrator was born and raised in Ardabil and speaks Azeri. On the other hand, the author is also Azeri, so the interview was probably conducted in Azeri. The author has translated the text into Persian according to his understanding and published it in the book; although some Azeri words and phrases remain in the book and their translations are given in the footnotes. The writing style shows that the words and sentences do not exactly reflect the narrator's expression, but rather come from the author's pen and writing style; although they are based on the narrator's memories. The author's role in the presentation and writing of the text is quite obvious. It is worth noting that the author did not mention the Azeri language of the interview in the introduction to the book. Some points can also be made about the strengths and minor shortcomings of the book. At the beginning, the author did not say anything about the name of the book and the choice of this title for the memoirs; a title that on the surface reminds us of fiction books. It would have been appropriate to mention the reason for choosing this name in the introduction to the book.

On page 24, we come across a strange phrase: “Months passed until my father borrowed 100,000 tomans (Iranian currency) from the bank. He brought in workers and masons to add a basement and first floor to our house, with two shops facing the street.” This phrase brings to mind the question: isn’t the first floor built first, and then the next floors? How did the first floor come to be added to the house later? Of course, it seems that the author intended to organize and furnish the first floor, not to add it. A page later, we come across an Arabic phrase that has been incorrectly recorded and transcribed: “Iranian prisoner, you are safe. Ya Allah [it means God is great].” It seems that the recording of “Ya Allah” is incorrect. The Iraqi soldier who has captured the Iranian prisoner means “Yalla = Yallaa” meaning hurry up. And the phrase “Yallaa Ruah” means “Go quickly.”

On page 27 of the book, the narrator talks to one of the Iraqi soldiers who speaks to him in Turkish. “A rank-and-file officer came towards us. He looked to be 45 years old. When he arrived, he asked in Turkish: Are there any Turks among us? I said: I am a Turk.” He asked: “What about these two?” I said they are Turks too. Suddenly, he cursed Saddam and prayed for the life of the Imam. When he saw our surprise, he said: “Do not be afraid. I am one of the Shiite Turks of Iraq.” It is worth mentioning that Iraq does not have Turks, but rather Turkmens who speak Turkmen, which is close to Turkish. Unlike the Turkmen of Iran, who are Sunni, the Turkmen of Iraq are Shiites and live especially in the northern provinces of Iraq and the city of “Tuzkhurma” near Kirkuk.

On page 45, the narrator, while recounting his memories of his primary school days, mentions and speaks of the “Jafar Islamic School” three times. In all three cases, the school name was recorded incorrectly. The correct name of the school is “Jafari Islamic”. This school is one of the national schools in the country that the late Hajj Sheikh Abbas Ali Islamic built in the 1940s to provide students with appropriate religious education. In Ardabil, this school was also established in 1962 in the Ochdekan neighborhood, one of the old neighborhoods of the city, next to the Ochdekan Mosque, in the house of Hajj Sheikh Sadeq.

In the last line of page 47, an unbelievable phrase also stands out: “My father came. With a fish that was about 4 meters long. He was happy to catch a big fish and I was happy to see him.” The 4-meter fish seems far from reality, and it was caught in the Caspian Sea. In the middle of page 99, while the narrator is talking about his high school days and the illiteracy of their algebra teacher, an unrelated phrase is suddenly included. It seems that such an error occurred inadvertently during the sample reading and content placement stage: “A few students wanted to tell the principal that this guy doesn’t know anything about algebra and that it would be better to give us another teacher. Sometimes, Dadash Taraf and Khalil talked about the Pasdars and the difficulty of their work, and these words made me like the Pasdars. I was afraid that they would fire our algebra teacher. I also thought that the teacher’s family lived on a teacher’s salary, and if he were fired, his family would definitely be in trouble.”

However, if we ignore the lack of necessary explanatory footnotes (allegation) on some pages, such as pages 52 and 53, introducing the village of Niyar and Aliabad Square in Ardabil, the very poor quality of the photographs at the end of the book, and the lack of an index (announcement list), the book has valuable, pristine, and unique content that indicates the value and importance of the book. In this context, the memories of the martyred prisoners and the manner of their martyrdom on pages 38-40, 51, 89, 119 are important. These memories, some of which are very painful and poignant, remind us of the important issue that research into the identification and understanding of the conditions of the martyred prisoners in the Baathist camps is essential; martyrs who were ultimately trapped and martyred in a strange and lonely situation. “On the third day, two of our battalion’s children were brought there. Their bodies were swollen, their hands and faces were bruised, and they were vomiting blood. The doctors, who had become kinder after the martyrdom of Mahdi [Hajj Ali Khani], came and examined them. Their behavior was such that I guessed that they did not know anything about the cause of their illness. When we woke up the next morning, one of the two had vomited blood and was martyred.” (p. 40)

Although all the material in the book, especially the memoirs about the days of captivity in the individual chapters of the book, is readable and contains valuable information, some of the material is more interesting. In Chapter 15, there is talk of a Northern captive who drove himself crazy in order to punish two Iraqis who were very harsh on the captives and did not hesitate to do anything in persecuting and torturing them. He first claimed to be the Imam of the Time and then said he was God. Thus, since he was a taekwondo practitioner and had high physical ability, at the appropriate time he punched and kicked “Soldier Kazem” to the point of death: “With every punch and kick he hit Kazem in the head and face, the Northern captive made a sound like Bruce Lee and martial artists and did not let Kazem get up from the ground. Blood was flowing from Soldier Kazem’s nose and face.” (p. 108-109) A few days later, the harsh Iraqi officer and Iraqi bully of the camp named "Hayawi" also tasted the heavy blows of the Northern prisoner. "Hayawi was screaming under the Northern prisoner's hands and feet, when Kazem and a few other soldiers rushed to him. Soldier Kazem did not go any further, but the rest of the soldiers caught the Northern prisoner and took him away. They threw him in solitary confinement for two days and after beating him, they returned him to the shed because he was crazy." (p. 109) Of course, after it became clear on what date the prisoners would be released, the Northern prisoner announced to the group of prisoners, "Be careful, brothers. I am neither the Imam of the Time nor God. When we go to Iran tomorrow, don't blow the trumpet and say I am crazy. By God, I am not crazy. I only wanted to expose the father of those who are torturing comrades. The only way was to drive myself crazy. So please don't call me crazy." (p. 130)

The description of the camp's conditions and the prisoners' health and nutrition issues, the active presence of spies and self-soldiers among the prisoners and the Iraqis' support for them, the treatment of wounded prisoners in the camp's infirmary and the city hospital, the circumstances and behavior of several Iraqi Shiite guards accompanying the prisoners, the prisoners being forced to insult Imam Khomeini and the prisoners' refusal to do so, the broadcast of the Iranian national anthem on a manipulated television in the camp, a football game between prisoners and Iraqis, the beating of some prisoners who wanted to make the pilgrimage to Karbala, and the reflection of the news of Imam Khomeini's (may Allah have mercy on him) passing among the prisoners are among the interesting memories included in this book. Of course, the nineteenth chapter, the final chapter of the book, is about freedom from captivity, which beautifully accompanies the reader and shows tears on the face. "They had thrown away our sleeping place. I stood and stared at my mother's colorful quilts and mattresses. I even missed the quilts and mattresses... I was about to sleep when my brother took my hand and said softly, "Our mother has neither eaten meat nor slept with a full stomach in all these years. Every time they had told her that she should think about her health and eat her food, she had said how she could fill her stomach with meat and food when her son was a prisoner and hungry." (p. 136)