Taipei Times
Date: Apr 21, 2016
By: Huang Ming-tang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
A National Human Rights Museum exhibition featuring 10 undelivered letters
A person on Tuesday points to a letter written by White Terror era victim Chen Chen-chi, which is on display at National Taitung University. Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
composed by people just before their executions during the White Terror era opened at National Taitung University on Monday.
In the White Terror era, many death-row inmates awaiting execution for charges of political offenses wrote letters to their families and gave them to prison guards in the vain hope that they would be delivered, exhibition organizers said.
Instead, the authorities collected the unsent letters and deposited them in a classified government archive. By the time of declassification, some of the letters had been sealed for more than 60 years, organizers said.
In 2011, the museum completed cataloging the archive, counting letters from 112 prisoners who were executed.
After ensuring surviving family members would receive the letters, the museum chose 10 documents from the archive to use in an exhibition to commemorate White Terror history. [FULL STORY]
