Loading
PL![]()
author
Patrick Lemoine
I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on December 19, 1945, where I received my primary and secondary education. Arrested in 1971, I was incarcerated for nearly six years without a trial, as a polit...view moreI was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on December 19, 1945, where I received my primary and secondary education. Arrested in 1971, I was incarcerated for nearly six years without a trial, as a political prisoner in Baby Doc Duvalier's dungeons.
The book is my testimonial about the horrific events that occurred during those years of imprisonment. It is the fulfillment of a promise made to my cellmates who perished during the years spent in Fort-Dimanche - the dungeon where prisoners were sent to die - to denounce the cruelty of the regime and to ensure that their death will not have been in vain. Of the 103 initial prisoners that I joined in the Fort in 1974, only six of us were still alive three years later to benefit from the Human Rights policy of Jimmy Carter that gained our eventual freedom .
These memoirs capture, through incredible stories of survival, the triumph of life over death; the power of the human spirit to foster determination, strength, and hope in the absence of justice; and the challenge to emerge from this dungeon of death, even when death is the sole given to life.
I started my second life in New York in 1977, where I built a career in aircraft technology, first as a technician and later as an administrator. I reunited with my son that was born only a month before I entered the dungeons and was proud to run the Chicago Marathon with him in 2008. The following year, I suffered from a brain aneurysm that required two surgeries within ten days, without no significant after effects. Thus began my third lease on life.view less