The Dawn Prayer (Or How to Survive in a Secret Syrian Terrorist Prison): A Memoir by Matthew Schrier

Author:Matthew Schrier [Schrier, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 21st Century, Biographies & Memoirs, Civil Wars, Journalism, Middle East, Military, Syria, Wars & Conflicts
ISBN: 9781946885210
Google: r0UwDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B074P6PNZ6
Publisher: BenBella Books
Published: 2018-04-03T03:00:00+00:00

Early one evening we were all just chilling in our own private hell when we heard the piercing shriek of a MiG slice the air above the hospital. I saw a tiny piece of paper lying on the floor shortly after but assumed it was a tag from one of our shirts that had fallen off and didn’t give it a second thought. Later, however, Theo did, and it turned out to be one of the greatest contributions he made the entire time we were locked up together. He’d gotten up to take a piss, and when he bent over and picked up the scrap I saw his face light up; he headed right for me with his hand extended. I took the paper, a little white rectangle smaller than my pinkie nail, and flipped it over. On one side was a circular stamp with two children holding hands inside it; under them were three tiny words, in English: Aleppo Pediatric Hospital.

“Holy shit!” I said. “We know where we are!”

“It’s a sign from Allah!” the Moroccan proclaimed.

For the rest of the night we were all in high spirits. It feels paralyzing, being locked in a room and having absolutely no idea where you are, where you would even be if you somehow escaped. Now we knew, and better still, our captors had no idea that we knew.

When the torture would get really bad outside our walls I used to say we were God’s messengers, and that it was our job to live so that we could tell the world what went on here. Now “here” had a name.

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