Word: confessions
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order if there is any fixed near in our constitutional constrictions, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein...
...interpreter came to question him: "They asked me whether I had ever passed through a certain village and whether I had been ordered to burn or loot. I said no. They put me into a cell with . . . just room to stand and said, 'If you don't confess, we will leave you here until your legs fall...
...Social origins?" asked the court chairman. "Son of a miller," came the halting, hesitant reply. "Does the defendant plead guilty?" "Yes," said the same slow, careful voice. It paused, then went on: "I confess ... I repent...
...Associated Press Correspondent Bill Oatis confess? Newsmen all over the free world expected a ringing answer to the question when Oatis was released by the Czechs three months ago, after serving two years of a ten-year sentence on a charge of spying (TIME, May 25). But they were disappointed. Frail (123 Ibs.), tuberculous and bewildered by his unexpected reprieve, Oatis begged off answering until he could rest and get medical treatment. This week, in newspapers all over the U.S. and in the pages of LIFE, Bill Oatis, 39, explained not only why he confessed but how the Czech Communists...
What is the secret of the Communists' success at wringing confessions from their victims? Writes Oatis: "Sometimes it was the overwhelming pressure of fatigue. Sometimes it was the compulsion of an undeniable fact, sometimes the ambiguity of a deceptive fiction. But most of all it was my knowledge of their power and my helplessness, and my conviction that to confess, and to confess what they wanted me to confess, was my only way out. It was not a way out. of course. There wasn't any. But I didn't know that until the judge said...