Get Surfshark VPN at Surfshark.deals/its - Enter promo code ITS for 83% off and 3 extra months for free!

Thank you so much for talking about this I lost my uncle in that prison He was a teacher he was going to his job and got arrested We never heard from him since 2014

Syrian here. I have been trying to educate people on the crisis for almost two years. Very few people are doing it and even fewer are actually from Syria. Thank you SO MUCH for bringing light to Assad's horrors.

I don't remember Simon giving a briefing/warning at the beginning of a video like that before. I knew this one was going to be rough. My compassion goes out to those suffering in that hell hole.

This is what evil means. I lived in Damascus from 2005 to 2009. The keyboard player in the band i played in was arrested and sent to Saidnaya for being in the wrong car with the wrong people in 2011. He was never heard from again. Now i have some idea of what he may have gone through and it makes me sick to my stomach

We say "never again" but the reality is that it's still happening every day, all around the world.

Simon, I like it when your anger seeps through in videos. It makes the video and commentary more visceral, if that makes sense. Thanks for sharing something I knew nothing about that will stay with me for quite a while.

When you read about detained human rights activists in Syria, the words “killed under torture” come up a lot.

As someone who is usually numb to listening to this sort of stuff, this brought me to tears and my chest is in knots, I thought about turning it off but the people who are living or have lived through it don’t just to “turn it off” that’s their reality. Also as a huge supporter of Amnesty international, I felt that this video is so incredibly important.

Thank you for shining a bright light on this horrendous death camp Simon and team! This one hurt my soul. It’s truly a shame that ISIL didn’t destroy this prison as well as the other one (Tadmore)! I’m very glad that you were able to share these victims’ stories and that Amnesty has completed a report on this horror. I hope that, by sharing this, that governments will now do something about it! This one had to be incredibly difficult to research and write, but well done!

I'm glad ITS is back in full form. Stories like this are hard to hear, but need to be told.

Every single guard of that prison and anybody in the government of Syria that fully knows this is happening should be put against the wall.

When it comes to places like these, I feel worse for the living than the dead. Because in this situation, survival is the worst option. Death is a warm embrace, and the dead are so lucky they're not enduring this anymore. If you survive, you're still being tortured. And even if you somehow end up physically safe, and out of that facility, you're never free from flashbacks and mental torment.

Excellent job. Bringing awareness about this is crucial. Thank you Simon!

I genuinely don't think this would have the same gravitas if it wasn't for your presenting style. I was hooked throughout, and have been with every video I've seen during this mini binge.

We spend so much time on things that happenes hundreds of years ago or just even before most of the population today was born, instead of focusing on the horrors that are going on right in front of us. Documentaries about WWII is running around the clock, same with black slavery in the US. But the horror camps/prisons and the horrific slavery that is happening today barely get a mention. It is so wonderful that you talk about these things, Simon. I wish more people would! We can not change the past, only learn from it... but we can fix the future if we dare talk about it.

This isn’t even really a prison imo, but simply a giant torture chamber. Its for torture and death, not anything else

I have no words for this, I was left speechless and motionless while listening to it. How can such a place exist, and how can people allow it to exist?

What got me the most was the letter talking about 215 prison and the atrocities that took place and at. The end Saydnaya was worse. Wow just wow.

I talked to a syrian refugee once about being locked up in post-arab-spring syria. a short and scrawny introverted nerd sort of guy around 25-30. he got arrested because he worked as a camera operator for a TV station, which was close enough to a journalist. he couldn't lift his arms up high anymore because they hung him by the wrists behind his back. when they let him and some other detainees go, they made them crawl through barbed wire and shot some on the way out.

My friends dad was a Syrian Jewish vegetable stall owner in Damascus market, who had been persecuted in Syria and he had to flee Damascus in 1967 when the last Jews were kicked out, leaving their homes and bank accounts behind them, which is why you won't hear much about them in this video. He carried the 6 year old daughter of a handicapped Jew - who he didn't even know, that couldn't flee because he couldn't walk - on his shoulders as he fled, barefoot, to Israel. There he met his wife - herself recently ethnically cleansed from Lebanon. Since they both spoke a similar dialect of Arabic, they hit it off and my friend was born in Israel in 1969. When he was drafted into the Israeli army at age 18, his dad was happy that he was a tank driver protecting the state - but he also told him that he had no idea how brutal the Syrian regime was. He told him that if he ever found himself in battle against the Syrians, and it seemed he was going to be captured, he should save his last bullet for himself as if he was to fall to them, he would be better off dead. ... And this advice was from his father.

i would love if simon and the crew would do an episode on Abu Ghraib. it's such an important part of our modern history and truly highlights the atrocities that the US and US troops committed in the middle east.

First off, I know this video must’ve been extremely difficult for Simon and the rest of the team. It was a service to us all. Thank you for doing it despite how many of us would’ve turned away due to how disturbing it is. You did well. I’m 21 and American so “Syria” was a topic that was thrown with venom all through my teenage years. I always felt bad for them. I know the hard facts were that there have been zero terrorist attacks by Syrian refugees in the US or Canada and no one would risk their lives and the lives of the babies running with zero food, clean water, or assured home and safety unless what they were runnin from was untold horror. I had no idea just how horrible it was. I had to pause the video many times cause I felt sick and needed to breath for a second. I am so so sad for them and I am in a rage that this was hidden. Not just Syria his this but the alt-right America who knew that anyone with a speck of empathy would welcome refugees if they knew how absolutely gut wrenching their story was. I had swayed a good few who claimed they only hated the illegals when I reminded them that there are many who flee terrorist organizations/cartels and their families and their own lives relied on the ability to disappear. If we had all know about shit like this prison, so many lives could’ve been saved. I hope their souls rest in peace. They did not deserve what they went through. It was a travesty and it should never be forgotten. I hope the guards who participated willingly and the entire Syrian regime an eternity in hell. I wish them all the mercy they showed those they chose to victimize. Burn.

That is just pure evil. When you think about things like the holocaust, you tend to imagine it as being the lowest of the low, and while not on the scale of that, in terms of treating people like sub human animals, I've never heard of anything so despicable in my life. Thsnk you for an educational, if highly disturbing video. The world needs to know about stuff like this.

Just came back to say that I tried, Simon, but I could not stomach this one. I was just too much. Thankful that you are shining a light on this atrocity, because it is just unbearable that people can do that to others 😢

I did the same as you my Syrian friend, and I'm America with no connection to Syria, but followed the conflict long before cnn started following the fighting in Damascus etc. No one cared it seemed....it was and still is a tragedy and a mark against my people here in the states for their indifference. Still makes me sick to think about it.

And here comes North Korea saying "Hold my beer!"

3:35 - Chapter 1 - History & design 10:40 - Chapter 2 - Conditions 19:05 - Chapter 3 - 1st hand accounts 24:10 - Chapter 4 - The future - Chapter 5 - - Chapter 6 -

As I am fascinated with motivational psychology, I have read and watched a great many accounts of things past and present. What strikes me most is that throughout all of it there's a commonality; the horrors we visit upon each other. The times change, the methods may change, but it is always there, nonetheless. It is a sobering realization to accept that our great capacity for love and care is matched by our capacity of subjecting each other to abject terror simply because we can. I try to hold onto the fact that the overwhelming majority of people are good and just want us all to live safely, happily, and in peace. Maybe we’ll get there someday.

I was locked up here in the US for a few. I’m not ashamed to say that it took a serious mental toll. That shit was an effing summer camp compared to this place. Great vid.

Not sure what is more surprising, the fact that this level of sadistic brutality still exists on this scale today. Or that there are any survivors to speak with.

How are people capable to perform this sort of torture it really hurts my soul.

Love it when you really put yourself into a story and add a little eloquence

Another case of people doing horrific things because they can. How do Simon and his team sleep at night digging through all this (Warographics was a nightmare today, too)? My soul hurts. Kudos to Simon and his team for being justice warriors.

7:41 Im Christian and this hurts my heart. No one should have their beliefs/religion treated like this. That goes for non-religious, agnostic and atheists too.

I've never heard about this before. It's like if a serial killer's dungeon was a state prison.

Really important video, thank you for making it

You can hear the passion in Simon words if he could free them single-handedly he would

Thanks for this. It was so hard to watch. But so important.

Watching this I got the same goose bumpy feeling I had when I watched videos about German concentration camps during the Nazi era. At multiple times I was close to crying but through the whole video I was disgusted. Thank you for bringing more light on this horrid place. Hopefully it will be burned down and the people responsible for it brought to justice, even though I can't imagine how someone running this place and taking part in it could face any justice that is appropriate.

I learned about one really cool thing from this. I'd never even heard of Forensic Architecture before watching this.

Thank you for sharing about Saydnaya. The cruelty and depravity of this hellhole puts the Nazi death camps to shame, something I do not say lightly, having studied the Holocaust.

It’s hard to understand the evil people can do to one another

Man what a terrible place to be trapped in,

Just to add more to the horrors I've heard about this prison. - Once a pregnant woman was arrested and went to Sydania prison, The guards didn't beat her at first, after a while her husband also got arrested and brought into the prison, they proceeded to sexual assault for in front of her husband then they brought a saw and they started to cut her in half killing her and her baby. - prisoners were forced to make it what's called a pyramid shape position (all prisoners which are in the same wing are forced to be on top of another to make a pyramid shape) then the guard proceeded to whip them with wire hooked with an axe at the end and lots of razors. Still there are many stories that have not been told yet, I hope they do and those criminals get what they deserve.

"A terrible darkness has fallen upon us, but we must not surrender to it. We shall lift lamps of courage and find our way through to the morning." - Anonymous member of the French resistance. In my darkest moments I often find solace in the thought that I will do whatever is required to educate and bolster the resolve of those of us who know what it's like to be tortured, and because of that we fight to make sure no one ever has to go through these things. Simon thank you for taking the time to make this even when the topic is so painful.

It's truly horrific what humans can do to each other. 😡

How did the people who got out get out? Surprising that they would release people

Could you make a program on how a person gets to be a guard in this facility ? It must be a rather bizarre job interwiew 🙄

This is the worst thing I've ever heard. If the axis of good really cared so much about humanity this place and these people wouldn't exist anymore.

Horrific conditions and situations. The victims are remembered and honored with the retellings.

You'll think I'm a bit bizarely curious, but I would be so much interested to hear an interview of one of the guards.

Drove by this place multiple times. It’s quite creepy in person.

Simon, i just cant watch this any more. My heart just breaking...

Thank you for sharing this Simon. People need to know.

From my understanding of this prison in Syria, it's the equivalent to Treblinka or Auschwitz-Birkenau prisons from the Holocaust, on the same level of dehumanizing people

Finally a full episode from my favorite simon channel and what an horrifying prison

There should be another button other than like for horrific stories like this.

when you watch a history documentary about torture and execution people say ' how good it is that these things are a thing of the past' . no humanity never changes.

The way this episode starts with the sponsor made me think for a second that Simon was saying being in a brutal Syrian detention camp was something we have all probably experienced. And its a good thing you have the logo on the screen because if people hover their mouse over a video like this on their homepage it will start to play from the beginning muted and the first thing they will see is Simon laughing and being all jovial, like wow what are you guys talking about?!

Ah, perfect watching right before sleeping

There's so many horrific things going on all around the world, it seems everywhere has a dark secret it's trying to keep. I do not doubt that, even if completely dismantled, the signs of the torture will go down for generations as it has time and time again. We've seen people's entire family lines DNA altered from things like this, it's a damn shame it happens, let alone, so often. It's great that it's been spoken of, these things need to be brought to the greater view

The story about the little boys made me want to cry. 😢

we were raised to be afraid of saying anything about Assad, I know people that went missing and never heard about them, sometimes for having similar names to someone that said something about Assad.

OMFG. How can any human treat another this way? 😢

The best Simon channel has returned

Best voice on KZfaq, hands down!

This is a very important topic you covered, massacres and tragedies that happened inside this prison will be taught to next generations about how cruel humans can get, remember everyone, people who died and who are still there are not numbers, they're people who had lives and families.

Government control over the people. Terrifying at its best. My experience is with the Oregon State foster system. I had my legal protection dismissed by my foster parents and later my legal guardians so that they could exploit government money for me. Let me tell you some of the things I experienced. I was beaten with a belt across my back, I was forced to stay in my room for days at a time, most times there was no food or water. My foster mother once asked me to kill her execution style with a steak knife. Same foster mom rubbed my face in my own vomit in front of her family members and they just turned and walked away never said anything as far as I know. In my State Records it is stated time and again that they acted in my "Best Interest". The government has failed. Exercise Bill of Rights.

this broke my heart

You know it's awful when I genuinely, and sincerely with all my heart ask myself: wouldn't it just be better if a huge airstrike indiscriminately destroys it? Ending their suffering and killing all the terrible regime guards. It's sad, but even a highly skilled special ops raid has no guarantee of success, possibly leading to more prisoners. Then again, if this one is destroyed or eventually shut down, what stops them from just relocating, and making a new one? Nothing stops them, because good people do nothing. It is horrific ans literally reminds me of that movie Hostel.😢😡😩💔😭

That regime is cruel beyond reason. Violent and hateful to a level thars inhuman and baffles my mind.

every single person apart of the syrian government should be put in that prison for allowing this to happen. this is beyond too far.....

This is absolutely horrifying. Not a fate I would wish on anyone.

I couldn't make it through to the end. Horrific.

I usually expect such gruesomeness from Casual Criminalist, but this was quite refreshing. Allegedly. Even the Lizard Overlords would get nauseous with this one. Cheers Evan, well done. Excellent script. Absolutely phenomenal. Had to watch it twice. Mainly because I had to retch half way through the first time. And that's an accomplishment. Cheers

This video is interesting but also horrifying that just based on religion, you’re dehumanized. Thank you Simon and the crew for all of your hard work!

This literally sounds like the worst version of Hell

I'm just somewhat confused as to why other countries governments don't take issue with this, isn't the whole thing with human rights that they must be preserved at all costs? Honestly it's pathetic how little backbone countries that claim to stand for freedom and things like that seem to have.

This is a true hell on earth. I got chilled to my core a few times.

Whew! This one is rough. This is only the second video I had to take a mental break from. The other one is well known to many here... Pedro Lopez.

😂 That opening!! I was like 😃😕🤨😏😆Such a bizarre sentence and upbeat inflection to your voice for what I know will be f-ing brutal examples of cruelty and other words I can't use without getting censored by YT

Great to see you're back. On this channel I mean.

Jesus, a place like that you might as just fly a B52 over

Glad to see you finally decided to put an actual video up on this channel lol.

Hey Simon, maybe look into Goli otok (Barren island) prison camp, similar story at least in the first 5 years of operation

Simon why did your video about Fentanyl went private? I am pretty sure i just watched it yesterday wanted to send it to a friend when all of the sudden i cant find it. Then i check the link and it shows that this video is private. Please put it back up if possible. It was really insightful

A little known fact is that the head of Al Quaida was imprisoned in Syria, and tortured regularly. In the early 00's, under heavy Iranian lobbying, Assad released him and had him escorted to the Iraqi border, where it was assumed he would join the Sunni terrorists attacking the Americans in Iraq. They were wrong. Instead, he went underground and fled to Oman. From there, he built a force of islamists and financial backing and returned to Syria to help start the armed uprising against Assad - under the name ISIS, which you may be familiar with. Now you know where they learned their own brutality. Iran isn't much better BTW.

If there is truly no way to stop this atrocity, then I'm sure the remaining prisoners would consider anialation of the facility as it sits and runs, a blessed release from their endless torture

Jesus Christ this is so horrific

Why have survivors though? If you have a place like this and you obviously don’t want it getting out to the rest of the world how are you going to release some of the people? I’m not saying that any of the events described aren’t real, I’m just very doubtful that it serves no purposes beyond aimless suffering because they do let a few out to tell the story it’s purpose is to rule by fear, to have the people know what awaits should they be caught defying the ruing group. The take away from this is don’t allow yourself to be taken alive.

I understand hand movement is necessary for engagement but I feel like you use your hands so much it became distracting... They just don't stop. At all...

This is the prison where ISIS members and other terrorist goes, it's brutal. My family is from the Christian village Saydnaya.

Welp, it’s called the human slaughterhouse for a reason

ayeeeee a long form for the first time in like 2 months!

Can you cover the "camps" in China?

I'd love to see KZfaq take down this video. We need to talk about these things, and KZfaq's ridiculous censorship policies are criminal.

I saw a documentary about women prisoners, one of the women who had managed to get out after being raped so horrifically she was taken to the hospital with severe internal injuries. Even the medical staff are watched closely, but the doctor faked her death so she could be free. The problem was that she was married with children. Her mother told her to get away and she did manage to escape Syria, the reason was her husband was going to kill her because she had been raped. She told of a young girl she knew aged 15 who was being raped by several of the guards, they had shown her this mounstrous act to say this is what is going to happen to you, the girl was set free but her father took her for a walk and strangled her because she wasn't a virgin. These women were protesting, this was their crime and what the system did was cruel but not as cruel as their families, which instead of caring for these women who had undergone horrific treatment they killed one and the other had to flee to stop being killed by their own families

Please add arabic subtitles. If you need help with that, I can make sure you get it. Let me know!

If your white noise machine for sleeping, is the sound of people being hung to death... I was going to make a joke, but Jesus, that's dark.