The Echoes of Survivors: Inside Korea’s Tragedies is a 2025 documentary series streaming on Netflix, focused on the accounts of victims of severe atrocities in South Korea. Whenever there have been discussions on the internet about the possibility of Squid Games being inspired by true incidents, the name of one particular detention center has always been mentioned—Brothers’ Home. In the first two episodes of The Echoes of Survivors, the Netflix docuseries presents the heartbreaking and enraging tale of the survivors who were subjected to extreme physical, mental and sexual torture at Brothers’ Home, while also providing an update about the perpetrators.
What was Brothers’ Home?
As per the official records, “Brothers’ Home” was a welfare facility situated in Jurye-dong in the Buk district of Busan, South Korea. The facility officially operated from 1975 to 1987, and it was supposed to be a safe home for vagrants and delinquents, who were being rounded up off the streets of South Korean cities at the time, in order to keep both these groups, as well as the streets, safe. In the 1970s and 80s, South Korea was under military rule, and the concept of ‘social purification’ was introduced in the country at this time. The basic idea stemmed from the belief that in order for any country or society to progress, the poor and the downtrodden, specifically people living on the streets in utter poverty, had to be uplifted, and more importantly, removed from public view.
The military government, and its people, did not necessarily have a sympathetic view towards the poor and the downtrodden, the homeless masses who moved to big cities like Busan in search of some form of livelihood. Thus, ‘welfare facilities’, or internment camps, were created to house these people, who were often considered miscreants, and provide them with the opportunity to work in construction projects and other labor jobs, so that they could have their own livelihood. Brothers’ Home was one such privately owned, but government sanctioned, welfare facility, and they made their vision very clear in the advertisements that they ran.
Brothers’ Home would be a temporary home to youngsters and adults living on the streets, where they would be given a respectable life and good healthy food, in exchange for which they would have to work in construction projects. In fact, a fair monetary compensation was also promised in exchange for their work, which they would not get at the time, but the money would be collected in their name so that they would have some funds after leaving the camp. It was posed as a privately-owned child protective service as well, with claims of youngsters living on the streets being provided a second chance in life. However, Brothers’ Home turned out to be nothing like it was advertised, as evident from the horrific accounts of numerous victims and survivors who appear in the Netflix documentary.
What atrocities did the victims suffer at the internment camp?
The Echoes of Survivors presents the accounts of Choi Seung-u, Han Jong-seon, Jeo Jeong-o, Lee Hye-yul, and many others like them, who all went through the same ordeal of suffering immense torture and humiliation at Brothers’ Home. In the case of all these individuals, they either got picked up or duped by the police, who then simply handed them over to people from the internment camp, as part of the Busan Vagrant Rehabilitation program. However, the strangest part of it all was the fact that none of them were vagrants or homeless delinquents, and most of them had either parents or grandparents looking after them, and they were also attending school as well. In fact, according to the survivors, almost 90% of the people imprisoned at Brothers’ Home were not homeless or vagrants at all, but ordinary people hailing from poor or lower-middle class families who had been randomly picked up.
While being taken away and displaced from their homes and families was already quite painful, the torture that they were subjected to at the camp was far worse. The children were made to strip down and live under inhumane conditions, with sexual abuse and torture being almost a daily affair. They would be thrashed and physically assaulted at the smallest of infractions, and sometimes without any reason at all, to the extent that many of the survivors still bear physical signs of the abuse. In fact, there was an unbelievable number of people who had been thrashed to death by the guards, and possibly even the chairman of the place, with the official figure being more than 600. Even when the victims were dying and gravely injured, all that the guards would do would be to throw salt on their wounds, making them suffer more. Many of the dead bodies, which were buried on a lot behind the property without any coffins or grave markers, were later unearthed accidentally during the construction of a building complex.
The food that was served to the victims was mostly rotten, made with ingredients that had been thrown away by farmers and fishermen because they were considered unfit for consumption. It was clear that the authorities at the camp wanted to spend as little money on the captives as possible. And the people being kept there were indeed captives, for they were not allowed to leave or do anything of their own accord, and their days were spent performing backbreaking labor. Even children, as young as seven and eight, were forced to work throughout the day, in construction and maintenance projects, with them even having to build and repair government roads. Absolutely no compensation was provided against their work, and they were essentially being used as free labor. The atrocities committed behind the high walls and metal gates of Brothers’ Home included torture, abuse, humiliation, rape and murder, the accounts of which are shocking and blood-curling to say the least.
What was the real purpose of Brothers’ Home?
Around November of 1986, the higher authorities first got a whiff of the horrible acts being committed at Brothers’ Home, and soon enough, the place was officially shut down, with the main perpetrator, Chairman Park In-geun, arrested. But years later, as In-geun’s youngest son, Park Cheon-gwang, sits down for the interview with the production crew, he reveals certain theories which clearly suggest what the real purpose of Brothers’ Home was. According to Cheon-gwang, his father was in direct and constant communication with the president of the time, Chun Doo-hwan. The president was a strong proponent of the ‘social purification’ program, and he was the one who let private camps like Brothers’ Home come into existence and operate lawfully.
On the surface, the camps were essentially aimed at removing the homeless and vagrant population from the streets of the major Korean cities, as doing so was considered to be a great marker of national success. South Korea had also been selected to host the 1988 Summer Olympics, which was taken to be the ultimate deadline before which all the poor people had to be made invisible to the Western media and people who would travel to the country for the sporting event. Thus, the need to have detention camps sprung up, and private businessmen with nationalist values, like Park In-geun, were allowed to intervene. There was nationalist sentiment associated with the whole operation, and people like In-geun genuinely felt proud to be serving their nation and their government by removing the vagrants. But in reality, it was all just an opportunity for them to play God and dominate over the poor and helpless in whatever perverse and cruel manner they wanted to. Not only did they end up hurting and maiming (both physically and mentally) thousands of people, but they also in turn made their families go bankrupt, as desperate parents and grandparents spent fortunes in search of their missing loved ones.
Although it could never be officially proved, or acknowledged, the government and administration were very deeply connected to the whole matter. The fact that almost every victim was sent to the place by police officers and personnel is enough to support the theory. In fact, the credit system that awarded two points to any police personnel who caught a thief or a miscreant, had provisions for awarding five points to anyone who would remove vagrants from the streets. On top of this, the Brothers’ Home authorities also paid high bribes to the police departments to get a hold of people and children for them. The labor that the victims were forced into often yielded profits that were solely kept for In-geun’s family and his accomplices. It is also suggested in the documentary that the government also used these people to get administrative projects like the construction of roads and bridges completed, paying little to no money in exchange, as the money was anyway pocketed by In-geun.
What happened to Park In-geun and his family?
Following the arrest of Park In-geun, an official investigation was launched into the atrocities committed at Brothers’ Home, but nothing significant apparently could be found. In fact, the charges that were eventually filed against In-geun were related to his own personal acts of misuse of funds and embezzlement, while he could not apparently be linked to the torture and murders committed inside the camp owned and operated by him. Although the Korean government, according to Cheon-gwang, absolutely abandoned his father and threw him under the bus when the truth was exposed, nothing significant ultimately happened to the man.
Park In-geun was sentenced to just two-and-a-half years in prison, on charges of embezzlement and corruption, and he did not face any punishment for the countless instances of human rights abuses that he had directly and indirectly participated in. To make matters worse for the survivors, he was even allowed to leave the country after his prison sentence ended. In-geun and his family emigrated to Australia, without any trouble, and they settled in Milperra, in New South Wales, in 1990. The billions of won that the family had accumulated from their torture and extortion of the poor in Korea enabled them to live a peaceful and prosperous life, while the survivors and their families still demand for justice to this day.
Park In-geun ultimately passed away from natural causes at a private hospital in 2016, while many of his family members are still alive. The documentary crew try to talk to and confront his eldest son, Park Du-seon, and his third daughter, Park Je-hui, in Korea and Australia, respectively, but they simply avoid them, and make it quite evident that they do not hold their father, or themselves, guilty of any legal or moral crime. The right-hand man of In-geun, Pastor Lim Young-soon, had also immigrated to Australia at the same time, along with his family, and he too has been able to avoid punishment of any kind. All of this is clearly enough to prove that the Korean government still wants to keep the real truth buried, as way too many official personnel would get involved if the identities of all the perpetrators behind Brothers’ Home are to be revealed.
Have the victims ever received an apology?
To this very day, the victims and survivors of Brothers’ Home’s demand for a formal apology for all the horrific crimes that were committed against them for no good reason. They naturally feel enraged, but also helpless, at how none of the Park family members have shown any guilt or remorse for their actions, except for the youngest son, Park Cheon-gwang. Cheon-gwang is the only family member who has publicly apologized, and he does so once again in the documentary. But his apology does not seem very genuine or heartfelt to most of the survivors, and naturally so, for their agitation and bitterness against the perpetrators can never be washed off with mere apologies. The Korean police have also never acknowledged their role in the matter, let alone apologize for their actions. While the court had earlier ruled that the survivors and their families deserve compensation, the Korean government appealed this ruling in 2024, with the matter still being unsolved. Meanwhile, many of the survivors of the horrific Brothers’ Home continue to suffer and die from injuries and even suicide, to this very day.
