HOF083: Nguyen Van Nghia

An artillery commander, Nguyen Van Nghia was one of the last in his division to put down his arms when South Vietnam fell on April 30, 1975. Sent to a re-education camp where he endured hard labour and had been brainwashed for three years, Nguyen was determined to leave the country as soon as he could. After two failed attempts, Nguyen managed to reach Malaysia in 1979, in a boat carrying 400 refugees.

He decided to settle in Germany, where he had once planned to study. But after meeting his future wife in Toronto, Nguyen was eventually granted asylum to Canada. There, he put his newly acquired German language skills to use, working for German and Swiss companies, all the while developing another career as a Vietnamese-language writer. 

 
 

Note to Researchers

A consent form was signed by each of the interviewees whose videos are posted here on the website. They have each consented to making the video available to the public and they have consented to the use of the contents of their videos by the Hearts of Freedom project researchers. Consent is not available to external researchers to quote or publish from it. Researchers interested in the subject have the opportunity to view a documentary film, Passage to Freedom which has been completed and is available through a distributor https://www.mcintyre.ca/ Researchers from the project are in the process of completing a full length book based on the interviews. Once this book is available researchers will have the opportunity to review it and to refer to it for research purposes.