The location was strategically chosen, both for being remote so that testimonies would not come to light, and for having an unhealthy climate, with little drinking water, and many mosquitoes in rainy seasons, which facilitated the appearance of diseases.

Its main objective was to physically and psychologically annihilate Portuguese and African opponents of the Salazar dictatorship, isolating them from the rest of the world in subhuman conditions of captivity, mistreatment, and insalubrity.

Second, the camp would have harsh conditions to send a clear message to the opposition in Portugal that Salazar's authoritarian regime would not tolerate any kind of political dissent.

In the first two years, when the prisoners' only housing was canvas tents, they were forced to work for 45 days in extremely high temperatures to build the camp wall and other infrastructure.

When the first illnesses began to appear, the only doctor present had no medicine to treat the patients, so he limited himself to issuing death certificates.

In the second phase, which reopened the camp on 14 April 1961, it began to hold militants from the national liberation struggles of the Portuguese Colonial War in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde.

In 2009 it was transformed into the Museum of Resistance, and a project is currently underway with the aim of applying for the UNESCO World Heritage List.

[6][7] The location was chosen strategically, both because it was remote so that testimonies would not come to public attention, and because it had an unhealthy climate, with little drinkable water, and many mosquitoes in rainy seasons, which facilitated the appearance of diseases and from which many prisoners died.

[8][7] The construction was the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Works and Telecommunications, and the project was drawn up by Cottinelli Telmo, with the name "Penal Colony of Cape Verde".

[12] The Dictionary of Portuguese History (2000) describes it as an "arbitrary deposit of the regime's opponents", and the "quintessence of state terrorism under Salazar".

[14] On a daily basis, inmates were subjected to punishment, torture, forced labor, poor nutrition, and lack of medical care.

[8][11][16] In the beginning, the facilities were simple canvas tents with the capacity to house twelve prisoners, without any conditions, and the camp was circumscribed by barbed wire and a four-meter deep ditch.

[11] Electricity, air renewal, and protection against the natural elements, especially the sun – which is "unbearable due to the country's climatic conditions" – were non-existent.

[8] Manuel Franscico Rodrigues affirms that the construction of slopes benefited the guards, restricted space, and increased the psychological torture on the prisoners.

[8] Manuel dos Reis, director of the camp for several years, would receive the political prisoners saying "Whoever comes to Tarrafal comes to die!".

[19] In the concentration camp of Tarrafal, there were several first-line communist leaders and cadres, subjected to various types of torture, since its establishment in 1936.

[20] Most of the time, the newspaper had been used as toilet paper, which earned the name among the inmates of "shit radio", and was vividly used as a source of information.

[21] In January 1954 it was closed due to the gain of the influence of anti-fascist forces and the defeat of Nazi-fascism in World War II.

[19][14] According to Pedro Martins, the "Frigideira" was created with the arrival of the second group of prisoners, where the punishments increased more and more and had the objective of quickly eliminating the antifascists physically.

Both light and air enter through three holes drilled in the heavy iron door and through a small rectangle, open near the ceiling.

The temperature ranged from 50 to 60 degrees such that the inmates' perspiration came off their bodies like bacon fat on a hot grill.Here, prisoners ate only bread and water, every other day.

[24] Due to strong pressure from the international community, as well as the anti-fascist action within the regime, and with the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, the "Frigideira" was demolished and buried in São Miguel.

[17] According to Pedro Martins, then a Cape Verdean political prisoner, the Concentration Camp was "a place planned, designed, and built to make people suffer".

[29] In 2009 it was transformed into the Museum of Resistance, and a project is currently underway that aims to apply for UNESCO's World Heritage List.

[27] The Resistance Museum is part of the preservation and musealization project of the former Concentration Camp of Tarrafal to give dignity to the site and the memories of the victims.

The symposium was attended by former political prisoners and specialists from the countries of Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea Bissau and Portugal.