Exile Island

In 1947, in the early days of the Greek civil war, a camp was set up on Makronisos for the rehabilitation of political prisoners, communists and leftist EAMites, so that they would ‘recover’ and join the ranks of the National Republican Greek League. The Makronisos camp was, in effect, a choice of the British, at the outset of the Cold War, as an experimental action against similar situations around the world. Makronissos has been etched on the collective unconscious of the Greeks for the unthinkable violence and the atrocious methods of reform used against the prisoners. Its legend and the stories accompanying one of the most heated affairs in modern Greek history are still alive today.