On Location
The area of the Eastern Mediterranean is strewn with uninhabited, desert islands that were used as rehabilitation and concentration camps for political dissidents from the 1920s until the 1980s. Their use was intensified during the two decades following the Greek and the Yugoslavian Civil Wars that came on the wake of the Second World War. This section contains material from the Yugoslavian case.
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A Boat Ride
We leave behind Senj, the medieval coastal town on the north coast of Croatia from which we will drive south to the ferry that will take us to Goli Otok. Five of us are taking the trip, among us the Croatian anthropologist Dejan Lukic. Senj is a cosmopolitan town that has retained all the vestiges of its long history: thick town walls, tall clock tower, small winding streets, all of which congruously absorb the vacationers who are walking around in their bathing suits, eating ice-cream, and languishing in the afternoon sun.…
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Lopar and the Glass Boat
We arrive at Lopar and easily find the small kiosk that advertises boat rides to Goli Otok. The boat leaves at 10:30 a.m., just as we are speaking with the clerk at the kiosk. We must wait until the next boat at 3:00 p.m., or come back the next day, or go back to Rab to catch the 3:00 p.m. boat from there. We decide to wait for the next boat. We find a small cove in which to swim and stay there until it is time to go. The only language around us is Italian. At 3:00 p.m. we embark on the Glass Boat to go to Goli Otok.…
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Sveti Grgur and the Camps
The boat skirts Sveti Grgur portside. The captain brings her as close to the coast as safety allows, and we see the rocky coast drop straight into the crystal-clear sea. Having in mind the landscape of the desert islands of Greece the sight of Sveti Grgur, which has been described repeatedly as such another desert island, catches me by surprise. The island is about the size of Yáros, with an elevation of two hundred meters at its highest point (about six hundred feet). But where I expect to see…
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The "Wire"
In the morning we decide to rent a boat taxi to take us to Goli Otok from Lopar. It is much smaller, just a large speed-boat, though it costs almost the same as the Glass Boat. At least it has fewer passengers and no music. The captain allows us, again, an hour and a half on the island. This time we arrive straight at the harbor, and we start walking along the eastern road, which winds amid of the pine groves, skirting the shore, to the camp itself and the “Wire.” The landscape is very different…