Between the Croatian tourist islands of Rab and Krk , in the Adriatic sea lies a barren island, two by two kilometers in size, with strange ruins of prisons, bunkers and industrial sites.
Until the fall of communism Goli Otok, "the naked island" was a taboo in former Yugoslavia.
Today the island´s history is still an uncomfortable topic for many.
Austrian journalist Reinhard Grabner and camera man Franz Schwaighofer have now produced the first film about the island: "Strahota- Die Geschichte der Gefängnisinsel Goli Otok".
In 1949, the entire island was officially made into a high-security, top secret prison and labor camp run by the authorities of SFR Yugoslavia.
Goli Otok "was the private concentration camp of the Communist Party, more specifically: of Marshall Tito" says a former inmate, one of the contemporary witnesses interviewed for the film. Starting in 1948 critics not conforming to the system and political prisoners were confined to the island and subjected to forced heavy labor and tortorous abuse.
From the mid-60ies when also convicted criminals were imprisoned on the island "the prison situation normalised".
Over the course of four decades, apart from cell tracts and living quarters for the guards, the forced labour of the prisoners built a whole industrial zone, a number of factories for the production of furniture and tiles, even a pig farm that supplied the surrounding tourist islands. Former prisoners interviewed in the film tell about torture and abuse, and compare the conditions and the treatment with Guantánamo.
The island was eventually evacuated in 1988, leaving the facilities to decay.
"Strahota - Die Geschichte der Gefängnisinsel Goli Otok" premiered on May 5 2009.
A Croatian version is in the making. Alfred Pal, a former prisoner of Goli Otok plans to open an exhibition in Zagreb in July 2009.
Sources for further historic background and original photodocumentary material:
article in the Austrian newspaper derstandard.at (in German)
website about the film "Strahota- Die Geschichte der Gefängnisinsel Goli Otok
goliotok.com photodocumentation about the island
"Golit Otok- hell in tourist´s paradise" , photodocumentation about the island Goli Otok
"Die nackte Insel" a visit of Goli Otok- article in "Neue Zürcher Zeitung"
historical-political background (pdf, in German) from www.fraumuennich.de
"Goli Otok- hell in the Adriatic" book review
