The space

The rocky and deserted island that stretches parallel to the eastern coast of Attica is Makronisos. On the island, habitats of metallurgists, livestock breeders, beekeepers, monks are found or suspected, in discontinuous periods, always in relation to the economic and other activities of the nearby areas, Kea and Lavreotiki (the southern tip of Attica). Administratively, Makronissos belongs to Kea, however, at least for the last hundred years, it seems to have existed completely outside the framework of a "scattered city " of the Aegean; it was isolated, although today it still seems close to Athens, par excellence a place outside the state, a place of isolation and exile.

The name Makronisos is mentioned for the first time since the middle of the 13th century. The ancient name Makris and the later Makris, by which it was known in the Middle Ages and up to the 20th century, are due to its shape. The island was also called Helen, because according to tradition the mythological heroine visited it on her return journey from Troy.

Makronissos is located in the flow of a branch of the strong sea current that pours from the Black Sea into the Aegean; the north wind, the "paraktias" of the ancients, was always strong in the area; the Trypitis reef at the northern end of island. In ancient times, as sea transport was faster and more practical than land, the surrounding area was a busy sea route. Six ancient shipwrecks have been identified around Makronissos dating from the 2nd century BC until the 4th c. AD, two on the Trypiti reef, one at Cape Center, one in Vathy Avlaki bay and two between Makronissos and Thorikos, while even in recent decades the half-sunken ship "Apollonia VI" was visible after it ran aground in Trypiti in 1980.

In the Middle Ages, Makronissos was, like Aegina and Salamis, a stronghold of pirates. The Byzantine scholar Michael Choniatis (Metropolitan of Athens in the period 1182-1204), mentions the poor monastery of Agios Georgios in Makri and regrets that he had not evacuated it, so that the pirates would have one less reason to make the island a "habitat". There is evidence of the existence of monks on the island in 1675 by the French traveler Guillet, while the current church of Agios Georgios may be all that survived from this monastery.

The French traveler Tournefort, who spent the night on the island on November 7, 1700, had read in his Pliny that the storm had cut off Makronissos from Evia. Makronissos, however, geologically and mineralogically, is not a part of Evia or the Cyclades, but of Lavreotiki. But poorer in terms of mineral bearing, eroded by rain and wind, with little water and barren, as usually are places with mineral deposits.

Metallurgical activity

In prehistoric times, obsidian traders moving between the Cyclades and mainland Greece flocked to the opposite Lavreotiki; obsidian blades have also been found in Makronissos. In Provatsa, Makronissos, the oldest known "lithargyri" of Lavreotiki have been found, documenting metallurgical activity; a small settlement of 2700-2300 BC, contemporary with the operation of the "Mint no. 3" of Thorikos, one of the oldest silver mines in the Mediterranean.

During the systematic mining and metallurgical activity in Laureotiki during the classical times, which yielded the silver for the Athenian coins, the "glaukes", there was a similar operation in Makronissos. The slag from this period was transported in 1871 to Lavrio for new exploitation.

In the 19th century, when mineral raw materials were essential to the industrialization of the Western world, searches for mineral wealth around the planet intensified with the aim of locating new deposits, as well as old ones, exploitable with new mineral technologies. Lavreotiki suddenly enters the industrial period thanks to the insight of the Smyrna mineralogist Andreas Kordellas who diagnosed that ancient rusts could be efficient. In 1865, the birth year of modern Lavrio, silver lead was again produced in the area, while in 1885 a train connected Lavrio with Athens.

In 1881 Makronissos was granted as a mine to a mining company ("Helen"), in 1910 zinc was explored on the island and before World War II a geological survey and mapping was carried out by the French Lavrio Mining Company. In 1948 (during the period of "reformation" of political prisoners) the company "Hellenic Mining Enterprises Makronisos EMEM SA" was established.

Isolation and exile

In the years 1912-1913, thousands of Turkish prisoners of the First Balkan War were sent to Makronisos. After the surrender of Thessaloniki (October 26, 1912) and Ioannina (February 21, 1913) the prisoners were 26,000 and 30,000 respectively, who began to be transported by sea to 32 camps in southern Greece and to island or coastal positions for reasons of relative isolation and reduced need for storage. The movement of ships from Thessaloniki also records the transport of many prisoners for reasons of security and food problems and despite the city's handover protocol which provided for their stay in Karaburnou. From November 1912, the transport of prisoners also began to Makronissos, where a health service clinic operated.

The ill-treatment of Turkish prisoners and residents by Greeks and Serbs was the subject of a dense column by the writer Pierre Loti in French newspapers in the winter of 1912-1913. The Staff Service submitted a memorandum to the International Red Cross with assurances of compliance with international conventions. In Makronisos, hundreds of Turkish graves were found in 1948 during the construction of a camp, according to the testimony of the then exiles. Phenomena of supply abuses by civilians and military were observed (trials were held in 1915-1916 for the "Macronisos abuses"). After the signing of the Greek-Turkish treaty on November 1, 1913, around 10,000 prisoners left for Constantinople within a fortnight.

On June 10, 1922, it was decided to transfer and temporarily settle in Makronissos the refugees from Pontus, who had started arriving in Greece since the spring of the same year. With the arrival in one day of over 8,500 refugees, many sick and several "cholera suspects", the sanatorium of Agios Georgios (Salamina) was deemed inadequate and dangerous near Athens. The "issue of the suffering refugees" is raised in the Parliament and the Athenian press.

Tents were installed in zones (depending on the region of origin of the refugees and their illnesses), a medical center was established and disinfection furnaces were installed. A sanatorium was set up by the American Women's Hospital charity, as the Americans took over the feeding and housing of Makronissos refugees from the end of 1922. The refugees arrived by the thousands and the losses due to disease were large. The steady influx intensified with the Asia Minor disaster (1,150,000 people between August 1922 and March 1923). In Makronissos on September 8, 1922, the 5,500 refugees are expected to leave for eastern Macedonia and Thessaloniki and the new 4,500 refugees are expected to arrive; on December 23, 1922, it is decided that the last 12. 000 refugees on the shores of Pontus will come to the island; on March 25, 1923, 3,730 people arrive; in April and May 1923, 7,000 Makronissos refugees have been "agriculturally resettled", 4,000 have been transferred to Thessaloniki, where another 8,000 are expected). There are testimonies of abuses in the supply and exploitation of refugees.

On February 2, 1923, according to an order of the Ministry of Military Affairs for the repatriation of Greek prisoners after the signing in Lausanne of the Convention on the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations, their reception and disinfection in a camp to be created in Makronissos is foreseen. The "political hostages" and "military prisoners" who arrive, however, go to the Piraeus sanatorium.

In 1931, Makronissos was proposed as a gathering place for the communists. In 1935, it was reported in the press that it was decided to transfer the displaced communists there, to avoid the risk of their ideas being transmitted to the Aegean islands.

1947 – 1950

The creation of the Makronissos camps is linked to the "cleansing" of the army of "suspicious" soldiers and officers, in order to protect the rank and file of the National Army which was fighting at that time against the Democratic Army of Greece. Based on information gathered by the army from the local police authorities, those who had left-wing ideas or had participated in the German Resistance were considered "suspicious" and gathered from the summer of 1946 in special battalions. The soldiers who made up the 1st Battalion were first gathered in Liopesi (Peania) of Attica and later were transferred to Agios Nikolaos in Crete and Gyaros. The soldiers of the 2nd Battalion first gathered in Larissa and then the headquarters of the Battalion was moved to Rethymnon, Liopesi and finally to Porto Rafti.

The soldiers of the 2nd Battalion were the first to arrive on Makronissos on May 28, 1947, and in the following two months the other two battalions were transferred to the island. In general, the history of Makronissos as a place of exile can be divided into three periods:

– the first is the period from the establishment of the camp until the spring of 1949, during which the focus of the violent "reformation" was mainly soldiers and officers.

– the second is the period from the spring of 1949 to the summer of 1950, during which an ever-increasing number of citizens (preemptively arrested, male and female political exiles) gathered in Makronissos.

– the third extends from the summer of 1950 until the closing of the camps, when the Military Prison of Athens (SFA) and the camps only for "suspect" soldiers operate in Makronissos, with comparatively better conditions.

Makronissos was a complex of camps and internment sites that included:

– the three camps of the Pioneer Battalions, which in the spring of 1949 were renamed Special Troops Battalions (A΄ ETO, B΄ ETO and C΄ ETO respectively).

– the Special Private Reform Camps (ESAI) for political exiles, which were created in the camps of the first two Special Troops Battalions. The 1st ETO-ESAI was created in March 1949 and the 2nd ETO-ESAI in November 1949.

– the 3rd Officer Presentation Center, created in September 1947 with left-wing senior and junior officers.

– the Disciplined Living Camp for political exiles, which was created in November 1948 in the northern part of the island and was guarded by the 4th Gendarmerie Battalion. The political exiles later joined the Special Private Reformation Camps.

– the Athens Military Prisons (SFA), in August 1947, with undertrials and convicted soldiers, who until then were held in the Military Prisons, located on Vouliagmenis Avenue.

– the Special Women's Reform Camp (ESAG), which was created for political exiles in January 1950 and operated in the area of ​​the 1st ETO.

While the Makronissos camps had been operating since 1947, only after the mass deportation of political exiles was a special law passed for the operation of the camps. More specifically, with Resolution 3 of October 14, 1949 "on national reformation measures" the "Macronissus Reform Organization" was established. The Organization was subordinate to the General Staff of the Army and, according to the resolution, its purpose was the "reformation through enlightenment and education" of the prisoners. In this way the army would now officially have the jurisdiction to detain not only soldiers but also civilians and Makronissos would turn into a huge prison for all political opponents of the regime.

1951 – 1961

The countdown to the Makronissos camps began in 1950. The Civil War had stopped in August 1949, but the Makronissos camps continued to operate, the number of prisoners was constantly increasing and newspaper complaints about the conditions there were multiplying. After the elections of March 5, 1950 and the assumption of the prime ministership by Nikolaos Plastiras, the government proceeded to change the management of the camp with the placement of Lt. Gen. Papagiannopoulos and to drastically limit the operation of the camps. The decisive step was taken in the summer of 1950, when the thousands of political exiles were transferred from Makronissos to Agios Eustratios (the men) and Trikeri (the women). The camps continued to operate until 1957, while then and until October 1960, only the military prisons operated. In February 1961 the last soldiers guarding the facilities left Makronissos.

1962 – TODAY

Makronissos... after Makronissos

The use of the largest area of ​​the island by the camps continued until about 1957, while until October 1960 only the military prisons operated, in the area of ​​the Athens Military Prisons (SFA), where the State owned an area of ​​about 200 acres, before they were installed in Boyati (Spring of Attica). The guards guarding the facilities (10-15 men) left the island in February 1961. The abandonment was followed by a disaster, which was organized by the Greek State with an auction for the removal and removal from the island of useful building materials (marble, timber, etc.) .). Only a few shepherds remained on the island, who to this day continue to freely graze sheep and goats and a few cattle, using the buildings of the camps for accommodation for themselves and their animals.

In the following years there is silence about the island and about what happened there. Not even the propaganda of the dictatorship refers to the "reformative" character of Makronissos, despite the fact that its references to Grammos and the Civil War are very regular, which is curious and needs interpretation. During the pre-dictatorship period, the only person dealing with the history of Makronissos is Nikos Margaris, a prisoner on the island during the period 1947-1950. In the mid-60s, he began to collect testimonies and photographic material from his fellow prisoners, in order to write a History of Makronissos. He also made his first visit to the island in 1965, which is one of the rare, if not the only, pre-dictatorship visit. during which he took a series of photographs depicting the condition of the buildings and facilities. Margaris, now post-colonial, would continue to visit Makronissos regularly until 1998. His two-volume work History of Makronissos which will finally be published in 1966, is a bold publication for the turbulent period at the time, when communism and communists were the number one enemy of the regime.

In the first years of the post-colonial period, the silence about Makronissos, even from the Left, continues. The only exception is Pantelis Voulgari's film Happy Day (1976), which is the first cinematic attempt to describe the harsh everyday life in Makronissos. In fact, the film was also based on the very important photographic archive of Nikos Margaris.

Essentially, it is after 1981 that the engagement with Makronissos begins to become more and more dense, perhaps because for the first time there is a complete freedom of expression regarding the dark years of the Civil War. The publications-testimonies of Makronissos are increasing, as well as the commemorative events and concerts of the victims of Makronissos. They are often held in the theaters of the island itself with the participation of great artists, such as Mikis Theodorakis, a prisoner in Makronissos.

In 1989, by a decision of the Ministry of Culture, "the entire island of Makronissos was declared a historical site and all the buildings of the island's camps historical monuments". With a second inter-ministerial decision of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of the Environment, in 1990, a working group was established with representatives of competent bodies, whose task is to formulate a program of interventions for the protection and promotion of the historical site of Makronissos and the historical buildings and camps. The Working Group carried out several transitions for on-site research, gathered from the various services the necessary data for the study of the island, which it studied during its regular meetings, arriving at a series of extremely useful conclusions.

Finally, the photographic archive of Nikos Margaris, which is located in the Archives of Contemporary Social History (ASKI), in addition to the rich material concerning photographs of Makronissos from the period 1947-1955, also includes a "second" photographic archive of his later visits Nikos Margaris on the island, from 1965 to 1998, a kind of "history" of the deterioration of Makronissos over time.

Source: Makronissos Digital Museum