“A wound called Makronissos” is the title of her extensive travelogue Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on the island of martyrdom. “It’s a pleasant spring day, there’s almost suffocation,” writes the newspaper’s correspondent, who is accompanied by the Greek historian Thanasis Gallos. “The waves of the Aegean splash tiredly on the land. In a few weeks the beaches in Greece will be full of tourists. Only Makronissos will remain empty, as always. No one wants to live here, no one is allowed to live here. Anyone visiting the island needs a special permit from the state. There is no regular ferry connection.”

The report refers to the torture of prisoners during the civil war and notes that “many were forced, sooner or later, to sign the infamous ‘statements of repentance’ as requested. In these they had to renounce communism and express their regret for the ‘wrong path’ they had chosen. This letter was published in the newspaper, in their native country, and was read in the central square. This ensured that the Communist Party of Greece, which remained loyal to Stalin, and the rebels would repudiate them as ‘traitors’ and not accept them back into their ranks.”

Perpetrators and victims in Makronissos

“In Makronissos, human life did not count for much,” notes the Frankfurt newspaper, “but the ‘Greek Dachau’, as it was later called in a book, was not an extermination camp. The goal was not for the prisoners to die, but to be ‘rebaptized’. Only the methods employed for their ‘rebaptism’ were so brutal that many paid for them with their lives. Exact data do not exist, says Thanasis Gallos, because the Makronissos camp was under military command and the archives of the armed forces remain closed. It is estimated that from 1947 to 1952, 80,000-100,000 prisoners passed through Makronissos. “And less than 1,000 were those who refused to the end to sign a statement of repentance.”

As reported by the FAZ report “the terror only ended when the civil war ended in 1949, with the defeat of the Left. Gradually the prisoners were released, although they remained under police surveillance in their native country, and it was difficult to find work. In mid-1952 there were very few prisoners in Makronisos, the last one was released in 1957. As Thanasis Gallos says, indignantly, none of the perpetrators were ever brought to justice. And this, even though their names were known. They lived their lives normally. Some gave interviews.”

“Order and security” in Greece?

“Murder with the police on the phone” is the headline of the Tageszeitung (taz) about the tragic murder of 28-year-old Kyriaka Griva by her ex-partner at the beginning of April. The newspaper points out that “it is the 81st femicide since the beginning of 2020 and the trend appears to be increasing. There is indignation in Greece. “Never before has there been a femicide in front of a police station, in the center of a Greek capital, without the police intervening.”

Political conclusions can be drawn from this incident: “The government in Athens under the conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis seems to be paralyzed,” the correspondent of the German newspaper estimates. “She has been in power since July 8, 2019. One of her main promises was to restore ‘order and security’, unlike the left-wing government of her predecessor, Alexis Tsipras. This is a classic declaration of a right-wing government. Words of the wind”.

At the same time, the Berlin newspaper notes that “in proportion to its population, Greece has more police officers than almost all EU countries. Specifically, it counts 500 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants. It thus occupies the second place in the EU, only Cyprus has more. By way of comparison: Germany has about 300 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants, ranking slightly below the EU average.

For a place in the final four

An extremely interesting Greek-German basketball duel is underway: The Telekom Baskets of Bonn, who won the Champions League last year, face Vassilis Spanoulis’ Peristeri for the qualification to the final four of this year’s event. Bonn had won the first game at home, Peristeri got the rematch in Greece, so the qualification will be decided next Tuesday, on German soil.

Citing a typical German proverb, the General-Anzeiger newspaper of Bonn writes about Wednesday’s game in Athens that “Baskets appeared in Peristeri like a hare in front of a snake. Otherwise, the worst competitive image they presented this season cannot be explained.” The Belgian coach of the German team, Roel Morse, says that “the players were affected by the atmosphere in the stadium, besides many of them had no experience of international competitions and this did not allow us to implement our game plan…”

Edited by: Yiannis Papadimitriou