Ich klage an! Erlebnisberichte aus den griechischen Konzentrationslagern – “I Accuse!” Testimonies and Experiences from the Greek Concentration Camps. Published by Hilfskomitee für das demokratische Griechenland (“Aid Committee for Democratic Greece”). Berlin, 1950 – First Edition. German. Rare.
After the liberation of Greece from German occupation in 1944, a sharp conflict developed in the country between the royalist-rightist camp, supported by Britain and later also by the United States, and the left-wing movements, בראשם the organizations that had led the struggle against the Nazi occupation. במסגרת this struggle, various security units were established whose role was to suppress political activity of the left. Organizations such as A.E.T.O.S. operated in intelligence gathering, arrests, and the transfer of suspects to detention camps and to islands where political prisoners were concentrated. During this period, political detention camps were established in several locations, including islands such as Makronisos, Ikaria, and Trikeri. Thousands of activists, intellectuals, former soldiers, and members of resistance movements suspected of loyalty to the left were sent there, where prisoners were tortured because of their political views. The activities of organizations such as A.E.T.O.S. were part of the system of political repression that developed in Greece during the Civil War (1946–1949) and in the early years of the Cold War.
“Manolis Proimakis risked his life to smuggle the text of the booklet in French, I Accuse, out of the Makronisos concentration camp. Even minor infractions of camp rules were severely punished in the concentration camps of Greece. Proimakis risked his life in the hope that he could help save his fellow prisoners. As stated at the beginning of the booklet: ‘I Accuse – written behind the barbed wire fences of the Makronisos concentration camp. Publisher: New Greece. To the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to the governments of all nations, to democratic organizations throughout the world. I take the liberty of sending you a deliberately measured, yet entirely reliable memorandum on what is happening here. I pledge the complete truth of my report with my signature. Everything I describe in detail in the following lines is based on my personal experience and observations; these are facts that I myself have seen and experienced, which unfolded before my very eyes.
With my highest respect!
Manolis Proimakis
Former Member of the Greek Parliament.’”
The author describes here the atrocities carried out by members of A.E.T.O.S.- a special unit of the security apparatus that operated in cooperation with the police and the state’s intelligence services. Its primary purpose was the identification, surveillance, and arrest of activists suspected of affiliation with the left, communism, or radical democratic movements: “The V.E.T.O company is fully determined and entirely justified in employing the necessary means to break our resistance, to ‘break’ us, as they call it. If we refuse to declare repentance, we will face physical destruction… We are divided among 4,000 people who, after enduring all kinds of torment and gaining sufficient experience in the ‘art of education’ practiced by these gangsters… The purpose of our imprisonment together with apostates is to exert upon us a demoralizing influence, to break our resistance, to intimidate us, and to force us to submit to the demands of our executioners… Those selected in this way are separated from the rest of the group. The soldiers describe to them the tortures awaiting them, the terrible beatings they will undergo, which no human being could endure… Prisoners receive kicks to all parts of their bodies. Often, such blows are delivered with such force that the victims lose consciousness…”.
Throughout the booklet, Manolis Proimakis documents in detail the daily abuse in these camps and writes that out of 1,900 men who arrived at the camp in December 1949, only 600 managed to withstand the torture and remain silent. Many of them attempted to take their own lives, while others died from exhaustion. He describes the torture endured by prisoners in the “cages of slow death” – those detention cells in which prisoners were subjected to starvation, forced labor, exposure to the elements, filth, beatings and humiliation, psychological pressure, threats at gunpoint, and more. He strongly demands the dismantling of Makronisos, which he calls “the American Dachau in Greece.” At the end of the booklet, following detailed documentation of the atrocities of the Makronisos camp, appears the declaration: “Call of the Greek Committee for the Closure of the Makronisos Concentration Camp and for a General Amnesty in Greece, ” issued in the name of professors and prominent figures who were members of committees of former political prisoners under Nazi occupation.
Rare. Only four records in the WorldCat global library catalog, in libraries in Germany.
24 pages. Very good condition.
