Customer Reviews

Goli Otok: Hell in the Adriatic

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Although Goli Otok is a memoir, it is written so vividly, with a lot of dialogue, that it reads like a novel, a grim political satire with humor, wit, and insightful historical asides. I enjoyed reading it more than I expected I would. I strongly recommend the book to wide audiences, historians, travelers. . . everybody.

This book is a must for the reader who is interested in post-war Yugoslavia. It relates the experiences of prisoners who were punished and tortured, sometimes to death, on what is know as the "Naked Island." The book spans a seven-year period, starting in 1962, when the author was arrested for political reasons and sentenced to a term for crimes he did not commit. He is beaten and tortured numerous times in an effort to extract a fabricated confession and is finally tried and convicted. From inside the prison, he witnesses the atrocities that the Communist regime inflicted on anyone who did not abide by their ideology. The accounts are straighforward and written in a simple manner. The author does not espouse his own political theories and refrains from relating the grisliest details. It is a book of events that enables the reader to make up his own mind about the ethics of the Communist era and those they enpowered.

Most people know that the communist countries in central and eastern european oppressed political opponants throughout the latter half of last century. But it still remains abstract knowledge. By contrast, this book makes it tangible: By following the author's personal story of how he got send to the Goli Otok prison camp and staid there from 1962-69 you get a sense of the arbitrariness and brutal torture facing people that the communist system considers political opponents.

The book is short, but very tough to read. Yet it ought to be mandatory reasing in school - otherwise we won't learn from history.

This rare, first person account of physical and mental torture in the prison on Goli Otok should be read as widely as possible, because it tells the truth about inhumane conduct in peacetime. Josip Zoretic is painfully honest and naming names to bring offenders to justice.
"Goli Otok" was first written in 1972 in Croatian language. Josip Zoretic wrote it as a coping mechanism for his never-ending nightmares, to exercise freedom of conscience and expression, and especially to alert others of the gross human rights violations in communist Yugoslavia.
The prison, however, continued to operate until 1988.

A gut wrenching reminder of the countless untold stories of brutality and survival in post war Europe. A memoire that offers hope and wisdom without pretentiousness.