Museum commemorating exile opens on Ai Stratis
Greek President Karolos Papoulias cut a piece of barbed wire rather than a ribbon at Wednesday’s inauguration of the Museum of Political Exiles on the island of Ai Stratis. Forty-four years after the closure of the military camp used to house exiles on the Aegean island, the Ministry of Culture allowed the first floor of a neoclassical building at 31 Aghion Asomaton Street to house the museum’s archives and collections. Ai Stratis received some 10,000 political exiles over the course of the base’s operation from the interwar years to 1962. Many of the survivors of the exile, such as poet Titos Patrikios, were also present at the ceremony on Wednesday, which drew a capacity crowd to the building’s atrium. Guests at the event included Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, PASOK Euro-MP N. Sifounakis, Left Coalition Synaspismos President Alekos Alavanos, Manolis Glezos and Michalis Papayiannakis. The first speaker, Spyros Millas, now aged 91, served 31 years of imprisonment and exile. Deeply moved, he talked about those years «when they were forgotten on a rock,» about «the loneliness of an exile, that cannot be shown in any museum,» and also about how the exiles spent their days – in activities such as artistic pursuits – and the support they had from the island’s residents. His speech connected the past to the present and noted the hatreds that have been shed and the need to know about the past. Papoulias stressed this point in a short speech he had prepared: «We are not here to judge either side. We are here for the new generations, to help with the knowledge of history,» he said shortly before cutting the wire. The museum’s displays give evidence of the histories of individual exiles, show life at the camp and the daily struggle of the inmates on a personal and collective level. They also show inmates’ efforts to push for better conditions of confinement and to stop politically motivated killings. Other focal points in the exhibition are the tools and works of art and writing made by the inmates themselves. For more information, tel 210.321.3488.
