Goli Otok, Croatia

Goli Otok is a Croatian uninhabited rocky island in the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, which became famous for its concentration camp during Tito's time. Goli Otok is located in the Velebit Mountain, in one of the best Croatian tourist locations, between the holiday islands of Krk and Rab. Its northern shores are bare and inaccessible, the southern and southeastern shores are also not rich in greenery, but they have a beach.
Goli Otok, ironically called Tito's Hawaii, became the forced home of many opponents of the southern regime after Tito's break with Stalin. For many years the island has been the "Top Secret" for the world. The campers exiled on the island of Goli Otok were mostly Macedonian Bulgarians, but some from the western outskirts also stood out. The revolutionary Panko Brashnarov died in the camp on the island. Venko Markovski is among those exiled to the Goli Otok concentration camp. In 1984 in the USA he published his book dedicated to the 5 years of exile and gave it the name "Naked Swell - the Island of Death". There are no palm trees, fine white sand and beautiful beaches on the island of Goli Otok, and its name is not synonymous with an unforgettable vacation.
Nowadays, Croatia has decided to take advantage of the beauty of the island of Goli Otok and its dark past to break into the field of tourism. The country is entering the big stage with the "prison tourism" challenge. Behind the idea lies a challenge for thrill seekers - it is proposed to taste the life of prisoners. Those who dare to accept the tourist offer will become participants in a kind of reality show - voluntary forced labor, after which the adventurers will return home with a certificate of "served sentence". Of course, no one will be tortured as real prisoners were mistreated. Tourists will be subjected to hard work, night shifts and scarce food and will be dressed in prison uniforms. In addition, the idea is to connect Goli Otok with a gondola off the coast and the nearby island of St. Gregory, which after World War II was a women's prison.
Since the closure of the labor camp in 1988, Goli Otok has been attracting thrill seekers like a magnet. For their part, Croatian travel agencies organize a one-hour excursion around the island, to which is temptingly added an alternative bathing on divine beaches with fine sand. Some NGOs have suggested that Goli Otok become "an artistic, cultural, open circle of free citizens of the world." It is interesting that the Cominformists who passed through the labor camp also could not get rid of the attraction of their prison. The vows never to return to him fade before the temptation to plunge back into their nightmarish memories.