men were loud, chaotic and disorganised. A detention officer stood close-by and could hear all of what was said. We would later understand that he had assumed the role of a security buffer between the NPM and the men (Bhui et al., 2019). The floor was dirty and strewn with empty bottles and crumbled papers. On the walls, there was a line of old-fashioned pay phones, some of which were broken.2 On the other side of the cells, there were two barred windows, so there was some natural light but with hardly anyone interested in the view. I was looking through the windows to avoid peering into the cells, where some men were idly laying on their beds. It was, unusually for Greece, a grey and gloomy day, but past the large bus depot and rows of houses, I could see the ancient Acropolis hill with majestic Parthenon on its top (see figure 2 above). One of the detention officers approached me and beaming with nationalistic pride, he said: ‘At least, they have a nice view from here, heh?’, pointing to the familiar monument. Makronisos, 1948 The island of Makronisos is a small, uninhabited piece of land not far off the Attica coast, synonymous with persecution and exile during the Greek Civil War (1944-1949).3 The official rhetoric about Makronisos deployed language more appropriate for a medical institution that could cure ‘polluted individuals’ and to a school that could ‘rehabilitate its prisoners by teaching them their true destiny, identity and history’ (Hamilakis, 1996: 56). As part of their re-education, prisoners were forced to build replicas of classical buildings, such as the Erectheion, found on Acropolis and open-air theaters to resemble the ancient Greek ones. In this context, they erected a replica of the Parthenon on a scale of 20:1, remnants of which can still be found on the island (Hamilakis, 1996). As the magazine of Makronisos, Skapaneus, described it ‘All soldiers admire it and the visitors understand that, in a place where soldiers create such wonderful works, the most advanced morale-building and character-reshaping work must be taking place’ (in Hamilakis, 2002).4 Several detainees complained about broken phones and the manager of the centre later said that this was a result of detainees damaging them every week. 3 For an exploration of political prisoners during the Greek Civil War see Voglis (2002) and DalianiKarampatzaki (2009). There have also been many memoirs from former political prisoners in which they describe their experiences inside the camps. See for example, Sideri (1981) and Apostolopoulou (1984). 4 The Makronissos digital museum offers a unique insight into the experience of exile on the island. For the link to the website, see Makronissos digital museum (n.d.). 2 11