Autor Marijan Baldo Zlovečera. S hrvatskog preveli Duško Čondić i Ivana Čuvalo. Chicago: CroLibertas Publishers, 2019. VII, 260 str. Ilustracije. Kazalo imena. Bibliografija. ISBN 9780999822777.

Novovo objavljena knjiga chicaškog nakladnika „CroLibertas” je prijevod ranije objavljenog djela na hrvatskom jeziku Marijana Balda Zlovečere, Na gumnu zla. Dubrovnik: Matica hrvatska, 2012. godine. Riječ je o autorovom osobnom preživljavanju u Titovom koncentracijskom logoru na Golom Otoku.

Kao što je poznato, Goli (riječ na hrvatskom znači gol ili neplodan) je nenaseljen, ekološki neprijateljski otok na sjevernom Jadranu, između Senja i otoka Raba, bez pitke vode i struje, što ga čini izvrsnim izborom Titovih komunista za koncentracijski logor.

Kao uvod u Titov koncentracijski logor na otoku Goli: Na gumnu zla, potrebno je prvo promotriti dva pitanja: Tko su bili zarobljenici? Što se događalo u logoru?

Neposredno nakon Drugog svjetskog rata Jugoslavija je pod Titom bila gorljivi sljedbenik Sovjetskog Saveza. Jugoslavenski komunisti strogo su slijedili sovjetski model u politici, kulturi, gospodarstvu i gotovo na svim drugim poljima. Ali, bez konzultacija sa Staljinom, Jugoslavija je pokušala ojačati svoju regionalnu ulogu u širenju komunizma izvan svojih granica, u Grčku, Bugarsku i Albaniju. Takva samovoljna politika je prouzročila žestok sukob sa Sovjetskim Savezom. Tako je, 28. lipnja 1948., Informacijski biro komunističkih i radničkih partija (Kominform), međunarodna organizacija komunističkih partija, pod kontrolom Sovjeta, donio Rezoluciju kojom je napravio pritisak na Jugoslaviju i njezino vodstvo. Nakon tri godine staljinizacije u Jugoslaviji, bilo je teško prihvatiti činjenicu da su Sovjetski Savez i Staljin postali neprijatelji. Sovjeti su izolirali Jugoslaviju i ekonomski i diplomatski i k tome su signalizirali vojnu intervenciju. Šest mjeseci nakon Rezolucije Kominforma, jugoslavenski komunisti počeli su progoniti oporbu u svojim redovima i organizirati sustav logora i zatvora za kominformiste, odnosno Staljinove sljedbenike. Najveći takav kamp bio je na otoku Goli.

Logor je osnovala Uprava državne bezbjednosti (UDBA) u srpnju 1949. godine. UDBA je vodila logor, prisiljavajući zatvorenike na zlostavljanje drugih zatvorenika. Zatvorenici su radili u teškim uvjetima u kamenolomima, pilanama, vađenju pijeska, pošumljavanju otoka, pravljenju pločica, željezaru, proizvodnji namještaja i popravljanju malih plovila, stvarajući tako prihode tajnoj policiji. No, temeljna politička funkcija logora bila je političko preodgoj zatvorenika kroz strah i mučenje.

Na Golom Otoku bilo je nekoliko kampova, od kojih je jedan bio za žene. Kominformisti su zatvarani i u druge zatvore, ali najteži je bio onaj na Golom otoku. Ukupno je tijekom tog razdoblja bilo 15.737 registriranih zatvorenika interniranih u raznim zatvorima i logorima u Jugoslaviji, svi pod optužbom da su podržavali Staljina.

Nakon završetka svađe sa Sovjetskim Savezom logor je zatvoren krajem 1956. godine, ali je služba za zaštitu države (UDBA) zaključila da je industrijska proizvodnja na otoku previše isplativa da bi se zatvorila pa su promijenili kategoriju zatvorenika. Nakon 1956. Goli Otok postaje kaznionica za mlađe delinkvente, kriminalce i političke zatvorenike; svi oni nastavljaju stvarati prihode za UDBA-u. Zatvor je radio do 1988. godine.

Sama UDBA, međutim, gotovo nikada nije bila prisutna unutar logora. Uspostavili su sustav logorske samouprave po kojem su povlašteni logoraši kontrolirali ostale osuđenike: oni su bili produžena ruka UDBE. Slični organizacijski modeli sa zatvorenicima koji imaju vlast nad drugim zatvorenicima pronađeni su u nacističkim logorima i u sovjetskim gulazima.

UDBA je oslobođenim zarobljenicima zabranila govoriti o Golom Otoku i svojim tamošnjim iskustvima. Prije puštanja na slobodu zatvorenici su morali potpisati takozvanu “Obvezu” kojom su se obvezali na zakletvu šutnje o onome što se dogodilo u logoru, pod prijetnjom ponovnog zatvaranja.

Tema osvete Staljinovim sljedbenicima u Jugoslaviji prvi put se u književnosti počela pojavljivati krajem 1960-ih s romanom Dragoslava Mihailovića, Kad su cvjetale tikve. Nakon Titove smrti 1980., objavljeni su deseci romana koji su se temeljili na svjedočenjima bivših logoraša, a snimljen je i niz filmova od kojih su najpopularniji Balkanski špijun i Otac na službenom putu. Za daljnje čitanje preporučuju se dvije studije: Ivo Banac, Sa Staljinom protiv Tita : informbirovski rascjepi u jugoslavenskom komunističkom pokretu (1988.) i Martin Previšić, Povijest Golog otoka (2019.; recenzirano u Journal of Croatian Studies, Vol. 51 [2019]: 147-51)

Autor knjige Tito’s Concentration Camp on Goli Island, odnosno Na gumnu zla, Baldo Marijan Zlovečera, rođen je 1933. godine u Pridvorju u Konavlima kod Dubrovnika. S dvadeset godina pozvan je u tadašnje obvezno dvogodišnju služenje vojnog roka u Jugoslavenskoj narodnoj armiji. Na dan prestanka služenja vojnog roka optužen je i osuđen za subverzivnu propagandu protiv države protivno članu 118. stav 1. Krivičnog zakona, te je bio u zatvoru pet godina, prvo u Nišu u Srbiji, a zatim četiri godine na Golom otoku (1956-1960).

Nakon izlaska iz zatvora, Zlovečera je stupio u franjevački red na otoku Košljunu i zaređen je za svećenika 1966. Veći dio svog svećeničkog života proveo je u misijama u inozemstvu, uključujući šesnaest godina u Argentini. Nakon što je napustio Argentinu, pripremao se za svoju sljedeću misiju u Južnoafričkoj Republici. Prije odlaska u Afriku godinu dana proveo je u Wiesbadenu u Njemačkoj i Chicagu u SAD-u, učeći engleski i pišući svoje memoare o vremenu koje je proveo u logoru na Golom otoku. Godine 1994. vratio se u Pridvorje, gdje je umro 2012. godine

Zlovečera je svoje memoare organizirao u više od pedeset kratkih poglavlja, svako sa svojim naslovom, što inače mračnu kroniku čini nešto lakšom za čitanje i praćenje. Napisana je kao dokument četverogodišnje kazne na Golom otoku, ali kroz kraće segmente autor s vremena na vrijeme uspijeva kroniku pretočiti u narativniji prikaz s osobnim dojmovima, opisima i razmišljanjima, ponekad čak i s duhovitim prizvukom.

U poglavlju „Zašto Goli otok?“ doznajemo da je „povijest radnog logora Goli započelo nekoliko pripadnika JNA (Jugoslavenske narodne armije) koji su poslani po nalogu Rankovića“, šefa UDBE. Zatvorenici iz drugih zatvora pripremali su otok za zatvorenike Informbiroa. Zbog straha od Rusa i mogućeg pokušaja prilaska otoku podmornicom, odlučeno je da se ondje izgradi baza za podmornice; logoraši su također izgradili i bunker koji je služio kao podzemno spremište.

U poglavlju “Zarobljenici-administratori” autor objašnjava da su upravitelji uglavnom bili pripadnici partizanskih postrojbi. Poslije rata sudjelovali su u državnom aparatu ili drugim važnijim administrativnim položajima: “Zarobljenici su se bavili i racionalnim i iracionalnim radom. Teror, ispitivanje logoraša do ludila, mučenje glađu, a posebno žeđu, sve u ime Partije i Tita s ciljem da im se iz glave izbriše sjećanje na istu Komunističku partiju i još jednog velikog vođu (Staljina) , koji je do jučer bio neprikosnoveni komunistički vrh. Dan za danom, mjesec za mjesecom, godinu za godinom, ovo sustavno ubijanje čovječnosti u ljudskom biću od strane ‘sugrađana’ trajalo je punih osam godina.”

Ranković je na Goli otok stigao 1951. godine, ali se nije usudio kročiti u logor na otoku Sveti Grgur. Autor zaključuje “kakav je teror morao biti […] iz činjenice da se o [tom] otoku ništa ne zna niti se govori kao da ga nikada nije ni bilo.”

Činjenica da je Staljin umro 1953. nije značila da je sve zaboravljeno i da će krenuti svjetlija budućnost. To je, međutim, odredilo sudbinu zatvorenika Informbiroa. No, kako Zlovečera napominje, “brojeći nekoliko tisuća, ‘administrativni’ zatvorenika Golog otoka i dalje su bili prijetnja UDBA-i. Nisu mogli jednostavno biti pušteni.” I dalje, “zasigurno se nije moglo očekivati da šute o zlim djelima Komunističke partije Jugoslavije – posebno prema vlastitom potomstvu. Prvi su eliminirani Albanci, a potom je uslijedilo trovanje IB-ova. Oslobođeni ‘administrativni’ zatvorenici ubrzo su zatvoreni i ponovno osuđeni.” U jesen 1956. na Goli otok su isprva stigli čisto obični kriminalci koji su korišteni kao tvornički radnici, zamjenjujući zarobljenike Informbiroa.

Po uzoru na sovjetske metode zlostavljanja, zarobljenici Golog otoka su se koristili za proizvodnju robe koja je stavljena na tržište pod imenom Velebit, s uredima u Rijeci, pod upravom UDBE.

“Rasjašnjavanje” njihovih političkih stavova značilo je da su zatvorenici morali priznati sve što su učinili protiv države, je li to istina ili ne, zatim su morali pismeno izjaviti sve što su priznali, a morali su i optuživati druge ispisujući njihova imena: metoda prisilnog samooptuživanja. Zatvorenici koji su odbijali udovoljiti tim naredbama bili su podvrgnuti fizičkom mučenju u kamenolomu. Na kraju su svi bili prisiljeni priznati sve što se od njih tražilo, bili oni krivi ili ne. Kako piše Zlovečera, cilj UDBE bio je očigledan — „ogoliti dušu do golotinje, svojim žrtvama oduzeti svaku trunku ljudskog dostojanstva, dehumanizirati ih do te mjere da postanu neosobe. […] Bilo je značajnih i časnih izuzetaka, ali vrlo malo. Strah je vladao cijelim logorom.” Jedan od zatvorenika koji je prethodno bio zatvoren u Sibiru tražio je da ga vrate jer se tamo osjećao bolje nego na Golom otoku. O toj situaciji Zlovečera s britkim humorno piše: “bio je loša karikatura revolucionara koji je kroz prizmu Gologa svoju budućnost vidio još u sibirskom zatvoru.” O stražarima Zlovečera piše: “Kada su nas vodili na posao i s posla, u zahode itd., nisam osjećao nikakvu oskudicu, bilo kakav pritisak ili silu. Tada sam počeo shvaćati da su oni koji nam vrše svu sramotu i sami manje slobodni od nas.” Zlovečerin ironičan ton je opipljiv: “Ako u vrijeme rata Muze šute, onda su na Goli već spavale.” I dalje: “Kad je netko u zatvoru, ne razmišlja o mrtvima jer su mu živi stalno za petama i u mislima. [… T]o kamenje ispunjen sramom – kamenje preko kojih se rascijepila i zaoštrila okrutna zloba – iako su samo te stijene bile svjedoci svega zla. Samo su oni vidjeli da je čovjek protiv čovjeka uz pomoć čovjeka taj koji je sve to učinio.”

U poglavlju “Moj dolazak na Goli, 1956.” autor piše o svojim osobnim iskustvima. Sami zatvorenici su tukli i maltretirali druge suzatvorenike naočigled svih: “S dubokim osjećajem srama pao sam na zemlju. Po prvi put sam sada shvatio da nisam samo zatvorenik: sada sam pravi rob, rob kojeg se klonimo kao da je gubavac, rob kojeg se sramoti čak i njegova vlastita zemlja.”

U logoru je još bilo mnogo generala i ministara, ne samo partizana. “Ono što je stajalo ispred mene nije ništa drugo do zla povijest otoka Goli. Sve ono u što su ti ljudi vjerovali, sve ono za što su se godinama borili u tami šuma, sve čemu su se nadali, sve ono što su uništili bez obzira na ljudski i društveni poredak, sve ono što su gurali u stranu što je stajalo na putu interesa Partije na kraju je propalo, kao i oni sami. Nakon dehumanizirajućeg procesa na Golom, isušivanja i nečije same osobnosti, posljednje kapi ljudskog ponosa i smisla života, ostao im je samo okus zla na jezicima i skrivena iskra mržnje u njihovim očima.”

Bez obzira na tešku tematiku, prijevod knjige Na gumnu zla Duška Čondića i Ivane Čuvalo precizan je i čitljiv kao što se i moglo očekivati od američko-hrvatskih prevoditelja koji tečno govore oba jezika. Osim mnoštva dokumentarnih činjenica koje autor iznosi u svojoj knjizi, ono što njegove memoare čini posebno vrijednim su njegova osobna razmišljanja, bila ona moralna, duhovita, empatična, filozofska, pa čak i ogorčena.

TITO’S CONCENTRATION CAMP ON GOLI ISLAND: ON THE THRESHING FLOOR OF EVIL. By Marijan Baldo Zlovečera. Translated from Croatian by Duško Čondić and Ivana Čuvalo. Chicago: CroLibertas Publishers, 2019. VII, 260 pp. Illustrations. Index of Names. Bibliography. ISBN 9780999822777. 

The CroLibertas Publishers’ new book is a translation of a previously published work in Croatian by Marijan Baldo Zlovečera (Dubrovnik: Matica hrvatska, 2012).  It is an account of the author’s experiences in Tito’s concentration camp on Goli otok (Goli Island). 

As is well known, Goli (the word in Croatian means naked or barren) is an uninhabited, environmentally hostile island in the northern Adriatic, between Senj and the island of Rab, without drinking water and electricity, making it an excellent choice for Tito’s Communist concentration camp.

As an introduction to Tito’s Concentration Camp on Goli Island: On the Threshing Floor of Evil, two preliminary questions need to be addressed: Who were the prisoners? What went on in the camp?

Just after the Second World War Yugoslavia under Tito was a fervent follower of the Soviet Union. Yugoslav communists strictly followed the Soviet model in politics, culture, economy and in almost all other fields. But, without consulting Stalin, Yugoslavia took it upon itself to try to strengthen its regional role in spreading Communism beyond its borders, into Greece, Bulgaria and Albania, a policy that caused the great conflict with the Soviet Union. Thus, on June 28, 1948, the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform), the international organization of Communist parties, controlled by the Soviets, issued a resolution putting pressure on Yugoslavia and its leadership. After three years of Stalinization in Yugoslavia, it was hard to accept the fact that the Soviet Union and Stalin became enemies. The Soviets isolated Yugoslavia both economically and diplomatically and even signaled military intervention. Six months after the Cominform Resolution, Yugoslav Communists started persecuting the opposition in their ranks and organizing a system of camps and prisons for the Cominformists, that is, Stalin’s followers. The largest such camp was on Goli Island.

The Camp was established by the Uprava državne bezbjednosti (UDBA; State Security Service) in July 1949. The UDBA ran the camp, forcing prisoners to abuse other prisoners. Inmates labored under harsh conditions in quarries, sawmills, sand extraction, reforesting the island, tile-making, iron work, manufacturing furniture, and repairing small vessels, thus generating revenue for the secret police. But the basic political function of the camp was the political re-education of the prisoners through fear and torture.

There were several camps on Goli Island, one of them being for women. Cominformists were imprisoned also in other prisons, but Goli Island was the most severe. In total, there were 15,737 registered prisoners interned in various prisons and camps in Yugoslavia during the period, all on charges of supporting Stalin.

After the conflict with the Soviet Union had ended, the camp was closed in late 1956, but the security service decided that the industrial production on the island was too profitable to be shut down so they changed the category of prisoners. After 1956, Goli Otok became a penitentiary for delinquents, young adults, criminals, and political prisoners, all of them continuing to produce revenue for the UDBA. The prison operated until 1988.

The UDBA itself, however, was almost never present within the camp. They established a system of camp self-administration whereby privileged inmates controlled the other convicts: they were the long arm of the UDBA. Similar organizational models with inmates having authority over other inmates, were found in Nazi prison camps and in the Soviet gulags.

The UDBA forbade the released prisoners to speak about Goli Island and their experiences there. Before they were released prisoners had to sign the so-called “Commitment,” binding them to an oath of silence about what happened in the prison camp, under threat of reimprisonment.

The topic of revenge against Stalin’s followers in Yugoslavia first began to emerge in literature in the late 1960s with Dragoslav Mihailović’s novel, When Pumpkins Blossomed. After Tito’s death in 1980, dozens of novels were published that were based on the testimonies of former inmates and a number of films were also produced, the most popular being Balkan Spy and When Father Was Away on Business. For further reading, two studies are recommended: Ivo Banac, With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist Splits in Yugoslav Communism (1988), and Martin Previšić, Povijest Golog otoka (2019; reviewed in the Journal of Croatian Studies, Vol. 51 [2019]: 147-51).

The author of Tito’s Concentration Camp on Goli Island, Baldo Marijan Zlovečera, was born in 1933 in Pridvorje in the region of Konavle near Dubrovnik. At the age of twenty he was drafted to the then two-year obligatory military service in the Yugoslav People’s Army. The day his military service ended, he was charged and convicted of subversive propaganda against the State contrary to Article 118, §1, of the Criminal Code, and was imprisoned for five years, first in Niš in Serbia, and then for four years on Goli Otok (1956-1960).

After his release from prison, Zlovečera entered the Franciscan order on the island of Košljun and was ordained a priest in 1966. He spent most of his priestly life in missions abroad, including sixteen years in Argentina.  After he left Argentina, he prepared for his next mission in the Republic of South Africa. Before going to Africa, he spent a year in Wiesbaden, Germany and in Chicago, USA, learning English and writing his memoires of the time he spent incarcerated on Goli Otok. In 1994,  he returned to Pridvorje, where he died in 2012.

Zlovečera organized his memoir into more than fifty short chapters, each with its own title, which makes the otherwise grim chronicle somewhat easier to read and follow. It is written as a document of the four-year sentence at Goli Otok, but through the shorter segments the author succeeds from time to time in transforming it into a more narrative account with personal impressions, descriptions, and reflections, sometimes even with humorous overtones.

In the chapter “Why the Island of Goli?,” we find out that the “history of the Goli labor camp was begun by several members of JNA (Yugoslav People’s Army), who were sent by order of Ranković,” the chief of UDBA. Prisoners from other prisons prepared the island for the Information Bureau prisoners. Because of fear of the Russians and a possible attempt to approach the island by submarine, it was decided that a submarine base would be built there; a bunker, which was  used as an underground storeroom, was also built by the inmates.

In the chapter “Prisoners-administrators” the author explains that the administrators were mainly members of the Partisan units. After the war, they took part in the state apparatus, or other more important administrative positions: “The prisoners were engaged in work that was both rational and irrational. Terror, interrogating inmates to the point of insanity, tormenting them by hunger, and especially thirst, all in the name of the Party and Tito with the aim of erasing from their heads the memory of the same Communist Party and another big leader (Stalin), who had been the undisputed Communist top dog until just yesterday. Day after day, month after month, year after year, this systematic killing of humanity in a human being by a ‘fellow man’ lasted full eight years.”

Ranković arrived on Goli Island in 1951, but he did not dare step into the camp on the island of Sveti Grgur. The author concludes “what sort of terror there must have been […] from the fact that nothing is known or spoken about [that] island as though it never existed.”

The fact that Stalin died in 1953 did not mean that everything was forgotten and that a brighter future would start. It did, however, determine the fate of the Information Bureau prisoners. But as Zlovečera notes, “numbering a few thousand, Goli Island’s ‘administrative’ prisoners continued to be a threat to the UDBA. They could not simply be released.” And further, “they certainly could not be expected to remain silent about the evil deeds of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia – especially against its own progeny. The first to be eliminated were the Albanians, and then the poisoning of the IBs followed. The ‘administrative’ prisoners that were released were soon imprisoned and convicted again.” In the fall of 1956, at first purely common criminals arrived on Goli Otok and were used as factory workers, replacing the Information Bureau prisoners.

Modelled on the Soviet methods of abuse, the prisoners of Goli Otok were used to producegoods that were put on the market under the company name Velebit, with its offices in Rijeka, run by the UDBA.

“Clarifying” their political views meant that the prisoners had to confess everything they did against the State, weather it was true or not, then they had to declare in writing everything they confessed, and also had to accuse others by writing their names: the method of forced self-accusation. Prisoners who refused to satisfy these dictates were submitted to physical torture in the quarry. In the end, everybody was forced to confess whatever was asked of them, whether guilty or not. As Zlovečera writes, the goal of the UDBA was obvious—“to bare the soul to nakedness, to strip their victims of every shred of human dignity, to de-humanize them to the point of their becoming non-persons. […] Notable and honorable exceptions there were, but very few. Fear reigned throughout the prison camp.” One of the prisoners who previously had been imprisoned in Siberia asked to be returned because he felt better there than on Goli Otok. Zlovečera writes about that situation with sharp humor: “he was a bad caricature of a revolutionary who, through the prism of Goli, saw his future back in a Siberian prison.” About the guards, Zlovečera writes: “when they led us to and from work, to the toilets, etc., I did not feel any sort of deprivation, any sort of pressure or force. I then began to understand that those who carry out all the indignities toward us are, themselves, less free than we are.” Zlovečera’s ironic tone is palpable: “If in time of war the Muses are silent, then, on Goli, they were already asleep.” And further on: “When one is incarcerated, one does not think about the dead because the living are constantly at his heels and in his thoughts. [… T]hose rocks filled with shame – rocks across which virulent malice was split and sharpened – even though those rocks alone were witness to all the evil. They alone saw that it was man against man with the help of man that did it all.”

In the chapter “My Arrival to Goli, 1956” the author writes about his personal experiences. The prisoners themselves beat and mistreated other fellow prisoners in full view of everyone: “With a deep sense of shame, I fell to the ground. For the first time, I now realized I am not simply a prisoner: I am now a true slave, a slave that one shuns as though he were a leper, a slave that even his very own country holds in shame.”

In the camp there were still many generals and ministers, not only Partisans. “What stood before me was nothing else than the evil history of Goli Island. All that these men believed in, all that they fought for year upon year in the dark of forests, all that they hoped for, all that they destroyed without regard to human or social order, all that they pushed aside that stood in the way of the Party’s interests had, in the end, come to naught, and they, as well. After the dehumanizing process on Goli, the draining of one’s very personhood, the last drop of human pride and meaning of life, all that was left to them was the taste of evil on their tongues and the hidden spark of hatred in their eyes.”

Notwithstanding the difficult subject matter, Duško Čondić’s and Ivana Čuvalo’s translation of Tito’s Concentration Camp on Goli Island is both accurate and readable as one could expect of American-Croatian translators fluent in both languages. Apart from a lot of documentary facts that the author gives in his book, what makes his memoirs particularly valuable are his personal reflections, be they moral, humorous, empathetic, philosophical, or even resentful.

VESNA ČUČIĆ

Dubrovnik