Weaker inmates would carry out light toil, while fitter inmates would ‘kill themselves’ with work in the sun during the day and spend the night in solitary confinement. Of course, unlike real prisoners, nobody would be tortured.
- Josip Modric
So, I know you’re just sitting there, wondering what to get the person in your life who has EVERYTHING. Hey…why not send them to prison? And we’re not talking about just any ol’ prison, either. How about Croatia’s worst Communist-era prison, where many a political prisoner whiled away wasted days and lonely nights?
ZAGREB, Croatia — Croatia may reopen its most notorious communist-era prison for tourists willing to part with their money to re-enact the life of a political prisoner including hard labor, stale food and nights in solitary confinement.
The plan has the support of some local officials and even former inmates, who have offered to work as tour guides, though the city council has yet to make a final decision.
“If you want to experience some of the torture that political prisoners underwent ‚Äö√Ѭ∂ just come along,” said Josip Modric, an architect who is promoting the project.
Modric envisions tourists being issued convict uniforms, pounding large stones with a sledgehammer and hauling the pieces on their backs to quarries around the prison on Goli Otok, a barren island in the northern Adriatic Sea….
Goli Otok which means Naked Island was a miniature gulag set up by Yugoslavia’s communist dictator Josip Broz Tito after World War II. It housed 3,000 inmates at its height but has been derelict since its closure in 1989….
Local officials have expressed interest but say they are unsure how well a vacation from hell will sell.
Well, you DO want the experience to be realistic, no? Yes, there are still some unanswered questions. Will flogging be included, or is there an extra fee? What about sleep deprivation?
For those of you who really want to suffer, there’s also an 18-hole championship golf course. Talk about torture….
