Leros (True first edition)

Alex Majoli
Leros (True first edition)

Photographs: Alex Majoli

Publisher: West Zone

96 pages

Year: 1999

Comments: Softcover, Rare first publication before trolley book in 2002. Italian language.The small booklet with the index is include. In very good condition other than some small scratches on the cover. RARE

Hidden behind the walls of an old political prison on the Greek island of Leros was the world's most notorious and brutal asylum for the insane. Beaten and tortured, they became wild as animals, unknown to the world until the walls were broken down in 1990 by Italian psychiatrists. Now back in the sane world, this follows their rehabilitated lives. A shocking testament to a regime that defies belief.

What I know about Leros is in this book.
I know that this is another story about madmen, many madmen, more than 4,000 at the beginning.
I know that Leros means dirty and that dirt attracts dirt.
I know that they arrived on the island from all over Greece, chosen from among the most serious and irrecoverable cases in psychiatric hospitals.
I know that they were placed in a former military base on the island that had already been used as a prison for political prisoners.
I know that the island's inhabitants themselves began to work in the new asylum.
I know that the history of Leros soon became confused with that of its asylum, and I know that the world did not know this.
I know that inside the Leros asylum, people did not live, they survived.

From Alex Majoli