Engendering Violence

A presentation for

the Service Civil

International (SCI)

Museum of Political

Exiles

of Ai Stratis

July 5th, 2012, Athens

The political persecution, incarceration and abuse of women in postwar Greece

A drawing by the artist and political exile, Katerina Hariati-

Sismani

Trikeri exile island

Women repairing shoes at the exile camp at Trikeri (Rizospastis, April 16th, 2006)

Artistic depiction of ‘‘Tsagarines’’ (women shoe- makers) by the artist and political exile Katerina Hariati-Sismani (Museum of Political Exiles-Ai

Stratis).

Women exiles at Trikeri, waiting for water, Association of Women

Political Exiles

Artistic depictions of the Trikeri exile: the camp, the ‘water problem’, by Katerina Hariati-Sismani (Museum

of Political Exiles-Ai Stratis).

Children in exile

Association of Women Political Exiles

Women in the ‘imagined’ Greek Nation

Women attending the class of ‘moral and national education’ at Makronisos in 1950 (Gabriilidou, 2004).

Women at the Makronisos concentration camp (1950), behind the syrma, Association

of Women Political Exiles.

Makronisos concentration camp

The transfer of women from Trikeri exile camp to the Makronisos concentration camp (1950), ‘captured’ by Katerina Hariati Sismani

Women arriving at Makronisos, January 1950,

Association of Women Political Exiles

Ai Stratis exile camp

‘

women political exiles and a wedding at Ai Stratis (Museum of

Political Exiles – Ai Stratis)

Sexual victimization in the GCW

‘‘A woman being tortured’’, an engraving by the artist and political

exile Christos Daglis. A woman raped, by Katerina Hariati-

Sismani (oil painting). Museum of Political Exiles of Ai Stratis.

The Female Averof Prisons, a postcard/drawing made by women

political prisoners.

survival mechanisms

A scenic (model) for a play made by the artist and political exile, Katerina Hariati-Sismani, during her exile at Trikeri island, Museum of

Political Exiles of Ai Stratis.

.

Traditional celebrations organised by the Ai Stratis exiles. Museum of Political Exiles of Ai

Stratis.

Artifacts made in prisons (Averof) and exiles camps by women detainees

Museum of Political Exiles of Ai Stratis

The small clay sculpture “Mother with two Children” showing a dying mother bread-feeding her two dying children was inspired from the Terezin chronicle (1941-44). Terezin was a Nazi concentration camp/ghetto during the 1941-1944 period, where more than 55,000 Jews were held. It also acted as an intermediate stop, before the transfer of Jewish prisoners to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The sculpture, “Mother with two Children” was produced together with the sketch a Terezin in Trikeri (1948-49). During her exile years Katerina Hariati-Sismani produced, among other works, 250 drawings depicting everyday scenes from the life of exile women. This particular collection has been reproduced in an album titled “Women from all around Greece”.

Thank you

Former political exiles during a pilgrimage trip at the island of Ai-Stratis in July 2007, (Personal Archive).