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That’s the question angered family members of those
who were imprisoned at a sea fort in the Adriatic Sea is asking, when
the government approved a project that could transform the historic site
in Montenegro into a high-end luxury resort.
The fort in Mamula Island was built in 1853 by Austro-Hungarian general
Lazar Mamula as part of his army’s contingency plans of preventing enemy
ships from entering the Boka Bay.
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During World War II, Italy’s fascist leader Benito Mussolini converted
the Mamula fort into a concentration camp. Around 2,000 prisoners were
held at the camp site, of which 80 were executed and another 50 or more
died from hunger in the grim and harsh conditions of the concentration
camp.
Despite the site’s dark past, the Montenegrin parliament approved a
project from the Swiss-Egyptian company Orascom that will turn the
currently abandoned fort into a resort with restaurants, spa and
nightclubs.
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The decision has outraged relatives of former prisoners.
Olivera Doklestic, whose grandfather, father and uncle were imprisoned
at the Mamula Fortress on the island, said “To build a luxury hotel
dedicated to entertainment at this place where so many people perished
and suffered is a blatant example of lack of seriousness towards
history.” She added that the fortress should be renovated and opened to
visitors as a historic site, not as a hotel.
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"No concentration camp in the world has been transformed into a hotel,"
she said.
The Montenegrin government defended its decision, saying the project
will boost local economy. "We were facing two options: to leave the site
to fall into ruin or find investors who would be willing to restore it
and make it accessible to visitors," said Olivera Brajovic, head of
Montenegro's national directorate for tourism development.
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The developers issued a statement saying that “the project will be
sympathetic to the local architecture and will completely preserve the
historical value of the island.”
The company also pledged to build a room of remembrance for victims, but
those against said that would rather see the island’s history preserved.
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