Lepers from Spinalonga and Tichilești : victims of totalitarian regimes?

This article explores the ways in which the totalitarian regimes of Greece and Romania in the 20th century restricted literary writings or banned already published works about a group of people afflicted by fate-namely lepers, who were isolated in leper colonies. On the other hand, the article aims to investigate the extent to which the establishment of totalitarian regimes transformed leprosy patients in these two countries into socially ostracized individuals, making them victims of the political changes of the era. Furthermore, the influence of political decisions on the communities of patients in Spinalonga and Tichilești will be examined. Using a wide range of historical, medical, and literary sources, as well as interviews conducted at the former leprosarium in Romania, this study will analyse these materials to identify the factors that contributed to the isolation of the lepers in leper colonies at the beginning of the 20th century. Through these texts, a comparative analysis of the social stigma faced by lepers in both countries will be conducted, focusing primarily on the influence of the political class on the living conditions of the isolated patients, as well as on the literary works written about them. This investigation incorporates literary sources through figures such as Galateia Kazantzaki, Themos Kornaros, Petros Pikros, and Yiannis Gennaropoulos, as well as the Romanian journalist Brunea-Fox. Moreover, the Tichilești leprosarium in Romania is viewed through the testimonies of former patients, as well as through the description of Dr. Nicolae Romanescu, who worked there during the communist period and left behind manuscripts that were later published by his grandson in a book titled The Last Leprosarium.