The Chronicle of the Spanish Flu on Skyros

We are happy to announce that Kostas Faltaits’ book about the Spanish Flu of 1918 on Skyros is now available in English!

Under the title “The Chronicle of the Spanish Flu on Skyros”, the book that was first published in Greek in 1919, describes the devastating effects of the pandemic that decimated the island’s population in 1918.

We are happy to announce that Kostas Faltaits’ book about the Spanish Flu of 1918 on Skyros is now available in English!

Under the title “The Chronicle of the Spanish Flu on Skyros”, the book that was first published in Greek in 1919, describes the devastating effects of the pandemic that decimated the island’s population in 1918.

As Kostas Faltaits explains in his preface, “The disease that swept throughout the whole world like an evil curse in 1918, and which left such scars of devastation on our Greece, fell upon the island of Skyros with a hideousness seen only in medieval plagues. It appeared suddenly, unexpectedly, and disappeared in the same manner. In less than a month, the whole population was afflicted by the disease and half the households of the island were devastated and lost.”

We do not know exactly how or when the virus reached Skyros, but it is said that it was brought by soldiers returning on sick leave and that it spread rapidly: “From that day, on October 27th, the great calamity started. At night, people would fall asleep healthy but never woke in the morning. They came to Chora from the fields, pastures, olive groves, and the countryside, to buy bread, flour, oil, and other food, but instead died in the street. Within three to four days, of the town’s population of three thousand two hundred people, more than two thousand fell sick.”

With his description of the Spanish Flu pandemic on Skyros, Kostas Faltaits provides valuable information about the outbreak itself, about how the local and central authorities handled it, but also about its economic and humanitarian effects.

 

The book is available at the Faltaits Museum

For more information and orders, please contact us at

Tel: 00302222091150 and 00302222091232

Email: museum@faltaits.gr and museumfaltaits@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FaltaitsMuseum