DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS IN 1948

DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS IN 1948

Up until January 1, 1948, Yugoslavia provided DAG with military equipment and assistance. (See: Complete list of equipment in the book “Macedonians and Relations between the CPY and the CPG, 1945-1949”, by Dr. Risto Kiriazovski, on p. 263.) “Overview of Military Equipment and Other DAG Material Assistance.”

NOF and the “historical” solutions adopted at NOF’s First Congress

The 1st NOF Congress was held on January 13, 1948 in the church of the village V’mbel, Kostur Region. During the Congress it was proclaimed that: “The first NOF congress was the brightest period of Macedonia’s post Ilinden history ... and stands on the international stage with sincere intentions of assisting the development of the Greek movement. During this Congress NOF agreed that “three quarters of the Macedonian partisans would fight in the DAG ranks south of Olympus, that is, in all parts of Greece...” It was also said that more than 20,000 Macedonians were mobilized into DAG units. And, according to information provided by DAG General Staff, at that time there were no more than 25 - 28,000 DAG fighters in total in all of Greece.

Yes, may you live long General! Long live Markos and the CPG wise leadership which, with slogans and propaganda, convinced NOF to subordinate the Macedonian people to sacrifice themselves for foreign interests!

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These foreigners with their wise strategies knew precisely what to say and do and, aided with NOF’s slogans, subconsciously managed to awaken the Macedonian syndrome and “emotionally charge” and subordinate the Macedonian people and, unbeknownst to them, use them to fight for foreign interests on Macedonian soil.

In the end, when the Macedonian people paid the ultimate price, these same wise strategists and those who aided their cause moved to the other side and quickly changed their colours like chameleons.

When the bombs and shells began to fall sounding menacing like wild beasts, tearing down walls and caving in roofs where generations had been born and lived, the people ran away with clenched teeth, faces wet with tears and clothes soaked in blood. They were desperate and were forced to give up their Macedonian birthplace… Just like they were convinced with lies to fight in the war, now they again were convinced with lies to run and abandon their ancestral homes...

Did any of the NOF, AFZH and NOMS leaders, who led this conflict, remember anything about what happened in those days? If they did why then did they allow the truth to be buried? Why did they follow the CPM/CPY and CPG line and argued and still argue that all problems were caused, not by those who led the conflict but by the Macedonian people themselves who failed to win the war?!

But, after many years of research, we now know more and more and are finding out that we can’t trust anyone, except for one truth: “The Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia were forced to fight in order to lose Greek occupied Macedonia”. General Markos confirmed this with his own words after returning from the USSR to Athens.

To falsely lead an army to its destruction is degradation of human dignity. This is exactly what Markos did when he gave the Macedonian people false hope and destroyed thousands of them. Markos knew that these Macedonians were fighting a war they could not possibly win, and he did not want them to win, yet with help from the CPM and NOF, he recruited them and led them to their destruction.

MOTIVES FOR THE CHILD COLLECTION PROGRAM

HOW SAFEGUARING THE CIVILIAN POPULATION AND THE CHILDREN BECOME PROPAGANDA AGAINST THE PARTISANS?

1. The Athens government motives and program for the relocation of children.

The Greek Queen’s ladies, as they were called in those days, consisting of 72 women from Athens, who left their families and the safety of their homes to rescue the children in the northern territories of Greece. They traveled for hours riding mules and ignoring the dangers of the battlefields looking for children in the countryside so that they could take them away before the Communists did. It was a frustrating and frightening struggle traveling on paths and sometimes becoming lost, but despite their fears they won the battle.” (Greek Queen Frederica, “Mechanisms for Reasoning,” p. 137.)

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Here is how Clars Barentzen explained the Athens government’s “Pedomazoma” program:

“The two warring parties in the Greek Civil War based themselves under the assumption that all migrations of children from the war zone arose out of necessity, and the reasons for the ‘grab’ were the same on both sides.

All research shows that it is difficult to find the exact motive for either side and determine who started first and why.

On the communist side, information compiled by UNSCOB and other sources indicates that mass evictions had begun in March 1948, although several groups of children were taken as early as January, 1948 (See: Clars Barentzen, UNSCOB Report a / 574). According to the reports evictions started in January but continued into March. On the government side, as was stated in Queen Frederica’s memoirs, she made it very clear that the ‘battle’ for ‘taking children away before they were taken by the Communists’ began shortly after the creation of the ‘Royal Society for the Care of Children’ in June 1947 year. But, based on letters of complaint, the government was forced into the special program for the displacement of children later, roughly in line with the time the government began its propaganda campaign accusing the Communists of the ‘pedomazoma’. It appears that the Queen may have confused the general displacement of villages from the war zone with the pedomazoma. This was in early 1947 when the government army was ‘expected’ to accept thousands of children and frail people.”

Note: The Communist Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in its declaration, dated March 7, 1948, said: “On Frederica’s last order” gather all children in the children’s camps with one excuse: “Do this solely because the queen is doing the same thing…”

The government action may have had something to do with a report published by the Greek government in Athens, the day before, on March 6, 1948, which said that the children that the “bandits” (partisans) seized in the northern districts of Greece numbered about 14,000. (According to information obtained from the English in Solun and from the US State Department archives: 868. 00 / 3-1948.)

The news, which came out eight days later, after the start of a propaganda campaign against the Communist “Pedomazoma”, appears to be the first official news of such work by the Athens government. This coincides with the news that newspapers in Athens began to publish in March regarding the small groups of children displaced or who had fled the northern Greek villages in order to escape the violent seizure.

At the same time, the Communist press published its first complaint of a possible government action in which “children were taken from their mothers’ arms”.

Information that came out of the USA regarding the period from January to March 1948, confirms that:

“District administrators, the military and the Navy had agreed to work together on Queen Frederica’s plan to relocate children. Their goal was to collect and relocate 10,000 to 12,000 children. By March 31, 1948, the Queen had displaced 6,240 children. (This was confirmed by the Foreign Relief Program “Hellenic Mission”, January - March 1948, p. 14)

The American Aid Mission in Greece, in its monthly mission report for April 1948, reported that the mission was pursuing a government-led expedition, and that “On recommendation of the same the Mission estimated that the number of children seized was about 10,000.”

Although UNSCOB did not officially deal with the same caution as the Greek government, on April 19, 1948, it sent a questionnaire to a Greek representative, a trustee, to collect information on the number of displaced children being cared for by the Greek government in the northern regions of Greece. The Greek representative replied on April 23, 1948, saying that there were 5,500 children aged 3-14 displaced from all regions of Macedonia, and that approximately 2,150 children were accommodated in various centres in Solun. Similarly, about 5,000 children were taken from Seres and Thrace. This work was carried out under the supervision of the Greek Ministry of Social Welfare. (UNSCOB Report A / 754 (1948), p. 19.)

On April 1, 1948, the Athens press began to publish details of the government’s child collection program.

One of the headlines in the newspaper “Kathimerini” read: “Today the first group of children arrived in Athens” Further on it read: “1,000 children from the areas ruled by the bandits (DAG partisans) were transferred by ship from Solun to the village Kastri in Kifisia. A second group is due to arrive ‘this morning’, on April 2, in Piraeus, and a third group will arrive ‘in a few days’. These children will be transferred to Patra and Siro.” In the same issue of Kathimerini, there was information about two meetings that took

place the day before. Among other things the article said: “The Queen received the Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Chaldaris and Mr. Glisgulnt at 11 o’clock yesterday and held a lengthy conversation with them. During the talks, the Queen informed Chaldaris and Glisgulnt of the successes and cooperation she had achieved to date in the action of collecting, moving, and caring for children who were cut off from the northern bandit districts (referring to Voden, Lerin, Kostur etc.)”

The newspaper went on to say that such meetings were necessary and should continue, and this kind of counseling was also held at the foreign ministry, chaired by Chaldaris and attended by many Greek ministers and US missionaries led by General Van Fleet, the special commander-in-chief of the US military mission.

According to the same article “more committees and sub-committees” were named and had begun to work on the child collection program “with help from the military commanders on the ground in those areas.”

During the consultation, it was decided to launch a new commission from the ministry of care. This commission would have the “extraordinary task of developing a complete system for the care of displaced children”.

Finally, the article concluded with discussing two options for caring for these children. One was to place groups of children in charities “where they would have full schooling and care”, the other was to accommodate certain families which had already announced that they were ready to receive large numbers of children and provide them hospitality. With either of these actions, the state budget would not be overburdened by the programs, as the money would come from Queen Frederica’s coffers: A sum of money has already been set aside for the childcare to cover the full costs for about six months. (See newspaper: “Kathimerini” 1. 4. 1948.)

2. Motives and program put together by the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece and by DAG and the CPG for the relocation of children.

According to partisan, DAG and CPG press releases:

Soon after the Greek government made its first appeals, the CPG and DAG leaderships acknowledged that there was indeed a Greek government campaign to collect children in order to isolate them from the partisans. On March 3, 1948, the “Free Greece” radio program confirmed the following:

“The partisan radio program announced that under the ‘agreement’ between the countries that were members of the Cominform, Greek children aged 3 to 14 would be sent to Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia. According to this ‘Free Greece’ (meaning in the partisan-controlled areas) news release, there were demands from the People’s Boards in these areas with a plea to take care of the children, demanding that they organize programs to send the children to democratic countries, which have already agreed to receive and host them and where they can continue their education, because otherwise they would become victims of the American occupation.”

“March 3, 1948” - Reaction from the second top man in DAG command:

“DAG’s genuine, dignified and human endeavour has been described by the Athens government as ‘a forceful and violent abduction of children’… and an abduction of children like the Ottomans did with the ‘Janissary’. But the real culprit of such acts is the same Greek government in Athens which is making these accusations. Many of the children belonging to the families of DAG partisans, with unprecedented terror and deception, have been found in the government’s hands, being held locked up in various so-called schools of Queen Frederica’s in Leros, where they are raised as janissaries and taught that their parents are traitors, and that they should report them to the authorities and to the state security services!” (Vasilis Bardzhiotas, Senior CPG functionary and DAG political commissar, “Struggle of the Democratic Army of Greece”, p. 128.)

On March 15, 1948, the DAG newspaper “Exormisi”, located on Mount Gramos published a report dated March 7, 1948 issued by the

Provisional Democratic Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among other things the article said:

“Grateful are the people’s and other child care organizations in ‘Free Greece’, as well as the many thousands of parents and guardians who recently appealed to humanitarian organizations in the democratic countries for the assistance they offered to take care of their Greek children and all the Greek youth which is within grasp of Monarcho-Fascist barbarism…”

“...Humanitarian organizations and patrons of children’s organizations, as well as other youth organizations in these countries, have accepted with great joy and satisfaction the pleas of the parents and have expressed their support for the Greek children, and they will keep them for as long as necessary…”

“So, following the ‘guarantee’ from all these organizations, the CPG and the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece decide to receive petitions from the people’s boards and from parents who were in favour of sending their children to the Eastern European countries which are willing to accept them until it is safe for them to return.”

The newspaper did not provide any details or any specific information as to when these events were to take place but did explain in detail why the extraction of the children was necessary:

- To avoid the catastrophe created by Monarcho-Fascist policies, - To avoid the growing problem of being able to feed the children, - To take care of the more than 15,000 children wandering on the streets of towns and villages of which more than ten die daily, - To stop the children from being taken by Queen Frederica who ordered her subordinates to take them from everywhere, turn them into janissaries and force them into Hitler’s youth organization, and - To save them from the worst and most brutal bombing carried out by the Greek government against innocent women and children, which to date has killed over 120.

Published in the same issue of “Exormisi” was an article written by a journalist who said that he has visited several regions of ‘Free

Greece’. The title of the article was “Women and children thank the Provisional Democratic Government and DAG” in which he explains that there were many parents from the villages controlled by the Athens government who came to the “Free Territory” and signed petitions at the People’s Councils asking them to take their children and send them to the Eastern European countries as part of the mass evictions that were taking place at that time. They simply begged board members to put the names of their children on those lists. So, according to the article: “From the middle of February to March 5, the parents from 59 villages had signed up 4,784 children…” The newspaper also provided the order of numbers under which the children were listed, their names and the village they came from. The article also mentioned that the boards had received “hundreds” of telegrams from parents expressing their gratitude to the provisional democratic government…”

Two weeks later, on April 1, 1948, the newspaper “Exormisi” wrote:

“Children were loaded in carriages, on mules, horses and donkeys and a number of phalanxes began to move. Convoys of young children were also moving on foot in various directions…” One such convoy arrived in a village late at night. Its arrival was described in detail: “Some of the children were on foot, others were mounted on horses, mules, donkeys and their mothers walked beside them. They were from the villages Zagorichani, Kumanichevo, Bombaki, Tiolishta, Kondorabi… The youngest were asleep on the donkeys. When the children were taken away the mothers who accompanied them were left behind. They watched their children from afar as they moved further and further away. Mothers and children were waving at each other with tears in their eyes, pain in their hearts and with an indescribable hatred against the Anglo-American occupiers and Monarcho-Fascists, who were to blame for this separation…”

The newspaper also provided some statistics:

“So far five groups were sent. About 1,884 children have moved out with about 100 women overseeing them. These days 3 more groups of 1,150 children are being prepared.

The same article also said:

“In captive Greece, the Monarcho-Fascist Athens government declared a wild war against the Greek children and their mothers.

The army and militia are operating and conducting military expeditions to the villages abducting young children from their mothers’ arms.”

“Of the 150 children who were kidnapped by the Monarcho-Fascists from the village Buf in Lerin Region, 25 were secretly rescued right from the Lerin centre. After that all the mothers went back and together complained and got all their children back.”

The article concluded with a story that claimed that Greek government agents in Alexandroupolis forced a group of parents to hand over their children so that they could take them to Queen Frederica’s camps.

On March 7, 1948, in an article entitled “Parents of Children Beg the Government…”, the DAG Gramos newspaper “Exormimi”, reported that the Foreign Ministry of the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece, said that: “From mid-February to March 5, the parents of 59 villages in free territory delivered 4,784 children”. On March 20, 1948, the interim government decided to evacuate all the children under the age of 14 and send them to Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland. According to published statistics about 28,000 children were evacuated and sent over the border.

3. Motives and program put together by NOF and AFZH for the relocation of children.

Did we Macedonians not have any faith in our own revolutionary experience and now wanted to open a new era in the development of Macedonian revolutionary traditions? Or was it something else altogether that happened?

Still the question is: “Were NOF and AFZH aware of the limits to what was possible for the Macedonian people to achieve from the

Greek Civil War, or did they unwittingly accept the nonsense offered to them in order to take a big step forward?” Were they not aware of the incorrect and unprofessional treatment they were receiving in the political spectrum and in how they were led as a nation? Were they not aware of all the outcomes as confirmed by events? As things developed, it would appear that for us Macedonians led by NOF one thing was for certain: we were told one thing and expected to do another.

To the vast majority of the Macedonian people the call to join the People’s Front meant the call to salvation; to save our Macedonian identity in Greece. It is a fact that during the 20th century the Macedonian people were searching for ways to save their Macedonian identity. It was this need “to save our Macedonian identity” that awakened our Macedonian syndrome and trapped us in this mess. This was started by NOF’s aggressive agitation which was instigated by foreigners who had different plans for us. They made us believe that by “Destroying the Anglo-American occupiers and their proxy the Greek government”, if that was even possible, our Macedonian identity would be saved. This aggressive agitation unfortunately opened a cancer wound in every ordinary Macedonian villager from which there was only one escape – death! But what did the Macedonian intellectual mind do? Wittingly or unwittingly it opened the way to persecution!

War against evil?

NOF, with its slave-like obedience, now, as it did in 1946, using our Macedonian euphoria, took the lead in a dark, organized campaign and led us to more suffering.

It is important at this point to openly say that when it came to collecting and exiling our Macedonian children, NOF was at the forefront of this campaign. The people trusted NOF and mistrusted the CPG so NOF convinced the parents to give up their children so that NOF could put them at the disposal of the CPG so that it could take the place of their fathers and mothers.

I must also mention at this point that NOF did not take and could not take any action in favour of the Macedonian children. The children were left to the total disposal of the CPG and its leaders.

So, the question is:

Did NOF ever ask what would have happened if the 28,000 children had stayed in Greece? Did NOF make any guarantees on how and when these children would have the opportunity to return to their homes? Today we have thousands of children living in foreign lands because no such guarantees were ever made. Everything was left to the CPG! WHY?

Testimonies: Speech given by Nikos Zahariadis at the NOF Second Congress.

March 25, 1948

“...Thousands of children have been rescued and provided for in the peoples’ democracies. And as such the Slavo-Macedonian people are now at peace…”

So, after the children were exiled forever, how are we expected to interpret this CPG conspiracy?! The CPG is telling us that it evacuated the children to save them yet it made absolutely no effort to guarantee their return… or the return of any Macedonian for that matter!

Did the Macedonian people need to take such a “big step” to save their children? Why did the Macedonian people take such an ambitious step and allow their children to be “exiled” without any guarantees of them ever coming back? They trusted NOF and AFZH and not the CPG, yet NOF relegated all responsibilities to the CPG which, in the end, did NOT serve Macedonian people’s interests but the interests of their enemies, the Greek government. Ultimately it was NOF and AFZH who convinced the Macedonian villagers to abandon their children trusting that NOF and AFZH had their interests at heart. As a result the children were turned into victims in the longest-running betrayal which will probably forever remain an unpleasant memory in Macedonian history.

In that spirit, let us have a look at AFZH’s newspaper “Nova Makedonka” published in September 1948, which reads:

“...Today we all shed tears. We were moved like never before. We sat in the shadow of poplar tree. None of us was asleep. It was getting dark and we were going to work, we were working at night. And ... here came my friend Tsveta from AFZH. She had just got here. We were all happy to see her. When she is with us, I don’t know why, but we are not afraid of the exploding cannon shells.

This time she brought us letters from our children, who are in the people’s republics. Our hands shook but we managed to read them. Our hearts beat hard even though our loving children were far away. How nice it would be to kiss them a little!

Here are airplanes flying above dropping bombs on us and the artillery blasts our villages with its exploding shells. It is so nice that our government (Provisional Democratic government) sent our children away to be saved.

Now our eyes are filled with tears of happiness especially when they tell us that our children live well... Now they tell us they only have to worry about us, our troubles, and the war...

Our poor children, when will we see them again? We will see them when we are free, when we win the war. What a great thing... But to do that we need to defeat fascism. And to win the war sooner all we have to do is fight. And fight we must in the trenches.

Tonight we built three more bunkers than usual. We did this to get our children back home faster so that we and our husbands can go home...”

Further on we read:

“...No, I am not leaving my friend, my sister and my brother to fight here alone so that I can go with the children. I know they will be safe, I have full confidence in the elected women and I will be able to contribute more to the struggle by being here.”

Does this not mean total subordination of one’s will to some external ideological force? This is unprecedented abuse of ideological power.

We were so overwhelmed by the mass euphoria that we tended to believe in the birth of a new day. We completely ignored the reality that in fact we were fighting a larger un-winnable conflict between the capitalist empire of the west and the communist empire of the east. This was controlled, aggressive behaviour brought on by aggressive agitation and propaganda.

Tragic and catastrophic consequences for the Macedonian nation.

History recognizes the tragic cases of separation; separating children from their parents. Regardless of motive the child always bears the tragic mark of separation. The separation of one child from its parents is unfortunate, the separation of several children is an immeasurable tragedy for both the children and the parents, but the separation of thousands of children from their parents and their homeland is a tragedy for the entire nation. The displacement of Macedonian children from Greek occupied Macedonia qualifies to be called a tragedy of epic proportions for a nation and is part of the most recent history of the Macedonian people.