TERROR FROM THE WAR FOLLOWED THE CHILDREN IN THEIR DESTINATION COUNTRIES

TERROR FROM THE WAR FOLLOWED THE CHILDREN IN THEIR DESTINATION COUNTRIES

The children’s homes in Poland accommodated 3,590 children from the Aegean part of Macedonia

“The Greek Civil War left its own marks on the refugee children. Whenever they heard the sound of a flying airplane they ducked for cover and jumped into a ditch. When they heard an airplane in the night while sleeping they cried in fear, grabbed their clothes and hid under their beds. When they saw a tractor, at first they would be surprised but then they would run away crying. Many had tormenting nightmares while sleeping, dreaming of Greek fascist soldiers coming after them with revolvers and knives. They came up the stairs or through the windows to stomp on them. Many left their bedrooms at night not realizing they were having a nightmare…”

This is what Vaclav Kopcinski M.A., pedagogue and director of the Federal Boarding Education Center in Londek - Zdruj, said in his report about the drama the refugee children experienced during their first several months after arriving in Poland. The report and some other documents about the refugee children in Poland were published in both Polish and Macedonian. The documents were given to the Federal Archive in Macedonia and to the Director of the Federal Archives in Poland. They were prepared by Petre Nakovski, PhD, who said the Macedonian people from the Aegean part of Macedonia who were disrespected in their own country (Greece), were well respected in Poland. They received full respect in all attributes of human existence from the Polish people.

Kopcinski reported that the children were in a constant state of psychological rigidity and even the noise of a tractor or the noise of an airplane could set them off. “We deduced that they acted like they were prisoners in custody. They were constantly feeling tense and closed up inside themselves,” he said.

“They deduced the same. They told us they were nervous and had automatic reactions like those of a robot. They painted a collective portrait of small children separated from their parents and taken to another country,” he added.

Kopcinski underlined that the entire group of children together with the Macedonian adult personnel were psychologically broken. In the beginning they were not in a friendly mood. This is what Kopcinski said, “The phobias, the collective hallucinations, the general distrust, the doubts and similar reactions, are telling us that the entire group has suffered a lot, it was taken away from death, it was saved, but feared the future. It was not sure what was going to happen the next day. Their terrifying past was leading them to an even darker future…” Kopcinski and his staff made huge efforts to normalize the children’s psychological condition.

The Greek and Macedonian administration together with the teaching staff immediately began to adopt new and better measures towards the children in their new surroundings. Improvements in the children were observed about a month after the new program was implemented. This is what Kopcinski said about that, “When Rumeliotis, Olga Popovska and the teachers dropped their distrust, doubts and dishonesty and adopted openness, honesty, satisfaction and appreciation, the cover of the post war leftovers in the school age children began to crack. Their hearts started to open.” Kopcinski was obviously determined to reduce the war traumas for the 3,590 children under his care.

According to Kopcinski, “The staff’s cooperation and dedication on all sides, together with a tolerant attitude from the counselors we were able to remove the children’s mistrust and begin the healing process. In this way the children were on their way to recovering psychologically. Unfortunately it was not the same with the older Macedonian women (the so called mothers). They remained as they

were deep inside, they were still spreading pessimism. Even though they were working here their thoughts were still in the Macedonian mountains. They were worried about events back home and as a result, were blocking our efforts to help them.”

According to Kopcinski if the mothers were removed from the children they would fit better in their new surroundings. This is what Kopcinski said, “They are eager to learn, they want to work, they like to compete with each other, and they want to help the Polish population. They like to be normal and healthy people... Our boarding children generally don’t differ from the Polish children in the rural areas. They are brave and bright children they know how to spell out their needs and stand up for their rights…”

According to Petre Nakovski, who for many years conducted research on the refugee children in Poland, every new period brought new findings, new attitudes and new characteristics but what is written down will remain permanent. This is what Nakovski said, “I am only repeating what was said and that is one side (the Greek people), the democratic side, erased all Macedonian names and surnames in an attempt to erase everything that is Macedonian and connected with Macedonia. The other side, the Polish people, existing in a totalitarian system, not only insisted but persistently fought for the Macedonian names, the Macedonian surnames, the Macedonian language, the Macedonian alphabet, the Macedonian songs, for the Macedonian traditional songs, and for Macedonian customs.

Nakovski was a refugee child himself sent to Poland in 1948. In his works he highlighted the trauma the Macedonian people experienced during the Greek Civil War and after, especially their exodus to Albania in 1949 when a massive number of them were forced out of their homes and permanently exiled. This is what Nakovski said about that, “The exodus was massive, well planned and organized with perfect timing. Even before the refugees were evicted, even before they left their homes, the Communist Party of Greece and the Provisional Government of Greece made arrangements with Eastern European Countries to house and accommodate them…”

The Greek Communistic Party leadership promised the people that the child evacuation program would be temporary and as soon as the conditions were “right” in Greece the children would be returned. That, however, was never done because the promises they made were only illusions. This is what Nakovski said, “The Macedonian people paid the ultimate price with DAG’s defeat and with the mass exodus. Not only were the refugees not allowed to return but tragically many people were also killed. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters were left dead on the battlefields in the Macedonians mountains. Hundreds of villages were ruined, houses destroyed and families broken apart without the chance of getting together again and returning to their birthplace.” Nakovski also added that the refugees were not just driven out they were politically broken, separated and sent to different countries. They experienced circumstances where their life and biological existence was in danger, uncertain of their destiny and the destiny of their close ones. What happened to them was a forced exodus to foreign countries which not only traumatized them psychologically and left them with negative experiences; they left them in new living conditions (culture, language, customs…) which they had to overcome on their own.

The Macedonian people were never allowed to return to their birthplaces. Their defeat during the Greek Civil War will forever remain in their collective memories. The Greek Civil War for them was a war of permanent eradication...The Greek state with its many laws and acts, took away all rights from the Macedonian people. They lost their homes, properties and even their Greek citizenships. In the beginning of the 1980’s Greece voted for another humiliating act, according to which only those who signed a statement declaring that they were “Greek by origin” would be allowed to return. In other words, only those who were “Greek by genus” were allowed back into Greece. Worse than that was the fact that the Greek Communist Party, which got them involved in the Greek Civil War, got them to fight for the communists and promised them all kinds of rights before it exiled them, abandoning them altogether. Instead of defending them, the Communists declined their existence as Macedonians.” Nakovski also pointed out that there was not a single Greek author, who wrote about the refugee children, ever mentioning that the vast majority of the refugee children taken to the

Eastern European countries were Macedonian. According to Nakovski, the Greek communists also insisted that the Polish authorities erase everything that was mentioned as Macedonian including in their documents dealing with the Macedonian refugees in Poland.

According to Nakovski, “The left oriented authorities in Greece were as much responsible for the ‘Macedonian exodus” from Greece as were the right oriented authorities.” Nakovski’s advice is that regardless of what happened, there should be some effort on the part of the Republic of Macedonia to get closer to Greece. Here is what Nakovski said, “I don’t like the pain and trauma I experienced as a child refugee. And I don’t want it to be passed on to the next generation of my family. We should teach our children and grandchildren not to hate anyone, not even those who harmed us in the past…”