CHILDREN LEAVING FOR AUSTRALIA

CHILDREN LEAVING FOR AUSTRALIA

Fifty six refugee children from Aegean Macedonia, housed in Yugoslavia, left for Australia on October 26, 1952 to join their parents who were already in Australia. Before leaving young Olga Ivanova said the following on behalf of the group that was leaving:

“Dear friends,

We, the children from Aegean Macedonia who were forced to abandon our homes, families and native lands because of the Greek Civil War, because of the atrocities committed against our people, and because of the bombs the Monarcho-Fascists dropped on us and on the civilian population, have found fraternal sanctuary here in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The Yugoslav Red Cross did everything it could do for us from the moment we crossed the border. We were placed in homes. We were given the opportunity to learn in our native Macedonian language. And we were cared for, fed and dressed; as well as a good mother would care for her own children.

We are grateful to the people’s government for the care it has given us and, in leaving Yugoslavia and our free homeland the People’s Republic of Macedonia, we promise that we will never forget everything that you have done for us. Among us here there are children who in their villages were farmers and shepherds, but today, in Yugoslavia, those children have become professionals and skilled workers. Many of us were illiterate when we came here and now we all know how to read and write in our own Macedonian native language.

Through letters and correspondence, here in Yugoslavia, we had the opportunity to follow the lives of our brothers and sisters who are in the Informburo countries. They wrote to us and told us that we are lucky to have remained in Yugoslavia where care for the younger generations is excellent. They even told us that they were forced by the local authorities in those countries to learn in the Greek language and were encouraged to speak and act against their own parents and siblings. In some letters they openly said that they did trust what the

people from the Informburo were telling them. Many of the children even wanted to come to Yugoslavia but were afraid of publicly making such requests. They also told us that the Informburo was propagating lies; ideas that the Yugoslavs were fascists.

Dear friends,

We very well know exactly what is happening in Yugoslavia and no amount of slander and lies can convince us otherwise. It doesn’t take ‘great men’ to tell us that the Yugoslav nations are building socialism.

Once we reach our destination oversees we will make sure the people know the truth about Yugoslavia. We will tell them that our friends in Yugoslavia are building socialism; they are building better living conditions for a happy and prosperous future for their people, and especially for the younger generations. The truth cannot be denied by Zahariadis’s lies and slander, or by the traitors who are making similar claims.

On behalf of the children who are going to join their mothers and fathers, I sincerely and wholeheartedly thank the Yugoslav people, their government, and most of all Comrade Tito, who have taken care of our generation. Thank you for everything you have done for us and for making it possible for us to now join our mothers and fathers.

I also want to thank the Yugoslav Red Cross for its direct interest in us.”

PARENTS GAVE ME THEIR CHILDREN

Here is another story depicting the agony the refugee children had to live through after they were uprooted from their native homes. The story is told by Iana Delianova - Karlevska:

“We left our village Bapchor in May 1948. It was Easter Sunday. We followed the same path other groups of children from our village had taken before. When we arrived in Bela Tsrkva the children were divided. I, with several younger children, was sent to Stara Gora in

Slovenia. Elena Delianova and Ristana Borshova, with some older children, were sent to Czechoslovakia. In Stara Gora we were responsible for about 200 children. There were 7 women, caregivers, who came with the children from Aegean Macedonia. The rest were local staff from Slovenia.

The people of Bapchor selected me to go with the children as requested by children’s parents who knew me as the wife of a man who has long been abroad in Australia.

The following children were in my group: Dosta Delianova, Lozana Delianova, Sofka Delianova, Tanas Dimirov, Sofka Kochova, Dosta Kochova, Ristana Kochova, Kosta Ognenov, Kotsa Peikova, Kole Peikov, Risto Peov, Mite Peov, Tome Rimpapov, Valilka Trpina, Kole Fotin and Ilio Fotin.”