Front Matter

To Hell and Back

By Evdokia Foteva – Vera

Translated from Macedonian to English and edited By Risto Stefov To Hell and Back

Introduction

The author Evdokia Foteva-Vera, in her book “To Hell and Back” tells us how some in the top CPG (Communist Party of Greece) leadership led DAG to defeat and then went on to put the blame on the innocent Macedonian people. What she tells us is an original and first hand account because she was there, a participant of these events. Her presentation of the NOBG (Peoples Liberation Struggle in Greece) and GVG (Greek Civil War) ideals for which Macedonians and Greeks fought shoulder to shoulder and many died together are genuine. As World War II had only fascists and anti-fascists, so did the Greek Civil War have Monarcho-Fascists and anti-Monarcho-Fascists. In reality the Second World War never ended in Greece until DAG was defeated in 1949, ironically “thanks” to anti-fascist Western Power intervention. This book is a story about the Macedonian leadership being wrongly labeled “the perpetrators” that led to DAG’s defeat and as they found out their dreams of “heaven” were not at all like they had imagined them. Their experience recaptured the creepiness of the words that the enslaved German woman told the notorious Beria, which the reader will discover by following Evdokia Foteva-Vera’s experience in her USSR dream. In tough times humanity and inhumanity come to the fore. Vera mentions many examples of that. Thinking that the prisoners would go to another world, the deserters distorted the truth, and made slanderous statements against their closest comrades, and when the prisoners came back, they pretended that nothing had happened. And as earth has sworn to heaven, the truth will some day come out and there will be no more secrets. Thanks to Evdokia Foteva-Vera, who, on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of DAG’s defeat has given us that truth, told in her own authentic testimony.

Dr. Stojan Risteski

Instead of a preface

Since the Balkan Wars, since that damned 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, the Macedonian people in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia have fought for their social and national rights. In the meantime the new invaders and our brothers in faith have done everything they can to rob us of our heritage and erase our Macedonian identity. To free themselves of the “Macedonian menace” the new masters expelled, killed and imprisoned many to the Aegean islands. However, “weeds’ cannot be easily exterminated. Each new generation is more resistant and more decisive. The dictator Metaxas changed many things including banning the Macedonian language, the native language spoken at home by the Macedonian people, but that too proved to be futile because Macedonians still speak their mother tongue. Changing all the personal names and toponyms from Macedonian to Greek did not help much either, because the Macedonian people still remember and love the old Macedonian names. The Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia participated in Greece’s liberation struggle against the German and Italian occupiers and in the Greek Civil War. They made countless sacrifices including abandoning their homes and in the end they were not allowed to return to their birthplace and to reclaim what was theirs because they were supposedly not Greeks by birth. The Macedonian contribution to the struggle against fascism, it seems, does not count at all and is deemed irrelevant even by the biggest anti-fascist forces. So, instead of helping the Macedonians, the great anti-fascist forces, with all their means, chose to help the Monarcho-Fascists who were bent on destroying the Macedonian nation. Realistically this means that it was they who indirectly committed all these crimes including the expulsion of Macedonians from their native homes. The Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia fought for freedom and democracy alongside the Greek anti-fascist progressive forces, but instead of getting freedom and democracy they received prison sentences and many were murdered. Those who fled the country to save their miserable lives were not allowed to return, not even to light a candle at the eternal resting place of their deceased loved ones. All this torment of the Macedonian people was openly done in front of the entire “civilized and progressive world” yet no one, it seems, is able to see anything wrong with it; no one seems to see it for what it is and to this day, no one has raised their voice against it. So I ask you this: “Should we continue to believe that there is still hope in the ‘Great Democrats’?!” To this day no one has raised a voice.

We should be grateful to the Republic of Macedonia for its part in accepting the refugees returning from the Eastern European countries, but in its search for legitimacy, it too wrote off the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia. It was done under pressure as the young Republic fought for its survival. What does one do when one’s brothers in the Republic of Macedonia write them off? We are a modest people, but bold and proud. We remember kindness and never forget evil. We keep silent but when we raise our voices we are loud. We still feel the lasting and open wounds we received from the Greek Civil War. We are everywhere on this planet, separated from our own kind. Many of us have already quietly left this world disappointed with unfulfilled dreams of ever seeing our birthplace for one last time, so that we can pay our respects to our loved ones who have died there. My husband Mincho died, bitter, on March 28, 1987 with his wish to return to his birthplace unfulfilled. So did Pascal Mitrevski, President of NOF who died on February 10th, 1987 and so many others. The honest, worthy leaders and sons of Aegean Macedonia suffered the worst. Those who encouraged our people to fight deserted and abandoned them. They were also the ones spreading the lies in the Republic of Macedonia. They were the ones who slandered those who sacrificed themselves for Macedonia. They were the ones who portrayed the struggle and all that happened in a light that would personally benefit them the most. They thought that “it was all over” and those who knew the truth would never return. They convinced many politicians and historians to rely on their lies in order to get to the bottom of things. After DAG was defeated, members of the NOF, AFZH and NOMS (Youth Organization) leadership from Greek occupied Macedonia were charged with being “agents” of Yugoslavia, Tito and Lazo Kolishevski. We were arrested and placed in a detention centre in Burreli, Albania and from there we were sent to the prison camps in the USSR. Instead of protecting us and advocating for our liberation from the allegations, the deserters and closest comrades with whom we shared both good and evil in the struggle, did everything in their power to turn us into scapegoats in order to save their own skins, thinking that we were doomed anyway and would be dead in no time. However, that did not happen, we all endured torture but survived with our honesty intact. So, we who did nothing wrong to tarnish our image, the image of our homeland and that of our people were released from prison and allowed to go the Republic of Macedonia. But when we arrived there we discovered that the deserters had turned the truth around 180º. They were startled by our arrival, but did not lose their positions and

privileges in society because every government needs sycophants and informers. I wrote my book in the name of truth, to set the record straight, to correct perpetrated injustices and irregularities and to inform the current and future reader who may be interested in learning about the ordeals that my generation experienced. My story is real and the events which I took part in were first hand experience. I personally participated in the People’s Liberation Struggle in Greece and in the Greek Civil War and the story I am telling is the way it happened, the way I remember it. I fought for the freedom of my people and as a result I suffered immensely, especially in my trek from Burreli to the USSR and to Skopje. What I am about to tell you will make many people uncomfortable and even angry. But the more people get uncomfortable, the closer I get to the truth. I too got angry at the many twists and turns of “the truth” especially when told by people who gave false statements against me, against my husband Mincho and against the other honest leaders of NOF. Fifty five years after DAG’s defeat, my book speaks authentically and defends the truth especially against the biggest slanderer of them all, Nikos Zahariadis, Secretary General of the CPG. Those who speak differently from what I wrote in my book will soon fall by the wayside. The truth may be delayed but is slowly coming to light.