THEY KIDNAPPED TEN YEAR OLD KALA TO ADOPT HER

THEY KIDNAPPED TEN YEAR OLD KALA TO ADOPT HER

“Someone took her… we looked for her for six months, it was like she had disappeared from the face of the earth…,” said Iane Bandevski

This is what Iane Bandevski, a child refugee from Orovo, evacuated together with Kala to Czechoslovakia said, “We lost ten year old Kala Dimanovska somewhere between our village Orovo and Czechoslovakia. We had no idea where we lost her. The ‘mother’ responsible for her was in panic. The director of the children’s home did everything to find her but it seemed like Kala had disappeared from the face of the earth. The Red Cross responsible for taking care of us also looked for her. When we were transferred to another home we left without her. The uncertainty lasted about six months and by then everyone had lost hope that we would find her. Then one day, we found out that an ‘unknown’ girl was in a hospital where she had been treated for a long period of time…”

Kala is now 70 years old and lives in Butel, Skopje. She remembers her trip like it was a dream. She is not in good health now; she has forgotten many things from her childhood after she had a stroke. She remembers being taken to a couple’s nice house where she was well looked after. She had plenty of food and new clothes. The couple took good care of her; they had no children of their own and wanted to adopt her. They even gave her a new name; they called her Jana. Then one day, she got very sick and they took her to the hospital. She remembers receiving injections every day in the hospital until she started feeling better. They gave her crutches so that she could walk. That’s all she remembers. She does not remember how she found herself in the couple’s house or how she ended up in the hospital. All she remembers is that the man of the couple that took care of her was a doctor.

This is what Bandevski, who wrote about Kala, said, “Later we found out that, even though she was taken good care of by the couple, they had kidnapped her. The place where we stayed was well fenced and no one from the outside could come in, neither could the children go out without a grownup. We suspect that someone from outside lied to her and managed to take her under false pretenses…”

According to Bandevski, all the children were wearing numbers and Kala’s number was 92. After the hospital informed us that the “unknown” sick girl had a number, we knew it was Kala. After her recovery, she was sent to a children’s home. After the Greek Civil War ended her parents ended up in Poland and looked for her and her sister. They all moved to Skopje in 1957. Kala married a man who was also a child-refugee, whom she already knew from the children’s home in Czechoslovakia. She now has a son and daughter who have their own families.

According to Bandevski, it was common for child refugees to marry among themselves. They also married Greeks, Poles, Czechs, or Romanians but such marriages were rare. Most of the time, they looked for partners among the Macedonians. This is what Bandevski said, “We married among ourselves because we thought that one day we would return to our birthplaces in our own Macedonia. We were aware that if we married someone from Poland or Czechoslovakia our chances of returning home would be reduced. And that is exactly what happened to those who remained there. They stayed behind when the others left for the Republic of Macedonia…”

In the spring of 1948 Iane Bandevski from Orovo, together with 150-160 children, was taken from his home and sent across the border. From what survived in his memory the most he remembers is his boat trip across Lake Prespa. He remembers all the children from the various villages being gathered together in Nivitsi where they spent the night. He remembers the older children being taken up the mountains the next morning and the younger children being loaded onto boats and taken across the lake. This is what Bandevski said, “Nivitsi is located near the lake. The people from Nivitsi are fishermen and it was easy for them to take us across the lake to the other side of the border. We were placed in boats that could carry

thirty children each. We were all in panic when we were crossing the lake. All the children were crying because they had never seen so much water or traveled over a lake before…”

It was especially scary for Bandevski when the boat he was in took on water each time it crossed the crest of a wave. He remembers the older children scooping the water out while the fishermen rowed. All frightened out of their wits the children arrived in a place called Markova Noga, near Dolno Dupeni. This was the first stop for the refugee children on their long way into the unknown world from which they never returned.

When they arrived in Brailovo the children were loaded onto freight cars and taken away. Unbeknownst to them, the cars were separated from the train down the line and sent to various countries. So any friends, brothers or sisters who boarded a different car, chances were they were separated and sent to different countries. Bandevski could not say what the criterion was for sending what child to what country. Also, no attention was given to make sure siblings were kept together. It would have been so much easier for their parents to find them if they were together. The only people that knew how the children would be separated were the CPG leaders who ran the evacuation program. They had all the lists with the children’s names and they decided who would go where based on some criteria like age, or date of birth.

Bandevski was lucky to have been able to return to Orovo again. In 1979 his wife’s sister became seriously ill and was taken to a hospital in Solun. The Bandevski’s received a telegram with the bad news. His wife’s sister wrote that she was sick with cancer and wanted to see her sister as soon as possible. This is what Bandevski said, “We took the telegram with us and went straight to the Bogoroditsa border crossing. Instead of a visa we showed the Greek border guards the telegram. They told us that we could not enter Greece without a visa. The telegram meant nothing to them. When my wife heard that, she started crying and begging them because she hadn’t seen her sister in a long time and was afraid that she would die without seeing her. Luckily the border guards took pity on us and let us in. First they telephoned the hospital where my wife’s sister was hospitalized. When they were sure that she was really sick

they gave us a visa for five days…” As luck would have it, out of the three sisters, the oldest one who was seriously sick is still alive, while his wife Vasilka and her youngest sister died.

After entering Greece, Iane and Vasilka took the opportunity to visit their birthplace village Orovo. This is what Bandevski said, “Orovo was completely ruined. My family’s house was ruined down to the foundation. It too was not visible. I found the spot where my house was from a map published in a monograph of my village… The only building that remains standing in Orovo today, as proof that people once lived there, is the village church. The church was renovated with money sent by the people of Orovo who lived and worked in western countries (USA, Canada, Australia, etc.). Although Orovo isn’t populated today, its people everywhere get together during religious holidays, village festivals, etc., just like they did in Orovo in the past. People from the surrounding villages who used to live in Orovo also come together, visit each other and celebrate specific holidays. I plan to visit the village this year and attend the festival so that I can see my childhood friends whom I have not yet seen…”

This is what Bandevski said, “Some child refugees can now enter Greece, provided that the name of their birthplace in their passports is the Greek name. However, some among us, for patriotic reasons, who identify as Macedonians, have Macedonian names and want the Macedonian name of their birthplace in their documents, are still not allowed to enter Greece…”