INTRODUCTION - Part 14

mule arrived at home with the little girl but his father was nowhere to be found. The girl was too young and unable to tell what had happened or where they were coming from. After a frantic search by the villagers, Vane was finally found beaten unconscious and tossed inside a thorn bush. Vane spent six weeks in bed recovering from his ordeal. His flesh had turned black and in places had peeled off the bone. Vane was suspected of being a courier for the Partisans and carrying secret messages from village to village. Vane, however, was never a courier and had nothing to do with the Partisans. The police did not believe him and were not satisfied with his answers so they decided to torture him. In the usual fashion, they tied his feet tight between two rifles, raised him upside down and beat his feet, legs, and body with a thin heavy stick. Vane knew nothing and could reveal nothing, but his innocence did not save him from harsh punishment. After about twelve hours of torture, Vane passed out and could not be revived so he was tossed in the bushes and left to die. After six weeks of recovery in bed, Vane finally felt well enough to take a walk. His first visit was to the Svety Nikola church to light a candle and pray to God for saving his life. Vane was no longer the same man, the incident had crushed his spirit and left him disabled with a permanent limp. As if this wasn’t enough, on his way back from church Vane heard Georgi Prespakov calling out for all men between the ages of fifteen and sixty five to immediately report to the village square. This was indeed a black day for Vane and for the village of Oshchima. On this day, fifteen men, including Vane were detained and sent to prison in the Greek concentration camps. About a year later because of his bad legs Vane, along with other disabled prisoners, was given amnesty and released from prison. When Vane reached Oshchima he found his home empty. His wife and older daughter Stoja had joined the Partisans, Trpo has left for Bulkes, his daughter Marijana left for Poland with the refugee children, and his youngest son Stavre (Talje) left for Bela Tsrkva with the refugee children. Left all alone, Vane enlisted with D.A.G. and stayed with them to the end of the Greek Civil War after which he fled to Yugoslavia. Trpo left Oshchima with the refugee children. Trpo recalls it was March 25th, 1948 when the order to save the children was put into action. The program was sponsored by the Partisan movement and called for the evacuation of all children under fourteen years of age from the areas under attack. Trpo wanted to go but unfortunately he was over fourteen and did not qualify. Fearing the wrath of the Greek airforce and the constant pounding of exploding bombs, Trpo was determined to leave. His chance came three days later when he saw the children from Tourie and other villages escorted past Oshchima to Prespa. Trpo along with Kole Shkembarov, Ristana Nanovska, Gotche Filkov, and Sotir Kozarov joined the group and left. They arrived in Shtrkovo before nightfall and spent the night there. Before dawn they were escorted to the mountains where they spent the day. There the children from Oshchima were separated from the Tourie group and assigned to Tinka, a mother from Lagen. The same night they crossed the border into the present day Republic of Macedonia at the Markova Noga crossing. There, two groups of twenty-five children were loaded into each truck. The trucks were covered with tarps and as they approached Bitola and the children were told to keep quiet to avoid detection. When they arrived, Trpo recalls being unloaded and placed in what looked like comfortable, well-lit, hotel rooms and each child was given a blanket. The next morning when they saw tracks and wheels they realized they were on a train bound for Skopie. Inside of the train they were welcomed by women in uniforms with the insignia AFZ (Anti Fashistiski Sojuz na Zhenite). When they arrived in Skopje, they were served bread rolls and marmalade.

Trpo and many of the other children had never tasted marmalade before. They kept going back for more until they were full; saving anything uneaten for later. From there, after two days of travel, their first destination was Belgrade where boys and girls were bathed together, given clothing, and interviewed for personal information. From there, their journey took them to Plandishcha, Voivodina where Trpo spent the next three months. Life was difficult, Trpo recalls, they missed their families and there was very little food to eat, especially bread. Macedonian children were used to eating a lot of bread at home, which was now absent from their diet. One day some children got enough nerve to open the camp’s massive wooden doors and bolted out. Many escaped into the fields wanting to go home but were soon rounded up and sent back to the camp.

After spending three months in Plandishcha, most of the children were transferred to Bela Tsrkva, a military camp that was run military style. Trpo spent the next seven months there before he was enlisted. A committee from Bulkes came to the camp looking for boys to enlist. Anyone with a large stature and who was physically fit was separated and transferred to the military camps in Bulkes. Trpo recalls that Bulkes was like a state within a state with its own radio station, transmitting in both Greek and Macedonian, news services, cultural houses, factories, and perhaps even its own currency? Eighty-eight boys left Bela Tsrkva and remained together in Bulkes where they were given jobs to work in the fields for six hours a day and military training for another two hours. One by one the boys were sent into action and after a few weeks only eight remained. Of the eighty sent into action, most were killed, and some returned to the camp wounded. Trpo contracted an ear infection and was temporarily unfit for military duty, which probably saved his life. After being admitted to a local hospital he sought permission from the Serbian police and left Bulkes for Kroushevle. He told the police he had a brother there and wanted to see him. When he was asked what his brother’s name was, Trpo told them Giro Keleshov. Giro was the only person Trpo knew who lived in Kroushevle. “How come your brother has a different name?” he was asked. Trpo did not know what to say but seeing that he was sick and eager to leave, the policemen granted his request. Trpo spent two months in Kroushevle and two more in Panchevo where he took a short educational course in water works. By then he found out that his father, mother, brother, and sister had left Oshchima in the fall of 1949 and were now living in the town of Trakanie. It was in the spring of 1950 when Trpo arrived in Trakanie. There he found his family living in poverty. His mother and sister, out of necessity, were forced to beg for food from the local churches. Fortunately, this did not last too long and soon after the family went to Kochani where they spent the next three months before moving to Skopje. They entered Kochani as political refugees and were not allowed to leave the area without permission. Trpo recalls that his identification card had a red line in the center, indicating limited mobility. His father, however, wanted to work and convinced the authorities to allow him to go to Negotino Vardar in Doubrovo and seek employment. Soon after Vane’s departure, the rest of the family left and took up residence in Skopje. There, Trpo trained as a painter and got his first job painting houses. Then in 1956 he changed jobs and went to work in a factory painting cars. He spent the rest of his career there until he retired in 1990. The same year that Trpo changed jobs he met Trijada and fell in love. A year later they were engaged and a year after that they married. The wedding took place on August 10th, 1958. Trijada, daughter of Lazo and Kostadinka from the village Banitsa Lerinsko, immigrated to Skopie in April of 1955 to join her father. Trijada was born on October 26th, 1940 and completed grade six in the local public school before she began work on the family farm and trained to become a seamstress. With the outbreak of the Greek civil war, Trijada’s father was drafted by the Partisans and remained a soldier until the conflict ended. Like many others, to save his life Lazo left his homeland as a refugee and ended up in Skopje. He made many attempts to return home with no success. The evidence against him was overwhelming. At one point the Greek authorities circulated a letter with Partisan logos containing Lazo’s signature. Failing to return home, Lazo attempted to reunite his family in Skopje and start a new life there. The Greek government agreed to release his family and issue passports provided the family signed a declaration that once they were gone they would never return. To this day Trijada has not been allowed to go back, not even for a visit.

As a young lady Trijada found life in the village harsh and full of fears. During the Greek Civil war while her father was with the Partisans, the Greek secret police used many tricks to punish those helping the Partisans. Trijada recalls strange men pretending to be Partisans coming to her house and asking for bread for her father. But Trijada’s grandmother was too clever for them and always sent them away, telling them that she had none to spare. Families who fell for the tricks found themselves trapped in the clutches of the Greek police. The very next day they found themselves accused of aiding the Partisans with the evidence presented before them for all to see. Many were severely tortured as a result of this trickery. Trijada recalls, night after night, neighborhood boys being rounded up and escorted by the police to a military camp lockup. They spent the nights locked up like animals to prevent them from leaving the village and joining the Partisans.

Once she joined her father in Skopie, Trijada’s fears were left behind. She used her skills as a seamstress to find a job in a textile factory making socks, blankets, etc. Trijada worked there for about four years until the birth of her first son Doncho. Doncho was born on February 5th, 1959. Four years later, on January 12th, 1963 Trijada gave birth to her second son, Vasil. Unfortunately, Vasil was born ill and spent his entire life in bed cared for by Trijada. After many attempts to correct the problem, including brain surgery, Vasil could not be cured and died on February 5th, 1982 at age eighteen. Trpo and Trijada tried hard to save their son including taking a trip to former Czechoslovakia and spending time from 1969 to 1972 pursuing various medical treatments and surgeries. In the meantime, Doncho stayed in Skopje and pursued his studies, which eventually led him to a mechanical engineering degree. After seven years and two jobs in Skopje, Doncho decided to pursue his career abroad. He applied and was accepted as an immigrant in Canada. Trpo and Trijada felt that there was nothing more for them to do in Skopje so when Doncho asked them to join him, they accepted and arrived in Toronto on April 8th, 1994. Both Trpo and Doncho sought out, as new immigrants with origins from Oshchima, joined, and became life long members of Benefit Society Oshchima. Trpo and Trijada currently live in Bramalea, Ontario, Canada with their son Doncho and granddaughter Vasse.

Petre (son of Paso and Lena)

Petre, son of Paso and Lena was born in Oshchima in 1923 and died at age 24 in 1947. He was the first Partisan from Oshchima to die in action. Fellow Oshchimians Nikola Stefou and Dimitar Toupourkovski tell his story. Dimitar’s accounts were obtained from page 22 of the May 1975issue # 265 of the Macedonian Magazine. Most of Nikola’s accounts come from a boy named Vasil from Bapchor whom Nikola met while serving in the Greek concentration prison camps. Vasil was an eyewitness to Petre’s ordeal during the last days of his life. In 1928, Petre’s father Paso left Oshchima for Australia to seek work as a pechalbar and never returned. Petre, the eldest of three brothers (Done and Risto), was five years old at the time and was left in the care of his mother and grandmother. After finishing grade six in public school, Petre assumed responsibility for managing the household and farm. His family was poor and on many occasions Petre had to seek work outside the home to make ends meet. Prior to the occupation (before 1941), Petre took on odd jobs including road construction work. During the occupation he regularly traveled in and out of Albania, purchasing and selling fabrics. Petre was a bright young man and did not agree with the injustices of the Greek Fascist regime; especially the inequalities created between Macedonians and Greeks. It was no surprise that he and a friend, Lazo Stefou, were the first from Oshchima to sign up with the Partisans. The promise of equal rights inspired the duo to take a trip to Malimadi and make contact with the Partisans. Unfortunately, soon after their trip Lazo had a severe appendicitis attack, which ended his life. Petre went on and joined the political wing of the workers revolution and worked hard to fight exploitation. During the occupation, Petre joined the antifascist uprising and organized the collection of arms and ammunition and recruited members for his organization. During the spring of 1943, in the Lerin and Prespa regions, when the first Partisans began to organize Petre was one of the first to volunteer. During the conflict Petre proved himself to be brave and decisive. He was an excellent organized and able leader both politically and militarily. During one of his missions Petre was severely wounded but was lucky to escape with his life. A mortar hit the barrel of his rifle and exploded on contact. The rifle was completely obliterated and he received severe burns on his hand and a gushing wound through his throat. He was taken to a hospital in Yugoslavia where, after several surgeries, he recovered. By 1945 Petre was back on his native soil and ready to fight for what he believed. During the Greek Civil War he was one of the first to enlist and became one of the first organizers in the region. He became a member of the Peoples Freedom Fighters and joined the Presidency of the Youth Organization for the Lerin Region. He was well liked by all Oshchimians and moved freely, in and out of his home even in

daylight, without any fear of being reported to the Greeks. Unfortunately this fearless, battle hardened fighter of many battles and volunteer of volunteers took too many risks during his missions and one day he fell prey to the enemy. After blowing up several trucks on the railroad connecting Lerin to Soloun and successfully completing his mission Petre ran into enemy fire. During the skirmish Petre was severely wounded. With both legs broken he lay immobilized awaiting his fate. When the enemy approached he agreed to surrender but the enemy’s enthusiasm was cut short when he pulled out his Thompson cutting them to pieces, and then he shot himself. Near the village of Tserevo, on March 23rd, 1947 to avoid capture, Petre took his own life and became the first Oshchimian to die for Macedonia. Even in death his enemies did not let him rest. The Monarchist Fascists took him to Sourovich and in the City Square they hung his body in full view as a reminder of what would happen to Macedonians who dared stand up and fight for their rights. With heavy hearts and tears in their eyes the people of Sourovich paid Petre their last respects.

Sevda (daughter of Georgi and Dafina)

Sevda, daughter of Georgi and Dafina was born in the village Oshchima on April 11th, 1937 and currently lives in Toronto, Canada. Sevda is the fourth of six siblings, the eldest being sister Trena followed by brothers Pando and Vasil then Sevda followed by sister Petsa and brother Mito. As far as Sevda can recall, her lineage extends back to pre-dedo Iane Boglev who was the son of Mitre and Dafina (Postolovska from Rula). Iane was born in 1872 and married Dafina Asprova with whom he had six children named Naum, Sojna, Lambro, Lena, Sofia, and Georgi, Sevda’s father. Georgi, Sevda’s father was born in 1909 and married Dafina Dimova in 1929. Dafina Dimova, daughter of Mitre Dostin Dimov and Velika Argiris Dimov, was born in 1909. Mitre and Velika had six children. Sevda was only three years old when Italy declared war on Greece in 1940 and as a result, received no primary education. Even though it has been over fifty-five years since Sevda left the village, many memories of life in Oshchima are still clear in her mind. Her most vivid ones are of her father tending to the beehives and offering her bits of sweet, delicious honey. She remembers swinging a wooden mallet breaking clumps of soil in the fields and assisting her brother Vasil in taking the oxen to pasture. Sevda’s family was poor and her parents had to work hard to make a living. In those days everyone was expected to work hard, even children. There were also sad memories in Sevda’s life like the time in 1945 when her father left home for the mountains. Sevda could not understand why he had to leave and join the Partisans to fight a war. As if that was not enough, soon after, her oldest sister too left home to fight in the war. Both father Georgi and sister Trena had no idea of the sacrifices they would be making when they joined the Partisans but they did it because they believed that sacrifices had to be made in order to improve the lives of fellow Oshchimians and Macedonians alike. Soon after she joined the Partisans, Sevda’s sister Trena, at age 18, lost her life to a Greek bullet in 1947 in the village of Niegosh. Georgi joined the Macedonian Partisan brigade in 1945 and crossed over the Yugoslav border to help liberate what we today call the Republic of Macedonia. For the most part, Georgi’s role was to secure provisions and cook for the troops. Unfortunately, during one of his missions he was captured and executed by the Greeks. Georgi lost his life in 1948, at age 39, in the village of Bukovik in the Kostur region. Sevda remembers a story she was told about how her father, after receiving a serious wound, came back to Oshchima but would not go home. Fearing he may die from his wound he came back to see his family for one last time. Also fearing that he may be seen by enemy eyes and put his family in danger, he spent the night hiding in the bushes hoping to get a glimpse of his loved ones. Fortunately, he was discovered by good neighbours and was taken to a hospital in Albania (Albasan) for treatment. As the Greek civil war intensified and moved up into Macedonia, the Partisans became more dependent on the services of the local population and inducted more and more women into the war effort. Even

mothers with young children, like Sevda’s mother Dafina, did not escape the draft. Like many Oshchimian women, Dafina’s role in the war was as a cook, baker, and seamstress by day and field medic by night. By 1948 the war had intensified to a point where Macedonian villages became daily targets for Greek bombers which placed the civilian population in peril. It was under these circumstances that the so-called temporary “save the children” program was conceived and put into action for the first time in Oshchima on March 25th, 1948. It was a cool March day when the exodus began. Children were crying and screaming while mothers holding back their tears placed their loved ones in the hands of surrogate mothers for the first time in their lives. By noon all children under the age of 16 were gathered together, belongings in hand, and left Oshchima not knowing that they would never be allowed to return. The trip was long as they climbed over Mount Preol, but before nightfall they reached their first destination, Orovnik, Prespa. It was not one but four children Dafina had to let go. She couldn’t go with them; the Partisans would not allow it as she was needed to maintain the war effort. Although she did not know it then, the war had already taken her firstborn and now four more of her children were gone. Vasil, Sevda, Petsa, and Mito left. Only Pando remained but he too was not at home. Pando was sent to Lehovo with other Oshchimians to purchase salt but unfortunately he was captured by the Greek army and taken to Lerin and was not allowed to leave. When they arrived in Orovnik the children were divided into small groups and sent to several houses to spend the night. It was a long sleepless night as they missed their mothers and wondered what would happen to them. They were told they were going to Romania. Early the next morning the children were gathered together and, as a group, were escorted to the mountains for safety. To Sevda’s horror, Petsa was missing and was nowhere to be found. Search teams were put together looking everywhere but Petsa was still, nowhere to be found. Petsa’s disappearance weighed heavily on Sevda but what could she do? She couldn’t get the idea out of her mind that some wild animal, perhaps a bear, had caught her and carried her off far away. No one expected that a nine-year-old would ever cover that distance home safely. But Petsa did and remained with her grandmother until the next exodus in the spring of 1949 when she along with other Oshchimian children, was taken to Hungary, accompanied by surrogate mothers Kita Keleshova and Sofia Florenchina. The stay in the mountains of Orovnik was supposed to be for a day so the children were told not to bring their belongings with them. But that’s not what happened and many of the children to this day believe they were purposely deceived, and their belongings stolen by their Greek escorts who intentionally left them to suffer from hunger and cold. The children spent two days in the mountains before they were escorted over the border to Ljubojno. There they found children from other villages from all over the Lerin and Prespa regions. In Ljubojno the children were divided into groups of thirty to fifty and were assigned to designated houses where they ate and slept. The meals consisted of a small chunk of corn bread and some water. Hunger was so overpowering that it made the children envious of the little birds flying free and picking corn kernels off the cobs hanging in front of the houses. After spending a week in Ljubojno the children were loaded onto trucks and taken to the railroad yards outside Bitola. Hungry, half-naked, and full of lice the children were tired and took to the empty German horse-transport cars and slept securely in the warmth of the hay. A week later, orders were given to separate the children by age groups. Many siblings did not want to be separated and fought back with tears and screams, but they were told that soon enough they would be back together again.

The youngest had to leave first, to save them from starvation. All the children were crying as the five and six year olds were separated and taken away. It was not enough that Sevda lost her sister Petsa but now she watched her youngest brother Mito disappear from her sight. The next day the remaining children were loaded on train cars and sent north to Bulkes where they spent a little over a month before they were permanently relocated. By the time they reached Bulkes, both Sevda and Vasil were sick and taken to a local hospital. There they received a surprise visit from their uncle,

Petre Asprov, who they knew to be missing in action and believed to be dead. Petre offered to take Sevda and Vasil to stay with him, but their desire to catch up with Mito was too strong and they declined. Bulkes was a Greek town teeming with activities geared towards supporting the war effort. Food was plentiful and the children spent most of their days living in empty schools and warehouses. Besides the Macedonians, there were also children from Epirus and Thessaly. As soon as they became comfortable however, the children were on the move again. Sevda remembers it was a few days before Easter when the children were once again loaded into train cars, given some food, and sent of to various destinations. Unbeknownst to them, they were again separated and some were sent to Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia while the youngest remained in Yugoslavia. Luckily, Sevda and Vasil stayed together and were sent to a town called Mikolov in Czechoslovakia. There with the help of designated surrogate mothers, Fania Petkovska, Lena (Pasoitsa) Boglevska, and Trena Argirovska from Oshchima, the Czech authorities stripped the children of their lice infested clothing, cut their hair, and gave them a bath. It was a new experience for the Macedonian children to be bathed in public baths all naked in front of so many people. The local buildings and baths had once belonged to the German soldiers, but since the evacuation, they became a haven for the refugee children of the Greek civil war. After spending time in quarantine, about 30,000 children were taken to Melch where they were assigned quarters and schoolmasters. Morning started with exercise and a good breakfast. The Czech teachers were professionals, trained in child psychology, who did their best to educate the refugee children. In addition to the regular curriculum, the children were expected to learn various languages including Czech, Greek, Macedonian, and Russian. Sevda recalls writing her first letter in Macedonian. It was to her mother, written in 1949 from Melch on the back of a photograph. Sevda still has and treasures the letter-photograph, dated December 30th, 1948. With the war still going on, Sevda felt there was no chance that the letter would reach her mother, but there was always hope. As it turned out, Dafina did receive the letter and sent Sevda a reply, unfortunately with sad news. This was the first time that Sevda learned of the deaths of her father and sister. It was a bitter moment for both Sevda and Vasil as they received news of the fate of their family. After spending about six months in Melch, the children were again divided into age groups and assigned to various grades. Sevda, along with 2,000 other children was sent to Klokochov to further her studies. After that, Sevda was sent to Prague where she enrolled in nursing school and studied nursing for about a year before her education was again disrupted, but this time for good reason. She was about to join her mother. When the civil war was reaching its climax, to avoid capture or death, most Partisans along with the civilian sympathizers and family members, left home for Albania. After the conflict was over, Greece did not want them back and many were shipped to various eastern countries that were willing to take them. Dafina ended up in Poland where she immediately began to search for her children. Thanks to the undertakings of the Red Cross, the names and whereabouts of many of the children were registered and were of much help in locating missing persons. Three months after Sevda started looking, she found her mother in Zgozelets, Poland. It was 1953 before Dafina was able to find Petsa, but once she did the Red Cross helped her in bringing them together. Petsa had not seen her mother for five years and did not recognize her when they first met. It was difficult for both of them until they adjusted to one another. Sevda and Vasil were next to join their mother in Poland. It was here in Poland in 1955, that Sevda first met Tashko her future husband.

Tashko was visiting his sister who was a friend of Sevda’s sister Petsa. Tashko was in school at the time and frequently visited his mother, who happened to live in the same apartment complex as Sevda’s mother. Sevda had a wonderful time with Tashko but their relationship abruptly came to an end when Tashko’s family left Poland for Paprasko, Tasko’s hometown. As it turned out however, Greece would not allow the family to cross the Greek border and they ended up going to Bulgaria instead. Mito, Sevda’s youngest brother was still missing, for now, but would be found later in Bela Tsrkva, Yugoslavia and would be re-united with his family in Canada in 1955.

The whereabouts of Pando was still unknown. He had been captured by the Greeks and taken to Lerin. Because he was under sixteen years of age and had no record, he was released but confined to the borders of Lerin. Pando had an aunt, Ristana, who lived there and he stayed with her until the war was over. Then in 1951 with the help of Aunt Mara and Uncle Naun Boglev he emigrated to Canada. In Canada, Pando was free of the turmoil that had gripped his homeland but was unhappy without his family. In 1953, he married Fana Talis from Statitsa and a year later their daughter Julie was born. But still there were things missing in his life. He wanted to be with his mother and siblings. After a long search Pando located all members of his family. He was re-united with Mito first in 1955, then on August 17, 1956 his mother Dafina and his sisters Sevda and Petsa arrived. Vasil was not allowed to leave due to some bureaucratic complications with the way he was registered in Poland. Vasil had to wait another six years before he could join his family. Thankfully, all brothers and sisters are now together and living in Canada. The re-unification brought Pando happiness but misfortune struck in 1957 when his 23 year-old wife died from heart complications. Pando re-married later, taking Sofia Mitani from Zhelevo as his second wife. They had a son George and two daughters Rosa and Lily. All their children are now married and Pando and Sofia have seven grandchildren. Petsa married Nikola Pavlovich from Lafsi and had two daughters named Cathy and Donna both married with children. When Vasil came to Canada he gave Sevda, Tashko’s address in Bulgaria. After seven years of separation, Sevda immediately made contact with Tashko and they corresponded by letters, resuming their relationship. Sevda still has and treasures the letters she received from Tashko. She wants them buried with her when she passes on. The relationship took a serious turn when Tashko asked Sevda to go to Bulgaria and get married. Sevda wanted to leave right away but was not a Canadian citizen and knew that without citizenship she couldn’t bring Tashko to Canada. After becoming a Canadian citizen in November 1963, Sevda left for Bulgaria not knowing that it would take her two years before she would come back. After spending seven years apart, Sevda was glad to be back with Tashko after meeting with him in Sofia, Bulgaria. They did not waste much time after meeting and arranged to be married at city hall on December 28th, 1963. When they arrived at city hall, along with a music band and procession, the Bulgarian authorities refused to register them. No viable reason was given, just excuses and trivial reasons. The couple’s Macedonian identity was not well received by the Bulgarian authorities. Also, Sevda was a Canadian citizen from the other side of the iron curtain, which did not impress the Bulgarians. Determined to be married, however, Sevda and Tashko took their case all the way up to Todor Zhifkov, the Bulgarian president. After hearing their case, the president approved of the marriage and gave them his blessing, especially after he found out Tashko’s father was a Partisan. When Sevda and Tashko arrived at city hall, they were greeted with roses and live music, courtesy of the Bulgarian president. The couple ran into another snag as they tried to leave Bulgaria. Not being a Bulgarian citizen, Canada would not accept Tashko, even though he was married to a Canadian citizen. After months of legal wrangling and much running around, the Bulgarian Government made Tashko a Bulgarian citizen, which allowed him to proceed to the next step. The couple however, still could not leave. The British Embassy in Sofia, on Canada’s behalf, would not grant Tashko a visa until someone from Canada sponsored him. Sevda wrote to her family and an application was quickly issued. When the visa arrived, Sevda was in the hospital recuperating from appendix surgery. It was her third day after her operation, but Sevda did not want to delay the departure and had her doctor release her on threats that she would sign herself out.

Tashko and Sevda arrived in Toronto on February 17th, 1965 to complete the family reunion.

John (son of Mike and Christina)

John (Janko), son of Mike (Mihail) and Christina (Ristana) was born in the village of Oshchima -Lerinsko on November 19, 1934. John was the second of four siblings, the oldest being Sophie, and then John, followed by Peter and Lena. Even though John was very young at the time, he remembers many details of his youth. John remembers one day well in the early spring of 1939, before the Second World War started, an episode that left a lasting impression on his life. One day he went visiting the home of his best friend Peter whose mother Stojanca Tsafovska asked the boys to go to Peter's aunt's to pick up some supplies and bring them back home. Several hours passed and when the boys did not return, Stojanca became anxious and sent her older son Naum to look for them. The boys had stopped for a visit at a friend's house and had lost all track of time. Just as John and Peter came out of Mirulka's house, there was Naum standing in front of them. Sensing they were in trouble, the boys bolted. Peter took the alleyway down towards the river and John ran toward the Kazanche, a coop of the village distillery. Naum chased John towards a bridge. Just before the bridge, John sensed that Naum had stopped running so he stopped and turned around to see. Naum began to tease John, taking threatening single steps towards him then stopping abruptly. With every step Naum took forward, John took steps back. John at this point was both nervous about being caught and angry with Naum’s taunting. His distraction caused him to forget that he was standing on the bridge, which had no railings. As John took another step back, he fell off the edge of the bridge and into the very shallow water below. John landed face down and cut his face severely on the sharp rocks below. The fall left a wound the size of a dime on John's nose, which he plugged up with his finger to stop the bleeding. Naum, who himself must have been both terrified and guilt ridden, bolted from the scene not even bothering to check to see if John had survived the fall! Unfortunately, there was no doctor in the village so it was John's grandmother Kotejca who managed to patch him up as best she could. This was a very traumatic experience that John has not forgotten. He still carries the scar on his nose. As did other children his age, John attended school. He was in grade one and remembers well when the schools closed due to the outbreak of the Greek-Italian War. From then on, life in Oshchima took a turn for the worse. The entire community suffered its effects and with the outbreak of the Second World War, life became desperate. When the Germans were making their final retreat, the village of Oshchima was empty. The villagers, together with their livestock, retreated into the forested mountains of Oshchima trying to escape from the German army. John also remembers a day when German attack planes were in a dogfight with a British heavy bomber over Oshchima. Unfortunately, the British plane was shot down and crashed over Staro Oshchima just north of present day Oshchima. Dead British airmen were hanging from the trees. Many unexploded bombs were scattered around the crash site. John's favorite childhood memories are from Katin Livage, where he spent his summers in the family summerhouse looking after their orchard. John spent many dark nights alone with only his dog Hitler for company. John dreaded the nights for fear of the blood curdling screeching sounds that haunted him night after night. It wasn't until he was much older that he came to know that the screeching sounds were that of nighthawks in the surrounding forests. Like many other young Oshchimians, John at an early age was expected to work and help out all around the house and on the family homestead. Mike, John's father, joined the Partisans and left for Yugoslavia. John, being the eldest male in the family, took on the responsibility of running the homestead along with his older sister Sophie. This included tilling the soil, planting, harvesting, and looking after the livestock.

No sooner was the World War over than the Greek Civil War began, bringing further hardship to the region and the people of Oshchima. John's father, Mike, left the safety of Yugoslavia to re-join the Partisans at home. Unfortunately, a difference of opinion with his commanding officer landed Mike in hot water. Mike insisted that too many young Partisans were being killed in action due to the inexperience of their commanding officers and spoke up against the practice of appointing young and inexperienced officers to command the troops. The Greek Partisans in command did not share Mike's opinion and charged him with treason and sentenced him to death. Faced with the death penalty, Mike had no alternative but to escape while under house arrest. Mike was caught, while attempting to make his getaway, by the government patrol and was taken to prison in Solun (Salonika) and later transferred to the

prison in Lerin to await trial. Mike's father Kote (Jimmy) was a British subject, being a Canadian Citizen since 1919. He had good connections and money and was able to arrange for Mike's release. Mike was released but had to agree to give up his Greek citizenship and leave the country immediately. As soon as Mike became a free man, he left for Canada where he joined his parents in Toronto. While Mike was still in prison, one early February 1948 morning, the Greek Partisans came to the village and took Mike's family under house arrest and detained them in the village school. The Greek Partisans seized the family home and took everything. They emptied the grain storage, took all clothing, and every last piece of food. They proceeded to parade the livestock through the village for all to see. Their empty house would subsequently be turned into a hospital. Later that afternoon an armed escort took John's mother Christina, his 16-year old sister Sophie, and John himself to the village of Breznica. They traveled on foot through the deep snow and managed to reach the village of Rula where they spent the night. The next morning they continued traveling by foot until they reached Breznica. John's mother was immediately taken, interrogated at high command headquarters and then subsequently released. The three family members were free but had nowhere to go. They no longer had their own home. Christina took her children back to Oshchima to the home of her parents, Tanas and Sotira, where they lived with the support of many Oshchimians who did their utmost to provide what they could for John's family. In the spring of 1948, the Partisans enacted the 'Save the Children Program'. Under this program, all children under the age of 14 were to be evacuated from the war torn regions of northwestern Macedonia and sent to live abroad in Eastern European block countries. Parents were reluctant to send their children to an unknown fate but had no choice but to comply. It was the most emotional time John's family had experienced. The first to leave were John's younger brother Peter and younger sister Lena. Together they traveled to Yugoslavia but were separated there. Peter was forced to continue to Romania and eventually Poland while Lena remained in Yugoslavia. The parents of these young children were 'assured' that the evacuation was a temporary measure and that the children would be returned within 6 months, after the fighting had settled. However, this program was in fact a well thought out plan by the Greeks to rid Macedonia of its youth, the majority of which never returned to see their homeland again. Within three months the civil war intensified. Under the care of surrogate mother Kita Keleshova, John left Oshchima with 33 other children who were taken over the Yugoslavian border to the village of Lubojno. He spent approximately three weeks in Lubojno without a change of clothing, dishes or cutlery. At the border the Greek Partisans took everyone's gear, promising that everything would be delivered to them by wagon upon their reaching Lubojno. This was their way of ' lessening' their burden as they traveled on foot. However, the delivery never arrived and the children were left without essentials. John remembers well going up and down the riverbanks in Lubojno searching for a tin can or anything that could be used as a bowl for his soup ration. He wasn't able to find anything and most of the time went without food. After approximately three weeks in Lubojno, the children were loaded into trucks and taken to the train station in Bitola. They boarded the train destined for Hungary and after a short stopover in Skopje, they traveled another two days and three nights until they arrived in Budapest. There, they were welcomed by the Hungarian Red Cross at the railroad station and were transported to an ex-army dormitory called 'Lahtania'. The Hungarian Red Cross did their utmost to make all the children feel secure and happy by distributing toys and candies, things they had gone so long without.

It was shortly after the World War had ended and there was still a huge shortage of food, especially bread. John remembers being served dinner by the Red Cross and how the bread was packaged in paper cartons and rationed quite strictly. He remembers how the older children would cut the lights in the dormitory and steal the bread, under the umbrella of darkness. On several occasions the most homesick children, believing they could find their way back home, would try to sneak out of the compound and hide under burned out armaments and vehicles around the perimeter of the dormitory. These young children had no concept of how far away from home they really were but were desperate to try to get back to their families. After a short stay in Lahtania, the Oshchimians were the first to be transferred to a factory called Dohangiar, a tobacco company in the industrial part of Budapest-Ujpesht. During their stay there, one of our Oshchimian girls fell ill and was taken to hospital. John remembers visiting Sevda, in hospital, with