Front Matter - Part 03

Packed together like sardines in a can, the villagers were left there for three days standing erect leaning against one another. During the same three days more people from German and from the other villages were brought to the same school and huddled in the other classrooms. The villagers were sorted by village and placed in separate classrooms under guard. The first day after their arrival, the officer had them taken out of the classrooms, one by one, and interrogated. He intimidated them by threatening them with violence and death while having his soldiers beat them with sticks, batons and belts. He blindfolded some and yelled at them very loudly: “Tell me, where is your weapon?! Tell me now or I will shoot you!” He then fired his hand gun towards the classroom windows in order to scare the others into thinking that he had killed them. He then had his soldiers tell one another, “the officer just killed another one”, and sometimes they gave a person’s name. After each person was interrogated they were taken to a separate classroom. The special Italian interrogation unit remained in Mala Prespa for 10 days during which it used several different ways of interrogation, tormenting and torturing the Mala Prespa population to uncover its stashes of weapons. The population endured the torture but did not succumb to the Italian interrogation and no weapons were discovered. The villages had weapons and the Italians knew it because the Greek army stationed in Mala Prespa left everything it had behind, including their weapons and ammunition because the soldiers did not want to be caught armed if they fell into enemy hands. The only soldiers who did carry their weapons were those returning from the Albanian front. Most of those soldiers were disarmed by the occupiers.

People were coming to Mala Prespa from as far as Epirus looking for work in the early spring of 1942, during the great famine. It is difficult to express the plight of these people who, with shovel and pick in hand, worked from dawn to dusk building a 200 km road leading to Mala Prespa, just to be given food for that day. The Prespa villagers had enough food and did not experience famine like these people but still they gave whatever they could to all who knocked on their door. They gave them food and drink and even sent some with them to take to their children. Most of the starving Macedonian soldiers sent down to Epirus after they left the Albanian front remember how it was for them and the kindness the people of Epirus showed them by giving them food and water when they were starving. It was only fair that the people of Prespa now pay them back with equal kindness. The most difficult part of this famine was to express the pain and suffering that came with it. “We were brothers at the front when we bled together fighting against Mussolini and they looked after us, gave us food and water and kept us in their homes over night when we passed through the villages of Epirus, Ianina and Kostur on our way back home. It is time now that we extend the same to them. We were obligated to them…” says Mundushev. The hardest and most shameful part about this period was when young women fell into the hands of Italian soldiers who took them away from their children, husbands and elderly parents who depended on them and held them as hostages, having their way with them, sometimes for weeks, to satisfy their passions. The Prespa villagers tried to hide their women from the Italians but sometimes they failed.

Mala Prespa was paradise for the Italians. In the summer of 1942 they made an inventory of all the sheep, cattle and other animals in Prespa Region and confiscated 20% of the livestock and took it to Kostur. After the first confiscation the Italians returned to the villages every month. Upon their arrival they ordered the people to bring their livestock home for the evening so that they could survey it. The next day the people were ordered to bring their livestock to the village square so that the numbers could be verified. The Italians then arbitrarily chose what to take and how many. The villagers were then forced to escort the confiscated livestock to Kostur on foot, 60 km away. When the harvest was collected in the fall the Italians took a portion of the wheat and beans sent it to Kostur.

Birth of Macedonian partisan groups and military detachments

Partisans began to appear in the Prespa mountains in the spring of 1943. With their appearance the Italian army began to take a much harsher stand towards the local population. They began to take more cattle and sheep and took whatever else they wanted without any kind of order. For the time that the Italians stayed in Mala Prespa more than three-quarters of the sheep and about half of the cattle were confiscated.

The Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia, who, since Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned in 1912, 1913, were oppressed by the Greeks, worked closely with the CPG, but now as Macedonians they had a need to connect to and cooperate with their Macedonian brothers and sisters in Serbian occupied Macedonia. As the first order of business, the Macedonians from Lerin Region began to cooperate with their comrades from Bitola Region in order to create a joint resistance movement and rise up against the occupiers. Included among the first Macedonians to rise up to the challenge of organizing such a movement was Ilia Dimovski-Gotse who, with his comrades, traveled between Bitola and Lerin in order to make the necessary connections. This cooperation began in the summer of 1941 and continued to strengthen with time. More contacts were made and more people became involved in 1942 when a number of illegal Macedonian immigrants from Bitola landed in Lerin. The comrades from Bitola greatly contributed to the rapid development of the liberation movement in Greek occupied Macedonia.

When the first partisans appeared in Vicho, Greek occupied Macedonia, in early spring of 1943, the Macedonians from Serbian Occupied Macedonia who were staying in Lerin decided to join them. Towards the end of 1942 a larger group of partisans, belonging to the “Iane Sandanski” detachment, created in September 1942 in the grove above the village Lavtsi, for a second time returned to the Lerin Region terrain and joined the Lerin Region detachment formed in early spring of 1943.

The “Dame Gruev” detachment was created on July 6, 1942 on Bigla Mountain above the village Zlateri. And, like the Bitola-Prespa detachment created in April 1943, it too slipped through to Mala Prespa and demonstrated its intentions in several villages, explaining the situation to the people that the Bulgarian occupiers in Serbian occupied Macedonia were no better than the Italians and Germans, and that they too terrorized and killed Macedonians. The detachment then moved to Lerin Region and established relations with the Lerin Vicho partisan detachment. The two detachments agreed to conduct joint actions in Lerin and Kostur Regions. One of the aims in this joint action was to demonstrate, through rallies and other means, the awareness of the Macedonian liberation struggle. This was one of the great achievements which resulted in the disarming of the Kostur Region village counter-bands.

On May 22, 1943 the detachment “Gotse Delchev” was formed on the slopes of Mount Vicho near the village Prekopana.

At the end of May 1943 the “Gotse Delchev” detachment arrived in the Mala Prespa villages and held several rallies. The Macedonian population not only received it with honours but was greatly astonished by its appearance.

The CPG District Committee for this region demanded that these detachments be disbanded and that the detachment composed of Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia also be disbanded and placed under ELAS command. So, in order to avoid problems, the Macedonian Party leadership agreed with the CPG and on June 1, 1943 ordered the detachment from Greek occupied Macedonia to be disbanded.

The detachment consisting of partisans from Serbian occupied Macedonia was ordered to leave. It went to Mount Pelister and from there it descended into the village Kaloizana, above Braichino. The detachment composed of fighters from Greek occupied Macedonia left for Mount Vicho where it acted in the areas around Radosh, Bigla and Kaimakchalan. The detachment from Serbian occupied Macedonia that was forced to leave the Macedonian territory often returned to Mala Prespa for short visits in order to raise the morale of the Macedonian people and to point them in the right direction;

towards Macedonia’s liberation. These Macedonian partisans were always received with enthusiasm by the Macedonian population of Mala Prespa and were always given full support.

The Lerin detachment was later split into two detachments. One was named “Kaimakchalan” and the other retained its old name “Vicho”. Then, after some consultations between the Lerin Region partisan leadership and the ELAS representatives from Lerin District, on June 20, 1943 an agreement was reached to reorganize the detachments. It was decided to move the detachments to new locations and rename some of them. The “Vicho” detachment was renamed to “Bigla” on account that it was moved to Bigla to act in that region and in Mala Prespa. After the reorganization was completed the detachments were moved to their new positions. The “Bigla” detachment was split into small groups and local activists were added to it to assist in its attacks against the Italians in R’bi, German, P’pli and Lok. These groups terrorized the Italians in R’bi, who, for the most part, barricaded themselves in the R’bi barracks waiting to be attached. The Italians definitely remained under guard in their barracks during the night. Their artillery that was positioned on Krina Hill occasionally fired shells near the villages during the night to ward off partisans. The Italians also imposed a curfew, prohibiting the population from movement from sunset to sunrise. The Italians used local men to guard them during the night. These men, with sticks in hand, were sent out in groups of three at night to roam the village streets where the Italians stayed.

With the presence of partisans in the region, the Italians soldiers become even more ruthless towards the local Mala Prespa population.

In April 1943, 20 villagers from the village German, who were extremely disappointed with the Greeks, were armed with firearms by the Italians.

Then when the “Gotse Delchev” detachment, led by Kole Kininski, arrived in German in early June 1943, the armed villagers surrendered their weapons and later a large number of them joined the partisans.

One night in August 1943 the “Bigla” detachment, commanded by Dimitar Tupurkovski from Oshchima with Giorgi Nedelkovski-Makedona as its commissar, attacked the R’bi barracks where the Italian army was stationed and killed and wounded many Italians and burned down part of the barracks. During the battle the Italian artillery at Krina Hill shelled areas near them and around the village, creating great panic and fear among the R’bi population. It was a real struggle as if fighting at a front.

After the partisans attacked the Italians in R’bi, the German army, stationed in Lerin, sent a motorized unit to drive the partisans out, but without success. Sometime before the end of August 1943, over 20 people were gathered together at the Garvan Mountain dairy in German Mountain. There were also some partisans among them. Unfortunately they were spotted by the artillery at Krina Hill. Artillery command informed air command in Korcha who then sent a bomber to bomb the mountain dairy, killing Andrea Petkov from the village German and wounding three others.

On September 10, 1943 the Italians left Prespa. The local population in R’bi was forcibly drafted to carry the Italians and their belongings on their horse-drawn wagons and take them to Liuboino. When they arrived at the hill facing Liuboino they were stopped by another Italian army group which had occupied the hill.

After several hours of waiting they were freed and they continued their trek to Liuboino. When the first wagons with the Italians arrived on the field in front of Liuboino, a partisan appeared in front of them. He was wearing a red scarf around his neck and in his right hand he firmly held a shmaizer (rifle). He was a partisan from the “Gotse Delchev” detachment which had arrived in Luboino to greet and disarm the Italian soldiers. But at that very moment a German motorized unit arrived and a battle broke out inside Liuboino. “I still remember that day watching that partisan run right through a line of Italians and they, moving aside to let him pass, were yelling: ‘Bono partizano! Bono partizano!’…” says Mundushev. Also among the party transporting the Italians to Liuboino was Lazo Sekulov from R’bi. Sitting in the cart next to Mundushev, Sekulov said: “The partisans should now drop them off (meaning the Italians) in the Nakolets swamp and let them catch some frogs…” he then broke out

laughing. When they returned from Luboino they noticed the body of the partisan laying dead in the field. Two partisans were killed during the skirmish. While the battle was taking place the civilians from R’bi were sheltered in Stoian Iankulov’s house. Much later a plaque was placed in the Liuboino field to honour the slain partisans.

Mala Prespa was freed during the fall of 1943. The Prespa population organized itself in the anti-fascist organizations primarily led by the CPG and EAM. Many joined the ELAS reserves and EPON. In December 1943, after its formation, the Macedonian population began to join SNOF. During this period Mala Prespa played a major role in the development of the resistance movement against the occupiers in Greek occupied Macedonia.

In the first half of October 1943 the “Gotse Delchev” detachment was stationed in the villages German, R’bi, Rudari and Nivitsi. The partisans were met with great enthusiasm by the Mala Prespa residents and were given huge support. On November 11, 1943 the partisans from the “Gotse Delchev” and “Dame Gruev” detachments were combined in the village Vineni to form the “Stiv Naumov” battalion.

According to Stoian Glogovets’s diary, on December 7, 1943 the Macedonian-Kosovo Brigade left Debrtsa and headed for Prespa. Glogovets was commissar of this brigade. The brigade took a break in the village Goritsa for some rest and food. On December 8, 1943 the brigade passed through Pustets and arrived in Zrnosko where it spent the night. The next day, on December 9, 1943, it left early in the morning and arrived at the village Orovo. After a short rest the first battalion of this brigade, along with its Headquarters, continued on its way to the village Grazhdeno. The battalion rested here. Its soldiers were taken as guests into the various homes and were given food and refreshments. They also spent the night here. On December 10, 1943 they arrived in German. But the German bridge was destroyed so the partisans had to find another way to cross the river. The entire brigade along with is headquarters arrived in German. The fourth battalion was then ordered to go to the village Medovo. The rest of the brigade and its headquarters remained in German. The soldiers of the battalion sent to Medovo were accommodated by

the villagers in their own homes. The partisans were well looked after with food and accommodations. On December 11, 1943, under orders from the brigade commander, the battalion returned to German. Here it had to execute a Montenegrin deserter who had fled the prison camp in Solun. The Montenegrin was a former policeman serving the Italians. He had killed many people. He, along with others like himself, was imprisoned in the Solun prisons but escaped and was captured in the village Grazhdeno.

The brigade leaders held a speech in German during which they informed the population about the importance of the Macedonian struggle. After lunch the battalion was sent back to Medovo. Interestingly, according to Glogovats, the houses in Medovo were very beautiful with 2 or 3 floors. After spending the night in Medovo the battalion, on December 12, 1943, returned back to German. After spending some time in German the entire brigade and its headquarters left and, through the mountains, headed for Buf. The brigade was well received in Buf, after which it continued on its way to Kaimakchalan through Gorno and Dolno Kleshtino and through Krushoradi, where it was also well received by the local Macedonian population.

It is important at this point to emphasize the important role the Macedonian partisans from Serbian occupied Macedonia played in Mala Prespa during their visits. It was they who informed the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia of their obligations as Macedonians and pointed them in the right direction to struggle for their national freedom and independence. These detachments were well organized in large formations with iron clad discipline, and were determined to fight to the end in order to achieve their freedom and their national independence. Their morale was very high, especially among the younger men. The civilian Macedonian population in Greek occupied Macedonia admired their spirit and considered them their brothers and did everything in their power to help them. These partisans sang patriotic songs which moved the spirits and warmed the hearts of the population. There was one particular song which they heard often, which went something like this: “Your freedom is in front of you, pick up a gun and fight and you will have it, now is your time. If you don’t, you

will lose your chance, others will take it from you and you will remain without it, and who knows for how long…”

Bulgarians and the crimes they committed in Prespa

With Italy’s capitulation on September 10, 1943, the Bulgarian occupation units, which up to now held Resen and the Makazi Pass, occupied the Prespa to Markova Noga villages along the Greek-Yugoslav border only 4 km away from the villages German and R’bi. The Bulgarians were well aware that partisans existed in these villages and were familiar with their fighting potential. They also knew that the general Prespa population supported the partisans and the Bulgarians were eager to do something about it. The local Prespa population was also well aware that the Bulgarians had not come here to do good.

“January 17, 1944 was a day I and all the villagers from my village prefer to forget. At about 9 o’clock in the morning, on this day, we heard gunfire and machine gun bursts all around our village. The small children, who at the time were out in their yards or playing in the streets, also heard the shooting and ran to their homes. The children, however, were not the only ones to loathe the Bulgarians. About 10 minutes later the shooting stopped and the Bulgarian soldiers ran down the village streets blocking the houses. The church bell then started ringing, signaling for the people to come to the village square for a village meeting. The Bulgarians did this every time they wanted to speak to the villagers. They gathered the population at meetings and made speeches demeaning the partisans, while pretending to be the liberators of Macedonia,” says Mundushev. Then, while the villagers gathered at the village square, Bulgarian soldiers conducted searches in their homes looking for weapons and looting them.

One time a group of young men ages 17 to 20 were walking from German to R’bi and the moment they heard gunfire they fled down into the Gushaitsa Ditch, which itself led to R’bi. As they followed the ditch they decided to go up a creek towards Medovo. At that point they were spotted by Bulgarian soldiers who themselves were going to R’bi over the Medovo-R’bi Hill. They surprised the boys and caught them as they were fleeing. They had nothing to handcuff

them with so the Bulgarians cut some barbed wire they had found and tied their hands tight. Then they tied the boys together, again with barbed wire. The boys were tied so tightly that blood was dripping from their wrists and bodies. On top of that the boys were beaten by the soldiers with their rifle butts and kicked at every opportunity. One of the boys at one point lost his balance and fell down, and because they were all tied together all the boys fell down. But instead of being helped up, the soldiers beat them for having fallen down.

The Major, who was the highest ranking officer in the group of Bulgarian soldiers, an older man, perched on a horse, ordered his soldiers to take the boys to Markova Noga. When the villagers found out the boys were to be taken away, a number of older men from the same village pleaded with the Major to release them but he refused. So the boys were then taken to Markova Noga by force while being beaten and kicked all the way there.

Later a young officer appeared on the balcony at one of the houses in the village square and made a speech. Among other things, he said that the Bulgarians were strong and had a strong ally in the Germans, and together they would conquer this country and make it their own.

The young Macedonian boys who had escaped from the claws of the Gestapo and from the Germans in Lerin and Prespa Regions, and who came to save their lives by joining the partisans, were by misfortune caught by the Bulgarian fascists near the village Dolno Dupeni and, in a cruel manner, killed with picks and knives. This morbid incident shook the population of Prespa.

In honour of these massacred Macedonian boys, the Municipal Assembly of Resen raised a plaque near the Greek border and planted 7 pines trees.

Ten days after the incident, Bulgarian troops stormed the Watchtower in Markova Noga and invaded the liberated Prespa territory, arriving under the water mills in R’bi. This time, however, they ran into a Macedonian partisan unit visiting R’bi. The villagers who were left outside the village to act as lookouts saw the

Bulgarians and immediately informed the partisans. The partisans were not afraid of the Bulgarians and did not flee. They surrounded the Bulgarian soldiers cutting off their escape route and then attacked them. They killed one Bulgarian soldier and wounded two. The remaining troops broke through the encirclement and escaped across a field. They then hid in the reeds of a swamp where they remained until reinforcements came to save them. The partisans withdrew from the village but the Bulgarians did not enter it that day.

Macedonian-Kosovo Brigade visits Mala Prespa a second time

According to Stoian Glagovats’s diary, the Macedonian-Kosovo Brigade, after a long and difficult journey, arrived in the village Lok in Mala Prespa early in the morning on April 23. The local population welcomed the partisans with much fanfare, gusto and offerings of food, drink and anything else that was needed. Then at 6 o’clock in the evening, with help from the local fisherman, the partisans boarded a number of boats, crossed Mala Prespa Lake and arrived in the village DR’bitishta. From there they traveled through the village Grazhdeno and in the morning of April 25, crossed the border and arrived on Albanian territory in the village Tserie. From there they went to Debrtsa and Karaorman.

Balists from Albania attack Mala Prespa

The Mala Prespa villages were attacked many times by Albanian Balists who often accompanied German search parties, looking in the houses for partisans and weapons and in the meantime looting the people’s jewelry, carpets, blankets and everything valuable they could find. They also took chickens, lambs, rakia (brandy) and then fled. “I remember one such Balist attack in my village, which happened to coincide with a visit of a small partisan group that included two Englishmen from the English military mission in ELAS. The Balists were not opposed by the people and were given everything they asked for so that they would leave as soon as possible. The two Englishmen were impressed by how the general population handled the situation,” says Mundushev.

In April 1944 the CPG decided to dissolve SNOF. The Macedonian people were left in disbelief.

Forming large Macedonian detachments

On August 2, 1944 the Lerin-Kostur battalion was created in the village Pozdivishta, Kostur Region, and was named “Gotse” after its commander Ilia Dimovski-Gotse. The “Gotse” Battalion fought fierce battles against the occupiers and inflicted great damage on them.

Macedonian language school for teachers opened in the village German

In early August 1944 preparations were made to open Macedonian schools for the 1944/45 academic year. For this purpose 20 young Macedonians, who had already graduated from Greek school as teachers, were sent to German to prepare a program and lessons to introduce Macedonian language classes. When everything was ready and classes were about to begin, the teachers were withdrawn by order of ELAS Headquarters. Apparently, according to ELAS, it was forbidden to teach Macedonian in schools. The population was waiting with great interest to see the first Macedonian teachers but was very disappointed. It was suspected that this order was issued by the CPG and EAM leaderships.

Greek resistance leadership liquidates Macedonian partisan movement

The CPG Central Committee leadership, during its preparations to sign the Kaserta Agreement with the Greek government in exile, decided to disband the Macedonian battalion. The Macedonian leaders, however, did not agree with this decision and, to avoid bloodshed, they decided to transfer the Macedonian battalion over to Yugoslavia where it could continue to fight against the Germans. ELAS wanted to break up the Macedonian battalion by force and was ready to attack it. Many of the units belonging to the Macedonian battalion, on their way to Yugoslavia, passed through Mala Prespa and visited the people of German and R’bi where they were met with enthusiasm. At that time many young people from the

Mala Prespa villages joined these units and fought in Yugoslavia. Later a Greek ELAS unit arrived in Mala Prespa and arrested a number of people from the various villages in retaliation.

The Varkiza Agreement killed the resistance movement in Greece

On February 12, 1945 the Varkiza Agreement was signed between representatives from the CPG and EAM and between representatives from Papandreou’s Greek government in exile. This Agreement, which called for ELAS and the resistance movement to lay down its arms, marked the final defeat of the resistance movement in Greece. After this it became very clear to the Macedonian people in Mala Prespa that Mala Prespa was going to be given to the same Greeks that held it before. It was clear to the people that their torment would begin anew and their countless sacrifices and the blood they spilled during the struggle would be for nothing.

The Greek Civil War comes to Mala Prespa – Monarcho-Fascists perpetrate terror

On May 14, 1945 the Greek Monarcho-Fascist army arrived in Mala Prespa and settled its soldiers and its other security services in people’s houses. The moment they arrived the Greeks immediately started their terror campaign. The same day they arrived in R’bi, the Greek army officer in charge summoned the people of R’bi and told them that this place today was Greece and from now on everyone was to speak Greek and only Greek. Those who didn’t like it were free to leave now, and with his hand pointed towards the Yugoslav border located 3 km north from the village. He then imposed a curfew on the villagers. He told them they could not travel outside their village limits without authorization and that in special cases only, they would need to acquire a one-time travel pass from the military. The same day he ordered all work in the fields to be done only between sunup and sunset. Anyone found in the fields outside of this timeframe would be shot on sight.

Fearing the worst, many Macedonian men left their homes and villages and either took shelter in the mountains and forests, or crossed over the Yugoslav border.

A few days later a group of armed soldiers, together with some armed civilians from the Asian Minor colonist neighbourhoods such as the Shaovtsi from German and the Bostandzhiovtsi from R’bi, broke into the houses of the men who had left the villages and looted them and stripped them of their valuables including furniture and groceries. They also stole their sheep and slaughtered them and feasted on them to frighten the population so that it would leave. They also took 6 women from R’bi whose husbands had fled and put them in a prison in Lerin, initiating a massive campaign of detentions and torture.

On June 14, 1945 the same officer in R’bi, mentioned earlier, gathered all the men in R’bi, lined them up in rows of three and had his soldiers escort them to the police station in the village German. The people were left outside of the police station under guard for an hour. Then the gendarmerie chief for Lerin Region came out and read out the names of seven people from R’bi. The gendarmes immediately removed these men and had them handcuffed. They then loaded them in a military truck and sent them to a prison in Lerin. Four of these men were later taken to the Cassandra prison camps.

On June 18, 1945 the Monarcho-Fascist gendarmes gathered all the people in the village Polpli and arrested 10 men and women. They then tied them up, loaded them on a truck and sent them to a prison in Lerin. From there they sent them to the prison camps in Cassandra. Included among those taken from P’pli were Risto Ioshev and Stoian Angelov. Both men were killed in May 1947. This terror had forced many of the former resistance fighters to again go to the mountains and form armed groups.

On June 22, 1945 Georgios Iatrakas, a former police officer who had served in P’pli, who was also a German spy and who had difficulties changing his old habits, was killed in P’pli. He was shot at dawn. News of his murder quickly reached all the villages. Fearing the worst, that somehow this murder was going to be pinned on the Macedonians, the people fled the villages. The men left and hid in the reeds at the Mala Prespa lakeshore. The women left the villages and went to work in the fields. About an hour later a unit of soldiers

arrived in P’pli square from Zhelevo. The armed soldiers jumped out of their trucks and besieged village. They forcibly broke into houses, breaking doors down and searching every room. No one knows what they were looking for but when they were done they had looted all the homes. They stole valuables such as clothes, jewelry, precious ornaments, gold coins including necklaces with gold coins that brides wore during wedding ceremonies. Several elderly women and some younger women who remained behind were rounded up and marched to the village square where they were loaded on a truck, taken to Zhelevo and locked up in the village school. The soldiers also wanted to burn down all the houses but because the Macedonian houses were together with the houses of the Asia Minor colonists, they decided against it. The women who were taken to Zhelevo were kept there for 20 days. They were tortured and beaten to unconsciousness every day. One of the women, Tsvetkoitsa Kekienova, was beaten to death. Her husband was suspected of being one of conspirators who murdered Iatrakas. Some of the men who had left to hide, particularly the older ones, could not return to their homes because too many times the Asia Minor colonists had accused them of being part of the “Ohrana”, a Bulgarian fascist organization, and too many times had told them to leave R’bi and go to Bulgaria.

On July 15, 1945 the P’pli chief of police, a man named Sarandopoulos, with his gendarmes, a number of soldiers and his armed spies from the Asia Minor colonist communities, during the night surrounded Nikola Steriovski’s house in Orovnik. Steriovski at the time was CPG Regional Secretary for Mala Prespa. They captured Steriovski and took him to a cornfield at the bottom of the village. Then, according to eyewitness testimony, they tortured him by pulling out his finger and toenails, by poking him with knives and by cutting his veins. They tortured him all night until he died. This crime shook the entire population of Mala Prespa.

On August 22, 1945 six residents from the village German were abducted outside their village and taken to a prison in Lerin.

On August 27, 1945 three people from German and six from Orovo were abducted and taken to prison in Lerin.

On August 29, 1945 a Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit surrounded the village Besfina, shot at the residents and then looted their houses. They took whatever they could get their hands on including honey and sheep, and as they were leaving the village they abducted a woman and took her with them to their camp in Lerin.

On August 30, 1945 the same Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit surrounded Bukoik and abducted three men and brought them to the prison in Lerin.

On August 30, 1945 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit surrounded a small region in Prespa called Afrika and killed two and wounded several unarmed villagers. Afrika Region encompasses the villages of the western part of the lake including Nivitsi, Vineni, Orovo, Grazhdeno, Trnaa and DR’bitishta.

On September 9, 1945 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit searched the village Strkovo and arrested two women.

On September 16, 1945 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit again attacked Strkovo. The rampaging government troops surrounded the village and, after searching the houses, arrested 7 men and 4 women.

On October 10, 1945 the same Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit attacked Rudary and arrested 15 men.

On October 15, 1945 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit again surrounded and attacked Strkovo. That day 17 men were accused of conducting autonomist activities and were arrested.

From October 20 to 24, 1945 the village German was surrounded by gendarmes and the army, during which time all the houses were searched and 65 men and women were arrested. They were taken to the local police station in German where they were tortured and abused and then they were sent to the prisons in Lerin.

In November 1946 the Monarcho-Fascists went from village to village and searched every house. If a male family member was nowhere to be found that family faced confiscations. They

confiscated food and movable items. Most of these confiscations, however, were committed by the Asia Minor colonists who closely followed the Monarcho-Fascist armed search groups.

On November 16, 1945 German was again surrounded and attacked. This time 70 men and women, accused of being autonomists, were arrested and taken away.

The terror campaigns continued all through the autumn and winter. The Monarcho-Fascists, aided by individuals from the Asia Minor colonist communities, relentlessly persecuted and harassed the Macedonian people, continuously calling on them to leave their homes and go away. To go away on their own before they were expelled by them.

On March 5, 1946 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit attacked the village Lok and arrested 12 men and 3 others from the village Bukoik.

On March 31, 1946 parliamentary elections were held in Greece. The terror campaign was escalated before and during the election. The Asia Minor colonist spies relentlessly threatened to expel all those Macedonians who refused to go to the polls. On the day of the elections the same Asia Minor colonist spies stood in front of the polling stations, handing the voters marked ballots and watched them to make sure they deposited them in the ballot boxes.

On May 1, 1946 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit again attacked Lok and harassed the population.

On May 9, 1946 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit attacked Trnaa and arrested 8 people.

On June 10, 1946 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search unit surrounded the village Besfina and for several days severely tortured the population. This was because the Macedonian villages sang Macedonian songs and danced Macedonian dances during the Easter holidays. They arrested 40 men and women and mercilessly beat them and after that they sent them to prison in Lerin.

On July 28, 1946 government troops again surrounded Besfina and arrested 4 men.

On August 29, 1946 Besfina was again attacked and looted. One woman was arrested and all the sheep were taken.

On August 30, 1946 the Monarcho-Fascist armed search gangs surrounded Bukoik and arrested 3 men.

These are just some of the many terrorist attacks perpetrated by the Greek Monarcho-Fascists in Mala Prespa in 1945 and 1946.

Terror escalates with the emergence of Macedonian armed bands

Due to the fierce terror campaigns perpetrated by the Greek Monarcho-Fascists, illegal armed groups began to pop up in the mountains of Mala Prespa during the spring of 1946. These were Macedonian armed groups who were fed up with how the Macedonian people were treated and began to fight back against the gendarmes and Greek military in Mala Prespa.

The Monarcho-Fascist authorities with their mobs relentlessly harassed the Macedonian population in Mala Prespa. The atrocities they committed against the Macedonian people are difficult to describe. The previous action taken to “Hellenize” the Macedonian population was now upgraded to include killing and expulsion of Macedonian people from their ancestral homes. The aim of the great pressure put on the people, with the killing and jailing, was to force them to leave their homeland. The people who did not leave and decided to remain at home were living under the most difficult conditions imaginable. They did not know when there would be a knock on the door and who would be knocking. They feared for their lives every time the dog barked in the yard. They lived in anticipation that at any moment the soldiers, gendarmes and their spies would break the door down, enter the houses and kill them. Even if they were taken alive they were not sure if they would make it to jail or be killed on the way. Even if they survived all that, they were still unsure how they would be judged and what verdict the military courts would reach. And even if they were found not guilty

and escaped a death sentence, they were not sure that they would wake up alive in the morning. Even if they survived this time, there was always the next time… and the cycle of life and death and great fear, continued. People lived day to day in never ending fear.

As the number of partisans grew and made their presence in the villages, the Monarcho-Fascist mercenaries and gendarmes became angrier and angrier. The chief of police at the German police station, a man named Gizas who was also police chief of all of Mala Prespa, was a man without human feelings. He used his extensive network of gendarmes, soldiers, policemen and spies, from the Asia Minor colonist communities, to spread terror in the Macedonian villages. Every day Gizas had his goons round up men, women and girls from the villages and bring them to the various gendarmerie stations in Mala Prespa. He kept them there for days and sometimes weeks. He had them beaten and tortured in the most primitive ways. He accused them of having committed all sorts of crimes and wanted them to acknowledge things they had not seen or done. He then had them loaded onto trucks and sent to prisons in Lerin. And when all the prisons were full, he had them locked up in barns.

Gizas, better known as Mala Prespa’s executioner, who had already dragged hundreds of people from the Mala Prespa villages to the police station in German and P’pli, who had them tortured and murdered and then sent to the prisons in Lerin, and who had the courts in Lerin find them guilty and sentenced to death, was still thirsty for more blood. During the night of April 27, 1946, after midnight, Gizas had 40 men and 6 women arrested in the village German, and after he had them tortured he sent them to the prison in Lerin. Then these people, along with others abducted on November 16, 1946, were tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. They were executed on October 28, 1948 in Lerin. Included among those executed were Metodia Torkov, Stoian Iankov, German Boglev, Vasil Belev, Fote Mechkarov, Stoian Liangov, Vangel Chetelev, Ioshe Iovanov, Andreia Ivanov, Lazo Rusev, Vangel Nushev, German Babinkostev and German Mladenov. It is difficult to express the suffering that the Macedonian people endured in this region while being tormented and tortured by the Greek gendarmerie and other Greek military units and armed bands during this period, when these monsters existed in Mala Prespa. It is also equally

difficult to express the will of the Macedonian people; still resisting after all that was done to them. It is worthwhile mentioning at this point that the 13 young men mentioned above, who were sentenced to death in the Lerin prison, on the day of their execution they were loaded onto trucks, and while being driven on the main street in Lerin in the night they sang aloud the song “Vo borba, vo borba Makedonski narode” (To battle, to battle Macedonian nation). Many of the people in Lerin ran to their windows thinking that the partisans had taken Lerin. When the executioners had the young men line up in front of the firing squad, near the already dug graves, the boys again sang revolutionary songs and, before being shot, yelled “We die for Macedonia’s freedom”.

This deplorable and ghastly act shook all of Lerin and Prespa.

The material that UNRA donated after WW II, which was intended to be distributed among the war-torn civilian population, was in fact taken by a few people, mostly by the armed spies who worked against the people and who, at the time, no one was able to resist.

Lazo Kiuchukot, an Asia Minor colonist from the Shaovtsi settlement, a warden responsible for the water supply in R’bi, with his rifle over his shoulder broke into Nikola Stoianov’s house and began to yell demanding that Nikola give him his red rooster because Lazo apparently liked to eat red roosters. But Nikola had partisan guests in his home who immediately disarmed him and threatened him with harm. Lazo never bothered Nikola again.

Ilia, the forester from the village German, along with two Greek gendarmes, came out of Apostole’s bar in R’bi and headed for the village German. They were drunk and swaggered like fools as they went down the road. On their way they expressed their love to all the women they passed by in the dusk, returning from the water spring. On the other side of the road partisans were visiting Petre Vidinov at his house. The partisans became very angry when they heard how the three were treating the women and were ready to murder them. Petre stopped them because, as Petre said, an incident like this will give the Monarcho-Fascists an excuse to destroy the entire village. These are the kinds of conditions of violence and

lawlessness the Macedonian people had to live through in the hands of the Greek government.

The Macedonian partisan units during this period acted independently and separately from those of DAG. The two forces were not unified until November 21, 1946. Combined they were stronger and were able to carry out broader actions against the Monarcho-Fascist army.

The Agreement to combine forces was signed in the village Turie, Lerin Region.

United Nations Commission investigating Greek allegations