CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE

THE CHILDREN’S HOMES AND SHELTERS IN SLOVENIA

- Shishka - Borl kaj Ptui - Stara Gora - Dutovlie - Mekinie - Shest Vid

THE FIRST SHELTERS

The first children’s home to be opened in the People’s Republic of Slovenia, for the refugee children from Aegean Macedonia, was in Shishka. This home began to operate in 1948 and housed the first 166 refugee children who arrived on August 11, 1948. These children were taken from the various homes in Voivodina: 16 were taken from Vrshats, 25 from Banatsko Plandishte, and 125 from Bela Tsrkva. Of these, 81 were boys and 85 were girls ages 3 to 7. They came together with 6 women “mothers” and 6 young ladies who took them from the villages in Aegean Macedonia and accompanied them here.

Before coming to their new home, while their new home was being prepared for them, the refugee children stayed 15 days in Zagreb where they were examined by medical staff and provided with medical care and treatment. Their stay and accommodations were taken care of by the Slovenian Red Cross.

The shelter in Shishka was closed on August 25, 1948.

The Macedonian teachers who taught at the children’s home in Shishka were Dusan Georgievski, Luben Apostolovski, Metodia Naumovski, Kosara Galevska and Danitsa Basnarkova.

The children’s home in Borl, Ptui was opened on the same day the children left the children’s home in Shishka.

The refugee children stayed in Borl more than three months and, in the beginning of December 1948, were moved to the newly opened children’s homes in Stara Gora and Dutovlie. These homes were specifically tailored for the children by the Slovenian Red Cross. After they were moved the home in Borl was closed down.

A new shelter for the refugee children was opened in the beginning of April 1949 in Mekinie, near Kamnik, Slovenia. This shelter housed the children who were moved from the homes in Croatia. This shelter also housed the 40 children who left the children’s home in Tsrkvenitsa. Later 23 more childrem from Tsrkvenitsa were accepted here and another 32 arrived at the end of April 1949. The total number of children housed in the Mekenie children’s home was 95, all refugee children from Aegean Macedonia.

In May 1949 the Slovenian Red Cross moved the children from the Mekinie home and placed them in children’s homes in Dutovlie, Stara Gora and Shent Vid.

The shelter in Mekinie was closed down at the end of May 1949.

It should be mentioned at this point that the first group of Aegean Macedonian refugee children arrived in the People’s Republic of Slovenia in August 1948. These children arrived in Slovenia from the children’s homes in Voivodina. The children were immediately placed in temporary shelters in Shishka and Borl while the Slovenian Red Cross and the Slovenian government made preparations to permanently house them in the children’s homes in Stara Gora near Goritsa, and in Dutovlie.

THE CHILDREN’S HOME IN STARA GORA

The children’s home in Stara Gora opened at the end of November 1948 and housed all the children who came from the Borl shelter as well as the refugee children who came from the shelters in the People’s Republic of Croatia. In total 330 children came to Slovenia in the period from August 11 to November 25, 1948. The Stara Gora home housed 136 refugee children. The rest were housed in the Dutovlie home.

The number of refugee children in this home, in May 1949, grew to 195, of which 194 were Macedonian and 1was Vlach. But the number of children accommodated in the Stara Gora home kept growing. By mid-October 1949 the home accommodated 212 children, of whom 96 were boys and 116 girls. Included in this number were 84 pre-school age children and 128 school age children. This home also accommodated 19 women “mothers” and young ladies who care for the children.

It should be pointed out at this time that the Stara Gora children’s home had two teachers who taught Macedonian. They were sent here by the Ministry of Education from the People’s Republic of Macedonia.

In the middle of September 1949 this home was visited by a Macedonian delegation headed by Petar Zdravkovski, secretary of the Government of the People’s Republic of Macedonia. The home was also visited in October of that year by school inspector Filip Nikolovski from Skopje, whose job was to inspect schools and educational work. He visited the home with various Yugoslav Red Cross officials.

The children placed in the Stara Gora children’s home were originally from Lerin and Kostur Regions. In 1950 located at this home were 148 children, in 1951 there were 167 and 9 “mothers” who came with them.

At the end of March 1952, after this home ceased to operate, 86 children from here were sent to the children’s homes in Sailovo and Bela Tsrkva. The Stara Gora children’s home was closed down by the Slovenian Red Cross and by the Slovenian government at the beginning of April 1952.

THE CHILDREN’S HOME IN DUTOVLIE

The children’s home in Dutovlie, Slovenia was opened on November 25, 1948. This home housed the refugee children who had stayed in other shelters and children’s homes in Slovenia.

The Slovenian Red Cross sponsored children’s home in Dutovlie began to operate at the beginning of December 1948 after it received 194 children of whom 156 were Macedonian and 34 were Greek. In May 1949 the number of children placed in the home was 154. Placed here were also 15 women “mothers” who came with the children. In early October 1949 the home accommodated 181 refugee children and 15 women, of whom 6 were Macedonian, “mothers”, and 9 were Greek women.

The refugee children placed in the children’s home in Dutovlie were from the following villages:

Armensko, Zhupanishte, Blatse Krchishta, Besfina, Kotori, Breshchani, Konomlati, V’mbel, Krushoradi, Gabresh, Lak, Galiste, Ludovo, German, Medovo, Zhelevo, Oshchima, Orovnik, Trsie, Rabi, Turnovo, Rudari, Strkovo and Tiolishta.

The children’s home in Dutovlie had enough rooms and equipment to house all the children and to provide them with ample good quality food. There were 28 Slovenians employed at the home.

Also residing in the same children’s home, in 1949, were the “mothers” who came with the refugee children. They were:

Mitra Germancheva, Tena Bundova, Ristana Lazarova, Maria Shulevska, Parashka Panova, Mitra Kolova and Katina Markova.

In September 1949 this home was visited by a Macedonian delegation comprised of Petar Zdravkovski, Risto Iankulovski, Vasilka Chesova, Vasilka Divkova, Filip Nikolovski, and Tome Krstovski. Similarly, this home was also visited by inspector Blagoia Kondarko from the Ministry of Education in Skopje.

In October 1949 a seminar was held at the Dutovlie home to inform the administrators, and accountants about the refugee children from Aegean Macedonia. The seminar was conducted by Dimitrie Goncharov, financial department head from the Yugoslav Red Central Committee. All the children’s homes where refugee children from Aegean Macedonia were housed were the responsibility of the Red Cross.

In December 1950 the children’s home in Dutovlie was also visited by a delegation from the Skopje Committee of Aegean Macedonians. This delegation was composed of Dinko Delevski, Atanas Kirovski, Steria Vangelova and Spiro Mechkarov.

In 1951 this home, and all other homes in which the Yugoslav Red Cross housed refugee children, was visited by a delegation from the Swedish Red Cross. This delegation was headed by Professor Dr. Erich Holmberg. In addition to this delegation, the children’s homes, where refugee children from Aegean Macedonia (Greece) were accommodated, were visited by several foreign delegations. They came here in order to determine if the children were treated accordingly with regards to their care, diet, housing and education. After their visits, the delegations emphasized in their written reports that the Yugoslav government made every effort to allocate sufficient resources to create good conditions for the care and education of the refugee children. With that they countered the numerous negative rumours that were spread, not only by Greece but also by Eastern European governments (which also accepted and took care of refugee children) that Yugoslavia was mistreating the children.

At the beginning of the 1949/50 academic year, the Yugoslav Red Cross Central Committee decided to move the Macedonian children from the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa and send them to the children’s home in Dutovlie where they could study in their Macedonian mother language. The 38 Greek children and 8 “mothers” in Dutovlie were moved to the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa.

However, influenced by the Informburo propaganda campaign, the Greek women and children expressed dissatisfaction at being moved and rebelled on their way to Tsrikvenitsa, forcing the authorities to bring them back to the children’s home in Dutovlie. By then the Macedonian children had already arrived in Dutovlie and were already placed in the children’s home and there was no room available for the Greeks. The Greek women and children had to be temporarily placed in a makeshift shelter that used to be a cafeteria. They stayed there until December 1949 and then were moved to a

children’s home in Bogovadia, Serbia, and placed with other Greeks.

Because of repatriations, in 1951 the number of refugee children, in the various children’s homes located in the People’s Republic of Slovenia and in the People’s Republic of Croatia, had significantly decreased. Later these homes were closed and the remaining children were moved to a children’s home in Bela Tsrkva.

The Dutovlie home was closed at the end of September 1951.

The Okroglo children’s home, located north of Liubliana, was opened in February 1949. It housed 26 children. That home also served as a hostel for children recovering from illnesses. The Slovenian Red Cross sent recovering refugee children to this home from all other homes in its jurisdiction as well as from homes in the other republics.

In addition to the Okroglo facility, there was another facility opened to care for recovering children, this facility was located near Bela Tsrkva, in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.

In 1952 the children being cared for at the Okroglo facility were from the Sailovo, Tsrikvenitsa, Stara Gora and Bela Tsrkva children’s homes. The facility had well-organized health services, which helped the children recover quickly and then return to their children’s homes.

In mid-February 1952 a conference was held in Okroglo. All the directors from the children’s homes in the People’s Republic of Slovenia were invited to attend in order to discuss the children’s repatriation with their parents.

The Okroglo health facility operated for 3 years before it was closed down on March 18, 1952. The facility had 36 patients at its closing date, 22 were moved to the Shent Vid children’s home, 12 were moved to the children’s home in Bela Tsrkva and 2 were moved to children’s home in Sailovo.