CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX

THE CHILDREN’S HOMES AND SHELTERS IN MACEDONIA

- Bitola - Brailovo - Skopje - Prilep - Kumanovo - Matka - Petrovets - Valandovo - Liubojno - Struga

IN THE FREE PART OF MACEDONIA

From the documentation available to us, it appears that 912 refugee children entered the People’s Republic of Macedonia from Aegean Macedonia in the period from April 1 to May 10, 1948. These children were received by the Yugoslav Red Cross and placed in the children’s homes in Vrshats, Banatsko Plandishte, Strazha and Bela Tsrkva in the Autonomous Province Voivodina. Similarly, in 1948, 11,934 refugee children passed through the People’s Republic of Macedonia and were sent to Eastern European countries. During the same year another 3,184 refugee children with their parents left Macedonia and settled in Gakovo and Krushevlie in Voivodina.

In the first half of 1948 there were approximately 5 thousand refugee children in the People’s Republic of Macedonia, and of that number approximately 4,080 children were with their parents residing in various places in the republic. But as larger groups of new arrival began to emerge, the Macedonian Red Cross and the Macedonian Ministry of Social Welfare were forced to open new homes and shelters, as was the case with the homes in Matka and in the village Petrovets, near Skopje.

As we said earlier, the accommodation and care for these children was organized and coordinated by the People’s government.

After being examined by medical professionals, the refugee children were sent to several shelters and children’s homes.

But after the Informburo Resolution was introduced in 1949, various Eastern European countries began a negative propaganda campaign against Yugoslavia. At this time there were Greek Party leaders and personnel living in Bulkes who were in favour of the Resolution and against Yugoslavia. These people began campaigns of their own to bring dissension among the refugee children. They managed to turn the Greek refugee children and a very small, an insignificant number, of Macedonian children against Yugoslavia. These children began to be disruptive. They repeatedly broke house rules and were intolerant of other children and the staff. After careful consideration the administration decided to move 248 of them from the children’s homes in Croatia and Slovenia and send them to the children’s homes in Skopje. A large part of this group was taught various trades and lived in the homes for economy students.

After its arrival in Skopje, this small group of children continued to create unrest so it was divided into two parts. The Macedonian students who wanted to study or to learn a trade remained in Skopje while the Greek students who did not want to study here were sent to Bogovadia, the People’s Republic of Serbia, where a special home had to be opened just for them. At the same time on October 22, 1949, 29 young girls, 4 young boys, 2 younger children and 3 women, all Greeks from the same group, were sent to a shelter in Kumanovo, which was run by the People’s Republic of Macedonia’s Ministry of Social Welfare. Unfortunately, here too the group continued with its negative outbursts and acting out. The students refused to go to school or to learn a trade, persistently demanding to be sent to Czechoslovakia. As a result, on July 15, 1950 the Yugoslav Red Cross Central Committee put in a rush request to have this group partnered with other Greek children who at that time were placed in Kovili and Churug. The request was signed by EPON (the organization of Greek youth). The situation in this home became even more dramatic when, on August 17, 1950, the children rebelled demanding to immediately be sent to Czechoslovakia,

where they claimed their parents were. But because the Yugoslav Red Cross had not received any requests from their parents it decided to ignore their demands. Unfortunately, the explanation given to the Greeks by house manager Kiro Pesevski was not acceptable. As a result, Red Cross Central Committee in Belgrade decided to close down the Kumanovo shelter and send the group of refugees to the children’s home in Churug, Voivodina.

The shelter in Kumanovo was closed on August 25, 1950.

The children’s home in Matka, near Skopje, was opened by the Red Cross, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Care, in May 1948. This home housed 332 refugee children from preschool age to 14 years old. There were also 10 women, “mothers”, with the children who had accompanied them from their villages in Aegean Macedonia and who had crossed the Yugoslav border with them.

The home in Petrovets, near Skopje, was opened in early October 1948. It housed 208 school age refugee children. However, the children placed in this home did not attend primary school in Petrovets because the building was too small. There was no sufficient space to accommodate any of the refugee children because the existing school was used to teach the children of the local villages. Only one teacher taught in this school.