FRANTIC ATTEMPTS TO SWIM ACROSS LAKE PRESPA

FRANTIC ATTEMPTS TO SWIM ACROSS LAKE PRESPA

Even though she did not know how to swim, Partisan Lefka Ivanova dove into the deep water to flee the war and save herself in the Republic of Macedonia

In the confusion during the retreat after the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG) was defeated in the Greek Civil War, Lefka Ivanova, a DAG Partisan, tried to keep in step with the rest of the fleeing fighters. Unfortunately, because of a foot injury that had not healed she fell behind. By dawn she had become separated from her unit but continued fleeing alone, heading west towards the border. Confused, alone and frightened she decided to try and swim to the Yugoslav border, which she was able to see on the other side of Lake Prespa. She had family in Yugoslavia, two uncles; her mother’s brothers. It was a strange and desperate move on her part because the lake was deep and she could not swim. When she jumped into the water an enemy soldier hiding in the reeds fired his machine gun at her and hit her in the right arm. The bullet broke her bone and left her arm hanging down and useless. Realizing that she could drown if she continued, she turned back and began to climb up a hill, expecting to be killed. When she came out of the water she grabbed her injured arm and held it. The enemy soldiers saw that. One of the soldiers went over to her and, in a gentle tone of voice, asked her if she could move her arm. She said yes even though she could not move it. The kindness of the soldier surprised her. She was trained to expect very cruel treatment from the enemy. This was one of the more dramatic scenes from Lefka Ivanova’s young life as a Partisan who now lives in Australia. The story was told by her son Pando Kosev.

According to her son Pando Kosev, from there she was sent to a hospital where a doctor took care of her injuries. She ran into several other Partisans in the hospital who were now prisoners. She knew some of them from the mountains where she spent a lot of time in the camps and in battles. Because of her serious injuries, she was sent to a larger hospital in Solun where she spent four months recovering.

Lefka Ivanova was born in 1932 in the village Krchishta, located near Kostur. She was the middle of three daughters. Her parents’ names were Donka and Lambro. Her Greek name was Eleftheria Ioanou, and her village was called Polianemon in Greek. Her father left the village in 1937 and went to work in Australia as a migrant worker, which was the usual practice for those of his generation. Her mother died in 1947 at the young age of 37. At 15 years old Lefka and her two sisters, Olga and Aliki, went to live with their grandmother. Lefka’s mother and two brothers were active members of the resistance movement during the German occupation and during the first years of the Greek Civil War.

According to her son Pando, Lefka’s story begins in October 1947 when one afternoon all the men and women in her village aged 18 and over who were of military age were gathered together and recruited by DAG to serve as Partisans. Most of these young recruits were immediately taken and sent to the mountain camps. Unfortunately DAG was not satisfied with the current number of recruits from this village so one night several weeks later two Partisans visited Lefka’s family while they were hiding near the river with other families. They were hiding there not to avoid the draft but to avoid the falling bombs and artillery shells being dropped on them by the Greek government, which was constantly shelling the “disloyal” Kostur villages.

Lefka was taken from there and sent to DAG field command headquarters located on Mount Gramos where she met a lot of people from her village that were previously recruited. After that she spent two months in military training, being trained in guerrilla warfare tactics. Many of the people from her village begged the authorities to let her go home because she was too young to be a fighter but were unsuccessful. In the end she was sent to serve in an active DAG unit. At the end of her training, Lefka’s unit was sent to the front line in the southern parts of Kostur Region. Not understanding the risks of engaging a stronger and well-armed opponent, Lefka found herself overwhelmed by the noise, confusion

and terrors of war. During one of her first battles when her unit was dispatched to ambush a unit of the Greek government army, Lefka received a serious injury on her head from an exploding hand grenade thrown at her by the enemy.

Lefka was bleeding profusely from her injury and kept losing consciousness. She was carried back behind the battle lines by her co-fighters and spent the next three months in a field hospital hidden deep in the woods of Mount Gramos. The hospital was full of seriously injured young Partisans, both boys and girls, treated by doctors and volunteers. Most were sent home to recover but because of the heavy losses and shortage of recruits, most were sent back to the front lines before they had fully recovered. In order to prevent an infection Lefka shaved her head and because of her youthful looks and wearing a uniform she was often mistaken for a boy. She was only 15 years old.

Before she had fully recovered, Lefka was placed on guard duty all over the Gramos mountain range. Her job was to report on enemy movements. At that time the Partisans were concerned about being attacked by the enemy that was based at the foot of Mount Gramos. One night when she was on duty she was spotted by the enemy and fired at with artillery fire. A shell fell near her and a piece of shrapnel injured her leg, damaging a joint. She was again taken from the front line but this time was sent over the Albanian border to Korcha where she spent four months in a hospital receiving medical treatment for her seriously damaged foot. Later she found out that the shrapnel had seriously damaged her nerves and partially paralyzed her leg, an injury that stayed with her until she had reconstructive surgery in Australia 40 years later, which allowed her to again walk without pain.

Sometime in May 1950, while living in Kostur Region, Lefka was contacted by her father from Australia asking her to join him in Perth. At the time her two sisters, one living in Yugoslavia and the other in Poland, had learned that Lefka had survived the war and was still alive. Lefka’s father made arrangements from his side to have all of his daughters join him in Australia. When Lefka went to Kostur to make her travel arrangements she met a 22 year old young man who had just returned from Athens where he had delivered his

documents for getting a passport. His father was also living in Perth and was trying to help his family join him. His family was from the village Visheni in Kostur Region. The young man wanted to leave his village in 1947 to join his father in Australia but his passport was confiscated by the Greek authorities and he was recruited to serve in the Greek government army. But when the Greek Civil War ended he was able to leave and go to Australia.

A few weeks after they met both left for Perth, a place unknown to them. When they arrived they found out that their fathers were friends. Their parents were active in Macedonian affairs even before a Macedonian community was organized in Western Australia. In May 1953, Lefka Ivanova married Grigori Kosev, the man she had met in Kostur. They now have two children and five grandchildren.