MACEDONIAN REFUGEES IN DANTE’S HELL

MACEDONIAN REFUGEES IN DANTE’S HELL

“That was terrifying! We could not eat after we saw the dreadful pictures in the camps,” concluded the UN representatives

Lucien Kramer wrote, “When we witnessed the miserable refugee situation in Bulgaria, we thought we were in one of Dante’s circles of hell. This was truly a scandal for Europe that could not be tolerated…” This was written in September 1925 and was published by an international magazine describing the refugee drama of the thousands of Macedonians terrorized in Greece before they sought shelter in Bulgaria. Even more dramatic were the statements made by Prokter and Tiksje from the International Bureau of Labor delegates from the People’s association. Prokter and Tiksje said, “We couldn’t believe what we saw with our own eyes during our visit. It was terrible! We were so disgusted we couldn’t eat or calm down from what we saw in the refugee camps.” Their statements were sent to the international organization.

Terrorized by the Greek authorities in their own homeland where they had lived for centuries, in the period from 1923 to 1928 around 33,000 Macedonians left for Bulgaria and around 10,000 left for Royal Yugoslavia. Their troubles unfortunately did not end with their leaving. On the contrary their troubles and suffering continued to follow them.

After they received their necessary documents for leaving, the Macedonian families were gathered together in large numbers and told to wait at train stations for special cargo trains to pick them up and transport them to the border. This is what Todor Hristov Simovski wrote in his book “Populated Places in the Aegean Macedonia”, “And when at last the trains arrived to pick up the people being deported and take them to the other side of the border where their troubles and their tragedies should have ended, a new kind of suffering began. They began to agonize over the uncertainty of their future which in practice was more unbearable and harder to bear…”

More about this was written in newspaper articles in the “Ilinden” newspaper which Macedonians in Sofia published. Among other things, the Macedonian refugees and even the Bulgarian authorities responsible for transporting them to their destinations were interviewed. They recounted their experience and many said that after leaving Greece they hoped that their troubles would finally be over, especially the torture.

In his August 1924 report D. Dinev, member of the National Committee of the Macedonian Associations, wrote, “…the refugee families were arriving in Svilengrad around 1 to 1:30 past midnight. They were first disinfected and then vaccinated and after that they were taken to a camp where they stayed from three to ten days. The refugees were exhausted and many were sick. There was not a single nice word spoken by them. They were exposed to the summer sun, the wind and the rain in the open camps. They were not allowed to go inside the quarantine barracks, not even the ill or the mothers with small children…”

After arriving at the initial train station the exhausted refugees were separated and sent to different places in Bulgaria. They suffered even more during these long trips. This is what was said in a statement made on July 11, 1924, “...we met groups of refugees in several places between Burgas and Mesimvrija who were in bad condition and the authorities responsible for them looked after everything else but the people…”

The Bulgarian authorities did not take care of the refugees as they should have but left them on their own. Because of their exhaustion and hunger many were prone to all kinds of diseases. This was confirmed in a telegram that Dr. Talev sent on July 25, 1924 to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and to the National Committee in which he wrote, “I found out that all the refugees sent to Bulgaria were infected with malaria...The long trip and hunger had exhausted them. I was very sad watching them die from malaria…”

The Bulgarian authorities were not really concerned about the Macedonian refugees as was shown by the minutes of the annual National Committee, which were compiled into a report by the Macedonian Association during its meeting held at the beginning of February 1926. At that meeting it was concluded that, “The refugees arrived without clothes, hungry and exhausted. They hoped that here in Bulgaria they would be free and well looked after. There would be an end to their slavery and to their physical and mental suffering, they would be welcomed and accepted as brothers and sisters and, at least, there would be temporary places to accommodate them. But when they arrived at the train station in Svilengrad they were met by official authorities in a very unpleasant way. Their encounter immediately cooled the hopes which they had had before they left their homes. Their hopes quickly changed into hopelessness when they faced the Bulgarian reality... Instead of showing them brotherly compassion, the Bulgarian authorities were completely uninterested and totally indifferent to them. Even the local population viewed them like they were ‘aliens’ and treated them like they were ‘barbarians’, who had just been interned in Lovecko...”

The Committee concluded that the refugees were indeed infected with various diseases in the inhospitable places in Bulgaria. The report continued, “…The poor travelers were sick, hungry and in despair, ripe for diseases to harvest them. The death toll was 20 percent in Plovdiv Region and 80 percent in Rusen Region…” These poor Macedonians suffered immensely in Greece and survived the Greek terror only to die horribly in Bulgaria because of neglect. The Bulgarian authorities, who accepted them in Bulgaria as kinsmen, obviously did not provide them with the help they needed. Ironically there are Bulgarians who to this day still claim that Macedonians are Bulgarians.

The drama that these Macedonian refugees experienced did not go unnoticed by the world. In his book Andre Urbain wrote, “Accommodated temporarily in schools, train stations, cottages, tents, etc., the refugees become easy prey for diseases. They were weak from previously being tortured. Because there was a shortage of fertile land available to cultivate, many refugees were sent to the unfertile muddy lands in Burgas, a barren area infested with malaria. The death toll in that area was really staggering and terrifying.

About 69% of the refugees settled in that area died within two years…”