FLEEING FROM HORROR

FLEEING FROM HORROR

The gathering and escorting of children from their homes, as indicated above, was carried out by the authorities of the people’s government and by the national liberation organizations (NOF and AFZH) under DAG’s direct control and protection. The children from the villages close to the borders were sent over the borders at night, on foot, in order to avoid possible attacks from the government’s aviation. They walked during the night and hid in villages and in the forests during the day. Only the youngest children who could not walk were transported on carts and on the backs of animals while the rest walked on foot in rain and mud in long columns.

According to CPG Central Committee official data, published in October 1950, the total number of immigrants from Greece accepted in the Eastern European countries and in the Soviet Union were 55,881, of whom more than 20,000 were Macedonians. Those who left for Yugoslavia numbered about 45,000 to 50,000.

The total number of uprooted children, according to various sources, was 28,000 to 30,000. First to report on the number of evacuated children organized in 1948 was Petros Roussos, a senior CPG official, who in his report wrote: “Because of the need to save the children from the dangers of war, more were accepted and taken care of in Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In total the number of these children is closer to 20,000, of whom the majority are Slavo-Macedonians.”

In early 1949 the number of children and homes in Yugoslavia wеrе as follows:

- Bela Tsrkva - 544 Macedonians - Tsrkvenitsa - 358 Macedonians and 152 Greeks - Dutovlie - 144 Macedonians and 55 Greeks - Stara Gora - 195 Macedonians - Shent Vid - 134 Macedonians - Osiek - 86 Macedonians, 19 Greeks - Stenievich, Senvit - 30 Greeks

Total number of children was 1,857, of whom 1,581 were Macedonians and 276 were Greeks.

According to Dr. Fana Butskova there were 90 teachers teaching the children in the homes, of whom 17 were Macedonian and 10 Greek. There were also other educational and support staff working there which included 33 Macedonians and 30 Greeks.

FACTORS DICTATING THE RESETTLEMENT

Serbian historian Dr. Milan Ristovich, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in his book entitled “Dolgo vrakianie doma” (Long return home), underlined the following:

“During the civil war many children lost one or both parents. The children from war zones near the northern Greek border, from the beginning of 1948, had become protagonists of dramatic and controversial consequences, especially during the most severe episode of the Greek Civil War. According to some interpretations, about 25,000, and to others about 28,000 children had been transferred (organized by the ‘interim government’), or fled accompanied by their parents and other adults to the territory of neighbouring and other countries of the ‘people’s democracies’. According to the United Nations Special Committee for the Balkans and to the International Red Cross, 23,696 children were taken from that country.

It should be mentioned here that this phenomenon had its own ‘other’ hand in the action, which led the government in Athens to

also organize the ‘gathering of children’ from the war zones. From a total of 43,000 children covered by these actions, about 15,000 were evacuated by the authorities of the royal government in Athens.”

YUGOSLAVIA AS A TRANSIT COUNTRY

Similarly Professor Dr. M. Ristovich noted the following:

“The first news of children to be transported to Yugoslavia came out on February 20, 1948. Markos Vafiadis, representative of the interim government, sent a report to ‘Dionisis’ in Belgrade, informing him that the preparations for the evacuation were going well. It was estimated that about 2,500 children from Lerin Region and 3,500 from Kostur Region would be transported while no details were available from Kinitsa – Zagorie Region. The total number of collected children, according to Markos, was ‘not going to be more than 10,000’. This is because it was a well-planned campaign organized by a special commission with collection centres and organized food drives. At the same time women volunteers were organized to accompany the various groups.

The first ‘organized group’ of 500 children was to be ready for its trip on February 25, 1948 but Markos still did not have all the information about its acceptance, where the contact was to be made, how many children could be transported in a day and so on. This, however, does confirm (and is confirmed by other correspondence documents between Markos’s Headquarters with Yugoslav and other representatives) that the first mass transfer of children across the border began in the last days of February and early March, 1948.”

THE REFUGEE CHILDREN’S RECEPTION WAS WELL-PREPARED

In his politicological-historiographical study, Professor Dr. M. Ristovich said the following:

“On March 16, 1948 the Executive Board of the Yugoslav Red Cross issued a press release, in which it said that recent actions and the ‘nonstop terror committed by the Monarcho-Fascist military

against the democratic population in Greece; burning villages, mass arrests, murders and violence’ and other perpetrated measures of terror have driven waves of refugees to flee to the Yugoslav border. Included among these refugees are ‘an increasing number of children who are traveling barefoot, naked, starving and exhausted. These children are in need of swift aid’. Therefore, the Yugoslav Red Cross has taken immediate action and has organized help and care of these refugee children. However, for the problem to be resolved quickly and effectively the Yugoslav Red Cross is urging all national Red Cross organizations ‘to assist in taking care of these innocent children who are forced to leave their native soil and seek salvation outside of their homeland’.

In March 1948 the Yugoslav government entrusted the entire organization around the reception and care of the refugee children to the Committee on Social Welfare and to the Yugoslav Red Cross, which had an extremely difficult task. They needed to immediately find sufficient and suitable space to accommodate the large number of children of all ages. They needed to organize homes, create certain sanitation, organize health care and treatment, and ensure a food supply, clothing and footwear. Yugoslavia at that time was still suffering from the consequences of World War II and still lived in general poverty. But due to the sudden population growth from the influx of the evacuated children and the large number of problems related to their acceptance and accommodation, in May 1948 the Yugslav Red Cross Central Board established the department for protection of the Greek children.

Immediately after the arrival of the first large group of children in the territory of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav government prepared a plan of action. It divided up the chores and formed teams for solving specific refugee problems. The team consisting of the Social Welfare Committee and the Yugoslav Red Cross was tasked with finding buildings to accommodate the refugees, primarily in Voivodina. Refugees were accepted immediately after crossing the Yugoslav border and given emergency food and clothing by the Yugoslav Red Cross stationed in Bitola, Matka, Skopje and Belgrade. The Yugoslav Red Cross with help from the federal, state and local authorities, along with activists of mass organizations such as the Anti-Fascist Front for Women (AFZH) and the Popular Front,

organized the division of food, bathing, disinfection, changing of clothing and medical examinations for the children. The groups of children were then quickly directed to organized shelters and homes.

Outside of the groups that had to remain under Yugoslav Red Cross surveillance, Yugoslavia was the main transit station where children temporarilyy recovered before they were dispatched to other destinations. According to unofficial information, about 14,028 children from Greece passed through Yugoslavia and went to other ‘people’s democratic countries’ from March 30, 1948 until the end of September 1949. According to official figures the Yugoslav government spent some 3,600,000 dinars only for their transportation. The children who were transported also had medical examinations, received clothes, shoes and food and other needs for their trip. Their transportation through Yugoslavia was conducted by the Ministry of the Interior, assisted by the Yugoslav Red Cross. The children in transit were not recorded and no data was gathered about them.

According to data collected by the Yugoslav authorities, the Yugoslav Red Cross, during March-April 1948, assisted 2,492 children who were sent to Czechoslovakia, 3,300 children who were sent to Romania and 2,254 children sent to Hungary.

On June 9, 1948 the Yugoslav Red Cross sent an appeal to the Red Cross League (LDCK) in Geneva asking for help with clothing. According to the information included in the appeal there were 1,300 girls and 1,000 boys ages 3 to 6, 2,500 girls and 1,500 boys ages 6 to 12 and 400 girls and 300 boys ages 12 to 16.”