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PROVOCATIVE
DISTORTION OF HISTORY AND EFFORT OF "BEAUTIFICATION OF PAIDOMAZOMA”
IN PRINCETON
RECOGNITION OF THE FYROM
AS "MACEDONIA" FROM PROFESSOR WHO TEACHES IN GREEK UNIVERSITY!!!
Distortion
of history and none-incriminatory attitude of persons in charge for paidomazoma
was attempted by academicians Riki Van Boeschoten from the University
of Thessaly and Loring Danforth from Bates College, Maine in the frame of
a workshop, titled "Refugee Children from the Greek Civil War in
Eastern Europe: Displacement, Memory and the Natural Order of Things
". In the meeting which took place on May 10, 2005, in
Princeton University, the aforementioned academicians tried to give a
rather “rosy” picture of the most horrid crime of humanity, the
“paidomazoma” (child-gathering), importing new vocabulary and the
presentation of photographic material. The
two anthropologists, Van Boeschoten and Danforth in their respective
papers `From
"Janissaries" in "Hooligans": Refugee Children in
Hungary
and `We Came Back Like
Angels and Found Ourselves in Hell’,
even though they characterized paidomazoma as action of "political
expediency", they used terms as "evacuation" while the
children that were seized were called "refugees". The
well-known journalist/author, Mr. Nicholas Gage intervened and clarified
the term “evacuate” as “the space is evacuated by individuals who
are facing natural disasters, such as storms, floods, fires etc”. Mr.
Gage also determined the importance of the word "refugee",
pointing out that "refugee is the individual who faces predicaments
in his area and out of his OWN will resorts to other places where help is
granted”. In
Nick Gage’s Eleni, Xantho Veneti, answering to the question of a woman
partisan: "Comrade Xantho, will you will your children the chance to
live their lives without fear?” she gave the answer that every Greek
mother would give, even though she knew this answer was her death: “NONE
of us will give you our children” (pg 260). During
the introduction of their papers, Van Boeschoten and Danforth, explained
that since 1998 they studied one hundred cases of children of paidomazoma
(which they constantly referred to as “evacuation”) in Greece, Eastern
Europe and Canada. Their papers were accompanied by photographic material,
from victims of paidomazoma, now adolescents henceforth.
The photographic material however, emanated from Hungary, depicting
modern, well dressed, well coiffed, content teenagers, engaging in ballet,
music lessons and sports activities. Dr.
Danforth, supplementing the study of his colleague added that when the
adolescents were repatriated they were not satisfied with their
environment and their families any more. The two scholars used the term
“Macedonia” irrespectively when they referred to the FYROM. It has to
be pointed out that Dr. Boeschoten teaches in the University of Thessaly
and is paid by the Greek state! We are not aware that Greece has
recognized the FYROM as "Macedonia"! One
of the photographs depicted a team of "happy" children and right
above them there was a questionable banner in which was written in the
Greek language a sign that separated the children as ELLINOPOYLA AND
"MAKEDONOPOYLA"! Dr.
Floudas also pointed out “this ideal, rosy picture that the scientists
presented does not reflect reality”. Mrs. Nina Gatzoulis, Vice-President
of the Pan-Macedonian Association, USA who also teaches Modern Greek in
the University of New Hampshire, observed that “Hungary might have been
one of the more progressive countries during the time that these events
were taking place, however Hungary was not the only country that the
children were disseminated”. A
legitimate question arises as to why the two academics did not present
compatible photographs, and studies of children who were sent to other
countries of the iron curtain, such as Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, or Albania.
Why this unilateral demonstration of photographs from Hungary? Do the
academicians know the case of children that were led to Rumania and for a
long time they were on their own, without a guardian? As for their diet in
some of these countries, Nick Gage in Helen writes: More
than thirty years later I had dinner with an Athenian couple, two former
children from Lia about the same age as myself, who were taken that
summer in the paidomazoma…In the barracks in Albania, they survived
mostly on soup made of leeks and on raw dandelion greens, which they
scavenged from nearby fields. Their “play” was devising races with
their body lice on the barracks floor. The
Pan-Macedonian Association of USA, referring to the customary academic
exchange between academicians and audience, points out: "We were
particularly astonished that a professor of Greek origin and host of the
panel, Dr. Gondicas, denied Mr. Gage to further comment on the issue. Mr.
Gage has a plethora of information on the subject, since he personally was
involved in the paidomazoma during that time, and he wrote about it in his
book Eleni. Mrs. Gatzoulis added: "Indeed representing the
Pan-Macedonian Association, I called Dr. Gondicas and I personally asked
him to have scholars that have different views than those of Drs.
Boeschoten and Danforth, so that a complete picture of the drama would be
presented. Apparently
Dr. Gondicas was satisfied in the distortion of history in the frame of a
HELLENIC STUDIES PROGRAM in Princeton!! However we wonder how is the
Hellenic history and the Greek culture promoted when TRUTH is hushed down
in such academic circles by professors of Greek origin?»
Lieutenant
General D. Zafiropoulos in his book “Antisymmorikos Agon 1945-49 (pg.
668) inter alias formal protest by various entities world-wide against the
paidomazoma, presents what the Voice
of America
stated on December 29, 1948: The name of Herod will remain in history linked with one of
the most appalling crimes in humanity. Herod sinned against God and man,
using the child as vehicle to secure his rule. Now after 2,000 years some
other fiends used the child as a political weapon”. Marcus Templar in his introductory unit, Historical background, states: …Baba-Donka’s
first son, Nikola, during the Bulgarian occupation of the area, decided to
walk from Bitola to a neighboring village to see a friend of his.
On his way, he was unlucky to meet some Bulgarian troops who
thinking that he was a partisan threw gasoline on him and burned him
alive. Because
of the above event, after the communist took over Yugoslavia, the
communist authorities bestowed the "honor" to Baba Donka, as a
hero’s mother to escort the kidnapped children from Greece to Skopje.
Baba Donka went to Kremenica, a town on the borders to Greece where
the communist Partisans kept the children, put them on a train and from
there, they took the children to Bitola and through Prilep, Titov Veles to
Skopje. Many of the children
were babies crying, the older ones speaking only Greek made the task of
the women-escorts difficult. However,
what made my Baba Donka’s life extremely difficult was that a good
number of children died of illnesses as dysentery, privation, etc.
The children were under partisan control unattended for long time. Concluding, we can say that perhaps it is time now the TRUE history to be heard, perhaps by TRUE scholars in Princeton. Mr. Nick Gage has challenged these two professors to a debate regarding the issue of paidomazoma in one to one basis.
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