At the height of the Greek Civil War in 1948, thirty-eight thousand children were evacuated from their homes in the mountains of northern Greece.
The Greek Communist Party relocated half of them to orphanages in Eastern Europe, while their adversaries in the national government placed the rest in children’s homes elsewhere in Greece.
A point of contention during the Cold War, this controversial episode continues to fuel tensions between Greeks and Macedonians and within Greek society itself.
Loring M. Danforth and Riki Van Boeschoten present here for the first time a comprehensive study of the two evacuation programs and the lives of the children they forever transformed.
Marshalling archival records, oral histories, and ethnographic fieldwork, the authors analyze the evacuation process, the political conflict surrounding it, the children’s upbringing, and their fates as adults cut off from their parents and their homeland.
They also give voice to seven refugee children who poignantly recount their childhood experiences and heroic efforts to construct new lives in diaspora communities throughout the world.
A much-needed corrective to previous historical accounts, Children of the Greek Civil War is also a searching examination of the enduring effects of displacement on the lives of refugee children.
REVIEW QUOTESCONTENTS
“This remarkable study breaks new ground in several areas: in its methodology, its style, and its topic. Historically and ethnographically, the book tells a duplex tale: by two authors, writing about two opposed camps, and exploring the vicissitudes of two states and two ethnicities. Balanced to an impressive degree, Children of the Greek Civil War succeeds magnificently in showing the parallels between the experiences of the two sides in a way that is moving as well as analytically compelling. Yet the greatest strength of the book, aside from the seamless writing and its emotional impact, lies in the theorization of the children’s agency in organizing their present lives and understanding their past.”
—Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University
“Successfully combing archival research with extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Children of the Greek Civil War is a work of first-rate scholarship, grounded in original research and sophisticated theoretical analysis, that is often gripping as it ranges from historical prose to deeply moving personal vignettes. Given the contentiousness of the book’s subject—an understudied but highly significant episode—it is as courageous as it is informed. The time seems ripe for beginning the process of reconciliation, and Danforth and Van Boeschoten’s work will help us move down that difficult road.”
Maria Todorova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLwLyRTWJlI&feature=related -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dokumentaren film za Makedonskite Egejci i egzodusot od 1948
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJpT3GP9A6M&sns=fb ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Стара коледарска византиска песна
An intresting comment took place from Pr. Loring Danforth regarding the ethicity of the Slavmacedonians at the history-of-macedonia.com
Here is the abstract:
I have always stated, and I repeat here, that modern Macedonians (people who have a Macedonian and not a Greek national identity) are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians; they are Slavs. This means that they speak a Slavic language. Similarly Greeks are Indo-Europeans, since they speak an Indo-European language. This does not mean that Macedonians should be called Slav Macedonians, any more than Russians should be called Slav Russians or Greeks should be called Indo-European Greeks. In my opinion, Macedonian nationalists who deny they are Slavs and claim they are direct descendants of Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians are extremists. They are making inaccurate statements that are bad scholarship and bad politics. Building a statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje and naming the Skopje airport after Alexander the Great are in my opinion irresponsible acts that are not in the best interests of the Republic of Macedonia.
I have also consistently stated that people who have a Greek national identity and a Macedonian ethnic or regional identity as Macedonians also have every right to identify themselves as Macedonians. In my opinion no one has the right to monopolize the term “Macedonians” and deny others the right to identify themselves as Macedonians. References to “occupied” portions of Macedonia are also extremely irresponsible and inappropriate. I support the human rights of the Macedonian minority in Greece, as I do the rights of the Greek minority in Turkey, and the Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia.
Σε Ελληνικη μεταφραση
Έχω δηλώσει πάντα, και το επαναλαμβάνω και εδώ, ότι οι σύγχρονοι Μακεδόνες (άτομα που έχουν Μακεδονική και όχι Ελληνική εθνική ταυτότητα) δεν είναι απόγονοι των αρχαίων Μακεδόνων, είναι Σλάβοι. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι μιλούν μια σλαβική γλώσσα. Ομοίως, οι Έλληνες είναι Ινδο-Ευρωπαίοι, επειδή μιλούν μία Ινδο-ευρωπαϊκή γλώσσα. Αυτό δεν σημαίνει ότι οι Μακεδόνες πρέπει να ονομάζονται Σλαβομακεδόνες, περισσότερο από Ρώσους θα πρέπει να ονομάζονται Σλάβοι Ρώσοι ή οι Έλληνες θα πρέπει να ονομάζεται Ινδο-Ευρωπαίοι Έλληνες. Κατά τη γνώμη μου, οι Μακεδόνες εθνικιστές, οι οποίοι αρνούνται ότι είναι Σλάβοι και ισχυρίζονται ότι είναι απευθείας απόγονοι του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου και των αρχαίων Μακεδόνων είναι εξτρεμιστές. Κάνουν ανακριβείς δηλώσεις που είναι κακή επιστημοσύνη και κακή πολιτική. Η οικοδόμηση αγάλματος του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου στα Σκόπια στα Σκόπια, και η ονοματοδοσία του αεροδρόμιου ως Μέγας Αλέξανδρος είναι κατά τη γνώμη μου, ανεύθυνες ενέργειες που δεν είναι προς το συμφέρον της Δημοκρατίας της Μακεδονίας.
Έχω, επίσης, επανειλημμένως δηλώσει ότι οι άνθρωποι που έχουν Ελληνική εθνική ταυτότητα και Μακεδονική εθνική ή περιφερειακή ταυτότητα ως Μακεδόνες και έχουν κάθε δικαίωμα να αυτοπροσδιορίζονται ως Μακεδόνες. Κατά τη γνώμη μου, κανείς δεν έχει το δικαίωμα να μονοπωλήσει τον όρο «Μακεδόνες» και άλλοι να αμφισβητούν το δικαίωμα να αυτοπροσδιορίζονται ως Μακεδόνες. Οι αναφορές σε «κατεχόμενα» τμημάτα της Μακεδονίας είναι επίσης εξαιρετικά ανεύθυνο και ακατάλληλο. Υποστηρίζω τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα της Μακεδονικής μειονότητας στην Ελλάδα, όπως και τα δικαιώματα της Ελληνικής μειονότητας στην Τουρκία, και της αλβανικής μειονότητας στη Δημοκρατία της Μακεδονίας.
4 σχόλια:
Children of the Greek Civil War
REFUGEES AND THE POLITICS OF MEMORY
LORING M. DANFORTH AND RIKI VAN BOESCHOTEN
352 pages | 11 halftones, 4 maps | 6 x 9 | © 2012
At the height of the Greek Civil War in 1948, thirty-eight thousand children were evacuated from their homes in the mountains of northern Greece.
The Greek Communist Party relocated half of them to orphanages in Eastern Europe, while their adversaries in the national government placed the rest in children’s homes elsewhere in Greece.
A point of contention during the Cold War, this controversial episode continues to fuel tensions between Greeks and Macedonians and within Greek society itself.
Loring M. Danforth and Riki Van Boeschoten present here for the first time a comprehensive study of the two evacuation programs and the lives of the children they forever transformed.
Marshalling archival records, oral histories, and ethnographic fieldwork, the authors analyze the evacuation process, the political conflict surrounding it, the children’s upbringing, and their fates as adults cut off from their parents and their homeland.
They also give voice to seven refugee children who poignantly recount their childhood experiences and heroic efforts to construct new lives in diaspora communities throughout the world.
A much-needed corrective to previous historical accounts, Children of the Greek Civil War is also a searching examination of the enduring effects of displacement on the lives of refugee children.
REVIEW QUOTESCONTENTS
“This remarkable study breaks new ground in several areas: in its methodology, its style, and its topic. Historically and ethnographically, the book tells a duplex tale: by two authors, writing about two opposed camps, and exploring the vicissitudes of two states and two ethnicities. Balanced to an impressive degree, Children of the Greek Civil War succeeds magnificently in showing the parallels between the experiences of the two sides in a way that is moving as well as analytically compelling. Yet the greatest strength of the book, aside from the seamless writing and its emotional impact, lies in the theorization of the children’s agency in organizing their present lives and understanding their past.”
—Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University
“Successfully combing archival research with extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Children of the Greek Civil War is a work of first-rate scholarship, grounded in original research and sophisticated theoretical analysis, that is often gripping as it ranges from historical prose to deeply moving personal vignettes. Given the contentiousness of the book’s subject—an understudied but highly significant episode—it is as courageous as it is informed. The time seems ripe for beginning the process of reconciliation, and Danforth and Van Boeschoten’s work will help us move down that difficult road.”
Maria Todorova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLwLyRTWJlI&feature=related
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dokumentaren film za Makedonskite Egejci i egzodusot od 1948
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJpT3GP9A6M&sns=fb
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Стара коледарска византиска песна
An intresting comment took place from Pr. Loring Danforth regarding the ethicity of the Slavmacedonians at the history-of-macedonia.com
Here is the abstract:
I have always stated, and I repeat here, that modern Macedonians (people who have a Macedonian and not a Greek national identity) are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians; they are Slavs. This means that they speak a Slavic language. Similarly Greeks are Indo-Europeans, since they speak an Indo-European language. This does not mean that Macedonians should be called Slav Macedonians, any more than Russians should be called Slav Russians or Greeks should be called Indo-European Greeks. In my opinion, Macedonian nationalists who deny they are Slavs and claim they are direct descendants of Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians are extremists. They are making inaccurate statements that are bad scholarship and bad politics. Building a statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje and naming the Skopje airport after Alexander the Great are in my opinion irresponsible acts that are not in the best interests of the Republic of Macedonia.
I have also consistently stated that people who have a Greek national identity and a Macedonian ethnic or regional identity as Macedonians also have every right to identify themselves as Macedonians. In my opinion no one has the right to monopolize the term “Macedonians” and deny others the right to identify themselves as Macedonians. References to “occupied” portions of Macedonia are also extremely irresponsible and inappropriate. I support the human rights of the Macedonian minority in Greece, as I do the rights of the Greek minority in Turkey, and the Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia.
Σε Ελληνικη μεταφραση
Έχω δηλώσει πάντα, και το επαναλαμβάνω και εδώ, ότι οι σύγχρονοι Μακεδόνες (άτομα που έχουν Μακεδονική και όχι Ελληνική εθνική ταυτότητα) δεν είναι απόγονοι των αρχαίων Μακεδόνων, είναι Σλάβοι. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι μιλούν μια σλαβική γλώσσα. Ομοίως, οι Έλληνες είναι Ινδο-Ευρωπαίοι, επειδή μιλούν μία Ινδο-ευρωπαϊκή γλώσσα. Αυτό δεν σημαίνει ότι οι Μακεδόνες πρέπει να ονομάζονται Σλαβομακεδόνες, περισσότερο από Ρώσους θα πρέπει να ονομάζονται Σλάβοι Ρώσοι ή οι Έλληνες θα πρέπει να ονομάζεται Ινδο-Ευρωπαίοι Έλληνες. Κατά τη γνώμη μου, οι Μακεδόνες εθνικιστές, οι οποίοι αρνούνται ότι είναι Σλάβοι και ισχυρίζονται ότι είναι απευθείας απόγονοι του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου και των αρχαίων Μακεδόνων είναι εξτρεμιστές. Κάνουν ανακριβείς δηλώσεις που είναι κακή επιστημοσύνη και κακή πολιτική. Η οικοδόμηση αγάλματος του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου στα Σκόπια στα Σκόπια, και η ονοματοδοσία του αεροδρόμιου ως Μέγας Αλέξανδρος είναι κατά τη γνώμη μου, ανεύθυνες ενέργειες που δεν είναι προς το συμφέρον της Δημοκρατίας της Μακεδονίας.
Έχω, επίσης, επανειλημμένως δηλώσει ότι οι άνθρωποι που έχουν Ελληνική εθνική ταυτότητα και Μακεδονική εθνική ή περιφερειακή ταυτότητα ως Μακεδόνες και έχουν κάθε δικαίωμα να αυτοπροσδιορίζονται ως Μακεδόνες. Κατά τη γνώμη μου, κανείς δεν έχει το δικαίωμα να μονοπωλήσει τον όρο «Μακεδόνες» και άλλοι να αμφισβητούν το δικαίωμα να αυτοπροσδιορίζονται ως Μακεδόνες. Οι αναφορές σε «κατεχόμενα» τμημάτα της Μακεδονίας είναι επίσης εξαιρετικά ανεύθυνο και ακατάλληλο. Υποστηρίζω τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα της Μακεδονικής μειονότητας στην Ελλάδα, όπως και τα δικαιώματα της Ελληνικής μειονότητας στην Τουρκία, και της αλβανικής μειονότητας στη Δημοκρατία της Μακεδονίας.
http://modern-macedonian-history.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html
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