Tribune Excerpts

The following article appeared in the July 2006 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune

From Detsa Begaltsi to Hungarian Freedom Fighter to loyal US citizen
By Virginia Surso

..continued from Page 2

In Vienna, their translator was a Hungarian who had served in the French Foreign Legion, a group the six young men had admired. He helped them receive social services from doctors, and dentists and got them jobs at Peugeot where they could practice their skilled trades.

“All the churches helped us – the Lutherans, the Catholics, the Jews, all of them."

As Hungarian refugees in 1956, they had special privileges. They were given a car to share, and they drove to Paris with thoughts of the French Foreign Legion in their heads and all the excitement Paris has to offer 20-year-olds.
 

Above: Mike (right) and his brother Sotir (Sam Pantsos) in their Hungarian school uniforms

In Paris, Mike got a job at Renault and attended night school to learn French. He lived with French people so he would become proficient in their language. He also called his father, who had settled in Skopie to ask, “What should I do?” “Don’t you dare come back here,” said the wise father, who had spent some time in an Albanian jail. Soon after, Mike, who is fluent in seven languages, made passage for New York City. His future grandfather-in-law Tom Popoff of Marian, O., who knew him from Vishani, signed papers in his behalf.

After the tragedies of the Greek Civil War, Mike’s father was jailed in Albania and eventually joined his wife and other son in Skopie, where both parents died.
 

	Left: Mike and the late George Tsuleff as young men living a free life in Paris in 1958.
Right: Mike Panchev

Mike and his wife Shirley have two children and two grandchildren. Reann Danielle Roggenkamp is a micro biologist. Her husband Greg holds a PhD in agronomy. They live in St. Louis with their two children Seth and Samantha. Son Charles Christopher Panchev is a businessman in Denver where his wife Meredith practices law.