Tribune Excerpts
The following article appeared in the August-September 2006 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune
Dimov was a man without a country
By Virginia Nizamoff Surso
After attending school for further training as an electrician, a road construction company hired him. They immediately sent him to an out-of-town job site to work, and told him he had to leave – without clothes, money or food and without notifying his mother, who reported him missing to the police.
After he arrived at his destination and had worked three days, he discovered he did not qualify for a paycheck due to incorrectly completed paperwork. He held many such ‘unofficial’ jobs, sometimes helping to bring electricity to remote villages, wiring schools, helping folks who could help him obtain documents required to function in an Eastern bloc country.
His work history is sketchy at best. Most jobs cannot be placed on a resume because they officially did not exist.
Detsa Begaltsi in 1948 at Ladek Zdroj, Poland. Done is third row center
sitting.
Done was born in Greece, but had no birth certificate. He lived most of his life in Poland, but was not a citizen there. When he went to Macedonia, he was unable to get citizenship because he entered as a non-citizen and because the police had a record of him owning a book about Stalin. He was unable to get a legitimate job because he had not served in the Army, which required citizenship. It took him two years to get a passport because he was not a citizen. When in 1965 he and his mother left Macedonia for Australia, the customs officials in Egypt discarded his documents and wouldn’t let him off the ship because his passport was stamped non-citizen. He retrieved the passport and continued on his way.
Done was a man without a country. This was the plight confronted by many Detsa Begaltsi throughout their lives. In addition, the Stalin book haunted him throughout his time in Macedonia.
Other issues also haunted him. His mother mistakenly told him that his father had been killed at Gramos manning an antiaircraft gun shooting at Greek airplanes. Many years later, Done learned his father was alive.
“I was 36 years old when I met my father. I could not call him dad. I respect my mother, but I didn’t have feelings for her like I know my kids have for me,” he says matter-of-factly. Both are now deceased.
Done Dimov is well read. He is traveling in North America and Europe before returning to his family in Australia this fall. Most of the people he will visit are friends and family who share his experiences. His best friends are other Detsa Begaltsi who know what it was like.
His family village of Statitsa is now called Mela after the Greek leader Pavlos Melos who was killed there in 1903.
