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Gitarristin Donna Grantis ist eine Kanadierin mit makedonischer Abstammung. Sie spielte für den letzter Woche verstorbenen Prince in seiner "All Girl" Live Band, unter anderem trat sie auch für die Bands 3rdEyeGirl und The New Power Generation auf.  Beide Großeltern väterlich-seits stammen aus der Kostur Region und mütterlich-seits aus der Kostur und Lerin Region in Ägäis Makedonien, heutiges Nordgriechenland. Donna ist in Kanada geboren und aufgewachsen, in ihrer Karriere gab sie auch Konzerte in Skopje so z.B. auf dem 15. Blues und Soul Festival. Facebook Homepage

Macedonian Schindler in Croatia: Ljupco Atanasov Saved 70 Croats from the Hell of Vukovar

Croatian people should memorize the name of Ljupco Atanasov because if it wasn’t for this Macedonian hero, ex NCO Military Police in JNA who found himself on the bloody streets of Vukovar in the terrible 1991, seventy Croats would not survive.

This is how the creation news portal Dnevno.hr describes, as they say, Ohrid born Macedonian Schindler, who visited Croatian capital Zagreb not to be thanked by anyone, but to pay the last respect to one of the people whose lives he saved, Croatian war hero Violeta Antolic, who passed away Thursday.

“I was a non-commissioned officer in the JNA assigned to ensure Vukovar’s “Velepromet” i.e. one of its buildings which was called "joinery". I was trained and educated soldier ready for anything. It turns out, however, that I wasn’t immune to the injustice that was being done then to the Croats. From the very beginning, I felt that we were sent to "other people's back yard." The building housed people and my task was to keep them safe from the bloodthirsty paramilitary groups. This, however, was not so easy. Every now and then it was attacked by armed paramilitary hordes that have attempted to reach out to these people. Despite my military education, the human in me woke up and I could not quite bear to see someone hurting those innocent people,” Ljupco tells his story.




Unfortunately, he could not physically always be there, because two occasions he has been called to a meeting. When he returned, he noticed that at least fifty people are missing.

“I was horrified ... In the "joinery" there were only about seventy people left. So I said to myself, "these people will survive or I'll end up like them," he recalls.

Of the remaining seventy Croats, Ljupco has only remembered now deceased Viki. More to the point, he remembered the tears of her three year old son who was crying in front of the room she was detained in.

“I could not listen to that. In spite of all orders I took Violeta to her son to comfort and calm him, and when I came back I just softly whispered to her ear: Do not be afraid, you and your son will survive. My next step was to plan taking civilians to a safer place because being in “Velepromet” at that time meant certain death,” says Ljupco, who does not hide that he then felt the greatest fear in his life.

He waited for the curfew one night and secretly put all seventy people into a bus and headed to the barracks in Vukovar. He ran into several armed paramilitary groups and all he could do to scream out his name and ranks.

“I yelled as much as I could to provoke at least some awe in the paramilitary groups. And it worked. We arrived in Vukovar barracks,” Ljupco says.



Six months after Vukovar, Ljupco Atanasov left the Army. Many years later he got in touch with Viki via Facebook and then in 2012 they met. Ljupco did not talk much about this emotional encounter. On that occasion, Ljupco also met her son, whom he last saw crying in “Velepromet”. He also met with Violeta’s younger daughter, who told him:

"I would not have been here today if you didn’t save my mother than."

Croatian Veterans' associations have agreed on the idea that Ljupcho Atanasov deserves Order of Merit and they also initiated a procedure so he could be awarded for his heroism.

- See more at: http://www.independent.mk/articles/8147/Macedonian+Schindler+in+Croatia+Ljupco+Atanasov+Saved++Croats+from+the+Hell+of+Vukovar#sthash.jJvo8Pnz.dpuf


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