Refugees

This is a photograph showing a Serbian woman, Milica Tepić, escaping her village with her two children just before Ustaše (a Croatian fascist) burned it. The photo was taken in January 1944 by George Skrigin, who was part of the partisan resistance and accidentally stumbled upon Milica. 

Milica died in 1949. Her husband, Branko, a partisan resistance fighter, was hanged by the Nazis in 1942. Like his father, the little boy on Milica's back was called Branko. He was born one month after his father's death. He died in 2022 at the age of 81. His sister Dragica died in 1983.

The photograph as a witness of suffering and struggle for survival is one of the exhibits in the Holocaust Museum in Auschwitz.

This powerful image embedded itself in my memory at a young age. Today whenever I hear about refugees or displaced people, this image comes to my mind. 

What would have happened to her and her children if she was not allowed to escape the horrors behind her? What would have happened if she was forced to go back? Thinking of today's refugee and displaced people situation, I decided to create this visual essay using Milica's image.

 

Refugees 1960

Quite a few years ago I bought this very uncharacteristic original form Ronald Searle. The art shows people picking clothing at a refugee camp in Greece in 1959. Not knowing the background story, I think I was interested in this particular piece of art because of the piles of clothing and shoes which obviously once belonged to someone.

Recently I found out about a book in which this art was published. Timely enough, the book is titled Refugees 1960: A Report in Words and Drawings by Kaye Webb and Ronald Searle. 

Flipping through the book I was totally flabbergasted to discover that the person in the foreground is Veljko Markofski, a newly arrived refugee from Yugoslavia.

Life is a small place.