Voices of the Lost Children of Greece: Oral Histories of Cold War International Adoption

Description

Voices of the Lost Children of Greece is a collection of essays from Greek-born adoptees in the 1950s after two consecutive wars that ravaged the country. Never before has this group of adoptees come together to write their stories and share their closely held feelings. While many of the adoptees have similar experiences and while they may share some common thoughts about their adoptions, their stories are vastly different, some harrowing, others remarkable. The collection will illustrate the impact of adoption itself over years, no matter if children were displaced from their parents and country as infants or as youngsters. The book will shed light on adoption from many disciplinary angles, including sociological, psychological and anthropological. It will also put these adoptions into a larger historical context. The book is further enhanced by Greek-born adoptee, academic, poet and writer, Dr. Andrew Mossin, who writes the Foreword; by Dr. Gonda Van Steen, a preeminent modern Greek scholar, who pens the first chapter about the history of such adoptions; and in the final chapter, by Dr. Eirini Papadaki, who has written extensively about the women of Greece and adoption, to bring readers a current assessment of adoption practices in Greece today.

Mary Cardaras is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at California State University East Bay. She holds a PhD in public and international affairs and teaches political communication, journalism and documentary film studies and production at California State University, East Bay.

"Nostos is used in Ancient Greek literature, to describe an epic hero returning home, which is a recurrent theme in this gem of book. It is about 14 heroes-14 Greek-born adoptees-14 individuals that have had the courage to publicly share their unique stories of heartache and discovery of their homeland. What unites these heroes as well as thousands of others, who are likewise missing information about the circumstances surrounding their birth, is their longing to know their origins. This unifying factor of origins is so important that it has been (almost) universally recognized by the international community as a right, and its deprivation creates an obligation on States to restore missing elements speedily. I sincerely hope that this book will help build on the momentum within the United Nations and regional bodies in preserving and restoring the child's identity even into adulthood so that the right to know their origins is fully respected" -Mia Dambach, Executive Director, Child Identity Protection, Zurich. "Self-assured or hesitant, angry or at peace, often sad, wise beyond words, these are the stories of children torn from their world when they were too young to understand, as they struggle through decades of silence and sorrow to solve the riddle of their lives before time runs out. Each a personal journey of self-discovery in the most literal sense, these essays are the raw material of a national epic and also the most basic human quest to know ourselves. In each, a child, disoriented and often alone on the edge of the abyss of unknowing, tries to understand why its world feels out of joint, why it is different to those around it, where it comes from, why it is, and where it is. Now, decades later, having found each other, having acquired voice, agency, and determination, these women and men speak of their continuing struggle for knowledge and peace. Where they were once helpless victims of a state indifferent to their fate, they find that it remains implacably resourceful in finding ways to obstruct atonement-restoration of the nationality that was stripped from them when they were voiceless. Mary Cardaras's Voices-heart-wrenching, beautiful, sobering, valuable, and illuminating-is in itself a homecoming. In telling their stories, the women and men who were cut off from their roots are reconnecting with the body of a nation that knew nothing about this unspoken and, until recently, unwritten chapter of Greece's history. This is a great step on an unfinished journey" -Nikos Konstandaras, Columnist, Kathimerini. "A powerful and deeply moving collection of essays that breaks a long silence and gives voice to the voiceless. Thousands of babies and children were sent from Greece to the US as part of Cold War geopolitical strategy, leaving them with the double dislocation of being adopted and losing their birth culture. These fascinating, sometimes shocking personal testimonies reveal the adoptees' sense of loss, their longing to find their Greek roots, and the emotional and practical challenges of doing so. Following groundbreaking academic work by Gonda Van Steen, Mary Cardaras' Voices continues to uncover a painful past that had been erased"-Sofka Zinovieff, Author. ""Voices of the Lost Children'' is a unique volume of essays. Not only are the personal stories of persons adopted as children in Greece in the 1950s profoundly moving and powerful but the cumulative effect of reading through the tears and laughter of their experiences and the need for international adoptions to be strictly regulated for the benefit of the children as well as the parents" -Alexander Kitroeff, Professor Emeritus of History, Haverford College, Pennsylvania. "It is rare to hear the voices of adoptees of the first postwar intercountry adoption wave. These voices of the lost and forgotten children of Greece speak boldly and with tremendous clarity about the issues of uprooting, (self-)doubt, joy, and pain. They courageously ask that the organizations and intermediaries who made the decisions about their lives and then forgot about them correct what must still be corrected. They continue to search, relentlessly, for that part of their Greek identity that no one bothered to preserve. Their united effort is most effective and will leave an example for others to follow. Mary Cardaras did an excellent job creating the platform for them to speak out"-Gonda Van Steen, Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature, King's College London, UK. "Voices of the Lost Children of Greece from Mary Cardaras is a sobering read for anyone whose personal or professional life has been affected by international adoption. The powerful narratives, written by mature adoptees reflecting on their lifelong struggles to belong, are difficult to dismiss when shaping future policies for children. Gonda van Steen's chapter, shedding light on this episode in Greece's history, provides a sharp analysis of this recent past and provides useful learning for researchers and policy makers in both countries of origin and receiving countries"-Dr. Mariela Neagu, Program manager for children's rights at the European Union and Head of the National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights in Romania. "Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going? These existential questions are ones we all ponder in our lifetime. It's been said that you have to know where you come from to know where you're going. But for some, those answers are incomplete, unable to be found. And it keeps them from finding their place in the world and determining where they're going. Such is the plight of many adoptees. Adoption is a beautiful, selfless act-when done for the right reasons. Thousands of children were adopted from Greece in the aftermath of World War II and the Greek Civil War. This dark time in our history cannot be hidden away and we can no longer pretend it didn't happen. Many were stolen from their families, taken under suspicious circumstances. They still long for the answers to these questions. They have the right to know. Our sense of nostos-longing for home-won't let these questions die. Mary Cardaras, herself an adoptee, has compiled the gut-wrenching stories of a group of Greek adoptees, including her own. Some who've been able to find their answers, others still searching. They're strikingly similar: all longing to reconnect with their roots, for a sense of belonging-past, present, and future. To know where they fit in the puzzle. Here, she gives these brave individuals the space and the grace to share their struggles, their nostos. This important work must be spread far and wide. Their poignant stories will open your eyes to a tragic event in our history and make you further appreciate your own family, your home, and your story"-Maria A. Karamitsos, Author and Former Publisher & Editor, WindyCity Greek magazine.