{"id":759,"date":"2018-08-08T13:03:25","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T13:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/?page_id=759"},"modified":"2018-08-08T13:22:53","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T13:22:53","slug":"dordes-letters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/results\/dorde-vukosavljevic\/dordes-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0110or\u0111e’s letters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here you will find the letters which we could publish with a kind permission of Zorica Jela\u010da, \u0110or\u0111e’s great-granddaughter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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25.10.1917<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Dear Lepa!
\nHere I am, writing to you that I am safe and sound.
\nThis date is exactly the date when I went far away from home, when I left you and the children and today two years have passed since I have not seen you. For these two years, Lepa I haven\u2019t got the piles of letters but only three letters. It is very hard for me and I suffer very much.
\nDear Lepa, one year has passed since I have been at one place working with 36 Serbs, a Russian and an Englishman. All of them respect me, and I respect them as well.\u00a0<\/span>
\nDear Lepa, the parcel you sent me, I received on the 10th day. Namely, out of 36 Serbs, I am the first one who received the parcel. I was surprised when I read the address on the parcel and what is the most important it was touching. The bread you sent, every Serb took it, crossed themselves and kissed it, and then we all started to cry happy tears. In this happy and a touching day, I shared and ate the bread brotherly with my people.
\nDear Lepa, I was glad when I received the parcel, but I was pondering for a long time and I think you deprived yourself of food in order to send me this, and if you had been hungry two or three days because of this parcel you shouldn\u2019t have sent me it.
\nI would like it more if I had received letters in which you would have written me something about you and your children, and also I would be very happy if I had received a promised photo, for which I am anxiously waiting for.
\nDear Lepa, I would kindly ask you to write me more often, to send me your and children\u2019s photo and if you can send me those books I had asked for, and one pair of warm peasant\u2019s socks.
\nI wish you and the children were healthy.
\nI am sending you my regards. Kiss my Du\u0161ka, Milica and a little yet unseen Ru\u017eica. Send my regards to Natalija and all the others who are asking about me.
\nTill we see each other again.
\nYours \u0110oka<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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14.12.1917
\n\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I am healthy and well and I wish you and the children were healthy as well. Lepa, I am not getting your letters in the amount I would like to, you should write me more often.
\nHow are you you? How is Du\u0161ko at school? Have you sent me your and children\u2019s photo? Has Kosta written to you and does Milica attend the school?
\nDraga Lepa, there is one man from Kragujevac here with me, Bo\u017ea Radovi\u0107, his wife died, he has two children and they are in an orphanage. He hasn\u2019t got any letters and he hasn\u2019t got any news about them. A month ago, he sent 10 marks to them in order to take some pictures and to send him a picture, but until this day, he has received neither the reply nor the photo.
\nPlease Lepa, would you be so kind to visit those children and see how they are and if they have received the money.\u00a0<\/span>
\nAnyway, in case you can\u2019t go, try to get some information through that girl, who is a housekeeper in the orphanage, she is close to you. If possible, Lepa, do this immediately and inform me. Children\u2019s names are Angelina and Simka. Their father is sending regards to them.
\nI am sending regards to you and kisses to Du\u0161ko, Mila, Zorica and little Ru\u017eica.
\nMy friend Bo\u017eidar Radovi\u0107 is sending regards to you.
\nSend my regards to a best man Jovo and Natalija and to their children.
\nYours,<\/p>\n

\u0110oka.<\/p>\n

28.02.1918<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Dear Lepa,\u00a0<\/span>
\nThanks God, I am from this point completely healthy and well. I wish that for you and the children as well.
\nDear Lepa, parcels, one from October and another one from December last year, I received on 20th of this month.
\nThe bread was completely bad; you weren\u2019t supposed to send it, as I had already told you earlier. Secondly, cakes you had sent were of good quality, the same as the bacon, sugar and socks, everything was good apart from spilled coffee grounds.
\nDear Lepa, I have written earlier that you are not supposed to send me anything apart from warm tick socks and a book, but you keep on sending me something different, why did you send me meat again, you didn\u2019t have to.
\nA loaf of bread, that I can understand, but why did you send me these nice white socks, as if I were a groom and I needed them for my wedding to match my nice yellow leather shoes.
\nMoreover, that small pillow you sent me as if I were with some little children here, and I needed it for them. No, I don\u2019t have anything here, everything I have is there. Thus, as I have already said, do not send me anything, because I don\u2019t want you and children to suffer without the food, and I, let God help me. I have enough bread for now, I have enough money for the tobacco, I have two pairs of state underwear and three pairs which are personally mine.
\nTherefore, I don\u2019t miss anything, I just miss you and my children. I only miss all of you.
\nDear Lepa, I am telling you, God will give me to return home alive, because the home is sad without me – yes, I know that, myself – but I am sad as well without you. When I went through everything and survived in the beginning of my capture, I have no any doubts that I will go through this for this short time, the longest until June or July, and then I will make you happy one day.\u00a0<\/span>
\nDear Lepa, only disabled returned home after the plea. I complained also that I am not able to work, but no use of it. This is my destiny.
\nAll the same, I am in a group with my own people, to whom I am the eldest, and who respect me and love me as their own father!
\nDear Lepa, in one of the letters I read one harsh word (\u2019\u2019no one felt sorry for me and they said something bad). However, I think that I haven\u2019t offended anybody, that is, if that refers to me.
\nDear Lepa, you are not writing me anything about Mi\u0107ka and if she obeys you. I think she is nice and I don\u2019t have any doubts that she obeys you. And also my Zor\u010de, she is already mature now. Ru\u017eica is still little and she doesn\u2019t understand anything. Mi\u0107ka and Zor\u010de care about her and they love her. Daddy loves them as well, but I don\u2019t love Du\u0161ko when he is not beahving well. I will love him as well, but only when he corrects his behaviour. Write more often!
\nI have written to Kosta only once but I haven\u2019t received any reply from him, I am going to write to mother these days.
\nKiss Du\u0161ko, Milica, Zorica and little Ru\u017eica instead of me.
\nYours \u0110oka.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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30.06.1918<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Dear Lepa!
\nI am safe and sound but it would be better if I weren\u2019t. Lepa, I didn\u2019t want to write to you, but since I wanted to find some relief to my own heart, I am informing you that I was captured 10 days ago; and yes as I have said I was separated from my own people with whom I had been together for 2 \u00bd years, among whom I was the oldest and to whom I served as an intepretator and who respected me as their father. Because of my love for them, in order to protect and please everybody I have aggrieved myself.
\nI am isolated and sent away among Frenchmen, Englishmen, Belgians and Russians, so neither I know what they are telling me nor do they know what I am telling them. The separation from my people was heartbreaking. Today, my life is miserable and dangerous for my eyesight. Anyway, I can\u2019t see out of my left eye, and there is a danger that I will lose vision in another eye because of the labour.
\nDear Lepa, if you don\u2019t get my letters soon, you have to know that I am not alive anymore. I\u2019d rather die than wander around as a blind person. A blind man doesn\u2019t work in the mine. If I escape from here, I will inform you. Just, I feel sorry that I still haven\u2019t got your and children\u2019s picture, in order to see Ru\u017eica as well.
\nDear Lepa, hereby I am sending you 25 marks. Buy children what they want, let them know it is from their father.
\nRegards and kisses to you Lepa, Du\u0161ko, Milica, Zorica and little Ru\u017eica.
\nYours,<\/p>\n

\u0110oka.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
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09.08.1919<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/h4>\n

9.8.1919. Gornji Milanovac<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Madam,\u00a0<\/span>
\nI consider as my humankind duty to inform you that your husband Mr. \u0110oko died in Milligen from flu and that I was accidently there with my brother who also died. I had known \u0110oka since 1917 and he asked me then on his deathbed to inform you about his death.\u00a0<\/span>
\nYours sincerely,<\/span>
\nDragi Raji\u010di\u0107<\/a>, tradesman\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Please, I would like to apologize for not informing you earlier about his death, but please be convinced that only three days ago I arrived home after four years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here you will find the letters which we could publish with a kind permission of Zorica Jela\u010da, \u0110or\u0111e’s great-granddaughter. 25.10.1917 Dear Lepa! Here I am, writing to you that I am safe and sound. This date is exactly the date when I went far away from home, when I left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":740,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-759","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759\/revisions\/772"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secanje.nl\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}