Why Many Dalmatians were Born in the Desert in Egypt

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It is one of the strangest - and most fascinating - tales of my time in Dalmatia. A number of people on Hvar who were born in the desert in Egypt. And not just Hvar, but from the wider Dalmatian region. The unreal story of El Shatt in the Sinai desert.
With thanks (and watch for the full story) to the Croatian State Archives • El Shatt - 75 godina o...
and Library of Congress www.loc.gov/
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Want to learn more about the realities of living in this flawed but majestic country? Our new book, Croatia, a Survival Guide for Foreigners is now available on Amazon. www.amazon.com/Croatia-Surviv...
Video produced by Igor Vuk of Wolf Media.
For your daily dose of Croatia, check out www.total-croatia-news.com
Follow Paul Bradbury on LinkedIn - / paul-bradbury-58662a85

[@pessimusdux]

You know more about Croatian (my) history than the most of us... 👍🏻👏🏻 Thank you for that...

[@PaulBradbury]

Haha, thanks. I am curious about the places I live in, and the history is really fascinating, with many of the best stories often almost untold.

[@pessimusdux]

@@PaulBradbury If You want more information, knowledge, miths, legends, FACTS - let me know! 😂👍🏻 I am a spring of stories about Croatian history. Btw, Croatian people brought significant dose of civilisation TO Europe, not the other way around 😉

[@verbal_DK]

@@pessimusdux kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHu9XmCcmMyoers

[@minimalistserendipity4744]

You are a Croatian treasure

[@PaulBradbury]

Haha hardly, but glad if you are enjoying the channel. Subscribe if you like - many more videos coming

[@rEdHoUsE_1969]

Thank you for sharing this Paul. I showed this clip to my mum now in her 80s and a raft of memories & emotions came back. My mum, her sister & my grandmother were amongst a number of woman/children evacuated from Solta to Vis and made their way to Egypt. My grandfather fought with Tito's Partisans in Dalmatia and only saw his evacuated family after the war. Once again thank you for sharing this story ... 👍

[@PaulBradbury]

Awesome - hope the memories were pleasant...

[@rEdHoUsE_1969]

@@PaulBradbury Sad memories in leaving Solta without her father but happy memories of camp life. Of note my other grandparents stayed with my dad and siblings. They survived the war ... just ... I'm keen to document these stories for my children and future generations.

[@fidemclam]

You are really a Croatia Expert... most croats dont know the storys you tell

[@PaulBradbury]

Haha, no I am just curious. I find that if you talk to people here and show interest, the payback is incredible.

[@LucaAnamaria]

As a Croatian who is planning to visit Egypt in the near future, this was absolutely fascinating to watch. I had no idea we had some cool Egyptian-born Croats wandering about along the coast. Would love to look into this more.

[@PaulBradbury]

It is a fascinating story

[@dannyboy-vtc5741]

What is mind boggling to me is how many of pur people don't know about this, it was a common knowledge in my time, even on some tv series, velo misto maybe, somewhere el shat has been mentioned, but it was in school curiculum, in your general encyclopedia and lexicon, on the tv calendar for decades too, i think we are doing some things wrong, this is not the first important thing from our history that went from common knowledge to curiosity..

[@LucaAnamaria]

@@dannyboy-vtc5741 I grew up in Canada and have lived most of my life in Canada. People here didn't even know what or where Croatia was when I was growing up, so I am not surrounded by knowledge 24/7 like folks back home.

[@dannyboy-vtc5741]

@@LucaAnamaria right, but i wasn't referring directly at you, you just gave me an excuse to comment, on how many people here said they didn't have a clue about it, and again not the first thing that was widely known that slipped out from the common consciousness, especaially if you talk about the ww2 years and things like zavnoh, things which our entire statehood is based on, but people are not thaught well enough about it, it's a problem imho.

[@antonija4167]

Moja mama je bila tamo i pričala mi je da se nisu miješali sa lokalnim stanovništvom. Ponekad bi netko od njih dolazio na rubove kampa i uzimao ostatke hrane iz kontejnera. Ponekad su ih također sretali kad bi se išli kupati na crveno more. Život je bio bolji u kampu nego kod lokalnog stanovništva. Inače rađala su se djeca i na dugačkom putu od Dalmacije do El Shata. Moja je baka ostala u trudovima u kampu u San Marinu i tamo donijela na svijet moga ujca.

[@PaulBradbury]

What an incredible journey to be born in San Marino. Thanks for sharing.

[@alenq21]

And there I thought you cannot surprise me with another interesting story about Croatia that I never knew about... Thank you.

[@PaulBradbury]

Haha stay tuned and subscribe - lots more coming

[@zinkbleck3425]

Is there any chance you would do a video about "goli otok" ? My parents always told me about this island prison, but I never heard some specific facts about it. I have the feeling you would make a great video about it.

[@PaulBradbury]

Am planning a trip later this year - it is in the video plan.

[@richard_from_england333]

My grandma's brother was there for publicly speaking against Tito

[@panzer8as]

amazing, never heard about this

[@PaulBradbury]

Amazing story isn't it?

[@JJ-ym8bu]

My God I love my Croatian heritage.

[@PaulBradbury]

It is certainly very rich

[@ferata9409]

I had to know every detail about that camp in the elementary school in Split. My geography professor was a member of the KPJ. I am grateful to him today for that. Today's children don't even know about El Shat and that part of Dalmatian history.

[@PaulBradbury]

Wow, tell me more. Very interested to hear you elementary school experience. Yes, sad that most people in Croatia don't know about El Shatt.

[@ferata9409]

@@PaulBradbury Our teacher showed us the floor plan of the camp, we had to know all the information: where the men were housed, where the women were, how many people had escaped, how many people died there, how many were born, down to the smallest detail. That was about 35 years ago. The teacher's last name was Bavčević, we called him Bačo. Elementary school Dobri, used to be called Nenad Ravlić

[@hodgepodge2447]

@@ferata9409 That because Baćo was there as a child, it was a first-hand experience.

[@JelenaPD12]

This is really a fascinating story and it might just explain something I used to wonder about as a child. My grandparents had a house in Supetar on Brač and I spent a lot of time there as a child. It was in the early 80's. Our friendly neighbor was a man, in his sixties at that point, and he had a "strange" name. For me as a child living in Yugoslavia then, it was kind of unusual to have people, other then tourist, who were from somewhere else, but living there. Anyway I asked my grandparents about him and they said that he was an Egyptian and that he moved there with his family. I remember thinking back then, how an Egyptian ended up in Yugoslavia in those days... I never asked many questions but I found it fascinating. And now I saw your video... wow!

[@PaulBradbury]

It could be related to this, but more likely that he studied in Croatia and stayed. Tito was the focal point for the Non-Alignment movement, and lots of students from all over the world were educated here, with a number staying. Like this incredible Syrian guy who ended up employing over 700 people here - www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/55981-syrian-croatia

[@NenadBach]

Know your history for the better future.

[@PaulBradbury]

Agreed. It is an amazing story.

[@zoricamastrovic3914]

Yes, my grandfather and grandmother (from Nin, near Zadar) wdre also in that camp in Africa.

[@PaulBradbury]

It is an amazing story

[@4avatars]

There is also a Cricket club on Vis. I know the British came every year because there was a base there for the Allies in WW2

[@PaulBradbury]

Yes, actually Vis has the oldest cricket tradition in all mainland Europe, dating back to 1808 I think - we will cover this in a later video

[@tl2937]

"Actually civilized..." very British.

[@Dreeblet]

My grandparents were among the children sent to Egypt. They told me the British soldiers treated the local Arabs like shit.

[@PaulBradbury]

And how did they treat your grandparents?

[@JaceVibe]

I don't know why they would have darker features, as it was an isolated Croatian community surrounded by Americans, but other than that - great story! 😁

[@PaulBradbury]

Americans or Brits? Pretty sure it was Brits, who were definitely there, as this email I received shows. Darker features - there was a guy on Hvar who was born there who had darker features, so am guessing that the possibility of interacting with locals at some point was there. www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/32195-el-shatt

[@cosmozh]

Mister Paul, do you know the story about the križni put?

[@PaulBradbury]

A little bit. Quite bizarrely, I was the only person on Jelsa Pjaca at the start of Za Krizen 2020 - an amazing night www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/42793-jelsa-za-krizen

[@cosmozh]

@@PaulBradbury Križni put and Za križen is not the same story.

[@PaulBradbury]

@@cosmozh you are referring to Krizni Put in general or Krizni Put 1945?

[@cosmozh]

@@PaulBradbury I was referring to the 1945 one. Regards

[@TomRelic]

Partisans and non Partisans who either just were opposed to communists or fought for Ustasha were living in Dalmatia together. How confusing that must have been.

[@bobdobric6787]

They probably got along realising they were the same spoke same language and were only seperated by denomination

[@TomRelic]

@@bobdobric6787 denomination? This is about politics. They were mostly Catholics

[@abpast5319]

1:40 do you mean by intermixing with egyptians or stronger sun?

[@TB-jo7uk]

he lost me there too...

[@abpast5319]

@@TB-jo7uk he said darker features so he probably means intermixing with egyptians.I know a guy thats from island and in class we always used to make fun of him because he looked like pharaoh of egypt in his face and he looked noting simmilar to croat.He looked like mixrace person and now I know why he looked that way.At first we thought that he had some south italian origin because they thand to have lot of north african ancestery because of moor raiders in medival times.

[@agontprevarator5214]

I'm from Rijeka, with some semi-distant family in the Šibenik area, had no idea about this. But what would darker features have to do with being born in Egypt? Unless they had mixed with the local population, I don't see how spending some years in Egypt would permanently change your skin tone.

[@korculaamv9820]

Oh, people here on the Island during the summer have darker skin because of our hot Mediterranean climate. Like, we go from darker toned white people during the summer to normal white toned people during the winter. This maybe be the reason

[@korculaamv9820]

Basically super sun-bathing

[@PaulBradbury]

Because I think there was at least some limited intermingling. There was one guy on Hvar with darkened features who was born there. I had a lot of correspondence from people about El Shatt over the years since I first wrote about it 10 years ago, but this is the only one I can find now - www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/32195-el-shatt

[@HladniSjeverniVjetar]

@@PaulBradbury It might also be the remaining dna of Moorish pirates roaming the coast in 14 century... a collegue of mine from around Sibenik literally had an afro and some darker features.

[@smirnov5795]

Wow all it took was to rise up a cross for english to see us as non barbarians, more you know.

[@youtubeanalyticsshare]

Yes it is. I have from Jelsa, Hvar several relatives who born in desert, and because many mothers don’t have milk for babies, and have only blood, the children sucked blood because there was no milk and got a disease, which follows many of them all their lives, even today, and which has damaged their integrity over the years... they were born in a camp in El Shatt, on the Sinai Peninsula, in the Egyptian desert, even brought back home, for example, what they took with them, related to the conduct of the Holy Mass, right down to the tablecloth on which the Mass was conducted, was returned from El Shatto to Hvar, while, for example, in the northern littoral, in Rijeka, Grobnik above Rijeka, many born in Italian camps. My grandparents, the whole family was in all the camps in Italy, where some of my uncles died and some were born... Their house was burned to the ground twice, they only found the key, once by the fascists, once by the partisans... If my grandmother had not thrown the child, who was a few months old, into the hands of my grandfather, if they thought he was a single father, he would have been shot like almost all the men in the villages. The child died in the camp near Milan, in the town of Lodi. It was as if he was born to save my grandfather's life, and then my third uncle was born in the camp, while the first one passed away... one in the camp, and one before it...

[@PaulBradbury]

Incredible. Thanks for sharing

[@sasaseparovic9777]

My mother was a child in El Shatt, survived tyfus. She was not from Hvar but Peljesac. I know what sort of time they had..it was hard but life was organised, school etc..which was great considering

[@PaulBradbury]

It sounded like an incredibly well-organised project

[@blackguy3201]

It's funny how foreigners know more history than locals. I'm in Ireland and I've seen more places and know more irish history then anyone my age here. On the other hand I'm starting to realize I haven't been anywhere in Croatia except zagreb and few places on the sea.

[@PaulBradbury]

May I suggest you start with heading on east - amazing region. This was our trip in November 2021 www.total-croatia-news.com/editorial/58263-slavonia-full-of-life

[@bernardokrolo2275]

Moj je pokojni barba Ante bio dolje kao dijete...

[@emilija74]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Shatt_refugee_camp

[@emilija74]

Just to ad, the first officially appointed representative of the new Republic of Croatia, in Canada, Mr Dusan Bezic, was born on the island of Solta and as a young man had ended up in the El Shahat during the WWII. He wrote about it in his biographical book 'A Boy from Solta' or in croatian 'Soltanin na tankom ledu'. He was one of those who never returned home but went on globetrotting and eventually ending up in Canada. A great man and Croatian patriot Mr. Bezic had passed away in 2019.

[@PaulBradbury]

Very interesting and thanks for sharing. Sounds like there might be enough material for a book called Tales from El Shatt.