This is a photo of Ivan Stifanic family. Natalia (Pa's mother) is the little girl on the right and in the middle is her younger brother Gaspar.
Oriana (my first cousin) sent me this story recently. The details are filled in by Uncle Tony, who is the brother of Pa and the son of Natalia.
Gaspar was the third and youngest child of Ivo (Ivan) and Zanetta. When he was a baby, Zanetta died of tuberculosis.
Natalia who was closest to Gaspar in age was also adored him and and mothered him as her baby brother. Their older brother Sime (on left) was bossy and they didn't care for him.
Ivo wasn't a great believer in education and decreed that it was enough that one member of the family went to school and that was the oldest son, Sime. Sime went to school but Natalia and Gaspar did not to have formal schooling.
Traditionally the oldest son would get the farm when his father died, so Gaspar was expected to make his own way. He was given a piece of land outside of the village of Bonaci where they lived.
In his early 20's he became involved with a woman called Tina and they planned to get married. As was common among young people at the time, whilst trying to get the money together to marry and for Tina's family to agree on a dowry, Tina moved in with Gaspar. She fell pregnant and they had a son. Their relationship fell apart with arguments with her family over her dowry and Tina and her son moved back to her family home. She later married a local policeman from another town.
After Gaspar's relationship ended with Tina, he decided to earn some money to try and establish himself. He spent 2 years working in the coal mines in Albona and when he returned home he had enough money to set up a small grocery shop in Zbandaj. He rented a house and ran the shop from there. Zbandaj is close to Radmani where his sister Natalia lived.
Although Gaspar had returned home, he was lonely and therefore vulnerable to the advances of a woman named Gaidovica. She was with another man at the time, but the fact that Gaspar had a shop was attractive and he succumbed to her advances and she ended up pregnant. He married her and she lived with him in Zbandaj.
After living with him a very short time, one night Gaspar was lured to a neighboring village called Kirmenjak where he was set upon and murdered in a barn there. He was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. His body was then dumped in a nearby forest. As he had disappeared a search party was sent out to look for him. After 2 days his body was found and brought back to Zbandaj in a wooden cart. Uncle Tony reports that Natalia (Pa's mother and Gaspar's sister) was devastated when he was killed as she was very close to him.
Eventually Gaspar's father in law was charged with the murder and sentenced. He was imprisoned on Elba. With the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, all prisoners were set free so this man was released and returned back to Istra, his home and remained there until he died. It was so difficult for Natalia as the man who killed her brother was now free in the community again.
The son of Gaspar and Gaidovica as an adult moved to the US to NY state. When he died a few years back, his son organized for his remains to be buried in cemetery in Zbandaj with his mother.
Gaidovica went back to her old boyfriend and was able to inherit the land Gaspar owned near Bonaci. She sold the land and so she benefitted from the murder of her husband.
The motive for the murder was that Gaidovica's family wanted to have the grocery store (the license to run the store) in Zbandaj as it was a lucrative small business to run a small village grocery store. As it was the local authorities refused to pass the license onto Gaidovica's family as they considered them having poor character. Instead the license went to Josip Radman (my grandfather, Natalia's husband) who was considered good character.
This is the little shop that Pa would talk about running when he was a child... it was Natalia who ran the shop while Josip continued to farm the land. They did quite well financially, even with the war happening in the rest of Europe, life was peaceful in Istria until the Capitulation in September 1943 and the arrival of the Germans and the rise of the partisans. It was then that events took a turn for the worst.
great story!
ReplyDeleteMr. Radman,
ReplyDeleteShame on you for these lies you wrote.
I understandthat you are a descendant of "Micini" from Bonaci.
How dare you even after 80 years to write lies about innocent people whose lives have been destroyed by your ancestors’greed!
How come you didn'tdare to write these lies when Gaspar's son was alive, but only after his death? You think that no one knows the truth anymore?! Well, there are still people who know the truth.
You call this disgusting fictitious story a memory to GasparStifanic. No, you just dishonor the memory of him and continue with the lies based on the monstrous actions of your ancestors from Bonaci. You’ve just sugar coated itin a nice family story.
The late Gaspar Stifanic certainly deserves the memory and respect of the good people. Let him rest in peace. He obviously differed from the rest of his family.
You fabricate to the extent that you got lostin your own web of lies, so for the murder of Gaspar that happened in 1938, you absurdly accuse a man who died in 1917 in the First World War.
You say that Gaspar’sfather gave the farm to his older son and Gaspar had to make his own way. It is not true that was the custom in Istria, to give everything to the eldest son. The property was divided between the brothers, and the sisters would get married and leave. That is what it was like in Istria then.What kind of father that is, to expel his own son from home? How will he make for living when he has no education?
Members of your present family, members of the religious Mormon community, the community in which you live, do not know that the people which you accuse and defame for Gaspar Stifanic's murder, were in reality the greatest victims of that very murder. And all because of the lies of your ancestors from Bonaci who, out of material interests and greed, have undoubtedly destroyed the life and health of Gaspar's wife and son - their grandson and nephew! What kind of peopledo that, I ask you?
The truth is the following:
ReplyDeleteIt is true that Gaspar Stifanic was killed one night in September 1938 when he was 31 and that he and his wife then had a small shop in Zbandaj where they had lived. He often left the house at night because of his business, which he did not want to talk about to his wife, with whom he had been married for only four months. He was killed in a forest near the village where his murderer lived. North of Zbandaj, and Kirmenjak is southeast of Zbandaj in case you didn’t know.
At the time of his death, his 24-year-old widow was three months pregnant.
"Gaidovica", as you mockingly called her,depicted her with loathas a gold digger and a bad woman. Shame on you for horrific lies!
The perpetrators of this murder have never been prosecuted or blamed because it wasn’t in Gaspar's family from Bonaci financial interest.
Later, it was found out that the people who ordered the murder were from one of the local rich and powerful families, also from one village near Zbandaj, and that they hired a paid assassin. It was also discovered who the paid killer was. Gaspar wasn't the only one killed by their order. Possibly for some reason he stood in their way. Those were the powerful locals who at that time, in the face of the Second World War had power and influence and always remained respectable and appreciated with clean hands.
Gaspar's family from Bonacialso learned the truth, but the truth wasn't in their best interest.
For Gaspar's 24 year old pregnant wife, the loss of her husband at the very beginning of their marriage was a terrible tragedy. As if that was not enough, her life was further made miserable by Gaspar's family from Bonaci. Because of material interests and greed they invented monstrous lies and accused her and her family of murder! Instead of helping her in the most difficult time, they hadcrushed her! And here you maliciously call her "Gaidovica", even though you know her real name very well.Of course, these lies were convenient for the perpetrators, so they too were involved in this cruel construction of lies and accusations, and did not worry about the embarrassments that Gaspar's pregnant widow and her family experienced.
It was only through back-breaking and arduous court process that these cruel accusationsproved to be false.
I will remind you of the reasons, in case you have „forgotten“, whyyour family from Bonaci destroyed her and her family's life:
ReplyDeleteReason number one: According to Italian law (Istria was at that time part of Italy), the family of the murdered Gaspar was obliged to take care of his child from birth until the end of schooling. To avoid it at all costs, they have accused the family of his wife and her for the murder. They even denied it was Gaspar's child, so thattheydon’t have to pay for child support. I am sure you are familiar with this information as you are with the circumstances in which Gaspar's son was born and where he was born.
Reason number two: by law, Gaspar's widow was supposed to inherita shop that Gaspar owned in Zbandaj. That would ensureher to provide for her and her child. But his greedy family wanted to stop it. From your disgusting story I see who took the store. They did not accept the child, but they took the shop. And you evenbrag about it. Because of that, she had to go back with the child to the farm to his family, mother and brother's family, and not to any ex-boyfriend, because he did not exist.
You mockingly call ex-boyfriend the man who Gaspar's widow married many years later, who wholeheartedly accepted Gaspar's son, took care of him and supported him until the age of 24, all the way through his college education in Zagreb.
It was the obligation ofyours and his biological family and yet they refused.
Also, that very man gave Gaspar's sonbig house and a lot ofland. And here you are making false accusations how that man got rich by selling Gaspar's couple of thousandyr2of land.Shame on you!As you said so yourself, Gaspar's father gave his land to his older son.
Remove these accusations and lies immediately.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI would be happy to correspond with you if you are willing to send your email.
ReplyDeleteMoj pravi nono zove se Gašpar Štifanić i ubijen je kad je njegov sin Mario Bonaca od Anđele Bonaca imao 4godine.Ja se zovem Denis Tonkela i danas sam čitala istinu i rasprave i bila sam pod šokom al na kraju sretna jer je moj nono bio dobar čovjek ko i moj tata Mario. Pišem inače knjigu i obećala sam mpjoj noni davno da ću opisati i cijelu istinu i priču o njenoj prvoj ljubavi njenom Gašparu i što se sve dešavalo. Imala je tada niti 16 godina kad je začela sa nonotom Gašparom mog tatu koji je hvala Bogu još živ i živimo i Rijeci. Strašno želim saznati istinu i upoznati se sa potomcima nonota Gašpara i planiram uzeti njegovo prezime. Rado bi voljels doći u kontakt s vama i šaljem svoju e mail adresu. Hvala Vam puno i jako sam sretna da ću Vas upoznati i saznati tu predivnu i tragičnu štoriju moje none Angele Bonazza i Gaspara Stifanicha kako sam uspjela doći danas do toga. Već sam prije pisala al sve se izbrisalo pa mi je baš bilo žao. Hvala puno na odgovoru iako se baš ne služim emeilom. Veliki pozdrav i Božji blagoslov! Denis Mirijam Štifanić Tonkela
Delete"Gaidovica" je bio nadimak u selu Bonaci.Pravo ime Rajko Emilija...Ostatak dijela priče bez svađanja uz dužno poštovanje ispričati ću vam prvom prilikom.
ReplyDelete