This Europe: Tito's family fight to recover his belongings from the state
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Your support makes all the difference.Josip Broz is a cook who works in a restaurant in the Zemun area of Belgrade. His home is some distance away in Dedinje. His small, dilapidated house is situated in a street between the plush 1000 square metre residence built by Slobodan Milosevic and the sprawling White House, the Yugoslav state residence built by Josip's grandfather – of the same name – but better known as Tito.
Unlike the Milosevic family, who amassed a fortune of amazing proportions, Tito's grandson has almost nothing. The same goes for Tito's widow, Jovanka Broz, who lives in a shabby house owned by the military, almost next door to the three-storey residence of Marija Milosevic, daughter of Mr Milosevic.
"I am not sorry because the family has nothing," says 55-year-old Josip Broz. "My grandpa raised me to be a modest man, not different from ordinary people. Presents coming from him would be for birthdays – wristwatches, brooches."
Josip Broz is the eldest grandson of Tito's three grandchildren by his son Zarko. The other two, Zlatica and Edi, live quietly in former Yugoslav. Tito's grandchildren from his other son, Misa, live abroad.
The cigar-smoking, whisky-swilling Tito, who ruled Yugoslavia with an iron hand from 1945 until his death in 1980, loved the good life. "I mastered the art of preparing game while I worked at hunting grounds all over former Yugoslavia," Josip Broz says. "Tito visited those places a lot."
The restaurant where he now works has game as a speciality but it is not well known in Belgrade. Its walls are covered with Tito's photos, scarcely seen anywhere else in Serbia.
Tito was often criticised for amassing the precious gifts given by foreign dignitaries or using the country's most luxurious residences for his private purposes. Critics accused him of spending state money on expensive trips abroad. His car pool consisted of vintage Rolls-Royce and Mercedes.
But when he died, Tito owned only a vineyard in his native village of Kumrovec in Croatia, which Josip Broz inherited.
"Grandpa said that after his death all the stuff should go to the state," says Josip Broz. "I have only personal gifts from him – a watch, a hunting rifle and so many memories."
He went on: "When my father, Zarko, died in 1995, his pension was only 40 German marks. But I'm not sorry that we haven't inherited a fortune. I'm grateful to my family that raised me as a modest man. That helped me survive the 90s."
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