here. - History Campus

 „Children of War in Europe“ Berlin Seminar 6 – 12 August 2015 The Voices of Child Survivors By Fotini Patinari and Milena Tatalović Institute for deaf persons, Zagreb, just after the liberation from Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska camps (Photo: Museum of Genocide Victims Belgrade, personal fund of Dragoje Lukic) 1 Voices of Hidden Children ID card of the mother of Rosina Pardo (Photo: Jewish Museum of Greece) “What stands out about that time was the total silence” – Rosina, hidden Jewish child in Thessaloniki “When you are shut up, you count time in days […]. Every day we remained hidden was a victory for life over death. And every day became priceless” –
Rosina, hidden Jewish child in Thessaloniki “We were afraid even to utter our name” – Rosina, hidden Jewish child in Thessaloniki Children during the Occupation “Everything was black, especially the future. Even as a child everything was clear to me: the Nazis and the Fascists were here and victory was over there” – Raul, Jewish child survivor from Serbia Life in Concentration Camps “We were transformed into numbers. My parents used to call me Jackito. There, I was number 115,003” – Yaacov, Jewish child from Thessaloniki transferred to Auschwitz “I was completely alone. From my neighborhood, from my school, from my family, from the people I knew there was nobody left. Alone and frustrated I wanted to kill myself” – Yaacov, Jewish child from Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz 2 In some of the Ustasha camps (Photo: Museum of Genocide Victims Belgrade, personal fund of Dragoje Lukic) “A piece of bread was the measure for everything. It was a kind of camp currency for the most primitive kind of trade” – Raul, Jewish child survivor from Serbia One of the transports to Ustasha camps “I will never forget how this soup looked and tasted like” – Yaacov, Jewish child from Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz (Photo: Museum of Genocide Victims Belgrade, personal fund of Dragoje Lukic) ”There is something that is still nailed onto my memory: I endured Jasenovac’s sunbath. Do you know what that is? They made us kids to lay on the ground on a very hot day, and forced us to look in a sun. We had to look in the sun for hours until they got bored and let us go. Of course our skin would get sun burned” – Danica, Serbian child survivor of Ustasha camps ”I don`t know for how long we stayed in Sisak. We had cardboard cards with our number around our necks, but some of In some of the Ustasha camps the little children ate their cards. I (Photo: Museum of Genocide Victims Belgrade, personal fund of always put those cards behind my little Dragoje Lukic) sisters’ b
ack s
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hey w
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ot eat their own card; this helped us to remember our name and last name” – Danica, Serbian child survivor of Ustasha camps 3 Children’s memories and aftermath Stare sajmiste camp in 2015 Belgrade (Photo: A leksandar A ntic) Jaseonovac Memorial Today (Photo: Bojan D jokic) “The picture of Birkenau at that time still haunts me in my dreams” – Erika, Jewish child from Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz “The days and the years went by. The years in Auschwitz remain hidden in my mind” – Erika, Jewish child from Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz “I had to live, to find myself, to found a family. I was thinking that I should leave everything behind nothing changes anyway” – Erika, Jewish child from Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz “We told our story immediately, but people did not want to hear it” – Heinz Dario, Jewish child from Memorial in Sisak today Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz (Photo: Museum of Genocide Victims Belgrade) “Why did I survive but so many others did not? -­‐ Erika, Jewish child from Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz 4 Dachau concentration camp, 2014 (Photo: Fotini Patinari) “After years of silence and not talking and feeling like it was not allowed to talk about the humiliation we suffered at the concentration camps, everything inside me changed; One day everything came out, all that I had buried” Yaacov, Jewish child from Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz “And so I failed to find my father’s grave in Germany [after the war]. There were no graves during the Holocaust” – Raul, Jewish child survivor from Serbia “I say that I`m a loser of both wars. At first, the Second World War took my childhood and the Yugoslavian war took my old age...” -­‐ Danica, Serbian child survivor of Ustasha camps “For a long time in my life, I always wondered and had a feeling that someone played an important part in my rescue in 1942, but I did not know who it was. I had a feeling that I would owe my life to someone.” – Milan, Serbian child survivor of Ustasha camps “I do not hate them anymore for doing all these things. I hate only those who try to imitate them” – Rosina, hidden Jewish child in Thessaloniki “I will not narrate everything that I experienced in the concentration camp. Not even the paper can handle it. I don’t want people to lose their fate in god and humanity” – Yaacov, Jewish child from Thessaloniki deported to Auschwitz 5 Sources All the information and quotes used in our article and pdf files come from the following sources. In case you are more interested in the subject, feel free to check them out. Written Sources Asser-­‐Pardo, Rosina (2008). 548 Days with another Name. Thessaloniki: Gavriilidis (in Greek). Central. Handali, Yaacov (1995). From the White Tower to Auschwitz. Thessaloniki: Paratiritis (in Greek; also available in English). Historical Museum of Serbia (2015). Final Destination Auschwitz – catalogue of the exhibition. Belgrade (In Serbian; also available in English). Israeli Board of Greece (2008). Young People in the Maelstrom of Occupied Greece. The Persecution and Holocaust of Jewish People 1943–1944. Athens: Central Israeli Board of Greece (in Greek; also available in English). Jasenovac Fifth International Conference (2011). System of concentration camps and execution sites of Croatian government for extermination of Serbs, Jews and Roma in Second World War – collection of works, Association “Jasenovac-­‐Donja Gradina”. Banja Luka (in Serbian). Jasenovac Sixth International Conference (2014). Genocide and crimes of Independent State of Croatia against Serbian, Jewish and Roma population in the Second World War – Collection of Announcments and Memories, Association “Jasenovac-­‐Donja Gradina”. Banja Luka (in Serbian). Jewish Museum of Greece (20072). Hidden Children in Occupied Greece. An Exhibition of the Jewish Museum of Greece, 29 September 2003 – 28 February 2005. Athens: Jewish Museum of Greece (in Greek and English). Kounio, Heinz-­‐Slavator (1981). I lived death. The diary of the number 109565. Bloch Pub Co. Kounio-­‐Amariglio, Erika (1996). 50 years after … Memories of a Salonican Jewish Woman. Thessaloniki: Paratiritis (in Greek; also available in English and in German). Museum of Genocide Victims Belgrade Annual – a thematic issue (2008). The parent of mown generations. Belgrade (in Serbian). Museum of Genocide Victims Belgrade Annual – a thematic issue (2012). Research and memorialisation of genocide and war crimes – collection of works. Belgrade (in Serbian). Nazi camps. Thessaloniki: Dodoni (in Greek; also available in English). Ristovic, Milan (2010). "Jews in Serbia during world war two". In Milan Ristovic and Milan Fogel, Righteous among the Nations – Serbia, Jewish Community, Zemun (in Serbian and English). Saltiel, David (2011, 30 October). To Intensify the Attempts of Enhancing the Memory. Macedonia, pp. 2/26 (in Greek). The Jewish Historical Museum, Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia (2006). We survived. Belgrade (In Serbian; also available in English). Multimedia Sources Interview with Amariglio, Erika-­‐Myriam (2007). Videoarchive ‘Sprechen trotz allem’. Foundation Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe (in German), available in: http://sprechentrotzallem.de/ [retrieved 20 July 2015]. Interview with Kounio, Heinz-­‐Salvator (2009). Videoarchive ‘Sprechen trotz allem’. Foundation Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe (in German), available in: http://sprechentrotzallem.de/ [retrieved 20 July 2015]. Interview with Praštalo, Danica (2012). Authors Nada Ljubić and Dušan Gavrilović for Jasenovac memorial Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f28TI7k_-­‐vo and http://serbianholocaust.org/index.html (In Serbian) [retrieved 2 August 2015]. Loules, Vassilis (director) (2012). Kisses to the Children [Documentary Film]. Greece: Massive Productions and Greek Film Centre Productions (in Greek with English subtitles). Memorial site Jasenovac, An individualized list of the victims KCL Jasenovac 1941–1945 http://www.jusp-­‐
jasenovac.hr/Default.aspx?sid=6284 [retrieved 27 July, 2015]. Photos Special gratitude to the Museum of Genocide Victims Belgrade for providing photos from Dragoje Lukic fund and permission for publishing. 6