Lenka Koen and family

Pictured here are my grandmother's sister, Lenka Koen, and her husband Josip Koen with two of their children, Rahela-Elica and Isak. The photo was taken in the S. Mojsilovic studio in Belgrade in 1904. My paternal grandmother, Matilda Kalef, and her sister , Lenka Koen, were very close. They saw each other often and visited one another. She was a housewife and I assume her husband was a merchant. They lived at 27 Gospodar Jovanovo Street on the corner of Kralja Petra Street, in a big apartment on the first floor. Lenka was married to Josip Koen and they had four children: Isak, Marko, Maci and Elica. They were all killed during the war. Her husband was taken away with Jakov Kalef and killed among the first of the adult Jews killed in Belgrade. Elica was transported from Belgrade with her new born baby. Since she knew she was going to die she threw her baby, Avram, out the train window, with the hope that someone would rescue the baby. I learned this story from my mother and she heard it from a survivor whose name my mother never told me.