Vera Tomanic's mother Elza Bluhm`s death notice

This is a death notice for my mother Elza Bluhm (nee Grunwald), issued in Osijek in 1946. By the end of 1941 it became clear to everyone that there was no future for Jews around Osijek, and many tried to flee to Dalmatia. My father wanted us to try and reach Hungary, but my mother Elza began to panic because she feared we would not have anything to live on there. Grandmother Eleonora said that she was too old and could not run, and Aunt Berta did not want to go without her mother. In Serbia they issued a law that Jewish women would not be taken to camps, so I managed to get documents from the Germans that I could continue to live in Belgrade. However, they did not give me documents for my child. On the 15th of May 1942 I stayed to live in Belgrade. After my departure, my parents tried to flee. They paid a local German named Rot to smuggle them to Hungary. But Rot turned out to be a swindler, and instead of sending them, in June 1942, he handed them over to the Ustache police. He survived the war, and my sister Lilie and I testified against him in 1945. However, he managed to run away and escape prosecution. My parents were taken to the Tenja camp. In the camp there were about three and a half thousand people. From Tenja they were sent to Auschwitz. My father was taken to the Jasenovac camp and my mother to the Stara Gradiska camp, while Grandmother Eleonora and Aunt Berta were kept in Auschwitz. None of them returned.