Selected text
In the village of Tenja, Jewish youth began building a camp for Jews.
Osijek Jews were expected to come up with 2 million dinars for security
that nothing would happen to them. They were barely able to collect this
money. The youth built barracks in the Tenja camp where we were supposed to
live, as if to await the end of the war in peace.
Returning from work one day, our youth ran into a group of German youth and
it quickly came to a brawl. Kalman Weiss, a boxer, was in our group. He had
an iron fist and he beat a number of Germans, so they ran away. We knew
that there would be retaliation for this incident. All of our group decided
that we would illegally leave Osijek.
They especially wanted Kalman. They caught him, but he jumped out of the
truck where they had put him and ran away.
In the meantime the camp in Djakovo was constructed, especially for women
and children. The women from Vinkovac, Slavonski Brod and Vukovar were
taken there. The first two months the Osijek Jewish community provided food
for the camp. The Ustache government allowed each family to take one child
from the camp and take care of him. My family took care of a 12-year-old
boy whose name I cannot remember, and a 4-year-old girl named Zuza from
Vinkovac, whose mother remained in the Djakovo camp and whose father, we
found out later, was killed in Auschwitz. It was clear to everyone that
there was no future for Jews, 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.
From April 10, 1941 to May 15, 1942, I illegally went to Belgrade a few
times, with permission slips written under another name. I went to check on
my apartment and to see if there was any news from my husband. And I tried
to find something to do because I did not have any income.
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. Rot turned out to be a swindler, and instead of sending them,
he handed them over to the Ustache police.
Rot survived the war, and my sister Lilie and I testified against him in
1945. However, he managed to run away and escape the trial.
In June, 1942, my parents, my aunt, and my grandmother were taken to the
Tenja camp. In the camp 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.
In the meantime I learned that my sister had managed to get to Budapest.
The grandmother of little Zuza, the girl who was staying with my family,
sent a man to smuggle her granddaughter and my sister across the Danube on
a small boat to Subotica, Hungary, where she herself lived. The escape
succeeded. My sister awaited liberation in Budapest, living under the name
Magda Sipos. This identity was obtained for her by our father's distant
relatives, with whom she made contact in Budapest.
I lived under very difficult conditions in Belgrade. I survived by selling
things from my apartment. Officially, I received 200 grams of corn bread,
and that was only under my name since my daughter Mirjana did not have
documents. Later I was able to regulate all of my documents on account of
the fact that my husband, Milorad Tomanic, was an active military officer
in captivity. At that point I fell under the protection of the Red Cross.
My husband regularly contacted me from captivity. He changed camps many
times. Among those camps were Nuremberg and Osnabrueck. In Osnsabrueck
there were two camps one next to the other. One was for officers and the
other for communists and Jews. Some of my relatives were in the other one.
Osijek Jews were expected to come up with 2 million dinars for security
that nothing would happen to them. They were barely able to collect this
money. The youth built barracks in the Tenja camp where we were supposed to
live, as if to await the end of the war in peace.
Returning from work one day, our youth ran into a group of German youth and
it quickly came to a brawl. Kalman Weiss, a boxer, was in our group. He had
an iron fist and he beat a number of Germans, so they ran away. We knew
that there would be retaliation for this incident. All of our group decided
that we would illegally leave Osijek.
They especially wanted Kalman. They caught him, but he jumped out of the
truck where they had put him and ran away.
In the meantime the camp in Djakovo was constructed, especially for women
and children. The women from Vinkovac, Slavonski Brod and Vukovar were
taken there. The first two months the Osijek Jewish community provided food
for the camp. The Ustache government allowed each family to take one child
from the camp and take care of him. My family took care of a 12-year-old
boy whose name I cannot remember, and a 4-year-old girl named Zuza from
Vinkovac, whose mother remained in the Djakovo camp and whose father, we
found out later, was killed in Auschwitz. It was clear to everyone that
there was no future for Jews, 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.
From April 10, 1941 to May 15, 1942, I illegally went to Belgrade a few
times, with permission slips written under another name. I went to check on
my apartment and to see if there was any news from my husband. And I tried
to find something to do because I did not have any income.
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. Rot turned out to be a swindler, and instead of sending them,
he handed them over to the Ustache police.
Rot survived the war, and my sister Lilie and I testified against him in
1945. However, he managed to run away and escape the trial.
In June, 1942, my parents, my aunt, and my grandmother were taken to the
Tenja camp. In the camp 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.
In the meantime I learned that my sister had managed to get to Budapest.
The grandmother of little Zuza, the girl who was staying with my family,
sent a man to smuggle her granddaughter and my sister across the Danube on
a small boat to Subotica, Hungary, where she herself lived. The escape
succeeded. My sister awaited liberation in Budapest, living under the name
Magda Sipos. This identity was obtained for her by our father's distant
relatives, with whom she made contact in Budapest.
I lived under very difficult conditions in Belgrade. I survived by selling
things from my apartment. Officially, I received 200 grams of corn bread,
and that was only under my name since my daughter Mirjana did not have
documents. Later I was able to regulate all of my documents on account of
the fact that my husband, Milorad Tomanic, was an active military officer
in captivity. At that point I fell under the protection of the Red Cross.
My husband regularly contacted me from captivity. He changed camps many
times. Among those camps were Nuremberg and Osnabrueck. In Osnsabrueck
there were two camps one next to the other. One was for officers and the
other for communists and Jews. Some of my relatives were in the other one.
Location
Serbia
Interview
vera tomanic