To hell and back

Abstract

In five books, "We Survived: Yugoslav Jews on the Holocaust" (three of them translated into English), the testimonies of a small number of surviving members of the Jewish community about World War II were collected. The peculiarity of the circumstances in which the entire population of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was found is reflected in the fact that at the beginning of the war, the country was occupied by five invaders: Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania and the fascist satellite formation, the so-called. The Independent State of Croatia. These circumstances also led to different ways of surviving and rescuing Jews from these areas. The Jewish Historical Museum of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia / Serbia published these books with help of donations and volunteer work of the editorial board in which seven of nine members survived the Holocaust. These books are an extraordinary collection of tragic and dramatic experiences about unique choices - the struggle for life, dignity, and freedom in partisans; about concentration camps, about refugee life under constant threat, about help and friendships. They are also a good basis for exploring the Holocaust and the history of Jews from the former Yugoslavia. Each testimony is enriched with a series of photographs and together with the text, they make unique documentation material. As the suffering of Jews on the territory of the former Yugoslavia is poorly known to the general public, these books have the task of filling that space. They thus become a memorial for all the victims whose many names are found only in memory. One of those memories is "Do pakla i nazad" (To hell and back) by Marta Staničkov.

U seriji od pet knjiga "Mi smo preživeli: Jevreji o Holokaustu" od kojih su tri prevedene na engleski jezik, sakupljena su svedočenja malobrojnih preživelih članova jevrejske zajednice o vremenu Drugog svetskog rata. Osobenost prilika u kojima se zateklo celokupno stanovništvo Kraljevine Jugoslavije ogleda se u činjenici da je tu državu, početkom rata, okupiralo pet zavojevača: Nemačka, Italija, Bugarska, Mađarska, Albanija i fašistička satelitska tvorevina, tzv. Nezavisna država Hrvatska. Te okolnosti su uslovile i različite načine preživljavanja i spašavanja Jevreja sa ovih prostora. Jevrejski istorijski muzej Saveza jevrejskih opština Jugoslavije/Srbije objavio je ove knjige uz pomoć donacija i uz volonterski rad redakcije u kojoj je sedam od devet članova preživelo Holokaust. One čine izuzetnu kolekciju tragičnih i dramatičnih iskustava o jedinstvenom izboru – borbi za život, dostojanstvo i slobodu u partizanima; o koncentracionim logorima, o izbegličkom životu pod stalnom pretnjom, o pomoći i prijateljstvima. One su i dobra podloga za istraživanje Holokausta i istorije Jevreja sa tla bivše Jugoslavije. Svako svedočenje je obogaćeno nizom fotografija i zajedno sa tekstom čine jedinstveni dokumentacioni materijal. Kako je stradanje Jevreja na tlu bivše Jugoslavije slabo poznato široj publici, ove knjige imaju zadatak da ispune taj prostor. One tako postaju spomenik za sve stradale čija se mnogobrojna imena nalaze samo u sećanjima. Jedno od tih sećanja je "Do pakla i nazad" Marte Staničkov.