Book on the Righteous - Jevrejska opština Zemun

Righteous Among The Nations - Serbia
Stories About The Righteous
seasoned toddler, next had need of a potty. The moment
his underwear came down, all was revealed. That he
was circumcised was evident to all, although no direct
mention of “Jew” was made. There could be no doubt
as to who Danica, better known as Keka, and her daughters,
Olga and Mila, had let into their home.
Blanka had no idea where to go to next.
Although the three women well knew the
danger they were getting into if found harbouring
Jews, they invited Blanka to stay
with them in the flat. Through some friends
of hers, Keka managed to find employment
for Blanka almost immediately. A graduate
of the Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy and
professor, Blanka was to teach in a school
in Dudovica near Ljig. Their departure was
not to be a final parting from Keka and her
daughters, who were, in fact, collaborators
of the Resistance movement. Little Alexander
came to stay with Keka each year when
Blanka took her pupils to Valjevo for their
final exams.
Blanka and Alexander stayed in the
Vukašinović house in the village of Dudovica
up to the end of the war. On one of her trips to Valjevo
with her pupils, the train was stopped in the Lajkovac
station. In response to an informer’s report that the wife
of the Partisan physician, Dr. Kraus, was on the train,
the Germans were on the look out for a woman with
a red hat. Since Blanka’s knowledge of German was
faultless, she instantly caught on that they were looking
for her. The fake identity card from Šabac, coupled with
her self-confident bearing, saved her once again.
Hardly anyone in Dudovica knew that Blanka and Alexander
were Jews. Like it or not, they had to respect
and live in accordance with Serbian customs. To kiss a
burning oak branch on Christmas day for the first time
must have been as challenging for Serbian children as it
was for little Alexander. He would remember Christmas
of 1943 for the rest of his life. Still very babyish, with
the stove reaching just up to his head, he stood beside
the host who was setting fire to the oak branch inside
the grate.
Zorka Djurović, Olga and Mileva Jovanović. Bottom row: Alexander
Kraus, Jovanović Keka and Tanja, wife to Alexander
“Come on son, now you kiss the Christmas branch so
that no harm comes to the livestock, no hardships to
us…” Nothing of what was being said reached Alexander’s
ears. He stood staring at the fire dancing to its very
own tune. “As many sparks, that many coins…,” the
host continued. Alexander’s tearful eyes were by now
themselves sparkling. With the Christmas branch burning
at one end and water sizzling from the snow brought
in with it at the other, Alexander knew not where to kiss
the offered bough. He could not let the family down and
place a curse on it. He kissed the branch and rid himself
of any guilt of the hard times the Serbian people would
yet live through till liberation.
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