Book on the Righteous - Jevrejska opština Zemun

Righteous Among The Nations - Serbia
Stories About The Righteous
Once there, Krsta asked the other detainees, all prominent
men of Kruševac, for guidance. They told him to
accept the offered position, the alternative being his and
their own execution. An intelligence report addressed
to the quisling government of Serbia stated that Krsta
was “sitting on two chairs”, i.e., vacillating, and that he
should be induced to cooperate because of the respect
people had for him. Amenable to both enemy and quislings,
he was given no choice. Krsta became the first
wartime borough council chairman of Kruševac, but not
for long. Deep down he could not bring himself to be
of help to the enemy. A banker was instated as borough
council chairman by the end of 1941 because of Krsta’s
complaints of his deteriorating health. Relieved from
duty, Krsta was simultaneously chosen for Refugee
Relocation Committee president. Privately, he concurrently
helped both Partisans and Jews, new arrivals to
the city. In due course, he took to sending packages to
Serbian soldiers taken to Germany as POWs.
The Tajtacak family was the only Jewish family in
Kruševac up to the capitulation of Yugoslavia. From
the moment the persecution of Jews was instituted in
Belgrade and throughout Serbia, many Jews came to
Kruševac to seek refuge; Kruševac was also a retreat for
Jews who had fled from Muslim and Ustashi terror. Rebeka
and Sophia’s secure world seemed to be vanishing;
they were registered as Jews and given the yellow band.
Invoking their long standing friendship, Rebeka turned
for help to Krsta Novaković, at the time still borough
council chairman. Without a second thought, Krsta approached
his pre-war friends in the police and secured
for both mother and daughter new identity papers under
a Serbian surname, Andjelković. Rebeka became Ruža,
while Sophia kept her name. The whole time their papers
were being processed, Rebeka’s thoughts were
with her other children. She knew nothing of what was
happening to David and Sultana in Smederevo and worried
about her daughter alone in Mladenovac. She knew
Natalia Andjelković, nee Tajtacak, identity card
that Natalia had to hide her Jewish origin and that she
dared not get in touch with her family. Once again, she
appealed to Krsta for help. Rebeka left for Mladenovac
carrying a new identity card for Natalia. Before long, the
two of them returned to Kruševac. Events were piling
one upon another. With her two daughters living with
her in Kruševac, Rebeka was now anxious to receive
news of David and Sultana. They turned up unexpectedly
in Kruševac in the aftermath of the June 5 th , 1941,
catastrophic explosion in the Smederevo Tower where
the Germans had stockpiled their ammunition. The family
was reunited; Krsta provided necessary papers for
the latest newcomers.
However, their problems were far from over. Germans
were rounding up young people and taking them to
forced labour in Germany. The German soldier assigned
to keep the Tajtacak household in check, was in two
minds why David was sought; was he to be taken to
a concentration camp or to slave labour in Germany
After hearing from Rebeka for the umpteenth time that
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