Book on the Righteous - Jevrejska opština Zemun

Righteous Among The Nations - Serbia
Stories About The Righteous
ily to exit Kruševac, leaving their home behind. They
all moved in with Milenko’s parents Cica and Dragoljub
Veljković.
Cica and Dragoljub Veljković’s house was on the very
edge of the village, first in line on the road in. Although
they were living with the Tajtacaks as one big family,
the possibility of German soldiers materializing on the
road into the village was constant and presented a risk
to all household members. There simply would not be
enough time for escape. Good sense told them that the
Tajtacaks had to move, and a few months later, the family
settled into postman Mile and his wife, Cila’s, house.
Miroslav Veljković, nicknamed Mile the Postman because
of his job, was father to the schoolgirl living with
Kosa Petrović in Kruševac, Zlata Veljković. Both Zlata
and her room-mate Mica Vasić were members of the
Communist organization’s youth association and had
both taken an active part in the relocation of the Tajtacak
family from Kruševac to Donji Krčin. Zlata had
appealed to her parents to take the Tajtacak family in.
Both girls felt certain that the family’s problems were
resolved once they had moved in with Zlata’s parents.
However, a similar problem concerning their protection
was encountered; lack of time to get away had been a
question in the first case and now it was the distance
to safety. The postman’s house was in the very centre
of the village and when Germans came to the village,
the fields and woods where the Tajtacaks could hide in
were far off. Thankfully, the Germans never assumed
that there could be Jews hiding in the village. Nevertheless,
to be on the safe side, the Tajtacaks moved in with
Mile’s brother, Svetomir Veljković, shortly after. His
house was farther from the centre, but also on the road
through the village.
The Germans were not on the look out for Jews but were
more or less always around searching for Partisans. As
time went on, their stops in the village became more and
From left to right: Sultana, Rebeka, Natalia –Beba
squatting Sophia
more frequent. The whole village knew that the Tajtacaks
were Jews and they all protected them and tried to
be of help as much as they could. The Tajtacaks moved
once again, this time into the home of Vasilije - Vasa
Ljubisavljević. Vasa was a wealthy man, like his father
before him. He had built a new house for himself, so he
gave the Tajtacaks his late father Grujica’s old house
to settle into. The house was at a distance from both
the village centre and the road which was of late, daily
patrolled by Germans. The house had a wooden floor
and was equipped with all the necessary furnishings
for comfortable living. The Tajtacaks were now living
alone with Vasa and his wife Kadivka as frequent visitors.
They even had a dog who was practically a member
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