Book on the Righteous - Jevrejska opština Zemun

Righteous Among The Nations - Serbia
Stories About The Righteous
by the Germans. All were eager to help. The problem
how to leave Raška had to be overcome. The railwaymen
organised their departure. On a winter Saturday,
a market day in the Serbian countryside by tradition,
many people thronged the streets of Raška, despite the
dense snow. One at a time, the members of the Fenje
family arrived at the railway station and boarded a carriage
provided just for them. A few stations down the
track, near the village of Biljanovac,
railway workers uncoupled the
Fenje’s carriage while the rest of
the train continued on its way.
Waiting for them in Biljanovac was
a dilapidated, damp house in which
they were to stay for a few months.
The Fenjes settled into the unsuitable
house as best they could with
the few belongings they had been
able to take with them. Magda had
managed to bring along her Alsatian.
She had not had the heart to
leave the dog behind.
Dr. Fenje was not wealthy enough
to sustain his family without the
monthly earnings he received in
Raška. Aware of the fact that he
would be recognized and arrested
the moment he arrived in Raška, he
dared not go to collect his wages.
It was February 2 nd , 1942, when his
Ilonka - Ica Fenje
wife, Hermina, and daughter, Ica,
went to Raška for the money. Father and Magda stayed
in Biljanovac. Once Hermina received the money, the
two women set off to find transport to Biljanovac. As
they stood beside a cart waiting for its driver to come, a
man came up to them and told them to run from there as
fast as they could. The cart stood in wait for Jews who
were being rounded up! Hermina and Ica had no one to
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turn to but the priest’s wife, Vida. Again Vida’s brother,
Aca Petrović, accompanied by a villager, came to the
rescue. They led Hermina and Ica out of Raška. The
two women had come to Raška in their peasant’s wear
and had stayed undetected. This proved to be a crucial
fact for their safe exit from the town. Aca took them to
Kruševica where he placed them with his relative, Jovan
Petrović.
In the meantime, two villagers had
come to the door of Dr. Josip’s
house in Biljanovac to warn the
doctor that the Germans had just
passed through the village on their
way to Jošanička Banja where a
number of Jewish families from
Belgrade had found shelter. Once
they picked them up, the Germans
were returning to Biljanovac for
the Fenjes. The doctor and his
daughter Magda, who had up to
then been waiting for Hermina and
Ica’s return, immediately left the
house. They climbed a hill from
which they could observe the house
they had been staying in. They saw
the Germans enter it. The Germans
were already furious since they had
been unable to find a single Jew in
Jošanička Banja. Their inquiries
as to the whereabouts of the doctor
were also in vain; not a single
villager was willing to help them.
They finally sealed the house up and left, without having
completed their task. It was extremely cold. Perched on
the hill they had run to, Josip and Magda waited in the
deep snow for someone to come for them and take them
to another shelter. Aca Petrović, brother of the priest’s
wife from Raška, came as night was falling. He told