Book on the Righteous - Jevrejska opština Zemun

Righteous Among The Nations - Serbia
Stories About The Righteous
BEWARE OF HOW YOU CROSS YOURSELF
“Please come to the police station immediately,” from
the very threshold of the room an agitated and out of
breath Zora pleaded with Mirko’s parents to accompany
her. “You have to explain that Mirko has been arrested
by mistake, that he is not a Jew!”
The numerous Baruch family had found shelter in the
laundering outhouse behind the Stamenković residence
in Niš. The family members exchanged subtle looks
deciding what to tell Zora. It was clear both to father
Avram and all the others that they
could no longer hide their Jewish descent
from her.
When, in the aftermath of the bombing
of Belgrade on April 6 th , 1941, German
troops entered the city and established
a military regime throughout the territory
of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia,
their prime target became the Jewish
residents. Prior to initiating the process
of exterminating the Jewish population,
Jews were sent to forced labour
tasks. The rubble that the bombing had
left behind had to be cleared away and
the dead, disintegrating bodies pulled
out of the ruins. Once that was done,
the killing of Jews could commence,
right up to the last one, until the Jewish
question in Serbia was resolved. Zora Stojadinović, husband’s family
Ezra Baruch was one of the many
name Budjić
forced labour workers. His wife Rina stayed at home
with their two-month-old baby. One day Ezra did not
return home from forced labour duty. He had been taken
to the Topovske šupe death camp. With a group of other
inmates, he was taken to an unknown destination in October
1941; no one ever found out where his life had
98
come to an end. When his wife Rina received a summons
to report to the Special police together with her
baby and to bring the keys of her flat along with her, her
father-in-law, Avram Baruch, decided that all of them
should flee from Belgrade.
He had long been acquainted with Mr. Stamenković;
occasionally he had done business with him and so the
Baruchs came to Niš.The Stamenkovics were the only
ones aware of the fact that the Baruchs were Jews. The
Baruchs rented the Stamenkovićs’ laundry outhouse and
the ten of them settled into it; Avram and his wife, Riki,
Ezra’s wife with the baby, Avram’s son and daughter
with their families and Schalom, now
old enough to be married.
They managed to acquire false identity
cards in Niš stating they were refugees
from Pirot. With the new documents
they acquired Serbian names and their
surname became Borić. Schalom’s documents
gave him the new name - Mirko,
as friends frequently called him, since
Shalom translated meant mir (peace).
He soon found employment in the
Andrić bookshop and moved to another
flat. Mirko met Zora Stojadinović in
his new neighbourhood and soon their
friendship developed into something
more serious. Although deeply in love
with Mirko, Zora never learned of his
and his family’s Jewish origin. According
to their documents, they all had new
Serbian names. It was only in 1943 after
Mirko’s arrest, when in panic she came to the outhouse
to plead with his family to hurry and explain to the
police that he was not Jewish, that she learnt the truth.
It never transpired who had denounced Mirko to the
Ljotić company, a band of fervent Fascists who formed
the greater part of the Nedić Serbian Volunteers corps.