Danon Dr Jakov - Jadovno 1941.

KARAN VASILIJE, Memories, Banja Luka
My name is Vasilije Karan, born in 1934 in Knešpolje, the
legendary area of Potkozarje. When the offensive on Kozara
started, Kozara was surrounded by the Germans, the Ustashes and
the Croatian Home Guards. I was only eight years old. We ran
away in front of soldiers. We made to ourselves the cottages and
lived in the mountain. Kozara was more and more surrounded by
enemy soldiers and about 3500 Partisans couldn’t endure the
attack and Kozara fell at early July 1941.
When occupational and the Ustashe’s armies entered in
the Kozara mountain, they took us and sent to the concentration
camp. In the line which moved toward Jasenovac I was with my mother, with my little sister
and two brothers. The Ustashe hit us from the sides by butts and threatened us "You will all
go into the River Una, you will all be sent to the stove." I already knew what "the stove"
meant and as I wouldn’t like to be burnt in the stove, I waited for a while and used the chance
to ran away from the line. One young woman jumped together with me. I heard bullets around
me, but they didn’t shoot me. I hid myself in the bushes and when I got out I saw the blood in
the road. I knew that she was killed, but her further destiny I didn’t know. I was free for 20
minutes only, because I met Germans who caught me, while my mother with my brothers and
sister ended in Jasenovac. The Germans delivered me to the Croatian Home Guards because
of language problems. I was with one Croatian Home Guard in the trench. He gave me some
food because he himself didn’t have more. In the mountain I used to lick thrown German’s
tins, and I picked up the wild strawberries. There were a few of them as the army ate them,
licked honey dew and managed somehow. Actually I was a wild child, because before I lived
with my parents, and now I stood alone. The Kozara Mountain was in the fire caused by
explosion of shells, mines, rockets of machineguns and all around us a cry and scream ... was
heard, but I used to it and dreamt that I will somehow survive all this. I lived in the mountain,
covered with the leaves, ants bit me in the night, and scratching myself I got mange and crusts
on my head, so my hair looked like I have the horns. While I was in the trench with the Home
Guard, I watched them "hunting" the people. Some of them they killed, and some of them
they tied and sent to the concentration camps in Croatia. When Home Guards became fed up
with me, they again delivered me to the Germans who sent me in the concentration camp in
Dubica where one woman from my village recognised me and took my hand. They uploaded
us in wagons and sent to Croatia. We got off at the Station in the place Starovi. Then I heard
the story about the Jews who were killed more than we were, although I didn’t know then
who these people were. It was around 2000 people from Kozara in the field and those who
had more food cooked something and ate it. In a moment I turned to the road and came into
the yard, where I found a couple with two children, who were of my age, eating oily
doughnuts with flour and eggs and I screamed "I am hungry". They gave me one doughnut
which I ate in a moment. They were amazed and told "Oh, God, Oh God, Oh God".
I returned in the field and we after several days walked on foot toward Grubišno polje
and arrived to the village Velika Banija, where we were imprisoned in some village house
around two weeks. They named me an orphan, because I was the only one who was alone.
While I was wandering around in Croatia, my mother with my sister and two brothers was in
Jasenovac. My father was also in Jasenovac but he didn’t know that they also were there. My
little sister was the first who died. She was crawling in the concentration camp telling
"Mother, bread, bread, bread". My mother didn’t have the bread and in the morning they
found her dead with the soil in her mouth, and my mother told: "Oh, my dear, you have left
us", while my two brothers skinny of hunger, fondled her for a long time telling "Our sister
died".
556