PEOPLE With Big Heart : (friendship without borders - Dr. Miodrag ...

was becoming a shielded routine. The Jews and the locals
became close and friendships developed. I remember one
willowy, young woman who gave ballet lessons to my friend.
Olga Chalich prepared a ballet number for the annual
performance in the local school for Saint Sava Day. Some
older, Jewish ladies frequented the so called “better houses”
where someone in the household always spoke German,
and they participated in parties for upper class ladies,
spending time gossiping and knitting. Five or six of
those ladies were said to have completed a large knitted
picture of a replica of the Last Supper in just two months.
I would often pass older Jewish men on the street, seeing
in their hands books borrowed from the local library,
with mostly French and German titles. Some were regulars
in the library; spending mornings bent over foreign
press releases in order to keep up with the latest news.
In February, the Jewish youth organized a beautiful
performance in the officer’s hall at the “Paris” hotel.
Many prominent Sabac citizens were invited, and even the
city officials attended, accompanied by their wives. I
knew one girl who sang and played the guitar beautifully.
She had a solo number in the performance. Young Jewish
men formed a band, and they entertained the guests through
the night. There was even a ballet number in the performance.
For this occasion only, the song “Wir Packen,
Wir Auspaken”
(“We are Packing, We are Unpacking”) was especially
composed, and later became very popular all around Sabac.
A Jewish sculptor carved up a statue of the Sabac
mayor, as a sign of gratitude for the care and hospitality
given to the Jewish people upon their arrival to Sabac.
That sculpture is to this day in possession of mayor’s descendants.
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