Jas?a A. Holocaust testimony

Videotaped testimony of Jas?a A., who was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1918. He recalls leaving Belgrade with his cousins and sister on April 6, 1941, when Germany invaded; traveling to a village on the Bay of Kotor; being joined by his family, except one brother who was a POW; brief hospitalization in Cetinje; organizing a Jewish partisan unit; transport of the Jews by the Italians to a military camp in Kavaje?, Albania in July; benign treatment by the Italians; ship transfer in November to Bari, Italy, then Ferramonti; prisoner-organized cultural, sport, educational, and administrative functions; deportation of only one person (his cousin) to Croatia at the demand of the Ustas?a (he was killed in Jasenovac) despite efforts to influence and/or bribe officials; families being allowed to live in villages; their move to Mirandola; friendships with many locals; obtaining visas to Paraguay providing they converted to Catholicism; the village priest converting them; traveling to Madrid; one sister and her husband emigrating to Canada; leaving eleven months later to join the Yugoslav partisans; and his postwar journalism career. Mr. A. emphasizes the importance of Italian help to saving many Yugoslav Jews, even after Italian capitulation.

2 videocassettes