Edo S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Edo S., who was born in Avtovac, Yugoslavia in 1922. He recounts moving to Sarajevo as an infant; his father's death in 1932; arrest by Ustaša in August 1941 for communist activities; imprisonment with his older brother; their transfer to Jasenovac; starvation; sadistic mass killings; a privileged position as a locksmith; brief assignment digging mass graves; witnessing his younger brother's murder with a hammer blow, people burned alive in the crematorium, and cannibalism; sham improvements for international commission visits; transfer to Fericanci via Osijek, where locals violently harassed them; slave labor on farms; mass killings when prisoners escaped (one escapee was Sadik-Braca D.); the escape inspiring hope; transfer back to Jasenovac; briefly working in chains in Mlaka; assignment to a privileged position as an electrician; smuggling food and medicine to others; continued mass killings; an attack by partisans in April 1945; public killing of women who had sung a revolutionary song; helping to organize an escape; surviving the escape (his older brother and most others were killed); partisans hiding and feeding them; joining a partisan military unit; and serving in Celje and Niš. Mr. S. discusses relations between prisoner groups in Jasenovac; the artist Danijel Ozmo whose drawings documented Jasenovac (they survived, the artist did not); and the murders of his two sisters, two brothers, mother, and many other relatives there.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- Ozmo, Danijel.
- S., Edo, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- Ustaša, hrvatska revolucionarna organizacija.
- Jasenovac (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Croatian.
- Escapes.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Brothers.
- Cannibalism.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Yugoslavia.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Mutual aid.
- Mass killings.
- Concentration camps -- Revolts.
- Concentration camps -- Underground movements.
- Hiding.
- Resistance.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
Places
- Celje (Slovenia)
- Niš (Serbia)
- Fericanci (Croatia)
- Mlaka (Croatia)
- Avtovac (Bosnia and Hercegovina)
- Yugoslavia.
- Osijek (Croatia)
- Sarajevo (Bosnia and Hercegovina)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat