Mirko L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Mirko L., who was born in Novska, Yugoslavia in approximately 1920. He recalls cordial relations with non-Jews; attending school in Novska, Nova Gradiška, and another town where his sister and her husband lived; German invasion in 1941; emergence of local Ustaša; anti-Jewish regulations including the armband and forced labor; empathic indignation from most of the population; imprisonment of Romanies in Jasenovac; learning they were being sadistically killed; corpses floating in the river; local Ustaša killing Serbs, then rounding up Jews; arrest with his brother as communists in August 1941; their release in November; learning his father was sent to Jasenovac (he was killed); joining the partisans with his brother; hiding with non-Jews; many partisan battles; organizing a communist youth group (SKOJ); learning the Jews in Novska were sent to Jasenovac and killed in July, including his mother; recruiting partisans to fight the Ustaša; training as a radio operator; serving in many battles; joining the party in May 1944; learning his sister died after her husband was killed (her son perished in a forced labor battalion); his military career after the war; and marriage to a non-Jewish Serbian woman. Mr. L. notes his family identifies themselves as Yugoslav.
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
- L., Mirko, -- 1920?-
Corporate Bodies
- Ustaša, hrvatska revolucionarna organizacija.
- Jasenovac (Concentration camp)
- Savez komunističke omladine Jugoslavije.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Romanies.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Croatian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Brothers.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Yugoslavia.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mass killings.
- Hiding.
Places
- Novska (Croatia)
- Yugoslavia.
- Nova Gradiška (Croatia)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat