INTRODUCTION 1 SURVIVAL IN This exhibition has been created in partnership The photograph The map below, with the Jewish community of Sarajevo and its above was taken published by Fama , MUSLIMS, SERBS AND humanitarian aid agency, for Time Magazine International, shows the in April 1995, and CROATS WORKING TOGETHER . In the early 1990s, as when Bosnian the Bosnian Serb gun DURING THE , tore itself apart, this tiny Jewish community decided President Alija emplacements during it could not, and would not, take sides in the conflict. Izetbegovic attended the Passover seder in the the siege, from 1992 until 1995. 1992–1995 After all, Bosnian Jews traced themselves back Sarajevo . The book is the legendary hundreds . For more than 1,000 years, the Jakob Finci in the AN EXHIBITION FROM CENTROPA Haggadah is the book Jewish families have been Sarajevo Jewish Museum, of years in this region, and for the most part, using at the dinner table during each Passover seder January 1994. Credits for the historical and archival photographs got along rather well with their Muslim, Serbian (around Easter time) to tell the story of the Exodus are provided below. All photographs taken between Orthodox and Croatian Catholic neighbors. from Egypt. This particular illuminated Haggadah 1985 and 1996 were taken by Edward Serotta. The was painted on the finest vellum, and decorated photographs were taken on assignment for Time Out of respect for La Benevolencija, and the with gold leaf. Experts surmise that it was made for a Magazine, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Die Zeit. All non-sectarian role it continues to play today, this family in south-eastern Spain around 1370. these images appeared in Survival in Sarajevo: Jews, exhibition attempts to be as apolitical as possible, Bosnia, and the Lessons of the Past, by Edward and focuses primarily on the story of Bosnia’s Jews, How the book came to Sarajevo is a mystery. Serotta, published in 1994 by the Brandstätter Verlag, and what they, and their non- Jewish neighbors, did We know it was in Italy in the 17th century, and Vienna, and Distributed Art Publishers, New York. for their city during the war from 1992 to 1995. This somehow, it made its way across the Adriatic, exhibition, then, is genuinely about how civil society where a boy by the name of Kohen sold it to a local This exhibition was made possible by the American can function, even in the bleakest of times. museum in Sarajevo in 1894. Since Bosnia was then Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Milton in Austria-Hungary, the book was sent to Vienna for and Rozlyn Wolf Family Foundation. The exhibition This exhibition also attempts to provide at least appraisal, where art experts in the Fine Arts Museum was designed by Silvie Weber in Vienna, and pre- some background to the Sephardic Jewish history of declared it to be a medieval masterpiece, hence its production was carried out by Martina Lang, the , in order to provide the visitor with a bit fame. of perspective. Silvie Weber, Denis Karalic, Evgenij Gretscko and In the picture left are the words found near the front Wolfgang Els. Special thanks to Michael Haderer, , of every Haggadah which are recited on the first Ouriel Morgensztern, Jakob Finci and Chuck Sudetic. late afternoon. two nights of Passover: “All who are hungry, let them October 1993. come and eat. All who are in need of fellowship, let Archival credits: them come and celebrate Passover with us.” Jewish Museum of Bosnia Jewish Museum of Serbia These words became the unspoken motto of La Collection Gerard Levy, Paris Benevolencija, the Jewish humanitarian aid agency. The family collections of Hana Gasic, and Rahela Although Passover is a holiday that lasts eight days, Perisic Jewish Museum of Vienna Sarajevo is a long, narrow city stretched along the in Sarajevo, it lasted three years. The collection of Bill Gross, Tel Aviv River, with steep hills rising on all sides - Holocaust Memorial Center of Macedonia ideal for artillery and snipers; hell on those living below. The airport was in the hands of the United Nations during the siege. Sarajevo residents were not allowed to cross the tarmac to reach the one sliver of land that led to Bosnian government-controlled territory. Enterprising Sarajevans simply dug a tunnel under it. www.centropa.org 2 HISTORY 3 Sarajevo was founded around 1460, in the early years Courtyard of Il Kal Viejo, the Members of the Sarajevo may not have been welcomed in every case, but of Ottoman rule. The first Jews – descended from Great Synagogue, built in Jewish community dressed in by and large, families could count on the Partisans those expelled from Spain in 1492—arrived in the the 16th century. It remained traditional costume, waiting for protection, and Jews in Bosnia, and the rest of city in the mid-1500s. These Sephardic Jews settled in active use until German for the arrival of Austrian Yugoslavia, served on the front lines. throughout the region—from Split on the Adriatic Wehrmacht and Croatian Emperor Franz Josef, who coast to Salonika on the Aegean—and in scores of Ustasha soldiers burned it in visited the city in 1908. A Serbian Jew, Moshe Pijade, was Tito’s right hand towns in between. 1941. It is now the Sarajevo man. Beno Ruso, barely 20-years-old when the war Jewish Museum. Old postcard of the Sarajevo swept into Macedonia, finished the war as a general. The Sephardim (Sefarad means Iberia in Hebrew) Jewish cemetery, founded Eleven Yugoslav Jews were designated National brought to the Balkans skills they had been in the 1600s. These oblong Heroes at the war’s end, and four of them were from developing in Spain for centuries. They excelled tombstones, which stand on a Sarajevo. as tinsmiths and in leather tanning. They traded in The keys from Spain. Legend high hill overlooking the city, glass, textiles and furs. Centuries of study had taught has it among Sephardic Jews are unique. Personal stories from the them pharmacology and medicine. that when they left their homes in Spain, they took their keys old postcard of Jewish Centropa archive As the Ottoman Empire continued its expansion with them, hoping to return. merchant in Salonika. The Albahari family traced its roots back centuries in through the end of the 1600s, Jewish communities The story may well be apocryphal, but these three Bosnia. This photograph was taken in the Bosnian town prospered. But as the Ottoman Empire began its keys, belonging to the Sarajevo city museum, are said of Sanski Most in 1928, where the family owned a long and painful decline, the fortunes of its Jewish to have come from a Bosnian Jewish family that struggling dry goods store. The adults in the picture communities suffered as well. Many of the Balkan traced its roots back to Iberia. above left are David and Luna Albahari, and David’s Sephardim were poor and uneducated. By the brother Jakob and his wife Rena. While David and mid-19th century, the Alliance from France helped The Moorish style synagogue Luna and their children managed to survive the war developed better schooling, hospitals and social was built in 1902 by the by joining Tito’s Partisans, Jakob’s entire family was programs. , who began murdered. moving to Bosnia after the Sephardic Jews proudly identified with their Spanish Austrian occupation in 1878. Approximately 75,000 Jews lived in Yugoslavia in Centropa interviewed Rahela homeland: in their mode of dress, the lovely Spanish The synagogue is the sole early 1941. In March of that year, Nazi Germany Perisic in Belgrade in 2005. romances they sang, and with their language, Judeo- remaining Jewish prayer house invaded and overran the country. Yugoslavia was Español, or Ladino. today. then divided among the Hungarians, Italians, Bulgarians and Germans. Croatia became its own Throughout the Ottoman centuries in the Balkans, The white leather driving puppet fascist state, run by the Ustashe. Jews were never forced to live in ghettos, as was gloves of Julius Brod. This This photo was taken of Moris their fate in northern Europe, and under the photograph was taken in Yugoslavia’s Jews would travel different routes and his sister Rahela while they Ottomans, there had been no pogroms against the home of Ljerka Danon, during the war but their paths led to the same place: were serving as teenagers in them. daughter of Julius Brod. Brod, death—by firing squads, gas vans, deportations Tito’s Partisans. Moris had his an Austrian soldier in the to Croatian run concentration camps, or Nazi bar mitzvah in the Partisans. “A Ottoman rule collapsed in most of the Balkans in K&K Railway Corps, was given the honor of driving concentration camps in German-occupied Poland. group of Jewish doctors stood 1878. Bosnia-Hercegovina was occupied by Austria- the train that brought Archduke Franz Ferdinand 75–80% of the country’s Jews were murdered. with me in a barn one day in Hungary and the first Ashkenazim (or Jews from to Sarajevo in June 1914. These are the gloves he the snow and helped me with northern and eastern Europe) arrived in the city. wore. That is his snapshot. After the First World War, Pre-war, 8,000 – 10,000 Jews lived in Sarajevo, the service.” Rahela married and moved to Belgrade Brod, a Czech Jew, came back to Sarajevo, which he of whom 80% were Sephardim, the rest were after the war. Moris remained in Sarajevo during the had fallen in love with. He married there, and left Ashkenazim. Fewer than 2,000 returned home alive. entire siege. his daughter with his photos and these gloves. The gloves were purchased by the Jewish Museum of Jewish participation in the Partisans was strong, Vienna in 1995, where they are on display. with between 2,000 to 3,000 joining the fight. They HISTORY 4 Centropa interviewed Hana Gasic in Belgrade in 2006. Photograph of children’s graves in the concentration camp of Djakovo, Croatia. Hana was born in 1940 to Menahem Montiljo and his young wife, Flora Kohen. The photo above is The old Turkish Menahem’s family. His father, Moze, is wearing a fortress of Vraca, which traditional fez. Menahem’s wife Hana is wearing overlooks Sarajevo, was a traditional Sephardic headgear, a tuka. Moze, a turned into a memorial textile trader, died shortly before the outbreak of the for Sarajevans killed Second World War. His wife Hana, her daughter-in- during the Second law Flora, son Menahem and their baby, also named World War. Each name Hana, were saved by a Croatian, Gavro Perkusic, who and age was listed. Approximately 10,000 names went on to receive a Righteous Gentile award. could be found, and of those, the majority were Jewish. The photograph shows only a few of the Since the Montiljo family lived on the top of a steep Abinun and Atijas names—both of them traditional hill, whenever German or Croatian soldiers would Sephardic names. During the siege of Sarajevo in the come looking for Jews, the Muslim women of the 1990s, the Bosnian Serb forces used Vraca as a gun neighborhood would call down to them, telling emplacement, and all the names them not to waste their breath climbing the hill. on the walls were destroyed. None are left.

In the photo above, Hani Montiljo dressed in traditional Bosnian costume, 1928. Hani was an older cousin to Hana. Without finding protection, Hani and her mother were deported to the Djakovo concentration camp in December 1942. Djakovo is a village near Osijek, in Croatia.

Around 2,600 Jewish women and children were deported to Djakovo, most of them from Sarajevo. 556 women and children died there of disease and starvation, including Hani and her mother.

As each person died, the caretaker of the cemetery, a Croatian man by the name of Stefan Kolb (an ethnic German), buried each person, and noted their name and burial place. After the war, each grave was marked. The 2,000 other women and children were sent on to Stara Gradiska and Jasenovac. Almost none returned. HISTORY 5 POSTWAR - PREWAR 6 Most of the pre-Holocaust Jewish communities Dr Bibi Herdlinger from Sarajevo said, “In my Meeting of the Yugoslav In post-World War II in Yugoslavia did not have enough members apartment building, and even on my floor, one Jewish communities to function after the Second World War. Where neighbor turned into a Croat, the next one a Serb, in Belgrade, May 1989. Yugoslavia, the Jewish once Ashkenazim and Sephardim had separate the next one a Muslim. So I took my son, I packed my Every spring, there was communities welcomed you organizations, these traumatized communities came car, and I drove to Greece, where I registered to make a memorial service at together. aliya to Israel. I even drove my tiny car onto the ferry, Djakovo concentration if your mother was Jewish, then drove it off in Haifa. They told me I was the only camp (see other pictures in this panel), after which your father was Jewish, or Rather than remain in Tito’s Communist Yugoslavia, person to make aliya in a Yugo.” participants drove to Belgrade, where all the Jewish about half of the survivors, including religious communities met and discussed budgets and if your grandmother played Jews and Zionists, left for Israel and the west. This Meeting of Jewish youth programs. In this photo, a Jewish community leader bridge with someone who was left around 7,000 registered Jews in the larger in the Jewish community is holding forth while community leaders from communities of Zagreb, Belgrade and Sarajevo, with center of Zagreb. around the country listen. There would be but one Jewish. smaller communities in Skopje, Novi Sad, Split, Osijek Throughout the country, more such event before the collapse of Yugoslavia. and a few other cities. Jewish teenagers often Sarajevo synagogue. This met. Many lived in communities with only two or Pictured here are Moric Ashkenazi synagogue During the decades of one party rule, Jewish three Jewish families, so such meetings were very Levi and his daughter was built in the Moorish communities did not offer much in the way of important. On the left is Eliezer Papo from Sarajevo, Solcika, all from Sarajevo. style, so as to fit into the religious services, but they were exceptionally strong with Dani Ovadija also from Sarajevo. Eliezer went on They are visiting the Sephardic community. in social and cultural programs. This created—and to become a historian in Israel; Dani is an architect Djakovo concentration After World War II, the it is unique in Central and Eastern Europe—a strong in London. Looking on in the white sweatshirt is camp, where their synagogue was literally sense of belonging among those families that Zlatica Altarac, and over Dani‘s shoulder is Moreno families had starved to death. sliced in two. This is wanted to be Jewish. DeBartoli. the upper floor, the Sasha Kontos placing former women’s section, The communities were also open to outsiders: there July morning, Sarajevo a wreath in Djakovo which now houses the was no argument about “who is a Jew,” allowing only Jewish community center, during the ceremony. synagogue. On the floor those with Jewish mothers to join the communities. 1988. Around 1,200 Jews below, the rest of the synagogue was turned into a Indeed, in later years, by the 1990s, the rabbis of lived in Sarajevo before the social hall. Belgrade, Zagreb and Sarajevo were all converts 1990s war. Religious life was themselves and were very much respected by their severely proscribed in all of Milan Hamovic and Rosita constituents. Jewish youth clubs created strong Tito’s Yugoslavia, but Jewish Danon at the Pirovac bonds; the summer camp in Pirovac (now in Croatia) social organizations were quite popular. In the 1960s, Jewish summer camp, July was a magnet each summer for the country’s a community center was attached to the synagogue 1988. They married and younger Jews and families as well. and it became the focal point for the city’s Jews. soon emigrated to Israel after the war started. All this would come to an ugly end in 1990. Although Photography Club in the most Jews in Yugoslavia did not become nationalists, Sarajevo Jewish community Dunja Sprajc of Zagreb, it became nearly impossible for them to visit each center. From the left: Dado leading children in song other as they once did. With the economies in freefall Papo, Aron Kamhi, Djordje and dance at Pirovac. and war looming on the horizon, thousands of Tokic. Behind are: Salom August 1988. Jews emigrated. Olivera Cirkovic, who had lived in Albahari, Gordin Zupkovic Serbia all of her life, summarized why she left. “Once and on the right, Igor Hamovic. Yugoslavia was gone and I found myself living in a nationalist Serbia, I figured I may as well be a Jewish nationalist, so I took my children to Israel.” POSTWAR - PREWAR 7 A COMMUNITY GOES TO WORK 8 Timur kept the two- Srdjan Gornjakovic Members of La way radio logbook of attending a patient in Bohoreta, the women‘s the Jewish community his office. club, preparing treats during the siege. for children. January 1994.

The two-way radio room was connected A sign hung over the Vlado, one of the with branches in the volunteers, unloads a Belgrade and Zagreb pharmacy’s counter: “Our shipment of goods in Jewish community doctors advise that talking front of the community centers. Families from center. November 1993. all over Sarajevo came to use it. about politics can be very harmful to your health.” During the siege of A dentist came to call Sarajevo, mail delivery La Benevolencija each week to help with was cut off for much operated three fillings and dentures. of the time. The Jewish pharmacies during the I know who these community, which siege, and everything teeth belong to, but I had a logistics office in it was free. promised not to tell. in Split, collected letters and then sent the mail to Sarajevo on one of the La Benevolencija trucks, which were rarely stopped at the borders and checkpoints. At other times, journalists were asked to remove the kevlar panels from their flak jackets and stuff them with Micki, a nurse letters, then bring them to the synagogue when working with Srdjan they arrived in Sarajevo. Tens of thousands of letters Gornjakovic, is giving poured into the community center, where young an injection to Donka volunteers sprinted all over the city to deliver them. Nicolic, then in her Others set up post office boxes in the community mid-90s. center. Tzitzko had run a small Youth program at the cafe in Sarajevo before community center the siege. He set up on Sunday mornings. a kitchen inside the December 1993. Jewish community center and worked on three stoves: one for electricity, when the power had not been cut off; a gas stove; and even one for wood. Twenty years after the siege, Tzitzko is still preparing meals in the community center—and now produces exquisite Sephardic banquets. A COMMUNITY GOES TO WORK 9 EXODUS 10 Between 1992–1995, La Benevolencija organized Jakob Finci welcoming When the Jews are leaving, eleven rescue convoys out of the besieged city. All French United Nations were underwritten by the American Jewish Joint officers to the community it is a bad sign for the city. Distribution Committee. The first two were in the center, so they could A saying that went around Sarajevo during the siege. spring of 1992, when Joint, with the help of the discuss the route of the Serbian Jewish community, rented planes from the convoy. Nada Bojanic (left) saying Yugoslav National Army and sent the planes into goodbye to her children, Sarajevo and then to Belgrade. who are leaving on the Eli Eliezer of Joint convoy. The next several convoys were arranged in reviewing the convoy with partnership with the Croatian Jewish community, Bosnian Prime Minister and those convoys ended up in Zagreb. Haris Siladjzic. One of six buses making The last and largest convoy, which can be seen its way across the Sarajevo in these panels, was organized by Joint, La airport, with UN armored Benevolencija, and members of the Croatian Jewish personnel carriers community. It left on 5 February, 1994. The convoy People bringing their bags escorting it. had 294 passengers, of whom 116 belonged to the to the synagogue on the Jewish community. morning of the convoy. Being helped onto the In the weeks preceding the convoy, La Benevolencija, buses; bidding farewell to along with a logistics expert from Joint, Eli Eliezer, loved ones. obtained permission for the convoy to have free passage out of the Bosnian government territory, into Bosnian Serb held territory, through Bosnian Croat territory and finally into Croatia itself. Josef Abinun bringing his Bus making its way across Danilo Nicolic is reviewing suitcases in advance to the no man’s land and into the list of those who synagogue for the convoy Bosnian Serb territory. The wanted to leave on the leaving 5 February. UN escorts ended here. The JDC convoy of 5 February six buses then drove 20 1994. Names had to be hours down to the coast of submitted to the Bosnian Croatia. government, the Bosnian Serbs, the Bosnian Croats, the Croats and the United Nations for approval.

Danilo Nikolic negotiating with Bosnian Serb officer Brane in the headquarters in Pale.

EXODUS 11 A CITY UNDER SIEGE 12 November 1993. The willing to risk their lives to sprint across the city‘s December 1993. The “If we only had a little more Jewish cemetery became airport, or pass through a crude tunnel dug beneath offices of Oslobodenje, the the front lines during the the airport tarmac. Sarajevo daily newspaper food, it would be like the siege. To the right of the that never missed a Second World War.” cemetery’s wall were the More than 10,000 people were killed and about single issue during the Bosnian Serbs. On the left 50,000 wounded in Sarajevo by snipers or mortar siege, despite the obvious challenges of having Ljerka Danon side of the cemetery (just attacks. The deaths included scores of people cut no electricity, little water, very little paper and a out of sight) and below the cemetery gate, were the down in Bosnian Serb mortar attacks on water completely destroyed building. The sign reads “Warning Bosnian government forces. stations, a bread line in the central city, and the city‘s Sniper”. December 1993. main outdoor market. Sarajevans crossing the These images display La Benovlencija‘s efforts to Miljacka, April 1995. save lives and reduce the misery Sarajevans of all Despite shrill international condemnation of the nationalities suffered during the siege of the Bosnian wholesale human rights violations committed by the capital. The following are legally adjudicated facts, Bosnian Serb army and Bosnian Croat militia as well as established by the Hague war crimes tribunal. as civilian killings carried out by individuals attached It seemed impossible to the Bosnian government forces, the outside world The university library of to hide from mortars Bosnian Serb military forces besieged Sarajevo from undertook no effective action to halt the bloodshed Sarajevo, which had been and snipers in Sarajevo. late spring 1992 until late-summer 1995. These forces until after Bosnian Serb soldiers and Serbian built at the turn of the This apartment house is were under the command of General Ratko Mladic paramilitary police troops, under General Mladic‘s century by the Austrians as directly behind the Jewish and the political direction of the Radovan Karadzic, orders, executed more than 8,000 Muslim men and the town hall. August 1988. community center. A family was just sitting down to both of whom are on trial on genocide charges at boys, along with a number of women and children, have lunch when a mortar arched over the city and the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. after the takeover of the United Nations safe area at landed in their living room, killing everyone. Srebrenica. Belgrade-backed Bosnian Serb troops controlled Death notices in the city‘s water, electricity, and food supplies and Three basic rules Oslobodenje. used this control to apply pressure on the Sarajevo government. During the early months of the siege, When you see people walking, it was possible to bring goods into the city through that´s where you can walk. The university library, Bosnian-Croat held areas on the city‘s western edge. November 1993. But this lifeline was severed by Bosnian Serb military The Bosnian Serbs had cut operations in the late summer of 1992 and by the off water to Sarajevo, so city Zagreb-backed Bosnian Croat militia, which, from authorities opened a few October 1992, turned against the mostly Muslim Slav When you see people running, taps in various parts of the Bosnian government forces in an attempt to force that´s where you have to run. city, where people came the Sarajevo government to agree to a three-way to do their wash, and fetch water to bring home to carve up of the country that would have effectively clean with, cook with, and flush toilets. January 1994. left the government in control of an unsustainable patch of territory around the capital. Bringing water home. When you don´t see anyone, January 1994. Subsequently, Sarajevo had only two tenuous don´t go there. lifelines: an international airlift into Sarajevo‘s airport, whose operations were frequently shut down by attacks and threats by the Bosnian Serb military, and a route that ran along the treacherous mountain road over Mt. Igman and linked up with persons A CITY UNDER SIEGE 13 Mrs Wagenstein is burning some books and newspapers in her Sarajevo flat. She purchased a metal stove, like most people did. She and her husband would cook and sleep in their living room. “Thank God I was a Marxist,” her husband, Dr Wagenstein said. “Marx‘s books last forever in the fire.”

Trying to sell something in the Sarajevo marketplace. One week after this photograph was taken, a mortar landed in the market, killing 68 people.

A CITY UNDER SIEGE 14 THOSE WHO HELPED 15 THOSE WHO HELPED 16 Of those who volunteered at Reporter to Jakob: In January 1992, leaders of the Sarajevo Jewish A refugee arriving in Sarajevo La Benevolencija, who was community, Jakob Finci, an attorney, Ivica Ceresnjes, asked where to go for help. A Who are the best friends of the an architect, and Danilo Nikolic, an engineer, met a Jew? A Muslim? A Catholic Jews in Sarajevo? The Muslims, with representatives of The American Jewish Joint man on the street told her, “Go Croat? An Orthodox Serb? Distribution Committee in Zagreb. The Joint, as to the synagogue. They’ll help the Serbs or the Croats? it was known (or JDC), had been founded in 1914 No one asked. No one cared. to help Jewish communities in distress. They had you. And if they can’t, at least Jakob to reporter: been especially active in Yugoslavia in the years As Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in the late 1980s, after the Second World War, with social welfare they’ll listen.” one could divide the population between into two That’s a hard one, but I would payments, supporting youth clubs and helping the On the first day of the shelling, several families in types of people: those who felt the pull of nationalist communities organize themselves. the neighborhood came running into the Jewish identity—and those who did not. say the Ashkenazim are the community center, asking if they could spend the best friends of the Jews.* Finci, Ceresnjes and Nikolic asked for help in night (there was no security detail at the community Jews in Central Europe had always felt more organizing airlifts out of Sarajevo while asking for center then—there still isn’t). The answer was yes. comfortable in larger, multi-ethnic empires. After *Jakob is jokingly referring to the difference between food, medicine and clothing to be shipped in. At all, they were by far the biggest losers in post-World Ashkenazi Jews, who come from northern Europe, the end of the meeting, JDC’s then president, Sylvia Tzitzko, who had a small café in Sarajevo, set up War I Europe, because that unfinished business led and the Sephardim, who trace their roots Hassenfeld, asked, “Will you need anything else shop and served soup to those who came to the to the Second World War and . Some to Spain. from us?” Ceresnjes replied, “Yes. Body bags.” No community center. Blankets were distributed. joked that the Jews were the last true Yugoslavs, one said a word, and when the first trucks arrived in Medicine was provided. but that is not correct. A great many people in every front of the synagogue in February 1992, they had section of the country – from Slovenia to Macedonia everything the community requested –except the The next day, most people returned home, but came – preferred living in a multi-ethnic state, rather than body bags. back for meals. Soon Tzitzko had three stoves—one being divided up by religion and ethnicity. for electricity (when it was working); another for gas; Just during the Passover holiday in April 1992, a a third for wood. Sarajevo had always been Yugoslavia’s most multi- chartered plane brought more than a hundred Jews ethnic city. It is true that during the war, reporters to Belgrade, where the Jewish community there Down the hall, a pharmacy was set up, and everything and public intellectuals painted Sarajevo with a welcomed all those who they had gone to summer in it was free. Upstairs, Vlado set up a two way radio rosier glow than was perhaps accurate, but by and camp with, had grown up with, and now had the system, and connected it to the Jewish communities large, people did get along. chance to watch themselves spread out – to Canada, of Zagreb and Belgrade. And Sonja put the women’s New Zealand, Israel, England and other countries. club, La Bohoreta, to work. When war did come in 1992, most Serbs and Croats fled the city. But a core of Sarajevans remained and There was going to be Also on the second floor, Srdjan, who came from a many families were of mixed ethnicities. Sarajevo’s family of Serbs and Croats, set up the medical division, Jewish community had long been respected in the electricity that night, so working alongside Mirjana, Jasna city as an island of calm, and those who came to someone handed Novo a video and Miki. volunteer at the community center left their politics at the door. to watch on TV. “I just hope it’s not a war movie,” he said. Why, the man asked. Novo shook his head and muttered, “Who wants to watch amateurs?”

THOSE WHO HELPED 17 MUSLIMS AND JEWS 18 Zeyneba Hardaga in her Nine years later, it was the Muslim who needed Denis Karalic in the Jewish Denis was slightly daughter’s apartment in rescuing. The State of Israel offered to bring Zeyneba, community center, November, wounded in a mortar Sarajevo. her daughter Aida, son-in-law Branimur and grand- 1993 attack in January 1994. daughter Stela to Israel, and the family left Sarajevo Srdjan picked the glass on the JDC rescue convoy in February, 1994. Denis Karalic was born in out of his shoulders and Munich in 1980 to a Bosnian back. “Come visit me in Jerusalem, Srdjan Gornjakovic, a Muslim father and a Polish Serb doctor working for Catholic mother. When his Zeyneba, sit with me in my the Jewish community, is parents divorced in 1985, Haris Haris Karalic saying garden, and let‘s talk about looking after his Muslim Karalic took his sons to live in Croatia and later in goodbye to his son friend. Bosnia, where he worked as a construction engineer. Denis. the old times in Sarajevo, While living in Sarajevo, the family was trapped by before the war.” Zeyneba Hardaga on the siege. Denis’ brother managed to flee, and Haris the JDC rescue convoy, 5 and Denis rented a room from Nada Levy, a member Letter from Josef Kabilo to Zeyneba Hargada February 1994. of the Jewish community. Denis inside the bus This panel tells the story of Zeyneba Hardaga. Before Denis and Nada’s grandson, Rasho Bozovic, became as it departs Sarajevo, World War II, Zeyneba and her husband Mustafa best of friends. Rasho was a Serb, Denis was a February, 1994. were a traditional Muslim family. Zeyneba never Muslim, and they worked as water boys for the went out on the street without her face veiled. Jewish community. Mustafa had a large factory in Sarajevo, and one Zeyneba Hardaga greeted of his sub-tenants was Josef Kabiljo, a plumbing by the JDC president, In January while sitting alone in Nada’s living room, contractor. Milton Wolf, on the coast of Denis heard a mortar shell and ran to the window as Upon reaching the Croatia. it flew over. A moment later, a second mortar shell Croatian coast, Denis When war came and Jews were rounded up, Josef hit the base of Nada’s house, shattering the window, ran out of the bus and Kabiljo tried to flee Sarajevo but could not escape. blowing Denis across the room and throwing him down to the sea. This Unable to return to his own home, he knocked on Upon arriving in Israel, against the wall. If he had been standing a few was the first day in 22 the door of the Hardaga’s, who took him in. “You Zeyneba received an inches to his left, he would have been decapitated. months when no one was shooting at him. never abandon your friends,” Mustafa said. Josef invitation to meet Israeli Kabilo fled the city again but was caught by the Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin. Djuro and Natalia, Rasho’s parents, offered to take Denis Karalic, 2010. Croatian fascists, the Ustashe. While imprisoned, “Thank you so much, Mr Denis with them on the JDC rescue convoy in food packages arrived for him. They had been sent Prime Minister,“ Zeyneba February, 1994. They settled in an Israeli absorption by the Hardaga‘s. Lucky enough to escape, Josef said. “No, it is us, Mrs Hardaga, who should be center, and Denis remained in Israel until the Kabilo returned to Sarajevo, and the Hardaga’s, were thanking you.“ After the ceremony, Zeyneba told the summer of 1999, when he finished high school in not only hiding all of the Kabiljo family’s jewelry journalists that they should all hurry home, because Yemin Orde, a boarding school near Haifa. After a but were making bank transfers to Kabiljo‘s family it was Friday and they needed to prepare for the short stint in Atlanta, Denis moved to Vienna, where members who escaped. Shabbat. he spent more than a decade working in the archives of the Holocaust Restitution Agency. In time, Josef also escaped and returned to thank the Hardaga’s after the war. He moved to Israel and spent years telling Israel‘s Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem, about his brave Muslim neighbors. In 1985, although Mustafa had long since died, Zeyneba was flown to Israel and presented with a medallion as a Righteous Gentile at Yad Vashem. MUSLIMS AND JEWS 19