28.04.2015.
The Belgrade that the boy in him remembers
At the monument to the WWII genocide victims and at the Staro Sajmiste, once again, on 22nd April, the few survivors of death camps, members of the families of the killed, representatives of ministries and the diplomatic corps, associations for fostering traditions and citizens laid wreaths and paid their respects to the innocent victims of a dark period for the entire Europe.
By chance, absorbed in the somber memory, symbolically paying respects to all innocent victims of the fascist regime with his presence, next to the monument stood Hajim Kalderon and spoke to his son in Hebrew, the language of his ancestors, about the horrors his family and the entire people had experienced during the four years of occupation. He spoke about his childhood that had turned into fear and constant flight from the enemy with melancholy, still grateful that he lived to see the end of the war.- My father was a respected member of the Jewish community, a dentist, respected by all Belgrade citizens. Our lives, as did the lives of many Jews, Serbs and Romani, turned into a nightmare almost over night – he began his story in Serbian, the language he has rarely spoken in the past 65 years that he has lived in Israel with his family. Although he was seven years old when WWII began, he still remembers the horrors he experienced with his family in those horrific years. Belonging to Judaism only made the already difficult life in the war times even harder.
They heard the first flypast of the Aviation of the Third Reich in their apartment in the Jewish Home, but already had to escape on the fourth day of the bombing, on 10th April. In the first days of the occupation, Hajim’s father, Jakov (Zak) was arrested and taken to the newly formed concentration camp Sajmiste – the tenth “resident” of the death factory. As the others lined up in front of the gates of Staro Sajmiste, he knew he would not leave it alive.
- My uncle, who was on a higher position in the Police, approached my father and said “Zak, you need to run, now! I don’t know where or how, just run”, and so he managed fleeing from the imprisonment in the camp for the first time – reminisced the grey-haired old man of the moment when his father faced death for the first time and managed to escape. Hajim was fortunate to be only seven years old, so he was not forced to wear the yellow band on his left arm that read “Jew”. Everyone who wore it was an easy target for German soldiers and officers, who bore no responsibility if they killed a “Jew”.
- My mother Ela, sister Regina and I planned to escape to our mother’s sister, but the Germans quickly caught us and took us to the Monopol camp in Skopje. It was a blessing in disguise that our father, who had fled separately from us, had been caught again and also brought to the same camp. We were saved from a certain death by the typhus epidemics, because the Germans, fearful that they might get infected, decided to liberate 30 doctors with their families, so they would treat the ill free citizens. The ones who stayed in the camp, 17,000 of them, were transported to the camp in Treblnik where they all died – Hajim continued his sad story, adding that over 50 members of his family were killed in that very camp. Each word resonated with the deep pain over the fate that had befallen his people.
The Kalderons once again escaped the German soldiers, determined not to waste away the new chance life had given them. They found their salvation with the Partisans, with whom they stayed until the end of the war.
After the liberation of Serbia, Hajim, his sister and parents returned to Belgrade. However, a few years later, the Kalderon family packed their bags and left to the promised land, Israel. Just five years ago, Hajim mustered the strength to come back to Serbia and visit all the places that the boy in him remembered. He considers bowing down to the innocent victims of the holocaust his duty and honour.
Because it must not be forgotten.
Mirjana KRSTOVIC
