Nikola R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Nikola R., who was born in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. He recounts his father serving in World War I, his capture by the Soviets, then enlisting in the Soviet military (he never saw him again); attending school in Valpovo, then Osijek; attending university in Zagreb beginning in 1929; participating in Jewish academic and left-wing groups; military service in 1933; working as a teacher in Cetinje; draft in February 1941; Italian occupation; retreating to Nikšić; smuggling himself to Osijek via Sarajevo; anti-Jewish restrictions; moving to Djakovo, then a Serb village; distributing flyers for the underground; denouncement; fleeing to Osijek; arrest and deportation to Topovske Šupe; forced labor; assistance from communists; sabotaging weapons in storage; obtaining false papers to travel to Zagreb; hiding briefly with a friend; moving to Sušak; an offer of assistance from an Italian officer; collecting funds from Jews for the partisans; arrest; not divulging information under torture; escaping with the complicity of an Italian guard in Srpske Moravice; joining a partisan unit in May 1942; Veljko Kovačević appointing him to write propaganda; joining the Communist Party in June 1943; fighting in Slavonia, Bosnia and Serbia; participating in the liberation of Belgrade; meeting his wife (a Sephardic Jew whose entire family was killed during the war) when assigned to KNOJ; working in the Ministry of Culture; and his academic career. Mr. R. discusses reuniting with his mother, sister, and her children after liberation; participation in a Jewish organization; and freedom of speech, or the lack of it under Tito.

3 videocassettes