Personal Fonds – Dr Žak Konfino

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Јеврејски историјски музеј (Jevrejski istorijski muzej)

Scope and content:: This fonds mostly comprises copies of Konfino’s writings, correspondence with theatres in Zagreb and elsewhere, and some material related to his wife, as well as a map with the original record of his name.

Administrative/biographical history:: Žak Konfino was born to his father Buhor and mother Klara, née Koen. He completed his primary and lower grammar schools in his native Leskovac, then high school in Belgrade. He began his medical studies in 1910 in Vienna. He was a medical assistant and a doctor in the Serbian army in Valjevo, Leskovac, Đukus in Albania, on Corfu and at the Thessaloniki front. He completed his medical studies in 1918. After World War I, he worked as the municipal and private doctor in Leskovac. During World War II, he was in Italian prison camps from 1941 to 1943. After the capitulation of Italy, he fled to Zurich. He worked with a group of Swiss doctors at the partisan hospital in Bari. From November 1944, he was the head of the military ambulance in Belgrade and a doctor at the Main Hospital. From demobilisation to retirement in 1953, he worked as a doctor in Belgrade. He published a large number of short stories, humoresques, articles, travel notices and professional papers. He wrote short satirical prose. “Days of Humour” was a performance that took place in Leskovac and which put Dr Konfino, the writer and comediographer, in the centre of theatrical events in the 1980s. The performance ended due to lack of funds, but the memorial room of this writer with several artefacts from his life remained in Leskovac.