Metadata: Books of the Survivors’ Testimonies
Collection
- Country:
- Serbia
- Holding institution:
- National Museum Niš
- Holding institution (official language):
- Народни музеј Ниш (Narodni muzej Niš)
- Postal address:
- Generala Milenka Lešjanina 14, 18 105 Niš, Republic of Serbia
- Phone number:
- (+381) 18 248189
- Web address:
- http://narodnimuzejnis.rs/
- Email:
- info@narodnimuzejnis.rs
- Reference number:
- NmN-KI
- Title:
- Books of the Survivors’ Testimonies
- Title (official language):
- Kњиге изјава преживелих логораша
- Creator/accumulator:
- National Museum Niš
- Date(s):
- 1950/1999
- Date note:
- second half of the 20th century
- Language:
- Serbian
- Extent:
- 2.05 linear metres (34 volumes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
In the 1950s, the surviving detainees of the concentration camp Crveni Krst in Niš were invited to tell their stories about the time they spent in the camp. The stories were written down by researchers of the National Museum of Niš. The survivors who accepted the invitation talked about what they had witnessed in the camp during their imprisonment in the Second World War. All testimonies were recorded and then arranged in 34 volumes. Many statements contain important information on the arrests and imprisonment of Jewish citizens, on their life and suffering in the camp and on Jewish children who were left after their parents were killed. Many survivors mentioned in their statements Dr. Velizar Pijade, a Jewish physician who lived in Leskovac before the war. He was the camp’s physician from December 1941 until January 1943, when he was executed at the Bubanj killing site. The testimonies mentioned that besides being a physician he was also interpreter for other prisoners, because of his fluent German. Besides Pijade, the testimonies mentioned other Jewish prisoners, especially Đurika Gros, who was allowed to move freely around the camp to deliver food to the prisoners.
The statements were arranged and typed up in 34 books. The original statements were recorded on audio tapes.
- Archival history:
- The collection was created at the initiative of the Memorial of 12 February.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The collection was created by the museum’s curators who took the statements from the survivors in the 1950.
- Subject terms:
- Holocaust
- Holocaust--Concentration camps
- System of arrangement:
- The statements were arranged in 34 volumes. They were grouped into three topics: I Escape from the camp on 12 February 1942, II Women in the camp and III Internments.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory of the statements exists.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Historical Archives of Belgrade
- Author of the description:
- Ivana Gruden Milentijević; National Museum Niš; 2021