RelatioNet YO MA 41 BE YO
Full Name: Yosef Marina (Baruch)

Interviewer:

Full Name/s Yulia Barkov and Tal Altman
Email: talaltman@walla.com , yulkin.b@hotmail.com
Address: Kfar Saba, Israel


Survivor:

Code: RelatioNet YO MA 41 BE YO
Family Name: Yosef First Name: Marina Middle Name: Middle Name
Father Name: Ezra Mother Name: Reine
Birth Date: 3/09/1941
Town In Holocaust: Nish Country In Holocaust: Yugoslavia

תקציר קורות חיים [בעברית]: שמי מרינה יוסף(ברוך), נולדתי בבלגרד, יגוסלביה ב3 לספטמבר 1941. אבי- עזרא ברוך היה בצבא היגוסלבי. אמי- ריינה ברוך עבדה בתור תופרת. בנובמבר 1941, לאחר שהסוכנות היהודית הודיעה לכל יהודי בלגרד שכדאי להם לברוח, ברחנו כל בנות המשפחה לניש שם הסתתרנו במרתף בתנאים קשים. יצאנו מהמחבוא בשנת 1944 וחזרנו לבלגרד. שנה אחר כך המלחמה הסתיימה ועלינו לארץ ישראל באוניה לא חוקית בשם "קפלוס".

Interview:

My name is Marina Yosef. I was born in Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia on the 3rd of September, 1941. That was in the middle of the Second World War. I was born under a fake name- Olivera Buri, but my real name was Marina Baruch. My mum's name was Reine. She lost her parents when she was 16. She learned in a professional sewing school. When she was just 18 years old she opened her own sewing business. My mother married my father, Ezra Baruch. At that time Jewish women could not give birth in public hospitals, but my mum got into a public hospital with the help of friends, and delivered me there. My dad was in the Yugoslavian army. He saw me for the first and last time when I was three months old. After the war I found out that he had been killed in the war when he was 27 year old.

A few months after I was born, the Germans took all the men, and after that we never heard from them again. In November 1941 the Jewish Agency informed all Jewish women to escape from Belgrade and hide. One day, as we were eating dinner, German soldiers came in to our flat and told us to finish eating and that they would come back later. So my grandmother from my father's side- Rika, my two aunts, my mum and I, packed some things, and rode on the train to Nish, my grandmother's birth town, where she knew a few people. It was winter and it was very cold. The wagons were separated with corridors and doors. In the train, next to us, sat a woman smoking. The Germans came in and checked our documents. One of them made a sign with his hand telling the women to stop smoking because of the baby. My grandmother noticed that his glove was torn and she told him that one could see he had not been home for a long time, and suggested she fix it. That is why he didn't check our papers. We hid for two years in a basement of a Germen family, in Nish. It was very difficult, we almost did not go out. My mother went out sometimes at nights to sew for people in order to get money and food. One day my grandmother Rika prepared pastels, a Jewish dish and a neighbor who smelt the food came in and started to shout: "Jews! Jews!". My grandmother immediately told her: "How can you think we are Jews? It is simply tasty food! Try one!" Once when I was taken out I caught lice. I was breast fed till the age of two because there was no food, and I did not have any teeth.

In 1944 we came out of hiding, and went beck to Belgrade. A year later, the war ended. After the war my mum met a widower who had come back after being in captivity, he was an officer. In captivity the Germans treated the officers pretty well. They showed the officers to the International Red Cross in order to convince the Red Cross that that was the way they treated all Jews. They married. I called him dad because I did not know my real dad. I do not remember much from my home, but I do remember my Mum used to sing me all kinds of songs in Hebrew. She came from a family that kept Shabat they did not smoke on Shabat, but then came the war and every thing changed. No one had time to cope with keeping Shabat, they had to cope with surviving!

Before the war my mother used to fast on Yom Kipur, and when she could not fast any more, I did it out of respect to her. I did so till I came to the conclusion that I did not sin that much and I stopped fasting. Today my son fasts out of respect for me! As I mentioned before, my Mum married a man whom I called Dad. He had a carpet and straw item's shops. My mother opened a sewing saloon.

The communists closed the store. In those years the Yugoslav government allowed Jews to immigrant to the Israel. We came to Israel on an illegal immigrants' ship called "Kepalos". We arrived in Haifa. I was 7 years old and I didn't want a new immigrant label will stuck on me. My mum spoke Yugoslavian to me, she didn’t know Hebrew. I remember that I called her "Mamamolinte" and that’s why my friends laughed at me. When we arrived in Haifa, my mother received a little apartment that had been abandoned by Arabs. She didn't waste time, and began to work as a semstress. Because the house was little and wasn't appropriate for dwelling and business purposes, my mom sent me to an institution called "Neva la yeled". I was there for 3 years and I had good memories from there. Later I returned to Haifa. My mother bought a larger apartment and she developed the business, I learned in the "Realy" in Haifa. After this my mom sent me to study in Switzerland. I returned to Israel and was drafted to the army in the intelligence corps. When I finished the army I decided that I wanted to study designing in England. There, I met my husband Hanvi who was there on mission from the navy.

We married in 1963, I worked as a secretary. In 1964 my daughter Neta was born. In 1966 my son Amir was born. In 1975 we moved to Kfar Saba. In 1978 we went to Germany and there our 3rd and final child Tal was born. Neta was the champion of Israel in swimming at age 14 and she was even in the expedition to the Olympiad in Moscow. Amir has a lots of talents, he was in the computer club, played football and he is a D.J. in 1988, we came back to Israel.

Today, I live together with my husband in Kfar Saba and a big part of my life is devoted to art. I draw, sculpt and present my works at home, and in another home we have at a place named Hptsiba. It is a house that my husband inherited when his father died. My daughter Neta is married and has two children, Amir is married too and has one child. Tal is a musician and now he is in the USA trying to progress with his music.

A few years ago we traveled to Belgrade. We saw the Jewish cemetery, and we visited the Jewish community. I had a cousin there with some problems. We checked how she was doing and donated some money to the community. Besides this cousin, I have another cousin who lives in Switzerland. And another cousin who lives in Holon who helped Jews come to this country. And nowadays, she writes her memories from the war.

I am very sorry that when I was younger, and my mother was alive, I didn't ask about the war. Every time that someone wanted to tell me, I started to cry and didn't want to hear. Today, when some things are missing in my past, I have no one to ask.


Town :

Belgrad is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It has a population of around 1.6 million. It is situated in South-Eastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula by the Sava and Danube rivers.

According to written records, Jews lived in Belgrade as early as the 16th century. At that time most of the Jews in Belgrade were Sephardic. The Jewish community in Belgrade was at its peak in the 17th century. At that time there was a Yeshiva in Belgrade, lots of community and cultural centres, Jewish charitable organizations, societies and shops. There was also a beautiful 17th century Sephardic synagogue which was one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.

Before World war II, about 12,000 Jews lived in Belgrade, 80% of them were Sephardim, speaking Spanish or Ladino, and 20% were Ashkenazim. In the year 1942, there was a puppet government of German occupied Serbia, in Belgrade. That government was proud that Belgrade was the first major European city to become “Judenrein”—free of Jews. It started in December 1941, before the Wannsee Conference where the Final Solution was formally adopted, and, by May, 1942, there were no more Jews left in Serbia. 95% of Jewish population of Serbia, was exterminated during the German occupation. There were three concentration camps for Jews, Serbs and Romani in the city at the time. At least 23,967 Jews, Serbs and Romani went through the camp.

Most Jewish men were killed at the Autokomanda site near the city centre, the rest of the Jewish men were killed at the Banjica camp. During the war, bombing destroyed most of the Jewish monuments as well as much of the city. Since 1944 there has only been a very small Jewish community in Serbia and Belgrade.