Serbian Holocaust

I am Nada Jerinić , now Džafran. I used to live in a village Paucje, in Slavonia, with my parents, of course. In the year 1942, we all were driven away and taken here, to Jasenovac logor (concentration camp). After Jasenovac, we were sent to Stara Gradiška logor... my father was separated from us, my uncle stayed with us for a while, and soon after he was also separated...

When we came to Stara Gradiska, they separated us from our grandmother and our mother. But they also separated girls from boys, so I was left together with my sister and my youngest baby-brother, while my older brothers were taken away. I cannot say how long we stayed there, how many months, but not till the winter began.

They divided us up, giving us to the peasants of Zagorje villages near Ludbreg. I was given to a family where I was terribly beaten up--they killed God in my heart. But some good people saved me and brought me to another village where I lived with Granny Barra.

She is for me my grandmother, just the same as my real grandmother Trivunia. After Liberation, my oldest brother, who lived then with a priest, he knew about all of us and where we were. He knew that my mother was in Germany, as the priest found her there and he had a correspondence with her. But since my mother was pregnant, they sent her back and she was caught again and imprisoned in Jasenovac, so we knew that she was in Jasenovac, as our dad and uncle...

-So you lost here your mom, dad and uncle?

And grandmother. All in Jasenovac. After liberation, my aunt gathered us all and we went to our home, of course. I left my granny Barra, but she is always in my heart, here. After that, life took its own course. When the time came for me go to school, I came back here to Jasenovac village. I was 11 when I started my primary school. I finished school. I learned a trade, later I married. I have one daughter and beautiful grandchildren. I have also one beautiful great-grand-son.

-Where do you live now?

I live in Osijek.