page no. 13
Two stamp albums - Gidon Grof
At this point I will describe an anecdote, related to Gideon's stamp collecting, in his chilling and turbulent journey. His father Rudolph was a stamp collector and Gideon started collecting at the age of six. The next day, as mentioned, they boarded a minibus on their way to an area under Italian sovereign. The luggage of the passengers was placed on the roof and there more passengers than seats, all crammed inside, most of whom were Jews. They stopped to get their documents and baggage checked. Outside of the bus, bodies were lying in the trenches. The soldiers collected the certificates and one of them went up to the roof of the minibus and took down one suitcase. Gideon's suitcase. Inside of it he found two stamp albums of Yugoslavia. The Italian officer, accompanied by an interpreter, asked: "Whose albums are those?" And Gideon replied: "mine". "No, my grandmother put them in my suitcase." "I'm confiscating them!!". Gideon crying "I won't give them; I won't give them". The officer relented a little and said that only one album would be confiscated. "Not giving it up, not giving it up" mirrored Gideon in tears. The pressure was evident on the officer's face. The interpreter hinted to Gideon about the bodies in the trenches. The group of refugees around him was under indescribable pressure. In the end the officer gave up. T Two stamp albums he passengers beat him the whole way and cursed him, because he risked their lives, but he didn't let go of the two albums. A few months later he was reunited in Split with his mother and sister, who also managed to escape from prison. His mother added him to a group of orphaned boys who were sent to Nontola in Italy. The same group camped in the place that became famous in the book and the TV movie "The Children of Villa Emma". From Nontola he arrived a year later in a very dramatic way to Switzerland. He immigrated from Switzerland with the help of a youth immigration group to Israel. To Kibbutz Kfar Masrik
Gideon (Bela) Grof, and Shulamite (Serina) Began their journey of hardships in Yugoslavia, and met at "Villa Emma", in Nonantola, Italy. From there they later fled to Switzerland. They came to Israel with the (“Aliyat hnoar”) youth immigration.
In the top photo from the left:
little Bella, sister Fanika and older brother Nettiza who was murdered, by the Ustaše, (at the age of 19) together with their father on the day of (Gideon) Bella’s bar- mitzvah
In the photo below:
Shulamite (Serina) - Đakovo concentration camp Survivor
Shulamite/Serina
With the efforts of the Jewish community in Osijek and bribe money transferred to the local police, the police agreed to remove children from the camp and hand them over to Jewish families in Osijek and Vinkovci. Leo Greenwald from the Vinkovci community came in a truck to pick up the children. Greenwald said: With the dispersion of 37 children up to the age of 12 was approved... When we arrived at the Đakovo camp, there was a Jewish doctor from the Osijek community who helped us prepare the children for Vinkovci... Several families who knew me... approached me and asked me to take their children so that they could be saved. The truck was large and covered with a tarp, and so I took advantage of the opportunity and without considering the results of my actions, instead of the certificate in my hand for 37 children, I took 57 children, so that only the last digit, the number 7, matched the certificate. As the 57th child, I took Serena Brodsky”. The children were scattered among the Jewish families in Vinkovci and from there they were transferred to Osijek, Zagreb and other places. Some of them were transferred to Split which was in the part of Croatia that was under Italian rule. Serena arrived in Split and from there she was transferred with a group of children to Villa Emma in Nonantola, Italy. From there the children were smuggled to Switzerland, and Serena among them. Shulamite immigrated from Switzerland with the help of a youth immigration group to Israel. To Kibbutz Kfar Masrik