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Saturday, March 14, 2020
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Testimony Borislav Seva from Piskavica about camp Jasenovac
"I was born in Petrov Gaj, near Prijedor [Serb majority area of Bosnia] in 1918. My father was employed by the railroad company, and I was born in the railroad station.
My father was from this area, from Ševa's, in Piskavica. That's why he made himself a large, two-story house at the railroad station. The land was given to him by the railways. I learned how to cut hair and shave men. The shop was not registered. I worked like that, on my own. I would take my briefcase with tools and go to cut hair and shave people. I learned to play and sing. Most of all I played guitar. I would go to weddings and celebrations, to pubs where I would sing and play. I did other jobs, too all until 1941. Everyone alive [around here] knew me as I was always among the people.
"We had a Rade Zrnić in our house. He is from here, from Zrnić's [hamlet] in Piskavica. He is a son of the late Ilija Zrnić. Ilija also perished.
"Rade was [working] for Vaso Kostić, and he was living in our house. He had four children. His wife died before [the events]. He had no place to go to, so he lived in our house. He was in the upper floor as it was empty. Well, what would he pay? [meaning nothing.] He was just helping in Vaso Kostić's trade business. Vaso was a merchant. His shop was right here where this wall of my house is. His house was large. That was a [big] shop, my friend. During the Old [Kingdom of] Yugoslavia, he was a rich merchant. The saying was that even if he was to give one dinar [local currency] to everyone in Yugoslavia, he would still be able to continue working without a problem. It was so.
"All four of Rade's children are still alive today. He was 15 to 20 years older than me. I was 22 in 1941, and he was more than 40. He was medium height, quite thin.
"Someone gave Rade and me leaflets which contained a text against the ISC [Independent State of Croatia] and against Ustasha [Croatian Nazis that formed the state as Nazi Germany and its fascist allies overran Yugoslavia]. We secretly spread those leaflets across Piskavica. We put the leaflets in shops, pubs, on trees at places where people would pass, where Ustashas and people pass. I did half. He did half. He was putting his in his [hamlet] of Grabik, at the road there. That is where the church and the school are. He plastered them there. After two days passed, they came and arrested us. Who told them that it was the two of us who distributed the leaflets? My dear brother, who would know! Two [of them] came to arrest us. They were not Ustashas. They were policemen. They had those police caps. They entered my house, and one of them said, 'In the name of the law, you are arrested!'
"The same to Rade Zrnić. They tied us together with a wire, my arm to Rade's arm. It was a strong wire. They shortened it and tightened it by using pliers. They marched us to a train. By train we came to Banja Luka [a large town in the Serbian majority part of Bosnia]. The policemen did not maltreat us or beat us. They marched us into the Dark House in Banja Luka. That was at the beginning of 1942.
In Banja Luka we were under investigation at least five months. It could have been longer or the time seemed so long to me. I remember the events better than the dates. I did not count the days then. In the prison, the days mean nothing. It was always the same, so you do not think about it. They questioned us at least ten times both me and Rade. We were not together in the jail. They separated us. I was in a separate cell alone. Rade and I did not see each other until the day we were to go to Jasenovac.
The food in the Dark House was poor. During questioning, they would ask me whether I was distributing leaflets. I said 'I did not,' and 'I did not.' Whenever they would bring me in, they would say, 'Come tell us did you distribute the leaflets?' and slap me in the face. I repeat that I was not and I was not. They would slap me many times on the cheek slapping. I tell them, 'You can even kill me, but I did not.'
"Slapping. Those were civilians, not soldiers. I did not get any sentence. They told me nothing. They only said I am to be sent to the Jasenovac camp the two of us, me and Rade Zrnić. They tell us to get ready. They take us from the cells. They tie us. I was tied to Rade. I did not know any of the other prisoners. To the trucks and the direction: Jasenovac. There were at least 30 people [loaded] in the truck. People were exhausted, thin pure misery.
"At the gates of the concentration camp Jasenovac, there is a coat of arms with the Ustasha symbol: 'U.' That is that large, metal gate. They opened the gate, and the truck brings us in. We all got out of the truck. They untied us as we entered the camp. As we arrived, immediately they all came out, all officers Ljubo Miloš, Matković, Picilli, Luburić. That was their headquarters. They were all there standing. They watch and say, 'Right here! Now, this is good for us' [to have fun with them].
"We are standing at the headquarters. There is no table and no writing person [clerk to record the names]. One of those officers (I do not recollect which one) says: 'What skill do you have, Shorty?'
"I say, 'A barber.'
"He says, 'Go there! Fuck your mother!'
"Then he says to Rade Zrnić, 'And you, Old One?'
"Rade says, 'I am nothing. I have no skills, but I am sick.'
"Poor him. He thought they would let him go home if he says that he is sick. That officer tells him, 'You, go there!'
"He chases him to the other group. And to the next one, 'You are sick, too? Go next to the old one!' Next to Rade.
"The next one, who was a wood carver, he sends next to me. He tells him, 'Go next to the barber!'
"Then a machinist, a blacksmith, a wood worker. They separate us who have skills. And those who are sick, they are separated, too. There were around ten of us with a skill. There were nine of those who were separated as sick. The remaining ones remained in another group. That is the third group. I do not know how many of them.
A book by Lazar Lukajić: "Friars and Ustashas Are Slaughtering"
Published in Belgrade, 2005
Source: musiques-regenerees.fr
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