Silva U. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3509) interviewed by Jaša Almuli

Videotape testimony of Silva U., who was born in Belgrade, Serbia, the younger of two children. She recalls her family's affluence; observing Jewish holidays with a large extended family (her mother had converted to Judaism); her father's military service; finishing third grade; German invasion in 1941; her father's return; obtaining false papers; traveling to Kuršumlija with her brother and parents; hiding with non-Jews; threatened exposure; moving to Podujevo; arrest; escape with assistance from a prison guard; smuggling themselves to Italian occupied Priština; expulsion; moving to Bulgarian occupied Prokuplje; a Bulgarian soldier warning them of an impending round-up; escaping to hide with a friend in Jugovac; doing farm work to support themselves; warnings from partisans when collaborationist Nedić Serbian government or German troops were coming; visiting an uncle in Niš; shopping in Prokuplje; imprisonment by Nedić troops as a partisan; transfer to German prisons, then to Leskovac; torture during interrogations; her mother's visits; a Serb physician saving her from deportation; release; returning to Jugovac; her brother's death as a partisan; their return to Belgrade after the war; and friends returning their possessions. Ms. U. notes her parents' continuing trauma due to her brother's death; marriage to a non-Jew; and continuing her education.