Overview
- Interview Summary
- Vilma Ofak, born in 1930 in Kocevje in the former Yugoslavia, describes her family’s work on behalf of partisans; the arrests of her parents, who were sent to internment camps in Italy; living with her aunt; the capitulation of Italy in 1943; partisans in Kocevje; partisan executions of members of the White Guard; the arrival of German forces in Kocevje; the arrest and execution of 120 miners; searching for the body of her uncle and recognizing many of the dead bodies; the return of her mother in 1944 and their continued collaboration with partisans; the arrest of her family by the Gestapo in 1944; a beating she received in a prison in Kocevje; her transfer to the prison in Ljubljana; her release from prison in October 1944; staying in Ljubljana until the end of the war; and her father’s death in concentration camp Litoměřice.
- Interviewee
- Vilma Ofak
- Date
-
interview:
2009 February 05
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- Slovenian
- Extent
-
2 videocassettes (DVCAM) : sound, color ; 1/4 in..
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Slovenian. Guerrillas--Slovenia. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Yugoslavia. Mass burials--Slovenia. Mass murder--Slovenia. Massacres--Slovenia. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities--Slovenia. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Slovenia. World War, 1939-1945--Destruction and pillage. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, Slovenian. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Slovenia. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Germany--Armed Forces. Kočevje (Slovenia) Ljubljana (Slovenia) Slovenia--History--1918-1945. Slovenia--History--Axis occupation, 1941-1945. Slovenia.
- Personal Name
- Ofak, Vilma.
- Corporate Name
- Germany. Gestapo Yugoslav People’s Army
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust. Nathan Beyrak, Project Director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch, coordinated the interview with Vilma Ofak on February 5, 2009 as part of the Museum's Former Yugoslavia Witnesses Documentation Project in Slovenia.
- Funding Note
- The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:17:29
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn45159
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Also in Oral history interviews of the Former Yugoslavia Witnesses Documentation Project, Slovenia
Oral history interviews of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Former Yugoslavia Witnesses Documentation Project in Slovenia.
Date: 2009
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Oral History
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Oral history interview with Albina Vogrin
Oral History
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Oral History
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Oral history interview with Ivana Zamida
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Kristina Kverh
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Marija Poje
Oral History
Marija Poje, born in 1922 in Novi Kot, Slovenia, discusses the arrest of her family by Italian soldiers in Stari Kot in July 1942; Italian soldiers burning down the village; her transfer to camp Kampor on the island of Rab; many deaths in the camp as a result of malnutrition and disease; the flooding of the camp; giving birth on the island of Rab; her transfer to Gonars concentration camp; difficult living conditions in the barracks; the death of her baby; the capitulation of Italy; returning to Stari Kot to find a burned down village; moving to Podpreska; her husband being forced to serve in the German offensive in 1943; and the death of her older child from malnutrition and exhaustion in December 1943.
Oral history interview with Franc Pantar
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Julijana Janeš
Oral History
Julijana Janeš, born in 1933 in the former Yugoslavia, describes her brothers joining a partisan unit in 1942; the arrest of her village in 1942 by Italian forces and their transfer to Rab concentration camp in Kampor; the harsh conditions in the camp, resulting in the deaths of her grandparents; her transfer to Gonars concentration camp; conditions in the camp, resulting in the death of her neice; returning home after the capitulation of Italy; moving to the village of Podpreska; and the sight of Chetnicks withdrawing from Serbia and Croatia at the end of the war.
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Oral History
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Oral history interview with Alojz S. Kunej
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Janez Štiglic
Oral History
Janez Štiglic, born in 1938 in the former Yugoslavia, describes his deportation to the concentration camp at Celje in 1942; mass shootings in Celje, which resulted in the death of his father; the death of his mother in Auschwitz; his transfer between different concentration camps; being a subject to medical experimentation; his liberation in 1945 by American forces; his return to Slovenia with his neighbor and brother; and the long-term effects of his experiences during the war on his life.
Oral history interview with Miloš Poljanšek
Oral History
Miloš Poljanšek, born in 1923 in the former Yugoslavia, describes his deportation to Somobor and then Ljubljana in 1941; joining the resistance movement; his arrest and interrogation by Italian police in 1943; two Jewish prisoners in his cell in the prison in Ljubljana; his transfer to a prison in Kopar; his transfer to Hamburg Neuengamme concentration camp in 1943 by German fores; conditions in the concentration camp; his release in 1944 and return to Slovenia; and his time in a working brigade until the end of the war.
