IVANOVIĆ: WISHFUL THINKING ABOUT ESCAPE

BANJA LUKA, APRIL 25 /SRNA/ - Escapes from the camp were very, very rare, and even more rarely successful, pointed out Ilija Ivanović, who as a 16-year-old boy managed to survive in the breakout of the Jasenovac concentration camp.

In the book called “Witness to Jasenovac's Hell," excerpts of which are published by the portal srpskanational.com, Ivanović pointed out that there were only successful escapes during their stay at work outside the camp:

Master Moric Altarac and I spread a blanket on the ground floor and sat down. Most of the inmates did the same thing, while some of them walked aimlessly through the building - they went upstairs to the first floor and the attic, and then again downstairs. After a brief rest, I myself wandered through the floors, not knowing what exactly I am looking for.

The night is coming. Will we survive? We didn't get the dinner, that small portion of corn porridge. It seems we’ve been written off. The butchers are tired from killing women that day, so we are probably only on their bloody schedule tomorrow.

There was unrest in the building all night. I stopped breathing each time when the door opened occasionally and the Ustashas entered with a list of people that they were taking away. They picked the stronger ones. It might be that they suspected something or they had an informant among us, but I know that the night swallowed up a lot of good and brave camp inmates. Their aim was to completely behead us and to stifle any thought of escape at the outset.

I was awake for a long time and silently spoke to the master. He was a man in his fifties, a barber by trade and a Jew. He was brought to the camp because of the fact that he was a Jew. Before he was brought to the Jasenovac camp, he lived and worked in Zagreb. Even today, I remember his address that he often mentioned: Paromlinska Street 70, Zagreb. He sent many letters to that address, but he never got a reply. He had a brother in the camp, which was younger than him. He himself was a barber, and used to work in the central barber shop.

One morning, in the winter of 1944/45, the camp inmates found him on the road between the "Little Lake" and Baer. He was lying in the pool of blood, with his throat slit. They recognized him and informed my master. He went there and quickly came back. He was silent for a long time and then said: "There, I am left completely alone." We knew what he meant. He told us everything. He knew that none of his relatives were alive in Zagreb either.

We stayed up late into the night. I was the first to fall asleep, overcome by the events from the previous day. But that wasn't a dream, but the continuation of a nightmare. In my dream, I was in the column for liquidation in Gradina. I am spinning, moaning, trying to free myself from the bonds. It’s not working. I see bloody butchers ahead over a huge pit. The column is getting shorter and shorter…

Suddenly, a miracle! I release my hands and I'm running away from the column. I’m hidden behind the lush hedge. It's hard, very hard for me to move. The chains on my legs are obstructing. Finally, the chains are falling off. I am running away from the hell and I'm arriving to my hometown on the Ogorelica Hill. /In my dream/ I see my home clearly and I walk towards it joyfully. "Son, son, wake up," the master called me, shaking me with his hand.

I was sad. My sleeping happiness was interrupted. I didn't make it home. "Son, you're all sweaty. What did you dream about?" he asked me. When I told him, he said: "Oh, the wishful thinking!"