Doživljaji i putovanja do slobode
The autobiographical work of Croatian communist activist Vladimir Novak, a survivor of the Ustasha camps, follows his memories of resistance to fascism during World War II.
Novak describes the arrests and imprisonment in Zagreb in 1941, focusing on the Kerestinec camp where communists, anti-fascists, Serbs and Jews were imprisoned. After the mass shooting of 10 comrades on 9 July (including Božidar Adžija, Ognjen Prica and Alfred Bergman) in retaliation for the murder of policeman Tiljko, the prisoners organized an escape.
Novak participated in the preparations: on 13 July, with a friend, he towed a heavy boat all day from Trnje to Savsko kupalište to transport the group (with Kata Dumbović) and weapons across the river for the action. "We towed it all day... It was such a heavy boat that it seemed to us as if it were full of stones", he writes. The escape on 13/14 July was carried out alone: under the leadership of Divko Budak and Andrija Žaja, 5 strike groups disarmed the guards (Horvatin wounded, Bujanović captured), seized weapons and escaped 94 prisoners. The column splits; fighting near Stupnička šuma and Obrež: 20+ killed, suicides (Frdelja, Vlahek, Žaja), captured and shot on July 17 in Dotrščina.
The survivors (including Begovac, Božac, Komarica) escape with the help of peasants to join the partisans. Novak continues his journey through the camps of Stara Gradiška (where he writes about the resistance in the second part) and Jasenovac, until liberation. The work combines intimate testimonies with collective struggle: hunger, torture, solidarity, optimism after the attack on the USSR.
One copy is available
- The cover is missing
