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6. Release and Escape
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
FI 74 6 RELEASE AND ESCAPE I weighed 44 kilos when I was released from Jasenovac on 20 February 1942. At 1.8 metres tall, I was practically a walking skeleton— except that I could barely walk. My toes were so badly frostbitten that I was reduced to a slow limp. Uncle Oskar was only in marginally better condition, perhaps because he had been in the camp for a few days less than I had. Aunt Camilla had been interned in Stara Gradiška, a women’s camp, where conditions had not been as terrible as in Jasenovac. She immediately organized our nursing back to health; she devoted herself to Oskar, while I was taken in by the family of Kurt Asner, a close friend who had been my schoolmate when I attended high school in Zagreb the previous year. The Asners—father, mother, and sons Freddy and Kurt—were still living in their lovely apartment in the centre of Zagreb, even though they were Jewish. They enjoyed a sort of reprieve from persecution because Mr. Asner’s position as managing director of a vegetable oil plant was considered vital to the Croatian economy. They were permitted to keep their property and continued living their lives practically undisturbed, free even from the obligation to wear the yellow star. The entire family was extremely kind and welcoming, taking me in without hesitation and doing their best to nurse me back to health. My most serious ailment was frostbite. My ingers and toes— especially my toes—were completely numb and had started to turn black. Dr. Rechnitzer, the physician whose clandestine lectures on Einstein and Freud had so inspired me a few months earlier (and who, fortunately, was still alive and in Zagreb), was called in. His irst diagnosis was that both my big toes would have to be amputated. He decided, however, to make a last-ditch attempt to save them, prescribing a long succession 81118 001-226.pdf_out 6/17/114:15 PM K 74 7A 75 6 RELEASE AND ESCAPE of alternating hot and cold baths, accompanied by careful massaging. Miraculously, the treatment worked. He succeeded in saving my toes but had to cut out part of my left heel—although this later had no efect on my ability to walk. I stayed in bed for four or ive weeks, mostly sleeping and eating. The only readily available food was horse sausages, which became the staple of my recovery. Mrs. Asner made sure that I ate as much as I wanted during the day and left several horse sausage sandwiches and glasses of milk by my bedside for the night. Hunger pangs would wake me up every two or three hours; I would devour a sandwich, gulp down a glass of milk—without getting out of bed—and then go back to sleep. By the end of ive or six weeks my weight had returned to normal. Uncle Oskar also recovered, as did Aunt Camilla. We began to piece together the story behind our incredible release. It turned out that we owed our lives irst and foremost to Uncle Ferdinand. When Camilla, Oskar, and I were arrested by the Ustashe in January 1942, Uncle Ferdinand was already in relative safety in the Italian zone of occupation on the Croatian coast, with his brothers Julius and Robert. They were waiting for us to join them. When we did not appear, they realized we had been arrested. Somehow, Uncle Ferdinand knew that one of the highest-ranking Nazis in Croatia was an Austrian, a former head of the Austrian War Archives by the name of Edmund von GlaiseHorstenau . Uncle Ferdinand hoped that General von Glaise-Horstenau, who had spent years directing the archives, would be receptive to the fact that he was an Austrian war hero and a recipient of the Goldene Tapferkeitsmedaille , the highest decoration for valour. He wrote a letter to the general, pleading for our lives; incredibly, the letter had the desired efect. I learned from Aunt Camilla, who had been released two days before UncleOskarandme,thatshehadbeenmetatUstashepoliceheadquarters by the general’s adjutant, a Major Knehe. The major had told her that from now on we were under the personal protection of General von GlaiseHorstenau . We should not try to contact the general directly, but in case of need could reach Knehe at any time of night or day. He had given Camilla a special telephone number for this purpose and had instructed her to keep one or two...