Monastir Without Jews: Recollections of a Jewish Partisan in Macedonia - Softcover

Jamila Andjela Kolonomos; Edited By Robert Bedford; Translated By Isaac Nehama And Brian Berman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1886857091 ISBN 13: 9781886857094

Publisher: Foundation for Sephardic Studies, 2008

Synopsis

On March 11, 1943, the entire Jewish community of Monastir, in Yugoslav Macedonia, was rounded up and sent north to a transit camp at the Monopol Tobacco Warehouse, in Skopje. There, along with the Jews gathered from Skopje and Shtip, they were sent to the Treblinka Concentration Camp in three transports. Except for a few foreign nationals and physicians who were released, not one Monastirli Jew survived the aftermath of Treblinka. Jamila Kolonomos was one of a handful of Jews who escaped the deportations. As a member of the Yugoslav Underground, she was sent into hiding when the round-up occurred, and with several Jewish companions, she was able to flee the city and join the Partisan army. Monastir Without Jews is Kolonomos's personal memoir recalling the fate of Monastir s Jewish Community during the Holocaust -- it is also an eyewitness account of the Jewish presence in the Yugoslav Resistance, as recalled by this highly decorated Jewish Partisan. Adapted from the compilation of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) articles and essays, 'Monastir Sin Djudyos,' and appearing for the first time in English, with the addition of 150 personal and archival photographs, Monastir Without Jews is a rare firsthand account of the life and death of a Sephardic community.

About this title

About the Author:

Jamila Andjela Kolonomos was born in 1922 and raised in the Jewish community of Monastir (Bitola). At the age of 19, she became a member of the Yugoslavian Resistance shortly after the Bulgarian occupation of Yugoslav Macedonia in 1941. She escaped the roundup and deportation of Monastir s Jewish Community, and with several Jewish companions, joined the Partisan army in April 1943, eventually rising to the rank of Commissar of several battalions before becoming a Deputy Commissar of a Macedonian brigade and the 42nd Yugoslav Division. After the war, Kolonomos was cited many times for merit and bravery, and was a leading official in many political, benevolent and social associations, including the Alliance of Yugoslav Resistance, the Union for the Protection of Childhood of Macedonia and the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Women of Macedonia, as well as a deputy in the Macedonian Assembly. In 1962, Kolonomos was named Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Romance Philology at Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, in Skopje. She is the author of numerous articles and works of history, Judeo-Spanish (the language of the Sephardim), and of the Yugoslav-Macedonian Resistance.

About this edition

• Publisher: Foundation for Sephardic Studies
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1886857091
• ISBN 13: 9781886857094
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160