Leon Franko
Leon was born to a large, Ladino-speaking, Sephardic-Jewish family. The Frankos lived in a large house in ethnically diverse Bitola, a town located in the southern part of Yugoslav Macedonia, near the Greek border. Leon's father, Yiosef, was a successful fabric merchant. The Frankos' children attended Yugoslav public schools where they learned to speak Serbian.
1933-39: Upon completing his schooling, Leon became a fabric merchant in Bitola. A handsome man from a well-to-do family, Leon was popular. His friends often remarked that he looked like a movie star. His younger brother, Dario, idolized him.
1940-44: In April 1941 the Germans invaded Yugoslavia, and Macedonia was annexed to Bulgaria. The Bulgarians introduced anti-Jewish laws and cooperated with the Germans. Leon and Dario fled to Kastoria, a town in Italian-occupied Greece. There, Leon met and married Rebecca Pissirilo. After Italy surrendered, the Germans deported Kastoria's 700 Jews to Salonika, where they were assembled for deportation to Auschwitz. In Salonika, Leon's wife, who was nine months pregnant, was taken by the International Red Cross to a hospital.
Leon was one of 700 Jews deported by train from Salonika to Auschwitz on April 1, 1944. Both he and his wife perished. Their baby, Esther, was saved by a nurse in the hospital.
Item ViewRebecca Pissirilo
Rebecca was the oldest of three children born to Ladino-speaking, Sephardic-Jewish parents. The Pissirilos lived in Kastoria, a small town in the mountainous region of Greek Macedonia near the Albanian border. Rebecca's father was a successful fabric merchant. The Pissirilo children attended public schools.
1933-39: After finishing elementary school, Rebecca went on to study at secondary school. She liked to sing and enjoyed studying. Rebecca kept a diary, like some of the other girls in her class. The girls used pseudonyms, usually the name of an actress that they admired. Rebecca's pseudonym was "Marlene Dietrich."
1940-44: Italy attacked Greece in 1940, and in 1941 Italian officers were billeted in the Pissirilo home. During the Italian occupation Rebecca married Leon Franko, a Jewish refugee from Yugoslavia. In September 1943 Italy surrendered. The Germans occupied Kastoria and deported the town's 700 Jews to Salonika. There the Red Cross interceded on behalf of Rebecca, who was about to give birth, and rushed her to a hospital. On April 1, 1944, the day Kastoria's Jews were deported to Auschwitz, Rebecca gave birth to a daughter.
Rebecca tried to hide in the hospital, but was betrayed, and was executed by the Germans on September 8, 1944. A nurse in the hospital saved her infant daughter.
Item ViewNorbert Yasharoff
Norbert was born to a Jewish family in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. His father, a prominent lawyer, was also active in the Jewish community, heading relief efforts for the city's Jewish orphans. Sofia was home to approximately half of Bulgaria's estimated 50,000 Jews during the mid-1930s.
1933-39: On September 1, 1939, while on a family vacation the Yasharoffs heard over the radio that war [World War II] had begun. Norbert's parents exchanged worried glances; what would happen to them now? Bulgaria had close ties with the Germans and they were frightened. At the newsstand Norbert saw antisemitic headlines appear for the first time in the papers speaking of the Jews' "international conspiracy." He asked his father to help him understand what was happening.
1940-44: In May 1943 Norbert's family was deported to Pleven in northern Bulgaria. It wasn't like the deportations they'd heard about; they lived with relatives and Norbert even attended a public school. The Soviet army arrived on September 9, 1944. The Bulgarian partisans descended from the mountains and started rounding up town officials. Nortbert happened to be in the street so he helped. While the chief of police was held at gunpoint, Norbert searched his pockets. He was shaking worse than the police chief.
Norbert finished high school in Sofia after the war. In 1948 he immigrated to Israel and later moved to the United States.
Item ViewJudith Margareth Konijn
Judith was the younger of two children born to religious, middle-class Jewish parents. Judith's mother, Clara, was Sephardic, a descendant of Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492. Her father, Lodewijk, was a traveling representative for a firm based in Amsterdam. The family lived in an apartment in a new section of Amsterdam on the southern outskirts.
1933-39: Judith attended grade school with her cousin Hetty who was the same age. Judith loved to study. Her mother taught piano to students who came to the house for lessons. Judith loved to play the piano, too. Her family celebrated the Jewish holidays, and like most Dutch families, they exchanged gifts every December 6 on Saint Nicholas Day.
1940-43: After the Germans occupied Amsterdam, they enforced new laws that forbade Jews to enter libraries and museums, or even to use street cars. Then they ordered Jews to wear an identifying yellow badge, and would not allow Jewish children to attend public schools. One by one Judith's relatives disappeared, picked up by the Germans. Then Judith, her mother and brother were arrested in a roundup by the Germans who came while Judith's father was away at work on a night shift.
Judith was deported to the Westerbork transit camp. From there she was sent to a killing center in Poland. She was 13 years old when she died.
Item ViewNorbert J. Yasharoff describes the change in living conditions for Jews in Bulgaria
Anti-Jewish measures took effect in Bulgaria after the beginning of World War II. In March 1941, Bulgaria joined the Axis alliance and German troops passed through Sofia. In May 1943, Norbert and his family were expelled to Plevin in northern Bulgaria, where they stayed with relatives. After the advance of the Soviet army in 1944, Norbert and his family returned to Sofia.
Item ViewFlory (Floritza) Jagoda describes anti-Jewish measures following the occupation of Zagreb
Flory was born into a Sephardic Jewish family. When Flory was a young girl, her mother moved to Zagreb with Flory's stepfather; Flory joined them after living with her grandmother for two years. In Zagreb, Flory took music lessons and learned how to play the accordion. Germany and its allies invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, partitioning the country and establishing a fascist regime under the Ustase (pro-German Croatian nationalists) in Croatia. The Ustasa regime soon imposed anti-Jewish regulations in Zagreb; Flory was no longer allowed to attend school, and Jews were forced to wear a badge identifying them as Jews. Flory's family fled Zagreb, finding refuge in Italian-occupied areas and later in the south of mainland Italy. The Allies invaded Italy in 1943. After the Italian cease-fire in September 1943, Flory got a job with American forces in Bari, in southeastern Italy. In June 1945, after the war, Flory married an American sergeant, Harry Jagoda. They settled in the United States.
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