Gavra and Irena Mandil pose in front of a Christmas tree in 1940.
This photograph helped the Mandil family escape from German-occupied Yugoslavia in 1941. Mosa Mandil staged this holiday scene with his children a few months before Christmas in 1940. The Mandil family was Jewish, but Mosa posed the children in front of a Christmas tree to show his Christian clients the kind of festive photographs that he could take.
After the Mandil family obtained fake documents with false identities, they headed south by train toward Italian-occupied territory in Yugoslavia. Their train stopped before it passed into the area. German authorities at the border took the Mandil family’s fake documents. An SS officer accused the family of being Jews traveling under false names. Mosa convinced the man that his family was Christian by showing him this photograph of Gavra and Irena posed in front of a Christmas tree. They were permitted to reboard the train and continued into Italian-held territory.
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