Neither Red Nor Dead: Coming of Age in Former Yugoslavia During and After World War II

by Stevo Julius

The Author, raised in a non-practicing Jewish family, is 12 years old when the Germans occupy former Yugoslavia. His family hides in a small village and eventually joins Tito’s guerrilla. At 14 years of age he is appointed as a military courier, given an outdated Italian gun, and sent to roam alone through mountains, forests, and small villages of Croatia. After the war, just when things start to look better, his father breaks down under the Communist pressure and the author is forced to take refuge again. This is a story of how extraordinary events can bring out the worst and the best in ordinary people. How the author, to keep himself sane in the turmoil, learns to see the funny side of things, to understand what makes people tick, to keep eyes open, and when the going gets really rough- to recite poetry. This is also a story of two brothers who, facing same difficulties became very different adults and how a son unwittingly repeated some his father’s history.

Paperback

Published June 15, 2003

Reviews

[Mladen Krečak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zanimljiva knjiga o sudbini jedne židovske obitelji, vjerojatno jedna od rijetkih koja je uspjela proći kroz drugi svjetski rat bez xa bude okrznuta, za razliku od tadašnjeg poraća. Ujedno se u tekstu koji opisuje život autora u Goraždu nakon rata naziru obrisi katastrofe koja je zadesila BiH 90-ih godina prošlog stoljeća.