European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Another policeman is ushering the LF president.

I asked what was going on, what did we do? Continue! You’re not permitted to speak! So we went on…

Anyway, so we came to this bridge and he said that we’re going to that house. Why? Don’t ask, let’s just go.

So we get to that house and a car drives up; it was a German Volkswagen and there were two people inside.

I don’t remember whether they were dressed as civilians or not. One of the two entered, while the other stayed outside in the car.

He gave the cue to the two policemen that we should go inside. An examination followed.

I won’t go into what was found. That’s how this civilian life began.

As Yugoslav soldier after the war

As soon as I got to Celje, not lazy, went straight on to Kumrovec.

I went to Kumrovec from Celje by bicycle.

Just before reaching Kumrovec, there were these wooden houses with people living in them.

I came up to one of those houses and there was a woman inside. I asked if I could sleep there.

Why? Because I’m on my way to Zagreb. She asked when I would be leaving. I said early in the morning.

She said I could stay.

She made a bed for me; it was so puffed with feathers that I was covered in them.

She asked again when I’d be leaving and I said at dawn.

When I woke up, perhaps it was five in the morning of the 17th May.

There was a huge plate of fried eggs waiting for me.

I ate, we said farewell and I continued on to Zagreb.

But when I arrived in Zagreb, the brigade was no longer there in Maksimir. I was still on that bicycle.