In 1941, Ester Bachar’s parents, Yaffa and Blagoye, placed their infant with her grandparents in Kosovo for safety while they joined the partisans

In 1941, Ester Bachar’s parents, Yaffa and Blagoye, placed their infant with her grandparents in Kosovo for safety while they joined the partisans. Ester's life was about to change completely.

In early March 1942, when Ester was less than two years old, the German forces arrested all the Jews in their town. Ester and her grandparents were interned in a transit camp. While they were in the transit camp, Ester’s grandparents asked Hajrija Imeri-Mihaljic, a Roma woman who had worked in their household for many years, to take Ester. Hajrija smuggled her out of the camp and changed Ester’s name to Miradija. Ester lived with the family for several years, speaking only the Roma language.

After the war, Hajrija was told that Ester’s family had all died. Hajrija planned to raise Ester as one of her own children, though she had told Ester about her true name and history. When local police discovered that the Imeri-Mihaljic family was sheltering a Jewish child, representatives from the Jewish community in Pristina took Ester and placed her with a Jewish family. It was well intentioned, but Ester was traumatized by the separation and couldn’t communicate, as she only spoke Romani.

She ended up in a boarding school for Jewish war orphans in Belgrade. One day, a caretaker who understood some Romani spoke to Ester. After hearing her story, the caretaker fainted. She later explained that she had just found her own daughter—it was Yaffa, who had survived.

The relationship was confirmed and Ester and Yaffa began to adjust to life together. About six months later, Hajrija came to the orphanage in Belgrade to make sure that Ester was being well cared for. After learning that Ester’s biological mother had been found, she did not return.

Yaffa remarried and in 1948 the family immigrated to Israel. In 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Hajrija Imeri-Mihaljic as Righteous Among the Nations.

Photo: USHMM, courtesy of Ester Bachar Levi

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