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 Jewis...
