Esther Bem

Esther Bem (F / Croatia, Italy, 1930), Holocaust survivor.

Biography

ESTHER BEM (née Svabenic) was born to an affluent, religious Jewish family in Osijek, Yugoslavia in 1930. Two years later, the family moved to Zagreb, Croatia, where Esther went to a Jewish school until the Germans occupied Croatia in April 1941.

The Svabenics had to leave their apartment when officials of the Croat government, now under the control of the Nazi regime, moved into their apartment building. Both Esther’s sisters, Jelka and Vera, later joined the partisans. Jelka was caught and hanged by the Germans, and Vera survived the war. To avoid deportation, Esther and her parents fled to the Italian-occupied Zone in Croatia, and later into Italy where they lived in a small village for two years as civil prisoners of war.

The family was forced to flee again in September 1943, upon learning that the Germans were approaching the village in search of Jews. They escaped to the mountains, where they lived with Italian peasants in various locations until February 1944. During that time, living in hiding and under false identity, Esther lost her childhood. She had no contact with anyone her own age, very little food, and she lived in constant fear of being caught by the Germans. But, she never forgot the goodness and decency of their saviors.

Esther and her parents were liberated in April 1945 and moved to Venice, Italy, where they learned that Vera had survived the war. The family reunited in Zagreb, Croatia. Esther moved to Israel in 1950, and married Mirko Bem in 1952. Their daughter was born in 1954, and their son in 1962. The family moved to Canada in 1966, where their three grandchildren were born. Mirko passed away in 1975, and Esther remarried in 1978.