Greta Ferušić

Greta Ferušić Weinfeld (born c. 1929) is a retired professor of architecture at the University of Sarajevo and survivor of Auschwitz and the Siege of Sarajevo.[1]

Greta Ferušić
Born1929 (age 91–92)
Novi Sad, Yugoslavia
NationalityBosnian
Other namesGreta Ferušić Weinfeld
OccupationArchitect
Known forSurvived Auschwitz and the Siege of Sarajevo

Biography

Ferušić was born and raised in Novi Sad.[2] She was 14 or 15 years old when she, her parents, two aunts, and an uncle were sent on April 1944 to Auschwitz. When the camp was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945, she weighed 33 kilograms (73 lb).[3] She was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust.

After the Holocaust

After the war, she returned to Yugoslavia and married Seid Ferušić,[4] a secular Bosniak, and moved to his hometown of Sarajevo in 1952. She studied architecture at the University of Sarajevo, where she became the first woman to graduate there.[5] Later, she became dean of the Architecture School there and directed various projects of infrastructure in the republic.[6]

Siege of Sarajevo

Refusing to be dislocated when the siege of Sarajevo began in April, 1992, Greta and her husband shared in the fate of their city,[7] but insisting that her son, his wife and their children leave the city[2] when a special convoy for evacuating the Jews of the city was organized on November 15, 1992 by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. She was interviewed for the Bosnian TV channel Hayat TV in 1994 for a documentary called Od Auscwitza do Sarajeva ("From Auschwitz to Sarajevo").[8]

In February 2004, Ferušić was awarded the Polish Auschwitz Cross (Krzyż Oświęcimski),[9] a Polish decoration awarded to honour survivors of Nazi concentration camps. She was the last person to receive this medal.

Greta

In 1997, Haris Pašović produced and directed a biographical film, Greta, about her.[5][10] The film producers received a grant of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to transform it from video format to a professional 35mm film format.[11] The film has been shown in different film festivals, such as Avignon, New York, London, Amsterdam,[12] San Francisco, Rome, Stockholm, Sarajevo, Ljubljana and others.[13]

References
  1. Ferusic, Greta (1999-03-15). "Unafraid of War". Newsweek. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  2. Sarajevo: A Bosnian Kaleidoscope. Fran Markowitz.
  3. Sobreviviente del Holocausto: 'Lo importante era no volverse loco' (in Spanish)
  4. Greta Weinfeld Ferušić. Internacionalna inicijativa žena Bosne i Hercegovine. (in Bosnian)
  5. Greta Ferusic Archived 2016-08-21 at the Wayback Machine. San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
  6. Greta Ferušić za RSE: Ovde je radio primitivizam. Radio Free Europe (in Bosnian)
  7. Traumascapes: The Power and Fate of Places Transformed by Tragedy. Maria M. Tumarkin.
  8. Datumi koji trebaju buditi razum. Al Jazeera
  9. Gitelman, Zvi. "American Jewish Yearbook 2004" (pdf). AJC. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  10. "Greta Ferusic". Some Jewish Films and Videos. Jewfilm, Larry Mark. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  11. Documentary Film: "Greta Ferusic"
  12. Greta Archived 2016-08-25 at the Wayback Machine. International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
  13. ARCHIVES 2015 / Haris Pašović. Avignon Film Festival
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