Roth August & Branka (Kerdić); Daughter: Milewski Duška (Dimovic); Daughter: Milewski Duška (Roth)

Roth, August Roth, Branka Roth, Duška The Pollak family was living in Zagreb before the war. The father, Egon Pollak, was a member of the Jewish Community Council that continued its activity also after the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Egon was responsible for sending parcels to Jews incarcerated in the Ustaša concentration camps. In August 1942, the Pollak family was sent to the Loborgrad camp and after a few months they were placed on a train to Auschwitz. The train stopped in Zagreb and members of the Jewish community there, with whom Egon Pollak was in contact, managed to obtain his release together with his wife, Blanka (née Lustig), and their two daughters, 12-year-old Inga (later, Ruth Gat) and seven-year-old Ljerka (later, Tamar Fischer). They were lodged in one of the apartments that the community rented for short periods. Inga, who was in constant contact with her friend Duška Roth in Zagreb, told her that they had to vacate their apartment and had nowhere to go. The friend asked her parents August and Branka Roth to help them. August Roth was an industrialist and directed an oil refinery in Zagreb, and helped many friends to escape to the partisans. Duška, who knew about her father’s underground activity, said, "You help so many people; why should you not help my friend Inga and her family who are in danger?" The parents indeed acceded to her request. They suggested taking in the two girls, in order to make it easier for their parents to find a separate hiding place. The girls went there gladly, particularly Inga who was very close to Duška. The father, Egon Pollak, took leave of his family, telling them that it was only for a short period, not knowing that the separation would be forever. A few days later he was caught and sent to Auschwitz where he was murdered. The girls remained with the Roth family. Duška took care of them, taught them Christian customs, how to cross themselves, to pray and to get used to their new names andidentity. Inga changed her name to Tinka Veselić and Ljerka to Ljubica Veselić. After the girls' father was taken, the Roth couple understood the magnitude of the danger to all and first of all attended to the mother, Blanka Pollak. They found her work in the kitchen of a monastery to which they also transferred the girls, who were presented as orphaned war refugees. The girls were together with their mother who changed her name to Marica Romanić, but they were not allowed to reveal the connection between them. Branka Roth visited them every two weeks and brought sweets and presents on their birthdays. One day, the maid who had worked for the Pollak family before the war appeared at the gate of the monastery. She was glad to see the girls and promised to keep their hiding place secret. Mrs. Roth, however, did not really trust the maid, fearing that she would denounce them. She, therefore, found an excuse to ask that the girls be transferred to another monastery outside of town. The three members of the Roth family were in contact with the girls and with their mother until the end of the war. Even after that the Roth home was the girls’ first home. Duška Roth and Ruth (Inga) Gat are in contact to this day. On April 1, 2001 Yad Vashem recognized August and Branka Roth and their daughter Duška as Righteous Among the Nations.