Pozderac Nurija & Devleta

Pozderac, Nurija Pozderac, Devleta Nurija Pozderac and his wife Devleta were Muslim Bosnians living in Cazin. Pozderac was a landowner and a well-respected person in the area. Before WWII, the Pozderacs had befriended a Jewish physician, Dr. Izidor Levi, and his wife Klara, who had moved to Cazin in 1936. Soon after Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941 and the puppet state of Croatia was established, the persecution of Jews began. Jewish assets were confiscated and the Ustaša (Croatian Fascists) began incarcerating Jews in camps, where they were treated brutally and murdered. From the outset, Nurija Pozderac promised the Levis he would protect them. He opened his doors to them, telling them that "in my home you are as free as if it were your own." Klara Levi later testified that when the Ustaša came to look for Izidor, Pozderac told them that the Jewish doctor was under his protection, and that as the sole physician in the area he could not be touched. She also described how Pozderac would reprimand people who wore collaborators' uniforms, convincing them to leave the fascist ranks. Towards the end of 1941, when Nurija Pozderac decided to join the partisans, Izidor Levi joined him. Klara stayed at the Pozderac home, where Devleta continued to hide her. Nurija Pozderac was killed in June 1943. Another person helped by Pozderac during the war was Salomon Moni Atijas. His daughter, Vesna Babic, told the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade that she had often heard her father speak of his rescue by Nurija Pozderac. Originally from Bihac, Atijas (b. 1922) had managed to escape from a train deporting Jewish prisoners to the Jasenovac concentration camp. When he reached Cazin, Nurija Pozderac presented the young man as his gardener and Atijas remained under his protection until he too joined the partisans. In 1976 Klara Levi was interviewed for a film in which she expressed her admiration for the Pozderacs' nobility and compassion. Thanks to them,she said, she and her husband felt protected from the fascist terror. She believed that the two rescuers should serve as role models for younger generations. On September 11, 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Nurija and Devleta Pozderac as Righteous Among the Nations.