Aleksandar Necak’s mother Suzana Hacker with a friend Ela Fein

My mother Suzana Hacker and a friend from school Ela Fein in front of the Hacker family Ford in Senta 1931. They are standing in front of the Hotel Bela Ladja, close to the center of Senta. My grandmother traveled a great deal and that is probably how they came to have a car at that time. 

Ela’s father was the cantor in one of the Neolog synagogues in Senta. She committed suicide sometime near the time that this picture was taken. Before her death she was a student of pharmacology.

My mother was born in Senta on February 25, 1915 and raised there. She studied at the secular gymnasium in Subotica. In 1932, at the age of 17, she married Dusan Necak, a Serbian officer in the Royal Yugoslav Army who was stationed in Subotica. They were married in Prilep [Macedonia] in a Serbian Orthodox church. At the time of the marriage my mother changed her name to Dusanka Necak. She was not religious and did not observe any Jewish holidays or practices nor did she observe the Serbian Orthodox practices. They had two children, my sister Marina and me. As father was an officer in the army we moved around a lot during the pre-war years but regardless of where we were most of our friends were people from the Jewish community in that town. When I was born we were living in Novi Sad, and by the time the war started father was already permanently stationed and working in Belgrade.  

During the war we were living in hiding with two families in Belgrade. While we were living with these two Djordjevic families we were able to walk on the street and do many daily tasks because we had Serbian last names and had distanced ourselves from the family and friends.

After the war we remained in Belgrade where mother worked as a financial clerk. My mother currently resides in the Jewish old age home in Belgrade.

Photos from this interviewee