Vladislav Rothbart

Palic is a popular holiday-reserve near Subotica, where this picture was taken in the 1920s. There is Vladislav, his mother and grandmother on it accompanied by other family members.

Vlada Rothbart was born in 1925 in Subotica in a quite strange time and in a strange family. I say strange time because it was 7 years after World War I ended. That area was an area where Hungarian was spoken. At the end of World War I Backa [Voivodina] 1 and some other areas became part of Yugoslavia. 

Vlada, in the first days of his life, felt double isolation, first because he was Jewish and second because he was Hungarian speaker. He was not only isolated as a Jew but he was not desirable as a person whose mother tongue is Hungarian. 

Vlada's family belonged to a Neolog 3 community. His father was a member of the executive board of the Jewish Community. It means that he was in charge for religious issues. Vlada's family had a friend from the Orthodox community, but their friend didn't wear the traditional Orthodox dresses. Vlada's family lived at a place where they couldn't build a sukkah, so at Sukkot he would always go to them to sit for a while in their sukkah.

In front of the children the parent never talked about about anti-Semitism. It was known to exist though. So to say, every month a man would come to sell a photo of King Aleksandar 4, and every time would Vlada's father open the door and buy a photo, Vlada would ask him, 'Why are you father buying a photo when we already have 5-6'. Then his father for the first time told him, 'My son, it is a must because we are Jews and we have to'. When King Aleksandar was killed, it was quite unclear and unpleasant for Vlada, and especially for Vlada's father since such a killing was being suspected.