“The Ustashas were patrolling. Whoever would get sick, they would kill him. Countless people. We found women, children, old men and women… hungry… desperate to find something to eat! Extreme heat. Then they moved us through the forest to Jablanac village. They stopped us there and that is where we made some grass huts, and we stayed there for three weeks. We had some food left in the cart, corn, wheat, we would crush it in a bowl and  then cook.

There was firewood, because the forest was near. In Jablanac they took children aged between 13 and 15, and sent them to Jasenovac. They later took small children and women who were capable for voluntary work. My sister Mara had a 9-month-old baby, and they took him away, too. That is when they sent us off to Mlaka. My mother took my hand and brought me closer to sign me in. I was crying, and my mother said: ‘You will survive, and they will kill all of us.’ And I said: ‘They can kill me, too!’ And my mother said: ‘Milica, you will be hungry, you will have nothing to eat. They will cut your throat and I will not be able to do anything! You should go!’ But I ran away and I did not go with those children. Then we moved to Košutarice. It was so bad there, we had nothing to eat, rain was falling constantly. We were starving, wet, oh my God. We spent five days there, before they started moving us to Jasenovac. They cornered us to some holes by the road. I was with my mother and my sister Mara, she was 23 at the time. That is when they started taking away capable, young girls and women. Mara was taken away from us, and we were rushed to cattle wagons. One Ustasha hit me to get in the wagon faster. There was a tiny window on the wagon and my mother looked through it and said: ‘There is my Mara, they are taking her to Gradina by boat’. I raised myself a little and that was when I saw her for the last time”.

A Book Of Memories, Donja Gradina 2021, p. 26.