Irena Mandil was born in Novi Sad (Yugoslavia, now Serbia) in 1938. Her parents Moshe and Gabriela Mandil owned a photo store. Irena Mandil had an older brother, Gavra.
In 1941 the three-year-old, her parents, and her brother fled National Socialist persecution for Italian-occupied Kosovo. The family was initially interned in Pristina, but was allowed to leave for Kavaja in Albania in 1942. German troops invaded Albania in September 1943, and the family fled to Tirana. Refik Veseli, a colleague of Irena’s father, placed the family with his Muslim parents in the village of Kruja. The Veselis hid and fed the Mandil family from November 1943 to October 1944. While the adults barely left the house for safety reasons, Irena and her brother were allowed to play with the other children in the village. Irena Mandil and her family returned to Novi Sad in 1945; they emigrated to Israel in 1948.
Moshe and Gabriela Mandil with their children Gavra and Irena, with Hamid Veseli (right), in Tirana, the Albanian capital, 1943/44. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., courtesy of Gavra Mandil 24718
Refik Veseli (right) with Gavra and Irena Mandil, 1943/44. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., courtesy of Gavra Mandil, 08215
Front row from left: Gavra and Irena Mandil, Deshira, Fatima, Esad, and Vesel Veseli. Back row: Moshe and Gabriela Mandil, Finiza and Ruzhica Ben-Josef, Hyrije Veseli with her child Lule, and an employee, Kruja, June 1944. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., 08273
