Moshe Mandil ran a photo store in Novi Sad in Yugoslavia. When German troops attacked the country in April 1941, he was in Belgrade with his wife Gabriela and their children Gavra and Irena. The family could not return to Novi Sad, and Moshe Mandil had to perform forced labor for the German occupiers. To evade internment, Moshe Mandil, his wife, and the children posed as a Christian family and fled to Pristina in Italian-occupied Kosovo. The Italian occupation authorities interned them there, but later let them leave for Kavaja in Albania.
German units invaded Albania in September 1943, and Moshe Mandil and his family fled to the Albanian capital, Tirana. He found work there in Neshad Prizerini’s photo studio and befriended his Muslim employee Refik Veseli.
In November 1943 Veseli helped Moshe Mandil and his family to go underground. The Jewish family were able to hide with Veseli’s parents in the village of Kruja, where they survived.
Moshe Mandil and his family returned to Novi Sad in 1945. The Mandils emigrated to Israel in 1948.
Moshe and Gabriela Mandil (center) in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, 1939. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., 08208
Moshe and Gavra Mandil in prison in Pristina, 1942. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., courtesy of Gavra Mandil, 08213
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
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
Refik Veseli (right) and Moshe Mandil in Kruja, 1944. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., 24719
