Benjamin Kabiljo lived with his parents, Jozef and Rivka, and his younger sister Tova in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Benjamin Kabiljo was 14 years old in 1941. That April, the family’s apartment was struck during German Luftwaffe air raids. Benjamin Kabiljo and his family were taken in by Muslim friends of theirs, the Hardaga family.
As of 1941, Sarajevo belonged to the “Independent State of Croatia,” which was controlled by the German Reich. Starting in the summer of 1941, Jews were deported to Croatian labor and concentration camps. Benjamin Kabiljo fled with his mother and sister to Mostar in the Italian occupation zone, where Jews were still relatively safe. The Hardaga family sent the Kabiljos money. Only the father, Jozef Kabiljo, remained in Sarajevo and was arrested. In the spring of 1942, he managed to escape from prison and was hidden by the Hardaga family. He later fled to Mostar to join his family.
After the war, Benjamin Kabiljo returned to Sarajevo along with his parents and his sister. The family emigrated to Israel in 1950.