Watch the testimony of Sara Granada, who shares her mother, Stella Tolentino Danon's account of their family's experience living in the ghetto during the Ustasha rule and how they were treated by other residents of Dubrovnik.
Sara Granada, née Danon, was born on November 18, 1927, in Sarajevo. Her father, Mihael Danon, was a Jew from Sarajevo, while her mother, Stella, is from the esteemed Tolentino family in Dubrovnik. Her father, being a merchant, relocated to Belgrade for work, where his brothers also resided. Sara received her education there until the outbreak of the Second World War. As the war started, Sara and her mother sought refuge in Dubrovnik with the assistance of a friend. Sara never saw her father again. In 1942, she, along with her mother and her mother's family, was deported to Hotel Wregg, a concentration camp in Dubrovnik. Subsequently, she was transferred to camp Kampor on the island of Rab, where she remained until the capitulation of Italy in 1943. Following the dissolution of the camp, she and part of her family went into hiding in various locations in Croatia. They were later captured by the Ustaše and handed over to the Nazis, leading to their deportation to the Rižarna camp near Trieste, and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau. After being transferred to Bergen-Belsen, Sara and her mother survived and eventually returned to Dubrovnik. Sara married Stijepa Granada, had children, and together they were involved in the Dubrovnik Jewish Community. Sara Granada passed away in 2010 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Dubrovnik.