Anniversary: 126 years since the birth of Bosnian writer Isak Samokovlija

On this day, September 3, 1889, the renowned Bosnian writer Isak Samokovlija, author of many works with Bosnian-Jewish themes, was born, writes the Patria News Agency.

Samokovlija was born in Goražde, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into a family of Sephardic (Spanish) Jews. His family had moved from Samokov in Bulgaria, after whom they got the surname Samokovlija. After spending his childhood in Goražde, he moved to Sarajevo and finished the First Gymnasium, and studied medicine in Vienna.

After his studies, Samokovlija worked as a doctor in Goražde, Fojnica, and Sarajevo. He published his first short story "Rafina avlija" in 1927, and two years later, his first collection of short stories "Od proljeća do proljeća" was published by the Group of Sarajevo Writers.

Some of his most famous works include: "Od proljeća do proljeća" 1929; "Nosač Samuel" (Porter Samuel), 1946; "Solomunovo slovo" (Solomon's Word), 1949; "Hanka" (drama); "Plava Jevrejka" (The Blue Jewess) (drama); "Tragom života" (In the Wake of Life); "Đerdan" (Necklace); "Priča o radostima" (A Story of Joys)…

He was working as the head of a department at the Koševo hospital in Sarajevo when World War II began. He was soon fired and forced to wear a yellow armband with the Star of David, which the Nazis used to mark all Jews.

After the proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), he was imprisoned by the Ustaše, and later transferred to a refugee camp at Alipašin Most in Sarajevo.
In the spring of 1945, he managed to escape from the Ustaše who were forcibly taking him with them, and he remained in hiding until the country's liberation.

Isak Samokovlija died on January 15, 1955, in Sarajevo. He was buried in the old Jewish cemetery on the steep slope of Trebević, writes NAP.