Leather gun belt used by Dudo Montiljo, while he was a member of a partisan group that fought the Ustaše and the Nazi occupation forces in Yugoslavia during World War II. Dudo lived in Prnjavor, where he worked as a merchant when Yugoslavia was invaded and partitioned by Germany and its allies in April, 1941. After the Yugoslav surrender, Dudo joined the 3rd battalion of the 10th Brigade of the People's Liberation Army (Yugoslav partisans). While fighting with the partisans Dudo lost three fingers, including the second and third fingers of his right hand. After his recovery, Dudo worked in the People’s Liberation Committee in Hercegovina until the end of the war. The Germans and their Croatian Ustaše collaborators deported and killed Dudo’s mother, Rahele, and his four siblings, Rene, Klare, Smoela, and Morica.
overall: Height: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm) | Width: 42.250 inches (107.315 cm)
Belt for gun used by a Yugoslavian partisan
No restrictions on access
The belt was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993 by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia.
Duda Montiljo (birth name Leon Montiljo, 1909-1995) was born in Visoko, Austria Hungary (now Bosnia and Herzegovina) to Jakob and Rahele Montiljo. As an adult, he settled in Prnjavor and worked as a merchant. On April 6, 1941, Germany and Italy, supported by Hungary and Bulgaria, invaded Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was partitioned, and central Yugoslavia, including Prnjavor, was formed into the independent State of Croatia, which was governed by the Ustaše and administered by the Germans. The regime enacted anti-Jewish laws, confiscated property and money, forced males to work hard labor and then began deporting Jews to camps. Dudo’s mother, Rahele, and his four siblings, Rene, Klare, Smoela, and Morica were deported to and killed in the camps. In 1943, Dudo joined the 3rd battalion of the 10th Brigade of the People's Liberation Army (Yugoslav partisans). He fought with the partisans in Yugoslavia during the war and lost three fingers, including the second and third fingers of his right hand. After recovery, Dudo worked in the People’s Liberation Committee in Hercegovina until the end of the war. After the war he retired from the military a lieutenant and was recognized as a disabled veteran due to his injuries. He was married to Anica Finci.
Light brown, leather belt with a silver-colored, rounded, rectangular framed buckle and prong. The leather is looped around the buckle’s central bar and held with two small rivets. The belt is long and thin, and the opposite end tapers to a slightly narrower end, with nine small machine-made holes in the center for the buckle. The front of the belt has a faint, stamped farm scene depicting a cowboy inside a fenced in pasture swinging a lasso at a running horse with several other horses standing nearby. In the background is a three rail fence with undulating hills in the distance. The scene repeats three times over the length of the belt. Near the end, there are two vertical indentations at the seventh and eighth holes from the belt being worn over time. The buckle has some light green staining.
No restrictions on use