In 1943, Branko Petrović, a teacher in Kikinda, Yugoslavia, was arrested for helping the wartime resistance movement, and was executed by the Nazis, leaving a nine-year-old daughter, Ljubica. He could never have foreseen the life that his daughter, later known as Ljubica Erickson, and who has died aged 88, would go on to have. Nonetheless his tender care, especially after her mother, Antonia Wolfe, abandoned them, had a lasting legacy. Her world outlook was informed by her father’s Christianity, Marxism and wise maxims: “We are too poor to buy cheap clothes” was one she often quoted.
As a Slav, Ljubica had already experienced being defined as less human than Germans and Hungarians. She was intrepid, sourcing food for her household and confronting a relative to demand the return of stolen furniture and livestock. After her father’s death she was unofficially adopted by Branko’s lover, Milica Durić, a young widow. They remained devoted to each other for the rest of their lives.
