HIS MOTHER PROTECTED HIM WITH HER BODY, HIS FATHER SCOLDED HIM: We all know who Momo Kapor is, but we know nothing about his childhood!

On today's day, in 2010, Serbian novelist, painter, and the journalist, member of the Academy of Science of the Republic of Srpska, Momo Kapor, passed away.

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He was born in 1937 in the city of Sarajevo. When he was 4, his mother died in the bombardment of the city on April 13, 1941.

She protected him from the bombs with her body and he survived.

Momo Kapor did not know many things about his mother Bojana because the family did not want him to suffer more from the trauma that was inside him.

When the war was over, Momo came to Belgrade, where he became an academic painter in 1961.

He got married in 1964 and had two daughters from that marriage, Ana and Jelena.

- He wrote easily, with joy. He typed his first works on an Adler typing machine I had bought him for his birthday. Later on, I used this machine to re-type most of his texts. He had a need to speak about what he was writing, the three of us were his first audience - said Ana.

Foto: Marko Todorović

Serbian writer Dobrica Ćosić described the childhood and youth of Momo Kapor in his book "The friends" from the interview he had with Kapor in 2002.

- On April 13, 1941, Germans bombarded the city and hit a building under the Trebević hill, where Momo's mother hid with her son. She saved him with his body, sacrificing herself. The boy got out from the rubble, started crying and then went numb because of the horror. A Russian man found him, a doctor, took pity on him, and brought him to his apartment. He took him as one of his own because he did not have kids. The boy knew that his name was Momčilo, but he did not know his last name. The Russian doctor christened him Momo Hercegovac - wrote Ćosić and continued:

Foto: Marko Todorović

- After a year spent with the doctor, the boy came down with scarlatina and he had to be placed into a hospital. Momo's aunt found him there after searching for him because she was informed that "one boy survived the attack and some man took him with him". When Momo got better, she took him to her house and took care of him. Momo's father, after getting back from the war camp, became a senior office manager in the Department of Foreign office in Belgrade. Only a year later did he come to visit his son. With him he was rather strict, and he was dissatisfied until he died because of Momo's choice to become a painter and the writer.

Foto: Marko Todorović

However, according to Valerija Janićijević who made maybe the most accurate biography of Momo Kapor, this account is not necessarily true.

According to his uncle, Momo was taken into the hospital by the emergency service and separated him from his family.

He was there found by the Russian doctor who turned Momo to his aunt a couple of days afterwards.

Momo Kapor himself stated that this was true in a couple of interviews and the book "Confessions".

While in Belgrade, he lived in Nebojšina street, number 18, where the city officials placed a memorial board in 2013.

He died on March 3, 2010 at the Military-Medical academy, and was buried in the Alley of the Greats in Serbia's capital.

Momo Kapor wrote many novels and collection of stories, some of which are “Beleške jedne Ane”, “Foliranti”, “Una”, “Knjiga žalbi”, “Uspomene jednog crtača”.

He was a screenplay writer for the movies: "Valter brani Sarajevo", and "Banket".

Foto: Promo

(Telegraf.co.uk)