Dragan Roller

Dragan Roller (11 June 1922 – 29 April 2003) was a Croatian economist, diplomat and Holocaust survivor. As a member of the antifascist youth movement in pre-WWII Yugoslavia, he was arrested and deported to the Jasenovac concentration camp in 1942. He survived three years in the camp. After the war, he completed a degree and PhD in economics and worked as a Yugoslav diplomat and United Nations economic advisor in the Middle East, Africa and the United States. He testified against the former commandant of the Jasenovac camp Dinko Šakić, who was tried for crimes against humanity and found guilty in 1999. Roller's experiences in the camp have been recorded for the SHOAH Foundation's archive at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and in the memoir The Rooster: Discovering my Father's Memories of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp.

Early life and family

Dragan Roller was born on 11 June 1922 in Malence, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (modern Slovenia) to Croatian parents Sabina and Dragutin Roller. He had an older sister Milena and younger brother Zlatko. The family moved often with the father's job as sawmill manager. Roller attended secondary school in Virovitica where he became politically active in the antifascist youth movement SKOJ (Savez Komunista Omladine Jugoslavije, Communist Youth League of Yugoslavia). At the time, this was an illegal organization, and members were subject to imprisonment, torture and execution.

Jasenovic Concentration Camp 1942-1945

Dragan started medical school in Zagreb in the Fall of 1940 but was arrested in November 1941 and sent to the Jasenovac concentration camp on 18 February 1942. He was sentenced to 3 months' forced labour but was held for three years. During his time in the camp, he was subjected to forced labour and starvation, his weight dropping from 85 kg to less than 50 kg. He contracted typhus in the camp but continued to work daily as those who were deemed too ill to work were executed. He was deported to a transit camp in Linz, Austria, in February 1945.

Career

Roller worked as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, until 1953 when he moved to the Foreign Office in Belgrade. His diplomatic work took him to Turkey and Greece, followed by spells in Iraq and Libya. He joined the United Nations in 1968. He was posted in Uganda for three years and moved to New York in 1971 as senior advisor in development economics. Šakić was tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity, found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Roller was interviewed by many national and international media including the BBC, CBS and others. Roller was subsequently invited to record his oral testimony for the SHOAH Foundation's archive at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The Croatian edition Putnik was published by Profil Knjiga in 2025.

Selected works

Roller, Dragan. Dokle je ekonomiku Poljske dovelo potčinjivanje SSSR-u. Vjesnik, No. 1463, 15 January 1950, pp 2–3. (In Croatian) Roller, Dragan. Saboteri socijalizma. Vjesnik, No. 1601, 26 June 1950, p 2. (In Croatian) Roller, Dragan. Trade relations in Dubrovnik in the 15th and 16th centuries. Dubrovački zanati u XV i XVI stoljeću. Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, 1951, 304 pp. (In Croatian) Roller, Dragan. Agricultural production in the Dubrovnik Republic from the 13th to the 15th century. Agrarno-proizvodni odnosi na području Dubrovačke Republike od XIII do XV stoljeća. Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, 1955, 372 pp. (In Croatian) Roller, Dragan. Međunarodna socijalistička podjela rada. Ekonomski pregled, Vol. 7. Ekonomski institut Zagreb, 1964. (In Croatian) Roller, Dragan alias Petar Sabin. Dugovi i potrošnja. Ekonomska politika, May 1965, 518–549. (In Croatian) Roller, Dragan. Skojevci medicinari. Zbornik sjećanja. Drugi Svezak. Institut za historiju radničkog pokreta Hrvatske. Školska Knjiga, Zagreb 1983. (In Croatian)