Digital Marian Helper Spring_2018

C roatian native Joseph Zgombic owes St. Joseph more than just his name. He is indebted to St. Joseph for saving his father’s life. The Zgombics come from a small farm in Malinska, a village located on the western side of the Island of Krk on the Adriatic Sea. Throughout World War II, Joseph’s family would go to sleep listening to the sound of war- planes passing overhead. On May 18, 1944, the Feast of the Ascension, German soldiers surrounded his family’s Catholic church. “[The soldiers] warned that if anyone tried to run away, they would shoot them,” Joseph said. “They grabbed many of the men to send them to work. They needed [people] to clean up the streets of Germany after all the bombings.” German soldiers captured dozens of men from Malinska and sent them north, across the bay, to nearby Rijeka, Croatia. The Nazis imprisoned these men until they could transfer them across the German border and force them to work. For the moment, Joseph’s father, Ivan Zgombic, was spared from capture. “He had gone to a different Mass that day,” Joseph said. At the time, Ivan’s wife, Mare, was nine months preg- By Marc Massery J oseph : M ore than just a name 26 M arian H elper  • S pring 2018   • marian.org Left: some of the Zgombic children, including (from left) Marica, Peter, Joseph, and Anton. Center above: Joseph Zgombic leaves Croatia in 1962 to come to America. Center bottom: Joseph working in construction at a water treatment plant in Wantagh, New York. Upper right: Joseph flanked by his parents, Ivan and Mare, in 1969. Bottom right: Joseph and his wife, Linda, visit the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in December 2017.