Sad za Zavod mogu da kažem da su se do 2004. godine dešavale te čudne okolnosti zaposlenima ili saradnicima koji su bili angažovani ovde u Zavodu po pitanju dežurstava, obavljanja radova, dakle i istraživačima i spremačicma i tehničkom osoblju i tako dalje. Elem, porodica jevrejska, a vi znate da se nalazimo u jevrejskoj četvrti koja je nekad bila dole od ispod Cara Dušana do Dunava, a sada odnosno od 19. veka jevrejska mahala takozvana se proširila i na ovo područje tu u blizini džamije. Porodica koja je ovde nekada živela se prezivala Eškenazi tako da i samo prezime govori kojoj grupi jevrejskog naroda su pripadali, znači tim takozvanim severnim jevrejima koji su govorili jidiš i nemački dijalekat imali. Porodica koliko sam uspeo da dođem u tim arhivskim dokumentima se sastojala od bake, dede, dva sina. Jedan je bio oženjen, drugi nije, što je neobično za jevreje i taj koji je bio oženjen imao je troje dece. Dvadesetih godina je porodica bila na okupu, dakle svi se pominju, kada bi trebalo da je i loza zasađena. I postoje dve verzije njihovog stradanja u Drugom svetskom ratu. Jedna jeste, da je pošto je ovaj prostor Dorćola dosta stradao u šestoaprilskom bombardovanju, da je jedna od bombi pala i da su oni svi izginuli tom prilikom i da su ih komšije sahranile u dvorištu kuće, a druga jeste da su se opirali prilikom hapšenja radi odvođenja u logor Staro sajmište ili u onu pokretnu gasnu komoru i da su onda na licu mesta stradali odnosno ubijeni uglavnom da su nasilom smrću postradali nažalost. I tu priču spominjem zbog onog što se dešavalo nakon toga. Nemamo podatke o neobičnim okolnostima tokom pedesetih, šezdesetihtih, sedamdesetih godina jer se Zavod koji je osnovan 1967 godine prvobitno nalazio u Nemanjinoj ulici gde je danas zgrada ministarstava, pa nakon toga u ulici Kralja Petra, da bi se iz te zgrade u ulici Kralja Petra početkom osamdesetih godina preselio u ovu zgradu koju je država sagradila za Zavod za proučavanje kulturnog razvitka. I već tokom osamdesetih godina od strane istraživača, znam im imena, ali razumete me da zbog diskrecije neću pominjati ime, su počele te okolnosti ne samo čudnih događanja noću nego i rano jutro, pa čak i tokom dana. A to je recimo da je neko sam u zgradi da se čuje povlačenje vode ili putovanje vode kroz cevi, pa u garaži tad je to bila kotlarnica isto kao povlačenje džakova sa cementom, pa onda razni čudni zvuci do najčudnijih i najuverljivijih za one koji su to doživeli ja nisam srećom, a to je penjanje uz stepenice a da nikog nema znači da nema fizičke pojave. I naravno da su ljudi zavisno od toga kakav imaju odnos prema svetu religiozan, nereligiozan, ateistički tada možda većinom, sujeverni, ne sujeverni svi isto doživljavali i različito reagovali, većinom uplašeno što je za očekivati kako bi većina od nas, a bilo je onih koji su racionalizovali eto kako smo ih mi odmila nazvali to je treća smena naša, ništa neobično navikli smo na njih...

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What I can say about the Center (Center for Study in Cultural Development), is that in 2004 some strange occurrences were noticed by employees and assistants engaged for different things, by researchers and cleaning ladies, too. We are now in the Jewish quarter that first stretched from Cara Dušana Street to the Danube, and in 19th century so-called Jewish mahala expanded to this area here, near the Mosque. There was a Jewish family, who lived here, and their family name was Ashkenazi, so it is obvious to what group of Jewish people they belonged to-they were so-called Northern Jews who spoke Yiddish and German dialect. As I managed to find out in the archived documents, the family consisted of a grandmother, grandfather, two sons, one married and other not-which is unusual for the Jews-and the married one had three children. In the 1920’ the family still held together, and all their names are listed in the documents. There are two versions of their deaths in the World War II. Since Dorćol severely suffered the bombing of Belgrade on 6th of April 1941, one version says that one of the bombs hit their house killing them all, and that neighbors buried them in the backyard of the house. Another version says that they resisted the arrest to be taken to the concentration camp in Staro Sajmište (Old Fairground) or to that mobile gas chamber, and that they were killed on the spot. In any case, unfortunately, they died a violent death. This story is important for events that followed. There are no data about unusual occurrences in the 1950’, 60’ or 70’ because the Center, which was founded in 1967, was first located in Nemanjina Street, where today is the Ministry, then in Kralja Petra Street, and only in 1980’ was it moved to this building that state built purposefully for the Center. In the early 1980’, some researchers-I know them by names but it would be indiscreet to reveal them-noticed those strange occurrences at night and dawn, sometimes even during the daytime. For example, somebody was all alone in the building and suddenly strange noises could be heard: flushing the water or odd sounds from the garage that used to be a boiler room and other strange sounds. For those who experienced it-fortunately, I haven’t-the strangest of all was the sound of footsteps on the staircase when they were sure nobody else was physically present. Naturally, most of the people- regardless of their beliefs either religious or atheistic, superstitious or not- were frightened, but some of us, who were more rational, made fun of it and called it “the third shift”. For us, it was nothing strange, we were used to it…