Of all the fictional characters associated with Senj, few enjoy such widespread popularity as Red Zora, the flame-haired teenage heroine created by German writer Kurt Held (1897-1959). Born into a German-Jewish family in Jena, Held (real name Kurt Kläber) was was forced to flee to Switzerland after the Nazi assumption of power in 1933. Held was a frequent summer visitor to Senj, and became so enamoured of its people and history that he chose the town as the setting of his classic children’s novel, Red Zora and Her Gang. Published in 1941, the book tells of Zora’s band of street urchins and their struggle to survive as outcasts in a community that seems indifferent to their woes. Zora’s gang call themselves Uskoks, a reference to the freedom-loving, semi-outlaw community that lived in Senj during the sixteenth-century. Held was a lifelong left-winger, and the tale of Zora was intended as a plea for the rights of the underdog in a Europe increasingly dominated by dark political forces.

Red Zora’s place in European popular culture was ensured by the 13-episode TV series of the same name, a German-Swiss-Yugoslav co-production screened in 1979. It was filmed in Senj with actors from all over Yugoslavia – Zora herself was played by Serbian actress Lidija Kovačević, now director of a private high-school in Belgrade. The show was a huge hit in Germany, Switzerland and France, where it still enjoys cult popularity.

If you want to know more about Red Zora then the best place to start is the Town of Red-Haired Zora brochure published by Senj tourist office. Inside you will find a details of a sight-seeing route of the Senj locations used in the TV series, accompanied with pictures of the characters and snippets of their stories.