Jews in Croatia
Jews lived on the Dalmatian Coast in ancient Roman times and are also known to have had ancient settlements inland. Archaeological finds from the second, third, and fourth centuries have revealed traces of Jews in Istria, Dalmatia and inland Slavonia, but the only evidence of permanent ancient settlements has been found at Salona (Split) and Mursa (Osijek). There were a few Jewish settlements in what is now Croatia during the Middle Ages. These settlements were mainly on the coast, where major Jewish communities linked to sea-going commerce developed. Jews were mentioned in the 14th century in the towns of Zadar (1303), Dubrovnik (1326), and Split (1397), and, later, in Sibenik (1432) and Rijeka (1436). In inland Croatia, there is evidence of a Jewish presence in Zagreb in 1355.
Most of inland Croatia came under Hapsburg rule in 1526. The Hapsburgs ordered the wholesale expulsion of Jews from the territory, and few Jews lived in inland Croatia until Emperor Joseph II issued an Edict of Tolerance in 1783. It allowed Jews freedom of movement and other civil rights in Croatian territory. Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants from Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria soon moved south and founded most inland Croatia Jewish communities. Jews in this part of Croatia achieved full emancipation only in 1873 but by the end of the 19th century most Jewish communities of the region were prosperous, integrated, and upwardly mobile.
Along the coast, small medieval Jewish communities were bolstered in the late 15th and early 16th centuries by waves of Sephardic Jewish refugees fleeing Spain, Portugal, and parts of Italy. None of the communities (except that in the Istrian port of Rijeka) ever reached more than a few hundred people. They wielded considerable economic influence however.
About 25,000 Jews lived in Croatia on the eve of World War II. In April 1941, after the Nazi conquest of Yugoslavia, Croatia was proclaimed an independent country. It was ruled as a Nazi puppet state by the ultra-nationalist, fascist Ustasa movement. The Ustasa implemented harsh anti-Semitic legislation and carried out horrific atrocities against Jews, Serbs, and Gypsies (Roma). A number of transit and concentration camps were set up, including the Jasenovac death camp south of Zagreb, sometimes referred to as the “Auschwitz of the Balkans.”
Most of the Dalmatian Coast area, however, was occupied by the Italians, who were generally more lenient and refused to carry out mass deportations to German death camps. Most Jews in the area were interned on Rab Island.
About 5,000 Croatian Jews survived the Holocaust. Most were either in the Italian-occupied zone or were fighters in anti-fascist partisan units. Many immigrated to Israel after the war.
Yugoslav Jews belonged to local communities linked in autonomous republic-wide organizations, which in turn were members of a nationwide Federation of Yugoslav Jewish Communities based in Belgrade. The country had only one rabbi. Most Jews were concentrated in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Belgrade, capital of Serbia and the federal capital. Legally, the Jewish community – consisting of about 6,000 people throughout the former Yugoslavia – was recognized as both an ethnic and a religious community. Yugoslavia was not a member of the Soviet bloc, and Jews were not persecuted or isolated as were Jews in other communist states. Instead, they assimilated into society and lost contact with religious life; they were Yugoslavs first and Jews second.
About 2,000 Jews lived in Croatia on the eve of the 1990s civil wars. They were highly integrated into mainstream society: Of the post World War II generations, about 80 percent were intermarried, or the children of mixed marriages. Only a small minority were religious. The new government of Croatia that came out of the wars appeared to use support for Jews as a means of counterbalancing an image of nationalism and historic revisionism that the country had acquired. President Tudjman also toned down statements in his memoirs that were viewed as anti-Semitic and apologized for giving offense. Local Jewish leaders met with Tudjman and other senior officials, and several Jews occupied prominent government positions. Many Jews, however, chose to emigrate.
The World War II Jasenovac concentration camp, site of a memorial and museum, was damaged severely during the 1991-95 conflict, and renovation is ongoing. On 20 July 2008, the former commander of the World War II Ustasha–run concentration camp Jasenovac, Dinko Sakic, died in a prison hospital while serving a 20-year sentence and was reportedly buried in his Ustasha uniform in Zagreb. The president of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Efraim Zuroff, wrote President Stipe Mesic in August to protest that the priest presiding over the burial praised Sakic as model for all Croatians. The President's Office responded that it "expected responsible institutions to take the necessary steps to prevent Dinko Sakic's funeral from damaging the country's reputation or inflicting long-term damaging effects on a disoriented young population."
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