Abstract
Throughout the many centuries of their sojourn in Bosnia and Herzegovina under various empires and regimes, the Bosnian Jews were integrated—socially, politically, economically, and culturally. There was a long and peaceful intermingling of the Jewish community with the Bosnian Muslim, Serb, and Croat communities, whose leaderships showed a mutual acceptance and respect for the habits and rituals of the different religious groups. However, the events of the mid-twentieth century destroyed that characterization. Preserved letters written by Sarajevo Jews detailing some of their living conditions shed light on their situation. The chapter provides insight into life in wartime Sarajevo and a situation when references to belonging and history meant nothing to representatives of the occupying forces.
An early version of this work was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, New York City, 23–25 April 2009.
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Notes
- 1.
An Ottoman administrative unit governed by a paša.
- 2.
For archeological evidence suggesting that Jews were present in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the early years of the Common Era, see Kaplan 1964, 66–70.
- 3.
In Yugoslavia, nationality and religion usually coincided. That is, Serbs followed Serbian Orthodoxy; Croats, Roman Catholicism; Bosnian Muslims, Islam; and so forth. Muslim with a capital “M” denotes ethnicity, while a small initial “m” denotes religious identification. For more on this designation, see Friedman 1996, 163.
- 4.
Jews who came from Eastern and Western Europe outside of the Iberian Peninsula.
- 5.
Even now, however, Bosnia’s multiethnic population and the nationally dependent structure of its government, as well as the policies of Serbia, Croatia, and even the international community, continue to influence its situation, not least in the current perceptions of the Holocaust. At the same time, however, Bosnia’s experiences have differed from its neighbors as a result of historical vagaries, its ethnic composition, and the consequences of its contemporary politics and governmental structure.
- 6.
The Ustaše, also known as the Hrvatski Revolucionarni Pokret (Croatian Revolutionary Movement), was a fascist movement that had engaged in terrorist activity before World War II and was implicated in the assassination of Yugoslav King Alexander in 1934 in Marseilles. It ruled, under the protection of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, in part of Yugoslavia after that country was occupied by the Axis powers.
- 7.
Arhiv Bosne i Hercegovine. “Spisak: otpuštenih činovnika i službenika Tehničkog odjela, Tehničkog Odeljka pri Kotarskom poglavarstvu u Sarajevu i Zavodu za meterologiju u Sarajevu,” Zagreb: Nezavisna država Hrvatska. Povjereništvo Sarajevo Tehnički odjel. (9 May 1941). V-Broj: 203/41. [DSCN6516]
- 8.
Bosnia’s pluralistic and tolerant history is described in Friedman 1996.
- 9.
See, for example, Gaon 2001.
- 10.
See Jelinek 1990, 288, and report by Srećko Bujas, AbiH, Zemaljska komisija za utvrdjivanje ratnih zločina okupatora i njihovih pomagača za Bosnia and Herzegovina, box 3.
- 11.
Narodne novine (30 April 1941).
- 12.
Jewish marriages were no longer publicly performed; rabbis, without witnesses, secretly performed the ceremonies (American Jewish Committee 1982, 3).
- 13.
Narcisa Lengel-Krizman estimates that the total loss of property for Jews in the NDH may have been twenty billion dinars (1939). (The dinar was the monetary unit of interwar Yugoslavia.) (Lengel-Krizman 1990, 4, note 5).
- 14.
Narodne novine (4 June 1941).
- 15.
The two trustees for Sarajevo appear to have tried to assist the Sarajevo Jewish community, even to the extreme of offering to purchase exit visas and passage permits to the Italian zones in return for donation of Jewish possessions to the NDH. The Ustaše refused this offer. In a letter from Zionist Organization leader Richard Lichtheim in Geneva to I. Lauterbuch in Jerusalem, the utter destitution of the Jewish community in the NDH was described. Zionist Archives, Jerusalem S26/1399.
- 16.
The kuna was the monetary unit of the NDH.
- 17.
Istorijski Arhiv, Sarajevo, “Fond: Državno-ravnateljstvo za gospodarstvenu obnovu - podružnica Sarajevo 1941.-1942.god.” #2130.
- 18.
Ibid., #852/41.
- 19.
Nuremburg Laws discriminated against Jewish people according to a pseudo-scientific distinction of parentage.
- 20.
Ibid., #1664.
- 21.
Ibid., # 796/41.
- 22.
Ibid., #713/41.
- 23.
Ibid., #849/41.
- 24.
Ibid., #1483/41.
- 25.
Ibid., #642/41.
- 26.
Ibid., #568/41.
- 27.
Ibid., #98.
- 28.
Ibid., #847/41.
- 29.
Ibid., #840/41.
- 30.
Ibid., #1507.
- 31.
Ibid., #235/K/41.
- 32.
Ibid., #276/K.
- 33.
Ibid., #248/41.
- 34.
Ibid., #291K.
- 35.
Ibid., #141K.
- 36.
Ibid., #219-K/41.
- 37.
Ibid., #712/41.
- 38.
Ibid., #447/K.
- 39.
Ibid., #287/0.
- 40.
Ibid., #457-K/41.
- 41.
Ibid., #208/41.
- 42.
Ibid., #280/K.
- 43.
Ibid., #658/41.
- 44.
Ibid., #658/41.
- 45.
Ibid., #789/41.
- 46.
Ibid., #769/41.
- 47.
Hrvatski narod (29 June 1941).
- 48.
Ibid., 5.
- 49.
Some of these special cases were not transported to concentration camps, and others who had been were returned from the camps. With this policy Pavelić initially resisted Hitler’s demands that all Jews be killed; however, in 1943 he yielded to Hitler’s demands and offered financial compensation (Jelić-Butić 1977, 174).
- 50.
Some historians claim that 80,000 to 90,000 people perished at Jasenovac (Ramet 2006a, 402). See also Matković and Mirošević 2003, 159; Deak 2002, 42. The Jasenovac collection and work camp was part of a system of five special camps (Krapje, Bročice, Ciglana, Kožara, Stara Gradiška). Special women’s camps, such as Loborgrad, Tenje, and Djakovo, were also established (Kreso 2006, 82).
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Other Sources
Arhiv Bosna i Hercegovina. “Spisak: otpuštenih činovnika i službenika Tehničkog odjela, Tehničkog Odeljka pri Kotarskom poglavarstvu u Sarajevu i Zavodu za meterologiju u Sarajevu,” Zagreb: Nezavisna država Hrvatska. Povjereništvo Sarajevo Tehnički odjel. (9 May 1941). V-Broj: 203/41. [DSCN6516].
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———. (4 June 1941).
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Friedman, F. (2018). Writing for Survival: Letters of Sarajevo Jews Before Their Liquidation During World War II. In: Raudvere, C. (eds) Nostalgia, Loss and Creativity in South-East Europe. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71252-9_8
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