ZAGREB, 23 May, 2021 - Writer Jasminka Domaš gave a lecture in Zagreb earlier this week on the contribution of Jews to Croatian culture and their lasting legacy, and presented her book "Kadišl i Nebeski Zločini" (Kadišl and Heavenly Crimes), inspired by the fates of Croatian Jews during the 1941-45 Nazi-styled NDH.

A panel entitled "The Contribution of Jews to Croatian Culture", organised by the Centre for Promotion of Tolerance and Preservation of Holocaust Remembrance, is part of a cultural and educational project, "I Understand You, I Hear You", which focuses on learning about the Holocaust, the social significance of Jews and other national minorities and their contribution to the cultural and other legacies in Croatia.

Domaš is a Croatian writer, journalist and scientist of Jewish origin.

Jews are an inseparable part of identity of today's Zagreb and Croatia

Speaking about the contribution of Jews to Croatian culture, Domaš named a number of important and successful individuals, such as doctors Mauro Sachs, Dragutin Schwarz and Izidor Steinhardt and social anthropologist Vera Stein Erlich, who contributed greatly to the development of Croatian society.

Also, it is impossible to talk about the City of Zagreb and its urban appearance without mentioning Jewish architects responsible for the look of its centre today, she said.

She recalled that the Zrinjevac meteorological column was a gift to the city from Jewish doctor Adolf Holzer. The Prister family donated the Music Pavillion to the city, while the Ethnographic Museum was founded by Salamon Berger.

The Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall was named after Ignac Fuchs, the composer of the first Croatian opera, Domaš said, recalling also the fate of Lea Deutch, who performed at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb from the age of five and who in the NDH (Independent State of Croatia) was not spared death in a Nazi camp.

"About 1,500 Jews live in Zagreb today, and there are 2,000 in Croatia. According to data, in 1941, about 12,000 Jews lived in Zagreb and 39,500 in NDH, so some 5,000 people survived the war," said Domaš, who came across some startling information during her research. "After 1938, 50,000 refugees from Germany and Austria passed through Zagreb, but no one believed what they said about what was happening there, and it cost so many people their lives".

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ZAGREB, May 11, 2020 - The Israeli Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday condemned a plan to hold a memorial mass for the Bleiburg victims in Sarajevo, saying that it constituted a dangerous and destructive attempt to equate the victims and perpetrators of World War II Ustasha crimes.

Attempts to depict all WWII victims in the same way are not only unfair but are also extremely dangerous and destructive for the process of reconciliation to which all nations should aspire, the embassy said in a statement.

A clear distinction has to be made between the victims who without any guilt on their part were forced to concentration camps like Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška and killed there and those who are responsible for those crimes even if they did not have the opportunity to stand a fair trial for them, the embassy said.

The Jewish community in Bosnia and Herzegovina last week opposed the memorial service for Croatian civilians and soldiers of the Nazi-allied Ustasha forces, which is due to be held in Sarajevo by the Archbishop of Sarajevo, Cardinal Vinko Puljić, on May 16.

Its head Jakob Finci and the head of the Jewish Community of Sarajevo, Boris Kozemjakin, said in a joint statement that they "condemn the announced commemoration and Mass for the Ustasha who were defeated a long time ago."

"The memorial service for criminals responsible for the suffering of Sarajevans, including Maks Luburić and Jure Francetić, not to mention others, commemorates the killers of our mothers, fathers, grandfathers, our compatriots and all the other innocent people killed by the fascists of the para-state Independent State of Croatia," reads the statement.

Plans for the memorial service were earlier condemned by the Bosniak and Croat members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Šefik Džaferović and Željko Komšić respectively, as well as by leaders of all major political parties based in Sarajevo.

It is evident that the commemoration is clearly condemned by citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina many of whom can be proud of their ancestors' contribution to the legacy of antifascism and to the fight against fascism, said the embassy.

More news about the Jewish community can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 8, 2020 - President Zoran Milanović on Wednesday extended greetings to Jewish believers on the occasion of Passover, saying its symbolism is a lasting inspiration to all of humankind, notably today when so much solidarity is needed.

"Passover is a holiday which reminds us of the value of the freedom of every man and people as well as the right to peace and progress. In such an environment, everyone can contribute to their personal and general development, mutual understanding and respect among people," the president said in his message.

"The symbolism of Passover is a lasting inspiration to all of humankind and it is especially important today when we need so much solidarity," he added, extending his greetings to all Jewish believers on "the greatest Jewish holiday."

More news about Jews in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 6, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday opened an exhibition on the suffering of Jews in WWII in the French Pavilion of the Zagreb Student Centre (SC), the building in front of which Jews were rounded up to be deported in railway wagons to death camps during the Second World War. Addressing the opening ceremony of the exhibition, entitled "If I forget you... The Holocaust in Croatia 1941-1945/Final destination Auschwitz", which has been prepared by the Croatian History Museum, the premier recalled that during the recent commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, all international leaders attending the ceremony and surviving witnesses sent messages of respect for the victims of that death factory where more than a million people had been killed.

Plenković added that remembering those crimes also served as a warning to mankind about the atrocities that had been committed there.

Our generation that despite everything experienced war atrocities and reappearance of ethnic cleansing on European soil three decades ago, has an additional responsibility, apart from the condemnation of such insane acts in which the negation of humanity culminated, he added.

The venue where the exhibition is staged was, at the time of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a site of particular suffering of Jews from Zagreb and other Croatian regions, who were rounded up here to be deported in railway wagons to concentration camps, not only to Auschwitz but also to other camps and execution sites in the NDH, particularly Jasenovac, the premier recalled.

He stressed that one cannot allow such things to sink into oblivion and that forgetting the crimes means the negation of human beings and humanness.

Plenković went on to say that an act of forgetting happened every time when "we as individuals or the community fail to stand up against any form of discrimination and speak up loud and clear to protect human dignity, equality and dialogue loud and clear."

Plenković says that "we forget every time when we fail to clearly speak about the Holocaust, notably about the consequences of the undemocratic, totalitarian and racist Ustasha regime in Croatia from 1941 to 1945."

He underscored that the exhibition unequivocally pointed to the system of terror established in areas under the control of the Ustasha regime against the Jewish, Roma and Serb people as well as against Croat antifascists and democrats who stood up against that regime.

"The exhibition is in line with the government's endeavours, policy and attitude," he said.

"The free and democratic Croatia has been and is always ready to present the painful and tragic topics from its past and express clear legal, political and civilizational condemnation of the NDH," the premier said.

"This is one more opportunity for us to remember all brave individuals who risked their lives to save their neighbours," Plenković said, pointing to 117 Croatians included among the Righteous Among the Nations of whom Croatians are proud.

"I am referring here also to the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac who demonstrated uncommon courage in the then Europe and helped save many Jews," Plenković said.

The museum's director, Matea Brstilo Rešetar, said that it was the duty of "this museum, as a national and specialised institution, to highlight topics such as the Holocaust."

"It was especially challenging to state the exhibition at the authentic venue," Brstilo Rešetar said, referring to the fact that Jews were first taken in groups to the site of the pavilion from where they were transported by rail to Auschwitz.

One of the speakers at the ceremony was Oleg Mandić who survived deportation from Zagreb to concentration camps.

The museum says on its website that for the purpose of the exhibition "destinies of the killed, testimonies of the survivors, and the few preserved original objects from the camp, photographs and documents from various Croatian and international museums and archives, as well as those borrowed from the families of the victims and the Righteous Among the Nations, have been divided into four thematic units: Excommunication; Concentration and Liquidation; Auschwitz (Oswiecim) – Death Factory; and, A Sparkle in the Darkness."

The exhibition, organised by the Croatian History Museum at the proposal of the Croatian Ministry of Culture, runs until 21 April.

More news about Holocaust in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 4, 2020 - An exhibition entitled "If I forget you... The Holocaust in Croatia 1941-1945/Final destination Auschwitz" will be staged on Wednesday in the French Pavilion of the Zagreb Student Centre, the building in front of which Jews were rounded up to be deported in railway wagons to the Auschwitz death camp.

The exhibition, running until 21 April, has been organised by the Croatian History Museum on the initiative of the Croatian Ministry of Culture. The exhibition focuses on the sufferings of Jews from Croatia during World War II, with a special emphasis on the fate of Jews deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

The museum's director, Matea Brstilo Rešetar, said at a news conference in Zagreb on Tuesday that it was the duty of "this museum, as a national and specialised institution to highlight topics" such as the Holocaust.

"It has been especially challenging to state the exhibition at the authentic venue," Brstilo Rešetar said, referring to the fact that Jews were first taken in groups to the site of the pavilion to be transported in railway wagons to the Auschwitz camp.

The museum says on its website that for the purpose of the exhibition "destinies of the killed, testimonies of the survivors, and the few preserved original objects from the camp, photographs and documents from various Croatian and international museums and archives, as well as those borrowed from the families of the victims and the Righteous among the Nations, have been divided into four thematic units: Excommunication; Concentration and Liquidation; Auschwitz (Oswiecim) – Death Factory; and, A Sparkle in the Darkness."

Brstilo Rešetar said that the museum was the right place to address those issues factually and neutrally, free of daily political discourse. She said they had been given support by many, including the co-organiser, the Croatian State Archive.

"We would like to show that the Holocaust did not happen somewhere else, somewhere far away in Europe, but here, in front of our eyes," said Nataša Mataušić, a Croatian History Museum expert who participated in the organisation of the exhibition.

The director of the Student Centre, Mirko Bošnjak, said that the Centre, which cares for 65,000 students at the University of Zagreb, was the right place at which young people could be reminded of the Holocaust and victims.

More news about Jews in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, November 26, 2019 - United States officials and representatives of international Jewish organisations have positively assessed efforts by the Croatian Culture Ministry in protecting, preserving and promoting the Jewish legacy, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek met in Zagreb on Monday with the US State Department's special envoy for Holocaust issues, Cherrie Daniels, US Ambassador William Robert Kohorst and representatives of the Jewish organisations WJRO and B’nai B’rith - Dan Mariaschin, Ivan Čerešnješ and Evan Hochberg.

The meeting, held at the Culture Ministry, also involved the minister's assistant Davor Trupković, secretary Ana Perišić Mijić and senior advisers Dražen Klinčić and Lidija Zozoli.

Obuljen Koržinek presented Croatia's involvement in dealing with issues relating to the Jewish cultural legacy and the Holocaust, citing "strong and open support by the government." She informed the delegation of the activities the ministry had launched within its own remit and in cooperation with other state institutions regarding issues of special interest to the Jewish community in the last three years.

The main topics discussed were property restitution, conservation and protection of historical Jewish cemeteries, activities of the Jasenovac Memorial Centre, establishing the origin of works of art in heritage institutions, protecting and promoting the cultural identity of the Jewish minority, and fostering the culture of remembrance of historical Jewish communities.

The minister stressed the importance of further institutional development of cooperation on these important issues in protecting and preserving the Jewish cultural heritage in Croatia.

The US officials and Jewish representatives spoke affirmatively about the ministry's activities and efforts undertaken so far in protecting, preserving and promoting the Jewish memorial and material legacy, the culture of remembrance and identity, and commemorating Holocaust victims in Croatia, the statement said.

More news about Jews in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 10, 2019 - A ceremony commemorating Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, and the Nazi pogrom of Jews in Germany and Austria on 9 November 1938 was held in Zagreb's Square of Victims of Fascism on Saturday evening, organised by the Croatian Antifascist League.

Addressing those gathered, the head of the coordinating committee of the Jewish communities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, said: "We are here to remember the Night of Broken Glass, to pay tribute to the victims of racial laws, not to allow equating Ustashism with antifascism, and to warn of the danger of xenophobia and nationalism which is on our doorstep."

Kraus warned of rising antisemitism in Europe, saying that armed Nazis had attacked a synagogue in the German city of Halle last month during the Jewish feast of Yom Kippur and that similar incidents were recorded elsewhere in Europe.

Kraus said that in Germany and Austria, or in any other Western European country, it was not possible to downplay or deny the existence of concentration camps during World War II and equate the victims of Nazism and antifascism, the Axis powers and the Allies, while in Croatia that was possible.

"The antifascist movement and the Ustasha movement, the victims and butchers, continue to be equated, and pseudohistorians continue to write a new history of Croatia, rehabilitating the NDH (Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia). On the other hand, they are inventing crimes and the President is calling for a recount of the victims of the Jasenovac death camp. Why?" he said.

Kraus called the Croatian reality a disgrace, saying that the history of the children's concentration camps in Sisak and Jasenovac was being changed to portray them as reception centres where children were looked after, and adding that senior state officials attended a commemoration for victims of totalitarian regimes at a cemetery where Ustasha and German troops had been killed.

He drew attention to NDH and Nazi Germany symbols and hate graffiti that could be seen across Croatia and to physical attacks. He also mentioned the initiative to abolish Antifascist Struggle Day as a national holiday.

"This day was not mentioned in any of the television or radio programmes today. The event of global significance which actually marked the beginning of the Holocaust, or Shoah, and the Second World War, the worst thing that happened in the history of humankind," Kraus said.

In the Night of Broken Glass, over 1,300 people were killed, 1,400 synagogues and more than half of the buildings in the Jewish communities in Germany and Austria were destroyed or severely damaged, and 7,500 shops were ravaged. The next day, 10 November, over 30,000 men were taken to concentration camps, he recalled.

The ceremony was attended, among others, by Ombudsman Lora Vidović, Independent Democratic Serb Party leader Milorad Pupovac, Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mori and activist Rada Borić.

More info about events connected with the World War II can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 29, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Sunday extended his best wishes to Jewish believers on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

"Each new year brings a new beginning and I, on behalf of the Croatian government and myself, wish for the coming year 5780 to bring you an abundance of happiness, prosperity and health. Spend them in peace and joy with your dear ones in the sign of the traditional saying 'l'shanah tovah tikatevu'," the prime minister said, according to a government press release.

Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković extended his and parliament's best wishes to Jewish believers on Rosh Hashanah.

"I wish you, as well as all of the Jewish people, for the year 5780 to be a happy and successful one and to bring you an abundance of health, progress, peace, unity and personal harmony. Shana Tova!" parliament quoted Jandroković as saying.

President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović also extended her best wishes to Jewish believers on Rosh Hashanah.

"Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of a new year for the Jewish people, and each new year brings a new beginning, new hope, so I wish for this holiday to bring you all a life filled with health, peace and well-being."

More news about Jews in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, September 25, 2019 - The Rediscover project, which aims to showcase tangible and non-tangible Jewish heritage in local government units involved in the project, was presented at a conference in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek on Tuesday.

The conference was held as part of the 3rd meeting of the project partners. Osijek deputy mayor Žana Gamoš said that this was a transnational project involving nine participants.

The 2 million euro project is led by the Hungarian city of Szeged, and the partner cities are Osijek (Croatia), Galati, Timisoara (Romania), Regensburg (Germany), Murska Sobota (Slovenia), Subotica (Serbia), Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Kotor (Montenegro).

The project was launched in June 2018 and closes on 31 May 2021.

Jasenka Ricl of the Croatian Cultural Tourism Society said that as part of the project an exhibition would be staged at the Slavonia Museum to present collections of the Weissman family, and educational workshops would be organised in cooperation with the Jewish community in Osijek.

Art historian Grgur Marko Ivanković said that many buildings in Osijek had been built by Jewish traders and industrialists and that a dedicated sight-seeing tour would include the Jewish school, the old and the new synagogue and two Jewish cemeteries.

More news about Jews in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 2, 2019 - Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić said on Tuesday that the monument to be erected in Zagreb to commemorate Holocaust victims would be in line with the project design that had been selected as the best, adding that the inscription on the monument would "say what it should say."

"The monument project that has won the tender will be installed at the selected location. We will do it and we owe it to all Holocaust victims," Bandić said.

He added that the inscription on the monument would say "what it should say" and that talks on the matter were proceeding as planned.

"Croatia will decide on the matter on its own and no one will set any conditions to it," he said.

Work on installing the monument, designed by Dalibor Stošić and Krešimir Rogina, has not begun yet and the city authorities plan to erect the memorial near the Central Railway Station in Branimirova Street in tribute to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, with the message that the past must not repeat itself.

The Jewish Community of Zagreb (ŽOZ) recently condemned the decision by the Zagreb City Assembly to erect the monument.

The World Jewish Congress joined ŽOZ in denouncing the decision, saying that its purpose is to conceal the truth about the killings of Jews in the Ustasha-ruled Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor has criticised the decision as well.

ŽOZ and the WJC believe that the decision aims to conceal the crimes of the Ustasha by giving the false impression that Nazi Germany alone was responsible for the horrors of the Holocaust.

Mor has said that although the idea to commemorate the Jews who perished in the Holocaust is always a positive sign, it is also important that every country in which Jews were murdered face its own history without trying to embellish it.

More info about Holocaust in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.