Flight, Emigration and Death: Croatia

Flight, Emigration and Death Croatia The Croatian Ustascha-state (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska - NHD), was 1941 de facto occupied by the German army, but remained formally independent. It acquired jurisdiction over Bosnia-Herczegovina, the Dalmatian coast however was occupied by Italy. In the course of growing anti-Jewish repression many Jews were deported into Croation concentration camps. Not only Austrian, but also tens of thousands of Croatian Jews as well as Serbs and Roma, so called "fremdländische Elemente" (foreign elements) were deported, with the help of high ranking SS officers and the Ustascha-regime, mostly to Jasenovac and Auschwitz and murdered there. A few Austrian Jews succeeded in escaping to Palestine, others to Dalmatia and thence to Italy, or were taken after stopovers in several refugee camps erected by the Italian authorities, to the island of Rab in July 1943. There they lived in relative security till the Italian capitulation in September 1943. From September 1943 onwards many of the 2,000 refugees on the island joined the Croatian resistance fighters, who helped others move into already liberated areas in northern Dalmatia. 300 persons, mostly old and sick people as well as women and children, remained on the island. After its capture by German troops they were deported to Auschwitz.
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