Yugoslavia

   Founded on 1 December 1918, as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Yugoslavia united the bulk of the South Slav population following the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire. On the eve of World War II, the population of Yugoslavia was about 15,500,000, consisting of 43 percent Serbs, 34 percent Croats, 7 percent Slovenes, and 7 percent Macedonians. The 1931 census, the last taken before the German occupation, tallied approximately 73,000 Jews. By 1941, the number increased to 80,000 as a result of the influx of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. Most of Yugoslavia’s Jews lived in Belgrade, where anti-Semitism was a marginal phenomenon. Although Yugoslavia was neutral when World War II erupted in September 1939, the Germans exerted pressure on Yugoslavia that resulted in the passage of anti-Semitic measures. In October 1940, in the hopes of appeasing Germany, the government enacted a quota system for Jews in secondary schools and universities. This was followed by restrictions on Jews trading in certain sectors of the economy.

   Between 1933 and 1941, about 50,000 Jews passed through Yugoslavia as they fled the Nazis. Yugoslav Jewry rallied to the support of the refugees with financial help as well as helping in the “illegal” immigration into Palestine. Following the German occupation of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the country was divided into separate states along religious and ethnic lines. The extermination of Yugoslavia’s Jewish population followed, but the pace of the steps leading to the deportations varied in each of these areas.

   See also Croatia; Serbia.