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Abstract
This article recounts the implications of American Jewish aid for rebuilding the Jewish communities of Yugoslavia in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust. By focusing on the founding and the activities of the Autonomous Relief Committee (ARC), which channelled aid provided by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the article argues that it was the power that ARC assumed, of deciding on funding priorities and being in close proximity to the new Yugoslav communist regime, that allowed it to shape the outlook of post-Holocaust Jewishness in Yugoslavia. The article is based primarily on previously unexamined sources from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia and JDC, and sheds new light on the dynamic period of negotiation of the new normative Jewish identity in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
Notes
* The article reflects the views and scholarship of the author and is in no way associated with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
1. Yugoslav Jewry only became a community after the proclamation of the new kingdom in the aftermath of World War I. Before 1918, Jewish communities in that territory had been parts of larger European Jewish communities with main centres outside Yugoslavia. Serbia and Macedonia were home to overwhelmingly Sephardi communities in which Serbo-Croatian barely surpassed Ladino as the first language by 1914. Bosnia-Herzegovina boasted a Sephardi community and, since the Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1878, a community of recent Ashkenazi settlers. Former Habsburg lands – Croatia, Slavonia, Vojvodina – were home to a heterogeneous German-, Hungarian- and Serbo-Croatian-speaking Ashkenazi communities, Zionist, reform and Orthodox. In that sense, the new Yugoslav Jewry was multiethnic and multilingual.
2. Florence Hodel to Moses A. Leavitt, 26 February 1945, Archive of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (henceforth AJDC), collection #45/54, file #1005. The number of ‘2,000 families,’ however, seems too high. A few months later, Pops estimated the number of Jews in Belgrade at 1200, with only around ‘250 or 300’ from the city originally. Belgrade and other large communities, such as Zagreb and Sarajevo, became new centres to which dispossessed Jews turned in search for most basic needs. Fridrih Pops to Lazar Margulies, 15 June 1945, Archive of the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade (henceforth JHM), box 806, folder 41e, ‘Prepiska dr. Fridriha Popsa.’
3. Lazar Margulies to Fridrih Pops, 5 June 1945, JHM, box 806, folder 41e, ‘Prepiska dr. Fridriha Popsa.’
4. The report estimated that about 9000 Jews were already in the country, with some 3000–5000 expected to return from the DP camps. ‘Draft for Organizing Relief to the Destitute Yugoslav Jews,’ an anonymous report appended to Nathan Reich’s letter to Moses A. Leavitt, 4 October 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 1.
5. ‘Izveštaj uprave Jevrejske veroispovedne opštine za opštinski odbor za sednicu od 8. jula 1945. godine,’ no. 1005 (6 October 1945), JHM, unsorted, box ‘Beograd.’
6. In the light of the complete breakdown of organized Jewish life and the decimation of the prewar community, this became clear to most surviving Jewish leaders very early on after the end of the war. In the first months following the liberation, many of them worked on mobilizing their prewar networks of friends and activists in interwar Yugoslav Zionist organizations who ended up in the United States, Palestine, or elsewhere in Europe. See the various threads of correspondence in JHM, box 806, folder 41d, ‘Prepiska sa jugoslovenskim Jevrejima u inostranstvu,’ and JHM, PR, box 902, ‘Korespondencija Alberta Vajsa sa Pavlom Neubergerom.’
7. ‘Excerpts from a letter of A. Kisicki from Zagreb, dated August 28, 1945,’ AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 3.
8. See the report to the Executive Committee of the Federation of Jewish Religious Communities of Yugoslavia, 22 January 1948, JHM, PR, box 1201, ‘Opšti izveštaj o nepokretnostima.’
9. ‘Expenditures from October 1914 through December 31, 1945 by Countries, Territories, Etc.’ in So They May Live Again: 1945 Annual Report of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 31–32.
10. ‘Report on Activity of the Joint Delegation of Yugoslavia,’ 10 November 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 1.
11. ‘Report on Activity of the Joint Delegation of Yugoslavia,’ 10 November 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 3. See also the letter from the Federation of Jewish Communities and the Belgrade Jewish Community to the Romanian office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, enclosed to the letter from David Alkalaj to Bertrand Jacobson, 6 May 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
12. ‘Report on Activity of the Joint Delegation of Yugoslavia,’ 10 November 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 3.
13. ‘Report on Activity of the Joint Delegation of Yugoslavia,’ 10 November 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 3.
14. Three key individuals who led the early reconstruction effort and dominated the postwar Yugoslav Jewish life up to the 1990s were David Alkalaj, Albert Vajs and Lavoslav Kadelburg. Alkalaj was a lawyer and a prewar Zionist activist from Belgrade, who survived the Holocaust in a POW camp for Royal Yugoslav army officers in Germany; he emigrated to Israel in 1952. For Vajs and Kadelburg, see Lopičić Jančić (Citation2014); and Petrović (Citation2010).
15. ‘Report on Activity of the Joint Delegation of Yugoslavia,’ 10 November 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 11.
16. Minutes from the 11th meeting of ARC, held on 1 November 1945, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘AOP 1945–49,’ 1.
17. Minutes from the 12th meeting of ARC, held on 24 November 1945, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘AOP 1945–49,’ 2.
18. Maximilian Hermann to Bertrand Jacobson, 14 May 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
19. ‘Report on Activity of the Joint Delegation of Yugoslavia,’ 10 November 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 3–5. See also letter from David Alkalaj to Oskar Našic, 5 August 1945, JHM, box 806, folder 41a, ‘Prepiska dr. Davida Alkalaja kao predsednika AO,’ and letter from Oskar Našic to David Alkalaj, 4 August 1945, JHM, box 806, folder 41a, ‘Prepiska dr. Davida Alkalaja kao predsednika AO.’
20. ARC to the Extraordinary Bureau for Supplies, no. 445, 18 February 1946, JHM, box AO 859.
21. Order of the Department of Internal Affairs of the People’s Council in Subotica no. 910/1946, 12 January 1946, JHM, box AO 859; and Order of the Department of Internal Affairs of the People’s Council in Senta no. 565/1946, 6 February 1946, JHM, box AO 859.
22. In October 1945, Oskar Našic was sentenced to two months of forced labour without imprisonment; in August 1946, Milan Medina was arrested. The documents are vague on the nature of charges brought against these two men. It is possible that they were arrested as private individuals, and that their alleged crimes had nothing to do with ARC or any other Jewish body; the verdict against Našic, however, specifically mentions that he ‘betrayed the trust that the Jewish community in Belgrade bestowed upon him.’ Quoted in the minutes of the 10th meeting of ARC, held on 18 October 1945, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘AOP 1945–1949.’ It remains unclear why Medina was arrested. See ARC memorandum no. 2627, dated 9 August 1946, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘AOP 1945–1949.’ Whether or not Našic and Medina were guilty of the charges, and whatever the nature of their possible transgression, there is no doubt that these arrests must have been perceived as pressure and intimidation by ARC leaders.
23. The Federation of Jewish Religious Communities circular letter no. 305, 19 May 1945, JHM, box AO 769.
24. ‘Report on Activity of the Joint Delegation of Yugoslavia,’ 10 November 1945, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 7.
25. David Alkalaj to Joseph Schwartz, 23 March 1946, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 2.
26. See, for example, David Alkalaj to Morris Laub (in German), 12 October 1945, JHM, box 806, folder 41a, ‘Prepiska dr. Alkalaja kao predsednika AO’; cable from David Alkalaj to Joseph Schwartz, undated, JHM, box 806, folder 41a, ‘Prepiska dr. Alkalaja kao predsednika AO’; and cable from Joseph Schwartz to the JDC New York office, 12 February 1946, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
27. Cable from David Alkalaj to Joseph Schwartz, 16 August 1946, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
28. ARC circular letter no. 2584, dated 5 August 1946, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘AOP 1945–1949.’
29. ARC circular letter no. 3418, dated 21 October 1946, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘AOP 1945–1949.’
30. Cable from JDC New York office to JDC Paris office, 17 August 1946, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
31. Pavle Neuberger to Henrietta Buchman, 22 April 1946, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
32. Pavle Neuberger to Henrietta Buchman, 22 April 1946, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
33. David Alkalaj, Martin Komloš and Oskar Našic to Grulović, the plenipotentiary of Yugoslavia in Bucharest, A NO 251, 17 July 1945, Archive of Yugoslavia (henceforth AY), box 642-5-13 Ministarstvo socijalne politike DFJ (FNRJ).
34. Report no. 475–46 to the Ministry of Social Policy of the Federative Republic of Croatia, dated 4 February 1946, JHM, box 834, ‘Židovska općina Zagreb.’ It is important to note here that Rothmüller did not return to Yugoslavia from the trip. Instead, he joined his family in Palestine. ‘I have to say that I was simply appalled by such violation of official function, at the great expense of our community,’ wrote Albert Vajs. ‘As a man, I have a certain dose of understanding for [Rothmüller’s] situation, whose family is in [Palestine] and who did not want to return to Yugoslavia. However, he should have settled his question patiently and in a legal way, without compromising our entire relief effort in a major way, an effort so important and necessary for thousands of people.’ Albert Vajs to Pavle Neuberger, 11 June 1946, JHM, PR, box 902, ‘Korespondencija Alberta Vajsa sa Pavlom Neubergerom.’ The ‘legal way’ of solving the situation probably refers to the 50 certificates for immigration to Palestine that the Federation received from the Jewish Agency for Palestine for distribution around that time. Moša Pijade, a Serbian Jew and a high communist functionary close to Tito, indicated to the representatives of the Federation that the state was willing to approve individual cases of emigration to Palestine, but was against mass emigration. David Alkalaj to Albert Vajs, 15 May 1946, JHM, PR, box 1149, 2. Regardless of whether Rothmüller’s emigration was politically motivated, or whether he was a desperate man seeking a shortcut to joining his family after five terrible years of persecution, his case is indicative of the kinds of tensions and distrust that must have influenced relations between ARC and state officials.
35. ‘Excerpts from a telephone report received on January 5, 1946, from the delegates of the Jewish Community in Zagreb now in Zurich, Switzerland,’ AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
36. Report no. 475–46 to the Ministry of Social Policy of the Federative Republic of Croatia, dated 4 February 1946, JHM, box 834, ‘Židovska općina Zagreb,’ 3.
37. Yugoslav Consul in Cairo to the Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia, 27 June 1945, no. 283, AY, 642-5-13 Ministarstvo socijalne politike DFJ (FNRJ).
38. Speech of David Alkalaj at the mass gathering of Belgrade Jewish community on 23 May 1948, JHM, box 783, folder 8, ‘Izveštaji o radu JO Beograd 1946/47,’ 1.
39. On ‘brotherhood and unity,’ see Kerenji (Citation2008, 100ff).
40. White was a New York-born Jewish official whose mother had been born to a wealthy Jewish family in Zagreb.
41. ‘Telephone Conversation between Mr. Louis H. Sobel and Mr. Fred White in Belgrade, October 30th, 1946,’ undated, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000.
42. David Alkalaj and Naftali-Bata Gedalja to Joseph Schwartz, 2 November 1946, AJDC, collection 45/54, file #1000.
43. ‘Uporedni pregled rashoda i prihoda Autonomnog odbora od početka rada 27.VII.1945 do kraja 1951 godine,’ JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘Dokumenta iz rada AO.’
44. ‘Program and budget for Yugoslavia,’ memorandum from Frederick White to Joseph Schwartz, dated 28 November 1946, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1000, 4.
45. Minutes from the 33rd meeting of ARC, held on 9 November 1946, JHM, box 783, folder 6c, ‘Zapisnici sa sastanaka AO 46-50,’ 1.
46. Minutes from the 33rd meeting of ARC, held on 9 November 1946, JHM, box 783, folder 6c, ‘Zapisnici sa sastanaka AO 46-50,’ 2. White’s criticism came as a reaction to a practice in some communities, which allowed non-Jews in their soup kitchens or distributed used clothes to them. In Sarajevo, for example, many non-Jews were allowed to eat in the soup kitchen operated by the Jewish community, while the Osijek and Sombor communities even included non-Jews in their membership lists. See Minutes from the 1st plenary meeting of the extended ARC, held on 30 March 1947, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘AOP 1945- 1949,’ 3. At the meeting with White (the 33rd meeting of ARC), ARC proposed the categories of citizens who would be eligible for ARC aid: ‘widows of killed Jews, who are Christians,’ ‘wives of surviving Jews, who are Christians,’ ‘Female Jews married to Christians, converted,’ ‘Female Jews married to Christians, unconverted,’ and ‘Children, from marriages between female Jews and non-Jews, converted (the wife unconverted).’ In response, White stated simply, if ambiguously, in the light of the proposed categories, that JDC should aid Jews only, but allowed for some exceptions. His idea of eligibility for aid seemed much more limited than that of ARC.
47. Minutes from the 33rd meeting of ARC, held on 9 November 1946, JHM, box 783, folder 6c, ‘Zapisnici sa sastanaka AO 46-50,’ 5.
48. ‘Ekonomsko stanje naših opštinara,’ report submitted by the Novi Sad Jewish Community, no. 1772, 3 May 1947, JHM, box AO 885.
49. ‘Ekonomsko stanje naših općinara,’ report submitted by the Dubrovnik Jewish Community, no. 83/47, 24 April 1947, JHM, box AO 885.
50. ‘Izvještaj o Menzi,’ submitted by the Zagreb Jewish Community, no. 1057/47-Le Pk, 17 April 1947, JHM, box AO 735.
51. ‘Zasedanje konferencije rabina na dan 25-26 marta 1947 god. U Beogradu,’ JHM, PR, box 1149, 1–2.
52. Quoted in the letter from Rabbi Lazar Schoenfeld to the Central Relief Committee, 5 May 1947, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1006.
53. Orthodox Jewish Community of Subotica to ARC, 15 October 1945, no. 15/45, JHM, box AO 769.
54. ARC to the Orthodox Jewish Community of Subotica, 8 November 1945, no. 939, JHM, box AO 769.
55. See Orthodox Jewish Community of Subotica to ARC, 20 February 1946, no. 17/46, JHM, box AO 769; Orthodox Jewish Community of Subotica to ARC, 15 March 1946; ARC to the Orthodox Jewish Community of Subotica, 19 March 1946; ARC to the Orthodox Jewish Community of Subotica, 2 May 1946; Orthodox Jewish Community in Subotica to ARC, 13 May 1946; JHM, box AO 769.
56. JDC Paris to JDC New York, 22 September 1947, no. 6546, AJDC, collection #45/54, file #1006. ‘Shochetim, Moelim’ refers, respectively, to persons trained in Jewish ritual slaughter of animals and performing circumcision.
57. ‘Perspektive budućeg rada Autonomnog odbora za pomoć,’ report submitted to the meeting of extended ARC held on 11 January 1948, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘Dokumenta iz rada AO,’ 1.
58. ‘Perspektive budućeg rada Autonomnog odbora za pomoć,’ report submitted to the meeting of extended ARC held on 11 January 1948, JHM, box 783, folder 6, ‘Dokumenta iz rada AO,’ 2.
59. Stenographic notes from the Fifth Conference of the Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia, held on 23 April 1950, JHM, PR, box 1197, ‘Peta konferencija SJOJ,’ 7.
60. Stenographic notes from the Fifth Conference of the Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia, held on 23 April 1950, JHM, PR, box 1197, ‘Peta konferencija SJOJ,’ 2.
61. Stenographic notes from the Fifth Conference of the Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia, held on 23 April 1950, JHM, PR, box 1197, ‘Peta konferencija SJOJ,’ 3.