More than 7,500 Jews succeeded in crossing into Italy from Italian-held parts of Yugoslavia, it was reported today by the joint Distribution Committee. About 6,000 of them are Yugoslavian Jews and the remainder are Jews from Germany, Austria and Poland who fled to Yugoslavia prior to the country’s occupation by the Axis.
“The Jews who succeeded in fleeing to the regions occupied by the Italians were confined by the Italian authorities in the interior of Italy,” the report states. “No such measures as the forced wearing of the Yellow Star of David were taken against them. Many of them are in Camp Ferramonte in the province of Cosenza in Southern Italy. Others are in small places of Northern Italy in so-called forced residence. They receive a daily subvention of 8 lira per adult, 4 lira for each child, and a monthly allocation for their rent.”
The report relates details of mass-extermination of Jews in the German-occupied parts of Yugoslavia, including the so-called independent state of Croatia where 40,000 Jews resided before the outbreak of the war.
“By August, 1942, the only Jews who were left in German-occupied Yugoslavia were old people and some women and children,” the report says. “In that month the remaining Jews were deported to Poland. Those who had found shelter in homes for the aged were deported as late as May, 1943, to an unknown destination. Included in this group were Rabbi Dr. Schalom Freiberger, Dr. Hugo Kohn, the 75-year-old President of the Zagreb Jewish community, and Villin Vuk Engelsroth, 85-year-old former President of the Orthodox Jewish community. It is believed that there are practically no Jews left in this area.”
Concerning those Yugoslav Jews who succeeded in fleeing to the Croatian and Dalmatian areas garrisoned by Italians, the report states that they were interned in camps which are run by the Italian occupation army, even though this territory belongs to “independent” Croatia. “In one of these camps, at Kraijevica, about 1,400 Jews, many German and Austrian emigrants, are living in barracks,” the report states. “They have their own administration and are permitted to communicate with other countries. Other forced residences were assigned to the Jews on the island of Hvar and in the region of Dubrovnic.” The writer of the report believes that these Jews are in danger from encroachment by the Croats and Germans, and believes that they can be saved only by transfer into the interior of Italy.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
