Diary of Elvira Kohn

After taking power in 1922, Benito Mussolini had created a totalitarian state in Fascist Italy. In the 1930s, Italy became Nazi Germany's closest ally. Italy adopted antisemitic legislation inspired by the Nuremberg Race Laws, but the position of Jews living under Italian rule was generally better than that of Jewish people living under the authority of Nazi Germany or the other European Axis powers.¹ Jews were affected by racist Italian legislation, and many Jews in the Italian zones of occupation were forced to live in internment camps, but living conditions in these camps were relatively tolerable, and the lives of their Jewish inhabitants were not in immediate danger.

In spring 1943, Italian authorities transferred all of the Jewish people interned in the Italian zone of occupation in Yugoslav Dalmatia—roughly 3,000 Yugoslav Jews—to a camp already housing around 6,500 Slovenian prisoners on the island of Rab in the Adriatic.² The purpose of concentrating Jews from the Yugoslav occupation zones on an island under Italian control is unclear. It is possible that this was seen as a way of resisting the increasing German pressure to deport all Jews from Italian-occupied Yugoslavia. This was likely motivated more by the dynamics of the Italian government's relationship with Nazi Germany than it was by the possibility of saving Jewish lives. Nevertheless, the move to Rab provided temporary protection from the threat of deportation.

The featured diary of Elvira Kohn—a photojournalist from Dubrovnik—is a fascinating record of these events. Kohn documented the arrival to the Rab camp, the daily life of its Jewish inhabitants, and their eventual liberation by the Yugoslav communist resistance movement. In early September 1943, the new Italian government surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Yugoslav partisans evacuated the Jews from the island over the course of several weeks. Roughly 300 elderly and sick people stayed on the island and were later hunted down by the SS and deported to their deaths at Auschwitz. But more than 2,500 Jews were evacuated to the Croatian mainland. There they were protected by Yugoslav partisans until the end of the war. The overwhelming majority of them survived.³

Elvira Kohn's diary documents this rescue effort, and it provides a glimpse into Jewish life in the Italian zone of occupation as Italy's Fascist regime collapsed. Elvira wrote her notes in the camp itself, and she continued keeping the diary after the liberation of the camp in September 1943. Her diary—in handwriting that is barely legible—is a raw, unedited text that reveals the uncertainties of the situation.

See Joshua D. Zimmerman, ed., Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). For the status of the territories occupied by Italy, as well as the fate of the Jews in those areas, see Davide Rodogno, Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation During the Second World War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Today, Rab is part of Croatia, but historically it had belonged to Venice and later to the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918, during which time it continued to have a large Italian-speaking population. After World War I it became part of Yugoslavia until its breakup and the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, when it was annexed to Italy.

See Emil Kerenji, “‘Your Salvation is the Struggle Against Fascism’: Yugoslav Communists and the Rescue of Jews, 1941–1945,” in Contemporary European History, Volume 25, Issue 1 (February 2016): 57-74.

Yugoslav communist partisans from the mainland regional council.

The Yugoslav flag of the partisan army.

Inmates of the adjacent camp.

[undated entry]

After a wonderful two-day voyage on the luxury steamship Città di Tunisi [City of Tunis], we arrived in Rab at 4 o’clock in the afternoon; debarking lasted until 5 o’clock. Then we were taken by trucks to the camp that was to us as yet unknown. [We were] still in a good mood, until we saw the barracks. When we arrived, commotion started, [since people] wanted to get a room, because there were few of those, and people did not immediately want to go into joint barracks. Evening was drawing near, and a part of some people were still standing outside, not knowing where to go, since even the joint barracks were full. There were 180 of us waiting [to see] where we would be accommodated. Then the colonel came and informed us that we would be accommodated temporarily in sector III, until space is found here. At 10:30 we crossed into sector III, which is separated by barbed wire. At 11, in pitch darkness, we were given straw mattresses, and were told to fill them with straw, which was completely wet, as it had rained the previous day. Finally, around midnight, we went to sleep, hungry and filthy, because there was no water [to wash oneself].

[...]

The morning of September 8 appeared to be a day like any other in our camp. We did not know that that day would bring the long-awaited freedom and liberation from the camp. In the evening, around 7 o’clock, the news spread around the camp of the capitulation of Italy, which nobody believed at first, until the [Italian] soldiers themselves started approaching us through the [barbed] wire (which was forbidden until then), confirming the true nature of the news. Of course, everyone was exhilarated, as we thought this was the end and now everyone was going home. That night at ten, we were, as usual, driven into the barracks, but this was unsuccessful, since people were too excited to be able to separate from one another, since they were already making plans to go home. On September 9, life went as usual, with no changes for us at the camp. On September 10 in the afternoon, a celebratory rally took place. Comrades from Mount Velebit¹ came to inform us that we are free, and that our days as camp inmates are over, and that they are inviting all able bodied fighters into the ranks of the partisans. At that moment, the flag with our five-pointed star unfurled,² which brought liberation to all of us. Our youth went around the entire camp singing and celebrating. The following day, a big rally took place with our Slovenian brothers³ and the Italian army in the Italian camp, which [the rally] was characterized with great enthusiasm, song, and dance. Many could now openly, in front of officers, reveal their ideas, and fasten the five-pointed star, which they had ready, to their hats. The ceremony lasted until 1 o’clock, and the same day in the afternoon, we were going to go to the cemetery of Slovenian brothers to commemorate the dead [...]

All 15 Items in the The Holocaust in Yugoslavia Collection

Archival Information for This Item