Letter of the President of Jewish Community of Split to Colonel Vincenzo Cuiuli

The Yugoslav port city of Split was occupied by Italy in 1941, along with the entire Yugoslav Dalmatian coast. Some parts of the coast were annexed by Italy, while others remained a zone of occupation. Since the April 1941 invasion by Nazi Germany and its allies had wiped Yugoslavia off the map, the occupied and annexed parts came under the rule of the so-called Independent State of Croatia,¹ a Nazi satellite state created Germany and Italy in 1941.²

Under which administration they fell—whether Italian or Croatian—was often a matter of life and death for the Jews of the former Yugoslavia. In Italy proper, including Split, the Jews were subject to Italian racial laws, which were discriminatory, but they were not concentrated in ghettos or segregated. Jews in the Italian area were safe from the Croatian fascist state which wanted to "purge" the Croat nation of Serbs, Jews, and Roma.

In 1942 and into 1943, when the Germans had already decided to murder as many European Jews as possible, the fate of Yugoslav Jews in the Italian occupation zone became increasingly uncertain. Nazi Germany and its fascist-run Croatian satellite increased the pressure on Italy to "deliver" the Jews to be deported and murdered in the killing centers of occupied Poland.² Although Jews in the Italian occupation zone were confined to camps as civilian internees and their freedom of movement was restricted, they were not mistreated, forced to work, or murdered.

The Italian Fascist regime resisted this pressure, refusing to surrender the Jews to Nazi Germany or the Independent State of Croatia. In the spring of 1943, perhaps in order to put an end to the German and Croatian pressure, the Italians evacuated all Jews, more than 3,000 people, from the several camps in which they had been interned in the occupation zone. They transferred them to a camp on the Adriatic island of Rab (Arbe in Italian)³ that was part of Italy proper. As a result, the Germans and Croats could exert less pressure in demanding the deportations. There is some evidence to suggest that this might have been done out of some genuine concern for the Jews. However, with Nazi Germany clearly facing defeat and Italy hoping to gain back parts of the Independent State of Croatia, "the Jewish question" increasingly served as a means for redefining relations among the countries. Italy could suddenly say "no" to Nazi Germany and openly humiliate the Independent State of Croatia.

The overwhelming majority of Jews from the camp at Rab survived the Holocaust. In early September 1943 when Fascist Italy collapsed, the Rab camp was liberated by Yugoslav partisans, who transported the Jews to the liberated territory they controlled in Croatia. Most able-bodied Jews joined the partisans, while the children and the elderly were protected.⁴

In August, however, before the end of Fascist Italy, this was all in the future. The following letter was written by the president of the Split community to the Italian commander of the camp at Rab. The Split Jewish community was located in Italy proper, exempting its subjects from transfer to Rab. It is full of gratitude and recognition of Italy's benign role with respect to the persecution of Jews.

See the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust Encyclopedia for more on the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Independent State of Croatia.

For the history of World War II in Yugoslavia, see Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001). For the Italian occupation zone in Yugoslavia, see Davide Rodogno, Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006). On the Croatian fascist regime and its genocidal policies against the Serbs, Jews, and Roma, see Rory Yeomans, Visions of Annihilation: The Ustasha Regime and the Cultural Politics of Fascism, 1941–1945 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013); and Rory Yeomans, ed., The Utopia of Terror: Life and Death in Wartime Croatia (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2015).

For more on the camp at Rab, see the related item in Experincing History, Report of the Communist Party Committee in the Jewish Camp at Rab.

For this little-known episode, see Emil Kerenji, "'Your Salvation is the Struggle Against Fascism': Yugoslav Communists and the Rescue of Jews, 1941–1945," Contemporary European History 25:1 (February 2016), 57-74.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SPALATO [SPLIT]

Spalato [Split], August 20, 1943

To: Colonel CC. RR. Cujuli
Commander of internment camp I.C. in Arbe [Rab]
Arbe

Dear Colonel,

We consider it our duty to express our deepest gratitude for the warm reception given to our Dr. Giacomo Altaras by the command of the "Bergamo" Division, charged by us to transport and deliver the baggage of the San Martino [Sumartin] and Postire della Brazza [Postira] internees. He told us about the kind and thoughtful assistance offered by you and by the esteemed officers in carrying out his assignment, and also by your fatherly interest to improve the housing and food of these unhappy refugees, who have escaped a terrible fate in their country of origin thanks to the generous rescue by the generous Italian army. He told us in detail about the schemes you devised and put to work or will work out, for the supply of water, fresh milk for children and the sick, for sanitary institutions, etc. etc. in the camp.

While we are happy that our fellow Jews have found in you a benevolent and generous protector in their unhappy present circumstances, we must express our heartfelt thanks for all that you did and do to ease our conditions, and to entrust these people to your generous care also for the future.

You can be sure that the help we have received will never be forgotten and your name will be indelibly impressed in the hearts of the beneficiaries and in ours. You may not consider this important, but this is a saying of our ancient sages: "The reward for a good deed is the good deed itself." On our part we pray to the Almighty to reward you as you deserve for all the good that you do to help the wretched, innocent victims of a world upheaval which has carried away people and things, institutions and consciences.

With gratitude,
The Jewish Community of Spalato

President
[signed] Vittorio [Vid] Morpurgo

All 13 Items in the Jewish Community Documents Collection

Archival Information for This Item