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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.17234/RadoviZHP.55.26

The City Government in Osijek and the Holocaust (Summary)

Hrvoje Volner orcid.org/0000-0002-8665-5889

Sažetak

The paper analyzes the relationship between the local government and the legal execution of the Holocaust in the city of Osijek. Firstly, the logic of this relationship emerged as a result of an imperfect state administrative system, whose functioning required the employment of local clerks to implement laws and orders in the state domain. When As the Independent State of Croatia began to nationalize Jewish assets and and initiating the expulsion of from Jews, these officials assumed a significant responsibility. The local government, with its authority precisely over the places where Jews lived, was ready to satisfy the political interests of Ustasha authorities.
Secondly, not only did the local government respond to the state’s demands, its officials also exercised their autonomy to implement much more than was required. To promote an anti-Semitic worldview, numerous city-promulgated ordinances were enforced to restrict freedom of movement, discriminate against, and disqualify Jews as members of society. In order to reinforce the notion of Jews as unwanted, and in coordination with the local Ustasha and members of the German ethnic group, the city authorities imposed contributions on the city’s Jewish community. The funds thus collected were incorporated into the city’s budget and allocated for the purpose of reconstructing the city’s infrastructure.
We may easily conclude that, in many cases, the local government in Osijek served as a precedent setter in the enforcement of anti-Semitic laws: commissioners in Jewish businesses and orders that made wearing the Star of David armband mandatory for Jews in mid-May 1941 were, in most places in occupied Europe, a rarity, etc. The process nationalizing Jewish assets tightly aligned with the implementation of genocide. When the local government had finalised Aryanization, the only thing left was to commit mass murder. Osijek’s Jews had been evicted from their homes from the latter half of 1941 to the first half of 1942, after which they were deported to Auschwitz and Jasenovac. More than 92% of Osijek’s Jewish Community perished in the Holocaust.

Ključne riječi

Jews, Osijek, Holocaust, Ustasha, local government, German ethnic group

Hrčak ID:

316295

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/316295

Datum izdavanja:

20.4.2024.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 67 *