Original scientific paper
Jewish community in Dubrovnik through the documents of Udba in the State archives in Split, 1945-1958
Blanka Matković
; Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Preserved among the holdings of the UDBA (State Security Office) archive in the State Archives in Split are some documents dating from the post-WW II period which cast light on the fate of Dubrovnik Jews. Apparently, in early 1947 UDBA decided to place a greater focus on Jewish communities, of which the then Yugoslav state was distrustful, that is, they were labelled as potentially ''reactionary".
Two documents from 1945 and one from 1947 provide personal details on Dubrovnik Jews killed in World War II, which are valuable because they allow comparison with the lists of victims in the databases of Yad Vashem and the Memorial Site in Jasenovac. The report from 1947 is expanded with data on material issues, which indicates a possible link with the plans for the confiscation of Jewish property.
From the reply of Dubrovnik UDBA to the inquiry from 1947, we learn about its
assessment of the Jewish Community by which "the whole Community was hostile to the National Front and in Dubrovnik there is not a single Jew who would be positive". Cited as a notable example of this, and moreover an "Anglophile", was the Community president Mento Tolentino, although he had joined the partisan movement in 1943. Listed in the same document are the "suspicious" contacts of certain Dubrovnik Jews with foreigners and UNRRA.
This and a couple of other documents in UDBA archive in Split are very sparse, and there is a good reason to assume that the bulk of documentary evidence has either not survived or simply was not deposited in the Archives.
Keywords
Jews, Jewish Community, holocaust, Dubrovnik, Korčula, Pelješac, World War II, post WW II, UDBA
Hrčak ID:
311750
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2023.
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