Yellow star of a Jew from the city of Zagreb - Croatia, marked with the letter Z (živdska - Jew) early 1940s. rare.
Until World War II, the Balkans in general and Yugoslavia in particular were not particularly hostile areas for the Jews, unlike other areas where the Jews suffered over the years, such as Muslim Spain and Catholic Europe. On October 5, 1940, and under the influence of Nazi Germany, the "Numeros Clausus" law (limiting the number of students in high schools and universities) was enacted in Yugoslavia, which severely harmed the Jews, And all over the country plastered articles in the form of "Der Strurmer" and newspapers that included anti-Semitic propaganda began to appear. Italy's military involvement in Greece, along with Yugoslavia's refusal to join the "Triple Axis" (Germany-Italy-Japan), led to the invasion of the "Axis" forces and the dismemberment of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Northeastern Slovenia was annexed to the territory of the Reich and Croatia became an independent and Metastasis state of Nazi Germany and led by Dr. Ante Pavlich and his fascist and pro-Nazi movement the Ustašee. More than their policy towards the Jews was influenced by ideological anti-Semitism, the Ustaše sought to please the Germans and take the property of the Jews for themselves. The Ustaše terror developed rapidly and included looting of Jewish property , sending Jews to hard labor and a blanket obligation for all Jews to appear in public in a yellow patch - including babies! The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the increase in acts of sabotage throughout Croatia was the signal for the beginning of the mass arrest of the Jews according to a decree published on June 26, 1941 which read: "The Jews spread lies to stir up unrest in the population, with their well-known speculation they make it difficult to supply the means of living. Therefore, I state that they are collectively responsible and command all of them... in concentration camps" (see Menachem Shelah's book "The history of the holocaust" - Yugoslavia, Yad Vashem Publishing 1990, p. 147).
10x10 cm. Stains. Good condition.
