Antisemitism in Serbia – then and now

Antisemitism in Serbia then and now

Antisemitism can be described as hatred, animosity, or bias against the Jews, just because and only because they are Jews. Antisemitism is a very old phenomenon that was manifested in various ways throughout the centuries. Its most horrible form was the Holocaust.

Antisemitism still exists today, in almost all parts of the world, as well as in Serbia. Although contemporary antisemitism has certain specificities, what characterized it through centuries up until the present day, is that it remains based on prejudices, stereotypes, myths and lies.

Anti-Jewish myths and lies throughout history

Regardless of different content and manifestations of antisemitic myths and lies, from religious to racial antisemitism, throughout the history antisemitism has always had a very prosaic and practical background, that stemmed from the interest of certain structures of society to secure the power for themselves, or to turn away the attention of the people from the real social problems, passing the Jews as the “culprits” for all kinds of misfortunes, or to hinder and prevent the Jews from engaging in the economy, thus safeguarding their own monopoly, or the most prosaic of reasons – to justify the robbery of the Jewish property, as well as their persecutions and murder, or all of it together.

Religious antisemitism is hatred and animosity against the Jews based on religious “arguments”. The central point in Christian antisemitism, from early Christianity to modern times, is the accusation of the “betrayal of Jesus Christ” and “deicide”. According to the long-dominant theological teaching, all Jews are collectively responsible for Christ’s crucifixion, for eternity. This idea played an important role in the centuries-long persecution and discrimination of Jews in Europe. Another characteristic of religious antisemitism is the emphasis on the “inferiority” of Judaism in relation to Christianity. For a long time, Christian theology described Christianity as spiritual, based on love and forgiveness, while Judaism was presented as “materialistic,” with the special emphasis given to the “lack of notion of forgiveness”. Christian art accompanied this dogma, so painting, frescoes and sculptures that adorned the outer walls of churches often depicted allegories that assert “failure” and “inferiority” of Judaism. On the one hand, Jews were demonized and portrayed as freaks, and on the other hand, “erased” and left out of works of art that were supposed to portray biblical motifs, in which, in the Bible itself, the Jews play a role.

The myth that the Jews allegedly “poisoned the wells” is another in a series of absurd accusations related to Jews. The Jews were accused of allegedly poisoning the wells in order to spread the infection, so they were found guilty of the outbreak of the terrible plague epidemic that decimated Europe in the 14th century. These unfounded accusations led to the massacre of thousands of Jews in various parts of Europe, but the claims that the Jews “spread disease” or other calamities, still exist today in various contemporary forms. A similar fabrication was conceived in Europe in the 12th century, suggesting that the Jews “abduct and kill Christian children, and use their blood in rituals during the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Pesach”. The accusation that Jews carry out “ritual murders” (blood libel) exists today in various forms, especially among antisemites in the Arab and Islamic world.

One of the typical anti-Jewish prejudices is that the Jews are “obsessed with gold, money and wealth,” and that they are “usurers” who mercilessly force their debtors into ruin. This stereotype first appeared back in the Middle Ages. At that time across Europe, the local rulers and the church banned the Jews from engaging in a whole range of professions, as well as possessing or working the land, while on the other hand, encouraging them to engage in trade, banking and money lending (since usury was prohibited for Muslims and Christians for religious reasons). In essence, antisemitism was manifested through the disenfranchisement of Jews (the ban on engaging in certain professions and the possession of land), which gave rise to new antisemitic prejudices about them, that exist to this day

The concept that there was enormous “Jewish power” that posed a “threat” was, and still is, a central part of antisemitism. Such prejudices have their roots in the Middle Ages, but they developed especially during the 19th century, after the period of creation of modern nation-states and emancipation through which in some countries, especially in Western Europe, the door was finally opened to Jews to participate as equal citizens. Prejudices about Jewish (omnipotence) also played an important role in Nazi propaganda. Thus, German Jews are presented as the alleged “powers” of politics, economics, culture, and the media in Germany and part of “world Jewry” (Weltjudentum) which “controls” the world economy and “manages” all major world powers – from American capitalism to Soviet Bolshevism.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities. Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.

Some of the contemporary examples of antisemitism include:

• Making, dissemination or participation in the dissemination of mendacious stereotypical allegations about Jews, with the aim, do dehumanize and demonize the individual Jews or Jewish community, which includes, especially but not exclusively, the myth about Jewish world domination, or of Jews controlling the media, government, banks, etc.
• Accusing Jews as individuals or people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews;
• Accusing Jewish fellow citizens of being more loyal to ”global Jewish community” or to the State of Israel, and giving priority to representing their interests, rather than to the interests of their own countries, whose nationals they are;
• Denial of Holocaust, as well as distortion of Holocaust history, or historical revisionism of Holocaust, as well as the accusation of the Jewish people and the state of Israel that they invented the Holocaust or exaggerated the number
of its victims;
• Calling for, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a racist ideology or an extremist view of religion.

Gojko Kekić I 22nd July 2021.

Jews and antisemitism in Yugoslavia

According to data from 1939, the Jewish community, with a total of 71,342 members, made up about half a percent of the total population of the former Yugoslavia. The position of Jews was regulated by the Law on Jewish Religious Community in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, adopted in 1929, which ensured further prosperity and status determination for the Federation and the Jewish community in general.

The Jews lived mostly in large city centers, primarily in Belgrade, Zagreb, Osijek, Sarajevo, Skopje, Bitola. Most of the Jews were engaged in trade, crafts, industry, and free professions, so there were many tradesmen, clerks, and craftsmen, as well as doctors, lawyers, industrial workers, teachers, and clergymen among the Jewish population. The Zionist movement in Yugoslavia was well organized and comprised one-tenth of community members. Of particular importance were the Jewish youth organizations, which provided training for those intending to settle in Palestine.

The manifestations of antisemitism in the Yugoslav state were relatively rare. The notorious anti-Semitic text, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was first published in Yugoslavia in 1929. Since Hitler’s rise to power, and especially since World War II began in Europe, antisemitism was intensifying in Yugoslavia, culminating in the adoption of the two anti-Jewish laws, in October 1940. With these laws, the Yugoslav government imposed limitations on education for the Jews (“numerous clausus”), and banned them from wholesale trade in foodstuffs. Antisemitism was a part of the political program of a few fascist political organizations, Dimitrije Ljotić’s Zbor and the Ustašas, and was felt in major religious communities as well. Numerous German national minority in Yugoslavia mostly followed the antisemitic ideology and politics of their motherland, the Nazi Germany.

Jews and antisemitism in Serbia during the World War II

After the brief April war, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was destroyed and Serbia occupied and partitioned into several occupation zones. Most of Serbia fell under the German occupation, including Banat under the administration of the Volksdeutsche. Other parts of Serbia were occupied by Hungary, Bulgaria, the Independent State of Croatia, and Italy. Although extermination of the Jewish population unfolded differently in the areas under the control of the various occupiers, the outcome was equally terrible: over 80% of Jews in Serbia and Yugoslavia perished in the Holocaust. Immediately after the German troops entered into Serbia, the Jews were registered, marked with a yellow armband and had a compulsory work service introduced. They were thrown out of public service, denied access to public health care, and the confiscation of their property started. These and other discriminatory measures affected Roma as well, and were carried out by the German police, with the support of the Serbian quisling administration of Milan Aćimović, and later General Milan Nedić. Since the middle of August 1941, the authorities of the German national minority in Banat expelled all the Jews to Belgrade. Despite the grave circumstances, the Jews participated in the uprising and anti-fascist struggle since July 1941. The German army was crushing the revolt by mass shootings of the civilian population, and the camps became their main source of hostages to be shot. The main camps were Banjica in Belgrade, the camp in Šabac and the Red Cross camp in Niš. Since the second half of August 1941, the Jewish men from Banat and Belgrade, and later Romani men from Belgrade, were detained at Topovske šupe camp, in Belgrade’s Autokomanda. By the middle of November, practically all Jewish and, to a large extent, Romani men were killed, as well as all Jewish refugees from Central Europe.

This was accompanied by intensive anti-Jewish propaganda that accused the Jews of organizing and leading the uprising. The propaganda department of Milan Nedić’s collaborationist regime organized an anti-Jewish exhibition entitled The Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition, in Belgrade. The exhibition was officially launched on 22 October 1941, and was open to the public until 19 January 1942. From 8 December 1941, all remaining Jews, as well as a number of Roma, women, children, and the elderly, were imprisoned in the Jewish camp Zemun (Judenlager Semlin) at the Belgrade Fair (Sajmište). In March 1942, Berlin decided that the Jews in Serbia were to be exterminated, and the gas van was sent to Belgrade. By 10 May, almost all Jews imprisoned at Sajmište were killed, and Nazi officers praised one another, saying that Serbia was “the only country in which the Jewish question and the Gypsy question have been solved”.

The Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition, in Belgrade. The exhibition was officially launched on 22 October 1941 and was open to the public until 19 January 1942.

Antisemitism in Serbia today

Although not so common, the appearance of antisemitism in Serbia is also present in the 21st century. Today, antisemitic incidents are most often linked to ultra-right organizations, football fans, and groups whose members are followers of Nazi ideology. These incidents are mainly reflected in antisemitic messages, graffiti, the display of Nazi symbols and the glorification of collaborators of the occupiers who participated in crimes and destroyed Jews in Serbia during the Second World War.

The “Nacionalni Stroj” case

The “Nacionalni stroj” was a neo-Nazi organization in Serbia founded in 2004. That organization used the coat of arms of Serbia as its coat of arms during the German occupation in the Second World War when Serbia was ruled by the Government of General Milan Nedić. On their website, members of the “Nacionalni stroj” pointed out antisemitic messages in the form of lists of Jews who, as they wrote, were responsible for the bombing of Serbia in 1999 by the NATO pact. These lists included, among others, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair and retired US Army General Wesley Clark, who commanded the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

In one of their website posts from 2009, the members of the group wrote:

“Action in Valjevo, Niš and Sremska Kamenica on the occasion of January 27. Our activists from Valjevo, Niš and Sremska Kamenica, on the night between January 26 and 27, wrote slogans against Jewish propaganda lies. This date is characteristic of Jewish powerful people around the world who have imposed their lies on the people and made one more day of the year dedicated to the so-called Holocaust and the memory of the “killed” victims. We Serbs, activists of the “Nacionalni stroj”, strongly oppose such historical lies. If anything is celebrated today, it is Saint Sava’s day, which is celebrated among people and teachers, and we will not allow any fictional stories about the Holocaust to be celebrated in the future instead of that day. The Serbian people have suffered enough and have been tortured by the Jewish hand, which, by spreading its lies, deceives the people who are not instructed in their criminal activities.”

On October 14, 2008, the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office submitted a request to the Constitutional Court of Serbia to ban the “Nacionalni stroj”, stating that it was a “secret political party (organization) whose activities were aimed at inciting racial and national hatred.” Acting upon this request, the Constitutional Court, at its session held on June 2, 2011, established that the “Nacionalni stroj” is a secret association whose form of association is prohibited by the provisions of Article 55 of the Serbian Constitution, and accordingly prohibited the activities of this organization, as well as expanding its program goals.

In 2008, the “Nacionalni stroj” leader, Goran Davidović “Führer”, was accused of spreading racial and religious and national hatred. Shortly after the indictment was filed, he left Serbia and took refuge in Turin, Italy. After an 11-year long trial, Davidović was sentenced to one year in prison by a decision of the High Court in Novi Sad in 2019, but the Court of Appeals change that decision and release Davidović. The reason for the annulment of the first-instance verdict is, as stated in the explanation, that a misdemeanor procedure has already been conducted against Goran Davidović for the same act. According to the law and the Constitution of Serbia, a person cannot be prosecuted twice for a crime for which he was previously acquitted or convicted.

“Krv i čast”, “Combat 18”, “Obraz”

Another organization that promoted antisemitic attitudes in its program was the organization “Krv i čast (Blood and Honor)”, which was founded in Serbia in 1995, and the organization’s base is in Great Britain. On the website of that organization, which is no longer active it was writen: “After all the years of repression of the Zionist system against the Serbian National Socialists, the struggle for the survival of our race and nation is being waged on all fronts.”

From the position of Nazi ideology, performed the organization “Combat 18” (number 18 represents the first and eighth letters of the alphabet, that is, the initials of Adolf Hitler), as well as the movement “Obraz”, which, among other things, advocated the rehabilitation of collaborationist and antisemite Dimitrije Ljotić. The organization “Obraz” was banned in 2012.

Football fans

The glorification of Nazi ideology was also present in the stands of Serbian stadiums. The group that took the lead in highlighting the Nazi symbols are the fans of the football club Rad from Belgrade. At their stands, one could often see a flag with a neo-Nazi “Celtic cross”, “Totenkopf” (a skull with the emblem of the SS division), as well as flags with the image of Dimitrije Ljotić.

Leader of “Nacionalni stroj”, Goran Davidović “Führer” back in the 2007.

Recent antisemitic incidents

The fact that the 2009 Law in Serbia prohibits the display of neo-Nazi and fascist symbols and symbols and the holding of manifestations of neo-Nazi or fascist organizations, as well as any activities of such organizations, did not prevent certain groups, especially sympathizers of Dimitrije Ljotic and General Milan Nedić to gather in public several times. The last such gathering was held in February 2021, when about fifty members of the extreme right-wing organization gathered in front of the church in the center of Novi Sad. They lit candles on the occasion of the anniversary of general Milan Nedić’s death. Those gathered wore masks with a “Celtic cross” and a crossed sickle and hammer.

In addition, several antisemitic incidents were reported in Novi Sad and Belgrade in 2020 and 2021.

In November 2020, the graffiti “Dr Kon on a stake” with the crossed-out Star of David appeared in Novi Sad. Predrag Kon is the head of the crisis staff in Serbia for the fight against the coronavirus and a Jew. In the same month, the sticker “Jew holds all the strings” was found on the street in Novi Sad. A month later, the graffiti “Back to the oven” appeared in the settlement of Detelinara in Novi Sad. In January 2021, also in Novi Sad, on a billboard with a picture of the Novi Sad Synagogue, antisemitic messages were written in the form of a crossed-out Star of David, the “Celtic Cross” and the abbreviation “SS” referring to the Nazi military units “Schutzstaffel”. The message “Judenfrei” was written on the same billboard a month earlier.

The Association of Jewish Communities of Serbia submitted a report to the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office after several posters with antisemitic messages were hung in the street on March 27 in Belgrade, on May 27, 2021.

These incidents were also found in the report of the American State Department on the state of religious freedoms in Serbia, which was published in May 2021. There were a total of 30 such and similar incidents in Serbia in the period from 2009 to 2019, according to the report of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, published in September 2020, which was also taken into account by the State Department. Of the 30 antisemitic incidents, only 11 resulted in criminal charges, the State Department reported.

The same report also states that there is an increase in antisemitism in Serbia during the coronavirus pandemic. Officials of the Jewish community in Serbia informed the State Department about the growth of antisemitism on social networks and that antisemitic literature is still available in some bookstores.

Robert Sabados, president of the Association of Jewish Communities in Serbia, told the daily newspaper Danas that he hoped that this trend would decrease with the end of the pandemic and the normalization of life.

– The Internet is full of antisemitic statements and these are things that upset everyone, it does not only apply to Jews. If you point a finger at someone, he becomes an enemy. I attribute this to the impact of the pandemic, the fact that we were closed and turned to networks that provide anonymity, where some uncontrolled impulses erupt to the surface. I think that with the opening and normalization of life, that tension and anger will decrease, it will be channeled in other ways – Sabados stated.

Mirko Stefanović from the Jewish community of Novi Sad believes that the tools for the fight against antisemitism are in the hands of local authorities.

– If the local authorities prevent the appearance of antisemitism, then there will be fewer such incidents because people will not be motivated to do so. If the local authorities tolerate such incidents, they will be more frequent. These tools on the judicial side exist, it is just a question of how the authorities will treat groups that broadcast antisemitism. Antisemitism has ignorance at its root. There is no antisemitism among knowledgeable people who are educated. There is a readiness in society to accept some untruths and to spread them further as a confirmed truth. This includes antisemitism. I cannot believe that one man can hate another man just because he belongs to another nation. It is amazing to me that “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” can still be bought in some bookstores. For me, it’s a red line. And society must not cross some red lines if it wants to remain a society.

In January 2021, graphite “Back in the oven” with the crossed-out Star of David was written in Novi Sad