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Sephardi Jews during the Holocaust
View this term in the glossary
Background
The Nazi Holocaust that devastated European Jewry and virtually destroyed its centuries-old culture also wiped out the great European population centers of Sephardi (or Judeo-Spanish) Jewry and led to the almost complete demise of its unique language and traditions. Sephardi Jewish communities from France and the Netherlands in the northwest to Yugoslavia and Greece in the southeast almost disappeared.
On the eve of World War II, the European Sephardi community was concentrated in the Balkan countries of Greece, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. Its leading centers were in Salonika, Sarajevo, Belgrade, and Sofia.
Fate of Balkan Jewish Communities
The experience of the Balkan Jewish communities during the war varied greatly and depended on the type of regime under which they fell.
The Jewish communities of Serbia and northern Greece, including the 50,000 Jews of Salonika, fell under direct German occupation in April 1941 and bore the full weight and intensity of Nazi repressive measures from dispossession, humiliation, and forced labor to hostage taking, and finally deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau and extermination in March-August 1943.
Some 7,000 Jewish men ordered to register for forced labor assemble in Liberty Square in German-occupied Salonika. Salonika, Greece, July 1942.
Credits:
US Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Jewish population of southern Greece fell under the jurisdiction of the Italians who eschewed the enactment of anti-Jewish legislation and resisted whenever possible German efforts to transfer them to Poland, until the surrender of Italy on September 8, 1943 brought the Jews under German control.
Sephardi Jews in Bosnia and Croatia were ruled by a German-created Fascist-Catholic satellite state from April 1941, which subjected them to pogrom-like actions before herding them into local camps where they were murdered side by side with Serbs and Roma (Gypsies).
Ustasa (Croatian fascist) camp guards order a Jewish man to remove his ring before being shot. Jasenovac concentration camp, Yugoslavia, between 1941 and 1945.
Credits:
Jewish Historical Museum, Belgrade
The Jews of Macedonia and Thrace were controlled by Bulgarian occupation forces, which after rendering them stateless, rounded them up and turned them over to the Germans for deportation.
Deportation of Jews from Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.
Macedonian Jews prepare to board a deportation train in Skopje. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to the Treblinka killing center.
Jews prepare soup outside the Monopol tobacco factory, used as a transit camp by Bulgarian authorities during deportations of Jews from Macedonia. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to the Treblinka killing center.
Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp in Skopje before deportation to the Treblinka killing center. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.
Jews outside the Monopol tobacco factory, used as a transit camp by Bulgarian authorities during deportations from Macedonia to the Treblinka killing center in German-occupied Poland. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.
Jews load a barrel of water onto a deportation train in Skopje. In March 1943, Jews of Macedonia were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, where several building had been converted into a transit camp. Bulgarian occupation authorities deported them by train to the Treblinka killing center. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia interned in the "Monopol" tobacco factory, which was used as a transit camp. They were ultimately deported to the Treblinka killing center. Skopje, Macedonia, March 1943.
Jews from Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp before deportation to the Treblinka killing center. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.
Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia interned at the "Monopol" tobacco factory, used as a transit camp, before deportation to the Treblinka killing center. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
A family of Macedonian Jews in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp in Skopje before deportation. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.
A family of Macedonian Jews carries their luggage down a flight of stairs as they leave the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp for the deportation trains. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
Macedonian Jews leave the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp in Skopje for the deportation trains. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.
The Jews of Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to the Treblinka killing center.
Finally, the Jews of Bulgaria proper were under the rule of a Nazi ally that subjected them to ruinous anti-Jewish legislation, but ultimately yielded to pressure from Bulgarian parliamentarians, clerics, and intellectuals not to deport them. More than 50,000 Bulgarian Jews were thus saved.
Anti-Jewish measures took effect in Bulgaria after the beginning of World War II. In March 1941, Bulgaria joined the Axis alliance and German troops passed through Sofia. In May 1943, Norbert and his family were expelled to Plevin in northern Bulgaria, where they stayed with relatives. After the advance of the Soviet army in 1944, Norbert and his family returned to Sofia.
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