chapter 10 The Rab Island Camp: From Internment to Freedom

In the collective memory Yugoslav Jewry, the incarceration in the Italian camp Kampor on Rab island and the camp’s liberation has remained much more important than the experience of relative autonomy and bustling cultural life in the camp in Kraljevica. Although, compared to Kraljevica, in the Rab Island camp (or Campo di concentramento per internati civili di guerra Arbe) Jews were incarcerated for a shorter period of time—from the end of May (some even from mid-July) until early September 1943—it received much more at- tention afterwards in memoirs and historiography. There are several reasons for this. First of all, to the Rab Island camp were transferred a great number of Jewish refugees until then scattered between the camps in Dubrovnik, on the islands of Hvar and Brač, and in Kraljevica, that now formed a group of over 3,500 people comprised of men, women, and children. Secondly, they jointly experienced the liberation of the camp that closely followed the capitulation of Italy on 8 September 1943, a powerful event marking a new stage in their war-torn lives. Finally, some of the inmates, together with Slovenian prisoners from the adjunct camp, overpowered the guards, took their weapons and, now armed, formed a short-lived Jewish partisan battalion comprised of 243 fight- ers, as a part of the Slovenian brigade formed on the island after the liberation of the camp. In addition, over 2,000 freed Jews were evacuated by partisans to the Croatian mainland and joined the fighting units of the People’s Liberation Army (NOV) as soldiers, physicians, nurses, and veterinarians, or helped the People’s Liberation Movement (NOP) in the partisan held territories. Now as free people with an opportunity to fight back, a number of them with weapons as active combatants, they—consciously or unconsciously—took part in the formation of the new society that would emerge in Yugoslavia after the war.1 The camp on Rab Island was created by the Italian army in summer 1942 and first served for incarceration of the population stemming from rebellious areas, such as Istria and Gorski Kotar in Croatia, and from Slovenia which sup- ported the partisan’s struggle against the occupiers. Initially, in the so-called

1 On the Rab Island camp and its dissolution see Romano, “Jevreji u logoru na Rabu,” 1–68; id., Jevreji Jugoslavije 1941–1945, 148–51, 282–84; Ristović, U potrazi za utočištem, 129–31; Goldstein, The Holocaust in Croatia, 435–37; 446–47; Polić, Imao sam sreće, 89–119.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004408906_015 336 chapter 10

figure 10.1 Elvira Kohn, camp dwellings, the Rab Island camp, June–September 1943, photograph, Inv. No. HPM/MRNH-F-11277. Croatian History Museum, Zagreb

Rab Island “Slovenian camp” that operated during the winter months of 1942– 1943, the situation was very difficult, as poor living conditions, winter floods, meager nutrition, and diseases claimed many lives.2 The Jewish camp, opened towards the summer of 1943 and strictly separated from the Slovenian one, consisted of one-story buildings and wooden barracks that served as family housing units (fig. 10.1). Conditions there were somewhat better than in the “Slovenian camp,” but still worse than in Kraljevica. Poor sanitary solutions re- sulted in the spread of diseases, leading to the opening of special hospitals in former hotels on the island to treat the sick. The food rations were smaller and there was a serious lack of water. Still, the Italian army continued to treat the Jews as civilian war refugees and intended to improve their lives in the camp: the food was planned to be more substantial; there were plans for opening a primary and high school to be taught by the inmates, a library formed from the inmates’ books, and utility workshops, while cultural activities were to be permitted. In order to ease the hygiene problem, the authorities intended to allow bathing in the sea.3 In spite of such good intentions and plans, the actual conditions—the sum- mer heat, overcrowded barracks, and the lack of water—resulted in signifi- cantly diminished cultural and artistic life when compared to the Kraljevica camp. Polić and Rochlitz remember a competition to write horror stories in which a number of youngsters participated, and they both single out Vlado Gottlieb’s contribution.4 In addition, the orchestra from Kraljevica soon came together again and continued to play under the baton of a new conductor. But regular religious services seem to have been interrupted. A number of people, especially the young ones, met in secret under the guidance of the camp’s

2 Grgurić, Talijanski koncentracioni logori, 44–62. 3 Romano, Jevreji Jugoslavije 1941–1945, 150–51. 4 Polić, Imao sam sreće, 98–99; Rochlitz, An Accident of Fate, 112–13.