Polemics with Nazism in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XXI

Polemics with Nazism in the Newspapers Zidov and Jevrejski Glas in Yugoslavia, 1935-1941

This paper discusses the Yugoslav Jewish response to Nazi propaganda as reflected in articles published in the newspapers Zidov of Zagreb, identified with the Zionist movement, and Jevrejski Glas of Sarajevo, which stressed the rights of Jews in Yugoslavia. Both papers denounced Nazism as “a cult of the spirit of war,” and antisemitism as an “irrational belief,” while expressing opposition to the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They sensed that Nazism endangered the very existence of civilization, and they exposed the lies of its anti-Jewish campaign. Both papers echoed the identity crisis of secular Jews and confusion in the face of the unprecedented Nazi menace. Ben-Zion also refers to the antisemitic press in Yugoslavia, such as the Katolicki Tjednik and Sarajevski List, which openly called for the murder of Jews in 1941.