Zagreb, November 2, 2003 - Exhibition in Zagreb’s Jewish district was opened, dedicated to a Jewish Battalion of island of Rab, Croatia, the only Jewish anti-fascist military formation in Europe during WWII.
Rab’s Jewish Battalion was a formation created from surviving male prisoners of the concentration camp on the island of Rab during WWII (hence Rab’s Jewish Battalion) that was run by Italian Fascists who at the time were directly occupying the Southern Croatia. A day after the capitulation of Fascist Italy, September 9, 1943, the surviving prisoners rounded up their Italian captors, armed themselves from their weapons caches and headed out towards free partisan held territory in Croatia. Out of 3,500 prisoners from concentration camp “Kampor” on the island of Rab, 700 prisoners, most of them Slovenes, joined the partisans’ anti-fascist fight, while of the 250 Jewish fighters 40 died fighting during WWII.
In opening the exhibition, the president of Zagreb’s Jewish municipality, Dr. Ognjen Kraus, pointed out that the purpose of the exhibition was to remind and educate the general public about Rab’s Jewish Battalion, the only anti-fascist military Jewish formation in Europe during WWII. “We consider it our duty to place that unique phenomenon in place that it belongs to in the annals of history”, remarked Kraus. One of the two surviving members of the battalion, Dr. Darko Straus, said that it was a mistake, whose fault, among others, lies with the members themselves, that much is known about a Czech and Italian battalion as well as a German company in the Croatian anti-fascist guerilla formations of partisans, while little or nothing about the Jewish battalion. Although the battalion’s existence was brief, only 25 days, it had a significant impact on anti-fascist mobilization of Jews in Croatia, stated Straus.