Gdje je ostalo židovsko bogatstvo? Opljačkano, iznuđeno - u službi obnove zemlje

Abstract

Istraživanje u arhivskoj građi Hrvatskog Državnog arhiva u Zagrebu odgovori na pitanje, što se dogodilo s „basnoslovnim židovskim bogatstvom“ hrvatskih Židova. Pratim „nasrtaje“ ustaške vlasti, ali i stanovništva na židovsku imovinu, koja je zbog tog arhetipskog predrasuda postala prvom metom ustaša, ali i prvim korakom k fizičkom uništenju Židova. Budući da je nasilno oduzimanje židovske imovine bilo motivirano „potrebama države“, proučila sam „putove“ imovine koja je, više nego velika poduzeća, zrcale osobni, ljudski profil hrvatskog židovstva - predmeti svakodnevnice, vrijednine čija nabava predstavlja podjednako znak potrebe za materijalnom sigurnošću kao i za estetikom svakodnevnice. Umjetnine, nakit, umjetničke rukotvorine - završili su djelomično u inozemstvu, djelomično u domaćim bankama, kamo se naposljetku slila i imovina opljačkana od građana, za što ih je komunistički režim sankcionirao. Zaključak treba glasiti da je pozamašan dio opljačkane imovine završio u institucijama jugoslavenske države. Pokazat će se da je jugoslavenska država nastojala povratiti ukradene umjetnine iz inozemstva i sprječavati „odliv“ iz zemlje. Država se pokazala sudionikom pljačke - to bi se moglo reći i za Jugoslaviju, poglavito za kulturne institucije, koje su, naposljetku, postale institucijama postjugoslavenskih Republika. Židovima je država malo pomagala ponovno graditi život.

The former Yugoslavia has neither been mentioned among states which built their welfare on expropriating and expelling Jews - probably for one reason: issues of Nazi-looted values, art, and jewelry robbed from Jews by the Ustashi and later confiscated or sequestrated by the Yugoslav communists, Jewish property bargained by Croatian fellow-citizens and not restituted to their former owners after the end of the war - these are the issue this research deals with. It is exactly Jewish personal properties - values of private, personal importance that make part of one's personal identity and remembrance, and their fate which turned my gaze: I described the expropriation of Jews during the Ustasha-regime, under the appearance of legitimacy and law, as well as naked plundering both by members of state-authorities as well as by paramilitaries and civil citizens. The treatment of Jewish private and personal property in Postwar-Yugoslavia aimed to nationalize as much as possible for reconstruction, development, and relief - particularly property of absent persons and the sequestration of property forcibly removed by occupying authorities. Yugoslavia in fact participated in expropriating the victims of prosecution, the more as their legal herits were deprived of facilities to regain either symbolic compensation. Museums and galleries, libraries, and archives took advantage of „property without proprietaries“. The property was handed over to the relevant authority for managing national resources “regardless of whether the property was bought, illegally appropriated, received for custody or received in any other manner.“ Citizens who profited from the expropriation of their Jewish fellow citizens, were not ready to give up their new comfortable wealth and to restitute it to their former owners. Restitution and recompensation - a moral imperative - have not yet been adopted by the successor states. This research summarises the traces of Jewish properties today. To rebuild their lives, state authorities were not aware enough that they are due support to those who had lost all they had.