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Distinctive Jewish badges that Croatian Jews were required to wear by order of the German authorities.
Duro Marberger, who escaped from Zagreb to Italian-occupied territory, and managed to immigrate to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) in 1944.
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Duro Marberger. Jerusalem, Israel
The directive that Jews must wear a distinctive Jewish badge in Croatia was announced in April 1941.
Yugoslavia, that on the eve of WWII included Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Kosovo, was taken over by the Germans and their collaborators in April 1941 and divided up between Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. Under Nazi occupation, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Srem District became part of a Croation satellite state ruled by a puppet government of the fascist Ustaša organization. On April 30th, 1941 the Jews of Croatia were ordered to affix to their clothing a distinctive oblong yellow badge printed with the letter " Ž" ( for Židow, "Jew" in Croatian).
The directive stipulated that a badge be worn on the chest and on the back. On June 11th 1941 the cloth badge denoting a Jew was changed to a circular yellow metal badge six centimeters in diameter stamped with "Z".
