No Escape: Greece and Yugoslavia Fall - Simon Wiesenthal Center Multimedia Learning Center

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No Escape: Greece and Yugoslavia Fall

Ustashi photograph documents their pride in dominating victims. CL:Arhive Aqenciie za Fotodokumentaciju u Zaqrebu

"They started with one huge husky peasant who began singing an old historical heroic song of the Serbs. They put his head on the table and as he continued to sing they slit his throat and then the next squad moved in to smash his skull. 'This is what you are all getting' an USTASA (Croatian Nazi) screamed. USTASE surrounded us. ...Then the slaughter began...Within a matter of minutes we stood in a lake of blood."Ljubo Jadnak, Survivor, Yugoslavia

"This State, our country is only for Croatians, and not for anyone else. There are no ways and means which we Croatians will not use to make our country truly ours and to clean it of all Jews and orthodox Serbs. All those who came to our country 300 years ago must disappear. We do not hide this our intention." Milovan Zanic, Minister of Justice, Croatia

Ustashi search and plunder property of newly arrived prisoners
at Jasenovac concentration camp. CL:Hrvatski Slikopisni Tiednik. No. 5047

Property plundered from internees by Ustashi at Jasenovac concentration camp (to be shared by guards). CL:Arhive Agencije za Fotodokumentaciju u Zaqrebu

"The Greek Jews in general in the camps were much worse off than the Ashkenazi Jews--for the simple reason that they did not speak Yiddish and did not understand German....Of the 60.000 Jews of Salonika, ninety-five percent did not survive." Jack Handeli, Survivor, Salonika

By April 1941, Germany conquered Greece and Yugoslavia. In less than two years, the Nazis had overrun most of Europe including France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Furthermore, the southeastern countries of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Rumania were controlled as Axis satellites. This rapid military success convinced the Nazis that the time was at hand to impose their "new order."

Women and children in a Jewish quarter of Salonika. CL:YIVO

Elderly Jews in Salonika, September, 1941. CL:YIVO

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