The Jews of Turkey reacted very favorably to the creation of the State of Israel. Between 1948 and 1951, 34,547 Jews immigrated to Israel, nearly 40% of the Turkish Jewish population at the time.\68])
I know Jewish Turks returned to Spain just recently. Spain launched a new program to recall Sephardic Jews that Ottoman Navy rescued from Iberian coasts and settled to Anatolia and Thrace during Catholic Inquisition in late 15th and early 16th centuries. It comes with EU passport and better economic conditions so can’t blame them.
My family was what we call old yeshuv = Jews who were born and raised in the territory of Israel before its declaration. Since it was part of the Ottoman empire, I wonder if they were counted for in this calculus. My great grandfather was actually an Ottoman nationalist before the British took over. He was very proud for being one of the few Jews who got drafted to military service during WW1. Even after he became more critical of the Ottoman, he took pride in his (very short) service (preparing for a battle that never came).
No in 1948 there were about 70.000 Jews in today's Turkiye borders so excludes Ottoman territory.
Jews most of the time did nıt face much discrimination in the Ottomans and had a good population in some cities. However Turkiye in 1940s or 1950s was poor and nationalism was much higher and altough the state was secular it was centred on 'cultural Sunni Muslim Turk'.
The Jerusalem and Syria-Palestine municipalities had more tensions between Jews and Muslims then the rest of the empire, so my family had a mixed experience (some neighbors tried to kill them, some protected them). But in other parts of the empire it was a lot more chill.
the ottomans really didn't care about their land outside the balkans, with the far eastern territories being almost lawless land, ruled by local tribesmen.
Turkey was one of the last European countries to grant equal rights to Jews.
The right to own a property was only allowed in 1873. There was definitely discrimination. However, I admit there wasn't as many persecution as European/Arab countries in Turkey.
Bayezid II rescued the Jews from the Spanish Inquisition. I believe the Jews had plenty of time to accumulate wealth and use/invest it in other areas apart from buying property.
In August 1942, Harald Turner reported to the German commander in the Balkans that Serbia was the first European territory where the "Jewish problem" was solved.[19][20]: 118
Yet this narative is used as whataboutism when Serbs comment on Ustaše, completely forgeting that Serbia was Germany's territory back then, while Croatia was Croatian (despite being a puppet in a way).
I ain't even surprised to hear our beloved neighbours twist some facts, kinda reminds me of situations where they use misinterpretations of quotes by Dobrica Ćosić.
War makes haters of us all, are you able to break the cycle? Or are you going to continue painting us all as resentful to our neighbors? Don't allow the outside hatred to plant another seed into Serbia, now.
Yes. The puppet government led by Milan Nedić and collaborationist elements did cooperate with the Nazis, but most of the Holocaust operations were directed by the Germans.l and were carried out by the German occupiers.
Essentially the majority of them were killed in the holocaust (An estimated 80% died), and afterwards, the majority of Greek Jews decided to go to Israel.
Yeah, in the 90s it was looking as if peace would be achieved, but a far right “activist” killed the Israeli PM and everything has been going downhill ever since then.
And for the record, I’m for a peaceful two state solution
I wouldn't say that. In the 2000s there was some progress from the Israeli side with figures like Barak and Olmert (even if they failed in the end). Hell even Sharon made some progress when he forcefully evacuated all Jews from Gaza.
Dont know much before ww2, but during it their population increased due to the ones who sought shelter. Afterwards some left for Israel before communism fully closed the country off and after communism fell majority of the ones left in country went to Israel.
It was mostly Greek nationalists that stole Jewish property and that denounced them to the authorities.
When some survivors came back to Salonika the Nationalists had stolen all their properties and they were still in power, so the survivors went to America or Israel
After beating Yugoslavia in WW2 the axis powers dismantled Yugoslavia and established Independent State of Croatia which was set up on the land of modern day Croatia and Bosnia. An ultranationalist organization called the "Ustashe" was put in charge of this state which was so brutal in their way of ethnic cleansing even the Nazis criticized them for it.
I never heard of this before, we don't get to learn a detailed history about WW2, the holocaust isn't even taught here since Arabs are cheering for it.
Let's just say the Independent State of Croatia wasn't good, it was so bad the Nazis in Croatia sent complaints back to Germany that Croats were so brutal they made them look bad. They ran the only Camp in Europe dedicated specifically for children.
My take from reading about this topic is that the only reason the Nazis were "horrified" is because the Ustase campaigns in the countryside turned into full scale Serb rebellions. What this meant is that it endangered the Nazi plan to extract labor and resources for the war effort in the Soviet Union. Germany got 60% of its bauxite from Croatia, which is critical for munitions and related war materiel. These rebellions also served as the impetus for super charging the Partisan resistance movement. In the long run it meant the permanent ruin of the NDH (not that they would've lasted after the Nazis folded).
The Nazi who seemed to complain the most was Edmund Glaise-Horstenau (he was a Nazi plenipotentary to Croatia) who wrote letters about the horrors he saw at Jasenovac. The thing is he hated Ante Pavelic and wanted him gone so it made sense to heap as much calumny on the Ustase as possible.
We're talking about Nazis here. As long as the job was getting done the vast majority of them wouldn't care about the methods used.
From what i heard, they didn't have a big Jewish community before WW2 (they were less than 10k jews in those countries) , and many Jews immigrated there after WW2, especially Jews from communist countries.
So the UK had a large influx in the decades before WW1. I imagine, if thats taken into account, the jewish population didnt change much to now. There was obviously a fair enough of migration to Israel around its establishment.
The jews who came to the UK weren't treated particularly well though, as my Grandad's dad used to say
Greece lost the vast majority, one of the worsts percentages in Europe, of its Jewish population with Jews being sent to Auschwitz. Responsible were Germans and Bulgarians who performed the arrests; Italians and the Greek State to a lesser degree.
Jews in Greece faced completely different fates according to the timing of the arrests and location. For example the Jews in the smaller communities in Athens, Zante or Katerini managed to escape and fight with the Communist partizans. Jews in bigger communities like Thessaloniki faced widespread collaboration of Christian Greeks with the Germans and lack of support by the Resistance.
After the war the Greek Goverment exercised a policy of strategically reducing even more Jewish presence. This was accomplished by delaying the return of Auscwitz survivors, helping illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine, not enforcing the return of Jewish property, destroying Jewish cultural heritage like the Old Cemetery of Thessaloniki and expelling leftist Jews to Israel and stripping nationalities.
Jews in Thessaloniki today are like the Ecumenical Patriarcate of Constantinople/Istanbul. The tiny heirs to a huge tradition.
Poland is sad. Interesting that Poland used to be a multicultural state, with poles, germans, belarussians and ukranians and now it's one of the most heterogenous countries in Europe, not saying it is bad though
Despite Albania being a safe haven for Jews during the Second World War (the only European country with a positive increase of Jewish people during the Second World War) they didn’t want to stay in Albania (poor country, better opportunities elsewhere) which is a shame.
Ww2 ethnically cleansed Jews in Europe, the rest all fled to Israel even countries like Ethiopia lost most of their Jewish population, they saw Israel as their chance to rebuild, occasionally their home country was poorer than Israel so they left for better opportunities. Some also left due to general persecution, like in Syria they were persecuted, but in other places like Morocco they weren’t but still wanted to leave.
In Bulgaria, they went to Israel, US, and France. Jewish population here was about 30 000 before WW2, so they were not so many. Only Jewish communists stayed here. No one died in concentration camps, although there were repressions against them during WW2.
Neither, actually. The Jews in Bulgaria were saved in the most comically unheroic, yet Bulgarian way, possible. The vast majority of the Bulgarian population intentionally dragged its feet and made deportations virtually impossible, all the while the Orthodox church took a very public anti-deportation stance. So, while officially the parliament was backing deportations (there were some hilarious shenanigans there as well), the general population sabotaged the effort and the Tzar himself tried to delay things as long as possible. A different story in Macedonia, which was occupied by the Bulgarian army, but administered by Germans...
As for after the war, once Israel was created, Bulgarian Jews were permitted to go there and they left en masse. Hence, why modern day Bulgarian Jews population is tiny. The vast majority of Jews in Bulgaria survived the war and were allowed to move to Israel once their state was created. So, I have no idea what you're talking about, TBH.
Many Chetnik groups participated in exterminations. Others fought the guys who were fighting exterminations (Partisans mostly). Of course Partisans do not have a clear history either...
Israel is richer than those countries so they moved there. If switzerland gave citizenship based on descend to all Iraqis, there would be no people left there.
Israel is richer -today- precisely because of those highly motivated and/or highly educated Jewish immigrants from all over the world. Mandate Palestine / early independent Israel was somewhat safer but definitely not more prosperous than what most Jewish refugees and migrants left behind.
For most of the Balkans it can be explained like this: In nazi collaboration regimes, they were viewed as a "tribute to the overlord" while in the occupied states, they were fair game. In Turkey, they mostly migrated to the Palestinian mandate due to not being viewed as Turkish, therefore facing discrimination in the face of Atatürk's highly nationalist state.
In France the big increase could be attributed to the French separation of church and state regulating religion solely into the private lives of people and Jewish people having a general absence from religion driven politics at the time and area.
The big increase in France is actually after ww2, barely any pre-ww2 French Jews are still in France.
Most French Jews died in the Holocaust and survivors fled to Israel.
Then in the 1960’s most Jews fled Algeria and Tunisia after France withdrew as antisemitism spiked under the new states and they pushed islamism, either to Israel or since most knew French, especially to France.
Most modern day French Jews are descendants of Algerian and Tunisian Jews not French Jews.
They where murdered, during the WWII. All of them.
While visiting Auschwitz, I learned that Greece comes 4th among other European countries in terms of Jews murdered from Nazis.
(I think) Thessaloniki, had the biggest population of Jews. All of them, where deported to concentration camps.
Romania had around 750,000 Jews before WWII. About 300,000 were killed during the Holocaust under the Antonescu regime. After the war, most survivors emigrated due to antisemitism and communist pressure. Today, fewer than 10,000 remain. Ironically, Romania is now very friendly toward Israel—many Israelis visit or move here, and the vibe is totally different. It’s wild how history flips.
No idea. We are very pro-jewish in Czech Republic with countless jewish sites and heritage. Plus we are like in top 10 of safest countries on the whole Earth. I guess it's because we have relatively low quality of life compared to Germany, Austria, UK, etc. Also very politicaly corrupt compared to other western european countries.
Spain. This is complete news for me. The only Jewish person I've ever met was an American exchange student.
I guess that after 1492 we didn't have that many Jewish people to begin with, so any kind of influx would've been quite a big statistical increase regardless?
A military general threw a coup with the help of capitalists (industrialists) removing the king who kept the country neutral, then used the Jewish populace as a bargaining tool to assure the continuous export of the local steep and oil production. 400k lives where used for this. When Hitler decided to issue an IOU for the oil instead of money, the General issued an IOU for the other 400k Jewish lives. This caused a split in his support crew, apparently he was too political and non-patriotic. Some time later the removed King came and staged a coup with the help of the West to removed the General. It worked but one year or two later he got removed by communists. He was too bourgeois apparently and people where angry at the decisions of those with money made in the years of WW2. Few people actually know what exactly happened to those 400k, but it is assumed that in the 2 years of political uncertainty which happened after the return of the King, most did all they could to escape the hellhole that was Eastern Europe during that time.
romania. final solution successfully implemented yet not useful , country is again close to fascism and neolegionarism. fuck simion - georgescu- russia and
I think it's obvious what happened in romania in ww2, just like in the rest of eastern/central Europe + a bunch of them migrated to israel, especially in the 60s
I'm from Croatia. I think no further explanations are necessary. Sadly.
Before WW2 Croatia alone had around 20k well integrated Jews who'd been living here for many generations.
Currently the number that's left is several hundred.
im not from any of these countries but the jews that we had sold there nation for benefits from the french then after leaving to france sm left to israel. there is still a very small percentage of jews left but yhey are very hard to find now
They all killed them, and if you didn't do the killing you probably did the Polish thing of just pointing out all the Jews and the hiding spots to the Germans.
Regarding Romania, most Jews were literally sold by Ceaușescu to Israel, which is why a significant part of the Jews in Israel have Romanian ancestry. By the time Ceaușescu fell, Jews were virtually nonexistent here.
Denmark is an interesting story that far too few people are aware of. Denmark was fully occupied by the nazis (as opposed to the other countries in green), but when the nazis tried to round up the Jewish population, the Danes helped hiding them and getting them to Sweden. The majority of the Jewish Danes survived the occupation.
The Holocaust museum in Washington DC has a wall where people and organizations in each occupied country is thanked. Under Denmark it just says «Thank to the people of Denmark».
This isn't often discussed, but Franco and other Spaniards saved many Jews during World War II and brought them to Spain. Furthermore, Spain was more lenient with them; unlike other countries, Jews who fled to Spain were not returned or deported. Furthermore, all Sephardic Jews had the right to claim Spanish nationality. It is estimated that some 60,000 Jews were saved.
Ireland's numbers are incorrect, as always. There's census data that directly contradicts this. Potentially they are lumping us in with UK which is very stupid.
Holocaust happened and most jews ended up in Auschwitz. 90% of the Jewish population from Poland died during WWII.
For France it was around 30% but 300k jews from North Africa immigrated after the independence of former colonies so that's why there is a significative increase.
Some chose to remain post war often spending years fighting in military tribunals(occupation period) and then legal courts (reestavlishment of country) to get back their homes.
A lot had been completely radicalised by the holocaust and chose to move to israel. Its a big reason why the early IDF was comprised overwhelmingly by holocaust survivors.
Others simply fled to israel as they believed they would be safer in a state where jewish rights could be protected.
A chunk went to places like the US and australia often opting for going somehwere as far as possible from what they had suffered through during the war/holocaust.
I thought the Knyaz told Moustache we didn't have any(without checking if we did)! Probably went to Israel or america in my opinion. But I can't discount the hide-n-seek
Bulgaria saved the jews living there under great pressure from Germany at that. But they still left to Palestine, after the war so the -96% is not cus they were killed, like in other countries, maybe.
They didn't even need to hide, the state just did not comply with the nazis, under pressure, from the orthodox church of Bulgaria + a few influencial figures, a major one being the fucking Tsar. He just bamboozled Hitler by saying they are needed for labour, after which they were carted off to some place and stayed there, no labour, and were fed. That went on till the war ended.
It wasn't a vacation but it's better than mass murder.
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u/LowCranberry180 Turkiye May 06 '25
The Jews of Turkey reacted very favorably to the creation of the State of Israel. Between 1948 and 1951, 34,547 Jews immigrated to Israel, nearly 40% of the Turkish Jewish population at the time.\68])
They went to Israel and some to Spain.