This is a photograph of Klara Kohen from Sarajevo. Klara died fairly young in 1926 so it is assumed that the photograph was taken a short while before then. Klara Kohen was Hana Gasic’s nona, the Ladino word for grandmother used by Hana in the oral history she recorded with Centropa. In the photograph, Klara is standing for a formal portrait in her home. She is wearing a black dress and the conical hat traditionally worn by Sephardi women in Sarajevo. Klara is looking forward, with her arm resting on the back of a chair, which her granddaughter calls by its Turkish name, kanabe. The background is a rural street scene. Klara died when her daughter, Hana’s mother, was 13, so Hana never knew her and doesn’t know many stories about her. Hana notes that before World War II, the hat that Klara is wearing was a typical part of dress for Sephardi women in Sarajevo. Hana, who was born in 1940, says that she herself never saw anyone wearing this type of hat.
Hana Gasic’s family was from Sarajevo, then in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, today part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. They spoke both Serbo-Croatian and Ladino. Hana’s grandmother hid in Sarajevo during World War II, thanks to the protection of non-Jewish neighbours and employers and immigrated to Israel after the war with two of her sons. Hana’s father, a third son, remained in Yugoslavia, concerned that he wouldn’t be able to make a living in Israel. Both Hana’s mother and father came from traditional Jewish families of modest financial means. They were married in both civil and religious ceremonies. After the war, the rest of the family continued to live in Sarajevo and were very involved in the local community. Hana's father was an active member of the synagogue. They had a mezuzah on the entrance to their apartment, and Rabbi Menahem Roman, the last rabbi of Sarajevo, circumcised Hana’s younger brother. They kept Shabbat, and Hana vividly relates her experiences of the Jewish festivals, especially listening to the shofar and the festive meal on Purim. She remembers her parents attending the annual memorial services in the Croatian concentration camps. Hana met her husband at a Jewish day camp and moved with him to Belgrade, where her two children were born.
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Jewish Community of Sarajevo – The first record of Jews living in Sarajevo was 1565. Many of these were Spanish refugees from Salonika, Greece, who spoke Ladino. They were accepted by the wider community and worked as artisans and merchants and in the field of medicine. They lived in a Jewish quarter, but generally had good relations with their non-Jewish neighbours. In 1878, Sarajevo was annexed to Austria, which brought the first group of Ashkenazi Jews to the community. After World War I, Sarajevo became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Jews experienced freedom and opportunity during this time and the population rose to 14,000. The period during the two world wars was a time of Jewish growth including the establishment of new institutions and a rising interest in Zionism. During World War II, Sarajevo was occupied by Nazi Germany as of 1941. In the autumn of 1941, most members of the Jewish community were deported to Croatian concentration camps, where most of them were killed. After the war, the majority of the survivors moved to Israel, although a small group returned to Sarajevo. The Ashkenazi synagogue, built in 1902 and not destroyed during the Holocaust, became the centre of the Jewish community. Sarajevo was under siege during the Bosnian War (1992–1995). During the siege, 900 Jews were evacuated, and many left for Israel. Of those who stayed, many were involved in humanitarian relief through the Jewish institution La Benevolencija, which provided food and medicine to those in need, regardless of their ethnic background. There are currently 500–1,000 Jews in Bosnia, with most living in Sarajevo.
The Jewish Community of Bosnia – The Jewish community in Bosnia was first founded by Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Spain. Bosnia was under Ottoman rule at the time, and the Jews were welcomed to the country. The first Ashkenazi Jews arrived from Hungary at the end of the seventeenth century. The community prospered and lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbours. A famous figure in the community was Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, known as a proto-Zionist who lay the ideological foundations for the Zionist movement of the nineteenth century. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Bosnia became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Despite bringing another influx of Ashkenazi Jews to the country, most of the community remained Sephardi, speaking Ladino and observing specific Sephardi traditions. With the post-World War I collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , Bosnia was included in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Jews continued to prosper. Before World War II and the Nazi occupation of the country, there were approximately 20,000 Jews in Bosnia, most of whom lived in Sarajevo. In 1941 Bosnia was controlled by Croatia, which was governed by an anti-Semitic political party. In September 1941 deportations of Jews began, mostly to Auschwitz or to concentration camps in Croatia. By the end of World War II, 10,000 Bosnian Jews had been murdered. Despite this huge number, it is important to note that many Bosnians helped the Jews; in fact, 42 Bosnians were honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. The Jewish community was revived after the Holocaust, but most of the survivors chose to immigrate to Israel. The Bosnian War of the 1990s also affected the Jewish community. Throughout the war the Sarajevo Jewish Humanitarian Society, La Benevolencija, supported thousands of people of all religions, providing food, medicine, medical aid, and radio communication. La Benevolencija also organised the evacuation of Sarajevo residents (only a third of them Jewish) with the help of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Today, with the independence of Bosnia, the Jewish community numbers around 1,000. Community life is centred around La Benevolencija, which runs a community centre and a synagogue.
