Jews of Former Yugoslavia and their decline after wars in Yugoslavia: legal and material positions in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina 1991-2016

Once one of the most numerous and prosperous minorities in Yugoslavia, the number of Jews declined from over 80,000 to 15,000 in the years after WW2. This number further decreased due to migration to Israel in the first post-war years. Further, impoverishment took place because of the confiscation and restitution of the majority of private and communal Jewish property and enforced renouncing of Yugoslav citizenship. The first multi-party elections in Yugoslavia brought to power nationalist elements in all republics, which was followed by civil war, and the breaking of socialist Yugoslavia. Jews of Yugoslavia found themselves on different warring sides. Fragmentation on all confronted sides made the Jewish community even more vulnerable. A huge majority of former Warsaw Pact members after the Berlin Wall fell passed laws for the restitution of property taken by the state in the post WW2 period. Jews of Yugoslavia, in several new states, had promises from state officials that their property would be restituted and errors made half a century ago would be rectified. The only case where such a promise came true was Serbia. In 2011 Serbia passed the General Restitution Law concerning individuals, therefore also Jews.