• Old Jewish Cemetery
»Memorial graves« next to the entrance to the Pristina old Jewish cemetery honour the over 1,000 Jews who were deported from Kosovo.
Image: Pristina, undated, Historical postcard, Stiftung Denkmal
Pristina, undated, Historical postcard, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Pristina, 2007, Memorial grave at the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Pristina, 2007, Memorial grave at the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
The Jewish cemetery of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, lies outside of the city centre on the Taukbashçe mountain. The cemetery was established in the 19th century - at the time, the Jewish community had about 1,500 members. During the Second World War, Pristina became part of Italian controlled »Greater Albania« along with all of south-western Kosovo, which was mainly inhabited by Albanians. The northern and mostly Serbian part of Kosovo was under German military administration, while eastern Kosovo was occupied by Bulgaria. In April 1941, following the German invasion of Yugoslavia, German troops had also occupied south-western Kosovo. About 500 Jews were immediately arrested and deported to the Sajmište camp near Belgrade. Among them were also Jews from the north of Kosovo and from the German-occupied parts of Serbia. They had tried to flee to the Italian-occupied south.
At first, the Italian and Albanian authorities refused to persecute the Jews as was the practice in the territories under German occupation. Eventually, in the spring of 1942, Italy delivered 51 Jews from Kosovo to the Germans. They were shot in the Banjica camp outside of Belgrade. Following Italy's armistice with the Allies in September 1943, all of »Greater Albania« was occupied by German troops; persecutory measures against the Jews were also introduced in Kosovo. This included the wave of arrests carried out by the Waffen-SS 21st mountain infantry division »Skanderbeg«, which comprised Albanian volunteers and forcibly conscripted soldiers: On May 14, 1944, they arrested 300 to 400 Jews in Pristina and Gjakova. The prisoners - mostly Jewish refugees - were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Northern Germany. Presumably only about 100 of them survived. Pristina was liberated by partisans in 1944 and later became part of the Serbian federate state of Yugoslavia. Fewer than half of the Kosovan Jews survived the Holocaust. Most of them emigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1952.
Image: Pristina, undated, Historical postcard, Stiftung Denkmal
Pristina, undated, Historical postcard, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Pristina, 2007, Memorial grave at the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Pristina, 2007, Memorial grave at the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
The memorial graves are dedicated to over 1,000 Jews, who were arrested in Kosovo or handed over to the German authorities and several hundred of whom perished. Many of them were Jewish refugees.
Image: Pristina, 2009, Gravestone at the Jewish cemetery, Ivan Safyan Abrams
Pristina, 2009, Gravestone at the Jewish cemetery, Ivan Safyan Abrams
When the old Jewish cemetery of Pristina was placed under monumental protection in 1967, there were only about 57 gravestones left. The last burial took place in the 1980s. »Memorial graves« at the entrance honour those deported from »Greater Albania«.
The Jewish community of Pristina was founded anew in 1944. All efforts geared towards Jewish life in Pristina came to an end in 1999: during the Kosovo War, all Jews fled from the city - as well as all non-Albanian nationals and Serbs. After the war, Pristina came under UN administration. Today, Prizren is the only city in Kosovo with a Jewish population.
Image: Pristina, 2009, Grave of Jakob A. Chaim, »born 1919, killed 1944«, Ivan Safyan Abrams
Pristina, 2009, Grave of Jakob A. Chaim, »born 1919, killed 1944«, Ivan Safyan Abrams

Image: Pristina, 2009, Gravestones on the Jewish cemetery, Ivan Safyan Abrams
Pristina, 2009, Gravestones on the Jewish cemetery, Ivan Safyan Abrams
Name
Varrezat e vjetra çifute