When the celebrated German actress Tilla Durieux and her husband, industrialist Ludwig Katzenellenbogen learned in mid-1934 that their Swiss residence permits would not be renewed, they moved to Zagreb, then the capital of Croatia in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Durieux later recalled that many Europeans had little idea where Zagreb lay; some imagined it a suburb of Vienna or Prague, and Yugoslavia was thought of vaguely as “down there.” Friends admired their courage but worried about robberies on the road.
The couple had already fled Germany more than a year earlier. On March 31, 1933, after Adolf Hitler consolidated power, suspended civil liberties and unleashed violent repression, they left Berlin. SA squads patrolled the streets, thousands were arrested or sent to camps, and those able to escape included Jews, Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, artists and intellectuals. Most refugees went west to Switzerland, France, Britain or the United States; many Jews also sought safety in Palestine.
Far fewer people have noted the several thousand who sought refuge in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1933 and 1941 — in territories now known as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia. As historian Marie‑Janine Calic observed, few intended to remain there permanently. Yugoslavia’s Adriatic ports made onward travel possible, and unlike many states that tightened their borders after 1933, Yugoslavia issued temporary visas that could be extended and initially permitted refugees to work. Those pragmatic features attracted migrants even if many knew little about the country and associated it with wartime instability.
Zagreb received a large share of newcomers and became a hub for humanitarian activity. Jewish organizations raised funds, registered refugees and helped arrange onward journeys; ordinary citizens offered shelter, food and practical assistance. Surviving records show refugees’ deep gratitude for such aid. Among those escaping for reasons of profession, conscience or lifestyle was progressive educator Annemarie Wolff‑Richter, who ran a home for children considered difficult to educate under modern pedagogical methods. Deemed unacceptable by Nazi ideology, she was arrested, escaped with the children and found refuge in Mali Zaton near Dubrovnik.
Available figures count at least 55,000 people who fled to Yugoslavia from Germany by 1941, though the true number was likely higher. Some used Adriatic routes to reach Palestine or other Mediterranean destinations; others tried to rebuild lives in Yugoslavia.
The situation changed dramatically in April 1941 when the Wehrmacht and its allies invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. Persecution of Jews and other refugees began at once. Roughly 5,000 refugees were unable to flee; by October 1941, hundreds of Jewish refugees had been shot. In Italian-occupied coastal zones some refugees fared comparatively better, because the Italians tended to intern rather than execute them. But in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a Nazi-aligned puppet state established in 1941, refugees faced mass murder at extermination sites such as the Jasenovac camp.
Wolff‑Richter continued to run her children’s home under fascist Croatian rule but suffered grievous losses: her partner, Erwin Süßmann, was arrested and murdered at Jasenovac in December 1941, and Wolff‑Richter herself was deported there in 1944 and died shortly before the war’s end.
Durieux survived with help from relatives in Zagreb, though her husband was arrested while attempting to flee in 1941, deported to Germany and died there. After 1945 Durieux remained in Zagreb for nine years; honored for supporting Yugoslav partisans during the fascist period, she helped found the Zagreb Puppet Theater, received Yugoslav citizenship and later returned to Germany to continue her stage career. She remarried and maintained close ties to Zagreb; the Zagreb City Museum still holds items from her estate.
This article was originally written in German.