Annihilation of the Jewish community of Banja Luka

Banja Luka, the main city of northern Bosnia, was home to the largest Jewish community in the region, bringing together Sephardic families from the south and Ashkenazic ones who had arrived with the Austro-Hungarian administration. Annexed to the Ustasha state, the city saw racial decrees applied without delay: loss of nationality, confiscation of property, wearing of the distinctive badge, exclusion from professions. Roundups were carried out by the regime's militia during the summer and autumn. The Jewish families of Banja Luka were transported to camps opened in Slavonia, where almost all of them perished. The synagogue was destroyed; the community never reconstituted itself.