Expulsion and deportation of the Jews of Varaždin

Varaždin, the former capital of northern Croatia, was home to a prosperous and prominent Jewish community, endowed with a monumental synagogue. It became one of the first targets of the new Ustasha state, which sought to make an example of it: within the first few weeks, property was confiscated, community leaders were arrested, and families were ordered to leave the city. The regime publicly proclaimed Varaždin the first city to have been rid of its Jews — a distinction celebrated as a mark of glory in the propaganda of the time. The expelled were directed toward the Croatian capital, and then, in the months that followed, toward the camps the regime was opening in Slavonia and along the Adriatic. Almost none of them returned.