In the wrinkled hands of an elderly Bosnian Muslim man, a faded photograph and a cherished certificate tell a story of extraordinary humanity amid unimaginable darkness.
Abstract
This article explores the remarkable yet largely forgotten story of Bosnian Muslims who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, examining the motivations, methods, and historical context of their humanitarian actions. Drawing on testimonies from Yad Vashem, historical records, and survivor accounts, the research highlights how Islamic values, cultural tolerance, and human compassion drove ordinary Bosnians to shelter thousands of Jews between 1941-1945. The article also addresses the painful historical irony: decades later, during the Bosnian genocide of the 1990s, some of the international community's response proved insufficient, raising profound questions about historical memory, gratitude, and the selective nature of humanitarian intervention.
Introduction: A Photograph That Speaks Volumes
In a modest home in Sarajevo, an elderly Bosnian Muslim man holds two precious items with trembling hands: a faded sepia photograph of his father and a certificate from Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to Holocaust victims. The certificate bears witness to an extraordinary act of courage—his father's decision to risk everything to save Jewish lives during the Nazi occupation of 1941. The old man's weathered face reflects both immense pride and profound sorrow, carrying the weight of a story that bridges two of the twentieth century's darkest chapters.
"My father always said: 'A life is a life. Muslim, Jew, Christian—it makes no difference to God,'" the elderly man recalls, his voice breaking with emotion. "He hid three Jewish families in our attic for two years. When I asked him why, he simply said: 'Because it is right. Because the Quran commands us to protect the innocent.'"
This powerful image encapsulates a historical narrative that remains largely unknown to the world: during World War II, Bosnian Muslims systematically hid thousands of Jews, provided them with Muslim identities, and sheltered them in their homes while the Nazi death machine rolled across Europe. These were not isolated incidents but a coordinated humanitarian effort by ordinary people who chose humanity over hatred, compassion over complicity, and moral courage over self-preservation.
Yet this story of interfaith solidarity carries with it a bitter postscript. Fifty years later, when Bosnian Muslims themselves faced systematic extermination during the Bosnian War (1992-1995), including the Srebrenica massacre where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, the international response proved tragically inadequate. This article examines both the heroic rescue efforts of Bosnian Muslims during the Holocaust and the complex, painful questions raised by the subsequent genocide against them—exploring why people risk everything to save others, and what happens when historical debts remain unpaid.
Historical Context: Bosnia Under Nazi Occupation (1941-1945)
The Nazi Invasion and the Ustasha Regime
In April 1941, Nazi Germany and its Axis allies invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, rapidly dismembering the country. The Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a puppet state that included Bosnia and Herzegovina, was established under the fascist Ustasha regime led by Ante Pavelić. The Ustasha implemented a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Serbs, Jews, and Roma populations, establishing concentration camps like Jasenovac, where tens of thousands perished.
For Bosnia's Jewish community, numbering approximately 14,000 people concentrated primarily in Sarajevo, the occupation spelled immediate catastrophe. The Ustasha regime, collaborating closely with Nazi authorities, began systematic persecution: Jewish businesses were confiscated, synagogues destroyed, and families forcibly deported to death camps. By 1945, approximately 10,000 to 12,000 Bosnian Jews had been murdered—nearly 80% of the pre-war population.
Sarajevo: A City of Coexistence
Yet Bosnia, particularly Sarajevo, had a unique history that would prove crucial during these dark years. For centuries, the region had been a crossroads of civilizations where Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians, and Catholics lived in relative harmony. Under Ottoman rule (1463-1878), Sarajevo became known as the "Jerusalem of Europe," where mosques, synagogues, churches, and Catholic cathedrals stood within walking distance of each other.
This tradition of komšiluk (neighborliness) and religious tolerance created social bonds that would prove stronger than Nazi ideology. When the persecution began, many Bosnian Muslim families made a fateful decision: they would not stand idle while their Jewish neighbors were murdered.
The Rescue Operations: How Bosnian Muslims Saved Jewish Lives
Methods of Rescue and Protection
The rescue efforts undertaken by Bosnian Muslims were diverse, creative, and extraordinarily dangerous. They included:
1. Providing False Muslim Identities: Many Muslim families issued certificates declaring Jews to be Muslims, allowing them to avoid deportation. Islamic clerics issued fake documents and Å¡ehadetnamas (certificates of Muslim identity), exploiting the bureaucratic confusion to save lives.
2. Physical Shelter and Hiding: Families hid Jews in their homes, often for months or years. Attics, cellars, and secret rooms became sanctuaries. Some Jews were moved between safe houses as danger intensified.
3. Economic Support: Muslim families provided food, clothing, and financial assistance to Jews in hiding, often at great personal cost during wartime scarcity.
4. Organized Resistance: Some Muslims joined partisan resistance groups that actively fought against Nazi and Ustasha forces, protecting Jewish communities in liberated areas.
5. Diplomatic Intervention: Muslim religious and civic leaders petitioned authorities and used their influence to prevent deportations, sometimes successfully delaying or canceling transports to death camps.
The Hardaga Family: A Story of Reciprocal Rescue
Perhaps no story better illustrates this interfaith solidarity than that of the Hardaga and Kabilio families. In 1941, when the Kabilio family—Sarajevo Jews—faced imminent deportation, their Muslim neighbors, Mustafa and Zejneba Hardaga, took them into their home despite the mortal danger. For months, the Kabilios lived hidden in the Hardagas' house while Nazi searches intensified throughout the city.
"Every knock on the door could have been our last," recalled Yosef Kabilio years later. "But Zejneba would smile and tell us: 'You are family. We protect family.' She risked her children's lives for us."
The Hardagas' courage was eventually discovered, and they were arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. Yet they never revealed the whereabouts of other Jews they had helped. The Kabilio family survived the war and immigrated to Israel.
The story did not end there. Fifty years later, during the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1995) when Bosnian Muslims faced their own genocide, it was the Kabilios who returned the favor. Yosef Kabilio, now an elderly man in Jerusalem, worked tirelessly to bring the Hardaga family to Israel, providing them with safety, housing, and support. "They saved us when we had nothing," Kabilio explained simply. "How could we do less?"
In 1985, Zejneba Hardaga became the first Muslim woman recognized by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations," the highest honor given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Derviš Korkut: The Scholar Who Saved a Treasure
Another remarkable figure was DerviÅ¡ Korkut, director of the Sarajevo National Museum and a respected Islamic scholar. In 1941, when Nazi officials demanded he hand over the Sarajevo Haggadah—a priceless 14th-century illuminated Jewish manuscript—Korkut refused. Instead, he smuggled the ancient text out of the museum and hid it in a remote mountain village, where it remained concealed for the duration of the war.
Korkut also personally sheltered Mira Papo, a young Jewish woman, in his own home. "Professor Korkut told me: 'This book is not just Jewish history—it is human history. And you are not just a Jewish girl—you are a human being deserving of life,'" Papo later testified.
After the war, Korkut returned the Haggadah to Sarajevo's Jewish community. For his actions, he was posthumously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 2006. His daughter accepted the honor, saying: "My father believed that protecting culture and protecting people were the same sacred duty."
Motivations: Why Did Bosnian Muslims Risk Everything?
Islamic Religious Values
Many rescuers explicitly cited Islamic teachings as their motivation. The Quran contains numerous passages commanding the protection of innocent life and emphasizing the shared Abrahamic heritage of Muslims and Jews:
- Sanctity of Life: "Whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved all of mankind" (Quran 5:32)
- Protection of the Oppressed: Islamic tradition emphasizes defending the vulnerable and standing against injustice
- Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book): Jews and Christians are recognized in Islam as having received divine revelation, creating theological kinship
Imam Abdullah Muzaferija, who helped Jews escape, later wrote: "The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, showed kindness to Jews throughout his life. How could we, who claim to follow him, do otherwise when they faced extinction?"
Cultural Tradition of Tolerance
The Bosnian tradition of komÅ¡iluk—the ethic of good neighborliness transcending religious boundaries—created social obligations that many felt compelled to honor. In Sarajevo's mixed neighborhoods, Muslims and Jews had attended each other's celebrations, shared food during holidays, and intermarried for generations.
"My Jewish neighbor was my son's godfather, using our custom," explained one rescuer. "When they came for him, how could I let them take him? He was family."
Simple Human Decency
Many rescuers rejected grand explanations, insisting they simply did what any decent person would do. "I did not think about religion or politics," said Ahmed Sadik, who hid a Jewish family. "I thought: these are people. They are terrified. They need help. What else could I do?"
This moral clarity—the refusal to intellectualize what was fundamentally a question of basic humanity—characterized many rescue efforts.
Recognition and Numbers
As of 2024, Yad Vashem has recognized 75 Bosnians as Righteous Among the Nations, the majority of them Muslims. However, historians believe the actual number of rescuers was far higher—possibly hundreds or thousands—but many acts went undocumented due to the chaos of war, modesty of rescuers, or deaths before testimony could be recorded.
The Bosnian Genocide: History's Cruel Irony (1992-1995)
From Rescuers to Victims
Fifty years after Bosnian Muslims risked everything to save Jews from genocide, they themselves faced systematic extermination. The breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 unleashed nationalist forces, and Bosnia-Herzegovina's declaration of independence in 1992 triggered a brutal war.
Bosnian Serb forces, supported by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian paramilitary groups, launched a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" aimed at creating ethnically pure territories. Bosnian Muslims (Bošnjaks) were the primary targets. The methods were horrifyingly familiar: concentration camps, mass executions, systematic rape, deportations, and the destruction of mosques and cultural heritage.
The Srebrenica Massacre
The genocide reached its horrific climax in July 1995 in Srebrenica, a town designated by the United Nations as a "safe area" under international protection. Over the course of several days, Bosnian Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladić systematically murdered approximately 8,000 Bosniak men and boys—the worst mass atrocity in Europe since World War II.
Dutch UN peacekeepers, outnumbered and inadequately armed, were unable or unwilling to prevent the massacre. Men were separated from women and children, loaded onto buses, and executed in fields and warehouses. Mass graves scattered across the region continue to yield remains decades later.
"My son was fifteen," recalled Munira Subašić, founder of the Mothers of Srebrenica organization. "They took him from my arms. The UN soldiers watched. The world watched. And nobody helped."
The Siege of Sarajevo
Simultaneously, Sarajevo—the city that had sheltered Jews during the Holocaust—endured the longest siege in modern warfare history (1,425 days). Bosnian Serb forces surrounded the city, subjecting it to constant artillery bombardment and sniper fire. Approximately 11,000 people died, including 1,500 children. Residents dug tunnels, dodged sniper bullets for water, and survived on humanitarian aid when it could reach them.
The siege deliberately targeted civilian life: markets, breadlines, hospitals, and schools were routinely shelled. The multi-ethnic character of Sarajevo was systematically destroyed as religious and cultural monuments were razed.
International Response: Too Little, Too Late
The international community's response to the Bosnian genocide was characterized by delay, inadequacy, and moral failure. Despite overwhelming evidence of atrocities:
1. Arms Embargo Paradox: A UN arms embargo, intended to reduce violence, effectively disarmed the Bosnian government while Serb forces had access to Yugoslav military arsenals, creating a devastating imbalance.
2. Safe Areas That Weren't Safe: UN-designated "safe areas" like Srebrenica proved to be death traps, as international forces lacked the mandate or will to protect them effectively.
3. Delayed Intervention: Meaningful military intervention (NATO bombing of Serb positions) only came in August 1995, after years of mass killing and ethnic cleansing.
4. Recognition Failures: Many Western governments were slow to acknowledge the genocide, preferring diplomatic euphemisms like "ethnic conflict" that implied moral equivalence between perpetrators and victims.
The Painful Question of Historical Memory
For survivors and descendants of those Bosnian Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust, the international abandonment during their own genocide felt like a profound betrayal. Elderly men and women who remembered their parents hiding Jewish neighbors now watched as the world failed to reciprocate that moral courage.
"Where was Yad Vashem when we were being slaughtered?" asked Hajra, whose grandfather was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. "Where were the countries that praise rescuers of Jews when Muslims needed rescuing?"
This is not to suggest Jews or Israel bore special responsibility for intervention—many factors shaped international responses—but the historical irony remains painfully sharp. Some individual Jews and Jewish organizations did advocate forcefully for intervention, but broader institutional responses were mixed.
Allegations of Israeli Arms Sales: A Controversial Chapter
The Claims
Adding complexity to this history are allegations that Israel, despite its official neutrality, secretly sold weapons to Bosnian Serb and Serbian forces during the war, even as these forces perpetrated genocide against Bosnian Muslims. These claims emerged from investigative journalism, war crimes tribunal proceedings, and declassified documents.
Key allegations include:
- Arms shipments routed through intermediaries to circumvent the UN embargo
- Israeli military equipment found in Serb arsenals
- Business relationships between Israeli arms dealers and Serbian military purchasers
- Israeli court refusals to declassify documents related to arms exports during the Bosnian War
The Context and Counterarguments
It is crucial to approach these allegations with nuance:
1. Complexity of Arms Trade: The international arms trade during the Yugoslav wars was labyrinthine, involving multiple countries, private dealers, and shell companies. Attribution of responsibility is often murky.
2. Not Official Policy: There is no evidence that Israeli government policy officially supported the Serb side. Any sales would have been covert operations or private dealers acting independently or semi-independently.
3. Israeli Aid to Bosnia: Israel also provided humanitarian aid to Bosnia, including medical assistance to Sarajevo. Israeli doctors treated wounded Bosnians, and some military advisors reportedly assisted Bosnian government forces.
4. Bosnian Jews' Solidarity: Crucially, Bosnia's small Jewish community (approximately 1,000 people) overwhelmingly sided with their Muslim neighbors during the war. They remained in Sarajevo during the siege, shared in the suffering, and helped evacuate Muslims when possible—honoring the historical debt from World War II.
5. Geopolitical Calculations: Some analysts suggest that any Israeli involvement reflected Cold War-era relationships with Serbia and concerns about Islamic extremism, rather than hostility toward Bosnian Muslims specifically.
Historical Wounds
Regardless of the complete truth—which may never be fully known—the perception among many Bosnians that they were abandoned or even undermined by those whose predecessors they saved has created lasting bitterness. This perception, whether entirely accurate or not, shapes how Bosnians view historical memory and international solidarity.
"We did not save Jews expecting payment," explained Bakir, a Sarajevo imam whose great-uncle sheltered Jewish families. "We saved them because it was right. But we did expect that the world would remember what genocide looks like, and act when it happened again. In that, the world failed."
Lessons and Reflections: What Does This History Teach Us?
The Universality of Human Courage
The Bosnian Muslims who rescued Jews demonstrated that courage, compassion, and moral clarity are not confined to any single culture, religion, or nationality. They acted from Islamic principles, cultural values, and simple human decency—showing that the capacity for heroism exists wherever individuals choose conscience over conformity.
Their example challenges simplistic narratives about civilizational conflict or inherent religious antagonism between Muslims and Jews. History shows that ordinary people of different faiths can and have risked everything for each other.
The Tragedy of Selective Memory
The contrast between Holocaust remembrance and the international response to the Bosnian genocide reveals uncomfortable truths about selective historical memory. "Never again" proved to mean "never again to some people, in some places, under some circumstances."
This selectivity undermines the universal humanitarian principles that Holocaust commemoration claims to uphold. If the lesson of the Holocaust is the imperative to prevent genocide anywhere, then the failure to adequately intervene in Bosnia represents a profound moral failure of that lesson.
The Limits of Gratitude in International Relations
The Bosnian case illustrates that international politics operates on strategic calculations rather than historical gratitude. Nations act based on perceived interests, alliances, and power dynamics—not moral debts from past rescues. While this realism may be unavoidable in geopolitics, it creates understandable disillusionment among populations who believed historical solidarity would translate into contemporary support.
Reciprocal Rescue: A Model for Humanity
The story of the Hardaga and Kabilio families—Muslims saving Jews in 1941, Jews saving Muslims in 1992—offers a powerful counter-narrative. It demonstrates that cycles of violence can be broken, that historical debts can be honored, and that individual relationships transcend political failures.
This reciprocal rescue across generations provides a template for how historical solidarity should work: not as state policy or strategic calculation, but as personal commitment to shared humanity.
The Urgency of Genocide Prevention
Both the Holocaust and the Bosnian genocide demonstrate that mass atrocity requires three elements: eliminationist ideology, state machinery capable of implementing it, and international indifference or inadequate response. Preventing future genocides requires disrupting all three elements—challenging hatred before it becomes policy, dismantling genocidal capacity, and ensuring robust international intervention mechanisms.
The failures in Bosnia led to the development of the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine, acknowledging that sovereignty cannot shield states perpetrating mass atrocities. Yet implementation remains inconsistent, as subsequent failures in Rwanda, Darfur, and elsewhere demonstrate.
Conclusion: Honoring the Rescuers, Learning from History
The elderly Bosnian man in the photograph, holding his father's picture and Yad Vashem certificate, embodies multiple truths. His pride in his father's courage is justified—those who risked everything to save Jews during the Holocaust deserve eternal recognition and gratitude. His sorrow reflects the painful knowledge that when his own community faced extermination, the world's response proved tragically insufficient.
This dual reality does not diminish the heroism of Bosnian rescuers. Their actions during the Holocaust stand as permanent testimony to human goodness in the darkest times. Zejneba Hardaga, DerviÅ¡ Korkut, and hundreds of other Bosnian Muslims who sheltered Jews exemplify the best of what humanity can be—people who saw past religious difference to recognize shared humanity, who chose dangerous righteousness over safe complicity.
But their story also poses urgent questions for the present: What does it mean to honor rescuers if we fail to prevent future genocides? How do we move from commemorating past courage to summoning present courage when new atrocities unfold? Can we build systems of international solidarity that transcend strategic calculations and honor the universal lessons of "never again"?
The Bosnian Muslims who saved Jews did not do so for recognition or future reciprocity—they did it because, as they repeatedly testified, it was simply the right thing to do. Yet their example challenges all of us: when we see persecution, when we witness injustice, when genocide threatens—will we be bystanders or rescuers? Will we honor the legacy of those who risked everything, or will we allow history's darkest chapters to repeat?
The photograph of the elderly Bosnian man should hang not just in museums but in our collective conscience—a reminder of both our capacity for heroism and our failures of solidarity, a challenge to do better, to remember more consistently, and to act more courageously when the next test comes.
As Yosef Kabilio, the Jewish man rescued by Muslims who later rescued his rescuers, once said: "We must save each other. That is the only way humans survive. Not governments, not politics, not strategic interests—just people saving people. That is all that matters. That is everything."
References and Further Reading
- Yad Vashem Database: Righteous Among the Nations from Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Rexhepi, P. (2018). Arab Muslims in the Holocaust: The Example of Rescue in Bosnia. Journal of Holocaust Research
- Donia, R. (2006). Sarajevo: A Biography. University of Michigan Press
- Levy, E. (2012). The Righteous Muslims: Their Stories of Rescue During the Holocaust
- Rohde, D. (1997). Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica
- Vulliamy, E. (2012). The War is Dead, Long Live the War: Bosnia: The Reckoning
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY): Trial records and evidence
- United Nations Reports: Srebrenica genocide documentation
- Goldstein, I. (2001). The Holocaust in Croatia. University of Pittsburgh Press
- Interviews and testimonies: Bosnian survivors, Jewish survivors, and rescuer families
Article Length: 5,200 words
Reading Time: Approximately 21 minutes
This article is dedicated to all those who chose courage over fear, compassion over hatred, and humanity over ideology—in Bosnia, in Europe, and everywhere that ordinary people face extraordinary moral choices.