Lavoslav Schick

Lavoslav Schick (Šik) was a Croatian/Yugoslav Zionist, Judaist, journalist and a lawyer. He was born on the 27th of November 1881 in Vienna. After the death of his father, his mother married again and moved with his new husband and her two sons, Lavoslav (Leo) and Otto, in 1891 to Zagreb (Croatia) – then part of the Habsburg Empire. Schick studied Law in Zagreb, Vienna and Budapest and worked as a journalist. Already at the end of the 19th century he affirmed himself as a Zionist. He organized youth meetings, supported the Association of the South Slav Academics Bar Giora, founded 1902 in Vienna and he published numerous articles in the leading Zionist papers like Die Welt. From 1909 on Schick worked exclusively as a lawyer. Nevertheless he kept on writing and publishing articles and books on Jewish issues such as “The Jews and the Slavs” (1919) or “Jewish physicians in Yugoslavia” (1931). After the First World War he was elected Vice-President of the Zagreb Jewish Community. From 1933 on Schick was deeply engaged in helping the Jewish refugees from Nazi-Germany. As a convinced Zionist he believed that all persecuted European Jews should leave for Palestine. He himself visited Palestine in 1938. Although he was preparing his Aliyah – he obtained a so called capitalist certificate – he didn´t leave Yugoslavia on time. In 1941, when the fascist Independent State of Croatia was established, Schick was among the first Jews who were imprisoned. After a short period of time he was released, only to be detained again in autumn 1941 and to be deported to the concentration camp Jasenovac where he was murdered at the beginning of 1942. Schick was a prominent person among the Croatian Jewry and the Yugoslav Zionist. He worked enthusiastically for the Zionist cause and for the preservation of knowledge about the Jewish history. He collected books on Jewish issues from all over Europe. Today, his personal library is part of the general library of the Jewish Community Zagreb. The Schick- Library includes more than 5.000 books and several hundred periodicals. Schick´s archival material – including more than 3.000 correspondences led with individuals and organizations throughout Europe - is to be found in the archives of the National Library Zagreb.