Sljeme is a trunk-making company in Croatia founded in 1921 and held a

Royal warrant of appointment Royal warrants of appointment have been issued for centuries to tradespeople who supply goods or services to a royal court or certain royal personages. The royal warrant enables the supplier to advertise the fact that they supply to the issuer of ...

to the court of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1931 to 1941.

History

In 1921, Samuel Gati established Sljeme with the first shop at 12 Medulićeva Street in Zagreb. Gati was an

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

master malletier with over two decades of experience. In Zagreb, he began production of top-quality high-fashion trunks, car trunks, bags, gloves, and accessories under the name Sljeme. The company soon became famous for its excellent craftsmanship. They started exporting throughout Europe and took part in numerous exhibitions, such as the

1937 Paris Exhibition The ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne'' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Mus ...

. Eventually, a store was opened at 26 Ilica Street, Zagreb's busiest street. Expansion continued, and a store opened in Belgrade at 2 Poenkarova Street, in the heart of the city. It soon grabbed the attention of the royal family, with

Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark ( el, Όλγα; 11 June 1903 – 16 October 1997) was a Greek princess who became princess of Yugoslavia as the wife of Prince Paul, Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Princess Olga was a daughter of Princ ...

becoming a regular customer. In 1931 Sljeme became a Royal Warrant Holder of the Yugoslav court. At the beginning of World War II, a new store was opened in Zagreb's main square, 1, Ban Jelačić Square. After World War II, communists came to power in Croatia and nationalized private companies, including Sljeme. Because the company manufactured "

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

" luxury goods and supplied them to the royal family, it was considered to be "politically incorrect." Its name was forcibly changed to "Partizansko Sljeme" to celebrate the Yugoslav Partisans. By the end of the 1960s, Sljeme was merged with another leather goods manufacturer in Zagreb and was discontinued as a brand. In 2012, Sljeme was revived.{{Citation needed, date=June 2022 File:Sljeme_company_advertise.jpg, Sljeme ad

Samuel Gati

Samuel Gati, Sljeme's founder, was an

Jew born in 1887 in Szigetvár. After his apprenticeship to become a malletier in Budapest, he moved to Pécs in 1915 and founded a trunk-making company. He married Elisabeth Sečan of Nagykanizsa and their daughter, Magdalena Gati, was born in 1917. In 1920, after World War I and maybe because of the Hungarian White Terror, the family moved to Zagreb. The following year, Samuel Gati continued his trunk-making business with his newly founded company, Sljeme. When World War II started and after the Independent State of Croatia was formed, Jews were persecuted by anti-Semitic legislation (

The Holocaust in Croatia The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia ( hr, Holokaust u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj; he, השואה במדינת קרואטיה העצמאית) involved the genocide primarily of Jews, and also the genocide of Serbs (the Genocide o ...

). Samuel Gati was no exception: he was arrested and detained first at Crikvenica and then

Kraljevica Kraljevica (known as ''Porto Re'' in Italian and literally translated as "King's cove" in English) is a town in the Kvarner region of Croatia, located between Rijeka and Crikvenica, approximately thirty kilometers from Opatija and near the entran ...

and was later moved to the Rab concentration camp, all under the rule of

Fascist Italy Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

. Later, after the surrender of Italy, Gati was transferred to

Birkenau concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

under Nazi control, where he was murdered in the camp's gas chamber in 1944.

External links

* Catalog exhibition "Art Déco I umjetnost u Hrvatskoj između dva rata", chapter "Moda I still života!" by Djurdja Bartlett, MUO, Zagreb, 201

* Letters of Samuel Gati to Yugoslav Royal Palace, Maršalat Dvora, 11 Jan 1929, State Archives of the FPRY * Report #711-II-Pov-1931, Ministry of Interior Affairs, 31 Jan 1931, State Archives of the FPRY * Letter of Yugoslav Royal Palace, Maršalat Dvora, to Ministry of Interior Affairs, 29 Nov 1931, State Archives of the FPRY * Mira Schick, Page of Testimony #2049005, Comité Français pour Yad Vashem, Paris, 199

Luggage brands Fashion accessory brands Luxury brands Croatian brands Manufacturing companies established in 1921 Manufacturing companies based in Zagreb 1921 establishments in Croatia