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Jasenovac concentration camp

Coordinates: 45°16′54″N 16°56′06″E / 45.28167°N 16.93500°E / 45.28167; 16.93500
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Jasenovac concentration camp (Croatian, Serbian: Logor Jasenovac; Cyrillic script: Логор Јасеновац) was the largest concentration camp in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. The camp was established by the Ustaše (Ustasha) regime in August 1941 and dismantled in April 1945. In Jasenovac, the largest number of victims were ethnic Serbs, whom Ante Pavelić considered the main racial enemy of the NDH. The camp also held Jews, Roma, and large numbers of Croatian resistance members, most notably Partisans. [1]

Jasenovac was a complex of five subcamps [2] spread over 240 km2 (93 sq mi) on the banks of the Sava river. The largest camp was at Jasenovac, about 100 km (62 mi) southeast of Zagreb. The complex also included large grounds at Donja Gradina directly across the Sava river, a camp for children in Sisak to the northwest, and a women's camp in Stara Gradiška to the southeast. [citation needed]

Background

NDH Legislation

Some of the first legal orders of the NDH reflected the acceptance of the ideology of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, with an emphasis placed on Croatian national issues. The "Legal order for the defense of the people and the state" dated April 17, 1941 ordered the death penalty for "infringement of the honour and vital interests of the Croatian people and the survival of the Independent State of Croatia".[citation needed] It was soon followed by the "Legal order of races" and the "Legal order of the protection of Aryan blood and the honour of the Croatian people" dated April 30, 1941, as well as the "Order of the creation and definition of the racial-political committee" dated June 4, 1941. These decrees were enforced not only through the regular court system, but also through new special courts and mobile court-martials with extended jurisdiction. [citation needed]

In July, 1941, when existing jails could no longer contain the growing number of new inmates, the Ustaša government began clearing the ground for what would become the Jasenovac concentration camp.[citation needed]

Nazi Germany

The Independent State of Croatia was created and supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It thus adopted their racial and political doctrines. Jasenovac had a role in the Nazi "final solution"; it was also used, however, in the ethnic cleansing of Romany and Serbian inhabitants. The Nazi institutions that directed the Ustase's death camps were:

  • The office of foreign affairs, represented in Croatia by Siegfried Kasche.
  • The S.S., represented by a Gestapo official whose identity has not been fully established, but whom Jewish witnesses knew as "Miller".
  • The Reichfuhrung and the Wehrmacht.

The Nazis encouraged the Ustase's anti-Jewish and anti-Roma actions and showed support for the anti-Serb policy. Soon, the Nazis began to make clear their genocidal goals, as shown by the speech Hitler gave to Slavko Kvaternik, at their meeting on July, 21, 1941:

The Jews are the bane of the human kind. If the Jews will be allowed to do as they will, like they are permitted in their Soviet heaven, than they will fulfill their most insane plans. And thus Russia became the center to the world's illness... if for any reason, one nation would endure the existence of a single Jewish family, that family would eventually become the center of a new plot. If there are no more Jews in Europe, nothing will hold the unification of the European nations... this sort of people cannot be integrated in the social order or into an organized nation. They are parasites on the body of a healthy society, that live off of expulsion of decent people. One cannot expect them to fit into a state that requires order and discipline. There is only one thing to be done with them: To exterminate them. The state holds this right since, while precious men die on the battlefront, it would be nothing less than criminal to spare these bastards. They must be expelled, or -- if they pose no threat to the public -- to be imprisoned inside concentration camps and never be released." [3]

In the Wansee Conference, it was established that Germany would offer to the Croatian government to transport its Jews southwards, but the same conference seemed to question the importance of the offer, saying that: "the enactment of the final solution of the Jewish question is not crucial, since the key aspects of this problem were already solved by radical actions these governments took". [4]

In addition to specifying the means of extermination, the Nazis often arranged the imprisonment or transfer of inmates to Jasenovac. [5][6][7]. Kasche's emissary, Major Knehe, visited the camp in February 6, 1942. Kasche thereafter reported to his superiors:

Capitan Luburic, the commander-in-action of the camp, explained the construction plans of the camp. It turns out that he made these plans while in exile. These plans he modified after visiting concentration-camps installments in Germany. [8]

It thus appears that the Nazis inspected Jasenovac, possibly due to doubts they had about Ustase devotion to the extermination of Jews. Kasche wrote the following:"The Poglavnik asks General Bader to realize that the Jasenovac camp cannot receive the refugees of Kozara. I agreed since the camp is also required to solve the problem in deporting the Jews to the east. Minister Turina can deport the Jews to Jasenovac".[9].

It is unclear whether Jasenovac was to be used primarily as a death camp in its own right, like Sajmiste, or more as a collection depot from which Jews would be transported to Auschwitz. Stara-Gradiska was the primary site from which Jews were transported to Auschwitz, but Kashe's letter refers specifically to the subcamp Ciglana in this regard. [citation needed] [citation needed]

The extermination of Serbs at Jasenovac was precipitated by General Bader, who ordered that refugees be taken to Jasenovac. Although Jasenovac was expanded, officials were told that "Jasenovac concentration and labor camp cannot hold an infinite number of prisoners".[10]

Soon thereafter, German suspicions were renewed that the Ustaše was more concerned with the elimination of Serbs than Jews, and that Italian and Catholic pressure was dissuading the Ustase from killing Jews.[citation needed]

The Nazis therefore revisited the possibility of transporting Jews to Auschwitz for liquidation, not only because extermination was easier there, but also because the profits could be kept in German hands. [citation needed] Yet, Jasenovac remained as place where Jews who cannot be deported will be interned and killed. [citation needed] In this way, while Jews were deportated from Tenje, two deportations were also made to Jasenovac[11]. It is also illustrated by the report sent by Hans Helm to Eichmann, saying that the Jews will first be collected in Stara-Gradiska,and that "Jews employed in 'forced labor' in Ustase camps", mentioning only Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska," will not be deportated".[12]. The Nazis also found interest in the Jews that remained inside the camp, even in June 1944, after the visit of a red-cross delegation. Kasche wrote: "Schmidlin showed a special interest in the Jews... Luburic told me that Schmidllin told him that the Jews must be treated in the finest manner, and that they must survive, no matter what happens... Luburic suspected Schmidllin is an English agent and therefore prevented all contact between him and the Jews"[13]

Creation and operation of Jasenovac concentration camp

The Jasenovac complex was built between August 1941 and February 1942.[citation needed] The first two camps, Krapje and Bročica, were closed in November 1941.[citation needed]

The three newer camps continued to function until the end of the war:

  • Ciglana (Jasenovac III)
  • Kozara (Jasenovac IV)
  • Stara Gradiška (Jasenovac V)

The camp was constructed, managed and supervised by Department III of the Ustaška Narodna Služba or UNS (lit. "Ustaše People's Service"), a special police force of the NDH. [citation needed] Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić was head of the UNS. Individuals managing the camp at different times included Miroslav Majstorović and Dinko Šakić.[citation needed]

The Ustaše interned, tortured and executed men, women and children in Jasenovac. [citation needed] The largest number of victims were Serbs, but other victims included Jews, Bosniaks[14],Gypsies, and Croatian resistance members opposed to the regime (i.e. Partisans or their sympathizers, categorized by the Ustaše as "communists"). Upon arrival at the camp, the prisoners were marked with colors, similar to the use of Nazi concentration camp badges: blue for Serbs, and red for communists (non-Serbian resistance members), while Gypsies had no marks (this practice was later abandoned.)[15]. Most victims were killed at execution sites near the camp: Granik, Gradina, and other places. Those kept alive were mostly skilled at needed professions and trades (doctors, pharmacists, electricians, shoemakers, goldsmiths, and so on) and were employed in services and workshops at Jasenovac.[citation needed]

Living conditions

The living conditions in the camp evidenced the severity typical in Nazi death camps: a meager diet, deplorable accommodations, and cruel behavior by the Ustaše guards.[citation needed] Also, as in many camps, conditions would be improved temporarily during visits by delegations -- such as the press delegation that visited in February 1942 and a Red Cross delegation in June 1944 -- and reverted after the delegation left.[16]

  • Food: Again, typical of Nazi death camps, the diet of inmates at Jasenovac was insufficient to sustain life.[citation needed] The sorts of food they consumed changed during the camp's existence. In camp Brocice, inmates were given a "soup" made of hot water with starch for breakfast, and beans for lunch and dinner (served at 6:00, 12:00 and 21:00). [17] Food in Camp No. III was initially better, consisting of potatoes instead of beans; however, in January the diet was changed to a single daily serving of thin "turnip soup". [18] By the end of the year, the diet had been changed again, to three daily portions of thin gruel made of water and starch. [19] Food changed repeatedly thereafter.
  • Water: Jasenovac was even more severe than most death camps in one respect, a general lack of potable water. Prisoners were forced to drink water from the Sava river contaminated with ren (horseradish). [20]
  • Accommodations: In the first camps, Brocice and Krapje, inmates slept in standard concentration-camp barracks, with three tiers of bunks. In Camp No. III, which housed some 3,000 inmates, inmates initially slept in the attics of the workshops, in an open depot designated as a railway "tunnel", or simply in the open. A short time later, eight barracks were erected. [21][22] Inmates slept in six of these barracks, while the other two were used as a "clinic" and a "hospital", where ill inmates were concentrated to die or be liquidated. [23][24][25][26][27]

Most of the executions of Jews at Jasenovac occurred prior to August 1942. Thereafter, the NDH started to deport them to Auschwitz. In general, Jews were initially sent to Jasenovac from all parts of Croatia after being gathered in Zagreb, and from Bosnia and Herzegovina after being gathered in Sarajevo. Some, however, were transported directly to Jasenovac from other cities and smaller towns.

Mass murder and cruelty

A knife, strapped to the hand, which was used by the Ustaše militia for the speedy killing of inmates in concentration camps.

In the late summer of 1942, tens of thousands of Serbian villagers were deported to Jasenovac from the Kozara mountain area (in Bosnia) where NDH forces were fighting against the Yugoslav Partisans. [citation needed] Most of the men were killed at Jasenovac, but women were sent to forced labor in Germany. Children were taken from their mothers and either killed or dispersed to Catholic orphanages.[citation needed]

On the night of August 29, 1942, the prison guards made bets among themselves as to who could liquidate the largest number of inmates. One of the guards, Petar Brzica, reportedly cut the throats of about 1,360 new arrrivals with a butcher knife that became known as srbosjek ("Serb-cutter"). Other participants who confessed to participating in the bet included Ante Zrinusic, who killed some 600 inmates[28], and Mile Friganovic, who gave a detailed and consistent report of the incident. [29] Friganovic admitted to having killed some 1,100 inmates. He specifically recounted his torture of an old man named Vukasin; he attempted to compel the man to bless Ante Pavelic, which the old man refused to do, although Friganovic cut off his ears, nose and toungue after each refusal. Ultimately, he cut out the old man's eyes, tore out his heart, and slashed his throat. This incident was witnessed by Dr. Nikola Nikolic. [30]

Systematic extermination of prisoners

Besides sporadic killings and deaths due to the poor living conditions, many inmates arriving at Jasenovac were scheduled for systematic liquidation. [citation needed] An important criterion for selection was the duration of a prisoner's anticipated detention. Strong men capable of labor and sentenced to less than 3 years of incarceration were allowed to live. All inmates with indeterminate sentences or sentences of 3 years or more were immediately scheduled for liquidation, regardless of their fitness. [31][32] [33] [34]

Systematic extermination varied both as to place and form. Some of the executionss were mechanical, following Nazi methodolody, while others were manual. The mechanical means of extermination included:

  • Cremation: The Ustase cremated living inmates, who were sometimes drugged and sometimes fully awake, as well as corpses. The first cremations took place in the brick factory ovens in January, 1942. [35][36] Engineer Hinko Dominik Picilli perfected this method by converting seven of the kiln's furnace chambers into more sophisticated crematories. [37] [38] [39] [40] [41][42][43]. Crematories were also placed in Gradina, across the Sava River. According to the State Commission, however, "there is no information that it ever went into operation."[44]. Later testimony, however, say the Gradina crematory had become operational. [45] [46] Some bodies were buried rather than cremated, as shown by exhumation of bodies late in the war.
  • Gassing and poisoning: The Ustase, in following the Nazi example, as set in Auschwitz and Sajmiste, tried to utilize poisonous gas to kill inmates that arrived in Stara-Gradiska. They first tried to gas the women and children that arrived from camp Djakovo with gas-vans that Simo Klaic addressed as "green Thomas"[47] [48]. The method was later replaced with stationary gas-chambers with Zyklon-B and Sulphur monoxide [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56]

Manual methods, the Ustase's favorites, were liquidation that took part in utilizing sharp or blunt craftsmen tools: knives, saws, hammers and et cetera. These liquidations took place in various locations:

  • Granik: Granik was a ramp used to unload goods of Sava boats. In winter 1943-44, season agriculture laborers became unemployed, while large transports of new internees arrived and the need for liquidation, in light of the Axis expected defeat, were large. Therefore, the "Maks" Luburic devised a plan to utilize the crane as a gallow on which slaughter would be committed, so that the bodies could be dumped into the stream of the flowing river. In the autumn, the Ustase NCO's came in every night for some 20 days, with lists of names of people who were incarcerated in the warehouse, stripped, chained, beaten and than taken to the "Granik", where ballasts were tied to the wire that was bent on their arms, and their intestines and neck were slashed, and they were thrown into the river with a blow of a blunt tool in the head. The method was later enhanced, so that inmates were tied in pairs, back to back, their bellies were cut ere they were tossed into the river alive.
  • Gradina: The Ustase utilized empty areas in the vicinity of the villages Donja Gradina and Ustice, where they encircled an area marked for slaughter and mass graves in wire. The Ustase slew victims with knives or smashed their skulls with mallets. When gypsies arrived in the camp, they did not undergo selection, but were rather concentrated under the open skies at a section of camp known as "III-C". From there the gypsies were taken to liquidation in Gradina, working on the dike (men) or in the corn-fields in Ustice (women) in between liquidations. Thus Gradina and Ustica became Roma mass-grave-sites. furthermore, small groups of gypsies were utilized as gravediggers that actually participated in the slaughter at Gradina. Thus the extermination at the site grew until it became the main killing-ground in Jasenovac. Grave-sites were also located in Ustica and in Draksenic.
  • Mlaka and Jablanac: Two sites used as collection and labor camps for the women and children in camps III and V, but also as places where many of these women and children, as well as other groups, were liquidated at the Sava bank in between the two locations.
  • Velika Kustarica: According to the state-commission, as far as 50,000 people were killed here in the winter amid 1941 and 1942[57]. There are more evidence suggesting that killings took place there at that time and afterwards[58][59].

End of the camp

In April 1945, as Partisan units approached the camp, the Ustaše camp supervisors attempted to erase traces of the atrocities by working the death camp at full capacity. On April 22, 600 prisoners revolted; 520 were killed and 80 escaped.[60] Before abandoning the camp shortly after the prisoner revolt, the Ustaše killed the remaining prisoners, blasted and destroyed the buildings, guardhouses, torture rooms, the "Picili Furnace", and the other structures. Upon entering the camp, the partisans found only ruins, soot, smoke, and dead bodies.

During the following months of 1945, the grounds of Jasenovac were thoroughly destroyed by prisoners of war. The Allied forces captured 200 to 600 Home Guard members. Laborers completed destruction of the camp, leveling the site and dismantling the two-kilometer long, four-meter high wall that surrounded it.

Victims

Total Number

Historians have had difficulty calculating the number of victims at Jasenovac. Estimates of total deaths range from tens of thousands of deaths, which is the most commonly cited contemporary figure, to hundreds of thousands, which was the most common estimate prior to the 1990s.[citation needed]

The estimates vary due to lack of accurate records, the methods used for making estimates, and sometimes the political biases of the estimators. In some cases, entire families were exterminated, leaving no one to submit their names to the lists. On the other hand, it has been found that the lists include the names of people who died elsewhere, whose survival was not reported to the authorities, or who are counted more than once on the lists.

Victim Lists

  • The Jasenovac Memorial Area maintains a list of the names of 69,842 Jasenovac victims, including 39,580 Serbs, 14,599 Romanies, 10,700 Jews, 3,462 Croats, as well as people of some other ethnicities. The memorial estimates total deaths at 85,000 to 100,000. Former director Simo Brdar, however, estimated that at least 360,000 people died at the camp. [61]
  • The Belgrade Museum of the Holocaust keeps a list of the names of 80,022 victims (mostly from Jasenovac), including approximately 52,000 Serbs, 16,000 Jews, 12,000 Croats and 10,000 Romanies.[citation needed]. Milan Bulajic, former director, estimates total deaths at 500,000-700,000.
  • The Jasenovac Research Institute estimates 300-700,000 deaths at the camp.
  • Antun Miletić, a researcher at the Military Archives in Belgrade, has collected data on Jasenovac since 1979.[62] His list contains the names of 77,200 victims, of which 41,936 are Serbs.[62]
  • In 1998, the Bosniak Institute published SFR Yugoslavia's final List of war victims from the Jasenovac camp (created in 1992).[63] The list contained the names of 49,602 victims at Jasenovac, including 26,170 Serbs, 8,121 Jews, 5,900 Croats, 1471 Romanies, 787 Muslims (nationality unknown), 6,792 of unidentifiable ethnicity, and some listed simply as "others".[63]

Estimates by Holocaust institutions

Memorial signs with Serbian claims of victim counts, situated on the Republika Srpska side of the Sava river

The Yad Vashem center claims that over 500,000 Serbs were killed in the NDH [64], including those who were killed at Jasenovac, where approximately 600,000 victims of all ethnicities were killed. [65] Some Croatian commentators and holocaust revisionists have criticized these victim counts as exaggerated. [66][67]. The same figures are concluded by the Simon-Wiesentall center. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, also citated in quote by the Jewish virtual library, the victim figures are as follows: [68]

Between its establishment in 1941 and its evacuation in April 1945, Croat authorities murdered thousands of people at Jasenovac. Among the victims were: between 45,000 and 52,000 Serb residents of the so-called Independent State of Croatia; between 8,000 and 20,000 Jews; between 8,000 and 15,000 Roma (Gypsies); and between 5,000 and 12,000 ethnic Croats and Muslims, who were political and religious opponents of the regime.

The Croat authorities murdered between 330,000 and 390,000 ethnic Serb residents of Croatia and Bosnia during the period of Ustaša rule; more than 30,000 Croatian Jews were killed either in Croatia or at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Historical documentation sources

The documentation from the time of Jasenovac revolves around the different sides in the battle for Yugoslavia: The Germans and Italians on the one hand, and the Partisans on the other. There are also sources originating from the documentation of the Ustase themselves and of the Vatican. These sources are in times considered contemporary because German and Ustase sources tend to exaggerate, but the comparison of all different sources can give a reliable portrayt of the historical truth.

German generals issued reports of the number of victims as the war progressed.German military commanders gave different figures for the number of Serbs, Jews and others killed on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia. They circulated figures of 400,000 Serbs (Alexander Löhr); 350,000 Serbs (Lothar Rendulic); around 300,000 (Edmund Glaise von Horstenau); in 1943; "600-700,000 until March 1944" (Ernst Fick); 700,000 (Massenbach).Hermann Neubacher calculates:

"A third must become Catholic, a third must leave the country, and a third must die!" This last point of their program was accomplished. When prominent Ustasha leaders claimed that they slaughtered a million Serbs (including babies, children, women and the elderly), that is, in my opinion, a boastful exaggeration. On the basis of the reports submitted to me, I believe that the number of defenseless victims slaughtered to be three quarters of a million. (Neubacher, Dr. Hermann. Special Assignment in the Southeast, p. 18-30.)

Italian generals, who were more overwhelmed by the atrocious Ustase slaughter, also reported of similar figures to their commanders [69]. The Vatican's sources also speak of similar figures, E.g. of 350,000 Serbs slaughtered by the end of 1942 (Eugen Tisserant [70])

The Ustase themselves gave more` exaggerated assuptions of the number of people they killed. Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić, commander-in-chief of all the Croatian camps, announced the great "efficiency" of the Jasenovac camp at a ceremony on October 9, 1942 (keep in mind that Jasenovac operated until 1945). During the banquet which followed, he reported with pride: "We have slaughtered here at Jasenovac more people than the Ottoman Empire was able to do during its occupation of Europe." [71]. Although the account may appear somewhat exgratted, its veracity can be found in several other Ustase accounts: a circular of the Ustase general headquarters that reads: "the concentration and labor camp in Jasenovac can receive an unlimited number of internees"[72]). In the same spirit, Miroslav Filipovic-Majstorovic, once captured by Yugoslav forces, addmitted, in attempt to somewaht minimize the rate of crimes committed in Jasenovac (e.g. Miroslav claimed to have personally killed 100 people, extremlly understated[73]), that during his three months of administration, 20,000 to 30,000 people died [74], whereas in other sources it is displayed as 40,000 [75][76].

A report of the National Committee of Croatia for the investigation of the crimes of the occupation forces and their collaborators, dated November 15, 1945, which was commissioned by the new government of Yugoslavia under Tito, stated that 500,000-600,000 people were killed at the Jasenovac complex. These estimates were supported by the government of Yugoslavia while it existed.[citation needed] These figures were cited by researcher Israel Gutman in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and others. Proponents of these numbers were subsequently accused of artificially inflating them for purpose of obtaining war reparations. All in all, The state-commission's report appears to be authentic, since it matches all other sources regarding to the atrocities committed in Jasenovac. Nevertheless, if the numbers were inflated, the gap was probably not substantialy large. The state's total war casualties of 1,700,000 as presented by Yugoslavia at the Paris Peace Treaties, were produced by a math student, Vladeta Vučković, at the Federal Bureau of Statistics.[77] He later admitted that his estimates included demographic losses (i.e. also factoring in the estimated population increase), while actual losses would have been significantly less.[77]

Forensic sources

In the 1960s, exhumations of bodies and use of sampling methods was conducted at Jasenovac by a team of researchers. The team consisted of anthropologists, medical doctors, archaeologists and other experts, who had experience in similar research at Auschwitz and used the same methods. During the Yugoslav Wars, Serbian anthropologist, Srboljub Živanović, published what he claimed were the full results of the studies, which had allegedly been suppressed by Tito's government in the name of brotherhood and unity, in order to put less emphasis on the crimes of the Ustashe. [78][79] According to Živanović, the research gave strong support to the victim counts of more than 500,000, with estimates of 700,000-800,000 being realistic. Other team members assert that the Jasenovac researchers never discussed victim counts in preparing their report. However the number, of some 300,000 bodies being found and exhumed is considered reliable[80]

Statistical estimates

In the 1980s, calculations were done independently by Croat economist Vladimir Žerjavić and Serb statistician Bogoljub Kočović, who each claimed that total number of victims in Yugoslavia was less than 1.7 million, an official estimate at the time, both concluding that the number of victims was around one million. Žerjavić claimed that number of victims in the Independent State of Croatia was between 300,000 and 350,000, including 80,000 victims in Jasnovac, as well as thousands of deaths in other camps and prisons. Kočović, who made an estimate of the total number of victims, accused Žerjavić of being motivated by nationalism: Zerjavic relies on the writings of Franjo Tudjman, a Croatian nationalist and holocaust revisionist. In the trail of Dinko Sakic, Zerjavic testified that the number of casualties is 85,000, as did Josip Jurcevcic, Sakic's defence witness. As Sakic, who also claimed no mass-atrocities took place in the camp, was indeed found guilty, Jurcevic testimony on the death rate, as that of Zerjavic, are held as non-reliable.

Commentators in Serbia criticized these estimates as too low, since the demographic calculations assumed that the growth rate for Serbs in Bosnia (which was part of the Independent State of Croatia during the war time) was equal to the total growth rate throughout the former Yugoslavia (1.1% at the time). According to Serbian sources, however, the actual growth rate in this region was 2.4% (in 1921-1931) and 3.5% (in 1949-1953). This method is considered very unreliable by critics because there is no reliable data on total births during this period, yet the results depend strongly on the birth rate - just a change of 0.1% in birth rate changes the victim count by 50,000.

Various

Logically, the number of casualties in Jasenovac is affected by several factors:

  • the camp's size: Jasenovac was a complex of various camps, including Krapje and Brocice, Ciglana, Stara-Gradiska, Sisak, Djakovo, Jablanac, Mlaka, Draksenic, Gradina and Ustice, Dubica, Kosutarica, Jasenovac's tannery. These camps and mass-grave yards covered 120 square miles. This fact is also important since in the list of nmaes found in the Jasenovac memorial, only 4000 victims are of Stara-Gradiska, which points just how partial the list really is.
  • The length of the camp's existance: Jasenovac stood since mid-August 1941 to May 1945. Mass-extermination took place in mass in the whole of 1941-1942, and again in the second half of 1944. From March to December 1943, a "lull" took place when almost no mass-atrocities took place, whilst death due ot health impairment or in indevidual slaugther (to wit, that any gaurd could kill any inmate at any given time) continued.
  • The camp's classification: besides being a concentration camp, Jasenovac was an extermination camp. For comparison, Belzec and Kulmhof, both small and both existed for a significantly shorter period of time, exterminated over 300,000 and 128,000 accordingly.
  • The camp's population: Jasenovac housed and used as a place of extermination for Serbs, Jews, Roma, Sinti, Slovens and other ethnicities, whereas in all extermination camps only Jews and Roma were exterminated, therefore, the number of casualties should be in accordance.

Additionaly, Crematories were constructed in Jasenovac as back as January 1942, due to difficulties of burial, thus implying the massive death rate at hand there. The same goes for gassing that also took place in Stara-Gradiska later that year, in both chambers and vans.

Camp officials and their fate

Some of the camp officials and their post-war fate are listed below:

  • Miroslav Majstorović, an Ustasa infamous for his command periods in Jasenovac and Stara-Gradiska[81], named "Fra Sotona" (brother devil) for his cruelty and christian heritage, was captured by the Yugoslav communist forces, tried and executed in 1946.
  • Maks Luburić was the commandant of the Ustaska Obrna, or Ustase defense, thus being held responsible for all crimes committed under his supervision in Jasenovac, which he visited two-three times a month or so[82]. fled to Spain, but was assassinated by a Yugoslav agent in 1969.
  • Dinko Šakić fled to Argentina, but was eventually extradited, tried and sentenced, in 1999, by Croatian authorities to 20 years in prison, dying in prison in 2008.
  • Petar Brzica was an Ustasa officer who, in the night of August 29, 1942, allegedly slaughtered 1,360 people or so, Brzica's fellow Ustasa also took part in that crime, as part of a competition of throat cutting. Brzica is also known for having killed an inmate by beating him, on the departure of administrator Ivica Matkovic, March 1943[83]. He later fled to the United States. His name was on a list of 59 Nazis living in the US given by a Jewish organization to the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the 1970s. His fate after that is not publicly known.

Later events

Yugoslav Marshal Josip Broz never visited the site.[84]

The Jasenovac Memorial Museum was temporarily abandoned during the Yugoslav wars. In November 1991, Simo Brdar, a former associate director of the Memorial, collected the documentation from the museum and brought it to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Brdr kept the documents until 2001, when he transferred them to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, with the help of SFOR and the government of Republika Srpska.

Croatian president Franjo Tudjman made an official visit to the site in 1994.[85]

The New York City Parks Department, the Holocaust Park Committee and the Jasenovac Research Institute, with the help of US Congressman Anthony Weiner, established a public monument to the victims of Jasenovac in April 2005 (the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the camps.) The dedication ceremony was attended by ten Yugoslavian Holocaust survivors, as well as diplomats from Serbia, Bosnia and Israel. It remains the only public monument to Jasenovac victims outside of the Balkans. Annual commemorations are held there every April.[citation needed]

The Jasenovac Memorial Museum re-opened in November 2006 with a new exhibition designed by the Croatian architect, Helena Paver Njirić, and an Educational Center designed by the firm Produkcija. The Memorial Museum features an interior of rubber-clad steel modules, video and projection screens, and glass cases displaying artifacts from the camp. Above the exhibition space, which is quite dark, is a field of glass panels inscribed with the names of the victims. Helena Njirić won the first prize of the 2006 Zagreb Architectural Salon for her work on the museum.[citation needed]

Notes

  1. ^ Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, ed. in chief Israel Gutman, Macmillan, New York and London, 1990 - entry Jasenovac
  2. ^ Breitman, Richard; U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis
  3. ^ Hilgruber, Staatsmanner und Diplomaten bei Hitler, p. 611.
  4. ^ Wansee, Nuremberg trail documents, NG-2568-G
  5. ^ M. Shelach, p. 166-169, 171, 185-189, 192, 194-196, 208, 442-443
  6. ^ Tibor Lovrencic testimony, trail of Dinko Sakic
  7. ^ Dj. Schwartz, p. 301
  8. ^ Shelach, p. 195.
  9. ^ A.A. Nachlass Kasche- 105
  10. ^ Dinko Sakic indictment, case file p- 1603
  11. ^ M. Shelach, "History of the holocaust: Yugoslavia"
  12. ^ Eichmann crimes in Yugoslavia: facts and views, p. 8-9
  13. ^ M. Persen,"Ustaski Logori", p. 97
  14. ^ *Bosniaks in Jasenovac Concentration Camp—Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals, Sarajevo. ISBN 9789958471025. October 2006. (Holocaust Studies)
  15. ^ Djuro Schwartz,"in the death camps of Jasenovac"(במחנות המוות של יאסנובץ, קובץ מחקרים כ"ה של יד-ושם), p. 329
  16. ^ Gutman Israel (Ed.), "Encyclopedia of the holocaust", vol. 1, p. 739
  17. ^ Djuro Schwartz,"in the death camps of Jasenovac", p. 299-300
  18. ^ Cadik Danon, "The smell of human flesh".
  19. ^ Lazar Lukajc:"Fratri i Ustase Kolju", interview with Borislav Seva on pages 625-639
  20. ^ Dinko Sakic indictment, available at http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/documents/optuznica/optuznica.html), overview of witnesses' testimonies, witnesses Mara Cvetko, Jakov Finci and others
  21. ^ State-commission for the investigation of the Ustasa crimes and their collaborators, P. 19-20, 40.
  22. ^ Djuro Schwartz, p. 299, 302-303, 306, 313, 315, 319-320, 322
  23. ^ Sakic indictment, Dragan Roller testimony.
  24. ^ State-commission, P. 20, 39 (testimonies: Hinko Steiner,Marijan Setinc, Sabetaj Kamhi, Kuhada Nikola)
  25. ^ Sakic indictment, testimonies: Dragan Roller, Anton Milkovic, Mara Cvetko, Jakov Finci, Adolf Friedrich and Abinun Jesua
  26. ^ Djuro Schwartz, p. 316,324-328, 330
  27. ^ Cadik Danon, "The Smell of Human Flesh", as presented here (under the the heading "Hunger"): http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Danon/index.html#doc
  28. ^ Dinko Sakic trial, Ljubomir Saric testimony,15.4.1999, at: http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9904/hina-15-g.html
  29. ^ The Role of the Vatican in the Breakup of the Yugoslav State, by Dr. Milan Bulajić, Belgrade, 1994: 156-157; from a Jan., 1943, interview with Mile Friganović by psychiatrist Dr. Nedo Zec, who was also an inmate at Jasenovac. http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/wschindley-jasenovac_en.html
  30. ^ Avro Manhatten, The Vatican's Holocaust, p. 48.
  31. ^ State-commission, p. 9-11, 46-47
  32. ^ Cadik Danon, The Smell of Human Flesh chapter 1,"The First Day". This article can be found at http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Danon/FirstDay.html
  33. ^ Avro Manhatten, The Vatican's Holocaust, chapter 4, "The Nightmare of a Nation". Found at http://www.reformation.org/holoc4.html
  34. ^ various testimony in the Dinko Sakic trail and indictment, found at http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/
  35. ^ Lukajic, "Fratri i Ustase Kolju", interview with Borislav Seva, "they threw Rade Zrnic into the brick factory fires alive!". Available at http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Lukajic/Borislav_Sheva.html
  36. ^ C. Savic column on Serbianna.com/Jasenovac ( http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/007.shtml ). Sado Cohen-Davko testimony.
  37. ^ Savic, Jasenovac. Testimonies: Jakov Atijas, Jakov Kablij, Sado Cohen-Davko
  38. ^ State-commission, p. 14, 27, 31, 42-43, 70
  39. ^ testimony in the Dinko Sakic case
  40. ^ Cadik Danon, The Smell of Human Flesh, Chapter "The Smell of Human Flesh". See http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Danon/Furnace.html
  41. ^ interview with Borislav Seva
  42. ^ Shorthand notes of the Ljubo Milos case. Also in: indictment of Ante Pavelic and presented in The Vatican's Holocaust", http://www.reformation.org/holoc4.html
  43. ^ Dr. Edmund Paris, Genocide in Satellite Croatia, p. 132.
  44. ^ State-commission, p. 43
  45. ^ Sakic trial, Tibor Lovrencic testimony, 30.3.99, available at http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9903/hina-30-t.html
  46. ^ Djuro Schwartz, p. 331-332
  47. ^ Dinko Sakic trail, Simo Klaic testimony, 23.3.99
  48. ^ Dragan Roller, statement to the press during the Dinko Sakic case, new-york times, May 2nd, 1998: "War crimes horrors revive as Croat faces a possible trial", by Chris Hedges
  49. ^ http://www.reformation.org/archive.html , Alberto Rivera testimony from: "The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican"
  50. ^ Savic, Jasenovac, testimonies: Sado Cohen-Davko,Misha Danon, Jakov Atijas
  51. ^ "Zlocini Okupatora Nijhovih Pomagaca Harvatskoj Protiv Jevrija". Pages 144-145
  52. ^ Shorthand notes of the Ljubo Milos case, p. 292-293. Antun Vrban himself admmitted of his crimes: "Q. And what did you do with the children A. The weaker ones we poisoned Q. How? A. We led them into a yard... and into it we threw gas Q. What gas? A. Zyklon."(Qtd. M. Shelach (Ed.),"The History of the holocaust: Yugoslavia")
  53. ^ Sakic trail, testimonies of witnesses: Milka Zabicic, Jesua Abinun, Jakov Finci, Simo Klaic and others
  54. ^ "Blank pages of the holocaust"
  55. ^ M. Persen, "Ustasi Logore", p. 105
  56. ^ Secanja Jevreja na logor Jasenovac", p. 40-41,58, 76, 151
  57. ^ State-commission, p. 38-39
  58. ^ Dragutin Skrgatic testifies in the trail of Dinko Sakic, 14.4.99 (http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9904/hina-14-f.html).
  59. ^ Illija Ivanovic, "witness to Jasenovac hell", "the last day in Jasenovac"
  60. ^ Timebase Multimedia Chronography(TM) - Timebase 1945
  61. ^ Southeast Times: Exhibition aims to show truth about Jasenovac
  62. ^ a b Anzulovic, Branimir. Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide, Hurst & Company. London, 1999
  63. ^ a b Bošnjački Institut. Jasenovac: Žrtve rata prema podacima statističkog zavoda Jugoslavije. Bošnjački Institut Sarajevo, Sarajevo 1998.
  64. ^ http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205930.pdf
  65. ^ [1] Yad Vashem
  66. ^ Professor Josip Pecaric, Serbian myth about Jasenovac (summary)
  67. ^ Marijana Cota, “The Šakić Case - Disinformation and Ill Will”, The Home Club of the Bosnian Posavina, Zagreb 1999, p. 136.
  68. ^ Jasenovac
  69. ^ Le Operazioni della unita Italiane in Jugislavja. Rome 1978. pp. 141-148
  70. ^ C. Falconi,The silence of pius XII, London 1970,p. 3308
  71. ^ "Dr. Edmund Paris, "Genocide in satelite Croatia", P. 132
  72. ^ Dinko Sakic indictment, case file page 1298
  73. ^ Sakic trail, testimony of Simo Klaic, 23.3.99,http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9903/hina-23-m.html
  74. ^ State-commission, p. 62
  75. ^ Avro Manhatten, "the Vatican's holocaust
  76. ^ Jasenovac, Savic\collumns\serbianna.com, confession of Miroslav Filipovic- Majstorovic at http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/007.shtml
  77. ^ a b Vladimir Zerjavic - How the number of 1.7 million casualties of the Second World War has been derived
  78. ^ Jasenovac - Donja Gradina: Večan pomen Jasenovac
  79. ^ Politika Newspapers & Magazines d.o.o. - Ilustrovana Politika
  80. ^ Vladimir Zerjavic - Anthropological Survey
  81. ^ State-commission for the investigation of the crimes of the occupation forces and their collaborators, p. 31-32 as hereby posted on: http://pavelic-papers.com/features/jasenovac1946.pdf
  82. ^ State-commission, p. 28-29
  83. ^ State-commission, p. 50,72
  84. ^ President Mesić in Vojnić
  85. ^ "Clear denouncement of crimes in Jasenovac and Bleiburg will stabilize Croatia and its position in the world."Nacional, 2002.

References

  1. The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican, Vladimir Dedijer (Editor), Harvey Kendall (Translator) Prometheus Books, 1992.
  2. Witness to Jasenovac's Hell Ilija Ivanovic, Wanda Schindley (Editor), Aleksandra Lazic (Translator) Dallas Publishing, 2002
  3. Crimes in the Jasenovac Camp, State Commission investigation of crimes of the occupiers and their collaborators in Croatia, Zagreb, 1946.
  4. Ustasha Camps by Mirko Percen, Globus, Zagreb, 1966. Second expanded printing 1990.
  5. Ustashi and the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945, by Fikreta Jelic-Butic, Liber, Zagreb, 1977.
  6. Romans, J. Jews of Yugoslavia, 1941- 1945: Victims of Genocide and Freedom Fighters, Belgrade, 1982
  7. Antisemitism in the anti-fascist Holocaust: a collection of works, The Jewish Center, Zagreb, 1996.
  8. The Jasenovac Concentration Camp, by Antun Miletic, Volumes One and Two, Belgrade, 1986. Volume Three, Belgrade, 1987. Second edition, 1993.
  9. Hell's Torture Chamber by Djordje Milica, Zagreb, 1945.
  10. Die Besatzungszeit das Genozid in Jugoslawien 1941-1945 by Vladimir Umeljic, Graphics High Publishing, Los Angeles, 1994.
  11. Srbi i genocidni XX vek (Serbs and XX century, Ages of Genocide) by Vladimir Umeljić, (vol 1, vol 2), Magne, Belgrade, 2004. ISBN 86-903763-1-3
  12. Magnum Crimen, by Viktor Novak, Zagreb, 1948.
  13. Kaputt, by Curzio Malaparte, translated by Cesare Foligno, Nortwestern University Press Evanston, Illinois, 1999.
  14. Der kroatische Ustascha-Staat 1941-1945, by Ladislaus Hory and Martin Broszat, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1964.

See also

45°16′54″N 16°56′06″E / 45.28167°N 16.93500°E / 45.28167; 16.93500

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