Jasenovac concentration camp

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Jasenovac concentration camp
Concentration and labour camp

Stone Flower, a monument to the victims of Jasenovac
Jasenovac concentration camp is located in Croatia
Location of Jasenovac concentration camp within Croatia
Coordinates 45°16′54″N 16°56′6″E / 45.28167°N 16.935°E / 45.28167; 16.935Coordinates: 45°16′54″N 16°56′6″E / 45.28167°N 16.935°E / 45.28167; 16.935
Location Jasenovac, Croatia
Operated by Ustashe Supervisory Service (UNS)
First built August 1941
Operational August 1941 - 21 April 1945
Killed est. around 100,000[1]
Liberated by Yugoslav Partisans
Notable inmates Vladko Maček
Website Official website
Part of a series on
The Holocaust
Jews on selection ramp at Auschwitz, May, 1944
Ustaše guard in a mass grave at Jasenovac concentration camp.

Jasenovac concentration camp (Croatian, Serbian: Logor Jasenovac; Serbian Cyrillic: Логор Јасеновац; Yiddish: יאסענאוואץ; Hebrew: יסנובץ‎, sometimes spelled "Yasenovatz") was the largest extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and occupied Yugoslavia during World War II, and among the largest extermination camps in Europe.[2] The camp was established by the Croatian Ustashe (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 opponents of Croatia, alongside the Jews and Roma peoples.[3] The camp alone accounts for about 10% of the total number of killed persons in wartime Yugoslavia.[2]

Jasenovac was a complex of five subcamps[4] 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.

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] NDH legislation

Some of the first legal orders issued by the NDH reflected the acceptance of the ideology of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The "Legal order for the defense of the people and the state" dated 17 April 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". 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 30 April 1941, as well as the "Order of the creation and definition of the racial-political committee" dated 4 June 1941. These decrees were enforced not only through the regular court system, but also through new special courts and mobile courts-martial with extended jurisdiction. In July, 1941, when existing jails could no longer contain the growing number of new inmates, the Ustasha government began clearing ground for what would become the Jasenovac concentration camp.[5]

[edit] Nazi Germany

On 10 April 1941, the Independent State of Croatia was established, supported by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. It adopted their racial and political doctrines. Jasenovac's role in the Nazi "final solution" was as the ethnic cleansing of the Serbian, Romany and Jewish inhabitants.[6]

Jasenovac was located in the German occupation zone of the Independent State of Croatia. The Ustashe's death camps were directed by numerous Nazi sources:[citation needed]

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

The competition between the different authorities would not usually benefit the Jews, but actually caused each to try and excel past its competitors in maltreatment of Jews and others. The Nazis encouraged Ustashe anti-Jewish and anti-Roma actions and showed support for the intended extermination of the Serb people. Soon, the Nazis began to make clear their genocidal goals, as shown by the speech Hitler gave to Slavko Kvaternik, at their meeting on 21 July 1941:

The Jews are the bane of mankind. If the Jews will be allowed to do as they will, like they are permitted in their Soviet heaven, then 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."[7]

In the Wannsee Conference, Germany offered the Croatian government transportation of its Jews southwards, but questioned 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".[8]

In addition to specifying the means of extermination, the Nazis often arranged the imprisonment or transfer of inmates to Jasenovac.[9][10][11] Kasche's emissary, Major Knehe, visited the camp in 6 February 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.[12]

It thus appears that the Nazis inspected Jasenovac, possibly due to doubts they had about the Ustashe's devotion to the extermination of the Jews. Kasche wrote the following: "The Poglavnik asks General Bader to realize that the Jasenovac camp cannot receive the refugees from 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".[13]

It is unclear whether Jasenovac was to be used primarily as a death camp in its own right, like Sajmište, or more as a collection depot from which Jews would be transported to Auschwitz. Stara-Gradiška was the primary site from which Jews were transported to Auschwitz, but Kashe's letter refers specifically to the subcamp Ciglana in this regard.[14] 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".[15]

Soon thereafter, German suspicions were renewed that the Ustashe was more concerned with the extermination of the Serb people than Jews, and that Italian and Catholic pressure was dissuading the Ustashe from killing Jews.[16]

The Nazis revisited the possibility of transporting Jews to Auschwitz, not only because extermination was easier there, but also because the profits produced from the victims could be kept in German hands, rather than being left for the Croats or Italians.[17] Instead Jasenovac remained a place where Jews who could not be deported would be interned and killed: In this way, while Jews were deported from Tenje, two deportations were also made to Jasenovac.[18] It is also illustrated by the report sent by Hans Helm to Adolf Eichmann, in which it is stated that the Jews will first be collected in Stara-Gradiška, and that "Jews would be employed in 'forced labor' in Ustashe camps", mentioning only Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška," will not be deported".[19] 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: "Schmidllin 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"[20]

[edit] Creation and operation of Jasenovac concentration camp

The Jasenovac complex was built between August 1941 and February 1942. The first two camps, Krapje and Bročica, were closed in November 1941.[21]

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

  • Ciglana (Jasenovac III)
  • Kozara (Jasenovac IV)
  • Stara Gradiška (Jasenovac V)
Ustaše militia executing people over a mass grave near Jasenovac concentration camp

The camp was constructed, managed and supervised by Department III of the Ustashka Nadzorna Služba or UNS (lit. "Ustashe Supervisory Service"), a special police force of the NDH. Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić was head of the UNS. Individuals managing the camp at different times included Miroslav Majstorović and Dinko Šakić.[22][23] The camp administration in times used other Ustashe battalions, police units, Domobrani units, auxiliary units made up of Bosnian-Muslims, and even the aid of German and Hungarian Nazis.[24]

The Ustashe interned, tortured and executed men, women and children in Jasenovac. The largest number of victims were Serbs, but victims also included Jews,[25] and Romani people, as well as Croatian and Bosnian-Muslim resistance members opposed to the regime (i.e., Partisans or their sympathizers, categorized by the Ustashe 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 Roma had no marks. (This practice was later abandoned.)[26] 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.[27]

[edit] The population of inmates in Jasenovac

The decomposing bodies of Jasenovac victims.

Serbs constituted the majority of inmates in Jasenovac.[2][3][28][29] The Jasenovac Memorial Area list of victims of Jasenovac includes over 56% Serbs.[30] In several instances, inmates were immediately killed for confessing their Serbian ethnicity and most considered it to be the only reason for their imprisonment.[31] The Serbs were predominantly brought from the Kozara region, where the Ustashe captured areas that were held by Partisan guerrillas.[32] These were brought to the camp without sentence, almost destined for immediate execution, accelerated via the use of machine-guns.[33] The exact number of Serbian casualties in Jasenovac is uncertain, but the lowest common estimates range around 60,000 people, and it is estimated to be the most significant part of the overall Serbian casualties of World War II.[1]

A report on the deportation of Travnik area Jews to Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška camps, March 1942

Jews, being the primary target of Nazi-oriented Genocide, were the second-largest category of victims of Jasenovac. The number of Jewish casualties is uncertain, but ranges from about 8,000[34] to almost two thirds of the Croatian Jewish population of 37,000 (meaning around 25,000).[35] 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.

Roma in Jasenovac consisted of both Roma and Sinti, who were captured in various areas in Bosnia, especially in the Kozara region. They were brought to Jasenovac and taken to area III-C, under the open sky, in terms of nutrition, hydration, shelter and sanitary that were below the camp's standards.[36] The figures of murdered Roma are the most controversial, with the number being between 20,000 and 50,000.[36][37]

Anti-fascists consisted of various sorts of political and ideological antagonists of the Ustasha regime. In general, their treatment was similar to other inmates, although known communists were executed right away,[38] and convicted Ustasa or law-enforcement officials,[39] or others close to the Ustasha in opinion, such as Croatian peasants, were held on beneficial terms and granted amnesty after serving a duration of time.[40]

Jasenovac camp also consisted of a unique camp for children in Sisak. Around 20,000 children of Serbian, Jewish and Roma ethnicities perished in Jasenovac.[29][41]

The Ustashe in Jasenovac also imprisoned numerous people of other ethnicities, including Ukrainians, Romanians and Slovenes.[42]

[edit] Living conditions

The living conditions in the camp evidenced the severity typical of Nazi death camps: a meager diet, deplorable accommodations, and the cruel treatment of the Ustashe guards. 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.[43]

  • Food: Again, typical of Fascist death camps, the diet of inmates at Jasenovac was insufficient to sustain life: The sorts of food they consumed changed during the camp's existence. In camp Bročice, 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).[44] Food in Camp No. III was initially better, consisting of potatoes instead of beans; however, in January[when?] the diet was changed to a single daily serving of thin "turnip soup".[45] By the end of the year, the diet had been changed again, this time to three daily portions of thin gruel made of water and starch.[46] Food changed repeatedly thereafter.
  • Water: Jasenovac was even more severe than most death camps in one respect: a general lack of potable drinking-water.[47] Prisoners were forced to drink water from the Sava river.
  • Accommodations: In the first camps, Bročice and Krapje, inmates slept in standard concentration-camp barracks, with three tiers of bunks. In Camp No. III, which housed some 3,000 people, 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.[48][49] Inmates slept in six of these barracks, while the other two were used as a "clinic" and a "hospital", where ill inmates were sent to die or be executed.[50][51][52][53][54]
  • Forced labor: As in all concentration camps, Jasenovac inmates were forced daily to perform some 11 hours of hard labor, under the eye of their Ustasha captors, who would execute any inmate for the most trivial reasons.[55][56][57] The labor section was overseen by Ustasha's Hinko Dominik Picilli and Tihomir Kordić. Picillii would personally lash inmates in order to force them to work harder.[58][59] He divided the "Jasenovac labor force" into 16 groups, including groups of construction, brickworks, metal-works, agriculture, etc. The inmates would perish from the hard work. Work in the brickworks was hard.[60][61] Blacksmith work was also done, as the inmates forged knives and other weapons for the Ustasha.[62] Dike construction work was the most feared.[62][63][64][65]
  • Sanitation: Inside the camp, squalor and lack of sanitation reigned: clutter, blood, vomit and decomposing-bodies filled the barracks, which were also full of pests and of the foul scent of the often overflowing latrine bucket.[66][67] Due to exposure to the elements, inmates suffered from impaired health leading to epidemics of typhus, typhoid, malaria, pleuritis, influenza, dysentery and diphtheria.[68] During pauses in labor (5:00-6:00; 12:00-13:00, 17:00-20:00[69]) inmates had to relieve themselves at open latrines, which consisted of big pits dug in open fields, covered in planks. Inmates would tend to fall inside, and often died. The Ustashe encouraged this by either having internees separate the planks, or by physically drowning inmates inside. The pit would overflow during floods and rains, and was also deliberately drained into the lake, from which inmate drinking water was taken.[70][71][72][73] The inmate's rags and blankets were too thin to prevent exposure to frost, as was the shelter of the barracks.[74][75] The clothes and blankets were rarely and poorly cleansed, as inmates were only allowed to wash them briefly in the lake's waters once a month[76] save during winter time, when the lake froze. Then, a sanitation device was erected in a warehouse, where a few clothes were insufficiently boiled.[69]
  • Lack of personal possessions: The inmates were stripped of their belongings and personal attire. As inmates, only ragged prison-issue clothing was given to them. In winter, inmates were given thin "rain-coats" and they were allowed to make light sandals. Inmates were given a personal food bowl, designated to contain 0.4ltrs of "soup" they were fed with. Inmates whose bowl was missing (stolen by another inmate to defecate in) would receive no food.[77] During delegation visits, inmates were given bowls twice as large with spoons. Additionally, at such times, inmates were given colored tags.
  • Anxiety: The fear of death, and the paradox of a situation in which the living dwell next to the dead, had great impact on the internees. Basically, an inmate's life in a concentration camp can be viewed in the optimal way when looking at it in three stages: arrival to camp, living inside it, and the release. The first stage consisted of the shock caused by the hardships in transit to camp. The Ustashe would fuel this shock by murdering a number of inmates on arrival and by temporarily housing new-arrivals in warehouses, attics, in the train tunnel and outdoors.[78] After the inmates grew familiar with the life in camp, they would enter the second and most critical phase: living through the anguish of death, and the sorrow, hardships and abuse. The peril of death was most prominent in "public performances for public punishment" or selections, when inmates would be lined in groups and individuals would be randomly pointed out to receive punishment of death before the rest. The Ustashe would intensify this by prolonging the process, patrolling about and asking questions, gazing at inmates, choosing them and then refrain and point out another.[79][80] As inmates, people could react to the Ustashe crimes in an active or passive manner. The activists would form resistance movements and groups, steal food, plot escapes and revolts, contacts with the outside world.[81] The passive inmates, the majority, would react by attempt to survive, to go through the day unharmed. This is not "going in line to slaughter", but rather another approach to survival, which deprived the Ustase of the possibility of completely dehumanizing the inmates. However, some of these inmates became in this way utterly primitive, as their whole life revolved around following orders and eating a bowl of soup. Thus they became "musselmans": physically appearing as living skeletons, but mentally stripped of their humanity beyond hope of salvation. All inmates suffered from psychological phenomena to some extent: obsessive thoughts of food, paranoia, delusions, day-dreams, lack of self-control.[82] Some inmates reacted with attempts at documenting the atrocities, such as Nikola Nikolić, Djuro Schawrtz and Ilija Ivanović, who all tried to memorize and even write of events, dates and details. Such deeds were perilous, since writing was punishable by death and tracking dates was hard.[83]

[edit] Mass murder and cruelty

Butchered victims were thrown into the river.

According to Jaša Almuli, the former president of the Serbian Jewish community, Jasenovac was a much more terrifying concentration camp, in terms of cruelty, compared with, for example, Auschwitz. In the late summer of 1942, tens of thousands of Serbian villagers were deported to Jasenovac from the Kozara region in Bosnia, where NDH forces were fighting against the Yugoslav Partisans.[84] Most of the men were executed in Jasenovac and women were sent to forced labor camps in Germany. Children were taken from their mothers and either killed or dispersed to Catholic orphanages.[85]

On the night of 29 August 1942, the prison guards made bets among themselves as to who could slaughter the largest number of inmates. One of the guards, Petar Brzica, boasted[86] that he had cut the throats of about 1,360 new arrivals.[87] Other participants who confessed to participating in the bet included Ante Zrinušić, who killed some 600 inmates, and Mile Friganović, who gave a detailed and consistent report of the incident.[88] Friganović 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 Pavelić, which the old man refused to do, even after Friganović had cut off his ears, nose and tongue 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 Nikolić.[89]

[edit] Srbosjek

A knife nicknamed "Srbosjek" or "Serbcutter", strapped to the hand, which was used by the Ustashe militia for the speedy killing of inmates in Jasenovac.

Brzica and others used a knife that became known as the Srbosjek, meaning "Serb-cutter".[90][91][92][93][94][95]

This knife was originally a type of agricultural knife manufactured for wheat sheaf cutting.[96][97][98]

The upper part of the knife was made of leather, as a sort of a glove, designed to be worn with the thumb going through the hole, so that only the blade protruded from the hand. It was a curved, 12 cm long knife with the edge on its concave side. The knife was fastened to a bowed oval copper plate, while the plate was fastened to a thick leather bangle.[99] Its agricultural purpose was to make it easier for the field workers to cut wheat sheaves open before threshing them. The knife was fixed on the glove plate in order to prevent injuries and to prevent taking care of a separate knife in order to improve the work speed.[97]

Such a type of wheat sheaf knife was manufactured prior to and during World War II by German factory Gebrüder Gräfrath from Solingen-Widderit under the trademark "Gräwiso".[100][101] Gebrüder Gräfrath was taken over in 1961 by Hubertus Solingen.[102]

[edit] Systematic extermination of prisoners

Besides sporadic killings and deaths due to the poor living conditions, many inmates arriving at Jasenovac were scheduled for systematic extermination. An important criterion for selection was the duration of a prisoner's anticipated detention. Strong men capable of labor and sentenced to less than three years of incarceration were allowed to live. All inmates with indeterminate sentences or sentences of three years or more were immediately scheduled for execution, regardless of their fitness.[103][104][105][106]

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

  • Cremation: The Ustashe 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.[107][108] Engineer Hinko Dominik Picilli perfected this method by converting seven of the kiln's furnace chambers into more sophisticated crematories.[109][110][111][112][113][114][115] 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.".[116] Later testimony, however, say the Gradina crematory had become operational.[117][118] Some bodies were buried rather than cremated, as shown by exhumation of bodies late in the war.

Manual methods, the Ustashe's favorites, were executions that took part in utilizing sharp or blunt craftsmen tools: knives, saws, hammers, et cetera. These executions 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 expected Axis defeat, were large. Therefore, "Maks" Luburić devised a plan to utilize the crane as a gallows on which slaughter would be committed, so that the bodies could be dumped into the stream of the flowing river. In the autumn, the Ustashe 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 then taken to the "Granik", where weights 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 before they were tossed into the river alive.[128][129][130][131]
  • Gradina: The Ustashe 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 Ustashe 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.[132][133][134]
  • 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 executed 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.[135] There is more evidence suggesting that killings took place there at that time and afterwards.[136][137]

[edit] Inmate help

In July of 1942, Diana Budisavljević, with the help from the German officer Albert von Kotzian, obtained the written permission to take the children from the Stara Gradiška concentration camp.[138] With the help of the Ministry of Social Affairs, especially prof. Kamilo Bresler, she was able to relocate child inmates from the camp to Zagreb, and other places.[138] The Red-Cross is sometimes accused of insufficient aiding the persecuted Jews in Nazi Europe. In the NDH, however, the operation of the Red-Cross was ambivalent, and although the assistance was perhaps late or insufficient, it was the most help the victims ever got. The local representative, Julius Schmidllin, was contacted by the Jewish community, which sought financial aid. The organisation helped to release Jews from camps, and even debated with the Croatian government in relation to visiting the Jasenovac camp. The wish was eventually granted in July 1944. The camp was prepared for the arrival of the delegation, so that it found nothing incriminating.[139] The inmates also received help from Croat citizens and even from some Ustasha-members. Borislav Seva was rescued by an Ustasha Vladimir Cupić.[140] Inmate resistance groups were aided by contacts amongst the Ustase: one of these groups, operating in the tannery, was assisted by Ustashe Dr. Marin Jurcev and his wife, and by an Ustashe that defected to the Partisan side with information of the atrocities of Jasenovac.[141] Ustase found guilty of tender handling of inmates were killed.[141] Civilians were mostly kind towards inmates that did exterior labor.[142][143]

[edit] End of the camp

In April 1945, as Partisan units approached the camp, the camp's Croatian Fascist supervisors attempted to erase traces of the atrocities by working the death camp at full capacity. On 22 April, 600 prisoners revolted; 520 were killed and 80 escaped.[144] Before abandoning the camp shortly after the prisoner revolt, the Ustashee killed the remaining prisoners and torched the buildings, guardhouses, torture rooms, the "Picili Furnace", and all the other structures in the camp. Upon entering the camp, the Partisans found only ruins, soot, smoke, and the skeletal remains of hundreds of victims.

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. The Laborers completed the destruction of the camp, levelling the site and dismantling the two-kilometer long, four-meter high wall that surrounded it.

[edit] Victim numbers

Memorial signs with claims of victim counts, situated on the Bosnian side of the Sava river at Gradina.

Historians have had difficulty calculating and agreeing on the number of victims at Jasenovac. Most modern sources place it at around 100,000.[145][146][2][147][148]

The Jewish Virtual Library states that "the most reliable figures" estimate the number of Serbs killed by the Ustashe to be "between 330,000 and 390,000, with 45,000 to 52,000 Serbs murdered in Jasenovac" sourced to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.[28] Historian Tomislav Dulić disputes the often quoted 700,000 figure in Jasenovac, but states that an estimated 100,000 victims still makes it one of the largest camps in Europe during WWII.[2][147]

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.

[edit] Contemporary sources

Train which carried prisoners to Jasenovac.

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 and the Allies on the other. There are also sources originating from the documentation of the Ustashe themselves and of the Vatican. These sources are at times considered contemporary because German and Ustashe sources tend to exaggerate, but the comparison of all different sources can give a reliable portrait 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 by the Ustashe 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:

The recipe, received by the Ustashe leader and Poglavnik, the president of the Independent State of Croatia, Ante Pavelić, resembled genocidal intentions from some of the bloodiest religious wars: "A third must become Catholic, a third must leave the country, and a third must die!" This last point of Ustashe's program was accomplished. When prominent Ustasha leaders claimed that they slaughtered a million Serbs (including babies, children, women and old men), 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.[149]

Italian generals, who were more overwhelmed by the atrocious slaughter, also reported similar figures to their commanders.[150] The Vatican's sources also speak of similar figures, that is, for an example, of 350,000 ethnic-Serbs slaughtered by the end of 1942 (Eugen Tisserant[151]) and "over 500,000 people" in all (Godfried Danneels.[152])

The Ustashe themselves gave more exaggerated assumptions of the number of people they killed. Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić, the commander-in-chief of all the Croatian camps, announced the great "efficiency" of the Jasenovac camp at a ceremony as early as 9 October 1942. During the banquet which followed, he reported with pride, intoxicated: "We have slaughtered here at Jasenovac more people than the Ottoman Empire was able to do during its occupation of Europe."[153] Other Ustase sources give more canon estimations: a circular of the Ustase general headquarters that reads: "the concentration and labor camp in Jasenovac can receive an unlimited number of internees".[154] In the same spirit, Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović, once captured by Yugoslav forces, admitted that during his three months of administration, 20,000 to 30,000 people died.[155] Since it became clear that his confession was an attempt to somewhat minimize the rate of crimes committed in Jasenovac, having, for an example, claimed to have personally killed 100 people, extremely understated,[156] Miroslav's figures are evaluated so that in some sources they appear as 30,000-40,000.[157][158]

[edit] Yugoslav and Croatian official estimates

A report of the National Committee of Croatia for the investigation of the crimes of the occupation forces and their collaborators, dated 15 November 1945, which was commissioned by the new government of Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito, stated that 500,000-600,000 people were killed at the Jasenovac complex. These figures were cited by researchers Israel Gutman and Menachem Shelach in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust from 1990.[159] Menachem Shelach will in his book speak that number, of some 300,000 bodies being found and exhumed is reliable[160] The Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance also used the same number at some point.[161]

Mosa Pijade and Edvard Kardelj used this number in the war reparations meetings. Thus the 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 has been the only public and official document about number of victims during 45 years of second Yugoslavia.[162]

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.[163] 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.[163] This number of victims has been refused by Germany during war reparations talks. The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust's casualty figure for the whole of Yugoslavia was a more conservative 1,500,000[164]

The official estimate of the number of victims of Jasenovac in SFR Yugoslavia was 700,000.

In 1964, the Yugoslav Federal Bureau of Statistics created list of World War II victims with 597,323 names and deficiency estimated at 20-30% which is giving between 750,000 and 780,000 victims. Together with estimated 200,000 killed collaborators and quislings, the total number would reach about one million. This Yugoslav Federal Bureau of Statistics list was declared a state secret in 1964 and it was published only in 1989.[165]

Beginning in the 1990s, the Croatian side began suggesting substantially smaller numbers. The exact numbers were a subject of great controversy and hot political dispute during the breakup of Yugoslavia. President Franjo Tuđman's 1989 book Horrors of War: Historical Reality and Philosophy had questioned the official numbers of victims killed during World War II in Yugoslavia, which later brought him in conflict with Simon Wiesenthal and others.[166]

The Jasenovac Memorial Site, the museum institution sponsored by the Croatian government since the end of the Croatian War of Independence,[167][168][169] says that the current research allows them to estimate the number of victims at between 80,000 and 100,000.[148]

[edit] 1960s forensic investigations

On November 16, 1961, the municipal committee of former partisans from Bosanska Dubica organized an unofficial investigation at the grounds of Donja Gradina, led by the locals who were not forensic expects, which uncovered three mass graves and identified 17 human skulls in one of them. Based on this, and the fact they enumerated 120 other untouched graves, they extrapolated the number of victims to 350,800.[170] In response to this, scientists were called in to verify the site - dr. Alojz Šercelj started preliminary drilling to identify the most likely grave locations, and then between 22 and 27 June 1964, exhumations of bodies and the use of sampling methods was conducted at Jasenovac by Vida Brodar and Anton Pogačnik from Ljubljana university and Srboljub Živanović from Novi Sad university. They examined a total of seven mass graves which held a total of 284 victim remains, and concluded that the entire Jasenovac complex could have around 200 similar sites.[170]

In October 1985, a group of investigators from the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, led by Vladimir Dedijer, visited Jasenovac and made a record of it, in which the record taker one colonel Antun Miletić mentioned the 1961 excavation, but misquoted that number of victims to 550,800.[170] They also noted the 1964 excavation, and estimated that Gradina held the remains of 366,000 victims, without further explanation.[170]

Prior to the breakup of Yugoslavia, in 1989 Serbian anthropologist Srboljub Živanović published what he claimed were the full results of the 1964 studies, which in his words has been "suppressed by Tito's government in the name of brotherhood and unity, in order to put less emphasis on the crimes of the Croatian Ustashe".[171][172]

In November 1989, Živanović claimed on television that their research resulted in victim counts of more than 500,000, with estimates of 700,000-800,000 being realistic, stating that in every mass grave there are 800 skeletons.[170] Vida Brodar then commented on that statement and said that the research never resulted in any victim counts, and that these numbers were Živanović's manipulations, providing a copy of the research log to corroborate that. Croatian historian Željko Krušelj publicly criticized Živanović as an extremist and a fraud because of this.[170]

[edit] Victim lists

  • The Jasenovac Memorial Area maintains a list of the names of 80,914 Jasenovac victims, including 45,923 Serbs, 16,045 Romanies, 12,765 Jews, 4,197 Croats, 1,113 Bosnian Muslims and 871 people of some other ethnicities, with a total of 80,914 names.[173] The memorial estimates total deaths at 80,000 to 100,000.[148] The list is subject to update - in 2007, it had 69,842 entries.[174]
  • 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].
  • Antun Miletić, a researcher at the Military Archives in Belgrade, has collected data on Jasenovac since 1979.[175] His list contains the names of 77,200 victims, of which 41,936 are Serbs.[175]
  • In 1998, the Bosniak Institute published SFR Yugoslavia's final List of war victims from the Jasenovac camp (created in 1992).[176] The list contained the names of 49,602 victims at Jasenovac, including 26,170 Serbs, 8,121 Jews, 5,900 Croats, 1471 Romanies, 787 Bosnian Muslims, 6,792 of unidentifiable ethnicity, and some listed simply as "others".[176] Another list from that institution, naming victims that died between April and November 1944, lists 4,892 names.[141]

[edit] Estimates by Holocaust institutions

The Yad Vashem center has in one place stated that "more than 500,000 Serbs were murdered in Croatia in horribly sadistic ways, 250,000 were expelled, and another 200,000 were forced to convert to Catholicism".[35] In the 1990 Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Menachem Shelach and Israel Gutman wrote:

"Some six hundred thousand people were murdered at Jasenovac, mostly Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and opponents of the Ustasha regime. The number of Jewish victims was between twenty thousand and twenty-five thousand, most of whom were murdered there up to August 1942, when deportation of the Croatian Jews to Auschwitz for extermination began."

— Israel Gutman (ed.) , Encyclopedia of the Holocaust[21]

On the other hand, however, as of 2009, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that the Ustasha regime murdered between 66,000 and 99,000 people of all ethnicities (but mostly Serbs) in Jasenovac between 1941 and 1945, and that during the period of Ustasha rule, a total of between 330,000 and 390,000 ethnic Serbs and more than 30,000 Croatian Jews were killed either in Croatia or at Auschwitz-Birkenau[34]

[edit] Statistical estimates

In the 1980s, calculations were done by Serb statistician Bogoljub Kočović, and by Croat economist Vladimir Žerjavić, who 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. Bogoljub Kočović estimated that of that number, there were between 370,000 and 410,000 ethnic Serbs who died in the Independent State of Croatia.[2][177]

Žerjavić calculated furthermore, claiming that the number of victims in the Independent State of Croatia was between 300,000 and 350,000, including 80,000 victims in Jasenovac, as well as thousands of deaths in other camps and prisons. Žerjavić actually first calculated 53,000, later brought up to 70,000 and eventually to 80,000. The details of his calculations remain disputable. Kočović, who made an estimate of the total number of victims, accused Žerjavić of being motivated by nationalism.[citation needed]

However, these estimates have been dismissed as biased and unreliable especially on the Serbian side. The mere 0.1% change of the (unknown) birth rate would contribute more to the number of victims than Žerjavić's claim of the number of Serbs killed in Jasenovac (50,000) and his calculation has a deficiency rate of 30%. Žerjavić has been dismissed as a nationalist even by Kočović, and his estimates of number of victims in the Bosnian war of the 90s (300,000 killed) was three times greater than ICTY data and Bosnian official estimates after the war, and sheds light on problems with his credibility.[citation needed] Žerjavić was accused by Croatian historian Kazimir Katalinić of being a plagiarist and the 'court statistician'.[178]

Commentators in Serbia criticized these estimates as far too low, since the demographic calculations assumed arbitrarily that the growth rate for Serbs in Bosnia (which was absorbed by the Independent State of Croatia during the Second World War) was equal to the total growth rate throughout the former Yugoslavia (1.1% at the time).[citation needed] According to Serbian sources,[which?] 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. According to the census, the number of Serbs between last prewar (1931) and first post war (1948) census has gone up from 1,028,139 to around 1,200,000.[citation needed]

[edit] Camp officials and their fate

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

  • Miroslav Majstorović, an Ustasha infamous for his command periods in Jasenovac and Stara-Gradiška,[179] named "Fra Satana" (Father Satan) for his cruelty and Christian upbringing, was captured by the Yugoslav communist forces, tried and executed in 1946.
  • Maks Luburić was the commandant of the Ustaška Odbrana, or Ustasha defense, thus being held responsible for all crimes committed under his supervision in Jasenovac, which he visited two-three times a month or so,[180] 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 Ustasha officer who, on the night of 29 August 1942, allegedly slaughtered over 1,360 people. Brzica's fellow Ustashe 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 Matković, in March 1943.[181] Brzica's post-war fate is unknown.

[edit] Later events

Jasenovac monument by Bogdan Bogdanović.

Yugoslav President Marshal Josip Broz Tito never visited the site, as he sought to make the people of Yugoslavia forget the Ustashe's crimes in the name of "brotherhood and unity" in Yugoslavia.[182][citation needed] This policy continued to modern times.[183]

The Socialist Republic of Croatia adopted a new law on the Jasenovac Memorial Area in 1990, shortly before the first democratic elections in the country.[184] The Jasenovac Memorial Museum was temporarily abandoned during the Yugoslav Wars when it was taken over by the rebel Republic of Serb Krajina.[185] In November 1991, Simo Brdar, a former associate director of the Memorial, stole the documentation from the museum and brought it to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Brdar 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.

Moshe Katsav, traveled to Jasenovac in 2003, as the first Israeli head of state to officially visit the country.[186]

In 2004, at the yearly Jasenovac commemoration, the Croatian authorities presented new plans for the Jasenovac memorial site, changing the concept of the museum as well as some of the content. The director of the Memorial Site Nataša Jovičić explained how the permanent museum exhibition would be changed to avoid provoking fear, and cease displaying the "technology of death" (mallets, daggers, etc), rather it would concentrate on individualizing it with personal stories of former prisoners. The German ambassador to Croatia at the time, Gebhard Weiss, expressed skepticism towards "the avoidance of explicit photographs of the reign of terror".[187]

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 reopened 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.[174] However, the new exhibition was described as "postmodernist trash" by Efraim Zuroff, and criticized for the removal of all Ustashe killing instruments from the display and a lack of explanation of the ideology that led to the crimes committed there in the name of the Croatian people.[174]

Israeli President Shimon Peres visited Jasenovac on 25.07.2010 dubbing it a "demonstration of sheer sadism".[186][188][189]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b See victim numbers.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Pavlowitch, 2008, p. 34, reference 6
  3. ^ a b "The Jasenovac Extermination Camp "Terror in Croatia"". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. http://www.holocaustresearchproject.net/othercamps/jasenovac.html. Retrieved 2012-05-18. 
  4. ^ Breitman, Richard (2005). U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press. p. 204. ISBN 0-521-61794-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=WQSa8ykpSG0C&pg=PA204. Retrieved 2012-04-25. 
  5. ^ For Ustase regulations and legislations, lo scanned documents in here: http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/materijali/eng/index.html and translation herein: http://pavelic-papers.com/documents/isc/index.html
  6. ^ Genocide and Fascism; The Eliminationist Drive in Fascist Europe by Aristotle Kallis, Routledge, New York, NY 2009 pages 236-244
  7. ^ Hilgruber, Staatsmanner und Diplomaten bei Hitler, p. 611.
  8. ^ Wansee, Nuremberg trail documents, NG-2568-G
  9. ^ Shelach et al., 1990, p. 166-169, 171, 185-189, 192, 194-196, 208, 442-443
  10. ^ Tibor Lovrencic testimony, trail of Dinko Sakic
  11. ^ Schwartz, p. 301
  12. ^ Shelach et al., 1990, p. 195.
  13. ^ A.A. Nachlass Kasche- 105
  14. ^ In all documentation, The term "Jasenovac" relates to either the complex at large. or, when referring to a specific camp, to camp nr. III, which was the main camp since November 1941. and compare with the following article: www.jasenovac.org/whatwasjasenovac.php
  15. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, case file p- 1603
  16. ^ Shelach et al., 1990, pp. 207-339
  17. ^ Shelach et al., 1990, p. 153, n' 20
  18. ^ Shelach et al., 1990
  19. ^ Eichmann crimes in Yugoslavia: facts and views, p. 8-9
  20. ^ M. Persen,"Ustaski Logori", p. 97
  21. ^ a b Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 1990, pp. 739-740
  22. ^ For the administrative structure of the command, lo here: www.jasenovac.org/whatwasjasenovac.php
  23. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, the testimony of witness Milijenko Bobanac
  24. ^ See: Cadik Dannon, "Smell of human flesh". Cf. State Commission, 1946, ep. D, section IV and ep. E.
  25. ^ *Bosniaks in Jasenovac Concentration Camp—Congress of Bos Intellectuals, Sarajevo. ISBN 978-9958-47-102-5. October 2006. (Holocaust Studies)
  26. ^ Schwartz, p. 329
  27. ^ Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 1990, "Jasenovac"
  28. ^ a b United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Jasenovac". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Jasenovac.html. Retrieved 2012-04-25. 
  29. ^ a b https://cp13.heritagewebdesign.com/~lituchy/whatwasjasenovac.php
  30. ^ 45,923 out of 80,914, see victim lists.
  31. ^ Lo State Commission, 1946, pp. 30, 40-41
  32. ^ Sindik (ed.), pp. 40-41, 98, 131, 171
  33. ^ See: Trail of Dinko Sakic, testimony of Gabrijel Winter, a former choachmen of Gradina, and also in the documentary: "Jasenovac: blood and ashes" or "Jasenovac: The cruellest death camp of all times".
  34. ^ a b Jasenovac
  35. ^ a b "Croatia". Yad Vashem. http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205930.pdf. 
  36. ^ a b State Commission, 1946, p. 43-44
  37. ^ Compare with "What was Jasenovac?"
  38. ^ Ilija Ivanovic, "Witness to the Jasenovac hell"
  39. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 32
  40. ^ case of Vladko Macek
  41. ^ http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/zrtve/deca-zrtve/index_en.html
  42. ^ See: US holocaust museum Jasenovac exhibition
  43. ^ Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 1990, p. 739
  44. ^ Schwartz, p. 299-300
  45. ^ Cadik Danon, "The smell of human flesh".
  46. ^ Lazar Lukajc:"Fratri i Ustase Kolju", interview with Borislav Seva on pages 625-639
  47. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, overview of witnesses' testimonies, witnesses Mara Cvetko, Jakov Finci and others
  48. ^ State Commission, 1946, P. 19-20, 40.
  49. ^ Schwartz, p. 299, 302-303, 306, 313, 315, 319-320, 322
  50. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, testimony of Dragan Roller.
  51. ^ State Commission, 1946, P. 20, 39 (testimonies: Hinko Steiner, Marijan Setinc, Sabetaj Kamhi, Kuhada Nikola)
  52. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, testimonies: Dragan Roller, Anton Milkovic, Mara Cvetko, Jakov Finci, Adolf Friedrich and Abinun Jesua
  53. ^ Schwartz, p. 316,324-328, 330
  54. ^ Cadik Danon, "The Smell of Human Flesh", as presented here (under the heading "Hunger"): http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Danon/index.html#doc
  55. ^ State Commission, 1946, pp. 20-22
  56. ^ various examples in: Schwartz, pp. 299-301, 303, 307 and many more examples therein
  57. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, all witnesses' testimonies
  58. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 30-31
  59. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, testimonies of Vladimir Cvija, Milijenko Bobanac
  60. ^ Schwartz, p. 308.
  61. ^ Compare with Elizabeta Jevric, "Blank pages of the holocaust: Gypsies in Yugoslavia during World-war II", p. 120, 111-112
  62. ^ a b Documentary, "Jasenovac: The cruellest death camp of all times", from: "Jasenovac: blood and ashes" as presented hereby: http://grayfalcon.blogspot.com/2008/06/jasenovac-blood-and-ashes.html
  63. ^ Compare with Schwartz, 299-301, 303, 332
  64. ^ Cadik Danon, chapters "New Ustasha", "The dike". Here: http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Danon/NewUstasha.doc
  65. ^ Interview with Borislav Seva, http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Lukajic/Borislav_Sheva.html
  66. ^ Schwartz, p. 313
  67. ^ Cadik Danon, "The smell of human flesh":"Hunger": http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Danon/index.html#doc
  68. ^ Jakov Danon in the trail of Dinko Sakic
  69. ^ a b Schwartz, p. 311
  70. ^ Schwartz, p. 311, 313
  71. ^ Borislav Seva testimony
  72. ^ Cadik Danon, "Smell of human flesh", "Talit", "ultimate villeness"
  73. ^ Ljubomir Saric testifies against Dinko Sakic, http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9904/hina-15-g.html
  74. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 20.
  75. ^ Compare with Egon Berger's testimony, at Carl Savich column on Serbianna.com on Jasenovac (front page)
  76. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 20
  77. ^ Schwartz, p. 324
  78. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 16-18
  79. ^ State Commission, 1946, pp. 23-24
  80. ^ Marijana Cvetko testimony, New-York Times, 3 May 1998. "War crimes revive as Croat faces possible trial"
  81. ^ State Commission, 1946, pp. 53-55
  82. ^ Ilija Ivanovic, "witness to the Jasenovac hell"
  83. ^ See: Schwartz, who said that a father and his three sons were killed for writing. The witness wrote his memories on a piece of paper in tiny script and planted it in his shoe.
  84. ^ Shelach et al., 1990, pp. 432-434
  85. ^ Shelach et al., 1990, pp. 192, 196
  86. ^ The Glass Half Full by Alan Greenhalgh ISBN 0-9775844-1-0 page 68
  87. ^ Howard Blum, Wanted! : The Search for Nazis in America, (Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co. 1977).
  88. ^ 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
  89. ^ Avro Manhattan, The Vatican's Holocaust, p. 48.
  90. ^ David M. Kennedy, Margaret E. Wagner, Linda Barrett Osborne, Susan Reyburn, The Library of Congress World War II Companion (Simon and Schuster, 2007), pages 640, 646-47, page 683:

    At Jasenovac, a series of camps in Croatia, the ultranationalist, right-wing Ustasha murdered Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Muslims, and political opponents not by gassing, but with hand tools or the infamous graviso or Srbosjek (literally, "Serb cutter") - a long, curved knife attached to a partial glove and designed for rapid, easy killing.

  91. ^ Hory, Ladislaus; Broszat, Martin (1964). Der kroatische Ustascha-Staat, 1941-1945. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart. 
  92. ^ Hunt, Dave (1994). "Das Abschlachten der Serben". Die Frau und das Tier Geschichte, Gegenwart und Zukunft der römischen Kirche. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers. pp. 289–301. 
  93. ^ Egon Berger (1966). 44 mjeseca u Jasenovcu. Zagreb: Grafički Zavod Hrvatske. 
  94. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/transe9/021206ED.htm
  95. ^ Photos from the Archiv of Republika Srpska
  96. ^ Land/Forstwirtschaft: Garbenmesser. http://www.hr-online.de/website/fernsehen/sendungen/index.jsp?rubrik=22664&key=standard_document_33193668&lugal=1&ibp=0
  97. ^ a b http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3OOq5l_Hzw
  98. ^ http://www.messerforum.net/showthread.php?t=70813
  99. ^ Taborišče smrti--Jasenovac by Nikola Nikolić (author), Jože Zupančić (translator),Založba "Borec", Ljubljana 1969
    The knife described on page 72: 'Na koncu noža, tik bakrene ploščice, je bilo z vdolbnimi črkami napisano "Grafrath gebr. Solingen", na usnju pa reliefno vtisnjena nemška tvrtka "Graeviso" '
    Picture of the knife with description on page 73: 'Posebej izdelan nož, ki so ga ustaši uporabljali pri množičnih klanjih. Pravili so mu "kotač" - kolo - in ga je izdelovala nemška tvrtka "Graeviso" '
  100. ^ Vladimir Dedijer (Editor), Harvey L. Kendall (Translator), The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs During World War II (Prometheus Books. July 1992)
  101. ^ Für die Richtigkeit: Kurt Waldheim by Hanspeter Born Schneekluth, 1987 ISBN 3-7951-1055-6, ISBN 978-3-7951-1055-0, page 65
    Beliebt war das sogar wettbewerbsmäßig organisierte Kehledurchschneiden mit einem speziellen Krumm-messer Marke Gräviso.
  102. ^ http://www.888knivesrus.com/category/.allbrands.hubertussolingen/
  103. ^ State Commission, 1946, pp. 9-11, 46-47
  104. ^ 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
  105. ^ Avro Manhattan, The Vatican's Holocaust, chapter 4, "The Nightmare of a Nation". Found at http://www.reformation.org/holoc4.html
  106. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, various testimonies
  107. ^ 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
  108. ^ C. Savic column on Serbianna.com/Jasenovac (http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/007.shtml ). Sado Cohen-Davko testimony.
  109. ^ Savic, Jasenovac. Testimonies: Jakov Atijas, Jakov Kablij, Sado Cohen-Davko
  110. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 14, 27, 31, 42-43, 70
  111. ^ testimony in the Dinko Sakic case
  112. ^ 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
  113. ^ interview with Borislav Seva
  114. ^ 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
  115. ^ Dr. Edmund Paris, Genocide in Satellite Croatia, p. 132.
  116. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 43
  117. ^ Sakic trial, Tibor Lovrencic testimony, 30.3.99, available at http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9903/hina-30-t.html
  118. ^ Schwartz, p. 331-332
  119. ^ Dinko Sakic trail, Simo Klaic testimony, 23.3.99
  120. ^ 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
  121. ^ Savic, Jasenovac, testimonies: Sado Cohen-Davko,Misha Danon, Jakov Atijas
  122. ^ "Zlocini Okupatora Nijhovih Pomagaca Harvatskoj Protiv Jevrija". Pages 144-145
  123. ^ 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. Shelach et al., 1990)
  124. ^ Sakic trail, testimonies of witnesses: Milka Zabicic, Jesua Abinun, Jakov Finci, Simo Klaic and others
  125. ^ "Blank pages of the holocaust"
  126. ^ M. Persen, "Ustasi Logore", p. 105
  127. ^ Sindik (ed.), p. 40-41, 58, 76, 151
  128. ^ Regarding "Granik", see: www.jasenovac.org/whatwasjasenovac.php and compare with Egon Berger testimony here: www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/007.shtml
  129. ^ Jovo Iluric testimony in: "Jasenovac Then and Now: A Conspiracy of Silence" by William Dorich, Serbian Orthodox Dioceses of Western America,1991. p. 39, here: http://www.logon.org/_domain/holocaustrevealed.org/Jasenovac/Testimonial.htm
  130. ^ Ilija Ivanovic testimony here: http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Ivanovic/Bench.html
  131. ^ State Commission, 1946, pp. 13, 25, 27, 56-57, 58-60
  132. ^ State Commission, 1946,[clarification needed]
  133. ^ C. Danon, "Smell of human flesh": http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Danon/Gradina.html , http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Danon/SerbianWoman.html
  134. ^ Ilija Ivanovic, http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/book/Ivanovic/Bench.html
  135. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 38-39
  136. ^ Dragutin Skrgatic testifies in the trail of Dinko Sakic, 14.4.99 (http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9904/hina-14-f.html).
  137. ^ Illija Ivanovic, "witness to Jasenovac hell", "the last day in Jasenovac"
  138. ^ a b Prof. dr. sc. Mirjana Ajduković, The Activity of Diana Budisavljević with the child victims of World War II. Annual of Social work, Vol.13 No.1 October 2006.
  139. ^ Shelach et al., 1990, pp. 313-314.
  140. ^ Interview with Borislav Seva
  141. ^ a b c Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998,[clarification needed]
  142. ^ Schwartz, pp. 304, 312, 332-333
  143. ^ C. Danon, "Smell of human flesh", chapter "New Ustasa"
  144. ^ Timebase Multimedia Chronography (TM) - Timebase 1945
  145. ^ "Croatian holocaust still stirs controversy". BBC News. 29 November 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1673249.stm. Retrieved 29 September 2010. 
  146. ^ "Balkan 'Auschwitz' haunts Croatia". BBC News. 25 April 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4479837.stm. Retrieved 29 September 2010. "No one really knows how many died here. Serbs talk of 700,000. Most estimates put the figure nearer 100,000." 
  147. ^ a b Dulić, Tomislav (2005). Utopias of Nation. Local mass killings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1941-1942. Uppsala. p. 281. 
  148. ^ a b c "How many victims were there of Jasenovac Concentration Camp?". FAQ's. Jasenovac Memorial Site. http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Default.aspx?sid=7619. Retrieved 2012-04-23. 
  149. ^ Sonderauftrag Südost by Hermann Neubacher, Musterschmit-Verlag, 1958; page 31 [1]
  150. ^ Le Operazioni della unita Italiane in Jugoslavia. Rome 1978. pp. 141-148
  151. ^ C. Falconi, The silence of Pius XII, London 1970,p. 3308
  152. ^ Brussels, Vatican's radio, interview on October 20, 1994. See in: Carl Savich column on Serbianna.com, front page, Jasenovac: www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/007.shtml
  153. ^ "Dr. Edmund Paris, "Genocide in satellite Croatia", P. 132
  154. ^ Dinko Šakić indictment, 1998, case file page 1298
  155. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 62
  156. ^ Sakic trail, testimony of Simo Klaic, 23.3.99,http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9903/hina-23-m.html
  157. ^ Avro Manhattan, "the Vatican's holocaust
  158. ^ Jasenovac, Savic\collumns\serbianna.com, confession of Miroslav Filipovic- Majstorovic at http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/007.shtml
  159. ^ Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 1990
  160. ^ Shelach et al., 1990, p. 189
  161. ^ "Jasenovac". Museum of Tolerance. Simon Wiesenthal Center. Archived from the original on 2006-05-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20060512122324/http://motlc.learningcenter.wiesenthal.org/pages/t034/t03448.html. Retrieved 2012-04-23. 
  162. ^ Tomasevic, 'War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945' (http://books.google.com/books?id=fqUSGevFe5MC&pg=RA1-PA718&dq=%22alleged+and+true+population+losses&lr=), states that these numbers are indeed exaggerated, but that the original copy of the state-commission circulated 400,000 victims.
  163. ^ a b Vladimir Zerjavic - How the number of 1.7 million casualties of the Second World War has been derived
  164. ^ "History of the holocaust: Yugoslavia"
  165. ^ Federal Bureau of Statistics in 1964. Published in Newspaper Danas on November 21, 1989
  166. ^ Schemo, Diana Jean (22 April 1993). "Anger Greets Croatian's Invitation To Holocaust Museum Dedication". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/22/us/anger-greets-croatian-s-invitation-to-holocaust-museum-dedication.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm. Retrieved 14 June 2011. 
  167. ^ "Renovation of Jasenovac Memorial Site". Jasenovac Memorial Site. http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Default.aspx?sid=6484. Retrieved 2012-04-23. 
  168. ^ "Jasenovac Memorial Site - From the return of the museum inventory to the present day". Jasenovac Memorial Site. http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Default.aspx?sid=6502. Retrieved 2012-04-23. 
  169. ^ "Propisi [Regulations]" (in Croatian). Ministry of Culture (Croatia). http://www.min-kulture.hr/default.aspx?id=78. Retrieved 2012-04-23. "Zakon o Spomen-području Jasenovac (NN 15/90; NN 28/90 Ispravak, NN 22/01)" 
  170. ^ a b c d e f Krušelj, Željko (2005-04-23). "Kako je Živanović 284 kostura pretvorio u 700.000 žrtava" (in Croatian). Vjesnik. Archived from the original on 2005-11-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20051125014140/http://www.vjesnik.hr/html/2005/04/23/Clanak.asp?r=tem&c=4. Retrieved 2012-04-23. 
  171. ^ Milan Nožica (1989-11-28). "Okom naučnika sagledana mostruoznost zločina" (in Serbian). Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad. pp. 8-9. Archived from the original on 2007-08-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20070811112710/http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/vecni_pomen/iv-deo_l.html. Retrieved 2012-04-23. 
  172. ^ Ognjan Radulović (2007). "Jasenovac je i danas moja noćna mora" (in Serbian). Ilustrovana Politika (Politika Newspapers & Magazines d.o.o.). http://www.ilustrovana.com/2007/2523/4.htm. Retrieved 2012-04-23. 
  173. ^ {{cite web | url = http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Default.aspx?sid=6711 | publisher = Jasenovac Memorial Site | title = List of individual victims of Jasenovac concentration camp | accessdate = 2012-04-23
  174. ^ a b c "Exhibition aims to show the truth about Jasenovac". Southeast European Times. 2007-01-08. http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/articles/2007/01/08/reportage-01. Retrieved 2012-04-25. 
  175. ^ a b Anzulovic, Branimir (1999). Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide. London: Hurst & Company. p. 104. ISBN 1-85065-342-9. 
  176. ^ a b Bosniak Institute (1992). Jasenovac: Žrtve rata prema podacima statističkog zavoda Jugoslavije. Zürich, Sarajevo: Bosniak Institute Sarajevo. ISBN 3-905211-87-4. http://www.bosnjackiinstitut.ba/home/sadrzaj/110. Retrieved 2012-04-25. 
  177. ^ Kočović, Bogoljub (2005). Sahrana jednog mita. Žrtve Drugog svetskog rata u Jugoslaviji. Belgrade. 
  178. ^ Tomislav Jonjić (May 2005). "Kako se čistila Jugoslavija - uz šezdesetu obljetnicu tragedije u Bleiburgu" (in Croatian). Politički zatvorenik (Zagreb: Croatian Association of Political Prisoners). ISSN 1334-0328. http://www.hic.hr/bleiburg03.htm. Retrieved 2012-04-23. 
  179. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 31-32 as hereby posted on: http://pavelic-papers.com/features/jasenovac1946.pdf
  180. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 28-29
  181. ^ State Commission, 1946, p. 50, 72
  182. ^ President Mesić in Vojnić
  183. ^ State Commission, 1946, pp. 8, 70.
  184. ^ Ukaz o proglašenju Zakona o Spomen-podruèju Jasenovac
  185. ^ Jasenovac: Spomen Područje Jasenovac
  186. ^ a b http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128751382
  187. ^ Radoje Arsenic (2004-06-22). "Changes in the Museum". Newsletter of the Jasenovac Research Institution. Politika; translated by JRI Director Milo Yelesiyevich. pp. 4-5. 
  188. ^ http://ejpress.org/article/45113
  189. ^ http://www.france24.com/en/20100725-israels-peres-visits-croatian-auschwitz

[edit] 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. State Commission investigation of crimes of the occupiers and their collaborators in Croatia (1946). Crimes in the Jasenovac Camp. Zagreb. 
  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 20th 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, Northwestern University Press Evanston, Illinois, 1999.
  14. Der kroatische Ustascha-Staat 1941-1945, by Ladislaus Hory and Martin Broszat, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1964.

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