Jasenovac concentration camp

Jasenovac concentration camp (Serbo-Croatian: Logor Jasenovac and Cyrillic:Логор Јасеновац; Yiddish: יאסענאוואץ, sometimes spelled "Yasenovatz") was anextermination camp established in Slavonia by the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. The camp was established by the governing Ustaše regime and not operated by Nazi Germany,[3] and was one of the largest concentration camps in Europe.[4]

From August 1941 it existed in marshland at the confluence of the Sava and Unarivers near the village of Jasenovac. It was dismantled in April 1945. It was "notorious for its barbaric practices and the large number of victims".[5] In Jasenovac, the majority of victims were ethnic Serbs, whom the Ustaše wanted to remove from the NDH, along with the Jews, anti-fascist or dissident Croatians, and gypsies. Jasenovac was a complex of five subcamps[6] spread over 210 km2 (81 sq mi) on both banks of the Sava and Una rivers. The largest camp was the "Brickworks" camp at Jasenovac, about 100 km (62 mi) southeast of Zagreb. The overall complex included the Stara Gradiška sub-camp, the killing grounds across the Sava river atDonja Gradina, five work farms, and the Uštica Roma camp.[1]

During and since World War II, there has been much debate and controversy regarding the number of victims killed at the Jasenovac concentration camp complex in its more than 3½ years of operation.[7] Gradually, in the 15 years after the war ended, a figure of 700,000 began to reflect conventional wisdom, although estimates range between 350,000 and 800,000.[7] The authorities of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia conducted a population survey in 1964 that showed a far lower figure, but kept it a secret; when Vladimir Žerjavić published such lower figures in the 1980s, he was criticized by Antun Miletić among others,[7] but his research has since been considered trustworthy by authorities on World War II Yugoslav history such as Jozo Tomasevich.[7][8]

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, D.C. presently estimates that the Ustaša regime murdered between 77,000 and 99,000 people in Jasenovac between 1941 and 1945.[2] The Jasenovac Memorial Site quotes a similar figure of between 80,000 and 100,000 victims.[1]

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.[100]Before abandoning the camp shortly after the prisoner revolt, the Ustaše 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 in May, the Partisans came across 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 Guardmembers. The Laborers completed the destruction of the camp, levelling the site and dismantling the two-kilometer long, four-meter high wall that surrounded it.

The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was founded on 10 April 1941, after theinvasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. The NDH consisted of most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with some parts of modern-daySerbia. It was essentially an Italo–German quasi-protectorate, as it owed its existence to the Axis powers, who maintained occupation forces within the puppet state throughout its existence.[9]

NDH legislation

Some of the first decrees issued by the leader of the NDH Ante Pavelić reflected the Ustaše adoption of the racist ideology of Nazi Germany. The regime rapidly issued a decree restricting the activities of Jews and seizing their property.[10] These laws were followed by a decree for 'the Protection of the Nation and the State' of 17 April 1941, which mandated the death penalty for the offence of high treason if a person did or had done "harm to the honour and vital interests of the Croatian nation or endangered the existence of the Independent State of Croatia".[11] This was a retrospective criminal law, and arrests and trials started immediately. It was soon followed by a decree prohibiting the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, which was an integral part of the rites of the Serbian Orthodox Church.[12] Another decree concerning nationality determined that only citizens of Aryan origin could be nationals of the NDH, and only nationals of the NDH were under the protection of the NDH.[13] These decrees were enforced not only through the regular court system, but also through new special courts and mobile courts-martial with extended jurisdiction.[14] In July 1941, when existing jails could no longer contain the growing number of new inmates, the Ustaše government began clearing ground for what would become the Jasenovac concentration camp.

The influence of Nazi Germany

On 10 April 1941, the Independent State of Croatia was established, supported by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and adopting similar racial and political doctrines. Jasenovac contributed to the Nazi "final solution" to the "Jewish problem", the killing of Roma people and the elimination of political opponents, but its most significant purpose for the Ustaše was as a means to achieve the destruction of the Serbian population of the NDH.[15]

Jasenovac was located in the German occupation zone of the Independent State of Croatia. The Nazis encouraged Ustaše 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 toSlavko 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."[16]

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".[17]

In addition to specifying the means of extermination, the Nazis often arranged the imprisonment or transfer of inmates to Jasenovac.[18][19] 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.[20]

It thus appears that the Nazis inspected Jasenovac, possibly due to doubts they had about the Ustaše 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".[21]

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. 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.

The extermination of Serbs at Jasenovac was precipitated by General Paul 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". Soon thereafter, German suspicions were renewed that the Ustaše were more concerned with the extermination of the Serb people than Jews, and that Italian and Catholic pressure was dissuading the Ustaše from killing Jews.[22]

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.[23] 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.[24] 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 Ustaše camps", mentioning only Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška," will not be deported".[25] 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"[26]

Hans Helm was in charge of deportation of Jews to concentration camps. He was tried in Belgrade in December 1946 along with other SS and Gestapo officials, and was sentenced to death by hanging together with August Meissner, Wilhelm Fuchs, Josef Hahn, Ludwig Teichmann, Josef Eckert, Ernst Weimann, Richard Kaserer and Friedrich Polte.

Jasenovac concentration camp (Serbo-Croatian: Logor Jasenovac and Cyrillic:Логор Јасеновац; Yiddish: יאסענאוואץ, sometimes spelled "Yasenovatz") was anextermination camp established in Slavonia by the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. The camp was established by the governing Ustaše regime and not operated by Nazi Germany,[3] and was one of the largest concentration camps in Europe.[4]

From August 1941 it existed in marshland at the confluence of the Sava and Unarivers near the village of Jasenovac. It was dismantled in April 1945. It was "notorious for its barbaric practices and the large number of victims".[5] In Jasenovac, the majority of victims were ethnic Serbs, whom the Ustaše wanted to remove from the NDH, along with the Jews, anti-fascist or dissident Croatians, and gypsies. Jasenovac was a complex of five subcamps[6] spread over 210 km2 (81 sq mi) on both banks of the Sava and Una rivers. The largest camp was the "Brickworks" camp at Jasenovac, about 100 km (62 mi) southeast of Zagreb. The overall complex included the Stara Gradiška sub-camp, the killing grounds across the Sava river atDonja Gradina, five work farms, and the Uštica Roma camp.[1]

During and since World War II, there has been much debate and controversy regarding the number of victims killed at the Jasenovac concentration camp complex in its more than 3½ years of operation.[7] Gradually, in the 15 years after the war ended, a figure of 700,000 began to reflect conventional wisdom, although estimates range between 350,000 and 800,000.[7] The authorities of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia conducted a population survey in 1964 that showed a far lower figure, but kept it a secret; when Vladimir Žerjavić published such lower figures in the 1980s, he was criticized by Antun Miletić among others,[7] but his research has since been considered trustworthy by authorities on World War II Yugoslav history such as Jozo Tomasevich.[7][8]

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, D.C. presently estimates that the Ustaša regime murdered between 77,000 and 99,000 people in Jasenovac between 1941 and 1945.[2] The Jasenovac Memorial Site quotes a similar figure of between 80,000 and 100,000 victims.[1]

Location of Jasenovac concentration camp within Croatia

Coordinates45°16′54″N 16°56′6″ELocationJasenovac, Independent State of CroatiaOperated byUstaše Supervisory Service (UNS)First builtAugust 1941OperationalAugust 1941 – 21 April 1945Inmatesprimarily Serbs, Jews, Roma, communists and anti-fascists (including Croats and Bosnian Muslims)

Jasenovac concentration campConcentration and extermination camp

Jasenovac concentration camp

List of notable prisonersEdit

Julia Batino, Macedonian Jewish antifascist and women's rights activist.[137]Slavko Brill, Croatian Jewish sculptor and ceramics artist.[138], Croatian politician, writer and publisher.[139], Vinkovci chief rabbi.[140][141][142]Grgo Gamulin, Croatian art historian, university professor and writer.[143]Izidor Gross, Croatian chess master and hazzan of the Karlovac Jewish community.[144][145], Croatian physician, founder and director of the Epidemiological Institute in Osijek.[146][147][148]Žiga Hirschler, Croatian Jewish composer, music critic and publicist.[149][150]Daniel Kabiljo, Sephardi artist.[138]Vladko Maček, Croatian politician and president of the Croatian Peasant Party.[151]Mihovil Pavlek Miškina, Croatian poet, short story writer and politician.[152]Edmund Moster, Croatian entrepreneur, industrialist and co-founder of the "Penkala-Moster Company" (now TOZ).[153]Leo Müller, known Croatian industrialist and entrepreneur.[154][155]Daniel Ozmo, Bosnian Jewish painter and printmaker.[138]Rod Riffler, Croatian Jewish modern dance teacher, choreographer and owner of a dance school in Zagreb.[155][156][157], influential Croatian industrialist, banker and Jewish activist.[158]Vlado Singer, Croatian politician and member of the Ustaše movement.[159][160][161][162][163] rabbi of the Osijek Jewish Community.[146], influential Croatian banker.[164][165]Leib Weissberg, Slavonski Brod rabbi.[166]

Edmund Glaise-HorstenauGlaise-Horstenau (right) with Hungary's defense minister Károly Bartha and AdmiralWilhelm Canaris (left), 1941Vice-Chancellor of AustriaIn office
11 March 1938 – 13 March 1938