A memorial close to the Croatian village of Jasenovac, on the border to Bosnia, honours the approximately 80,000 prisoners, mostly Serbs and Jews, who were murdered by members of the Croatian Ustaša in the camp that existed there between 1941 and 1945.
On April 10, 1941, four days after the German Wehrmacht and its allies invaded Yugoslavia, the fascist Ustaša movement proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska). Yugoslavia was dismembered: the Independent State of Croatia covered the area of what is today Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Serbs and Jews were immediately persecuted in the new Croatian state. The Ustaša erected over fifty camps in Croatia in which they incarcerated Jews and Serbs, deployed them for forced labour or murdered them. At the end of July 1941, the Ustaša police, which was modelled on the Gestapo, set up the camp in Jasenovac – several Croatian camps were dismantled beforehand. The camp complex comprised five detention facilities in the area of the village of Jasenovac on the river Save. The most famous was Camp III, also known as Ciglana (English: brickyard); many prisoners were murdered here immediately upon arrival. The Ustaša dissolved most of the Croatian camps from the end of 1941 and in the course of 1942, deporting all of the prisoners to Jasenovac. In May and June, about 10,000 Roma were brought to Jasenovac and murdered there. In the summer of 1942, a further 15,000 people from all over Croatia were deported to Jasenovac, a majority of which too were murdered. The murders at Jasenovac were organised systematically: the guards tortured and beat their victims, stabbed them or smashed their skulls with a hammer. Many prisoners also died of hunger and illnesses. From mid-1942 on, several thousand Croatian and Bosnian Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Even after these deportations, Jews and Serbs continued to be brought to Jasenovac. In April 1945, the camp's dissolution was begun: the last inmates were murdered and the Ustaša blew up the buildings. On May 2, 1945, partisan units reached the burned out camp.
Following a long-standing dispute among the successor states of Yugoslavia over the number of victims of the Jasenovac camp, historians now deem that there were between 80,000 and 90,000 people killed in Jasenovac. The Ustaša mainly murdered Serbs and Jews, but also Roma and Bosnian Muslims.
For a long time, the camp premises at Jasenovac remained unchanged. In 1966, a concrete monument in the shape of a flower, designed by artist and architect Bogdan Bogdanović, was erected on the site. Further monuments were set up, and in 1971, a memorial with a permanent exhibition was opened. The site was an important site of remembrance in former Yugoslavia: according to the official Yugoslav politics of memory, 600,000 to 700,000 people perished at the fascist Ustaša camp. The memorial was damaged in the course of the war between Serbs and Croats at the beginning of the 1990s. A new permanent exhibition was opened at the memorial following extensive renovations in 2006.
- Name
- Javna ustanova Spomen Područje Jasenovac
- Address
-
Braće Radić 147
44324 Jasenovac - Phone
- +385 (0)44 672 319
- Fax
- +385 (0)44 672 319
- Web
- http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr
- ipejakovic@jusp-jasenovac.hr
- Open
- Tuesday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed on Mondays and on holidays - Possibilities
- Exhibition, educational programme, guided tours through the former camp premises, library