- Jadovno concentration camp
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Jadovno concentration camp was founded and controlled by Croatian Ustaše in 1941 and was used as place where the victims were taken away to be executed. During its operation of 132 days, it is estimated that 40,123 victims were killed.
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Jadovno concentration camp was located in а valley on Velebit mountain occupying an area of 1250 square meters, fenced with barbed wire 4 meters high. The guards were posted 1 km all around the concentration camp's barbed wire. Prisoners, mostly Serbs, arrived first in prison in Gospić where selection for the concentration camps was done. In concentration camp Jadovno they arrived through the village Trnovac.
The Jadovno victims association states that in 132 days in the camp 40,123 victims were killed. Among them 38,010 were Serbs, 1,998 were Jews, 88 Croats, 11 Slovenes, 9 Muslims, 2 Hungarians, 2 Czechs, 1 Russian, 1 Roma and 1 Montenegrin. Dr. Đuro Zatezalo who concentrated his work on Ustashe runed concentration camp, has included Jadovno camp in his research, however after 20 years of gathering information, he was interrumpted with the start of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s when he had counted 10,502 victims, of which 9,663 were Serbs (among them 1,014 were children under 15), 762 Jews, 55 Croats, 9 Muslims, 8 Slovenes, and one Czech, Russian, Roma and Montenegrin.[1]
Prisoners were forced to level rugged terrain in the concentration camp and to build shelters from wood arms. Prisoners worked the entire day and they were pushed to their physical limits with almost no food at all. On 5 kilometers from the concentration camp is the location of the pit in which Ustaše threw people from time to time, after they were slaughtered in front of the pit. The last group of 1500 people Ustaše killed with machine guns in August 1941. New prisoners were taken away to Oštarije, a village on Velebit mountain that is located on main road direction from Gospić to Karlobag, where they were killed and thrown in the pit in the nearby village of Stupačinovo.
During the months of May, June and July 1941, in Gospić, every day there arrived around one thousand people, women and children. It is estimated that the pit that is nearby of Jadovno concentration camp contains around 35,000 bodies of the prisoners.
Based on speleologist findings, the depth of Šaran pit is around 42.5 meters to the first bones, that pit should contain in depths around 40 cubic meters of bones (unless if the pit has an underground gallery or underground waters). There is a similar depth of the pit on Grga hill and in nearby locations exist a few more pits that were used by Ustaše to cover tracks of their atrocities. There is testimony of Serbs and Croats that Ustaše after filling some pits with bodies filled them with earth and concrete and after that covered those pits with earth and left, trying to cover tracks of their crimes. It is obvious, on those findings that concentration camp Jadovno was the first concentration camp used primarily for execution of Serbs and others who were not Croats.
In "Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia" and other published books about Ustaše and concentration camps on the territory of Independent State of Croatia (Croatian:"Nezavisna Država Hrvatska" or just "NDH"), it is usually stated that concentration camp Jadovno was opened in May 1941. Based on testmony and other findings, concentration camp Jadovno was opened before May 1941. It was opened right after Ustaše took over power in Gospić and Lika, and that was on April 10, around noon. There are numerous testimonies about arrests of Serbs and their imprisonment in Gospić prison on April 10 and 11 of 1941. There are still living witnesses that still remember how arrested Serbs were taken away on Velebit mountain to the concentration camp Jadovno. Local Serbs who wished to take food to the relatives in Gospić prison, were discreetly informed from their friends that all arrested were taken away to Jadovno. Concentration camp Jadovno was, from the start, just a temporary shelter of victims that were chosen for liquidation.
Province Lika, and specially Gospić and its surroundings were first part of Independent State of Croatia (Croatian:"Nezavisna Država Hrvatska" or just "NDH"), where killings of Serbs started. Ante Pavelić in that purpose ordered that every Croat in Gospić and surroundings must be armed with rifles. Main perpetrators in Gospić and Jadovno concentration camp were well known Ustaše Juco Rukavina, Jurica Frković, Stjepan Rubinić, members of Tomljenović family and others. They were the main creators and commanders of concentration camp Jadovno.
Executions
About the ways of liquidation victims in Jadovno concentration camp there are numerous testimonies even about that some of the victims, often when they were still alive and sometimes alive, Ustaše threw in the pit. The most frequently used method of execution was in a group of about twenty people, with their hands tied together with wire, and only the first few were killed by sledge hammer or in some other way. Then the bodies of victims were then thrown in the pit while tied to the rest of the group, who still alive, and they pulled others in down into the pit with them. From that time there are stories in Lika that from the pit human screams and calls for help could be heard during the next few days and nights.
Joso Orešković, ustaša, captured by partisans in 1942., recalls how Vjekoslav Luburić, the commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp, cut a throat of two year old Jewish child when Joso couldn't kill unarmed Jadovno prisoners. Vjekoslav Luburić then forced him to sqash the skull of the second child with his foot.[2]
See also
- Jasenovac concentration camp
- Vjekoslav Luburić
- Ustaše
- Yugoslav Front of World War II
- Index of Serbs of Croatia-related articles
References
- ^ Numbers of victims at Jadovno victims association
- ^ Balen, Šime. Pavelić. pp. 78–80..
External links
Categories:- Concentration camps in former Yugoslavia
- Independent State of Croatia
- Croatian war crimes
- The Holocaust in Croatia
- Massacres in Croatia
- World War II crimes
- Serbs of Croatia
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