Jasenovac concentration camp
In the 1980s, independent calculations were done by Croat economist Vladimir Žerjavić and Serb statistician Bogoljub Kočović, who claimed that total number of victims in Yugoslavia was less than 1.7 million, an official figure at the time, both coming to similar figure of around one million. Žerjavić went much further into the national composition of the victims, even giving the death count figure for Jasenovac as only 80,000 people. Žerjavić claimed that the count of death in the Independent State of Croatia is between 300,000 and 350,000, also listing thousands of deaths in other camps and prisons. Kočović, who made general estimate of total number of victims accused Žerjavić of being motivated by nationalism.[citation needed]
These figures were viewed with suspicion in Serbia as being too low due to the total growth rate throughout the former Yugoslavia (the value of 1.1% at the time) as the growth rate for Serbs in Bosnia (which was part of the Independent State of Croatia during the war time) while according to Serbian sources the actual growth rate was 2.4% (in 1921-1931) and 3.5% (in 1949-1953). The problem with this method is that there is no reliable data on growth rate and results depend strongly on the birth rate - just a change of 0.1% in birth rate gives up to 50,000 error in victim count. For this reason the demographic method is not considered very reliable by Serbia.
Fates of camp officials
Some of the camp officials and their post-war fate are listed below:
- Miroslav Majstorović was captured by the Yugoslav communist forces, tried and executed in 1946.
- Maks Luburić fled to Spain but was assassinated by a Yugoslav agent in 1969.
- Dinko Šakić fled to Argentina but was eventually brought to justice in the 1990s and sentenced by Croatian authorities to 20 years in prison.
- Petar Brzica fled to the United States. His name was on a list of 59 Nazis living in the US given by a Jewish organization to the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the 1970s. His fate after that is not publicly known.
Later events
Yugoslav Marshal Josip Broz never visited the site, despite its reputation.[11]
During the Yugoslav wars, the grounds of Jasenovac concentration camp and the Memorial area were temporarily abandoned due to the military conflict. In November 1991, Simo Brdar, a former associate director of the Memorial area collected the documentation from the museum and brought it with him to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he kept it until it was transferred to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001 with the help of SFOR and the then government of Republika Srpska. Upon the site's liberation by Croatian forces, Croatian president Franjo Tudjman made an official visit.[12]
In April 2005 in New York City on the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the camps, a public monument to the victims of Jasenovac was established by the New York City Parks Department, the Holocaust Park Committee and the Jasenovac Research Institute with the help of US Congressman Anthony Weiner. It remains the only public monument to Jasenovac established outside of the Balkans in the world. It was unveiled and attended by ten Yugoslavian Holocaust survivors and diplomats from Serbia, Bosnia and Israel. Annual commemorations are held there every April.
The Jasenovac Memorial Museum re-opened in November 2006 with a new exhibition designed by the Croatian architect, Helena Paver Njirić, and an Educational Center 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 for the 2006 Zagreb Architectural Salon for her work on the museum.
Notes
- ^ *Bosniaks in Jasenovac Concentration Camp—Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals, Sarajevo. ISBN 9789958471025. October 2006. (Holocaust Studies)
- ^ US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photograph #46725
- ^ Southeast Times: Exhibition aims to show truth about Jasenovac
- ^ a b Anzulovic, Branimir. Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide, Hurst & Company. London, 1999
- ^ a b Bošnjački Institut. Jasenovac: Žrtve rata prema podacima statističkog zavoda Jugoslavije. Bošnjački Institut Sarajevo, Sarajevo 1998.
- ^ Professor Josip Pecaric, Serbian myth about Jasenovac (summary)
- ^ Marijana Cota, “The Šakić Case - Disinformation and Ill Will”, The Home Club of the Bosnian Posavina, Zagreb 1999, p. 136.
- ^ Jasenovac
- ^ a b Vladimir Zerjavic - How the number of 1.7 million casualties of the Second World War has been derived
- ^ Vladimir Zerjavic - Anthropological Survey
- ^ President Mesić in Vojnić
- ^ Clear denouncement of crimes in Jasenovac and Bleiburg will stabilize Croatia and its position in the world, Nacional
References
- The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican, Vladimir Dedijer (Editor), Harvey Kendall (Translator) Prometheus Books, 1992.
- Witness to Jasenovac's Hell Ilija Ivanovic, Wanda Schindley (Editor), Aleksandra Lazic (Translator) Dallas Publishing, 2002
- Crimes in the Jasenovac Camp, State Commission investigation of crimes of the occupiers and their collaborators in Croatia, Zagreb, 1946.
- Ustasha Camps by Mirko Percen, Globus, Zagreb, 1966. Second expanded printing 1990.
- Ustashi and the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945, by Fikreta Jelic-Butic, Liber, Zagreb, 1977.
- Romans, J. Jews of Yugoslavia, 1941- 1945: Victims of Genocide and Freedom Fighters, Belgrade, 1982
- Antisemitism in the anti-fascist Holocaust: a collection of works, The Jewish Center, Zagreb, 1996.
- The Jasenovac Concentration Camp, by Antun Miletic, Volumes One and Two, Belgrade, 1986. Volume Three, Belgrade, 1987. Second edition, 1993.
- Hell's Torture Chamber by Djordje Milica, Zagreb, 1945.
- Die Besatzungszeit das Genozid in Jugoslawien 1941-1945 by Vladimir Umeljic, Graphics High Publishing, Los Angeles, 1994.
- Srbi i genocidni XX vek (Serbs and XX century, Ages of Genocide) by Vladimir Umeljić, (vol 1, vol 2), Magne, Belgrade, 2004. ISBN 86-903763-1-3
- Magnum Crimen, by Viktor Novak, Zagreb, 1948.
- Caput, by Curzio Malaparte, Napoli, 1943.
- Der koatische Ustasa-Staat 1941-1945, Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte fűr Zeitgeschichte, by L. Horry and Martin Broszat, Stuttgart.
See also
- Stara Gradiška concentration camp
- Sisak children's concentration camp
- Kragujevac massacre
- List of Nazi-German concentration camps
- Holocaust
- World War II casualties
External links
- Holocaust Encyclopedia: Jasenovac, hosted at USHMM
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Jasenovac
- Spomen Područje Jasenovac
- Jasenovac Memorial Museum
- Jasenovac victims list
- Balkan Repository Project - Jasenovac
- Jasenovac commander Šakić trial documents by Republic of Croatia
- Concentration camp Jasenovac, Archive of Republika Srpska
- Jasenovac at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance
- Pavelic Papers' Documents on Jasenovac (includes "Encyclopedia of the Holocaust" quotes)
- Jasenovac Committee of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church
- Kosta Brandic Archives: Jasenovac
- Jasenovac Research Institute
- Eichmann Trial - Alexander Arnon testimony
- Unscrambling the History of a Nazi Camp, The New York Times, 6 December 2006
- New expanded Jasenovac Memorial opened
- Anto Knežević: An Analysis of Serbian Propaganda - The Jasenovac Myth
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