Kruščica concentration camp
| Kruščica | |
|---|---|
| Concentration camp | |
  Kruščica Location of Kruščica in the Independent State of Croatia | |
| Location | Kruščica, Vitez, Independent State of Croatia |
| Operated by | Ustaše |
| Original use | Private estate, detention site |
| Operational | August 1941 – 5 October 1941 |
| Inmates | Jews and Serbs |
| Number of inmates | ~5,000 |
| Killed | 3,000 |
Kruščica was a
The camp's establishment was ordered by
Up to 5,000 inmates passed through the Kruščica camp over the course of its existence and as many as 3,000 lost their lives. Following the war, the campsite was converted into a memorial area, which included a museum, a monument and several commemorative plaques. During the Bosnian War, the museum's contents were removed. In 2014, the site was declared a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Background
Interwar Yugoslavia
Ethnic tensions between
Following the
Creation of the NDH
Yugoslavia was quickly overwhelmed by the combined strength of the Axis powers and surrendered in less than two weeks. The government and royal family went into exile, and the country was occupied and dismembered by its neighbours.[7] Serbia was reduced to its pre-Balkan War borders and directly occupied by Germany.[9] Serb-inhabited territories west of the Drina River were incorporated into the Axis puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna država Hrvatska; NDH), which included most of modern-day Croatia, all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of modern-day Serbia.[10][a] The establishment of the NDH was announced over the radio by Slavko Kvaternik, a former Austro-Hungarian Army officer who had been in contact with Croatian nationalists abroad, on 10 April.[12][13]
Pavelić entered the NDH on 13 April and reached
Operation
Establishment
In July 1941,
The camp was guarded by the 17th Ustaše Company. The first twenty-three inmates – peasants and labourers from Željecare, as well as communists from Zenica – arrived at Kruščica in early August 1941. Among them were two Croats and one Bosnian Muslim. Gesler personally killed multiple inmates, often simply to steal their belongings, mainly their clothes. The detention of the two Croats and the Bosnian Muslim prompted Marjan Čilić, a policeman from Travnik, to open an investigation. Upon hearing the news, Gesler shot and killed one of the inmates. The night that Čilić's investigation began, the prisoners made an escape attempt. Seventeen were killed by Gesler and the camp guards. During the upheaval, one of the camp guards accidentally shot and killed Gesler. First Lieutenant Mate Mandušić was then appointed as his successor. An additional sixty men from the 13th Ustaše Battalion were subsequently dispatched from Travnik and Vitez. The seventy-five prisoners who had originally constructed the camp were then killed and buried in a lime pit. Mandušić earned a reputation for sadism.[18]
Camp conditions
On 28 August, the first transport of 1,100 Jewish women and children arrived from Gospić via Slavonski Brod.[18] At 3:00 a.m. on 3 September, the Ustaše raided the apartments of 500 Sarajevan Jews, and gave them thirty minutes to gather their belongings and assemble on the street. Under police escort, these Jews were taken to Sarajevo's main railway station and forced into cattle cars. They were subsequently taken to Kruščica. Their departure was followed by the frantic looting of their apartments. On 8 September, similar raids were conducted on the apartments of another 500 Sarajevan Jews. This group was also dispatched to Kruščica. On 15 September, two representatives of the Jewish community were permitted to visit Kruščica. They reported that the camp held around 3,000 detainees, including 300 Serbs, but failed to mention whether they were rounded up separately or together with the Jews. The inmates told the representatives they were not given any food until their fourth day at the camp.[22]
Nikola Tursun, an Ustaše official from Travnik, estimated that Kruščica contained 1,539 inmates by mid-September. The historian Jens Hoppe believes that this figure is "most likely too low", suggesting that the camp held at least 3,000 prisoners during this period, mostly Jewish women, but also around 300 Serb women from Herzegovina.
The local inhabitants were aware of the camp's existence and the atrocious conditions to which its inmates were subjected. Some even complained to the local authorities, to no avail. In one instance, an Italian diplomatic delegation visited the camp to uncover if it contained any Italian citizens, who would be eligible for their protection.[24] In late September or early October, some of the camp's Serb prisoners were killed in Smrikama, near Travnik.[18]
Dissolution
On 1 October, 250 male prisoners were transferred from Kruščica to Jasenovac.[19] These were Jewish males over the age of eleven. Between 5 and 7 October, 1,200 Jewish women and children, as well as 170 Serb women and children, were deported to Loborgrad. The Kruščica camp was subsequently dissolved.[18] By some accounts, as many as 5,000 detainees had passed through the camp by the time of its dissolution, 90 percent of whom were Jewish.[19] The historian Francine Friedman places the number of deaths at the camp at 3,000.[27] Around 25,000 Jews were killed in the NDH during the Holocaust, according to Yad Vashem.[28]
Legacy
Following World War II, one of the camp's buildings was restored and converted into a museum, which became known as the Black House (
Footnotes
- ^ The NDH was divided into German and Italian areas of influence. The Italian area of influence was divided into three operational zones. Zone I, which consisted of the coastal and island area surrounding the cities of Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir and Split, was directly annexed by Italy. Zone II was consigned to the NDH. It encompassed much of Dalmatia and the Dalmatian Hinterland. Zone III, also allotted to the NDH, extended as far as western and central Bosnia, a sliver of eastern Bosnia, and all of Herzegovina.[11]
- King of Croatia.[14]
Citations
- ^ Mojzes 2011, p. 158.
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, pp. 25–34.
- ^ a b Roberts 1973, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Pavlowitch 2008, p. 8.
- ^ Roberts 1973, p. 12.
- ^ Pavlowitch 2008, pp. 10–13.
- ^ a b Pavlowitch 2008, p. 21.
- ^ Roberts 1973, p. 15.
- ^ Pavlowitch 2008, p. 49.
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 272.
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, Map 4.
- ^ a b Goldstein 1999, p. 133.
- ^ Ramet 2006, p. 155.
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 237.
- ^ Hoare 2007, pp. 19–20.
- ^ Pavlowitch 2008, pp. 31–32.
- ^ Goldstein 1999, pp. 136–138.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hoppe 2018, p. 70.
- ^ a b c Goldstein & Goldstein 2016, p. 265.
- ^ Colić 1973, p. 64.
- ^ Bulajić 2002, p. 117.
- ^ Donia 2006, pp. 177–178.
- ^ Bauer 1981, p. 281.
- ^ a b Hoppe 2018, p. 71.
- ^ Jelinek 1992, p. 204.
- ^ Dulić 2005, p. 159.
- ^ Friedman 2013, p. 95.
- ^ Yad Vashem 2020.
- ^ Commission to Preserve National Monuments 20 June 2014.
References
- ISBN 978-0-8143-1672-6.
- Bulajić, Milan (2002). Jasenovac: The Jewish Serbian Holocaust (in Serbian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Museum of Genocide Research. ISBN 978-8-64190-221-1.
- Colić, Mladen (1973). Takozvana Nezavisna Država Hrvatska 1941 (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Delta Pres. OCLC 444350883.
- Donia, Robert J. (2006). Sarajevo: A Biography. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-11557-0.
- Dulić, Tomislav (2005). Utopias of Nation: Local Mass Killing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1941–42. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University Library. ISBN 978-9-1554-6302-1.
- Friedman, Francine (2013). "Contemporary Responses to the Holocaust in Bosnia and Herzegovina". In Himka, John-Paul; Michlic, Joanna Beata (eds.). Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe. Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska University Press. pp. 83–107. ISBN 978-0-8032-4647-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7735-2017-2.
- Goldstein, Ivo; ISBN 978-0-8229-4451-5.
- ISBN 978-0-86356-953-1.
- Hoppe, Jens (2018). "Kruščica". In Megargee, Geoffrey P.; White, Joseph R. (eds.). Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. Vol. III. Translated by Fred Flatow. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 978-0-25302-386-5.
- Jelinek, Yeshayahu A. (1992). "On the Condition of Women in Wartime Slovakia and Croatia". In Frucht, Richard (ed.). Labyrinth of Nationalism, Complexities of Diplomacy: Essays in Honor of Charles and Barbara Jelavich. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers. pp. 190–213. ISBN 978-0-89357-233-4.
- Mojzes, Paul (2011). Balkan Genocides: Holocaust and Ethnic Cleansing in the 20th Century. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-0665-6.
- "Murder of the Jews of the Balkans and Slovakia". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- "Odluka" (PDF) (in Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian). Commission to Preserve National Monuments. 20 June 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-85065-895-5.
- ISBN 978-0-253-34656-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8223-0773-0.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2.
