Sisak concentration camp

Coordinates: 45°28′57″N 16°22′21″E / 45.482619°N 16.372393°E / 45.482619; 16.372393
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sisak
Concentration and transit camp
Location of Sisak in the Independent State of Croatia
LocationSisak, Independent State of Croatia
Operated by Nazi Germany (Sisak I; until April 1944)
 Independent State of Croatia (Sisak II)
Original useRecreation centre, saltworks and primary school
Operational1941–1945
Inmates
Number of inmates6,693–7,000 (Sisak II)
Killed1,160–1,600 (Sisak II)
Notable inmatesMilja Toroman

Sisak was a

concentration and transit camp located in the town of the same name in the Axis puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia
(NDH). It was operational between 1941 and 1945.

The camp consisted of two sub-camps, Sisak I and Sisak II. The former was used to intern adults destined for

Serb—and to a lesser extent, Jewish and Roma—children who had been separated from their parents over the course of the conflict. Sisak I was operated by the Germans, whereas Sisak II was administered by the Ustaše, with some German gendarmes guarding its perimeter. The latter became operational in July–August 1942, receiving a group of children who had previously been detained at Mlaka
.

Living conditions at the children's camp were poor, leading to a high mortality rate. According to survivors, some children were killed by being given poisoned milk or

communist underground. Sisak II was dissolved in January 1943. The exact number of children who perished there is unknown, but estimates range from 1,160 to 1,600, largely as a result of starvation, thirst, typhus and neglect. In April 1944, the Germans ceded control of Sisak I to the Ustaše. It was shut down in January 1945 and its remaining inmates were dispatched to Jasenovac
.

In September 1946, Najžer was convicted for his involvement in the atrocities that took place at the children's camp and sentenced to

death by firing squad. Memorials commemorating the camp victims were demolished in the early 1990s, during the Croatian War of Independence
. Camp survivor Gabrijela Kolar's sculpture was spared, but has since fallen into a state of disrepair. In post-independence Croatia, the camp's main building was transformed into a movie theatre and renamed the Crystal Cube of Cheerfulness.

Background

Interwar period

Ethnic tensions between

Marseilles in 1934. Following Alexander's assassination, the Ustaše movement's seniormost leaders, including Pavelić, were tried in absentia in both France and Yugoslavia and sentenced to death, but were granted protection by Mussolini and thus evaded capture.[2]

Axis invasion of Yugoslavia

Following the

invaded Greece. Yugoslavia was by then almost completely surrounded by the Axis powers and their satellites, and its neutral stance toward the war became strained.[3] In late February 1941, Bulgaria joined the Pact. The following day, German troops entered Bulgaria from Romania, closing the ring around Yugoslavia.[5]

Intending to secure his southern flank for the

government of national unity led by the head of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force, General Dušan Simović.[6] The coup enraged Hitler, who wished to irrevocably dismantle Yugoslavia, which he dubbed a "Versailles construct".[7] He immediately ordered the country's invasion, which commenced on 6 April.[8]

Creation of the NDH

A map depicting the occupation and partition of Yugoslavia, 1941–1943

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

Cyrillic alphabet from the public sphere.[15] On 17 April, the Ustaše instituted the Legal Provision for the Defence of the People and State, a law legitimizing the establishment of concentration camps and the mass shooting of hostages in the NDH. Thirty concentration camps in total were established across the puppet state.[16]

History

Sisak I

The town of Sisak, near the confluence of the Sava and Kupa rivers, is located more than 48 kilometres (30 mi) southeast of Zagreb. During the war, the town hosted two sub-camps, which were initially jointly administered by the NDH authorities and the German Commissioner in Croatia (German: Deutscher Bevollmächtigter General in Kroatien). The first sub-camp, Sisak I, served as a transit camp for thousands of captured Serbs, Bosniaks, and Roma who were to be deported to perform forced labour in the Reich. Euphemistically referred to as a "transit camp for refugees" by its administrators, it was established on a portion of the abandoned Teslić factory, which was surrounded by barbed wire. The German authorities sent some of the able-bodied prisoners from Sisak I to the Sajmište concentration camp, directly across the border from German-occupied Belgrade. Other prisoners met various fates in different German camps, such as Augsburg, Auschwitz, Dachau, Mauthausen, and Salzgitter. Some were sent to German-run camps in occupied Norway.[17]

Sisak I was expanded in 1942 with the construction of seven additional barracks. By the following year, it had a total capacity of 5,000. The German authorities ceded control over Sisak I to the NDH and the Ustaše in April 1944. The camp was eventually shut down in January 1945, with its remaining inmates dispatched to Jasenovac, the largest of the Ustaše camps.[17]

Sisak II

Establishment

Serb women and children displaced following the Kozara Offensive, 1942

The second sub-camp, Sisak II, was reserved for those who were deemed unfit for forced labour.

Jastrebarsko taking place in August.[20] According to the historians Paul R. Bartrop and Eve E. Grimm, Sisak II was officially established on 3 August 1942, following the Kozara Offensive (German: Operation West-Bosnien). The first group of 906 children arrived at Sisak II on 3 August, according to Bartrop and Grimm, with an additional 650 children arriving the following day, and a third group of 1,272 on 6 August.[19]

The Ustaše dispersed the children of Sisak II among the Sisters of Saint Vincent Convent, a site that formerly belonged to the

Yugoslav Sokol recreational society, the Reis Saltworks and a primary school in the neighbourhood of Novi Sisak. Children under the age of three were detained in the convent, whereas those between the ages of four and five were confined to the saltworks.[20] Sisak II was administered by the physician Antun Najžer.[19][b] The commander of the camp guards was an individual with the surname Faget. Female Ustaše guards also took part in overseeing the camp. The German Sicherheitsdienst (SD) also sent a representative to Sisak, and German field gendarmes provided security around the two sub-camps and the adjacent railway.[18]

Camp conditions and rescue efforts

Child prisoners at Sisak II

Despite the efforts of humanitarians such as

caustic soda, according to survivors.[23] One former prisoner recalled how her sister "came down with a high fever and vomiting" and died after drinking poisoned milk.[24]

NDH official Ante Dumbović authored a report in which he reported that the nuns tasked with looking after the children did not even know their names. This prompted Dumbović to place metal plates around the children's necks with their names inscribed. The poor living conditions at Sisak II shocked many observers, including Dumbović, as well as representatives of the Croatian Red Cross. Dumbović documented the conditions at Sisak with his camera, taking 755 photographs of the emaciated children, some dead or dying, and others lying naked on the floor. At the time of his inspection, Dumbović found that 956 children had died in the camp, of whom only 201 could be identified by name. Three women affiliated with the Croatian Red Cross—Jana Koch, Vera Luketić, and Luketić's mother, Dragica Habazin—visited Sisak II in September 1942 and interviewed Najžer. He denied that any of the inmates were suffering, apart from some internees at the primary school, who were described as being "sick".[20]

Many children were rescued by volunteers affiliated with the communist resistance, who found them jobs as domestic servants or farm workers. Rescuers often worked under code names in secret cells, coordinating their activities from farmhouses as well as the homes of local aristocrats. Approximately 2,200 children were resettled in Zagreb, while families from Sisak and surrounding villages sheltered 1,630 children rescued from the camp.

Roman Catholic faith.[20]

Dissolution

On 8 January 1943, Sisak II was shut down, and the remaining child prisoners were sent to Zagreb.[26] Over the course of its existence, a total of 6,693 Serb, Jewish, and Roma children passed through Sisak II, according to Bartrop and Grimm.[19] White places the number of child inmates at 7,000.[20] According to Bartrop and Grimm, between 1,160 and 1,500 children perished at the camp, largely as a result of typhus.[19] White estimates that between 1,200 and 1,600 children died from starvation, thirst, typhus and neglect.[20]

Legacy

The historian Jelena Subotić has referred to Sisak as a "uniquely monstrous" camp.

Holocaust survivor Branko Lustig, who produced the 1993 film Schindler's List, attended a ceremony commemorating the victims of the Sisak camp. "We had a similar treatment [in Auschwitz] as children in ... Sisak," Lustig remarked. "They had doctor Najžer, we had the infamous doctor Mengele."[30]

After the war, parents who had survived being subjected to forced labour in the Reich returned to Yugoslavia and began searching for their children. Records kept by Budisavljević containing information about each child detained at Sisak were confiscated by the

Serbo-Croatian: Odeljenje za zaštitu naroda; OZNA) and kept from public view, preventing many families from reuniting.[25] According to the historian Nataša Mataušić, most of the children adopted from camps such as Sisak never became aware of their biological families or the circumstances of their adoption. Others, such as camp survivor Božo Judaš, chose to continue identifying as Croats even after discovering their origins. "Some have asked me how come I identify as a Croat, although my biological parents were almost certainly Serbs," Judaš remarked. "It's quite simple: without my adoptive Croat father, I wouldn't be alive."[28] Also among the children who passed through Sisak was Milja Toroman. She survived and later became the subject of an iconic war photograph titled Kozarčanka, which was widely seen as a symbol of the Partisan resistance in post-war Yugoslavia.[31]

A memorial plaque was unveiled at the Reis Saltworks in 1954.

Serbo-Croatian: Nedovršene igre), was unveiled at one of the former camp sites, which had since been transformed into a public park and playground. "Such a concept was intentional," according to the academic Sanja Horvatinčić, "and was meant to console and give hope to the survivors of the war and to the visitors who are faced with the brutal history of the site." Unfinished Games depicts seven children whom Kolar had met while she herself was detained at the camp.[28] A cemetery containing the graves of children who lost their lives at the camp was landscaped in 1974.[25] Monuments commemorating the children who died, such as the ones at the Reis Saltworks and the Sisak Cultural Center, were destroyed in the early 1990s, during the Croatian War of Independence.[33] Kolar's sculpture was spared, but has since fallen into a state of disrepair.[28] The children's cemetery has experienced a similar fate.[25] In post-independence Croatia, the Sisak camp's main building was transformed into a movie theatre and renamed the Crystal Cube of Cheerfulness (Croatian: Kristalna kocka vedrine).[28]

In 2022, the Serbian Orthodox Church canonized the victims of Sisak II along with those of the Jastrebarsko children's camp as the "Saint children martyrs of Jastrebarsko and Sisak".[34] In response, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zagreb sent a letter to Patriarch Porfirije protesting the canonization, stating that "with regard to this matter, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church has obviously accepted rhetoric and communist propaganda, full of untruths and manipulations, with which it is being attempted to blame innocent people for the alleged torture and murder of children, thousands of whom, owing to the love and care of Croatian Catholics, were saved from death and survived the difficult wartime conditions."[35]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ 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]
  2. ^ Also spelled Nadžer in some sources.[18]
  3. ^ Now known as the Department of Infectious Diseases, Fran Mihaljević Hospital.[22]

Citations

  1. ^ Mojzes 2011, p. 158.
  2. ^ Tomasevich 2001, pp. 25–34.
  3. ^ a b Roberts 1973, pp. 6–7.
  4. ^ Pavlowitch 2008, p. 8.
  5. ^ Roberts 1973, p. 12.
  6. ^ Pavlowitch 2008, pp. 10–13.
  7. ^ a b Pavlowitch 2008, p. 21.
  8. ^ Roberts 1973, p. 15.
  9. ^ Pavlowitch 2008, p. 49.
  10. ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 272.
  11. ^ Tomasevich 2001, Map 4.
  12. ^ a b Goldstein 1999, p. 133.
  13. ^ Ramet 2006, p. 155.
  14. ^ Hoare 2007, pp. 19–20.
  15. ^ Pavlowitch 2008, pp. 31–32.
  16. ^ Goldstein 1999, pp. 136–138.
  17. ^ a b White 2018, pp. 73–74.
  18. ^ a b c d White 2018, p. 73.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h Bartrop & Grimm 2020, p. 42.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g White 2018, p. 74.
  21. ^ Mataušić 2016, p. 88, note 30.
  22. ^ a b Mataušić 2016, p. 67.
  23. ^ Watson 24 July 2000.
  24. ^ Mair 2010, p. 182.
  25. ^ a b c d Bartrop & Grimm 2020, p. 43.
  26. ^ White 2018, p. 75.
  27. ^ Subotić 2019, p. 103.
  28. ^ a b c d e Vukobratovic 7 August 2019.
  29. ^ Mataušić 2016, p. 75.
  30. ^ Milekic 6 October 2014.
  31. ^ Konjikušić 2021, p. 158.
  32. ^ Radio Television of Vojvodina 6 October 2012.
  33. ^ Subotić 2019, p. 121; Bartrop & Grimm 2020, p. 43.
  34. ^ Serbian Orthodox Church 23 May 2022.
  35. ^ Informativna katolička agencija 27 July 2022.

References

Books
News reports

External links

45°28′57″N 16°22′21″E / 45.482619°N 16.372393°E / 45.482619; 16.372393

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