Journal articles on the topic 'Jasenovac (Concentration camp)'

The paper gives an overview and stages of the development of the Ustasha concentration camp Jasenovac, during the existence of the "Independent State of Croatia" (ISC) in World War II. The fact is emphasized that the policy of the "Final solution" (for Jews and Romas, and in Croatia for Serbs as well), which was implemented by Nazi Germany, chronologically looking, was actually first applied in the ISC, and then in Germany. According to several criteria, the comparison is made between the concentration camps Auschwitz and Jasenovac, while particularly insisting on the brutality in the Ustasha killing of the victims in Jasenovac.

The Jasenovac Concentration Camp prevails as one of the most potent symbols that continues to fuel ideological and ethno-national divisions in Croatia and neighboring Yugoslav successor states. We argue that mnemonic actors who distort the history, memory, and representations of Jasenovac through commemorative speeches, exhibitions, and political discourse are by no means new. The misuses of the Jasenovac tragedy, vividly present during socialist Yugoslavia, continue to the present day. Drawing upon the history of mediating Jasenovac as well as recent examples of commemorative speeches and problematic exhibitions, this article highlights some of the present-day struggles surrounding this former campscape.

The article discusses the reasons for the construction, in the 1960s, of memorial to the victims of the former camp in Jasenovac in Yugoslavia, although no such memorial was built at the Sajmiste site. How should we explain and understand this difference and what do these two sites stand for in Yugoslav discourses about the past? I will argue that the memorial project for Jasenovac was, due to certain developments, seen as a substitute for similar plans at nearly all the former camp locations in Yugoslavia. Because of this substitution, after the mid 1960s none of the other concentration camp sites in the country benefited from federal financing and thus all of them were excluded from having a real chance at being made into a proper memorial site.

The Jasenovac Concentration Camp, run by the Ustashas in the ISC from 1941 to 1945, was the largest human slaughterhouse in the Balkans and one of the biggest concentration camps in Europe in the Second World War. In was where the crime of genocide was committed in the most cruel fashion against 800 000 Serbs, 40 000 Jews and 60 000 Roma, as well as the murder of around 4000 Croat, 2000 Slovene and 1800 Muslim antifascists. The terrible crimes of genocide were documented by local as well as foreign historical sources and even the very participants in the events. Recently, we have been witnesses to the daily falsifying of not only the number of Jasenovac victims but also the character of the camp itself by Croatian historians and statesmen. Their aim is to redefine the fascist past of Croatia in order to avoid having to face the crime of genocide committed against Serbs not only in the so-called Independent State of Croatia [ISC] (1941-1945) but also during the so-called Homeland War (1991-1995). This presents a very clear danger for the future of so-called Independent State of Croatia (ISC). Also misrepresented is the nature of the camp itself, which is falsely defined as a labor camp or even holiday camp. Amongst others, the persons involved in this altering of facts are: Ivan Supek, Academy member, Josip Pečarić, Academy member, Prof. Stjepan Razum, Igor Vukić, Mladen Ivezić, Franjo Kuharić, the Society for the Study of the Jasenovac Triple Camp [Društvo za istraživanje trostrukog logora Jasenovac], Dr Franjo Tuđman and Stjepan Mesić. The first and greatest distortion of the number of victims and the character of the camp was performed by Dr Franjo Tuđman, who established the foundations for this in his works, and in particular in his book Wastelands of Historical reality. The aim of these falsifications is a redefining of the fascist past of the country, the misrepresentation of fascists as antifascists and antifascists as fascists. All of this represents a serious danger for the future of Croatia, which is failing to come to terms with the past and refusing to condemn the all of the crimes committed, including genocide. Croatia today, an independent and democratic country, is showing signs of Ustasha tendencies, much like those seen in Pavelić's ISC. It is necessary to face this fact and the sooner it is done, the better it will be for the people of the Republic of Croatia.

In this article the authors discuss the role of Jasenovac Concentration Camp in Croatian and Serbian political and social spheres. Connecting the historical data with the analysis of the recent mutual accusations of genocide between the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the authors demonstrate the pervasive presence of Jasenovac in Serbian and Croatian political discourse. Presenting different modes of social construction around Jasenovac, from the end of the Second World War to the present, the article proposes a specific reading of Jasenovac as a form of the “past that does not pass.” In this respect, Jasenovac is seen as a continuous reference point for understanding collective losses and group suffering, both past and present, in Serbian and Croatian society. Although historically distanced by seventy years, the events surrounding Jasenovac are still constantly recurring in both political and private, official and unofficial, spheres of life, functioning as a specific symbol around which narratives of ethnic, national, and religious understanding as well as inter-group conflicts are thought and constructed. The role of political and social factors in the construction of frequently incompatible narratives is further underlined by the analysis of selected oral testimonies related to the war in Yugoslavia in 1990s.

Notes from “the city of the dead”: Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška concentration camps in thanatological narratives and in the memory discourse of the post-Yugoslav areaThis paper discusses selected Holocaust narratives of the post-Yugoslav area, which were set in the history of Hitler’s Europe due to the establishment of the pro-Nazi Pavelić regime The Independent State of Croatia. They were also set in the context of the concealment policy, when both places and events related to concentration camps, Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška, were ousted from collective memory by the authorities of communist Yugoslavia. Concentration camp memoirs and records — autothanatographies J. Derrida, A. Ubertowska — reflecting on the post-Yugoslav area of Tito’s epoch had been a tabooed realm of unsolicited truths S. Buryła for a few decades due to political reasons and have recently been reintroduced into official discourse of memory. They also address the questions of the end of Western civilisation, the topos of the concentration camp as the territory of the reign of death and struggle for survival. The five selected thanatological testimonies present the Holocaust and the nightmare of World War II as an essential part of reflection on the human condition H. Arendt and they also show the phenomenon of collective trauma D. LaCapra. Bilješke iz „Grada Mrtvih”. Konclogor Jasenovac i Stara Gradiška u književnim tanatološkim naracijama i u diskursu kolektivnog pamćenja na području bivše JugoslavijePredmet razmatranja u ovom tekstu su odabrani autobiografski zapisi o Holokaustu sa područja bivše Jugoslavije, stavljene u vizuru povijesti hitlerove Europe povodom osnivanja režima Ante Pavelića kakva je bila NDH. Istodobno vrlo je važan u ovoj analizi kontekst politike prešućivanja te brisanja iz kolektivnog pamćenja mjesta i dogaᵭaja vezanih uz logore smrti: Jasenovac i Stara Gradiška koje su vlasti komunističke Jugoslavije nakon II svjestkog rata uspješno poricale. Vraćene u zadnje vrijeme javnom pamćenju sjećanja i uspomene na logor – „autotanatografije J. Derrida, A. Ubertowska – bile su nekoliko decenija prešućivane ili od javnosti skrivane u Titovoj državi te zbog političkih razloga spadale su u zonu nepoželjnih istina S. Buryła. Zabilježena vlastita sjećanja na konclogora – kasnije proskribiranih autora/svjedoka – bave se univerzalnom temom smrti, rušenja civilizacije zapadnog kruga, konclogora kao područja svevladajuće smrti, istrebljivanja i životnjske borbe za preživljavanje zatočenika. Pet odabranih logorskih testimonija prikazuje traumu II svjestkog rata D. LaCapra te govori o stanju čovječanstva u postratnom razdoblju H. Arendt.

Romanies lived in the area of Zagreb from the second half of the 14th century onwards and were integrated into its society. Their history in the area at hand was marked by the anti-Gypsy policy that often included repressive assimilation and forced sedimentarisation. This was particularly noticeable during World War II, when the Ustasha authorities persecuted the Romany population. Their genocidal policy in the area of Zagreb encompassed the Romanies’ deportation to the Jasenovac concentration camp, where the majority of them were killed.

The paper based on archival, published and press sources, and relevant literature presents the ideological basis and enforcement of the Croatian policy of the extermination of the Serbs and Jews in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) which had its place within the New Order of Europe. Soon after the establishment of the NDH in April 1941, the destruction process was partially centralised in a network of camps centred at Gospic. After the outbreak of a mass Serb uprising and the dissolution of the Gospic camp, a new and much larger system of camps centred at Jasenovac operated as an extermination and concentration camp from the end of August 1941 until the end of the war. In November 1941, the mass internment of undesirable population groups was provided for by law, whereby the destruction process was given a ?legal? form.

Сербский фильм «Дара из Ясеноваца» (2020), посвященный теме выживания детей в фашистском концлагере, вызвал бурную полемику на разных уровнях задолго до того, как стал доступен широкой аудитории зрителей. Противники фильма, упрощая ситуацию, посчитали его исключительным продуктом государственной пропаганды. Вместе с тем предпоказная конфронтация вокруг ожидаемой киноработы послужила хорошей рекламной кампанией, вопреки желанию, поддержанной суровыми критиками фильма. Это идеальный пример того, как тесно в информационную эпоху сбли-жаются, переплетаясь между собой и притворяясь друг другом, политика и эстетика. история (как стремление к истине) и кинобизнес, образование и «диванный» патриотизм. Точно так же смешались до неузнаваемости вроде бы полярные векторы – стремление к международному признанию и национальной обособленности. The Serbian film «Dara from Jasenovac» (2020), dedicated to the topic of child survival in a Nazi concentration camp, caused a heated discussion long before it became available to a broad audience. The opponents of the movie considered it to be an exceptional product of state-sponsored propaganda. At the same time, the pre-release confrontation turned out to be a good advertising campaign supported by the harsh critics against their wishes. This is a perfect example of how politics and aesthetics closely converge, intertwine and pretend to be each other in the information age: history (as the pursuit of truth) and the film industry, education and “passive” patriotism. Similarly, the desire for international recognition and national separateness, which are seemingly polar vectors, also mix beyond recognition.

The author touches upon the issue of justification and logic of musical material (folk and/or original) used in the process of directing performances or student sketches. This aspect is emphasized in the context of the problem of upbringing and education of future directors and actors. Emphasis is placed on the need for a more careful selection of any, including world-famous, musical material in order to avoid harmful mistakes when preparing performances. Freedom of creativity does not give theater workers the right to distort history. In this article, the object of study was the song “Djurdjevdan”, the historical roots of which, according to one version, go back to the “death trains” during the Second World War, the Serbian genocide, but which is now interpreted as a song about love conflicts, out of ignorance it is performed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia “both at weddings and funerals.” The song “Djurdjevdan” became popular in Yugoslavia in 1942 after it was sung by one of the Bosnian Serbs transported to the Jasenovac concentration camp. Then other, no less tragic events from the history of Serbia were layered. The song became world famous thanks to the film by E. Kusturica “House for Hanging” (“Time of the Gypsies”), in which the key scene is the celebration of St. George’s Day (St. George’s Day), Djurdjevdan in Serbian or, in the language of the Gypsies, Ederlezi.

The recently-created spatial installation K 19 by visual artist Zlatko Kopljar, set up in downtown Zagreb, is directed through its meaning and content towards the remembrance of Holocaust victims. The installation consists of five sculptures, which are made from the bricks originally used to build the walls of the concentration camp at Jasenovac and then re-used for the construction of post-war houses. These same bricks have now been used to create the K 19 sculptures, which have been placed on bases created from standardized Euro-pallets used in construction. Laid into horizontal courses, the bricks form vertical blocks with irregular upper surfaces, and, at the same time, place fragments of a fictitious whole in a semi-circular spatial ring of a monument-like character. The nature of the material and its description, therefore, act as signifiers for the installation K 19, while its interpretation acquired a defined field of signification, a language of context, or, simply put, a discourse. The non-material became a constituent part of the installation by being added through the symbolization inherent in its description and resulted in a “reality remade”, which sprang from the fragile foundations of an “indeterminate denotation and representation-as” with regard to the origin of its material (bricks from Jasenovac and Euro-pallets). The vulnerability of that which is represented draws its strength (growing or healing itself) from a reversible movement being performed by the meaning and content of this artwork which simultaneously travels from present time towards history and from history towards the present.The depiction of a memory of a concentration camp, in the symbolic context of the artwork under discussion, is a process related to a kind of documentation, but it also acts as a testimony achieved through narrative without the possibility of showing the expressed narrative itself. Starting with the observation that the installation K 19 documents a specific historical situation possessing an unrepresentable narrative, the aim of the article is to demonstrate that this does not betray the nature of the medium chosen for this artwork. The article’s theory-based argument is rooted in a number of different interpretative strategies which study the anchoring of cultural representations in artworks by considering them as ethical concepts which are inscribed in a space. Such an inscription in space, having found a newly-created habitat, generates geographical categories from the past which are laden with moral narratives as their points of origin. Through this, the connection between cognitive mapping and contemporary art functions as a link between artistic practices and moral geography based on the fact that certain people, things and practices belong in certain spaces, places and landscapes, and not in others. Moral geography, therefore, obliges us to understand and theorize interrelationships between geographical, social and cultural classes. In this sense, installation K 19 does indeed render a “re-use” of the past actual, and re-contextualizes heritage through the choice of its material (bricks from Jasenovac) and in doing so finds reason and meaning for archaeology in the cultural space of a post-war “prosaic age” when people (at least in this case) used things out of existential necessity and not out of the desire to render the near past symbolical. In that respect the installation K 19 uses the heritage of a collective memory of the event, to which it refers in order to create a new conceptual synonym, and through its mourning character acquires not only the past but the spirit of the new age too. In order to recognize the artist’s individual experience of objectifying mnemopoetic perspectivism (in other words, Kopljar’s mnemopoetic approach to the creation of installation K 19) through the reversible signifying process, in the collective experience of the conceptualization of heritage, one requires intersubjective representations. This is because art and its own mnemopoetic perspectivism is rooted in collective thought while memory restores the integrity to the “commonplace ability to think and remember”. Through this, thought and memory represent our rootedness in time which, unlike moral geographies, is confirmed through a communion with “mobile people” who do not need to cohabit with us in the same space nor be provided with the same ideological patterns that became entrenched as customs inside the narrow territorial and mental boundaries of sedentary cultures. In this sense, it is possible to answer the question about the encounter between subjective and collective memory in an artwork only in a remade reality of an interpretation, that is, in a “secondary discourse of commentary” which opens up a new context for the understanding of the old world. By encouraging the meeting between “the seen and the read” as the meeting between “the visible and the expressible”, the article points to the effects of fictionalization and theatricalization which are present in this installation. Without corrupting testimonial aspects of a (bygone) reality, they help it become manifest in communication with the world. The article’s conclusion congratulates the artist’s mnemopoetic strategies and highlights the encounter of the installation with the world, together with its fictitious elements (the reversible narrative of its content) and theatricalization, as an inscription of an ethical concept in space, and, by this, encourages the encounter between “the seen and the read”, and between “the visible and the expressible”, as if it were possible still.

The paper analyses nine Roma families who lived in Stupnik Municipality; more precisely, in the villages of Žitarka and Razborišće, on the eve of World War II. The research draws from a questionnaire used by the municipal authorities in late August 1939 to survey and register the Roma men and women from those families, seeking to implement a policy of the Banovina authorities aimed at better controlling the migration of Roma people. Nowadays, these files are kept at the State Archives in Zagreb, in the holdings of the Administrative Municipality of Stupnik. The analysis of these data served as a basis for examining the demographic and socio-economic structure of individual Roma families in inter-war Croatia, more specifically, in the Banovina of Croatia. The first piece of data from the 1939 census of Stupnik Roma that can be analysed is their demographic structure. The average age of the total of 30 registered Roma was 26.9 years, which indicates a middle age structure. Roma parents were on average 35.2 years old, while the average age of their children was 16.4 years, which merely confirms their middle age structure. These data correspond to the age structure of Roma in other areas of inter-war Croatia, where approximately 44% of all Roma registered in the Sava Banovina in 1931 were between 20 and 59 years old. The family structure shows that the nine registered Roma families had an average of 3.5 members, while three families had no children. Almost all families consisted of a married couple with or without children, while only one family included a mother-in-law (husband›s mother). This file also reveals whether the Roma were legally married or lived in a “concubinage”, i.e. in an extramarital union. Half of the Roma couples were legally married, while the other half were unmarried. The issue of marriage legality is followed by the issue of their attitudes to religion, especially when it comes to the baptism of children. All Roma interviewed stated that they had been baptised, as well as their children, which suggests that the registered Roma from Stupnik were religious insofar as they and their children had been baptised, but the documents themselves provide no insight into their personal attitude toward religion. A review of the data from the Roma census enables an analysis of their economic position and migration routes. All registered Roma people stated that they were engaged in agriculture on small plots of land. When it comes to migration, it is important to point out that those Roma lived a sedentary lifestyle. Comparison between the birthplace of the registered Roma and the place of their residence in Stupnik municipality shows that they had been migrating only within the wider Zagreb area. In addition, data were collected on their plans to emigrate from their (Stupnik) municipality, with all registered Roma stating that they intended to stay in that area, which further underlines the high level of their social integration. The final question of the interviews with the Roma was related to military service. These data reveal that a part of the Roma served in the army during World War I, while the second part was declared unfit for the army, although some of them also took part in military operations during the war. The analysis of the above data leads to certain conclusions. In 1939, nine Roma families with a total of 27 members lived in Stupnik municipality. They were permanent residents of the villages of Žitarka and Razborišće. Their average age of 26 corresponds to the average age of registered Roma in the Sava Banovina. Most Roma families consisted of a mother and father with children, while only one of them included a mother-in-law. Half of the Roma partners were legally married, while the other half were unmarried or living in concubinage. It is interesting to note that all registered Roma had been baptised, which can be explained by a certain level of adaptation to the local environment. The analysis of the above data reveals that the majority of Roma households were engaged in agriculture, while a minor part were workers. The Stupnik authorities were particularly interested in where the Roma had immigrated from and whether they intended to stay or relocate. All registered Roma were born and lived near Stupnik municipality, mostly in the areas of Sv. Klara, Sv. Nedjelja and Samobor. The question concerning military service also reveals the attitude of the Roma towards state authorities. These data are diverse, too. While some stated that they had actively fought in World War I, others had been declared unfit. Further research into the history of the Stupnik Roma shows that the municipal authorities registered Roma twice in two years (in May 1940 and in July 1941). That was in line with the local provisions of official authorities for resolving the issue of relations with the Roma. Those Roma were also victims of the Ustasha genocidal policy of Roma extermination. In early June 1942, they were forcibly evicted and deported to the Jasenovac concentration camp, where they were killed. This historicaldemographic and socio-economic analysis of the Roma community in a certain area aims to contribute to a better understanding of the history of the Roma in Croatia.

Abstract Allied aerial imagery of the Jasenovac concentration camp and killing site taken between 1944 and 1945 contributes to our understanding of the camp’s topography and function. These images, previously unknown to the scholarly community, provide insight into the daily life of Jasenovac’s inmates, and show traces of mass murder and genocide. They provide evidence of the Allied bombing of the camp in 1945, and corroborate testimonies detailing the Ustaša attempts to eradicate the traces of mass murder in the final weeks of the war.

This article is an attempt to provide an insight into the fate of the Jewish diaspora in Zagreb, a city marked by the spectre of the Second World War. The events in the diegetic world are based on the fictionalised, tragic life of a young Jewish actress Lea Deutsch (1927-1943), who was acclaimed a prodigy of the Zagreb theatre scene and was killed in Auschwitz. Miljenko Jergović undertook the difficult task of addressing Croatian antisemitism, the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945), of which the darkest outcome was the Jasenovac concentration camp. The analysis of the work is part of a wide-ranging discussion on the acceptable ways to depict the Holocaust (language and form). The Croatian writer's novel highlights the topos of the eternally wandering Jew; he also dispels the myth about small promised lands in the history of Jews, who were scattered across Europe and had to face local exclusion, antisemitism and ghettoisation.