Stara Gradiška is a village and a municipality in the Brod-Posavina county

Brod-Posavina County

Brod-Posavina County is the southern Slavonian county in Croatia. Its center is the city of Slavonski Brod and it spreads along the left bank of the Sava river, hence the name Posavina...

 of Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. It has 542 residents, while the municipality has 1,717 (2001), in six other smaller villages. It is located on the left bank of the river Sava, across Bosanska Gradiška in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

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The first word in the name means Old, and there's also a New Gradiška nearby, the city of Nova Gradiška

Nova Gradiška

Nova Gradiška is a city located in the Brod-Posavina County of Croatia, population 14,196 . It is located in the historic region of Slavonia, near the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina....

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A prison was first established at Stara Gradiška in the 1920s

1920s

File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...

. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the Ustaša regime used it as the Stara Gradiška concentration camp

Stara Gradiška concentration camp

Stara Gradiška was the most notorious concentration and extermination camp in Croatia during World War II, mainly due to the crimes which were committed against women and children. The camp was specially constructed for women and children of Serb, Jew, and Romani ethnicity...

, a part of the Jasenovac complex

Jasenovac concentration camp

Jasenovac concentration camp was the largest extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia and occupied Yugoslavia during World War II...

. From 1945 until the late 1980s

1980s

File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...

 the prison at Stara Gradiška held political prisoners of the communist regime. In 1991 the prison was officially shut down by the Republic of Croatia. The municipality plans to turn the site into a museum. The Catholic Church plans to build a memorial church in the area.

The municipality is home to the cultural organization KUD Posavina. It celebrates the feast of St. Michael as its municipal day.