Stara Gradiška concentration camp
Encyclopedia
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. It was established by the Ustaše
(Ustasha) regime of the Independent State of Croatia
("NDH") in 1941 near the village of Stara Gradiška
. as the fifth subcamp of the Jasenovac concentration camp
According to the list of victims by name of KCL Jasenovac, the Jasenovac memorial site, which includes research until 2007, the names and data for 12.790 victims of the camp have been established.
' allies, the Ustasha
and a few female Croatia
n troops. Inmates were killed using different means, including firearms, mallets and knives. At the "K" unit or "Kula", Jewish and Orthodox women, with weak or little children, were either starved and tortured at the "Gagro Hotel", a cellar which Ustaše Nikola Gagro used as a place of torture. Other inmates in the Kula were poisoned with gas.
Gas experiments were conducted initially at veterinary stables near the "Economy", where horses and then humans were poisoned using sulphur dioxide and later Zyklon B
. Gassing was also tested on children in the yard, where the camp commandant, Ustaše sergeant Ante Vrban, viewed its effects. Most gassing deaths occurred in the attics of "the infamous tower", where several thousand children from the Kozara
region were killed in May, and 2000 more in June 1942. Subsequently, smaller groups of 400-600 children, and a few men and women, were gassed. At this trial, Vrban stated:
Witness Cijordana Friedlender testified:
According to witness Milka Zabičić, the gassing stopped due to a scheduled visit by a Red Cross delegation in 1943, which did not arrive until June 1944.
Gas-vans were constructed to kill Jewish women and children who came to Stara Gradiška from camp Djakovo in June-July 1942. During Dinko Šakić
's trial, witness Šimo Klaić recalled a "green Thomas", a police-van whose exhaust was linked to its trunk.
Witness Dr. Dragutin Skgratić confirmed:
Several criminals stood out, including Antun Vrban, Nada Luburić, Maja Buzdon, Jozo Stojčić and especially, commandant and former-friar Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović, who killed scores of inmates with his bare hands, women and children included.
The treatment of inmates was so horrific that on the night of August 29, 1942, bets were made among the prison guards as to who could liquidate the largest number of inmates. Petar Brzica, one of the guards reportedly cut the throats of 1,360 prisoners with a butcher knife. A gold watch, a silver service, a roasted suckling pig, and wine were among his rewards.
The women guards were sisters or wives of the male guards and were known for their cruelty, including Nada Tanić Luburić, sister of the first commandant of Jasenovac guard Maks Luburić
, and wife of the second.
s were fighting nearby Stara Gradiška, the Ustaše began clearing the camp, killing some of the inmates and transporting others to Lepoglava and from there to Jasenovac, where they were to be killed. Several survivors, like Šimo Klaić, who stressed in Šakić's trial that Lepoglava "was horrible, as if all evil from Stara Gradiska and Jasenovac had concentrated there", fled from the train cart in which they were to be transported to Jasenovac. Klaić later learned, as he testified in the court, that the other two carts in the transport were torched in Jasenovac http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9903/hina-23-m.html.
The camp was liberated in April 1945 by the Red Army
.
Serbs
, who captured and detained numerous Croats in the facility during the Croatian War of Independence
.
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 ...
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...
, 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. It was established by the Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
(Ustasha) regime of the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
("NDH") in 1941 near the village of Stara Gradiška
Stara Gradiška
Stara Gradiška is a village and a municipality in the Brod-Posavina county of Croatia. It has 542 residents, while the municipality has 1,717 , in six other smaller villages...
. as the fifth subcamp of the Jasenovac concentration camp
Jasenovac concentration camp
Jasenovac concentration camp was the largest extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia and occupied Yugoslavia during World War II...
According to the list of victims by name of KCL Jasenovac, the Jasenovac memorial site, which includes research until 2007, the names and data for 12.790 victims of the camp have been established.
Systematic destruction of inmates
The camp was guarded by the GermansGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
' allies, the Ustasha
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
and a few female 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 ...
n troops. Inmates were killed using different means, including firearms, mallets and knives. At the "K" unit or "Kula", Jewish and Orthodox women, with weak or little children, were either starved and tortured at the "Gagro Hotel", a cellar which Ustaše Nikola Gagro used as a place of torture. Other inmates in the Kula were poisoned with gas.
Gas experiments were conducted initially at veterinary stables near the "Economy", where horses and then humans were poisoned using sulphur dioxide and later Zyklon B
Zyklon B
Zyklon B was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide infamous for its use by Nazi Germany to kill human beings in gas chambers of extermination camps during the Holocaust. The "B" designation indicates one of two types of Zyklon...
. Gassing was also tested on children in the yard, where the camp commandant, Ustaše sergeant Ante Vrban, viewed its effects. Most gassing deaths occurred in the attics of "the infamous tower", where several thousand children from the Kozara
Kozara
Kozara is a mountain in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosanska Krajina region. It is bounded by the rivers Sava - north, Vrbas - east, Sana - south and Una - west...
region were killed in May, and 2000 more in June 1942. Subsequently, smaller groups of 400-600 children, and a few men and women, were gassed. At this trial, Vrban stated:
- "Q. And what did you do with the children
- A. The weaker ones we poisoned
- Q. How?
- A. We led them into a yard... and into it we threw gas
- Q. What gas?
- A. Zyklon."
Witness Cijordana Friedlender testified:
At that time fresh women and children came daily to the Camp at Stara Gradiska. About fourteen days later, Vrban [Commandant of the Camp] ordered all children to be separated from their mothers and put in one room. Ten of us were told to carry them there in blankets. The children crawled about the room, and one child put an arm and leg through the doorway, so that the door could not be closed. Vrban shouted: 'Push it!' When I did not do that, he banged the door and crushed the child's leg. Then he took the child by its whole-leg, and banged it on the wall till it was dead. After that we continued carrying the children in. When the room was full, Vrban brought poison gas and killed them all.
According to witness Milka Zabičić, the gassing stopped due to a scheduled visit by a Red Cross delegation in 1943, which did not arrive until June 1944.
Gas-vans were constructed to kill Jewish women and children who came to Stara Gradiška from camp Djakovo in June-July 1942. During Dinko Šakić
Dinko Šakic
Dinko Šakić was a convicted Croatian war criminal, an army leader of the fascist Independent State of Croatia , established under Third Reich and Italian tutelage, and commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp during World War II.-Biography:He was born in Studenci, in the Kingdom of Serbs,...
's trial, witness Šimo Klaić recalled a "green Thomas", a police-van whose exhaust was linked to its trunk.
Witness Dr. Dragutin Skgratić confirmed:
He (Šakić) directed his guards to pack women and children into the vans, fitted a rubber hose from the exhaust to the interior and drove around and around the camp until the passengers were dead, 'They killed at least half the group like this as soon as they arrived'.
Cruelty
Stara Gradiška became notorious for the crimes committed against women and children. Examples included the torture that took place in cellar 3, the "Gagro Hotel", where inmates were starved, tortured and then strangled to death by a wire. In Šakić's trial, witness Ivo Senjanović recalled how people were locked there without food or water: "The people were gradually dying. It was horrible to hear them cry for help." As for the conditions, witness Cadik Danon said:At once we spread our blankets and lay down to recover our strength. Around noon they drove us out into the yard and distributed the portion of cattle turnip with water without salt or grease; everything was the same as in Jasenovac. Immediately after the lunch, they thrust us into the dungeon and locked us.
Several criminals stood out, including Antun Vrban, Nada Luburić, Maja Buzdon, Jozo Stojčić and especially, commandant and former-friar Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović, who killed scores of inmates with his bare hands, women and children included.
The treatment of inmates was so horrific that on the night of August 29, 1942, bets were made among the prison guards as to who could liquidate the largest number of inmates. Petar Brzica, one of the guards reportedly cut the throats of 1,360 prisoners with a butcher knife. A gold watch, a silver service, a roasted suckling pig, and wine were among his rewards.
The women guards were sisters or wives of the male guards and were known for their cruelty, including Nada Tanić Luburić, sister of the first commandant of Jasenovac guard Maks Luburić
Maks Luburic
Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić was a Croatian Ustaše, a war criminal, and the commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp.- Biography :...
, and wife of the second.
Clearing the camp
In early April 1945, when the partisanPartisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
s were fighting nearby Stara Gradiška, the Ustaše began clearing the camp, killing some of the inmates and transporting others to Lepoglava and from there to Jasenovac, where they were to be killed. Several survivors, like Šimo Klaić, who stressed in Šakić's trial that Lepoglava "was horrible, as if all evil from Stara Gradiska and Jasenovac had concentrated there", fled from the train cart in which they were to be transported to Jasenovac. Klaić later learned, as he testified in the court, that the other two carts in the transport were torched in Jasenovac http://public.carnet.hr/sakic/hinanews/arhiva/9903/hina-23-m.html.
The camp was liberated in April 1945 by the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
.
Re-establishment in 1991
The detention facility was shut down in 1990. However, from October 1991 until July 1993, the Stara Gradiška prison was again re-opened by the KrajinaRepublic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb entity within Croatia. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed from 1991 to 1995, having been initiated a year earlier via smaller separatist regions. The name Krajina means "frontier"...
Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, who captured and detained numerous Croats in the facility during the Croatian War of Independence
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
.