Gospić concentration camp

The Gospić concentration camp ( Serbo - Croatian Koncentracioni logor Gospić / Концентрациони логор Госпић) was a concentration camp in the then fascist Independent State of Croatia (NDH). The camp was founded in June 1941 by the right-wing extremist Ustaša and was located in the town of Gospić . The internees were mainly Serbs and Jews . Up to 28,700 people were interned. It will probably never be possible to determine the exact number of those killed there because there are hardly any survivors and only a few written sources have survived. The Gospić concentration camp was the center of the Velebit - Pag camp complex, to which the Jadovno , Slana and Metajna concentration camps belonged.

history

At the beginning of June 1941 the Ustaša began building a camp complex in the Velebit Mountains and on the island of Pag. The seclusion and immobility of these areas seemed to them ideal for setting up camps in order to systematically kill the internees there. In Gospić, a town at the foot of the mountains, a camp was built in a former penal institution , which was soon expanded as the prison was overcrowded. From this camp prisoners in the concentration camp Jadovno and in the camps Slana and Metajna on the island of Pag deported . On June 23, 1941, a first group of 200 Zagreb Jews reached Gospić. Just two days later the first were deported to Jadovno and Pag. The camp in Gospić remained the center of the Velebit-Pag complex until it was closed on August 23. Serbs, Jews, Roma and members of the opposition from all parts of the NDH state and from other concentration camps such as Danica and Kerestinec were brought there. All deportees were recorded by name, but the lists have not been preserved and were probably deliberately destroyed. According to the later statements of the concentration camp commandant Stjepan Rubinić, 28,700 people were recorded on this list. Most of them were Serbs and Jews who were brutally tortured and murdered in the most cruel ways. Many prisoners were murdered on the way to Jadovno and thrown into ravines . It will probably never be possible to determine the exact number of deaths because there are hardly any survivors and only a few written sources have survived. It was not until 1956 that a memorial was erected in memory of the victims, but it was destroyed by Croatian nationalists during the 1990s.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 9: Labor education camps, ghettos, youth protection camps, police detention camps, special camps, gypsy camps, forced labor camps. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-57238-8 , pp. 317-318.
^ Zeev Milo: In the Satellite State of Croatia: A Survival Odyssey 1941-1945. Hartung-Gorre, 2002, ISBN 978-3-896-49809-0 , p. 121.

44.546944444444 15.375Coordinates: 44 ° 32 ′ 49 ″ N , 15 ° 22 ′ 30 ″ E

[Terror-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 9: Labor education camps, ghettos, youth protection camps, police detention camps, special camps, gypsy camps, forced labor camps. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-57238-8 , pp. 317-318.

[2] Zeev Milo: In the Satellite State of Croatia: A Survival Odyssey 1941-1945. Hartung-Gorre, 2002, ISBN 978-3-896-49809-0 , p. 121.