Sisak concentration camp

45.495277777778 16.365555555556Coordinates: 45 ° 29 ′ 43 ″ N , 16 ° 21 ′ 56 ″ E

The Sisak concentration camp ( Serbo - Croatian Koncentracioni logor Sisak , Концентрациони логор Сисак) was a concentration camp designed for children in what was then the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a vassal state of the fascist Axis powers during the Second World War . It was located in Sisak , a small Croatian town about 100 kilometers southeast of the capital Zagreb .

The main complex of this camp was to the west of the Sisak freight yard on the banks of the Kupa , not far from the town cemetery. The camp was surrounded by a barbed wire fence so that it was not possible for the children to escape. The internees were mainly Serbian children, but also Jewish and Roma and Sinti children .

In contrast to the Stara Gradiška concentration camp , in which women were interned in addition to children, the camp in Sisak as well as the Gornja Rijeka and Jastrebarsko concentration camps were the only pure children concentration camps in Europe. Sisak was the greatest of them.

history

administration

The Sisak concentration camp was opened on July 12, 1942. It was one of about 40 camps that were built between 1941 and 1945 in what was then the Independent State of Croatia by the fascist Croatian Ustaša and consisted of six barracks . Sisak formed a special and satellite camp of the Jasenovac concentration camp , which in addition to Sisak also included four sub-camps and three smaller camps. The concentration camp commandant was Antun Najžer. Of the approximately 10,000 children in the three children's camps, around 4,000 died. The camp was liberated by Yugoslav partisans in May 1945 . After the liberation, the gravedigger of the Franjo Videc concentration camp reported that the number of deaths recorded on the records was higher because the youngest children were not even registered. To date, the exact number of victims could not be determined.

determination

Children in Sisak concentration camp, Croatia

The official aim of the detention was to re-educate the imprisoned children, but it was widely used in the genocide of Serbs , Jews , Sinti and Roma . The death rate in the camp was extremely high. Bacterial dysentery was one of the common diseases and leading causes of death. Often the children were given no food for days, which resulted in many starving , and then food to which sodium hydroxide had been added. Some children were murdered by Ustashas.

One of the greatest crimes was the kidnapping of Serbian children from the regions of Kozara , Banije , Kordun and Slavonia in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1942. The children were separated from their parents and brought to Sisak, among other places. Of the approximately 6,693 children in the camp, more than 1,630 lost their lives. Around 30 to 40 children died every day. The parents, however, were interned in the Jasenovac concentration camp or brought to Germany for forced labor .

Behavior of the civilian population

The lives of many children were only saved through the efforts of the humanist Diana Budisavljević , who was supported by part of the Croatian civilian population from Sisak and Zagreb and risked her own life in the process. Red Cross workers had worked with Yugoslav communists to smuggle as many children as possible out of the camp. The civil population passed these children off as their own. Since some of the children were too young to remember their family names during the liberation, many of them could not be proven so that they never found out their family background. It often took years for some families to reunite.

memorial

As a reminder of the suffering in the concentration camp, a fountain with statues of seven playing children was built in 1958 . The memorial plaque that was also attached was destroyed by Croatian nationalists in early 1990. The former four-story main building of the camp has now become a discotheque . The Viktorovac children's cemetery, where up to 2000 children are buried, has since been completely neglected and has not been marked as such. The conversion of the building into a discotheque was sharply criticized by the Serbian side. After years of neglect, the memorial plaque was finally rebuilt in 2013 on the initiative of the Serbian National Council (SNV). In the same year, the SNV applied for the children's cemetery to be given the status of a monument . The first day of remembrance held since 1990 took place in 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b 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. 321-323.
↑ ^a ^b Kaj Metz: Extermination Camp Sisak. WW2museums.com, 2011, accessed on February 25, 2011 (English, website about prison and concentration camps and memorials on the history of the Second World War in Europe): “The Ustaše extermination camp Sisak was specialized in the systematic murder of Serbian, Jewish and gypsy children. Sisak was established on July 12, 1942 and liberated by partisans in May 1945. The extermination camp was a sub-camp of the notorious Jasenovac complex. There were approximately 6,600 children imprisoned in the Sisak extermination camp. 4,000 children died through poisoning and starvation. A fountain with seven statues of playing children, is placed at the former camp site in memory of the children of Sisak. The former concentration camp's main structure, a four-story building, is now home of a Discotheque Party Club. "
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Večernji list : Mališani su u dječjem logoru umirali od gladi i hladnoće (Croatian)
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l RTV : Komemoracija za decu žrtve ustaškog logora u Sisku (Serbian)

[Terror-1] 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. 321-323.

[map-2] Kaj Metz: Extermination Camp Sisak. WW2museums.com, 2011, accessed on February 25, 2011 (English, website about prison and concentration camps and memorials on the history of the Second World War in Europe): “The Ustaše extermination camp Sisak was specialized in the systematic murder of Serbian, Jewish and gypsy children. Sisak was established on July 12, 1942 and liberated by partisans in May 1945. The extermination camp was a sub-camp of the notorious Jasenovac complex. There were approximately 6,600 children imprisoned in the Sisak extermination camp. 4,000 children died through poisoning and starvation. A fountain with seven statues of playing children, is placed at the former camp site in memory of the children of Sisak. The former concentration camp's main structure, a four-story building, is now home of a Discotheque Party Club. "

[VL-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Večernji list : Mališani su u dječjem logoru umirali od gladi i hladnoće (Croatian)

[RTV-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l RTV : Komemoracija za decu žrtve ustaškog logora u Sisku (Serbian)