Jastrebarsko concentration camp

Jastrebarsko concentration camp was a concentration camp that housed Serbian children between the ages of one month to fourteen years during World War II, located in Jastrebarsko, Croatia.

It was open for two months in 1942 by the government of the Independent State of Croatia, an ally of Nazi Germany. Only Serb children were kept in the concentration camp. Roman Catholic nuns served as guards in the camp. Gojko Knežević, a camp survivor, recounted many years later that the nuns beat the children with birch branches dipped in salt water or vinegar.

The camp was set up specifically for children from Kozara and Potkozarje. During its operation, 1,018 children died in the camp. Franjo Ilovar, a gravedigger paid "per piece", buried 768 children in a six-week period. It is estimated that around 1,500 children died there.

About 1,300 prisoners were transported to Jasenovac. On 26 August 1942, the Partisans evacuated several hundred healthy, older children, and the Catholic organisation, Caritas, took care of about 500 of them.

The camp was situated in a castle that had belonged to Hungarian noble family Erdődy until 1922, and in a former monastery near the town. The last private owner of the castle was Stjepan Erdődy. A merchant named Ehrman bought the castle in 1922; after his bankruptcy in 1936 the castle was turned into an orphanage.

Sources

• Dragoje Lukić, “Bili su samo deca”, “Jasenovac grobnica 19.432 devojčice i dečaka”, book 2, GrafoMark, Museum of the Genocide Victims, Laktaši, Belgrade, 2001, p. 151.