Croatia: Jasenovac

Gray Falcon links to translated and subtitled web copies of “Jasenovac: Blood and Ashes,” a 1983 documentary by Croatian director Lordan Zafranović about the largest death camp in Croatia during WWII.

1 comment

  • Chen

    The cinematic appears as generally reliable, it is a substantial part of my research, and a shocking display of evidence of the fate of the poor victims of the Jasenovac camp. I have but one comment that pups up whenever Jasenovac is discused: the number of victims:
    * Lists of names stand at a maximum of 80,000. If the names from all lists be collected toghether, I estimate it would be at about 100,000.
    * Statistical estimations of two historians alledgly shown that only 1,000,000 people parished in WWII in Yugoslavia. Stating that the number of victims in Croatia is lower than it should be, and that most victims died- in fact- outside of Jasenovac, they tried to minimize its figure to 70,000, which was later brought uo to 80,000. These calculations are inacurate, and can sway- without mistakes- at 35%! every mistake by 0.5% can result in a difference in 50,000.
    * Historical sources: Nazi, Italian, Partisan, Croat-Ustasa, Vatican and Yugoslav all suggest large numbers of casualties. The Yugoslav information is at large reliable, as all witness testimonies approve what it stats, and even if it has errors, it’s probably not by much.
    * Forensic information was manipulated and used to support claims that the number of casualties ranges from 600,000-800,000 and above. However, it appears reliable that 340,000 bodies were found during an exhumation commission that also visited Auschwitz.
    * Logically, since Jasenovac was a death camp alike Sobibor or Auschwitz, rather than a concentration camp alike Mauthausen or Dachau, the numbers should also be according to that fact. For a comparison, the smallest death camps: Chelmno and Belzec, at 128.000 and atleast 300,000, were both small, primitive in means of liquidation and lasted for a very short time. In both, most of the casualties were Jews. Jasenovac, however, existed for four years, and was a complex of various camps: Krapje, Brocice, Ciglana, Stara Gradiska, “Tannery”, Gradina, Ustica, Draksenic, Dubica, Kosutarica, Mlaka, Jablanac, Djakovo, Sisak and others. The means of extermination were vast, and even gas-chambers (in Stara-Gradiska) and crematories were installed, to the disposal of some 550-600 Ustasa, that excelled in cruellty. All these facts, not forgeting the relativly harsh conditions in camp and the vast sorts of people brought to be liquidated there- not only Jews- But also Muslims of Bosniak and Albanian descent, Serbs, Roma, Sinti, Slovens, Montenegrians, Ukranians, Croats, Austrians, Italians and Dalmatians, Herzegovinians and others- all these facts suggest a high number of casualties.
    * I calculated in several ways, a minimal 27,000 and a number between 300,000 and 500,000.

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