Commemoration of Jasenovac Victims

(Patria) - The Day of Remembrance of the victims of crimes in the Jasenovac concentration camp and its largest execution site, Donja Gradina, was marked today in the Donja Gradina Memorial Area, reports the Patria news agency. 

The commemoration was attended by the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabić, President of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska, Željka Cvijanović, Head of the EU Delegation to BiH, Lars Gunner Wigemark, Russian Ambassador to BiH, Petar Ivancov, Ambassador of Great Britain, Matt Field, US Ambassador Eric Nelson, as well as other delegations.

A large number of people, mainly Serbs, Jews, and Roma, perished in Jasenovac and its largest execution site, Donja Gradina, from August 1942 to April 1945.

A dispute between Croatia and Serbia continues to this day regarding the number of people killed in Jasenovac. While the Serbian side speaks of 700,000 killed, Croatia points out that the number is much lower.

Alexander Korb, a lecturer at the Department of Modern European History at the University of Leicester, said in an interview with Jutarnji list that the number of those killed in Jasenovac has become a symbol for Serbian nationalists, especially since Croatian nationalists began to downplay the number of victims in the 1990s.

“For example, Tuđman claimed the number was 30,000, while Serbian nationalists claimed it was 700,000 people. It is actually a disgusting game of numbers among nationalists, but when it comes to experts, including my colleagues in Belgrade, they know that it is not 700,000 people in Jasenovac. The number of victims is slightly over 100,000 people in Jasenovac; opinions differ on whether it is 130,000 or more, but that is the consensus among experts. The number of 700,000 victims is used by ultranationalists and some politicians, but not by experts who study Jasenovac or World War II,” said Korb.

“...Everyone's heart should break when you think that there was a place in Croatian history where so many people lost their lives. And according to Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac, 'Jasenovac is a dark stain on Croatian history.' I don't understand why nationalists manipulate this number so much, but it is their political game,” Korb added.

The website of the Jasenovac Memorial Area lists 83,145 individually named victims of that Ustaše camp. The list includes the most Serbs - 47,627, Roma - 16,173, Jews - 13,116. This is followed by Croats, of whom 4,255 were killed, then Muslims (1128), Slovenes (266), and victims of other nationalities.