Original scientific paper

From a Jewish settlement in Tenja to a concentration camp

Zlata Živaković-Kerže

Abstract

The persecutions and prohibitions, the wearing of the Jewish symbol, the dismissals from administrative positions, the plunder of both movable and immovable property, deportations etc. which were happening during 1941 and 1942 were only a prelude to the attempts of total annihilation of the Jews in the Independent State of Croatia. Since by the end of 1941 there were no major arrests of Jews in Osijek, at the beginning of 1942 “the competent authorities” invested their efforts towards “removing Jews from Croatian milieu, i.e. from Osijek”. A decision was passed according to which a Jewish settlement was to be built in Tenja, a place south of Osijek, at the expense of the local Jewish religious community. It was constructed by forced labor, and the construction work lasted until mid-July, until which time one big timber house and one concrete wall building were constructed, while by 29 July 1942 only the foundations of the third edifice were laid. The Osijek Jews were settled there in June 1942 (around 2.000 Jews), and at the beginning of July the Jews from the surrounding areas of Osijek (Donji Miholjac, Našice, Valpovo, Vukovar and Slatina) joined them. It soon became apparent that this ghetto was turning into a concentration camp. Due to a large number of residents, the conditions in the camp were extremely poor and unbearable; lack of room and of food supplies. Therefore on 15 and 22 August 1942 all the Jews from the ghettoized Jewish settlement in Tenja, i.e. the temporary transit camp, were transported into other major concentration camps (around 200 of them to Jasenovac and around 2.800 to Auschwitz). That was the end of the concentration camp in Tenja. It was the only camp in the Independent State of Croatia which held captive only Jews of both sexes.

Keywords

Jews; Jewish settlement; Osijek; Tenja; internees; concentration and transit camps

Hrčak ID:

7532

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/7532

Publication date:

3.10.2006.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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