Izvorni znanstveni članak
Post-War Concentration Camp Jasenovac: Witness Testimonies and Newer Archival Sources
Stipo Pilić
; Zagreb, Hrvatska
Blanka Matković
; London, Engleska
Sažetak
The ex-Yugoslav historiography has so far been mostly focused on Ciglana, from which on 22nd April 1945, prisoners’ breakthrough took place, as the most ill famed among the concentration camps in the Jasenovac area. On 2nd May 1945, Yugoslav Army units occupied this territory. Nevertheless, the camp was following this date mentioned only sporadically, fragmentary and non-systematically. The existing sources include mostly brief oral testimonies, which have so far not been confirmed in any original documents. During the previous almost seven decades, no serious or thorough attempts were made to study the post-war camp in Jasenovac.
The objective of this paper is to offer a survey of the previous research, testimonies and documents witnessing to the everyday reality at the post-war camp in Jasenovac, and to complement them by the archival sources discovered so far. Among the documents found at the State Archives in Sisak, there was a document revealing the identity of the Jasenovac governor, which raised particular attention, consequently making the accuracy of certain statements given by Mirko Šimunjak, whose testimony the thesis regarding the so-called Jasenovac Working Group relied on to the most extent, questionable. On the basis thereof, it was possible to establish that in the area around Jasenovac, following World War Two, there was a complex of prisoner camps, and later even a penalty institute (Kazneni zavod). It is therefore beyond doubt possible that people were indeed liquidated there. Neither the number of victims nor any other details may be tackled without further research of the matter, which is not only welcome, but also essential.
Ključne riječi
Second World War; post-war period; Križni put (the Way of the Cross); Jasenovac; (concentration) camp; communist crimes
Hrčak ID:
131238
URI
Datum izdavanja:
19.12.2014.
Posjeta: 16.505 *