70 years on, 'Croatian Auschwitz' victims remembered
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, October 31, 2024


70 years on, 'Croatian Auschwitz' victims remembered
Survivors of the Jasenovac concentration camp attend a memorial ceremony for the tens of thousands of victims killed during World War II at the camp, in Jasenovac on April 26, 2015. The ceremony marked the 70th anniversary of an attempted escape by some 600 inmates, of whom only some 90 have survived, several days before the camp was dismantled. The Jasenovac camp was set up in mid-1941 by Croatia's pro-Nazi Ustasha regime. AFP PHOTO.



JASENOVAC (AFP).- Croatia on Sunday commemorated the tens of thousands of victims, mostly Serbs and Jews, killed by the country's pro-Nazi World War II regime at a notorious concentration camp dismantled 70 years ago.

Several hundred people, including survivors of the Jasenovac camp, victims' relatives, officials, religious leaders and foreign diplomats gathered for a multi-denominational service and wreath-laying ceremony at the camp site.

"The horrors of Jasenovac warn us... not to allow discrimination and persecution based on national, religious, ideological or gender differences ever again," parliamentary speaker Josip Leko said.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said the country, which has been independent since 1991, had distanced itself in its constitution from the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime which set up the camp in 1941.

Underlining the role of Croatian anti-fascist partisans during WWII, he added: "There was only one Croatian army during World War II and these were Croatian partisans."

The ceremony marked the 70th anniversary of an attempted escape by around 600 inmates from the camp. Only around 90 survived, with the others killed by guards.

The ceremony at Jasenovac, known as "Croatia's Auschwitz" -- a reference to the Nazi death camp in Poland -- is held every year on the Sunday closest to April 22, the day of the escape in 1945.

The camp, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Zagreb, was dismantled a few days after the failed breakout. 

The Ustashas, who ran the so-called Independent State of Croatia (NDH) detained and killed tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, anti-fascist Croatians, gypsies and others in concentration camps.

The Jasenovac complex was the largest and most notoriously brutal of Croatia's camps, with many inmates killed by hammers, knives and stones.

During a visit to Jasenovac in 2010 the then Israeli president Shimon Peres said the way victims were killed there was a "demonstration of sheer sadism."

The total number of people killed at the camp remains disputed, varying from 80,000 dead according to Croatia, to 700,000 dead according to Serbian figures.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that around 100,000 people were murdered there.

Dinko Sakic, a former Jasenovac camp commander, was in 1999 sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity after being extradited from Argentina. He was found guilty for the deaths of at least 2,000 inmates.

Sakic died in a Croatian prison in 2008.



© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse










Today's News

April 27, 2015

7.8-magnitude earthquake deals heavy blow to Nepal's rich cultural heritage

Exhibition of works by French artist Claude Lévèque opens at Musée Soulages in Rodez

United States returns Egyptian artifacts smuggled by an international criminal network

Miguel Falomir announced as new Deputy Director at the Museo del Prado in Madrid

Steven Kasher Gallery exhibits over 150 vintage prints by Fred W. McDarrah

Bertoia's March 27-28 auction of Max Berry toy collection Part II boosts series total to more than $6 million

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg survey exhibition presents text-image combinations

80 large-scale photographs by Wim Wenders on view at Museum Kunstpalast

Papermania!, Bleicke Bleicken, and highlights from its collection on view at Museum Kunst der Westküste

Exhibition explores aspects of photography and modernity in the Ottoman Empire

Morphy’s announces May 16 Automobile auction at Pennsylvania gallery

What is Luxury? Victoria & Albert Museum interrogates and expands understandings of luxury

Guns in the Hands of Artists: A book of art and essays on guns and gun violence in America

70 years on, 'Croatian Auschwitz' victims remembered

Second solo exhibition of Joris Van de Moortel in Brussels opens at Galerie Nathalie Obadia

Galerie Gabriel Rolt opens second solo exhibition of performance artist Abner Preis

Exhibition presents provocative photographs by one of downtown New York's most intriguing artists

Exhibition of works by Giacomo Santiago Rogado opens at Bernhard Knaus Fine Art

'Barbara Visser: Manual/2: The Patient Artist' opens at Kunstraum in London

Lagerfeld presides at French fest for rising fashion stars

Exhibition of works by Josef Strau opens at Vienna's Secession

Catalina Island Museum silent film benefit to screen 'The Phantom of the Opera'




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful