DEATH CAMP(S) BEFORE AUSCHWITZ: THE CASE OF THE GOSPIĆ-JADOVNO-PAG CAMP COMPLEX IN THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA

Наслеђе 58 (2024) [307-317]

АУТОР(И) / AUTHOR(S): Milovan Pisarri

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DOI: 10.46793/NasKg2458.307P

САЖЕТАК /ABSTRACT:

In the historiography of the Holocaust, the accepted position is that the death camps were established at the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942 in occupied Poland and that the Holocaust then passed from the phase of killing by bullets to the systematic deportation of Jews to Chelmno, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Majdanek which became the central places of the Nazi genocidal plan, and the final destination of 2,700,000 Jews. Although there was a network of concentration camps in which many people perished, what distinguishes them from death camps is the fact that the latter were established solely for the purpose of killing, while the others also had various functions. A similar difference can be observed in the camp system of the Independent State of Croatia, where already in 1941 there were places where ordinary people – Jews and Serbs – were brought solely for annihilation. The Jasenovac was in operation as early as August 1941 and can be defined as a death camp; however, due to the lack of research, much less is known about the func- tioning of the Gospić-Jadovno-Pag camp complex, where detainees were brought as early as May 1941 for killing. The article analyzes the functioning of the camp network in the Independent State of Croatia in 1941, with special attention to the Gospić-Jadovno-Pag camp complex. At the same time, the process of the creation of death camps in the Independent State of Croatia and in Nazi Germany is compared, proposing as a hypothesis the fact that due to its nature and function, the Gospić-Jadovno-Pag camp complex can be defined as the first death camp in Europe.

КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ / KEYWORDS: 

Holocaust, Independent State of Croatia, death camps, Gospić, Jadovno, Pag, Jasenovac

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