It's impossible to imagine, but take a second and think about this: during WWII, there was a camp in
the former Yugoslavia that a Holocaust survivor and historian called “worse than even Auschwitz” in
terms of brutality, and about which the Nazis pushed for the camp leadership to be changed due to its
very public and savage daily routine. It might surprise you, but the Germans did not run this
extermination camp, and it was the third-largest concentration camp in Europe during the war in terms
of area.
After World War 1, a new country was created from many of the territories of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and the country of Serbia. This was Yugoslavia, “the land of the South Slavs.” Included within
the new nation were Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, North Macedonians, Albanians, and
Bosnian Muslims. There were also smaller numbers of other ethnic groups living within Yugoslavia,
including Jewish and Roma people.
At various times throughout the centuries, the different ethnic groups of the region had been at each
others' throats. This was especially true of the two largest groups, the Croats and the Serbs. One of the
many problems between the many groups in Yugoslavia was that for centuries, they had been
dominated and ruled by other nations, kingdoms, and people, most notably the Turks beginning in the
late 1400s and the Austro-Hungarians starting in the early 1700s when they began to slowly push the
Ottoman Turks out of the northern parts of the region.
As you may know, since the beginning of time, conquerors have used the “divide and conquer” policy
to keep their subject people weak and more focused on one another than on their common enemy. This
was the case with both the Turks and the Austro-Hungarians. Making matters even more interesting
was that many people in Bosnia converted to Islam throughout the centuries of Turkish rule.
Genetically, these people are mostly Serbs and Croats, but in the centuries since the Turks, they have
developed their own culture, and obviously, their religion differs from those around them.
From the 15th century to the 20th, foreign rulers pitted the various people of the lands of the former
Yugoslavia against each other to help maintain their own position.
#jasenovac #history #concentrationcamp #nazis
Music: Epidemic music
Sources:
McCormick, Robert B. Croatia Under Ante Pavelic: America, the Ustase and Croatian Genocide
in World War II. 2014.
"What Happened at Jasenovac? :: About Holocaust." About Holocaust. Accessed October 2,
2023. [ Ссылка ]
"What Happened at Jasenovac? :: About Holocaust." About Holocaust. Accessed October 2,
2023. [ Ссылка ]
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