Mapping the Holocaust in
Croatia

Deportations to the Jasenovac Camp Complex commenced much earlier, but on November 25, 1941, they acquired a legal basis when Ante Pavelić issued a decree detailing the procedure for arrest and deportation to camps. The decree stipulated a minimum incarceration period of three months and a maximum of three years. Yet, the veneer of due process espoused by the decree was misleading. The regulations were a specious pretext for large-scale deportations of Jews, Roma, and Serbs. Despite the imposition of sentences, camp guards in Jasenovac often murdered prisoners immediately upon their arrival. Those who managed to stay alive until the completion of their sentences were rarely released. At the same time, thousands of people were deported to the camp complex without any formal sentencing, particularly during large-scale ethnic cleansing operations targeting Serb communities.

In mid-1942, the Jasenovac Camp Complex became the epicenter of state-organized destruction in the Independent State of Croatia. In the winter of 1941/1942, the perpetrators struggled with burying the bodies due to the frozen ground and in early spring because of flooding. However, by late April, the camp complex was ready to receive an unlimited number of prisoners, as this missive documents. The subsequent correspondence shows the missive’s circulation within the administrative apparatus of the Independent State of Croatia.

Oton Langfelder was born in Đakovo, and during the Second World War he lived in Osijek. He was in his mid-twenties when the war began in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He was deported to Gospić where he arrived on 9 August 1941. Around Gospić he performed forced labor and on 20 August 1941 he was moved north due to the Italian occupation and the closure of the Gospić camp complex, after which he was eventually taken to Jasenovac. On 4 January 1942 he was moved to Stara Gradiška. He survived the entire war in Jasenovac and participated in the breakout on 22 April 1945. This excerpt from his postwar testimony illuminates the appalling conditions aboard the train that deported him from Osijek to the Gospić Concentration and Death Camp Complex.

This telegram was sent during the height of the deportations undertaken against Jews of Sarajevo. While the mass deportations began already in September 1941, they intensified in October, culminating in November 1941. Despite its brevity, the telegram illustrates the logistical issues the perpetrators in Sarajevo faced when organizing deportations. While they were eager to deport the Jewish population as quickly as possible from Sarajevo, the process still had to be carefully negotiated with the centers of power in Zagreb, as well as with the commanders of various concentration and death camps, namely Jasenovac.

This short report provides insight into the dynamics of deportations of Jews from Sarajevo. While the mass deportations of Jews in Sarajevo started a month earlier, they intensified during October and peaked in November and December 1941. In this particular case, the report refers to Jewish men who were deported to Jasenovac, while women and children were deported to other camps, namely Đakovo in the end of 1941.

This short report provides insight into the dynamics of deportations of Jews from Sarajevo. While the mass deportations of Jews in Sarajevo started a month earlier, they intensified during October and reached their height in November and December 1941.

This document illustrates some of the logistical difficulties the Ustaša perpetrators in Sarajevo encountered during the deportations of Jews and Serbs in 1941. While the perpetrators on the local level, led mainly by Ivan Tolj and Jure Francetić, were eager to deport Jews and others “unwanted” groups as soon as possible, their actions were sometimes restricted by the genocidal capacities of the Independent State of Croatia which still had not developed in full capacity necessary to keep up with the enormous influx of victims. The situation quickly changed as Jasenovac started to function as a death camp in full capacity, and according to the reports from 1942 it could receive an “unlimited number of prisoners.”

The Jewish community of Šid was a small community of some ninety people. The majority of Šidian Jews were killed during the Holocaust; the community was never reestablished. Recorded by Šidian Jewish survivor Abram Kišicky, this testimony represents a unique and quite detailed account of the fate of the Jewish community of Šid during the last years of its existence.