The Jadovno concentration camp was a concentration and extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. Commanded by , it was the first of twenty-six concentration camps in the NDH during the war. Established in a secluded area about from the town of Gospić, it held thousands of Serbs and Jews over a period of 122 days from May to August 1941. Inmates were usually killed by being pushed into deep ravines located near the camp. Estimates of the number of deaths at Jadovno range from 10,000 to 68,000, mostly Serbs. The camp was closed on 21 August 1941, and the area where it was located was later handed over to the Kingdom of Italy and became part of Italian Zones II and III. Jadovno was replaced by the larger Jasenovac concentration camp and its extermination facilities.
The camp site remained unexplored after the war due to the depth of the gorges where bodies were disposed and the fact that some of them had been filled with concrete by Yugoslavia's Communist authorities. Additional sites containing the skeletal remains of camp victims were uncovered in the 1980s. Commemoration ceremonies honouring the victims of the camp have been organized by the Serb National Council (SNV), the Jewish community in Croatia, and local anti-fascists since 2009, and 24 June has since been designated as a "Day of Remembrance of the Jadovno Camp" in Croatia. A monument commemorating those killed in the camp was constructed in 1975 and stood for fifteen years before being removed in 1990. A replica of the original monument was constructed and dedicated in 2010, but disappeared within twenty-four hours of its inauguration.
History
Background
On 6 April 1941, Axis forces invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Poorly equipped and trained, the Royal Yugoslav Army was quickly defeated. After the invasion, the extreme Croat nationalist and fascist Ante Pavelić, who had been in exile in Benito Mussolini's Italy, was appointed Poglavnik ("leader") of an Ustaše-led Croatian state – the Independent State of Croatia (often called the NDH, from the ). The NDH combined most of modern Croatia, all of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of modern Serbia into an "Italian-German quasi-protectorate". NDH authorities, led by the Ustaše militia, then implemented genocidal policies against the Serb, Jewish and Romani populations living in the new state.
Aiming to exterminate the entire Serb population of the NDH, the Ustaše sought to murder one-third of Serbs, convert one-third to Roman Catholicism, and force the rest from the country. A series of massacres were committed by the Ustaše, and the degree of cruelty with which the Serb population was persecuted shocked even the Germans.
The Cyrillic script was banned, Orthodox Christian church schools were closed, and Serbs were ordered to wear identifying armbands. Similar measures were enacted against Jews, who were required to wear a yellow armband with a black-on-yellow Star of David for identification. These armbands bore the word "Jew" in two languages: German ("Jude") and Croatian ("Židov").
Operation
Located in a secluded area about from the town of Gospić, the Jadovno camp was formed during the early stages of the persecution of Serbs in the NDH and was placed under the command of the Ustaša Juco Rukavina. Intended as an extermination camp, it was established between 11 and 15 April 1941 and was the first of twenty-six concentration camps located in the NDH during the war.
Most inmates at Ustaše camps – including Jadovno – were Croatian Serbs. Other victims included Jews and anti-Ustaše Croats. Notable Jadovno inmates included the Croatian Jewish mayor of Koprivnica, Ivica Hiršl, and the Croatian Jewish Communist Aleksandar Savić.
Immediately, the Ustaše trucked several hundred detainees to a site intended almost exclusively for extermination near Gospić. Located on Mount Velebit, the town contained gorges – some up to deep – that were used as dumping grounds. The Jadovno camp itself was surrounded by such abysses () which were difficult to gain access to and characteristic of the karstic mountain range. The camp itself acted as a "way station" en route to these pits. Here, prisoners had to work the entire day with almost no food until exhaustion.