85 YEARS SINCE CLOSURE OF USTASHA GOSPIĆ-JADOVNO-PAG CAMP COMPLEX

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 20 /SRNA/ — The Ustasha Gospić-Jadovno-Pag death camp complex, which preceded the notorious Jasenovac camp, was shut down on this day in 1941.

Dušan Bastašić, president of the Jadovno Association in Banja Luka, told SRNA that only around 2,000 survivors reached Jasenovac via Jastrebarsko the following day.

He reminded of the prisoners arriving at Jasenovac railway station at 7:00 a.m., where they were handed over by the Ustasha forces from Lika to members of the 17th Ustasha Units.

"Only after an hour of searching and interrogation did they force them out of the railway cars, line them up in pairs, tie them together with wire and lead them towards the camp, about five kilometers from the railway station,” Bastašić stated.

He said one survivor testified that they were forced to run and that those who could not keep pace were beaten.

The Gospić-Jadovno-Pag concentration camp complex, also known as the Gospić group of camps, was the first organized extermination camp complex established by the Ustasha authorities for the destruction of Serbs and Jews in the then Independent State of Croatia /NDH/.

According to data collected so far, which are not final, 40,123 people, mostly Serbs, were brutally killed in the Jadovno death camp complex.