Factsheet on the Roma Genocide in Croatia
Recognition of the Roma Genocide
Recognition, official texts
The Republic of Croatia recognises that, together with Jews and Serbs, the Roma have suffered the most in the Second World War in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). In the first few days after the establishment of the NDH - 10th April 1941 - the Ustasha regime introduced a number of laws which have led to the destruction of particular ethnic groups, racial and religious groups as well as those with different ideologies.
In the “Law on Racial Affiliation” (30th April 1941) and the “Law on the Protection of Aryan Blood and Honour of the Croatian People” (30th April 1941), which were actually copies of Nazi racial laws, the so-called “pure Aryans” were specified and it was precisely defined which persons are Jews or Roma. According to the “Law on Citizenship” from 30th April 1941, a citizen of the NDH could have only been a person of Aryan descent, which implied that the Ustasha regime would use violence against citizens whose background or religion is “non-Aryan”. After publishing the Guidebook for Drafting a Statement on Racial Affiliation, on 3rd July 1941, the NDH adopted the Decision on the Obligatory Listing of the Roma, and at the same time the issue of their colonisation became relevant, for which purpose the Institute of Colonisation was established with the aim of achieving “internal colonisation” (Croatian State Archives, documents from the Independent State of Croatia, no. 26841).
In the baseline study document submitted by the Republic of Croatia to the ITF (Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research) in 2005, the Genocide against the Roma was explicitly mentioned. The document was a prerequisite for achieving the full membership in the Task Force, which took place in November 2005.
2nd August is officially recognised as International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day, as of 12th December 2014, and additionally Genocide of the Roma is commemorated along with other victims of the Holocaust and 2nd World War at specific events held every year on 27th of January, The Day of Holocaust Remembrance and for the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity.
Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)
(Information provided by Jasenovac Memorial Area)
The first mass arrests of Roma began in July 1941. From 20th May 1942, mass arrests of Roma were organised across the entire territory of the NDH as well as their deportation to the Jasenovac Concentration Camp, including Camp III Ciglana in Jasenovac and the concentration camp in Stara Gradiška.
Jasenovac Concentration Camp
Mass arrests and deportations of the Roma to the Jasenovac Concentration Camp took place from 20th May until the end of July 1942. Upon arrival to the concentration camp, their personal valuables were confiscated and a list of inmates was kept only in the early days. Additional records and documents of the Ustaše origin about the deportation of the Roma to the concentration camp do not contain names but only the number of persons or train cars used for transport.
In June 1942, when the number of incoming Roma to the concentration camp was particularly high, they were divided into two groups. Older men, together with women and children, were separated from younger men and immediately dispatched to Donja Gradina for extermination. Younger men were placed in Camp III C, so called “Brickworks”). In Camp III C prisoners died in large numbers of hunger, thirst, exhaustion and physical mistreatment. They were led to be exterminated on a daily basis. Only a small number of the Roma were divided into groups to perform physical labour, where they predominantly worked on the most demanding jobs.
In the village of Uštica, adjacent to Jasenovac, the Ustasha concentration camp for the Roma, a so-called “Gypsy Camp” was set up. Roma families were placed there, predominantly women and children, for whom there was no room in Camp III Ciglana Jasenovac due to cramped conditions after deportations. A portion of the prisoners was transported during the summer of 1942 to Donja Gradina and exterminated there in the most horrific ways whilst others were killed in the camp itself. Twenty-one mass graves at the Roma cemetery in Uštica bear witness to this.
Memorial Site at Danica
From 1941 to 1942, the Ustashas incarcerated several thousand people in the industrial area of Danica, town of Koprivnica. Approximately 5 600 prisoners passed through the Danica camp between 1941 and 1942. Although no executions or deliberate killings took place, some 200 to 300 prisoners died of the terrible conditions they were subjected to. Over 3 000 former prisoners of the Danica camp were murdered by members of the Ustaša, mostly in the camps at Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška. In total, about 3 000 Serbs, 1 000 Croats, over 600 Jews and about 400 Roma were incarcerated at Danica.
The Massacre of Hrastina
On 24th April 1945, members of a retreating German SS unit caught 43 German Sinti who had fled to Croatia and were hiding in a village near Zagreb. Some of them were tortured and all 43 of them - men, women and children - were then killed and burned in a barn.
Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue
There is no specialised institution, commission or research centre dealing only with the issue of the Roma Genocide. However, the Croatian State Archives which are under the authority of the Ministry of Culture, may provide additional information.
The Jasenovac Memorial Area is responsible for maintaining authentic sites and monuments of the former Ustasha Concentration Camp Jasenovac; it collects, classifies and presents museum material and documentation relevant to the operation of the Ustasha Concentration Camp Jasenovac. It also educates visitors and preserves the memory of the victims of the concentration camps.
Besides a furnished and regularly maintained commemorative area of the former Camp III Ciglana Jasenovac in the town of Jasenovac itself, the Jasenovac Memorial Area maintains the Roma cemetery in Uštica, which is located next to the entrance to the town cemetery.
Croatian State Archives (Hrvatski državni arhiv)
Marulićev trg 21
10000 Zagreb Croatia
Telephone: +385 1 4801 999
Fax: +385 1 4829 000
Jasenovac Memorial Area (Spomen područje Jasenovac)
Braće Radić 147
44 324 Jasenovac Croatia
Telephone/Fax: +385 44 672 319
Government Office for Human Rights and Rights of National Minorities (Ured za ljudska prava i prava nacionalnih manjina Vlade Republike Hrvatske)
Mesnička 23
10000 Zagreb Croatia
Telephone: +385 1 4569 358
Fax: +385 1 4569 324
E-mail: ured@uljppnm.vlada.hr
Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)
Each year, on Sunday closest to 22nd April, the occasion of the final breakout of prisoners from Camp III Ciglana Jasenovac, which occurred on 22nd April, members of a Roma delegation from the area of the former Socialist Federative Republics of Yugoslavia lay wreaths at the Roma cemetery in Uštica. The following representatives address the ceremony: President of the Republic, representatives of the Government, representatives of the Parliament, different religious communities as well as representatives of all groups victimised in Jasenovac, including the Roma. The commemoration is broadcasted on national television.
The victimisation of the Roma in the Ustasha Concentration Camp Jasenovac is presented as a separate thematic unit in the permanent museum exhibition of the Jasenovac Memorial Area Memorial Museum through documents, photographs, commemorations and audio-video testimony from a surviving Jasenovac prisoner (Nadir Dedić). The curriculum of the Jasenovac Memorial Area Educational Centre also shows the victimisation of each ethnic group against which the Genocide was committed and which were victims of the Holocaust - it is through the use of museum material and documentation that pupils and students learn about the victimisation of the Roma in the Ustasha Concentration Camp Jasenovac. Groups of visitors also visit the Roma cemetery in Uštica, with the help of a professional guide, as well as the entire Memorial Area.
In 2003, as part of its publishing activities, the Jasenovac Memorial Area published the book “Genocid nad Romima - Jasenovac 1942” (Genocide against the Roma – Jasenovac 1942), by author Narcisa Lengel-Krizman. In 2004, at the proposal of the Association of Roma Native to Croatia (LOVARI), the Jasenovac Memorial Area had helped set up the “Permanent Documentary and Historical Exhibition of Roma Native to Croatia and the Little Library” by providing copies of documents from museum archives and books from the library. In the Jasenoavac Memorial Area Library, which is open to outside users, a large amount of books on the victimisation of the Roma in World War II has been collected (authors: Dragoljub Acković, Bajram Halipi, Antun Miletić and Dr. Rajko Đurić). In the database of “The List of Names of the Victims of Jasenovac Concentration Camp, 1941-1945”, which was published in 2007, information on 15 151 Roma who were killed in various ways at the Ustasha Concentration Camp Jasenovac has been collected. In accordance with the Law on Changing and Amending the Law on the Jasenovac Memorial Area (Article 6, NN 22/01), representatives of the Roma in the Republic of Croatia have their representative in the Council of the Jasenovac Memorial Area.
In 2003, the Ministry of Education and Sports has adopted the Decision to Establish 27 January as the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes Against Humanity and since then the schools are encouraged to commemorate events that took place.
On 12th December 2014, the Croatia's Parliament has adopted the Decision and thereby declared the 2nd August as International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Remembrance day
Since 2004, the Republic of Croatia has annually observed on the 27th of January the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes Against Humanity.
On 2nd August, a commemoration ceremony is held at the Roma cemetery in the village of Uštica, where Roma victims from the Jasenovac Concentration Camp are buried.
The Republic of Croatia recognises that, together with Jews and Serbs, the Roma have suffered the most in the Second World War in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). In the first few days after the establishment of the NDH - 10th April 1941 - the Ustasha regime introduced a number of laws which have led to the destruction of particular ethnic groups, racial and religious groups as well as those with different ideologies.
In the “Law on Racial Affiliation” (30th April 1941) and the “Law on the Protection of Aryan Blood and Honour of the Croatian People” (30th April 1941), which were actually copies of Nazi racial laws, the so-called “pure Aryans” were specified and it was precisely defined which persons are Jews or Roma. According to the “Law on Citizenship” from 30th April 1941, a citizen of the NDH could have only been a person of Aryan descent, which implied that the Ustasha regime would use violence against citizens whose background or religion is “non-Aryan”. After publishing the Guidebook for Drafting a Statement on Racial Affiliation, on 3rd July 1941, the NDH adopted the Decision on the Obligatory Listing of the Roma, and at the same time the issue of their colonisation became relevant, for which purpose the Institute of Colonisation was established with the aim of achieving “internal colonisation” (Croatian State Archives, documents from the Independent State of Croatia, no. 26841).
In the baseline study document submitted by the Republic of Croatia to the ITF (Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research) in 2005, the Roma Genocide was explicitly mentioned. The document was a prerequisite for achieving the full membership in the Task Force, which took place in November 2005.
2nd August is officially recognised as International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day, as of 12th December 2014.
Teaching about the Roma Genocide
Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum
The Roma Genocide in World War II is included in the 8th grade primary school History Curriculum. (Primary School Curriculum, Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, p. 290, 2006). Under topic no. 6, “Second World War”, key concepts are discussed: politics of abatement, Three-Power Pact, blitzkrieg, Holocaust, Genocide, concentration camps, antifascist coalition, total war, victims and mass killings in Croatia. Educational achievements include: describing how and under which conditions the Independent State of Croatia was established, evaluating the Ustasha regime and condemning the politics of terror against citizens (particularly Serbs, Jews and Roma) as well as racial laws and concentration camps (Jasenovac).
In secondary schools, the Genocide against the Roma is taught in history classes in the final year of three-year and four-year schools. The attitude towards the Roma in this period is taught in lessons about occupied Europe and the Independent State of Croatia (Secondary School Curriculum, Ministry of Education and Sports, p. 173, 1995) and it includes: the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), territory of the NDH, governmental organisation of the NDH, relations between NDH and Italy and Germany, the dictatorship of the Ustasha regime and the connection to the fate of the regime’s advocates.
On 29 October 2015, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports has released a Public Call for the selection of prospective members of the Expert Working Group for the Development of Draft Curriculum on Nurturing Language and Culture of Roma National Minority in Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Republic of Croatia (Model C). On 9 December 2015, the Minister of Science, Education and Sports has passed the Decision on the appointment of the Expert Working Group. The Draft Curriculum publication is planned for June 2016.
The objective of the Expert Working Group is to produce a Draft Curriculum on Nurturing Language and Culture of Roma National Minority in Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Republic of Croatia (Model C). The Draft Curriculum is expected to include: definition of purpose, goals and learning outcomes of the subject, the contents, principles of learning and teaching, learning process arrangement, as well as the evaluation, rating and reporting principles.
The Draft Curriculum is intended to encompass all levels and types of education that make the groundwork for the subject.
The effort of the Working Group members directly contributes to the attainment of measure 2.4.1 titled Early and Preschool, Elementary and Secondary Education of the Education, Science and Technology Strategy.
Concerning the holocaust and the introduction of history of Roma into the curricula, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports has published proposed national curricula for all school subjects on 29 February 2016 (including a draft History Curriculum), which are currently undergoing an expert debate.
Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks
The topic of the Roma Genocide against the Roma in World War II is included in school textbooks for primary schools (ISCED level 2 – history textbook for 8th grade of primary school) and secondary schools (ISCED level 3 – history textbook for 4th grade of secondary school), whilst in higher education this topic is covered as part of education of future history teachers.
Training of teachers and education professionals
Since 2007, within the framework of the Pestalozzi programme, there has been an annual European workshop giving the Croatian teachers the opportunity to present and share their classroom teaching experiences. These workshops are noteworthy in both quantitative and qualitative terms for not only the knowledge they transmit but also the material which can be directly used by teachers and the emphasis placed on Jasenovac, a genuinely historically symbolic site, as a teaching tool.
In the frame of the cooperation with Yad Vashem – the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in the State of Israel, 25 in-service teacher training scholarships are awarded each year. This is a common practice since the year 2005, since 2013 based on the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Holocaust Education between the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, the Education and Teacher Training Agency of the Republic of Croatia an Yad Vashem. This teaching training course also introduces the attendees to Genocide of the Roma.
The Education and Teacher training Agency in cooperation with “Memorial de la Shoah” in the French Republic, organize and annual Conference on teaching about the Holocaust for 20 teachers from the Republic of Croatia. The aim of Conference is to enable participants to expand their knowledge about Holocaust through a detailed insight into the various aspects of the suffering of Jews and Roma in the period before and during the 2nd World War, Nazi Germany and Vichy France, but also to improve and empower their teaching skills and competences, appropriate to the age and previous knowledge of their students.
In cooperation of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and The Embassy of the United States of America, several more scholarships are also available by the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, as well as by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous and Association of the Holocaust Organizations.
On 27th January – The Day of Holocaust Remembrance and for the Prevention of Crimes against the Humanity, the Ministry and the Agency organize every year a national in-service teacher training seminar “Teaching and learning about Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity” and a follow-up seminar for exchanging of teaching experience for the teachers who attended the seminar in Israel. Presentations as well as completed teaching units and various teaching materials are also published on the official Croatian and English web sites of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports.
Short preview of the Seminar held in 2009 is visible on this link.
The annual seminar is an excellent opportunity for Croatian teachers to broaden their knowledge, learn how to deal with the issue of Holocaust in their teaching, become involved in international projects for schools, and share and connect with others, nationally and internationally.
The Conference "Teaching about the Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity", organised by the Croatian Education and Teacher Training Agency in Zagreb, from 27th January to 30th January 2013, gave the opportunity to Loranda Miletić, Senior Adviser for History Education and a member of the Croatian delegation to the IHRA, and Karen Polak to present teaching materials called "The Fate of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust".
Seminar “Teaching and learning about Holocaust and the prevention of crimes against humanity” was organised by the Croatian Education and Teacher Training Agency in Zagreb 2009.
In 2012, the Education and Teacher Training Agency organised its annual seminar “Teaching about the Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity” for Croatian primary and secondary school teachers, from 25 to 27 January, in Zagreb and at the Jasenovac Memorial Site. The annual seminar is an excellent opportunity for Croatian teachers to broaden their knowledge, learn how to deal with the issue of Holocaust in their teaching, become involved in international projects for schools, and share and connect with others, nationally and internationally.
The Conference "Teaching about the Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity", organised by the Croatian Education and Teacher Training Agency in Zagreb, from 27th January to 30th January 2013, gave the opportunity to Loranda Miletić, an inspector of history education and a member of the Croatian delegation to the IHRA, and Karen Polak to present teaching materials called "The Fate of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust".
Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions
In 1999, the National Programme for Human Rights Education was adopted. It defines the aim of teaching about the Holocaust as not only to learn about and preserve the memory of the period of unprecedented suffering but also to reflect on what each individual should do to prevent Anti-Semitism, intolerance and any crime against humanity.
The Ministry of Science, Education and Sports continually promotes the creation of additional teaching material for education about the Holocaust and the training of teachers in Croatia and abroad. At least one copy of the printed version of this material is distributed to each Croatian school.
Testimonies
Nadir Dedić and Fatima Dedić are the only Roma who survived Jasenovac, the second largest extermination camp that had taken many Roma lives.
Testimony of Fatima Dedić is a part of a documentary movie “Mémoires tsiganes, l'autre génocide” (The Other Genocide. The Persecution of Sinti and Roma in Europe 1920–1946) made in France and directed by Henriette Asséo, Idit Bloch and Juliette Jourdan (from 41:12 to 43:44).
Nadir Dedić was arrested in the fall of 1942 as a political prisoner when the World War II stroke Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was falsely accused of setting a fire to the hay as a signal to the liberators. “It was that Gipsy boy who did it”, said Dedić and that statement alone was enough for him to end up in the camp where thousands of Roma were already facing their destiny - to be killed in a barbaric way by Ustasha Croatian fascist regime. Together with his wife Fatima, he spent four and a half terrifying months in Jasenovac concentration camp. Mr. Dedić shared an emotional and extremely touching testimony with the participants of the Barvalipe 3rd Roma Pride Summer School that took place in Kolašin, Montenegro, between 16 and 25 August 2013. "Heroes should be praised and celebrated!", said the participants whilst presenting the Appreciation Award to Mr. Dedić. Nadir Dedić's interview at Jadovno Memorial Site in 2014.
Katica Djurdjevich was born in 1921 in the small Croatian village of Viri into a Lovari Roma family. She grew up in the traditional Lovari way. Katica married very young and quickly had two children. Her husband Milan Shain was a Kalderash Rom, and she moved to Pitomača in northern Croatia to join his family, where she supported the family’s income by fortune-telling – a skill she had picked up from her mother and her grandmother. When the war came to Yugoslavia in 1941, and the Ustaše puppet state of Croatia was set up, Roma were subjected to violence and abuse. The first to be taken away were Katica’s family in Viri. They were deported to Jasenovac concentration camp where they were murdered. Katica’s husband and uncle were selected for forced labour in Germany because of their physical strength. Katica, her two small children and the remaining members of her husband’s family were also rounded up, put on cattle cars and transported to Jasenovac. When they reached the camp after eight days, they were informed that they could go home again. Orders had changed and, as ‘non-nomadic Gypsies’, they would no longer be incarcerated. They were sent back to Pitomača in the same cattle cars, but when they arrived they found their houses looted, broken or burnt down by the Ustaše. The testimony of Katica Djurdjevich
The testimony of Joka Nikolić, survivor, from Šarapovo near Čazma
Oral History of Ivo Herzer who describes a roundup (from which he was released) of Jews by Croatian collaborators in 1941 and transportation to the concentration camps on the island of Pag and Rab [Interview taken in 1989]
Initiatives of the civil society
In 2012, the Education Centre of the Jasenovac Memorial Site organised an exhibition of posters made by schoolchildren. The Poster project was a result of co-operation between the Education and Teacher Training Agency and Yad Vashem. The participants were students and teachers from eight primary and secondary vocational schools who participated in the Project as a part of their extra-curricular activities. Some of the posters dealt with local history, presenting not only the suffering but also the friendship as well as saving of children and adults during the Holocaust.
Educational material
The Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, in cooperation witthe Shoah Foundation Visual Learning Institute, has created lessons about the Holocaust, based on testimonies of survivors. One lesson, created by Robert Skenderović, Ph.D (“The Suffering of Women and Children in Jasenovac”), describes the victimization of the Roma in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp during World War II. The preparation manual for this lesson is available and the guidelines for teaching about Holocaust can be found on the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports web page.
The teaching materials and various completed teaching units on teaching about Holocaust and Crimes against Humanity during 2nd World War are available on the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports web page.
Handbooks and teaching materials published by Ana Frank House from Netherlands in cooperation with OSC/ODIHR were adopted for school teaching and translated into Croatian. In cooperation with the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and the Education and Teacher Training Agency they were disseminated to Croatian schools. Full package of teaching materials covers the following themes: History of the Jews in Europe and anti-Semitism till 1945, Anti-Semitism in Europe today and Prejudice, discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism.
Holokaust u nastavi, priručnik za nastavnike (Teaching about the Holocaust: A Resource Book for Educators): Memorijalni muzej holokausta u Sjedinjenim Americkim Državama (translated from the original in English).
Baumgartner G., Bibermann I., Ecker M., Sigel R : „The Fate of European Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust“ Teachers’ Manual is available in PDF form on www.romasintigenocide.eu in English, French and German.
Information material
Croatia has been a member of the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF) since 2005 and actively contributes in the research activities.
There are several research and academic institutions that have contributed to Holocaust research: Croatian State Archives, Croatian Institute of History, Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb as well as Jewish communities, including Jewish Community of Zagreb and the Jewish Community Bet Israel of Croatia. The most significant issues discussed include the state of the Holocaust-related material in public archival institutions of member countries, the issue of accessibility of public archives and the availability of the holdings to researchers.
Two Croatian national reports were prepared and compiled for the Academic Working Group (AWG) meetings in Prague in 2007: "Report on the Holocaust Related Research in Croatian Public Archives" and "Holocaust Related Archives in Croatia - Report No. 2," presenting an important overview of the field. Important resources for Holocaust researchers to be consulted in Croatia are kept in the Croatian State Archives, as well as in the Research and Documentation Center for Holocaust victims and survivors (CENDO).
The Information Portal to European Sites of Remembrance online since 2011, is a project of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is part of the exhibition of the Information Centre under the Field of Stelea of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The presentation focuses on the victims of the Holocaust, but also on memorials to other victims of National Socialist crimes and the millions of victims of the Second World War. Among others, it presents memorial sites in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
During the 2015’s Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month, historian Rainer Schulze will remind of the systematic persecution the Roma and Sinti suffered during the period of Nazi rule in Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe. Rainer is a Professor of Modern European History at the University of Essex and the programmer of the University of Essex’s annual Holocaust Memorial Week. See more
Jasenovac Research Institute
According to the institute’s website: "The Jasenovac Research Institute is a non-profit human rights organization and research institute committed to establishing the truth about the Holocaust in Yugoslavia and dedicated to the search for justice for its victims. The JRI promotes research and activities designed to enlighten the world to the crimes of genocide committed at Jasenovac and wartime Yugoslavia against Serbs, Jews and Romas and provides assistance to all groups and individuals who likewise seek justice for these victims."
(Auto)Biographies:
Bernadac, Ch. (1981). Zaboravljeni holokaust: pokolj Cigana. Zagreb: Globus. [Original in French]
Lacková, E. (2002). Rođena sam pod sretnom zvijezdom: moj život Ciganke u Slovačkoj. Zagreb: Ibis Grafika. [Original in Czech and Romani]
Novel:
Kućan, Maja: “Jedinomoje i ostali: Pisma iz logora” ("Myonlyone and the Rest!: Letters from Concentration Camps"), 2010, published by Jasenovac Memorial Site.
A book of personal narratives, records and correspondence from the inmates of the Jasenovac camp.
Comment:
A new work-in-progress documentary about the circumstances surrounding the films shot by Allied troops when they liberated Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz, Madjanek and other concentration camps at the end of WWII. Croatian director and producer, 81 years old Auschwitz survivor and Oscar winner Branko Lustig said at the premiere in Berlin in December 2014: "I like this movie very much; this kind of movie must be shown every 25 years, to every new generation. You cannot live your life hating." See more
2014: “Night Will Fall”, United Kingdom, Director André Singer, Documentary
„Genocide of European Roma (Gypsies), 1939–1945”, published on the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, says that the authorities of the so-called Independent State of Croatia, another Axis partner of Germany and run by the militant separatist and terrorist Ustasha organisation, physically annihilated virtually the entire Roma population of the country, around 25,000 people. The concentration camp system of Jasenovac, run by the Ustasha militia and the Croat political police, claimed the lives of between 15 000 and 20 000 Roma.
Scientific publications
ACKOVIĆ, DRAGOLJUB. (1996) Roma Genocide in Jasenovac Camp. Belgrade: The Museum of the Victims of Genocide; Rrominterpress.
ACKOVIĆ, DRAGOLJUB. (1994) Stradanje Roma u Jasenovcu. Beogad: ABC Glas.
BERNADAC, Ch. (1981). Zaboravljeni holokaust: pokolj Cigana. Zagreb: Globus. [Original in French] BRUCHFELD, S. et al. (1998). ...pripovijedajte to...: knjiga o Uništenju u Evropi, 1933-1945. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet. [Original in Swedish]
BULAJIĆ, M. (1996). Tudjman's "Jasenovac myth": Genocide against Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. Belgrade: Stručna knj.
CROWE, KOLSTI, HANCOCK: „The Gypsies of Eastern Europe“, 1992, Routledge
DULIĆ, Tomislav, “Mass killing in the Independent State of Croatia: A Case for Comparative Research”, Journal of Genocide Research, vol. 8, n°3, 2006, pp. 255-281.
FINGS, K., Lissner, C. and Sparing, F. (1992). “...einziges Land, in dem Judenfrage und Zigeunerfrage gelöst”: die Verfolgung der Roma im faschistisch besetzten Jugoslawien 1941-1945. Köln: Rom e.V. Köln.
FINGS, K. et al. (2006). Od "rasne znanosti" do logora: Romi u Drugom svjetskom ratu (I.dio). Zagreb: Ibis.
JEVTIC, E. (2004). Blank pages of the Holocaust Gypsies in Yugoslavia during World War II. Thesis (M.A.), Brigham Young University.
KOVAČIĆ, Ivan . Kampor 1942-1943: Hrvati, Slovenci i Židovi u koncentracijskom logoru Kampor na Rabu (Kampor 1942-1943: Croats, Slovenes and Jews in Concentration camp Kampor on the Island of Rab). Rijeka: 1998.
LACKOVA, E. (2002). Rođena sam pod sretnom zvijezdom: moj život Ciganke u Slovačkoj. Zagreb: Ibis Grafika. [Original in Czech and Romani]
LENGEL KRIZMAN, Narcisa. Stradanje Roma u Nezavisnoj državi Hrvatskoj 1942. (Suffering of Roma in the Independent State of Croatia), Spomen podrucje Jasenovac , Cvijet, Zagreb, 2003.
LIITUCHY, B. M. et al. (2006). Jasenovac and the Holocaust in Yugoslavia: Analyses and survivor testimonies. New York: Jasenovac Research Institute.
MIRKOVIC, D. (1993). “Victims and Perpetrators in the Yugoslav Genocide 1941-1945. Some preliminary observations”, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 7 (3), pp. 317-332.
POLANSKY, P. (2008). One blood, one flame: The Oral Histories of Yugoslav Gypsies before, during and after WW2, sv. 3. Niš: Kosovo Roma Refugee Foundation.ŠKILJAN, Filip: „Odnos ustaške vlasti na Kalniku i u potkalničkom kraju prema Srbima, Židovima i Romima 1941. godine“ (How ustasha authorities in Kalnik and sub-Kalnik region treated Serbs, Jews and Romanies in 1941), original scientific paper
ŠKILJAN, Filip: “Stradanje Srba, Židova i Roma u virovitičkom i slatinskom kraju tijekom 1941. i početka 1942. godine” (The suffering of the Serbs, Roma and Jews in the area of Virovitica and Slatina in 1941 and early 1942), original scientific paper, Scrinia Slavonica, volume 10 – number 1, 2010
TOMIC, Yves: “Massacres in Dismembered Yugoslavia, 1941-1945”, Online Encyclopaedia of Mass Violence
VOJAK, Daniel: “The Nazi Genocide of the Roma. Reassessment and Commemoration Anton Weiss-Wendt, Berghahn Books, New York”, review of the book, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol.46 No.1
VOJAK, Daniel: “Romi u doba Holokausta”, Journal - Institute of Croatian History, Vol.46 No.1, 2014
Vojak, Daniel; Papo, Bibijana; Tahiri, Alen: “Stradanje Roma u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj 1941.-1945.” (The Suffering of Roma in the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945), Institute of Social Science Ivo Pilar, Roma national Council, Zagreb, 2015
WEISS-WENDT, Anton : ”The Nazi Genocide of the Roma - Reassessment and Commemoration”, 2015, Berghahn Books, USA
ZATEZALO, Djuro: "JADOVNO (The Jadovno complex of Ustasha concentration camps 1941: summary)", 2007, Belgrade, Muzej zrtava genocida
Multimedia material
1977: "Akcija stadion" (Operation Stadium), Croatia, Director: Dusan Vukotic, Writers: Slavko Goldstein and Dusan Vukotic, duration 90 minutes.
This film tells a true story about events in Zagreb in 1941. Nazis and their collaborators organised the great gathering of students on Dubrava stadium. The intention was to publicly separate Jews from them which would lead to future pogrom. The event, however, took an unexpected turn.
2011: "The other Genocide: The Persecution of Sinti and Roma in Europe 1920–1946“ (Mémoires tsiganes, l'autre génocide), France Documentary, directed by Juliette Jourdan , Produced by Marie-Hélène Ranc, Mark Edwards & Eric Darmon, duration 1:15:05
Film follows the lives of Roma from Czech Republic, France, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Ukraine before and after the Holocaust.