The Concentration Camp That Scared Even The Nazis: Jasenovac Concentration Camp

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. “What Happened at Jasenovac? :: About Holocaust.“ About Holocaust. Accessed October 2, 2023. Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@