Holocaust Era in Croatia: History, Politics, & Nat’l Memory

After Germany and its Axis allies invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Nazis permitted the fascist and terrorist Ustasa organization to found the Independent State of Croatia. The Ustasa instituted a reign of terror and systematically killed Serbs, Jews, and Roma (Gypsies). Croatian fascists murdered or expelled hundreds of thousands of Serbs. In the countryside, Ustasa guards burned down entire Serbian villages and killed the inhabitants. Croatian fascists raped Serbian women and tortured Serbian men. The Ustasa regime established numerous concentration camps in Croatia between 1941 and 1945. The largest was the Jasenovac complex. The Jasenovac Memorial Area Collection contains thousands of artifacts--ranging from a recipe book written by a starving Stara Gradiska camp inmate to shackles found at Jasenovac--and related materials from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s archives. In this interview, Dr. Edna Friedberg, a historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Mus