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In the 1941-42 there was a fascist delegation of Mussolini's goverment in Belgrad
and it was saying, when the dead bodies were coming from the Sava river
above Belgrad, some kilometer near Belgrade, the Sava river flows into Danube
when those bodies was coming, he was seeing them. He wrote in his diary about them
who was coming here, so not only those who were falling down
but also who were thrown into the lake on purpose
Here they was throwing them
Here we are in the middle of Jasenovac camp
that it was called Paljanec, local toponym
Then it was called Jasenovac because there was the small town of Jasenovac,
Poljane means "field"
Jasenovac like small town, is in the Est side
right at the Bosnian border, on the bridge that sat on the river that divides Bosnia and Croatia
Nowadays this river rappresent the state line between the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Of course during war time, the State so-called "Indipendent State of Croatia",
embraced, in addition to Croatia, the whole Bosnia and Herzegovina,
so it was not a border in that time
Yugoslavia, like after and later too, was made up of different populations
either for religion, either for ethnicity
and, most of all, there was an intolerance between Serbs and Croatians
Then, there were the Muslims of Bosnia and Macedonia
so nazists and fascists took advantage of these frictions based on religion and ethnic
in order to establish this State... the Indipendent State of Croatia
Italy always had this dream to expand towards East, in the Balkans
in the other side, Germany had the "Drank" dream, towards South
i.e. the rebuilding of ancient Austro-Hungarian Empire
then again to annex Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and so on
they found in ustaša, the ally to realize this dream
for Italy, to get back Dalmatia and sometine more,
for Germany to go as deeply as possible towards South
and in the same time to completely destroy Yugoslavia
In front of the eyes of italian soldiers, they started to kill in this camp
Jews etc.
but Italians got bored in one moment and said no!
"go kill elsewhere, this is our territory"
so they made this camp, of Jasenovac
This complex, of so-called "Krapje camp"
was made by 5 concentrament camps
"Croatian Railways" like "Trenitala" in Italy
H-D-Ž
was the sign of Ustaša State
in this side men and women were embarked
The river was crossed on boats and there they were shot, killed
and then throwed in these graves that themself, of course,
had to dig before being shot
Unlike the Germans methods
here they were just "slaughtered"
... with knifes
They was saving even gunshots
Future victims were here for race reasons. First of all Serbs, then Jews and Gypsies
and then there was a little part of Croatians who were antifascists, against ustaša
Murders were constant from '41 to '45 untill the last day of war
The year when they got the hightest peak, the higest peak of killing
was in 1942
The Memorial Park project
Do you see this field?
they plan to build some museum and other buildings
Our intention doing these things -this momerial park-
is to do such a Memorial Day
We, Croatians and Dalmatians, have never hated Italians
we have always had the conviction to be neighbors with Italy
and, in the other hand, we have our shame that you have seen in Jasenovac
so we don't neither have to say sorry neither to want excuses
but we just want to create a place where we can study
and see how things were going
These two semicolumns, broken columns,
one has Slovenian symbol
because most of the victims of this camp were slovenians
and the other has the arms of Croatia
Here there is like an atrium, at least this is the meaning
"an atrium before enter to hell"
because when they were arriving at the camp -which one we saw outside-
they must leave everything
and they called this atrium where they was undressed
and their names taken, with an italian name:
"bonifica" (reclamation), because this place should have been reclaimed
but they have never done this reclamation
because then it's transformed in a concentration camp
Anyway, that ingress was called "bonifica"
In the second part of this memorial you'll see the path that brings you inside
is like broken, and it means that they was trying to break
the spine of prisoners
The writings that you'll find, and the fallen's names
are written in this way to remind the disposition of the tents
in those three camps, of women and children of men and then of Jews
Fascist symbol, all fasces, the femal wolf etc. etc.
and then, here, this wolf and this fasces
and all other symbols became beasts that were killing
you all see this wolf growling, destroying, setting fire and killing
These two skeletal men with chains on their feet
this slavery...
This circular says:
When necessary for the effects of maintenance of public order
of operations, the commanders can provide:
to intern, as a protective, precautionary or repressive, families, groups of people
of cities or countries, and, if necessary, entire populations of villages and rural areas;
to stop hostages taken routinely from suspicious part of the population,
and - if deemed appropriate - even by its whole, including the upper classes;
to consider jointly responsible for the sabotage, in general, the inhabitants of houses
next to the place where they are made.
The hostages may be called to respond, by their life,
of attacks on military and officials Italians, in the locality from which they are taken,
if that were not identified - within reasonable amount of time, each time fixed-
the culprits. The inhabitants, if they are not identified -as mentioned above- the saboteurs,
can be interned as repressive demostration.
Towards the end of '48, there are no were no arrests or anything
But they were already searching for an island or a place where to place the prisoners
a place where you couldn't escape in any way
the Institutional Committee of the communist party of Yugoslavia
decided that all those, both in the army and in the party,
during a meeting, openly must declare which side they were,
they had to say publicly.
Even my father and my mother, in a meeting which was held here, in a cell of the party
with the party ticket in hand had to say:
"I am for Tito"
or "I am for Stalin"
They had to declare publicly
They are declared to Stalin ... the police picked them up and sent them
first in prison
at Stara Gradiška, for example, Rijeka, Pola, where there were prisons
Meanwhile, my mother was waiting, of a child - it was me -
they remained for about two months in that prison
In the meantime men of Urbam and even the police
they searched for the island more suitable in which they could be put
and in the meantime about 10 000 in all Yugoslavia had been arrested
Has been chosen, between the islands of the Adriatic
Goli Otok for a very simple reason: during the First World War
was a prison camp of captured Austrians during
the World War I, and then returned to function as a prison camp
Most of these that then were sent to Goli Otok
- but not only to Goli Otok, also in other concentration camps -
then they took the card of the party and have delivered saying
"I don't want to be no longer a member of the party"
The police chief of Rab ...
two of his friends had said that they were for Stalin
his, as chief of police, kept for himself and has not
informed Belgrade ... he has not denounced these two friends
Then they took him and they sent to Goli
i can add
and in my book I write, that many are finished Goli Otok because
lived in fine houses, etc. and then these homes are
taken by these of Urbam
Initially all were sent, men and women, to Goli Otok,
then they separated them and made the island of Sveti Grgur,
"Sant Gregori", that's very close to Goli
they sent women there and in Goli Otok were only men
Everyone who landed in Goli Otok had to make those 3000 meters
walking over the sharp stones with his feet almost always naked
and passing between two rows of first group of convicts
and they were obliged to beat, kick, spit on them
and when you have passed these 3000 meters,
if you arrived whole, but few could do it, all those had broken bones or
head, nose bleeding, well...
for those who didn't beat, outside was the militia, the police
who was watching - they didn't get their hands dirty - was marked
and then they were beaten,
then they all had to beat
This was the system, the police, the militia, as it was called at that time,
never touched with a finger these prisoners
never gave a slap, anything
was the system of self-managment and then the prisoners were doomed
to beat, to maltreat, to spy, and ever chief of the shacks
were appointed from among the prisoners
of course people who did spy, who reported to the police
what was said in the shacks,
and who had not declared at these two years to Titus
and the other communist party, they gave him yet another 2 years
That's the system.
According to my research, which then I have published in this book
- "Goli Otok and prisoners of Tito" you can find it in Trieste, Gorizia
the publisher is the Lint of Trieste -
there were about 40 000,more specifically about 38 000 prisoners in various shifts,
during those years when there was the camp of these, both for diseases
and beatings are dead about 4,000 of these prisoners.
From these things we have to learn. We must fight against the wars
so there are no wars because wars arouse
in the soul of man that part of ferocity
which is still within us, we have the good and the bad side
and because rage and exaltation, sometimes, we do
grim things
We try to educate generations future of peace and not war.
And always remember that in the wars, when occurring
these crimes, it's not a folk that does them
you should never accuse a people all of these crimes but they are always
individuals who make them, of course there is an ideology behind
there is someone who has instigated them, but however, we must search for the single
and punish the individual, it is possible but never blame an entire folk
"Whole Italian folk was fascist" "Whole Croatia folk was Ustaša"
"Whole Serbian folk was Celtic" that's not true
there are always those who have their responsibility and shouldn't
involve a whole folk. In Germany
in a certain period almost all have supported Hitler
but not all Germans are criminals
I know, for example, after the war, the first friendships through
tourists who came, were young Germans
who cursed Hitler etc., anyway
the Germans have done a spiritual harakiri
however, have apologized to the Poles
they have apologized for their crimes
things that i don't know if Italians have done yet
This was a small village, made all of these stone houses
This building and few others that you'll see around
remained as they were left after the country was burned
in retaliation, after the episode I told you on the bus
April 30, 1944
in the afternoon they got here immediately after the lunch time
in the evening it was all over
and the first time we came here we were so impressed by this plaque
that you can read:
in essence says:
In 30 April '44 German and Italian occupiers
burned and destroyed 87 dwelling houses
and 85 buildings like stables, poultry houses, warehouses, garages
like our garages
They burned the village from the ground up, completely
then you had to add of what this village was made
it *** made by 87 dwelling houses and 85 other buoldings, like barns, stables etc.
so the village was completely destroyed
in this sense, "do temelja", right "from the ground up"
then say of what this village was made, not just:
they burned 85 houses of the village because you can think that
other 40 houses left.. no! Not even one remained
If you go there back you will see the remains of some of these houses
and the other buildings
What struck us is this inscription:
"The German Italian occupiers"... it's what said
our friend Carmen in Rab, we are Italians
and we certainly haven't agreed what happened
and feel co-responsible is hard, would have been more appropriate
write "Nazists and Fascists"
But you can imagine the feeling of those people
of those who had relatives here, who had friends
of the few who survived who were young boys,
of your age who were to graze the cows in the woods
in that moment, and maybe they have seen what has happened from woods
but they are less than the fingers of one hand ...
Some women who were in Rijeka, that time they went on foot,
- Yes walk up to Rijeka - they got up at 4 am, 5 am
and they were going to buy somethings to the market, that time
when they returned, found the village destroyed
so, 2,3 women are saved
and are saved a dozen of men who for months fought with the partisans
Even if you can see the tombstone of partisans
there are all the fallen of Lipa during partisan war