Page 36 - EXPOTIME!Sept2017

Museums in Eastern Europe

wrote to Pope Pius that the church should do everything government decided to protect the remains and to mark
to hold the Croatians culturally strong and that the Serbs the mass-graves. A wire fence was erected and the camp
should take the Catholic belief. The magazine of his arch- buildings were marked with inscriptions.
bishopric “Katholicki list” spread hate preaching against
the Orthodox church and the Serbs. 18 The architect Bogdan Bogdanović concepted the Flower
Memorial as a symbol for eternal renewal. As a first step
The extermination camp in 1966, the monument was unveiled. Two years later, the
Jasenovac Memorial Site Memorial Museum close to the
former Camp II was opened.
In 1941, the small town Jasenovac situated at the North- 1989 a memorial train was added to the Camp. It consists
ern shore of the river Sava near to the river Una, was of a steam locomotive and some double-axle G freight
mainly inhabited by Serbs. It had a brockstone factory. a wagons. The locomotive was in use in the region between
factory for metal products and direct connection to the 1922 and 1974, the wagons were used for deporting pris-
railway system which was one reason why the Ustasha oners.
selected this place for a killing camp. Before the Croatian
fascists erected the camp, they killed or deported all in- The memorial as target
habitants and established an Ustasha garrison.
In the Yugoslavian wars between 1991 and 1995 Croatian
Jewish and Serbian prisoners were forced to build the nationalist forces occupied the territory, damaged the
camp, the barracks and dams near to the brickstone fab- wagons and demolished the Memorial. Until 2004 it was
20
ric and other smaller camp near Jasenovac. These camps restored. Prime minister Ivo Sanader openend it to the
could take around 7,000 prisoners. It was not necessary public again.
to have more place for prisoners because the camp was a
killing by using many methods: with pistols, knives, ham- At the Jasenovac Memorial site, historians researched
mers, grenades, carpenter's axes, hungering, freezing to how the Ustasha camp system operated, exhibtions in the
death, poison gas, by hanging or using the crematory. 19
museums and an educational program were developed in
Memorial and Museum. The Memorial Train co-operation with surviving prisoners. Therefore, besides
the museum, the Education Centre is an integral part of
the site. The memorial office writes: “Thanks to all the
The Jasenovac memorial site is situated on the grounds Jasenovac victims, Jasenovac today is a place which en-
of the former extermination camp. The original site is courages contemplation, learning, research, building per-
marked by earth mounds and hollows. In the center, a sonal convictions and actively resisting evil and crime,
huge concrete Flower Monument similar to those of the and is also a place where the value of human life and the
Tito era, was erected. The path to the memorial is paved moral principles which characterise humankind are em-
with railway sleepers which demonstrate the railway track braced. Jasenovac is a place from which we should all
on which the victims were transported into the camp.
depart having reached the decision that evil and the
'Jasenovac' crimes should never be repeated, anywhere.
When the Ustasha fled from the camp, they destroyed the Differences between peoples, cultures and nationalities
buildings, and its remains were later taken away to build should be respected, communicated and taught, and nev-
houses. Still in the 1950s, there were traces of barracks, er again allowed to be the causes of crimes against hu-
foundations and parts of the walls, especially brickworks. manity.“ 21
A part of the railway track could still be seen as well as
foundations of the camp wall. In 1956, the Yugoslavian Education against any violence

Since 2001 there were intensive museum activities, and
since 2006 the permanent exhibition was openend. „The
basic idea behind the new exhibition was to restore human
dignity to the Jasenovac victims, those killed and those
who survived, to preserve the memory of them as individ-
uals, and through their personal tragedies, to present each
visitor with the truth about one of the most terrible places
of execution in Croatian history ‒ the Jasenovac Ustasha
Concentration Camp ‒ and to spread the message that all
forms of violence must be eradicated.“ One aim of the
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Memorial Museum was to bring the individual suffering of
the victims to consciousness without ignoring the collec-
tive horrors “committed against children, women, men,
Serbs, Roma, Jews, Croats, Slovenes, Muslims and those of
The Memorial Train on the banks of the Sava River. other nations, religions or ideologies“ 23
Source: Wikimedia Commons/Petar Milosevic

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EXPOTIME!, issue August/September 2017