A Witness of the Holocaust
Memories of Jasenovac "

The original book title: "Sasečeno stablo Danonovih, Sećanje na Jasenovac"
Our translation: "The Severed Trunk of the Danons, Memories of Jasenovac"

Gradina was one of the links in the chain of concentration camps known under name "Jasenovac".

EXCERPT from Mr. Danon's book, above.

Chapter Title:

Gradina

Quote:

The end of February 1942.

That morning all was covered by snow, the clouds dense and dark. We were standing in line in front of our barracks and, as always, we waited to be assigned to our jobs. One of the Ustashas addressed the group leader and told him that he needed some ten people for stacking the hay in a neighbouring village. The group leader repeated this and asked:

- Who is volunteering for that job?

The idea of escape did not leave me, I hoped that at this job I would have an occasion to flee. Among the first I volunteered and stood in the line, which under the surveillance of two Ustashas, started towards the camp gate.

The camp was at the very banks of the Sava river, which this February morning was frozen on both the left and right sides. Only in the middle of the river, some ten meters wide, water was freely flowing. I looked from the bank and saw two-three boats in the water and groups of Ustashas in them. We then descended the steep bank over the frozen part of the Sava to the water's edge and were preparing to go aboard one of the boats which had to take us to the other side. I noticed that on the other side of the river an Ustasha was throwing something into the river, three times successively. The dumped explosions resounded and the water sprang into the air as a geyser. I was startled not knowing what was happening, but when the Ustashas started gathering the fish with nets, ejected to the surface by the detonation, I understood. We passed the unfrozen part of the Sava and climbed up the opposite bank. There, a group of idle Ustashas were standing around a fire. They were warming themselves and roasted the caught fish on sticks. I observed on their heads nice leather caps with peaks and fur over their ears. All the caps were new and a brown and they reminded me immediately of the caps given to twenty Jews in the prison in Kreka, who were driven fifteen days before us to the camp. Those young men had received those caps as a gift from a few Jews who hitherto had not yet been imprisoned. It was clear to me that all of them had been killed there, as we did not find any of them. They were either members of a Zionist organisation Hashomer Hacair or members of the Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia. That knowledge touched me deeply and warned me that I was at the place of executions. One of the Ustashas with the leather cap, approached me while I was standing stiff and frozen with fear. At two steps from me, he looked down at my shoes. I had excellent ski shoes which he liked, so he demanded firmly that I give them to him. I was at a loss - what would I do barefooted in the snow. However, I told him that I would give them to him but asked him to give me some other in return. He told me to make a round of the village houses near us and to find shoes for myself. I looked all round and saw that no living soul was in the village. Only stray dogs who were looking in vain for food.

I entered the first village house and was startled by the horrible vision. The rooms were full of clothes and footwear, both men's, and women's and children's, rural and urban. I understood that they were the clothes of the victims of Ustasha mass killings. I sought some shoes for myself, but found none. I went to another building and found the same scene. In the third house, at the top of the heap of clothes I saw the coat and knitted woollen shawl worn by a professor of mathematics, Salom. He was imprisoned at Tuzla, with other Jews and we came together to Jasenovac. Two three days upon our arrival at the camp, I had met him worn-out and visibly old, though he was not over fifty. I approached him asking how he was, and very depressed, he told me:

- This is horrible! Something more horrible cannot be imagined. If we had known what was awaiting us it would have been better that all of us, in the Tuzla prison had poisoned ourselves. There is no salvation and exit from this hell.

Shaken by his words, I observed him, not finding a word of comfort.

I went further from one house to another and arrived at the end of the village finding none of the villagers, while all the houses were full of clothes of the killed people. Only one house remained which I had not entered. Finally, I did and found there shoes fitting my feet. Coming out from the building I glanced to the South and saw the outlines of Mount Kozara. When I looked down I saw a long black pit. Not hesitating I went near it. From the pit, in this cold weather vapour curled up - there were heaps of corpses of slaughtered people, thrown one upon the other. Horrified by the scene I remained still for a moment. I became aware in what a danger I found myself. I turned around fearing that some Ustasha had noticed me. Fortunately, I saw nobody, except, far away, several Ustasha bunkers dug into the ground. I hurried to go away as quickly as I could from this terrible spot.

I went near the Ustashas warming themselves around the fire, sat on the threshold of a nearby house, took off my shoes and put on those I had found and fast approached the Ustasha. I handed him my shoes. He took them and only said:

- Go to work!

I approached the group of inmates pressing the hay into square stacks. We were working fast with the constant hurrying of two Ustashas who followed us.

At twilight, we again crossed by a boat the unfrozen part of the Sava river and returned to the camp. I found my father in the barracks standing beside the stove warming his hands and speaking with the group leader Bararon. Worried by my looks, he asked me where I had been. Briefly I told what I had experienced and Bararon explained that I was in the village of Gradina, and he admitted that he did not believe that I would come back, because it was the center of the most massive executions. Many transports of people sent to Jasenovac had not entered the camp, but were transported by a raft across the Sava to Gradina and liquidated there. In the autumn of 1941, Bararon said, the Ustashas spread the news that weaker persons could go to easier tasks, across the Sava, in the village of Gradina. Asked what they would do there, they were told that they would be gathering plums. A lot of them believed that and volunteered. None of them ever reappeared in the camp.

MORE...

More about the book and how to order it.

Other survivors of Jasenovac speak

What was Jasenovac?

Who were Nazi Croats - the Ustashas?

More on WWII Yugoslavia

Nazi Croatia TODAY!!!