PARC COMMÉMORATIF DE DONJA GRADINA

This World War II memorial park (Spomen-Područje Donja Gradina/Спомен-Подручје Доња Градина) is located in a meander of the Sava River at the northernmost point of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite the beautiful surroundings, the visit can be difficult as macabre details abound about what happened here between 1941 and 1945. It is also regrettable that the site has been subject to political recuperation since the 1990s.

History. The Donja Gradina Memorial Park is part of a cross-border memorial complex created in the 1960s on the site of the third largest concentration camp complex in Europe during World War II: the Jasenovac extermination camp, most of which was located on the Croatian side of the Sava River. From 1941 to 1945, more than one million people were deported to this marshy area by the Croatian nationalist regime allied with the Nazis. The death toll is estimated by most camp historians at 100,000: 45,000 to 52,000 Serbs, 15,000 to 20,000 Roma, 12,000 to 20,000 Jews, and 5,000 to 12,000 Croats and Bosnians. It was here, in Donja Gradina, that the largest massacres of Jasenovac prisoners took place. Unfortunately, since the 1990s, the authorities in Belgrade and Banja Luka have exaggerated these figures, multiplying the number of Serb deaths by ten and denying the Croat victims. This is propaganda to minimize and justify the actions of Serbian forces during the Yugoslav wars (1991-2001).

Visit. The 177-hectare park is laid out with a tour detailing the crimes committed there. In the center are the reception and an exhibition room. The visit begins in the northwest, near the bridge. Above the symbols of the Serbian, Jewish and Roma communities, panels display the number of people killed in the entire Jasenovac complex: this is the most contested part, since the figure of 700,000 dead, including 500,000 Serbs, is given here. This is the version given by the current Serbian authorities. Again, serious studies agree on a number of 70,000 to 100,000 dead in total (360,000 at the most, but this is subject to doubt). Next door, at the confluence of the Una and Sava rivers, is the trunk of the "horror poplar"(topola užasa) on which prisoners were tortured. This is followed by plaques marking the locations of nine groups of mass graves, the camp entrance(prihvatni logor), the torture site of the "Vukić house"(kuća Vukića) and the ossuary(kosturnica). The route ends in a clearing with the "soap factory"(tvornica sapuna) where three cauldrons and a tank are displayed, which were used, it is said, to make soap from the bodies of the victims.

Nearby. In addition to the park in Donja Gradina, there are twelve other memorial sites of the same concentration camp complex in Croatia, managed by a different organization that presents the facts in a more scientific manner (jusp-jasenovac.hr). Thus, just across the street in Jasenovac, there is a museum, a research center and the famous Stone Flower Monument(Kameni Cvijet). This concrete work was made in 1966 by the Serbian sculptor Bogdan Bogdanović (1922-2010), to whom we owe the memorial parks of the partisans of Bihać and Mostar.