Testimonies

Our large family lived in three houses in the village of Predavec in 1941, and besides my wife Lola, 18, and daughter Višnja, 18 months old, my father Ivan Nikolic, 54, was alive, my mother Jana, 54, brother Stevo, 34, his wife Dragica, 29, with their four children, the oldest of whom, Milan was 5, Jana 4, Zlatko, 3, and one small boy of 1, whose name I cannot remember. I also had brother Milan, 31, his wife Roza 30, and their two children, of whom Dorica was 4, and Ankica 2…

… My numerous family was taken with me to Jasenovac concentration camp, no one ever returned home, nor do I know what happened to them, but I assume that they were all killed in that camp.

Josip Nikolic – Joka, Predavec near Čazma, on the suffering of his family in the Jasenovac camp (from the indictment of Andrija Artuković in 1952)

I am aware that a municipal notary in Dalj, together with the local militia and armed men, arrested all members of eleven Gypsy families from Dalj, on one night in June 1942. This had been ordered by one named Katić, district commander from Osijek. The other day members of these gypsy families were taken to a concentration camp from where they never returned. These gypsies were craftsmen, tough-makers, and were honest and hardworking citizens …

Krešimir Vinaj, artisan from Dalj on the deportation of Roma (from the indictment of Andrija Artuković in 1951)

Me and other 34 gypsies were separated from a large group and assigned to work on potato digging and weeding … On the same day, our wives and children were taken to the dug-out pits, which were 6 x 8 m in length, and 3 or 4 meters high, and were killed there, children too. I went to work on cleaning the railway for eight days, that is how long I stayed in Jasenovac, and every day I saw large groups of gypsies, several hundred accompanied by Ustashas, to the pits and killing them… When the hole was filled with corpses, they were not all dead immediately, first, they were covered with a thin layer of earth and then with lime, and each time I saw the surface of that hole moving, which I believe happened because people were still alive …

Stjepan Nikolić from Velika Gorica on the killing of Roma in Jasenovac (from the Public Prosecutor’s Office records, District in Velika Gorica, in 1952)

I was sent to Jasenovac camp, with my first wife Anica, our two children and my mother. I managed to escape after twelve days but my mother, wife, and children were killed there… While I was in the camp I saw with my own eyes where this Ustaša killed a pregnant woman, because he had a bet with another Ustaša for ten dinars whether the child was a male or female, and they killed her with a knife, they slaughtered her.

Nikola Mitrovic from the village of Novi Jankovci about the brutality in the camp (from the List of gypsies, from St. and N. Jankovci, who were in the camp in Jasenovac and Gradiška)

I was taken to the camp in 1942 in May, with me another 830 gypsies were sent to Jasenovac… While we were in the camp, me and the others that managed to escape, we saw Ustašas killing with hammers, sticks, axes, shotguns, bombs, pistols, and all other means. When they were killing children and women, I was only 8 – 10 meters away, and when we looked they ordered us to turn to the other side and that time my four children were killed, both my wife and my mother.

Toso Mitrovic from the village of Novi Jankovci about the executions in the camp (from the List of gypsies, from St. and N. Jankovci, who were in the camp in Jasenovac and Gradiška)