La centralidad de Jasenovac en el Estado Independiente de Croacia: trabajo forzoso y exterminio en la construcción de la comunidad nacional

The present article will comment on the history of the concentration and extermination camp of Jasenovac, the largest camp in the Independent State of Croatia with the largest number of people executed between 1941 and 1945 in the context of World War II. The Independent State of Croatia opened concentration and extermination camps that allowed it to control people through imprisonment, forced labour and murder of the three groups that fell victim to its eliminationist policies for ethnic reasons: Orthodox Serbs, Jews and Gypsies, in an attempt to create an ethnically pure Croatian state. The Ustaša camps were, in turn, used to lock up and kill elements that disturbed the Catholic order such as homosexuals, prostitutes, beggars or alcoholics. They also became a fundamental part in the persecution of political opponents such as Yugoslav federalists, communists or socialists, becoming yet another resource for the anti-partisan war. The aim of this investigation is to offer an overview on the extermination camp from the experience of its prisoners, through the stories and sufferings that Jasenovac's inmates experienced from the moment they were arrested until they entered the camp. Finally, this work will try to answer some key questions: How was the Jasenovac concentration camp created and organized? What execution methods did the Ustaše guards use to kill the inmates? What did the first investigators see after they entered the extermination camp? Did the Ustaša have effective control over its concentration-camp system? Why is it important to integrate Jasenovac's experience into the great narratives about the studies of fascism, mass violence or eliminationist policies in World War II? Using these questions as a guide and resorting to primary sources that include narratives of Jasenovac survivors and reports from official agencies, the experiences of prisoners and the strategies used by their custodians to keep control, torture and, eventually, execute them will be analyzed in detail.