Kerestinec camp was a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

that served as a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

Kerestinec Kerestinec is a village (naselje) west of Zagreb, in the Sveta Nedelja, Zagreb County municipality, infamous for events in Croatian history. It has 1,433 inhabitants living on an area of . History The name of Kerestinec comes from Hungarian wo ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. It was located in the castle overlooking the village.

Early 20th century

Before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the government of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...

built a prison near Kerestinec and used it to detain political prisoners. In March 1941, at the eve of the Axis invasion, a large number of left-wing intellectuals from Zagreb were arrested and interned in Kerestinec. A few weeks later Yugoslavia collapsed and on April 19, 1941, the prison was taken over by authorities of the newly formed

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...

. Prisoners were segregated based on ethnicity, with the camp split into "Serbian-Yugoslav", "Jewish" and "Communist" sections. Following German invasion of USSR, the

Yugoslav Communist Party The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...

started a

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

that would become known as the Partisans. The Ustaša regime decided to retaliate by killing some of Kerestinec prisoners. On 9 July 1941, the first group, including Božidar Adžija, Otokar Keršovani and Ognjen Prica, was executed. The Communist Party reacted by organizing an impromptu prison break. On 13 July, the guards were overpowered and all the remaining prisoners managed to escape. But the attempt soon proved to be poorly organised and uncoordinated. Very quickly, most of the prisoners, including

August Cesarec August Cesarec (4 December 1893 – 16 July 1941) was a Croatian writer and communist activist from the interwar period. Cesarec was born in Zagreb, then part of Austria-Hungary. He was the son of a carpenter who was a member of the Socialdemocr ...

, were recaptured and shot in

Maksimir Maksimir () is one of the districts of Zagreb, Croatia, population 48,902 (2011 census). Maksimir stadium and Maksimir Park are located in it. It was named for Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac. The urban center of the Maksimir district is located aro ...

woods.

Late 20th century

The former

Yugoslav Army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska ar ...

(JNA) rocket base at Kerestinec was taken by the

Croatian Army The Croatian Army ( hr, Hrvatska kopnena vojska or HKoV) is the largest and most significant component of the Croatian Armed Forces (CAF). Role and deployment The fundamental role and purpose of the Croatian Army is to protect vital national i ...

in 1991. The base was used from November 1991 to May 1992 as a prison camp that housed JNA soldiers, Serb volunteers, mainly from Sisak, and civilians, including women during the Croatian War of Independence. The prison commander, Stjepan Klaric, took part in and encouraged his four colleagues and members of the Croatian Army, to use physical and psychological torture against the prisoners. A total of 34 people were involved and implicated in having inflicted great suffering and violation of bodily integrity and health, including daily harassment, assaults and rapes. The five men were went on trial, charged with the physical and psychological torture of 34 detainees, and the sexual abuse of male and female prisoners from December 1991 until May 25, 1992. In 2012, Klaric was sentenced to three and a half years in prison while former guard Viktor Ivancin received two years and Drazen Pavlovic, Zeljko Zivec and Goran Strukelj one year in prison. The sentencing was overturned by the supreme court of Croatia in April 2014 and a new trial was ordered. The retrial ended in tougher sentences, with Klarić sentenced to eight years in prison and his subordinates, Ivancin, Pavlovic, Strukelj and Zivec, to five, three, two and a year and a half in prison respectively.

References

{{Genocide of Serbs 1940s establishments in Croatia 1992 disestablishments in Croatia Croatian war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence Defunct prisons in Croatia Prisons in Yugoslavia