Đakovo concentration camp

Đakovo concentration camp
Concentration camp
Peace in Heaven by Dina Merhav, the monument commemorating the Holocaust victims from Đakovo concentration camp
Location	Đakovo, Independent State of Croatia (modern-day Croatia)
Operated by	Independent State of Croatia
Original use	the mill Cerereale owned by local Catholic bishopric
Operational	1 December 1941 - 7 July 1942
Inmates	Jewish women and children
Number of inmates	3,000
Killed	at least 516 or 650

The Đakovo concentration camp (Croatian: Đakovo koncentracioni logor) was a concentration camp established in 1941 in Đakovo, Independent State of Croatia (modern-day Croatia). It was established in the deserted flour mill Cereale owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Đakovo. The camp was established on 1 December 1941 mainly for Jewish women and children, including some Serb girls. It was operational until its disestablishment on 7 July 1942. Around 3,000 women and children were its inmates and subjected to beatings, rapes, dog attacks and death from sickness and starvation. At least 650 women and children died in it. During the camp's disestablishment, the remaining inmates were transported to other camps and killed.

The Diocese of Đakovo (Bishop Akšamović, canon Dr. Rogić and Ustasha Asandić, the manager of the diocesan estates) did not give its approval for the establishment of the camp in their flour mill with the explanation that the Diocese needed the mill. In spite of their opposition, Ustaše established concentration camp in early December 1941 mostly for Jewish women and children, 3,000 of them being inmates of the camp.

The first two transports of inmates brought 1,830 Jewish women and children and 50 Serb girls to Đakovo camp, followed by transport of about 1,200 women and children transported from Stara Gradiška camp on 24 February 1942.

One fifth of inmates were registered as victims of this camp, most of them died after Ustaše took over complete control of the camp on 29 March 1942. They began a terrible terror of camps inmates who were subjected to beatings, death from sickness, starvation, Ustaše threw bread crumbs among starving children and set guard dogs to attack them, girls were raped and killed. More than 516 or 650 corpses of people who died in Đakovo concentration camp are buried in Đakovo cemetery.

Ustaše forcibly transported hundreds of people infected with typhus from Stara Gradiška to Đakovo camp to spread the disease.

The camp was disestablished in period 15 June - 7 July 1942. The disestablishment was organized by Jozo Matković, Ustaše Lieutenant. The remaining inmates numbering between 2,000 and 3,000 Jewish women and children were transported to Jasenovac and killed.