Victims:
The Ustasha main targets were:
Survivors:
Utasha Survivor Stories:
Utasha Survivor- Ljubica Vucic
Utasha Survivor- Ilija Ivanovic
The Ustasha main targets were:
- Ethnic Serbs (main racial enemy of the NDH)
- Orthodox Serbs
- Jews
- Gypsies
- Croats
- According to reports, it has been estimated that the number of innocent people brutally slaughtered was around three-quarter of a million
Survivors:
- In November of 1941, many Jews fled their villages trying to escape from the mass roundup, that would eventually lead to extermination.
- Many of them escaped by disguising themselves under Muslim veils
- Many Jews who did survive did so do to the help of their neighbors, who would hide them until they could escape to safety.
Utasha Survivor Stories:
Utasha Survivor- Ljubica Vucic
- On February 7, 1942, the Ustashas slaughtered seventy seven people in Ljubica village. In that seventy seven was her Mother Danica (32), her Father Milan (42), and her three brothers Mladjen (9), Stojic (7), and Miroslav (5). Ljubica was the oldest, she was only thirteen at the time and the only survivor. She survived with the help of her neighbor who she had been visiting that morning when the rest of her family was killed.
Utasha Survivor- Ilija Ivanovic
- On the morning of April 22, 1945, only nine days before Adolf Hitler committed suicide and allied forces moved toward Berlin. Around 1,073 men were locked in trailers in the main camp in Jasenovac. During the night the independent state of Croatia bombed multiple buildings, trying to hide their crimes of mass murder. At 9:30am the next day, 15 men made a great escape from the camp, and were free. Among those men was sixteen year old Ilija Ivanovic, who is now able to tell his survival story.