WASHINGTON, D.C. - For the past year, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has saved from deterioration, organized and conserved thousands of artifacts, tens of thousands of documents, thousands of photographs, and hours of film footage from one of World War II’s most notorious concentration camp systems, Jasenovac. Located in Croatia and operated by the fascist Ustaša regime, the Jasenovac camp system’s history remained largely hidden from Western historians until recently, although its brutal history continues to stir deep passions in those nations which comprised the former Yugoslavia. The Museum received only a portion of a larger collection, as many of the materials’ whereabouts are unknown.
Museum officials are discussing today the historical importance of the collection and the camp, as well as displaying some of the collection’s key artifacts. The Museum believes this press conference marks the first time any of these objects have been displayed in the United States, and probably outside the former Yugoslavia.
“The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was entrusted to preserve these precious materials so they are not lost to future generations,” says Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. “These records are not relegated to a distant past. The events at Jasenovac continue to reverberate throughout the region, and by making this documentation available to researchers, historians and the public, we are ensuring that this history is accurately preserved and those murdered at Jasenovac are remembered.”
“The Museum is committed to broadening our knowledge of the Holocaust,” says Museum Director, Sara J. Bloomfield. “Scholarly research carried out at the Museum illuminates the lesser known aspects of this history. Each new discovery adds a small degree of focus to a complex picture and increases our understanding of these horrific events. We are morally and intellectually bound to continue bringing new aspects of this history to light.”
The collection consists of tens of thousands of paper documents, 8 reels of 35 mm and 16 mm film, almost two thousand photos, approximately 70 audio oral histories from camp survivors, and thousands of historical artifacts. The collection will shed new light on the camp’s administration and conditions, and provide details on victims’ identities and why they were imprisoned.
In the early 1990s, during the Yugoslav civil war, the former deputy director of the Jasenovac Memorial Area tried to protect the collection from fighting near Jasenovac by transporting it from a museum on the Jasenovac site to the Banja Luka archive in Republic Srpska, a portion of Bosnia and Herzegovina populated primarily by ethnic Serbs. It remained there throughout the 1990s, stored in conditions that contributed to the collection’s rapid deterioration.
In the summer of 2000, the United States Embassies in Zagreb and Sarajevo alerted the Museum to the collection’s presence in Banja Luka. A Museum researcher confirmed the report at the end of August, and negotiations began for the Museum to assume temporary custody of the collection to organize and preserve it. In October 2000, three Museum specialists were granted access to the archive to assess its contents and condition. They determined that work needed to begin immediately if the collection was to be saved.
The Museum reached agreements with the governments of Republika Srpska and Croatia, and was charged with organizing, re-housing and conserving the collection. With aid from the Department of State, the Museum arranged to receive the collection on October 27, 2000, via diplomatic pouch. Under the signed agreements, the Museum will return the Jasenovac collection by November 26, 2001, to the Croatian government, who will transfer it to the Jasenovac Memorial Area. The Museum will work with the Jasenovac Memorial Area and the Jasenovac Council to maintain the accurate history of the collection. In addition, the Museum is fostering a formal relationship between the International Task Force on Holocaust Remembrance, Education and Research and the government of Croatia.
The Museum has also established a Web site on the Jasenovac camp at www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/jasenovac/. The site will be available beginning November 13 and contains a camp history, photographs and films from the camp, oral histories of camp survivors, images and descriptions of items from the collection, and more. The Museum is also making copies of the collection for archives in Banja Luka, the government of Yugoslavia, Yad Vashem in Israel, and others. The Museum has invested more than $150,000 in employee time, travel expenses, reproduction costs, and materials conserving this collection.
Many of the documents in the collection are reproductions, and the originals’ whereabouts are unknown. After Museum specialists reviewed the master inventory provided by the Jasenovac Memorial Area, they determined a significant part of the collection, including approximately 2,500 rare books, 450 documents and 1,000 photographs, was missing when the Museum assumed custody of it.
