• Donja Gradina Memorial Site
A memorial site in the small village of Donja Gradina, on the right bank of the river Sava in present-day Bosnia Herzegovina, commemorates the mass killings of prisoners of the Jasenovac concentration camp. Between 1941 and 1945, the Croatian Ustaša deported tens of thousands of people to Jasenovac and murdered many of them across the river in Donja Gradina.
Image: Jasenovac, 1941/42, View of the camp, USHMM
Jasenovac, 1941/42, View of the camp, USHMM

Image: Donja Gradina, 2006, Commemorative signs, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Donja Gradina, 2006, Commemorative signs, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Donja Gradina is located on the right bank of the river Sava, while the village of Jasenovac lies on the left bank. In the spring of 1941, the Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia and the Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed (USK, Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska) by the fascist Ustaša movement. The regime's largest concentration and extermination camp was established in Jasenovac. From the end of July 1941 on, the Ustaša mainly deported Serbs, Jews and Roma to the camp. The number of inmates rose steadily; there were many children among those incarcerated. Many of the prisoners were murdered immediately upon arrival at Jasenovac. Beginning 1942, the Ustaša brought the prisoners across the river to Donja Gradina with a ferry for this purpose - here, the guards stabbed and beat their victims to death. The bodies were subsequently buried in large mass graves or burned.
Image: Jasenovac, 1941/42, View of the camp, USHMM
Jasenovac, 1941/42, View of the camp, USHMM

Image: Donja Gradina, 2006, Commemorative signs, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Donja Gradina, 2006, Commemorative signs, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
A total of at least 80,000 people died in the Jasenovac concentration camp, mostly Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croatian opponents of the Ustaša regime. However, it is not known exactly how many were killed in Donja Gradina and how many were buried there in mass graves.
Image: Donja Gradina, 2006, Site of mass killings, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Donja Gradina, 2006, Site of mass killings, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich

Image: Donja Gradina, 2006, Jasenovac memorial on the opposite bank of the river Sava, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Donja Gradina, 2006, Jasenovac memorial on the opposite bank of the river Sava, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Today, Donja Gradina lies in Republika Srpska, a political entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina mainly inhabited by Serbs. Jasenovac is located on the opposite side of the river, which is now part of Croatia. In the 1960s, after the Jasenovac memorial site had been established, Jasenovac and Donja Gradina were jointly administered as one memorial site. Jasenovac, and with it Donja Gradina, was Yugoslavia's central memorial site under Tito's rule. In Yugoslav politics of remembrance, 700,000 people were stated to have been murdered in Jasenovac alone. After the Balkan wars in the 1990s, the two memorial sites were separated, and since then, there has been no official cooperation between them as they now lie in different states.
The estimated death toll was corrected in the Croatian Jasenovac memorial: historians now believe that at least 80,000 people perished in Jasenovac. The Serbian Donja Gradina memorial site still contains memorial plaques dedicated to the supposed 700,000 victims of the Jasenovac camp. 500,000 of those are identified as Serbs; Croatian victims of the Jasenovac camp are not mentioned.
Image: Donja Gradina, 2006, The sign in Donja Gradina states that the Jasenovac camp claimed 700,000 lives, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Donja Gradina, 2006, The sign in Donja Gradina states that the Jasenovac camp claimed 700,000 lives, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich

Image: Donja Gradina, 2006, Memorial and information plaque on the site of killings, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Donja Gradina, 2006, Memorial and information plaque on the site of killings, Stiftung Denkmal, Stefan Dietrich
Name
Javna ustanova spomen-područje donja gradina
Address
Donja Gradina
79290 Donja Gradina
Phone
+387 (0)52 446 030
Web
https://www.jusp-donjagradina.org/
E-Mail
info@jusp-donjagradina.org
Open
The memorial site is accessible at all times.