Mapping the Holocaust in
Croatia

Until mid-1943, all the prisoners in the main camp of the Jasenovac Camp Compex, Jasenovac III, were men. Female prisoners deported to the camp were either murdered immediately upon arrival or deported to the Stara Gradiška camp. Yet, in June 1943, the first female prisoners arrived from the Stara Gradiška. At first, they were placed at the area dubbed "the economy" inside the main camp, but, in September, the camp section for women was moved to the east of the camp between the outer wall and the barbed-wired inner part. The conditions were extremely difficult and many perished due to starvation, illness and the terror of the guards. On April 21, Ustaša guards murdered the around 600 surviving women in the camp.

In this document, recorded by the Commission for Determining the Crimes of the Occupiers and their Helpers, Sofija Spoljarić from the town of Novska testified about her imprisonment in the women’s section of the camp complex.

The Jewish community of Šid was a small community of some ninety people. The majority of Šidian Jews were killed during the Holocaust; the community was never reestablished. Recorded by Šidian Jewish survivor Abram Kišicky, this testimony represents a unique and quite detailed account of the fate of the Jewish community of Šid during the last years of its existence.