Largest concentration and Extermination Camp in Croatia, located 62 miles south of Zagreb. Jasenovac, which was actually a network of several sub-camps, was established in August 1941 and dissolved in April 1945. The Nazis gave control of Jasenovac to the puppet Croatian government, which was run by the fascist Ustasa movement. A large number of Ustasa members served in the camp, most notably Miroslav Filipovic-Majstorovic, who was notorious for killing prisoners with his bare hands.
Altogether, about 600,000 people were murdered at Jasenovac, including Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and Croats who opposed the Ustasa government. Of that number, some 25,000 of the victims were Jews, most of whom had been brought to Jasenovac before August 1942 (at which point the Germans began deporting the Jews of Croatia to Auschwitz).
Jews were brought to Jasenovac from all over Croatia. Most were killed on arrival; a small number of skilled professionals were kept alive to work at the camp. They endured horrible conditions and brutal treatment at the hands of the Ustasa guards. Near the end of the war, Jasenovac's administration blew up much of the camp and killed most of the prisoners in an attempt to conceal evidence of the mass murders that took place there.
