Croatia is an ideal tourist destination. The landscape is beautiful along the Adriatic, the people are friendly, there’s lots to see and do and the food is terrific.
From the spring of 1941 Croatia was an Independent puppet state within the Nazi Empire and the Croatian authorities – the Ustashi – under their leader Ante Pavelic – pursued a policy of racial and ethnic persecution every bit as bloody as the Nazis. The Ustashi established their own concentration camps, the biggest of which was the complex at Jasenovac along the bank of the Sava river. At Jasenovac the Croats murdered between 70,000 and a 100,000 people (as the war came to an end the Ustashi did all they could to destroy evidence of the exact numbers they killed).
The Jewish population of Croatia was all but eliminated, with the vast majority of the 40,000 or so Croat Jews killed by the Ustashi or the Nazis. Croat gypsies suffered as well, with around 30,000 murdered. And the Serbian population of Croatia was also targeted. Between 300,000 and 400,000 Serbs (some reports say many more) were murdered by the Croat Ustashi . Incredible statistics that are brought into even starker relief by the horrendous manner of many of the deaths. The Ustashi became infamous for the way they tortured and killed their victims – often in a manner too horrible to relate here.