Sisak children's concentration camp

Sisak children's concentration camp was a concentration camp during World War II, set up by the Croatian pro-nazi Ustaše government for Serbian, Jewish and Romani children. The camp was located in Sisak, Croatia. It was part of the Jasenovac cluster of concentration and death camps and of the wider Nazi-controlled genocidal effort across Europe.

Prelude
In the town of Sisak, situated near the town of Jasenovac, Ustaše presence was vigilant. Early in 1942, The local synagogue was robbed utterly, and the building later housed a worker's hall. The settlers of Sisak were quickly brought to Ustaše attention, and those of them that were of Serbian or Jewish kinship were tormented. One example is Miloš Teslić, a Serbian philanthropist, who was tortured gravely: his eyes were cut out, his arms were sawn off, all while his chest was being burned with a hot iron and his heart cut out.

The camp
The camp held more than 6600 Serbian, Jewish and Roma children throughout World War II. The children, aged between 3 and 16, were housed in abandoned stables, ridden with filth and pests. Malnutrition and dysentery seriously impaired the children's health. They were fed daily with a portion of thin gruel and treated horribly by the Ustaše guards. "Witnesses recount seeing an Ustasha soldier pick up a child by the legs and smash its head against a wall until it was dead, ..." The Red-Cross noticed the existence of the camp, and even tried to be of use and aid to the children, subsequently obtaining the release of some children, while others were poisoned with caustic soda later on. It is estimated that the death count was nearly 4,000.