Persecution of Serbs, Jews and Roma began immediately after the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia. At first, it was sporadic, but with the strengthening of state power, killing and persecution become systematic.
Already, on the night of 27th-28th of April, armed Ustashas, with the excuse that they are looking for the Chetniks, arrested and later killed 181 Serbian peasants from the village of Gudavac near Bjelovar. After that was the massacre of Serbs in Blagaj at Kordun, where about 250 Serbs were killed. Later on May 11th-12th, 530 villagers from Glina and its region were killed.
Afterwards, the Ustasha government established concentration camps and began an organized and massive taking of Serbs, Jews and Roma to those newly established camps. The first concentration camp in the Independent State of Croatia was established in Koprivnica at the end of April of 1941 at the former “Danica” chemical factory. After this one, other concentration camps were established in Kerestinac, Kruščica near Travnik, in Tenja near Osijek, Djakovo and Loborgrad…
Concentration camps were established only for the purpose of conducting the Ustasha crimes of Genocide. These camps were headquartered in Gospić, and the concentration camp was located in the prison building of the Gospić District Court.
In the middle of May, 1941, the first groups of inmates arrived at the camp. Already in June, the Gospić camp was not able to receive all incoming inmates, so on the former estate of the Maksimović family, two or three kilometers away from Gospić, they formed the Gospić concentration camp, which the prisoners called “Ovčara”. From the prison building and “Ovčara”, prisoners were sent to the Jadovno camp on Velebit, and the Slano and Metejna camps on the island of Pag, where they were killed.
The group of camps in Gospić (Jadovno, Slano and Metejna) existed until August of 1941. Since Italians would not allow the existence of death camps in the territory under their control (Gospić camps), the Ustashas found a suitable place for a new camp.
With the excuse of starting a large irrigation project on Lonj field, they established the camp near the village of Jasenovac.
It was a system of camps that covered a total of about 240 square kilometers along the banks of the rivers Una and Sava, from Bosanska and Hrvatska Kostajnica in the west to Stara and Bosanska Gradiška in the east, and from the small river Strug in the north to the villages of Draksenić and Međeđa in the south. The camp commander was Vjekoslav “Maks” Luburić. In his absence, the commanders of the camp were Ivica Matković, Father Miroslav “Majstorović” Filipović, Ljubo Miloš, Dominik Hinko Piccili, Dinko Šakić, Ivica Brkljačić, Jakob Jal, and Ahmed Kapetanović…
The first detainees were brought from Gospić to Jasenovac train station between August 19th and 21st 1941. On August 23rd 1941 Ustasha’s newspaper “Croatian People” announced that they have started public works to dry out the Lonja field. The public was informed about the construction of barracks for the workers who would regulate the system of sewers and reclamation in Lonja field near the Sava River. However, this was a cover up for raising the concentration camp at Jasenovac. At the beginning, the camp was located outside the village of Jasenovac, the locations were Bročice and Krapje, located a few kilometers from Jasenovac. Those were the camps I and II in the system of Jasenovac concentration camp, located along the right bank of the River Strug.
They were accommodated in primitive barracks that were so overcrowded that they were unable to sleep, but could only sit with their legs squeezed. There were between 4,000 and 5,000 prisoners in these two camps who worked on the construction of an embankment along the Strug River. The work consisted of placing of excavated earth onto an elevation where it would be tamed into an embankment using wooden mallets. Mood created due to heavy rains and everyday beatings of prisoners during work made it even more difficult. Those that were killed would be immediately buried in the embankment. Both concentration camps were closed in mid-November 1941 due to big autumn floods. Around 1,500 of the total number of prisoners arrived in the new camp, Camp III, Ciglana, while the rest of them were killed.