I feel like I have been writing a lot about WWII and the Holocaust and how it impacted the cities and people from the cities that we visited. It is very hard to avoid because it is something that is such an integral part of European history. It is like an ugly scar that sits right across the face of Europe. You really can’t avoid it if you want to look Europe in the eye. So after visiting the death camp at Auschwitz we would be remiss if we did not visit Jasenovac. The concentration camp in our own backyard.
We drove to Jasenovac from Slovenia on our way to Bijeljina, Bosnia. We needed to enter Bosnia for only a few days to register and insure our little car as our German plates were expiring. The road took us straight through the northern part of Croatia, the obvious breadbasket of the country: flat and full of corn and wheat fields. It is very different from the image of coastal towns and crystal clear Adriatic sea that the word Croatia typically evokes. Jasenovac is a little village that sits right on the Sava river on the border of Croatia and Bosnia. The moment we dropped from the Slovenian Alps into the flatness of Sava valley, the temperature dramatically increased. Eastern Europe was having a heat wave, and temperatures were reaching 100s. But as we approached the clearing where one of the parts of the concentration camp once stood, a chill overtook my body. The field was flat and barren except for several trees around a small lake and several large mole hills dotting the landscape. From the heart of the clearing rose the Stone Flower monument.