Editing Jasenovac concentration camp (section)

===Living conditions===
[[File:Executed prisoners in Jasenovac.jpg|thumb|The bodies of prisoners executed by the Ustaše in Jasenovac<ref name="ushmm1">{{cite web|url=http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1053017|title=The bodies of prisoners executed by the Ustasa in Jasenovac. – Collections Search – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|website=collections.ushmm.org|access-date=2016-09-02|archive-date=2016-08-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160831094236/http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1053017|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
The living conditions in the camp evidenced the severity typical of Nazi death camps: a meager diet, deplorable accommodation, and the cruel treatment by the Ustaše guards. As in many camps, conditions would be improved temporarily during visits by delegations{{spaced ndash}}such as the press delegation that visited in February 1942 and a [[Red Cross]] delegation in June 1944{{spaced ndash}}and reverted after the delegation left.{{sfn|EotH|1990|p=739}}

*'''Systematic starvation''': Again, typical of death camps, the diet of inmates at Jasenovac was insufficient to sustain life: In camp [[Bročice]], inmates were given a "soup" made of hot water with starch for breakfast, and beans for lunch and dinner (served at 6:00, 12:00 and 21:00).{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} The food in Camp No. III was initially better, consisting of potatoes instead of beans; however, in January{{When|date=March 2010|reason=Which year?}} the diet was changed to a single daily serving of thin "turnip soup," often hot water with two or three cabbage leaves thrown into the pot. By the end of the year, the diet changed again, to 3 daily portions of thin gruel made of water and starch.<ref>Lazar Lukajc: "Fratri i Ustase Kolju", interview with Borislav Seva, pp. 625–639.</ref>{{publisher missing|date=June 2022}}{{ISBN missing|date=June 2022}} To still their terrible hunger, "people ate grass and leaves, but these were very difficult to digest". As a special treat prisoners ate a dead dog, and there were "cases of scatophagia – inmates removing undigested beans and the like from the feces in the Ustasha latrine".{{sfn|Goldstein|Goldstein|2016|p=272}} People began to die of starvation already in October 1941.
*'''Water''': Jasenovac was even more severe than most death camps in one respect: a general lack of potable water. Prisoners were forced to drink water from the Sava river.
*'''Accommodation''': In the first camps, Bročice and Krapje, inmates slept in standard concentration-camp barracks, with three tiers of bunks. In the winter, these "barracks" freely admitted rain and snow through their roofs and gaps in their walls. Prisoners would have to wade through ankle deep water inside the cabin. Inmates who died were often left inside the "barracks" for several days before they were removed. In Camp No. III, which housed some 3,000 people, inmates initially slept in the attics of the workshops, in an open depot designated as a railway "tunnel", or simply in the open. A short time later, eight barracks were erected.<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], pp. 19–20, 40.</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}} Inmates slept in six of these barracks, while the other two were used as a "clinic" and a "hospital", where ill inmates were sent to die or be executed.<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], pp. 20, 39 (testimonies: Hinko Steiner, Marijan Setinc, Sabetaj Kamhi, Kuhada Nikola)</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}}
*'''Forced labor''': As in all concentration camps, Jasenovac inmates were forced daily to perform some 11 hours of hard labor, under the eye of their Ustaše captors, who would execute any inmate for the most trivial reasons.<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], pp. 20–22</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}} The labor section was overseen by Ustaša's Dominik "Hinko" Piccili (or Pičili) and Tihomir Kordić. Piccili (or Pičili) would personally lash inmates to force them to work harder.<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], pp. 30–31</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}}

He divided the "Jasenovac labor force" into 16 groups, including groups of construction, brickworks, metal-works, agriculture, etc. The inmates would perish from the hard work. Work in the brickworks was hard.<ref>Compare with Elizabeta Jevric, "Blank pages of the holocaust: Gypsies in Yugoslavia during World-war II", pp. 111–112, 120</ref> Blacksmith work was also done, as the inmates forged knives and other weapons for the Ustaše. Dike construction work was the most feared.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
*'''Sanitation''': Inside the camp, squalor and lack of sanitation reigned: clutter, blood, vomit and decomposing bodies filled the barracks, which were also full of pests and of the foul stench of the often overflowing latrine bucket.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} Due to exposure to the elements, inmates suffered from impaired health leading to epidemics of [[typhus]], [[typhoid]], [[malaria]], [[pleuritis]], [[influenza]], [[dysentery]] and [[diphtheria]]. During pauses in labor (05:00–06:00; 12:00–13:00, 17:00–20:00) inmates had to relieve themselves at open latrines, which consisted of big pits dug in open fields, covered in planks. Inmates would tend to fall inside, and often died. The Ustaše encouraged this by either having internees separate the planks, or by physically drowning inmates inside. The pit would overflow during floods and rains, and was also deliberately drained into the lake, from which inmate drinking water was taken.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} The inmate's rags and blankets were too thin to prevent exposure to frost, as was the shelter of the barracks.<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], p. 20.</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}} Clothes and blankets were rarely and poorly cleansed, as inmates were only allowed to wash them briefly in the lake's waters once a month<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], p. 20</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}} save during winter time, when the lake froze. Then, a sanitation device was erected in a warehouse, where clothes were insufficiently boiled.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
*'''Lack of personal possessions''': Inmates were stripped of their belongings and personal attire. As inmates, only ragged prison-issue clothing was given to them. In winter, inmates were given thin "rain-coats" and they were allowed to make light sandals. Inmates were given a personal food bowl, designed to contain {{Convert|0.4|liters}} of "soup" they were fed with. Inmates whose bowl was missing (e.g.: stolen by another inmate to defecate in) would receive no food.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} During delegation visits, inmates were given bowls twice as large with spoons. At such times, inmates were given colored tags.
*'''Anxiety''': The fear of death, and the paradox of a situation in which the living dwell next to the dead, had great impact on the internees. Basically, an inmate's life in a concentration camp can be viewed in the optimal way when looking at it in three stages: arrival to camp, living inside it, and the release. The first stage consisted of the shock caused by the hardships in transit to camp. The Ustaše would fuel this shock by murdering a number of inmates upon arrival and by temporarily housing new-arrivals in warehouses, attics, in the train tunnel and outdoors.<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], pp. 16–18.</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}}

After the inmates grew familiar with the life in camp, they would enter the second and most critical phase: living through the anguish of death, and the sorrow, hardships and abuse. The peril of death was most prominent in "public performances for public punishment" or selections, when inmates would be lined in groups and individuals would be randomly pointed out to receive punishment of death before the rest. The Ustaše would intensify this by prolonging the process, patrolling about and asking questions, gazing at inmates, choosing them and then refrain and point out another.<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], pp. 23–24.</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}}<ref>Marijana Cvetko testimony, ''New York Times'', 3 May 1998. "War crimes revive as Croat faces possible trial"</ref> As inmates, people could react to the Ustaše crimes in an active or passive manner. The activists would form resistance movements and groups, steal food, plot escapes and revolts, contacts with the outside world.<ref>[[#State-Commission|State Commission, 1946]], pp. 53–55.</ref>{{primary source inline|date=June 2022}}

All inmates suffered psychological trauma to some extent: obsessive thoughts of food, paranoia, delusions, day-dreams, lack of self-control. Some inmates reacted with attempts at documenting the atrocities, such as survivors Ilija Ivanović, Dr Nikola Nikolić and Đuro Schwartz, all of whom tried to memorize and even write of events, dates and details. Such deeds were perilous, since writing was punishable by death and tracking dates was extremely difficult. Schwartz said that a father and his three sons were killed for writing. The witness wrote his memories on a piece of paper in tiny script and hid it in his shoe.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schwarz |first=Duro |date=1956 |title=Memoirs of Ing. Duro Schwarz, born, 1901, regarding his experiences in Jasenovac camp, 1941-1942 |url=https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/documents/3731420 |access-date=2025-01-15 |website=European Holocaust Research Infrastructure |language=en, sr, hr}}</ref>