Editing Jasenovac concentration camp (section)

===Mass murder and cruelty===
The Croatian anti-Communist émigré, [[Ante Ciliga]], whom the Ustaše imprisoned in Jasenovac for one year, described Jasenovac as a huge killing machine, whose main purpose, like that of Auschwitz, was "extermination", although "the primitivistic cruelties of Jasenovac distinguished this Balkan Auschwitz."{{sfn|Goldstein|2018|p=105}} According to Jaša Almuli, the former president of the Serbian Jewish community, Jasenovac was a much more terrifying concentration camp in terms of brutality than many of its German counterparts, even Auschwitz.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

In the late summer of 1942, tens of thousands of ethnic Serb villagers were deported to Jasenovac from the [[Kozara]] region in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]], where NDH forces were fighting the [[Yugoslav Partisans|Partisans]].{{sfn|Shelach et al.|1990|pp=432–434}} Most of the men were murdered in Jasenovac, and the women were sent to forced labor camps in [[Germany]]. Children were either murdered or dispersed to Catholic orphanages.{{sfn|Shelach et al.|1990|pp=192, 196}} According to survivors' testimonies, at the special camp designed for children, Catholic nuns murdered children under their watch with a motion similar to swinging a baseball bat: a child gripped by the legs would be swung so forcefully that the head's impact against the wall was fatal. These claims could not be verified or certified.{{sfn|Israeli|2013|p=135|}}

On the night of 29 August 1942, prison guards made bets among themselves as to who could slaughter the largest number of inmates. One of the guards, [[Petar Brzica]], boasted<ref>Alan Greenhalgh. ''The Glass Half Full''; {{ISBN|0-9775844-1-0}}, p. 68{{publisher missing}}</ref> that he had cut the throats of about 1,360 new arrivals.<ref name="blum">{{cite book|first=Howard|last=Blum|title=Wanted!: The Search for Nazis in America|publisher=Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co.|year=1977|isbn=0812906071}}{{page needed|date=September 2015}}</ref>

Other participants who confessed to participating in the bet included Ante Zrinušić-Sipka, who killed some 600 inmates, and Mile Friganović, who gave a detailed and consistent report of the incident.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hidden History: The Horror of Jasenovac|author=Wanda B. Schindley|url=http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/wschindley-jasenovac_en.html|publisher=Jasenovac-info.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501115807/http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/wschindley-jasenovac_en.html|archive-date=1 May 2009}}</ref> Friganović admitted to having killed some 1,100 inmates. He specifically recounted his torture of an old man named [[Vukasin Mandrapa]]; he attempted to compel the man to bless [[Ante Pavelić]], which the old man refused to do, even after Friganović had cut off both his ears and nose after each refusal. Ultimately, he cut out the old man's eyes, tore out his heart, and slashed his throat. This incident was witnessed by Dr Nikolić.<ref>Avro Manhattan, ''The Vatican's Holocaust'', p. 48.</ref>{{ISBN missing|date=June 2022}}

====Srbosjek====
[[File:Srbosjek (knife) used in Croatia - 1941–1945.jpg|thumb|An agricultural knife nicknamed "Srbosjek" or "Serbcutter", strapped to the hand. It was used by the [[Ustaše]] militia for the speedy killing of inmates at Jasenovac]]
The Ustaše slaughtered inmates with a knife that became known as the "Srbosjek" ({{lang-sr-Cyrl|Србосјек}}, {{lit|Serb-cutter}}).{{sfn|Wagner|Kennedy|Barrett Osborne|Reyburn|2007|pp=[https://archive.org/details/libraryofcongres0000wagn/page/640 640], 646–647, 683|loc='At Jasenovac, a series of camps in Croatia, the ultranationalist, right-wing Ustaše murdered Serbs, Jews, Romani, Bosnian Muslims, and political opponents not by gassing, but with hand tools or the infamous graviso or Srbosjek ("Serb cutter") – a long, curved knife attached to a partial glove and designed for rapid, easy killing.'}}{{sfn|Israeli|2013|page=135}}{{sfn|Crowe|2013|p=71}}{{sfn|Freund|2013|loc='The Ustashe even employed a special knife they called a "Srbosjek", or "Serb-cutter", to slaughter as many Serbs as possible.'}}{{sfn|Hunt|1994|pp=289–301}}

The construction was originally a type of wheat sheaf knife, manufactured prior to and during World War II by the German factory [[Gebrüder Gräfrath]] from [[Solingen|Solingen-Widdert]], under the trademark "Gräwiso".{{sfn|Dedijer|1992}}{{sfn|Born|1987|p=65|loc="Beliebt war das sogar wettbewerbsmäßig organisierte Kehledurchschneiden mit einem speziellen Krumm-messer Marke Gräviso"}}{{sfn|Nikolić|1969|pp=72–73|loc='Na koncu noža, tik bakrene ploščice, je bilo z vdolbnimi črkami napisano "Grafrath gebr. Solingen", na usnju pa reliefno vtisnjena nemška tvrtka "Graeviso" [Picture with description]: Posebej izdelan nož, ki so ga ustaši uporabljali pri množičnih klanjih. Pravili so mu "kotač" – kolo – in ga je izdelovala nemška tvrtka "Graeviso"'}} The upper part of the knife was made of leather, as a sort of a glove, designed to be worn with the thumb going through the hole, so that only the blade protruded from the hand. It was a curved, {{Convert|12|cm|4=-long|adj=mid}} knife with the edge on its concave side. The knife was fastened to a bowed oval copper plate, while the plate was fastened to a thick leather bangle.{{sfn|Nikolić|1969|pp=72–73|loc='Na koncu noža, tik bakrene ploščice, je bilo z vdolbnimi črkami napisano "Grafrath gebr. Solingen", na usnju pa reliefno vtisnjena nemška tvrtka "Graeviso" [Picture with description]: Posebej izdelan nož, ki so ga ustaši uporabljali pri množičnih klanjih. Pravili so mu "kotač" – kolo – in ga je izdelovala nemška tvrtka "Graeviso"'}} Its agricultural purpose was to enable field workers to cut wheat sheaves open before threshing them. The knife was fixed on the glove plate to prevent injuries and to increase work speed.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}