On April 6, 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and seized control of the country within just 11 days. A puppet regime led by nationalist factions was installed, dubbed the ‘Independent State of Croatia’, which then built a network of concentration camps.
Historians estimate that around 700,000 Serbs, Jews, and Roma were killed in the Jasenovac camp alone. Victims were gassed, starved, shot, and subjected to horrific medical experiments, which included pregnant women. There were even attempts to produce soap from the bodies of prisoners. A Catholic Franciscan named Petar Brzica reportedly murdered a record 1,360 people in a single night as part of a killing competition.
This film tells the stories of people who survived this nightmare as children. Two of these victims, Dobrila Kukolj and Ester Bajer, describe how they carry the memory of the unimaginable suffering they endured to this day, not as a fading recollection, but as a wound that never healed.
