Over 6,000 Jews in the Nazi-puppet state of Croatia have been deported from the larger towns to the Croatian salt mines for forced labor there under conditions which mean their virtual extermination, according to information received here today.
The majority of these victims are employed along the Adriatic coast. Others are held on the island of Pag and in the concentration camps of Karlovac and Jadovno, near Zagreb. Those working in the salt mines are reported to be left absolutely without any shelter from the burning sun. They are suffering acutely from lack of food, drinking water, clothing and medicine. The conditions of the victims in the concentration camps where children, as well as aged and infirm men and women, have been dumped indiscriminately is similarly reported as being appalling. Added to their individual tragedies is the fact that their families have been broken up and scattered in various camps without the possibility of learning of each other’s fate.
German newspapers reaching here today report that raids on Jews are being continued in every town in Croatia, and that the town of Bihatsch is already “judenrein.” “Steady progress” is being made in Zagreb and other Croatian cities to eliminate the Jews, and a large proportion of the Jews in Zagreb have already been put to forced labor, the Nazi press reports.
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