Croatia commemorated victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp. “This is a site of terrible crimes which does not allow us to forget that it happened,” Croatian President Stipe Mesic said at the Jasenovac memorial complex Sunday. The camp was created and run by Croatia’s fascist regime during World War II. Its existence, like Croatia’s wartime past, was downplayed in the 1990s when Franjo Tudjman ran a dictatorial-like regime in Croatia. Government officials, survivors and victims’ families attended the ceremony, which commemorated the 62nd anniversary of an escape attempt by 600 camp prisoners. Some 70,000 to 100,000 people were killed at the camp, about 60 miles southeast of Zagreb, including Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and Croatian political prisoners. A major memorial museum was opened last year at the site.
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