ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - The trial of Dinko Sakic, a former commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp resumed on Tuesday when Tibor Lovrencic, aged 81, testified before the Zagreb County Court. Tibor Lovrencic was arrested in the
end of October 1942 in Zagreb and two months later, without any trial, he was taken to the Ustashi concentration camp in Jasenovac where he remained until May 1945. Lovrencic told the court that he had been apprehended along with some 60 students. After that he was interrogated in Djordjiceva street for ten days and then transferred to the prison in Savska road. Two months later, Lovrencic, with no decision or ruling, and another nine prisoners were taken to the Jasenovac camp. Upon their arrival they were immediately punished. We got bread every other day, Lovrencic stressed adding that he subsequently learned that he was sentenced to one year in camp. Lovrencic said that upon his
ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - The trial of Dinko Sakic, a former
commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp resumed on Tuesday
when Tibor Lovrencic, aged 81, testified before the Zagreb County
Court.
Tibor Lovrencic was arrested in the end of October 1942 in Zagreb
and two months later, without any trial, he was taken to the Ustashi
concentration camp in Jasenovac where he remained until May 1945.
Lovrencic told the court that he had been apprehended along with
some 60 students. After that he was interrogated in Djordjiceva
street for ten days and then transferred to the prison in Savska
road.
Two months later, Lovrencic, with no decision or ruling, and
another nine prisoners were taken to the Jasenovac camp. Upon their
arrival they were immediately punished.
We got bread every other day, Lovrencic stressed adding that he
subsequently learned that he was sentenced to one year in camp.
Lovrencic said that upon his arrival in the camp, an Ustasha,
Marinko Police, had addressed him with words "so, you are an
organised Communist." I told him that I had been sent to the camp
with such verdict, and he hit me so strongly that I could hardly
stand on my legs, the witness added.
Asked about how many inmates were in the camp, Lovrencic answered
that there were no mass transports after his arrival. Prior to that,
he heard, Jews, groups of Romanies and Orthodox believers from
nearby villages would be transported to the camp. Generally, the
number of inmates was around 2,000, whereas, at one period during
1945 it rose to 3,000, he added.
According to this witness, the camp was, from one hand, a place for
the execution, and a camp for the intensive labour, on the other
hand. "Everybody had to work something," he stressed.
Lovrencic worked in a builders' group on the construction of wall
quarters for the female camp. The labour was very hard, it was
winter and we were poorly dressed, since all our belongings had been
taken away upon the arrival (in the camp), Lovrencic recounted.
Subsequently Lovrencic was transferred in a group of draughtsmen.
He stayed in this group until he was selected for the foreman of
builders, after a Jew who led them became ill. It is the beginning of
my so-called outside labour, the witness said adding that inmates
went to work outside everyday accompanied by warders.
He recounted an event when warders ordered to one inmate to fetch
firewood and when he moved away, one warder shot him dead by gun with
an explanation that he had tried to escape.
Lovrencic stressed that in that period there had been many events at
which he was not present since he was incessantly outside the camp.
On one occasion while he worked on billets for the army in the
village of Jasenovac, a unit of "oružništvo" (something like
gendarmerie) appeared and took us to the camp on the suspicion that
we had stolen bombs from warders. It was subsequently found out that
Ustashi threw bombs in the water and caught fish, Lovrencic
explained adding that nevertheless they were not allowed
afterwards to go out of the camp for the outside works.
Lovrencic recalled the attempt of an inmate escape in the beginning
of 1943 and therefore they were taken to "lancara" (chain-room)
where chains were welded around prisoners' legs and Ustashi beat
them.
Lovrencic worked in the camp until the start of 1945 when a decision
to release him was sent from Zagreb. However, the then commander of
the camp, Hinko Picilij, did not let him free, the witness said.
He remained in the camp as a "free man" which meant that he worked in
the camp but slept outside it.
Before the liquidation of the camp, it was forbidden for Lovrencic
to enter the camp. He was transferred to a technical company
consisting mostly of children of Ustashi. The company was in charge
of repairing road bridges. As they had nothing to do, the company
headed toward Sisak and later to Zagreb. Lovrencic said he managed
to separate from the group in Horvacanska road and came home on 7
May.
Lawyer Cedo Prodanovic, the authorised person to represent the
injured party, a brother of killed Mile Boskovic, did not again
appear at the trial.
(hina) ms