The Pomor of Serb POWs and Civilians in Austro-Hungarian camps during WWI 1914-1918, DOBOJ

Original research paper by Mirčeta Vemić, Institute of Geography “Jovan Cvijić”, Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0352-5732/2014/0352-57321447201V.pdf

UDC 94(100)”1914/1918″

UDC 343.819.5(=163.41)(493.5)”1914/1918″

DOI: 10.2298/ZMSDN1447201V

CONCENTRATION CAMP DOBOJ

(K. u. K. Kriegsgefangenenlager Doboj)

45 791 internees, 8000 (10 000 – 12 000) Serb victims

Concentration camp Doboj, according to the description by Paravac [1990] was “located on the right bank of the river Bosna, at the confluence of the river Spreča into Bosna, a kilometer and a half from the town, next to the contemporary train station in Doboj”. It consisted of nine long stables of the former horse hospital, in which infected horses were treated, mostly from glanders. The stables were never disinfected not cleaned from the debris. It was formed as a primarily internee [interned civilians, translator’s note] camp on 27. December 1915. and closed on 5. July 1917. At first it housed the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina who had escaped to Serbia during the withdrawal of the Serbian military from Drina. Among them were mostly women and children. The occupying authorities had promised them “a return to their homes” and instead they were put into this concentration camp. Besides the refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina which arrived continuously into the concentration camp in groups of 600-800 persons, more than 5000 men, women and children were deported there from the county of Belgrade immediately after Belgrade was taken.

However, it became obvious that to this day not all the graves of this concentration camp were found and exhumed. In the autumn of 1968. in the village of Pridjel, when the workers of a construction company were ploughing over the land with bulldozers while working to expand the rail junction, they discovered many individual graves and mass tombs. Among the mortal remains in these tombs there were bones of older and younger children. They were all re-buried in the vicinity. As the entire area of the village was not encompassed in the construction work, it is thought that there are more undiscovered tombs in it. Taking that into account, the final number of the victims of the Doboj concentration camp is estimated to 10 000 – 12 000.

Translated by Books of Jeremiah

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