New Martyrs of Jasenovac

Historical Context

Jasenovac was the largest concentration camp run by the Ustaše of the Independent State of Croatia, a client state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Estimates of the total number killed there range widely, commonly cited between roughly 83,000 and 100,000, with Serbs constituting the largest category of victims.

The persecution of Orthodox Serbs had an explicitly religious dimension. Serbs were often deported after refusing forced conversion to Roman Catholicism, and the Serbian Orthodox Church remembers many of those killed as having died for their faithfulness to Orthodoxy. This understanding underlies their commemoration as New Martyrs.

Named Martyrs

Among the figures associated with the wider body of Serbian new martyrs of this period is Vukašin Mandrapa, venerated as Saint Vukašin of Klepci, a layman from Herzegovina who died at Jasenovac. The principal account of his death, recorded by a fellow prisoner, describes his steadfast refusal to praise the Ustaša leader despite torture; some scholars have questioned the historicity of the specific account.

Bishop Platon of Banja Luka, who served his see from 1939 to 1941, was arrested by the Ustaše in May 1941, killed together with the priest Dušan Subotić, and his body cast into the Vrbanja River. He was glorified as a hieromartyr in 1998 and is numbered among the Serbian new martyrs of the Second World War.

Relics & Shrines

The Jasenovac Monastery is the principal site associated with the veneration of the New Martyrs of Jasenovac and the place where their commemoration is liturgically celebrated.