In August 1941, the transit camp in the Zagreb Fair was closed down. After its closure, a new transit camp was opened in Zavrtnica, then at the outskirts of the city. It was situated in the abandoned buildings of the „Kristalum“ factory, circled by a wall. This factory also had an industrial track from which inmates were transported to other camps.
After the camp in Zavrtnica was closed in October 1941, there were no more camps in Zagreb, but the inmates were transported from numerous prisons around the city, mostly from the prison on Savska road.
One exception was a temporary transit camp in the building of gymnasia in Križanićeva Street which operated in the middle of August of 1942. In the night of 12th to 13th August, around 1200 Jews were brought here, of whom 400 were released, mostly the old and ill, or those that could be useful, and the rest were transported to the Main railway station and taken by train to Auschwitz.
In the place of former camp there is a Student Center and many other public buildings, such as a cinema, a theatre, and a gallery situated in the French Pavilion. Despite the fact that a large number of young people, students and others, daily passes next to, or through the space of the Student Centre, the majority of them do not know what happened there during the Second World War. Until today, there are no commemorative plaques that would testify, to the citizens of Zagreb and its visitors, about the existence of a transit camp in this place.
- What could be the consequences of the non-existence of a commemorative plaque for the former transit camp?
- What impact does it have on the memory, and the awareness of the present generation, especially students and visitors, of the historical events that happened there?
- What would you do to keep the history and memory of such places alive?