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There is a serious gap in the documentation relating to the life of prisoners during this period and the circumstances under which political prisoners died in camps are not well documented. After the Second World War, the ruling Communists were trying to consolidate themselves without much concern for possible violations of the prisoners' human rights. This self- confidence was based on the fact that the major European powers of that time, and particularly Great Britain, supported the idea that the losers of the war had to be punished. The soldiers of the Croatian army, as well as civilians who emigrated intoAustria wishing to surrender to the western allies, were handed over to the Yugoslav army on Bleiburg field on l5th May 1945. The next day, long columns were formed for what is known as the Way of the Cross by which prisoners were to be taken back deep into Yugoslavia. According to the statements of the participants who survived this ordeal, a large number of Croatian prisoners of war were killed on their way to the "assembly camps" and executions were carried out by armed Partisan escorts on their own initiative, with no trial. The prisoners were also killed if they collapsed from physical exhaustion. There are also records showing that prisoners were massacred on several occasions when the column was passing through Croatian villages, where the population mostly favoured the new authorities. Some of the prisoners of war were handed over to civilians who slaughtered these unfortunate people with farming tools or logs subjecting them to cruel physical torture first. Due to the lack of reliable documentation, it is inappropriate to give data concerning the number of victims who died in these circumstances, because bodies were buried in hidden places that have only recently begun to be discovered. Several mass graves have been found so far and they have been confirmed by the excavation of corpses.
The prisoners who survived were sent to work camps and care was taken that different groups did not meet up. Three types of camps were then established: transit, assembly and work camps.(57) The first two types were just a provisory solution and they were soon dissolved. Until 16 July 1946, work camps were of an open type but later the prisoners were put in prisons, such as Stara Gradiška. After the war, there were 62 camps of all three types in Croatia. Conditions in these camps were absolutely below the level of human dignity and the imprisoned soldiers and civilians, with many women and children among them, were subject to frequent and uncontrolled torture.
Although it is almost impossible today to determine personal responsibility, the members of the Communist Party, which included high-ranking political and military officials, should accept responsibility for these crimes.
It is hard to believe that in those circumstances it was possible to determine the number of victims of the war systematically and objectively. But still, in 1947, a leaflet appeared, (58) indirectly seeking revenge for 700,000 prisoners who died in Jasenovac, of which, according to the author of the leaflet, a great majority was of Serbian nationality. This figure, never confirmed by impartial researchers and experts, was published so frequently that it eventually became the political framework for new, unnecessary cruelty against the prisoners of that time.
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