Serbian Hierarchs Commemorate Victims of Ustaša Concentration Camp at Šaran’s Pit
![Orthodox Serbs commemerate those slaughtered by Croatian Fascists [CREDIT: https://eparhijaniska.rs]](/img/article/846/18_tn-v1750889224.jpg)
Archbishops Arsenije, Ilarion, and Gerasim lead memorial service at site of mass executions from the Jadovno–Pag concentration camp system in WWII Croatia.
GOSPIC, Croatia — UOJ-Serbia (SPN) reported that in the afternoon hours of June 20, 2025, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Niš, His Eminence Arsenije, and Archbishop and Metropolitan of Timočka, His Eminence Ilarion, visited the headquarters of the Diocese of Gornji Karlovac in Karlovac.
The hierarchs were welcomed by their host, Archbishop of Gornji Karlovac, His Eminence Gerasim, together with the clergy of the Karlovac parish.
On Saturday, June 21, 2025, the bishops traveled to the Velebit mountain, to the location of Jadovno.
The Gospić–Jadovno–Pag complex was the first concentration camp established in the so-called Independent State of Croatia in 1941.
In the pits of Velebit and the execution sites on the island of Pag, the Ustaše executed 42,000 people—Serbs, Jews, and Roma from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia—over the course of four months.
Šaran's Pit is the largest execution site of the Jadovno complex, and at that location, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Timočka, His Eminence Ilarion, presided over a memorial service (parastos), concelebrated by Metropolitan Arsenije, Archbishop Gerasim, clergy, and monastics.
