Croatia commemorates victims of WWII concentration camp where tens of thousands perished

JASENOVAC, Croatia (AP) — Croatia on Tuesday commemorated the victims of a World War II concentration camp where tens of thousands of people perished in the hands of a pro-Nazi puppet regime at the time.

Top Croatian officials and representatives of the Serb, Jewish, Roma and antifascist organizations attended the ceremonies marking 80 years after hundreds of prisoners attempted a breakthrough on April 22, 1945.

Only 92 people survived the breakthrough attempt out of some 600 men, according to the Jasenovac memorial center data. Prisoners at the camp, known as the Balkan Auschwitz, also included women and children.

Slavko Milanovic, born in 1937, was just a child when he was brought to Jasenovac with his mother, aunt and sister. Milanovic still remembers how prison guards separated children from their mothers.

“When my mother saw that she covered me and my sister with cloths that we used to sleep on,” Milanovic said. “My sister was fragile, she died right there in my mother's arms.”

Milanko Cekic, who was also imprisoned as a child, was pushed into a freight train with his family and brought to Jasenovac. "I don't remember ever being hungry ... but we drank water from a lake with dead bodies floating in it,” he said.

Jasenovac, located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest from Zagreb, the capital, was the most notorious in a system of camps in the area where victims were rounded up, brutally tortured and executed.

Official Croatian data show that more than 83,000 people were killed in Jasenovac while Serbs say the numbers were much higher, possibly in the hundreds of thousands.

The ceremonies on Tuesday included laying of flowers and wreaths, lighting of candles and a commemorative program. Participants walked along a path marked with railway tracks that were used to transport the camp prisoners.

"Such crimes must never be forgotten and what is even more important, they must never be repeated,” said Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

Plenkovic's conservative government in the past faced accusations that it was not doing enough to curb resurging pro-Nazi sentiments in the country, which led to a years-long boycott of the state-run Jasenovac commemoration ceremonies by the Serb and Jewish groups.

“I am extremely pleased that everyone attended” on Tuesday, Ognjen Kraus, who heads an association of Jewish municipalities in Croatia, said. “The commemoration, after a long while, was as it should be.”

Croatia, now a member of the European Union, was part of the former, Communist-run Yugoslavia after WWII. The six-member federation broke up in the 1990s' in a series of ethnic conflicts fueled by a revival of nationalism in the troubled Balkan region.

People walk away from the monument commemorating victims of a World War II concentration camp, where tens of thousands of people perished in the hands of the pro-Nazi puppet regime at the time, in Jasenovac, Croatia, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

From left, Croatian Parliament Speaker Goran Jandrokovic, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and President Zoran Milanovic walk towards the monument commemorating victims of a World War II concentration camp, where tens of thousands of people perished in the hands of the pro-Nazi puppet regime at the time, in Jasenovac, Croatia, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Representatives of the Jewish community lay flowers at the monument commemorating victims of a World War II concentration camp, where tens of thousands of people perished in the hands of the pro-Nazi puppet regime at the time, in Jasenovac, Croatia, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

People gather commemorating victims of a World War II concentration camp, where tens of thousands of people perished in the hands of the pro-Nazi puppet regime at the time, in Jasenovac, Croatia, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

A person holds a flower as people gather around the monument commemorating victims of a World War II concentration camp, where tens of thousands of people perished in the hands of the pro-Nazi puppet regime at the time, in Jasenovac, Croatia, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

People gather around the monument commemorating victims of a World War II concentration camp, where tens of thousands of people perished in the hands of the pro-Nazi puppet regime at the time, in Jasenovac, Croatia, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

LONDON (AP) — Transgender women are to be banned outright from women’s and girls’ cricket in England and Wales.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said Friday it had updated its previous restrictions following a U.K. Supreme Court ruling last month.

“With immediate effect, only those whose biological sex is female will be eligible to play in women’s cricket and girls’ cricket matches”, the ECB said Friday. "Transgender women and girls can continue playing in open and mixed cricket."

The announcement comes a day after transgender athletes were banned from playing on women’s soccer teams in England and Scotland by the Football Association.

Transgender women were already banned from the top two tiers of elite women’s cricket from the start of this year but had been permitted to compete in the women’s game at lower levels including recreational cricket.

No longer.

The U.K.’s highest court issued a ruling two weeks ago that defined a woman for anti-discrimination purposes as someone born biologically female. The head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said after the ruling that transgender women would be excluded from women’s toilets, hospital wards and sports teams.

While the ruling was cheered by some feminist groups, it has been condemned by trans-rights groups who said it would have a broad and detrimental impact on daily life.

The issue has been polarizing in the U.K. and beyond, particularly in the United States, where President Donald Trump has signed executive orders to prohibit participation of transgender athletes in sports and to use a rigid definition of the sexes, rather than gender, for federal government purposes. The orders are being challenged in court.

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Campaigners take part in a rally organised by trans rights groups, trade unions, and community organisations following the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman in equalities law, at Parliament Square, central London, Saturday April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)