in the nearby former Italian barracks. The monastery area of the camp consisted of three former Italian Army stables, which contained about 700 boys between the ages of 10 and 15 years. Only Serb children were kept in the camp, and they came from all over the NDH. They had previously been kept at the camps at Stara Gradiška, Jasenovac, Jablanac, Cerovljani, Mlaka, Gornja Rijeka and areas of Slavonia. Those accommodated in the barracks had no electricity or running water, and food initially consisted of little more than cornflour. Camp routine and punishments According to a survivor, Nada Požega from Slavonia, the children were forced to go to church to pray, and were required to greet others with the Ustaše greeting Spremni (Ready) or the Nazi salute Heil Hitler. Those children who failed to do so were punished by the Ustaše guards with beatings or solitary confinement. Požega further stated the nuns did not treat the children with sympathy or care. Another survivor, Mihajlo Veljić, recalled that the barracks were fenced with barbed wire, and that they slept on the straw-covered floor. He stated that the Ustaše tried to convert the children to Catholicism. He personally feared a nun, Sister Mercedes, but all the children feared Pulherija. Another survivor, Radomir Krnjajić, recalled that they were fed a variety of foods, including pumpkin soup, cucumbers, beets and similar vegetables, and sometimes received a little macaroni or beans, but very little bread. Gojko Knežević, another camp survivor, recounted many years later that the nuns beat the children with birch branches dipped in salt water or vinegar. The author and former military judge Ivan Fumić concludes that the children were systematically punished for various infractions, and were treated harshly by the Ustaše and the majority of the nuns. Some of the nuns at the camp, however, did demonstrate affection and pay attention to the children. Humanitarian response In response to the parlous conditions and poor state of the children's health, the Croatian Red Cross and some locals from Jastrebarsko and Donja Reka, led by , a local teacher, Communist and social worker, collected food and distributed it among the children, decorated the walls, and treated their illnesses. It took some time for the helpers to earn the trust of the children due to the latter's harsh treatment at the hands of the Ustaše, but gradually their health began to improve. The helpers lived