doctor who had worked at the pre-existing children's home on the camp site. At dawn on 26 August 1942, the Partisan 4th Kordun Brigade attacked the camp and dispersed the Ustaše guards. The children heard shooting and began shouting that the Partisans had arrived. Despite attempts by the nuns to hide the children, Partisan troops broke into the buildings and rescued many children. Some of the fighters even found a brother or sister within the camp. The Partisans gave what food they had to the children, and led away from the camp all the children who could walk. According to Fumić, the weaker and ill children were lodged with compassionate local peasants, but 350 of the strongest children were taken away by the fighters. According to Lukić, a total of 727 children were liberated from the camp, but at the first rest stop at Svetojanska, medical examinations by Davila identified about 400 weak and sick children who could no longer walk, and they were returned to Jastrebarsko. Davila estimates the number of children actually liberated from the camp at around 400. During the march through vineyards and cornfields, the emaciated children ate as much as they could. Lukić states that the Partisans rested the remaining children at Žumberak for a day, before arranging for them to be transferred across the Kupa river into liberated areas of the Bosanska Krajina. According to one survivor, Mihajlo Veljić, some of the children who were liberated from the camp by the Partisans in August 1942 were placed with families in the Žumberak district and were subsequently re-captured by the Ustaše. Some were killed and others were returned to the camp. Closure and aftermath The Partisan attack on the camp and their liberation of a significant number of children brought the Ustaše to the realisation that this and similar camps for children could not be maintained. In late October 1942, 500 of the remaining children were dispersed to families in the surrounding villages by the Catholic aid group, Caritas. A total of 1,637 boys and girls were taken in by families in Zagreb, Jastrebarsko and surrounding villages. Of the remaining children, 113 were relocated to Bosanska Gradiška. The Jastrebarsko camp was then dismantled, although the castle continued to house about 300 sick children, many of whom remained there until the war ended. On 15 October 1944, Marinić filed charges against Pulherija and Gaudencija before the