In July 1941, Vjekoslav Luburić, the head of Bureau III of the Ustaše Surveillance Service ( ; UNS), ordered the Ustaše commissioner for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jure Francetić, to establish a camp for Jews and Serbs at the dilapidated Gutman family estate in the village of Kruščica, near Vitez, about 56 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo.