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Association "JASENOVAC-DONJA GRADINA"
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NDH
(INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA)
ATROCITIES
AGAINST THE SERBS,
JEWS AND ROMA
IN HERZEGOVINA
1941-1945
PROCEEDINGS
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NDH ATROCITIES AGAINST
THE SERBS, JEWS AND ROMA IN HERZEGOVINA 1941-1945
Publisher:
Association "Jasenovac-Donja Gradina" Banja Luka
For publisher:
Vladimir Lukic, Ph. D.
Editor in Chief:
Vladimir Lukic, Ph. D.
Organising Committee:
Slavko Šanjević,
Vladimir Lukić,
Novica Telebak,
Boško Buha,
Manojlo Ćuk
Janko Velimirović
Photos:
Milan Dašić and archive by authors
Translation:
Dejan Milinović, Duško Popović,
Slobodan Keleman and Svetlana Mitic
Prepress and Design:

Janko Velimirovic
Printed by:
Grafomark, Laktaši
For the printing:

Svetozar Ćerketa
Circulation:
500 copies
Association "Jasenovac-Donja Gradina"
Banja Luka
(INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA)
ATROCITIES
AGAINST THE SERBS,
JEWS AND ROMA
IN HERZEGOVINA
1941-1945
PROCEEDINGS – Rоund Table,
Trebinje, September 28th, 2013
Banja Luka, May 2014

CONTENTS
INTRODUCE .............................................................................................. 9
SLAVKO ŠANJEVIĆ
GREAT HELP FROM THE JASENOVAC – DONJA GRADINA
ASSOCIATION......................................................................................... 17
PROF. VLADIMIR LUKIĆ, PHD
EVEN THE ITALIANS WERE APPALED ............................................. 19
PAPERS..................................................................................................... 25
JOVAN MIRKOVIĆ, MUSEUM CURATOR

HERZEGOVINA-BORN VICTIMS OF THE 1941-1945 WAR ............. 27
SRBOLJUB ŽIVANOVIĆ
CRIMES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC “CHURCH” IN
HERZEGOVINA AGAINST THE SERBS, JEWS AND
ROMA PEOPLE........................................................................................ 75
SAVO SKOKO, PHD
GENOCIDE CRIMES OF THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF
CROATIA AND THE GERMAN AGRESSOR IN GACKO
FROM 1941 TO 1944
DRAGA MASTILOVIĆ, MA.......................................................................... 111
THE ROLE OF MUSLIMS IN THE GENOCIDE AGAINST
SERBS IN EASTERN HERZEGOVINA IN 1941/1942........................ 111
BOŠKO BUHA
NDH ATROCITIES AGAINST THE SERBS, JEWS AND
ROMA IN NEVESINJE COUNTY 1941-1945 ...................................... 127
5
PROCEEDINGS – Rоund Table, Trebinje, September 28th, 2013
BOŽIDAR N. ČUČKOVIĆ
THE KILLING OF THE SERBS IN THE AREA OF LJUBINJE
MUNICIPALITY 1941-1945 BY THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF
CROATIA (NDH)
SLAVKO ŠANJEVIĆ ...................................................................................... 217
THE PERSECUTION OF ORTHODOX PRIESTS IN
THE DIOCESE OF ZAHUMLJE-HERZEGOVINA
INFLICTED BY THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA
1941-1945 ................................................................................................ 217
MANOJLO ĆUK
JAGODNJAČA PIT CAVE IN RŽANI DO – THE SITE OF
THE USTASHA ATROCITIES AGAINST THE SERBS OF
POPOVO POLJE AND SURROUNDINGS ........................................... 239
MILENKO JAHURA
THE KILLING OF SOUTHERN HERZEGOVINA SERBS IN
THE GENOCIDE OF THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA
1941-45 .................................................................................................... 271
MILENKO KOJOVIĆ
LET IT NOT BE FORGOTTEN NDH ATROCITIES
AGAINST THE SERBIAN PEOPLE IN THE PERIOD
1941-1945 IN THE TERRITORY OF THE MUNICIPALITY
BERKOVIĆI ........................................................................................... 313
BOŽIDAR N. ČUČKOVIĆ
THE PERSECUTION OF SERBS IN THE REGION OF
TREBINJE BY THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA
1941-1945 ................................................................................................ 325
MILORAD NOSOVIĆ, SON OF OBRAD
THE CRIMES OF THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA
AGAINST SERBS, JEWS AND GYPSIES 1941-1945 IN
THE BILEĆA MUNICIPALITY ............................................................ 367
NOVICA TELEBAK
THE PERSECUTION OF THE SERBS OF MOSTAR .......................... 401
ŽARKO KUČINAR
THE SUFFERINGS OF ONE FAMILY ON 26TH JUNE 1941 ............ 421
ŽARKO KUČINAR
THE CRIME IN GAVRANICA .............................................................. 427
6
NDH ATROCITIES AGAINST THE SERBS, JEWS AND ROMA IN HERZEGOVINA 1941-1945
SLAVKO ŠANJEVIĆ
THROWN ALIVE INTO PITS ............................................................... 429
WITNESS ACCOUNTS ........................................................................ 431
ZDRAVKO ŠAKOTIĆ
THE USTASHAS ATTACK BIJELA GORA ON 20TH JUNE 1941 ... 433
JOVAN ŠAROVIĆ
YOUTH ENCHAINED ........................................................................... 445
PERSECUTION OF THE KUČINARS, 26TH JUNE 1941

IN VILLAGES PROKAZIĆI, BURMAZI AND STOLAC .................... 455
MILENA KUNDAČINA
RED SOCKS ........................................................................................... 467
MIRA KUNDAČINA
LOST IN THE WILDERNESS ............................................................... 471
CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................... 477
7
INTRODUCE
A LARGE NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS
On 28th September 2013, a round table was held at The Leotar Hotel in
Trebinje, organised by the Banja Luka-based Association “Jasenovac – Donja
Gradina” and the Organising Board formed specially for the purpose of the
organisation of the event. The subject of the round table was the persecution
of the Serbs, Jews and Roma by the Independent State of Croatia and its
troops in Herzegovina in the period from 1941 to 1945.
The interest in this conference was great, and more than 70 participants took
part in its proceedings – academicians, university professors, PhDs, PhD stu-
dents, writers, representatives of the Zahumlje-Herzegovina and Maritime
Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, prefects, deputy prefects and
mayors of Eastern Herzegovinian municipalities, lawyers investigating war
crimes and genocide, directors of companies and institutions, media repre-
sentatives, National Liberation War (NOR) veterans, survivors of the atroci-
ties committed on the territory of Herzegovina in the Second World War, their
descendants and family members, and many others.
Both the presented papers, written analytically and supported by irrefutable
and verifiable evidence, and the survivor and witness accounts heard, pointed
out that major atrocities were committed in Eastern Herzegovina between
1941 and 1945. Herzegovina is a vast area of execution, with a myriad indi-
vidual sites where crimes were done, the River Neretva and its one-hundred-
kilometre-long banks being among the gravest ones. The presenters particu-
larly stressed the cruelty with which the crimes were committed. Responsible
for all those atrocities is the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), which it
committed in collaboration with its fascist-Nazi followers and with the sup-
port and assistance of the Catholic Church. Next-door neighbours, members
of the Croatian people and Muslims, were especially prominent in the reck-
less liquidation of innocent Serbs, Jews and Roma, as stressed by the round
table participants. Genocidal crimes were mostly committed against helpless
victims – the elderly, children, pregnant women, even unborn children, who
were forcefully removed from their mothers’ stomachs, only because they be-
longed to another nation and another religion.
9
It was particularly stressed that all crimes must be investigated and must not
be forgotten, and that we must cherish the memory of the innocent victims
and mark accordingly all places of persecution.
It is very important to document all victims of the atrocities, as well as the
perpetrators of those heinous acts. Just as the victims had identities of their
own, so did those who committed those bestial crimes.
In the end, it was concluded that such round tables must be organised in the
future.
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Slavko Šanjević
GREAT HELP FROM THE

JASENOVAC – DONJA
GRADINA ASSOCIATION
I hereby open the first round table in Trebinje on “The Suffering of Serbs,
Jews and Roma People by the Independent State of Croatia and its Troops
from 1941 to 1945 in Herzegovina.”
For this round table to function competently and efficiently, I propose the
following working chairpersons: Prof. Vladimir Lukić, PhD, president of the
“Jasenovac–Donja Gradina” Association; Saša Aćić, LL.B., from Banja
Luka, Boško Buha, a history teacher from Nevesinje; journalist Manojlo Ćuk
from Trebinje, and Slavko Šanjević.
Let me greet the clergy of the The Eparchy of Zahumlje, Herzegovina and the
Littoral, the mayor of Trebinje, mayors of municipalities of Eastern Herze-
govina, deputy mayors and chairmen of municipal assemblies of municipali-
ties of Eastern Herzegovina, directors of working organisations, the dean of
the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, Mr. Velimir Lojović, Acad-
emician Srboljub Živanović, president of the International Commission for
the Truth on Jasenovac, and Jovan Mirković, museum curator at the Museum
of Genocide Victims in Belgrade.
I would like to give special regard to the members of the Executive Commit-
tee of the “Jasenovac – Donja Gradina” Association, headed by Prof. Vladi-
mir Lukić, PhD, who have immeasurably helped us in organising this first
round table, as well as all contributors who have prepared papers on this sub-
ject, who I will not name at this moment because they will be well introduced
when they present their contributions.
May we also greet the witnesses and all media representatives who are pre-
sent, Mira Jovanović, a PhD student from the University of Zurich, Prof.
17
Drago Mastilović, PhD, from the University of East Sarajevo, the delegation
of the Federation of Veterans Associations of the People’s Liberation War of
Yugoslavia, Milenko Jahura, LL.B., member of the Management Board of
the Prebilovci Serbian National Society from Belgrade, distinguished guests
and all other visitors. I propose that we form a delegation to go tomorrow for
a visit and lay flowers on the grave of Milan Bulajić, in the village of Vilusi
in the Republic of Montenegro.
I wish you successful work, a pleasant stay in Trebinje and Herzegovina
have the desire to make this a new beginning, and that such events, in
memory of our innocent suffered, be still.
I invite Mr. Professor Dr. Vladimir Lukic, who gave unselfish contribution
to meet here today to speak to us.
18
Prof. Vladimir Lukić, PhD
EVEN THE ITALIANS

WERE APPALED
Greetings to all present parties, especially those who will present their papers
and testimonies. Since we have been trying to organise this assembly in
Trebinje for more than five years, first and foremost I would like to thank Mr
Slavko Šanjević, as well as Prof. Lojević who discovered him.
Having in mind that places of mass execution from the Second World War
have been more or less neglected and forgotten, we, the deans and professors
of the University of Banja Luka, including Prof. Zdravko Marijanac, launched
discussions about renovating Donja Gradina and founding the “Jasenovac –
Donja Gradina” Association, as well as about adopting a more active ap-
proach to holding international conferences and turning the attention of nu-
merous countries, institutions and individuals in the worlds to the crimes
against Serbs, Jews and Roma people that have been committed in WWII by
the Independent State of Croatia.
We have also concluded that Donja Gradina has remained unexplored, un-
maintained and undeveloped. Perhaps the state of this place of execution was
best described in a paper by the Babić brothers from Kozarska Dubica, which
they sent in 1998.
“How to renovate the Donja Gradina Memorial Site”

“Donja Gradina is more of a testimony of our dereliction and ne-
glect than it is a monument worthy of those who found eternal
rest there... The whole project should be aimed at charting what
is probably our largest necropolis – and yes, it is the largest – into
the world’s maps...
The Serbian people have their Holy Mountain [Mount Athos in
Greece, t/n], but that beacon of ours has never become a place of
19
mass pilgrimage for us, our Mecca. In the true sense of the word,
we have no Mecca of our own. We have no Wailing Wall, no Yad
Vashem. Can it be Gradina, where the atrocity was on a larger
than even at the Skull Tower?
Our answer is that yes, it can!
Donja Gradina should be renovated in such a way that it becomes
a place where not only Serbs gather, but also Jews and Roma peo-
ple, a place of their pilgrimage as well.”
Considering there were proposals to also build a monastery at Donja Gradina,
the publicist Branislav Božić and I talked with the Bishop of Banja Luka Je-
frem [Ephraim], which was another reason to direct more of our activities
towards renovating Donja Gradina.
The renovation program for Donja Gradina found was on the agenda of the
Fourth International Conference on Jasenovac, held in Banja Luka in 2007.
The Executive Committee decided to have all the material from previous con-
ferences (Washington 1997, Banja Luka 2000, Jerusalem 2002) printed in the
form of proceedings in Serbian and English and sent out all over the world
along with the proceedings from the Fourth International Conference. After
this conference we concluded that a significant number of our guests from all
over the world, and even our own citizens, are getting the impression that in
WWII there weren’t any crimes in many municipalities and villages across
the Independent State of Croatia, which is absolutely not true. This is why we
proposed and helped with the organisation of round tables: First and Second
Round Table “Šušnjar 1941” in Oštra Luka in 2008 and 2010 (5,500 Serbs
and 50 Jews killed) and the First Round Table “Garavice 1941,” held in Banja
Luka in 2010 (12,000 Serbs and Jews killed). The proceedings from these
round tables were printed in Serbian and English and were sent out into insti-
tutions of many world countries, primarily in countries of ex-Yugoslavia,
then to Israel, Russia, USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy
etc. Apart from these listed here, we have had: the First Round Table on the
crimes on Mount Kozara and the surrounding area, where 51,750 Serbs and
377 Jews had been killed; the First Round Table on atrocities in Glamoč,
Duvno (Tomislavgrad), Livno, Grahovo and Kupres) in 2012, with 8267
Serbs and 25 Jews killed; the Third Round Table Šušnjar 1941, held in Oštra
Luka in 2013; and the First Round Table in Trebinje in 2013. The preparation
of the proceedings from these round tables is undergoing.
20
The Fifth International Conference, held in Banja Luka in 2011, yielded,

among other things, the Declaration on Genocide of the NDH against Serbs,
Jews and Roma people during the Second World War.
The Sixth International Conference on Jasenovac will be held in the second
half of May, 2014. The plan is to post all places of execution in the NDH to
Google.
......
(I would like to ask Saša Aćić, secretary of the Executive Committee and
member of the International Commission for the Truth on Jasenovac, to read
the letter from an Italian General to Mussolini about the slaughter of Serbs in
Prebilovci, i.e. in the Independent State of Croatia, as reported by Dr Her-
mann Neubacher.)
Pavelić and his state are no better described in the extant Italian documents.
On 25th April 1941, the then Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Ga-
leazzo Ciano, wrote in his diary: “I see Pavelić, surrounded by his ruffians.”
The Italians were revolted at the Croatian crimes in WWII, leaving a signifi-
cant number of documents on that topic.
One of the most heart-rending Italian documents on Croatian genocide against
the Serbs is a letter from General Alessandro Luzano to Mussolini. We print
the letter here:
“Duce!
I hope that my infinite devotion to you gives me the right to dis-

regard strict military protocol in this one matter. It is for this rea-
son that I am in a hurry to describe an event that I myself have
witnessed in the past three weeks.
In my tour of the counties of Stolac, Čapljina and Ljubinje (be-
tween 60 and 130 kilometres north of Dubrovnik), I learned from
our intelligence officers that Pavelić’s Ustashas had on the previ-
ous day committed a crime in one of the villages (Prebilovci), and
that once the word is out the Serbs in the region will be stirred.
I am at a loss for words to describe what I have seen there. In a
large school classroom, I found a teacher and 120 of her pupils,
all slaughtered! None of the children were over 12 years of age!
21
The word crime is a gross understatement – it was beyond all

madness! Many of the bodies had been decapitated and the heads
were lined up on the classroom desks. Some of them were disem-
bowelled, and the entrails stretched out across the room, nailed to
the walls! Swarms of flies and unbearable stench made it impos-
sible for us to stay there for long. I noticed an opened bag of salt
in a corner and was appalled when I realised that the victim’s
throats had been slit slowly, while being sprayed with salt! And
just as we were leaving we heard a child’s gurgle in the back row.
I ordered two soldiers to look into it. They brought out a pupil,
still alive, breathing with his throat half-slit! I transported the poor
child in my car to our army hospital, where he regained con-
science and told us the whole truth about the tragedy. The crimi-
nals had first taken turns raping the Serb teacher (her name was
Jasmina Arnautović) and then killed her in front of the children.
They even raped eight-year-old girls. All the while, a Gypsy band
was forced to play their instruments.
To the eternal shame of our Roman church, a man of God, a pas-
tor, took part in the whole thing! The boy we rescued quickly re-
covered. And as soon as the wound healed, he used a moment of
our recklessness and escaped from the hospital to his village, to
look for his relatives. We sent a squad to retrieve him, to no avail
– they found him at his doorstep with his throat slit! The thousand
plus souls in the village had all perished! On the same day of the
school massacre (which we only discovered later on) the Ustashas
captured another 700 villagers of Prebilovci, threw them into a pit
or savagely killed them on the way to the pit. Only around 300
men managed to survive – they were the only ones who managed
to break through the Ustasha troops and escape into the moun-
tains! These 300 survivors are more powerful than Pavelić’s most
elite division! They had lost all that could be lost! Children, wives,
sisters, homes, property. They were even cured of the fear of
death. The only purpose of their lives has become revenge, where
in a way they feel disgrace in surviving! And there are many vil-
lages such as Prebilovci all across Herzegovina, Bosnia, Lika, and
Dalmatia.
Slaughters against Serbs have reached such proportions that many
water springs are contaminated. In Popovo Polje I personally wit-
nessed reddish water spouting from a spring, which was near a pit
22
where 4,000 Serbs had been dispatched! There will be a perma-

nent stain on the conscience of Italy and our culture, unless we
distance ourselves from the Ustashas lest the insanity be ascribed
to us as well!”
..........
When Hitler’s special envoy for the Balkans, Dr Hermann Neubacher, delved
deeper into the issue of the Serbs, he first attempted to put an end to Croatian
crimes. In his memoirs, Neubacher describes the Croatian slaughter:
“The slaughter of Serbs by Croats must be the most atrocious act of mass
murder in the history of the world. I have heard Ustasha leaders boast about
slitting the throats of a million Serbs, including nurselings, children, women
and the elderly.”
From the reports he had at his disposal, Neubacher estimates the number of
slaughtered defenceless people to 750,000.
..........
The genocide in Herzegovina was carried out in around 110 places of execu-
tion, most of which were “bottomless pits in the Independent State of Croatia,
the butcher of the Serbian people 1941-...?,” as was written by Dane Lastavica
in his book of the same title. Many bottomless pits in Herzegovina were full
of dead, wounded, and in many cases living Serbs, and most of those pits were
filled with concrete.
23

PAPERS
25
Jovan Mirković, museum curator
HERZEGOVINA-BORN
VICTIMS OF THE 1941-
1945 WAR
according to the revised 1964 Census, with a special focus
on the suffering of children and the elderly
Abstract: Analyses based on the “Victims of the 1941-1945 War” database and the
extent to which the victims of the war have been recorded in the region of 16
municipalities of Herzegovina at the time of the 1964 Census, broken down in
categories with an emphasis on civilian victims and a focus on victims that are
characteristic to crimes of genocide (children, women, the elderly), have shown that
the NDH had committed not only war crimes, but also crimes of genocide against its
Serb residents. What is characteristic for Herzegovina is that there were mass killings
of Serbs in places where they were a relative or absolute minority, which means that
the crimes were most often committed by residents of the same or surrounding
communities of different ethnicity and religion, where the majority of the crimes
were committed in the early days of the war, i.e. before any organised resistance
movement, which is a testament to the character of that state and the ideology it was
based on.
Keywords: crimes of genocide, war victims, civilian victims, suffering of children
and the elderly.
The mass atrocities of the executive, judicial, army and police institutions and
troops of the Independent State of Croatia,1 as well as Ustasha organisations
and party troops, from the first day of this establishment, were aimed
1
The term “so-called NDH” is not used, since it in fact relativises the responsibility of the
Croatian state, because the NDH had all the characteristics of a state: territory, people, mili-
tary and police force.
27
primarily at the Serb ethnic space, in efforts to discontinue and disperse the
Serbian ethnic fibre by eliminating its physical manifestation.
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION OF HERCEGOVINA IN NDH
The Large district (Velika župa) HUM (Mostar)

The COUNTIES:
Konjic [municipalities: Konjic, Ostrožan];
Ljubuški [municipalities: Drinovci, Ljubuški, Ostrožac];
Mostar [opština Bijelo Polje (Potoci), Blagaj, Donje Brotnjo (Čitluk),
Gornje Bratonjo (Čerin), Kočerin, Mostar sela (Mostar),
Mostarsko Blato (Ljuti Dolac) Široki Brijeg, Žitomislić];
Nevesinje [municipalities: Fojnica, Kifino Selo, Kruševljani,
Nevesinje, Nevesinje sela (Nevesinje), Ulog-Borak (Ulog);
Posušje: [municipalities: Posušje, Rakitno (Podklečani), Vir];
The Town (Grad) Mostar
The Large district (Velika župa) Dubrava (Dubrovnik)
The COUNTIES:
Bileća [municipalities: Bileća, Divin, Ljubomir, Plana, Zavođe (Skrbotno)];
Čapljina [municipalities: Čapljina, Hutovo];
Gacko [municipalities: Avtovac, Gacko];
Ravno [municipalities: Ljubinje, Popovo Polje (Ravno)];
Stolac [municipalities: Aladinići, Berkovići, Burmazi, Stolac];
Trebinje [municipalities: Brda (Begović kula-Trnovac), Dživar (Aleksina
Međa), Lastva, Šuma (Duži), Trebinje. Zupci (Grab)];
The Large district (Velika župa) Pliva-Rama (Jajce)
The COUNTIES:
Prozor [municipalities: Gornja Rama (Šćit), Prozor];
28
This analysis surveys the area of Herzegovina as comprising 16

municipalities which span across 9,616 sq. km, accounting for 18.78% of the
area of B&H2 i.e. 9.75% of the area of the NDH.3 According to the 1921
Census the observed area was home to 265,330 residents, while the 1931
Census says it was 320,343 residents. Out of that, 30.67% were Orthodox
Christians (33.21% in 1931), 45.80% were Catholic (42.94% in 1931),
23.43% were Muslims (23.08% in 1931) and 0.10% were of other religions
(0.27% in 1931). According to demographic estimates, the total number of
residents in B&H would have increased by about 22% between 1931 and
1941. If this were applied to the observed area, it would have had 384.412
residents in 1941, or 6.12% of the entire population of the NDH.4
HERZEGOVINA ‐ (municipalities observed according to 1964 administrative division)
Number Number of set‐ Number Number of set‐
Municipality of settle‐ tlements with Municipality of settle‐ tlements with
ments war casualties ments war casualties
Bileća 61 59 Ljubinje 21 21
Čapljina5 58 52 Ljubuški 35 34
Čitluk 21 19 Mostar 56 55
Gacko6 72 72 Nevesinje 57 56
Grude 11 11 Posušje 17 15
Jablanica 27 27 Prozor 55 52
Konjic 147 118 Stolac7 36 35
Lištica 31 31 Trebinje8 182 171
Out of 887 settlements in these 16 municipalities only in 59 (6.65%) were
there no war casualties recorded, while the victims who were recorded were
in 828 (93.35%) places in this region.
2
Bileća, Čapljina, Čitluk, Gacko, Grude, Jablanica, Konjic, Lištica, Ljubinje, Ljubiški, Mo-
star, Nevesinje, Posušje, Prozor, Stolac, Trebinje. Dragan Cvetković, Bosna i Hercegovina
– numeričko određivanje ljudskih gubitaka u Drugom svetskom ratu, in: Prilozi istraživanju
zločina genocida i ratnih zločina, Beograd 2009, 79-156, on p. 82 lists 15 municipalities
(without the municipality of Prozor) with an area of 9,139 sq. km
3
According to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the area of the NDH takes up
98,572 sq. km (Jovan Marjanović, Ustanak i narodnooslobodilački pokret u Srbiji 1941,
Beograd 1963, p.22). Dragoje Lukić, Bili su samo deca, Jasenovac grobnica 19.432 devoj-
čice i dečaka, Laktaši-Beograd 2000, I, p.24. He states that the area of the NDH amounts to
102,000 sq. km.
4
Compare: Marjanović, n.d., p.22.
5
Including of later municipality Neum.
6
Including parts of ex municitality Ulog
7
Including areas of later municipality Berkovići.
8
Including ex municipality Ravno.
29
The first post-war census was held in 1948. Unfortunately the census of war
victims was not carried out at the same time. When comparing the 1948
Census to the projections for the number of residents of a certain area we see
how many residents the area has lost: real or direct losses from the war
(soldiers and civilians killed during the war, succumbing during and
immediately after the war to gunshot wounds, illnesses and other difficult
conditions resulting from the war), decreased birth rate immediately prior to
the war, during and after the war, and the negative migration balance caused
by emigration.9
Herzegovina population according to 1931 and 1948 Censuses and population estimate for 1941, divided by
religion/ethnicity10
Religion/ethnicity 1931 Census ac‐ Estimated popu‐ 1948 Census ac‐
cording to religion lation in 1941 cording to ethnicity
Total 320.343 384.412 330.864
Orthodox Christian / Serbs 98.253 117.604 94.590
Roman Catholic / Croats 146.718 176.061 163.750
Muslim / unaffiliated Muslims 75.068 90.082 71.102
Others 304 365 1.422
50 45.8 1931 Census according to religion
– percentage of total population
40
30.67
30
23.43
20
10
0.1
0
Оrtodox Roman Catholic Muslim Others
9
Dušan Vrućinić, Demografski gubici Srbije prouzrokovani ratovima u XX veku, Beograd,
2007, pp. 9-10. On demographic and real losses based on statistical method calculation, see:
Jovan Mirković, Objavljeni izvori i literatura o jasenovačkim logorima, Banja Luka-Beo-
grad, 2000, pp. 212-222
10
According to the 1931 Census, a small part of the observed area belonged to the Zeta Ba-
novina, while the bulk of it belonged to the Littoral Banovina. Present-day administrative
units do not match the units at the time of the Census of War Victims in 1964, or units from
earlier censuses, so they must be observed in the contextof the administrative division at
that time.
30
60
49.49
50 1948 Census according to ethnicity
‐ percentage of total population
40
28.59
30
21.49
20
10
0.43
0
Serbs Croats unaffiliated Muslims Others
60 Herzegovina population according
to 1931 and 1948 Censuses
49.49
50 45.8 and population estimate
for 1941, divided
by religion/ethnicity
40
30.67
30
28.59
23.43
21.49
20
10
0.1 0.43
0
ПРАВ./СРБИ Р.КАТ./ХРВАТИ ИСЛ./НЕОП.МУСЛ. ОСТАЛИ
1931 1948
31
The table and charts above view the different categories from censuses of
1931 (religion) and 1948 (ethnicity) as the same, considering that in the
observed region such an equalisation is possible since within the individual
ethnic groups there were no other religious professions than those listed here.
According to the 1931 Census, the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina was
2,323,555, of whom 1,028,139 were Orthodox Christians (44.25%), 547,949
were Roman Catholics (23.58%), 718,079 were Muslims (30.91%) and
29,390 were of other religions (1.26%).
Demographers calculated that between 1931 and 1941 the total population
of Bosnia and Herzegovina increased by around 22% (2,834,737),11 while it
should be noted that the population growth rate varies for different
religious/ethnic groups.12
1931 Census according to religion
‐ percentage of total population
24%
Ortodox
31%
44% Roma Catholics
1% Muslims
Others
11
Vladimir Žerjavić, Gubici stanovništva Jugoslavije u drugom svjetskom ratu, Zagreb
1989, p.12, calculated that the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1931 (census was
carried out across the banovinas, according to religion and mother tongue) was 2,321,502,
and that by 1941 it would have been 2,850,396 (p. 12), i.e. 2,825,000 (p. 18). Bogoljub Ko-
čović, Žrtve drugog svetskog rata u Jugoslaviji, London 1985, states on page 69 that the
population in 1941 would be 2,814,000 people. CD-Popis 1991 calculates that in 1921 Bos-
nia and Herzegovina would have had 1,890,440 residents, and 2,323,555 in 1931. See also:
Definitivni rezultati popisa 1931 i Prethodni rezultati popisa 1921).
12
Kočović, n. d., p.69, states that Serbs had the highest growth rate between 1931 and
1941, followed by Muslims and then Croats, while in later periods Muslims claim the high-
est increment.
32
The actual losses in the Second World War in the area of Yugoslavia were
determined in censuses in 1946,13 195014 and 1964,15 while each census,
as well as the material of the Reparation Commission on Human and Material
Losses,16 has failed to provide a definitive answer on the actual number of
casualties in the Second World War in the area of Yugoslavia, and
subsequently the NDH..
13
The Statistics Division of the State Commission came up with 505,182 fatalities in the
war other than members of armed forces. See: Jovan Mirković, Hronologija zločina (april –
avgust 1941- godine) – prilog dokazima o genocidnom karakteru Nezavisne Države Hrvat-
ske, in: Prilozi istraživanju zločina genocida i ratnih zločina, Beograd 2009, pp.11-78, on
page 65; Miodrag Zečević Jovan P. Popović, Dokumenti iz istorije Jugoslavije, Državna
komisija za utvrđivanje zločina okupatora i njihovih pomagača iz Drugog svetskog rata (I),
Beograd 1996, p.42.
14
The 1950 Census, allegedly organised by SUBNOR (t/n: Federation of Associations of
Veterans of the National Liberation War), is only mentioned in relevant literature as having
been held, but with no results published, hence not even the highest state institutions of the
SFRY were sure of its existance, let alone authenticity. They state: "according to available
information (sic!) in 1950 the SUBNOR of Yugoslavia carried out a census of all fighters
who were killed and of victims of fascism, the results of which are unknown to this day".
(Predsedništvo SFRJ, Beograd, 21. januar 1992, Informacija o otvorenim pitanjima utvrđi-
vanja odgovornosti za genocid i druga teška krivična dela koja se vrše nad pripadnicima
srpske i drugih nacionalnosti u oružanim sukobima u Republici Hrvatskoj, in: Zločin je zlo-
čin prećutati, Izbor dokumenata najviših državnih organa Jugoslavije o ratnim i zločinima
genocida i drugim stradanjima srpskog naroda u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini (1991-
1992), Novi Sad, 1993, pp.178-189. In relevant literature we only find information from the
joint charts for Croatia, listing 155,142, i.e. 156,226 victims (Mate Rupić, Popis žrtava
Drugog svjetskog rata u Hrvatskoj iz 1950. godine, in: Dijalog povjesničara/istoričara 4,
Zagreb 2001, p.544).
15
Žrtve rata 1941-1945. Popis iz 1964. godine. Knjiga 1-16. Beograd, Savezni zavod za
statistiku, 1992, (kompjuterski printing), p. 10 881. The first book was in fact a phototype
edition of the internal publication of the Federal Statistics Department with a Report on the
census: Žrtve rata 1941-1945. Popis iz 1964. godine. Reprint: Žrtve rata 1941-1945. (Re-
zultati popisa), Savezni zavod za statistiku Beograd, 1966, (za internu upotrebu) and Izve-
štaj o izvršenom popisu žrtava rata 1941-1945. Savezne komisije za popis žrtava rata 1941-
1945. Beograd, Savezni zavod za statistiku, 1992, 85+XV; Also see: Jovan Mirković,
„Predgovor = Forward“, in: Zločini u logoru Jasenovac= Crimes in the Jasenovac Camp,
Banja Luka 2000, XIX i XXI.
16
Ljudske i materijalne žrtve Jugoslavije u ratnom naporu 1941-1945. godine, Beograd,
Reparaciona komisija pri Vladi FNRJ, 1946.
33
IDENTIFIED VICTIMS OF THE 1941-1945 WAR IN

YUGOSLAVIA ACCORDING TO REVISED
1964 CENSUS
Based on the 1964 Census, The Museum of Genocide Victims formed the
“Victims of the 1941-1945 War” database with identification by name, which
is regularly updated by sifting through the data, adding information from
filled out questionnaires about the victims of the war,, archive material, data
published in relevant literature etc. And so far a total of 660,002 people have
been identified for the area of ex-Yugoslavia (which accounts for 60% of
actual war losses according to relevant demographic calculations): Serbs are
a majority of 392,897 people (59.6%), other Yugoslavian peoples are at
140,815 (21.3%), Jews are at 52,321, while others and unknown are at 73,559
(11.1%).
Identified victims of the 1941‐1945 war in
Yugoslavia according to revised 1964 Census
21.30%
8.00%
11.10% Serbs
59.60%
Other YU poeples
Jews
Others and unknown
According to a report of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, drafted by

senior advisor von Schmeiden under orders from J. von Ribbentrop, in 1941
the NDH had a total population of 6,285,000 (3,300,000 Croats, 1,925,000
Serbs, 700,000 Muslims, 150,000 Germans, 75,000 Hungarians, 65,000
Czechs and Slovaks, 40,000 Jews and 30,000 Slovenians, with no record for
the Roma people).17 This information is closer to actual numbers than Pekić’s
data which was given with in accordance with Ustasha policy of undervaluing
the Serb population and overvaluing the number of Croats, further increasing
it with the number of Muslims: total population of 6,439,331; 4,868,831
17
Marjanović, n.d., p. 22.
34
Croats, 1,250,000 Serbs, 320,500 others and no record for Jews and Roma
people. 1819
The “Victims of the 1941-1945 War” database for the area of the NDH so far
100
NDH population, 1941 (6,285.000).
Source: German Ministry of
52.5
Foreign Affairs (6,285.000)19
30.63
11.14
2.39 1.19 1.03 0.64 0.48
0
1) Croats 3,300.000 2) Serbs 1,925.000
3) Muslims 700.000 4) Germanies 150.000
5) Hungaries 75.000 6) Cezcs and Slovaks 65.000
7Jews 8) Slovenians 30.000
9) Rome ‐ no data
lists 455,973 fatalities (accounting for 7.25% of the estimated population of
the NDH): 291,356 Serbs (63.9%, while their percentage in the total
population was 30.6%), 79,329 Croats (17.4%, while their percentage in the
total population was 52.4%), 32,714 Muslims (7.2%, while their percentage
in the total population was 11.1%), 28,497 Jews (6.3%, while their percentage
in the total population was 0.6%), 12,240 Roma people (2.7%, while their
estimated percentage in the total population was 0.3%), and 11,837 others or
unknown (2.6%, while their percentage in the total population was 5.0%).
Victims of the 1941-1945 War in the NDH so far identified
NDH 455,973
Serbs 291,356
Croats 79,329
Muslims 32,714
Jews 28,497
Roma 12,240
Others and unknown 11,837
18
P. Pekić, Postanak Nezavisne Države Hrvatske, Zagreb, 1942, p. 97
19
Marjanović, n.d., 22.
35
War Victims in NDH
17.40% 7.20%
6.20% Serbs
2.70% Croats
2.60% Muslims
63.90% Jews
Roma
Others
Percentage of total population
70 compared to percentage of victims
63.9
in the NDH
60
52.5
50
40
30.6
30
20 17.4
11.1
10 7.2 6.2 5.2
0.6 2.7 2.6
0.3
0
CROATS SERBS MUSLIMS JEWS ROMA OTHERS AND
N/A
population War victim
36
HERZEGOVINA-BORN VICTIMS
OF THE 1941-1945 WAR
In the area of Herzegovina (which is, again, 18.78% of the territory of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, or 9.75% of the area of the NDH), a total of 17,638 fatalities
were recorded, which is 8.35% of the total recorded number of victims in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. 3.87% of victims recorded in the NDH, and
4.59% of the estimated population of Herzegovina in 1941.
Victims of the 1941-1945 war in the area of Herzegovina,

by gender
War victims in the area of Herzegovina, by gender
No. Born in Total % of ∑ War M % F %
victims
∑ Hercegovina20 17638 100 13754 77.98 3884 22,02
1 Bileća 1574 8,92 1216 77,2 358 22,74
2 Čapljina/Neum 2189 12,41 1504 68,71 685 31,29
3 Čitluk 89 0,51 79 88,76 10 11,24
4 Gacko 2069 11,73 1393 67,33 676 32,67
5 Grude 117 0,66 99 84,62 18 15,38
6 Jablanica 355 2.01 314 88,45 41 11,55
7 Konjic 1000 5,67 835 83,50 165 16,50
8 Lištica 226 1,28 183 80,97 43 19,03
9 Ljubinje 574 3,25 445 77,53 129 22,47
10 Ljubuški 427 2,42 382 89,46 45 10,54
11 Mostar 2719 15,42 2285 84,04 434 15,96
12 Nevesinje 1424 8,07 1138 79,92 286 20,09
13 Posušje 134 0,76 116 86,57 18 13,43
14 Prozor 844 4,79 793 93,96 51 6,04
15 Stolac/Berkovići 1686 9,56 1204 71,41 482 28,59
16 Trebinje/Ravno 2211 12,54 1768 79,96 443 20,04
According to gender, 77.98% of the victims in the observed area were male,
and 22.02% female, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina there were 71.70%
male victims, 27.98% female victims and 0.32% victims of unknown gender.
20
The 1964 Census of War Victims included the municipalities of Neum – Čapljina,
Berkovići–Stolac and Ravno – Trebinje..
37
Bosnia and Herzegovina‐born victims of the 1941‐1945 war, by gender
Total Male Female n/a
212384 152285 (71,70%) 59419 (27,98%) 680 (0,32%)
We see that in the observed area the percentage of female victims is lower
than the average for the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Among the municipalities, Čapljina, Gacko and Stolac deviate in this
category with a higher percentage of female victims – above the average for
Herzegovina, as well as the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina.
War victims in the area
of Herzegovina, by gender
22.02%
Male
77.98% Female
Bosnia and Herzegovina‐born victims
of the 1941‐1945 war, by gender
27.98%
0.32%
Male
Female
71.70%
n/a
38
77.98 Comparison of victims of the 1941‐1945 war,
71.7 by gender
27.98
22.02
0.35 0
MALE FEMALE N/A
B&H Herzegovina
Victims of the 1941-1945 war, born in Bosnia and Herzegovina,

by ethnicity
War victims in the area of Herzegovina, according to ethnicity
Born in ↓ Total→↓ Serbs Croats Muslims Jews Roma Others
No. ∑ Hercegovina 17638 11691 2369 3332 85 21 140
% → 100 66,28 13,44 18,89 0,48 0,12 0,79
1 Bileća 1574 1056 10 482 3 5 18
2 Čapljina 2189 1777 241 164 1 ‐ 6
3 Čitluk 89 27 53 8 ‐ ‐ 1
4 Gacko 2069 1753 10 288 3 ‐ 15
5 Grude 117 5 111 ‐ ‐ ‐ 1
6 Jablanica 355 43 86 219 ‐ 1 6
7 Konjic 1000 404 161 399 ‐ 15 21
8 Lištica 226 14 211 1 ‐ ‐ ‐
9 Ljubinje 574 489 12 71 ‐ ‐ 2
10 Ljubuški 427 82 266 69 ‐ ‐ 10
11 Mostar 2719 1709 344 574 71 ‐ 21
12 Nevesinje 1424 1277 16 122 4 ‐ 5
13 Posušje 134 6 125 2 ‐ ‐ 1
14 Prozor 844 10 466 363 2 ‐ 3
15 Stolac 1686 1122 170 387 ‐ ‐ 7
16 Trebinje 2211 1917 87 183 1 ‐ 23
39
Victims of the 1941‐1945 War
in the area of Herzegovina,
by ethnicity
13.44%
18.89% Serbs
Croats
0.48%
Muslims
66.28% 0.12%
Jews
0.79%
Roma
Others
Victims of the 1941‐1945 war, born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by ethnicity
Total Serbs Croats Muslims Others21
212384 157640 (74,22%) 7790 ( 3,67%) 31896 (15,02%) 15056 (7,09%)
Victims of the 1941‐1945 war,
3.67% 15.02% born in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
by ethnicity
7.09%
Serbs
Croats
74.22% Muslims
Others
21
∑ others 15,056; out of which: Jews 11,821 – 5.57%, Roma people 1,017 – 0.48%, others
2,218 – 1.04% (other Yugoslavian peoples 336, other known 62 and others 1,820)
40
Out of 17,638 war victims born in Herzegovina, who were recorded in the
“Victims of the 1941-1945 War” database, 11,691 or 66.28% were Serbs
(who were 30.67% of the total population), 2,369 or 3.44% were Croats
(45.80% of the total population), 3,332 or 18.89% were Muslims (23.43% of
the total population) and 24622 or 1.39% were others (0.10% of total
population).
70 66.28
Percentage of total population
60 compared to percentage
50 45.8 of war victims
40
30.67
30 23.43
18.89
20 13.44
10
0.1 1.39
0
SERBS CROATS MUSLIMS OTHERS
POPULATION VICTIMS
Population percentage compared to 1941‐1945 war victims by
ethnicity for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the observed area
P = populations V = victims
80 74.22
70 66.28
60
50 44.25 45.8
23.58
40
30.91 30.67
30 23.43
18.89
20 15.02 13.44
7.09
10
1.26 3.67 1.39
0.1
0
B&H ‐ P B&H ‐ V OBSERV. AREA ‐ P OBSERV. AREA ‐ V
Serbs Croats Mulims Others
22
Jews 85, Roma people 21 and others 140.
41
In relation to the estimated number of residents in 1941 the recorded victims account
for 4.59% (7.49% for Bosnia and Herzegovina), i.e. 9.92% among the Serbs (12.57%
for Bosnia and Herzegovina), 1.35% for Croats (1.66% for Bosnia and Herzegovina)
and 3.70% for Muslims (3.64% for Bosnia and Herzegovina), or if we are to look at
the Croatian and Muslim population together, since they together constituted the
“Croatian political people” in the NDH, i.e. were regarded as a single nation, then
the recorded victims account for 2.14% of the estimated population (2.57% for
Bosnia and Herzegovina). There are no records for Jews and the Roma people in the
observed area in the 1931 Census, nor consequently in the 1941 estimated numbers.
In proportion, the Jewish ethnic/religious population had the largest losses in Bosnia
and Herzegovina: compared to the 1931 Census the recorded casualties are 78.21%,
and if we applied the same criteria to the estimated numbers the losses would be
64.12%. In victim analysis according to ethnicity, it is important to point out the ratio
of percentage in the total population to the percentage among the victims. If we
compare losses among ethnicities, the ratio of Croatian to Serb victims is 1:4.9
(while the same ratio is 1:0.67 in total population); the ratio of Muslims to Serbs is
1:3.5 (1:1.31 in total population); and the ratio of Croats and Muslims together to
Serbs is 1:2.05 (1:0.44 in total population).
Victims of the 1941-1945 War in the area of Herzegovina, by

year of death
War victims in the area of Herzegovina, according to year of death
Total→↓ Year
Born in ↓
1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
No.
∑ Hercegovina 17638 6617 3257 3168 2633 1963
% → 100 37,52 8,47 17,96 14,92 11,13
1 Bileća 1574 687 195 282 273 137
2 Čapljina 2189 1542 110 156 234 147
3 Čitluk 89 12 24 16 11 26
4 Gacko 2069 573 563 607 203 123
5 Grude 117 7 7 34 32 37
6 Jablanica 355 11 146 106 39 53
7 Konjic 1000 189 123 327 159 202
8 Lištica 226 22 43 24 52 85
9 Ljubinje 574 320 68 91 57 38
10 Ljubuški 427 74 48 57 116 132
11 Mostar 2719 1051 334 422 517 395
12 Nevesinje 1424 408 306 307 213 190
13 Posušje 134 5 39 42 23 25
14 Prozor 844 16 611 127 64 26
15 Stolac 1686 912 253 223 185 113
16 Trebinje 2211 788 387 347 455 234
42
War victims in the area of Herzegovina,
according to year of death
17.96%
18.47%
14.92% 1941
1942
11.13% 1943
37.52%
1944
1945
Bosnia and Herzegovina‐born victims of the 1941‐1945 war, by year of death
Year
Total
1941. 1942. 1943. 1944. 1945.
212384 52706 (24,82) 77470 (36,48) 40380 (19,01) 28250 (13,30) 13574 (6,39)
of the 1941‐1945 war, by year of death
36.48%
1941
19.01%
1942
24.82% 1943
13.30% 1944
6.39%
1945
43
40 37.52 36.48
Comparison of data on victims
35 of the 1941‐1945 war
for Bosnia and Herzegovina and
30
24.82 the observed area, by year of death
25
18.47 19.01 17.96
20
14.92
15 13.3
11.13
10
6.39
5
0
1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
B&H Observer area
According to the year of death, the largest number of victims were killed in
1941 (37.52%), while the numbers are similar for 1942 (18.47%) and 1943
(17.96%), as for 1944 (14,92%) and 1945 (11.13%). Relative to the total
number of war victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to year of death,
this area is specific for having a significantly larger percentage of casualties
in the first year of the war – 37.52% victims in 16% of the duration of the
war, i.e. in less than eight months of the war the monthly average was more
than double of the number of victims in the remaining 84% of the duration of
the war.
Although most of the civilian victims (victims of direct violence) during the
war in the area of the NDH can be deemed as victims of the genocidal policies
of the NDH, it especially goes for victims from the first year of the war, when
there was no armed resistance provoked by mass crimes, which was the
formal motive. Direct mass crimes were formally justified as retribution and
cleansing, i.e. pacification of the territory. Of course, the composition of the
civilian victims (gender or age-wise), as well as the time of execution clearly
indicate real intentions, i.e. the implementation of genocidal policies.
44
Victims of the 1941-1945 war in the area of Herzegovina, by

manner of death

War victims in the area of Herzegovina according to manner of death
(at home)24
Other cate‐
Direct vio‐
Unknown
State insi‐
tutions23
Total
gories25
Born in ↓
Other
lence
→↓
FRYA
PLW
∑ Hercegov. 17638 214 3896 2151 8943 1124 1171 139
No.
% → 100 1,21 22,0926 12,20 50,70 6,37 6,64 0,79

1 Bileća 1574 22 490 113 677 64 200 8
2 Čapljina 2189 6 222 179 1657 64 51 10
3 Čitluk 89 5 32 13 28 9 ‐ 2
4 Gacko 2069 21 396 145 1136 171 191 9
5 Grude 117 3 46 5 26 26 11 ‐
6 Jablanica 355 3 117 15 176 20 24 ‐
7 Konjic 1000 9 294 85 431 138 37 6
8 Lištica 226 13 33 10 79 55 28 8
9 Ljubinje 574 12 106 107 312 18 17 2
10 Ljubuški 427 11 146 65 115 60 18 12
11 Mostar 2719 32 540 763 1071 185 100 28
12 Nevesinje 1424 31 425 157 574 109 109 19
13 Posušje 134 5 40 3 57 15 12 2
14 Prozor 844 4 111 27 628 43 29 2
15 Stolac 1686 9 295 196 1000 37 137 12
16 Trebinje 2211 28 603 268 976 110 207 19
Military and civilian victims, according to category
Total Military Civilian State in‐ Direct vi‐ Other cate‐ Other and un‐
victims victims stitutions olence gories known
17638 4110 13528 2151 8943 1124 1310
100,00% 23,30 76,70 12,20 50,70 6,37 7,43
% od ∑ CV 100,00 15,90 66,11 8,31 9,68
23
Camps, prisons, deportation, forced labour, shelters for children
24
Direct violence, mass slaughter, at home, on the run, thrown in a pit, thrown in a well,
thrown in a river, German offensive, in a church.
25
As a civilian, in combat, from bombings, in refuge, in the People's Liberation War (PLW)
26
Military victims 4,110 or 23.30%, civilian victims 13,528 or 76.70%
45
Bosnia and Herzegovina‐born victims of the 1941‐1945 War, by category
Total Military ∑ Civilian State insti‐ Direct vio‐ Other cate‐ Other and
victims27 victims tutions28 lence29 gories30 unknown31
212384 39501 172883 53664 89626 10042 19551
100,00% 18,60 81,40 25,27 42,20 4,73 9,20
% od ∑ CV 100,00 31,04 51,84 5,81 11,31
War victims in the area of Herzegovina
according to manner of death
6.37%
1.21% FRYА
7.43%
22.09% PLW
State Inst.
50.70%
12.20%
Dir. Violence
OTHERS
Others and
unknown
27
Former Yugoslav Royal Army 1,628: imprisoned members 909, members killed during
the April War 719; PLW: imprisoned members of the PLA and PDY (People’s Liberation
Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia) 572, members killed during the PLW and
in allied formations 37,301.
28
State institutions: camps 47,197, prison 3,744, deportation 2,270, forced labour 259, shel-
ters for children 194.
29
Direct violence (at home): Direct vilence 58,517, from bombings 469, thrown in a pit
1,730, in a church 188, mass slaughter 12,752, at home 12,191, on the run 3,454, thrown in
a well 7, thrown in a river 110, in refuge 208.
30
The German offensive 2553, The German landing 95, in fightings 542, in YU WW 457,
as civilian 6350, revenge 45.
31
Total 19,551 (9.20% of total war victims; 11.31% of civilian victims): category of «oth-
ers» 17,939 (8.44% of total war victims; 10.38% of civilian victims), category «unknown»
63 (0.76% of total war victims; 0.93% of civilian victims).
46
Military and civilian victims,
according to category
23.30%
76.70% MILITARY
CIVILIANS
70 66.11
Comparison of military and
60 civilian victims of the 1941‐1945 War
51.84 for B&H and the observed area
50 in relation to number of civilian victims
40
31.04
30
20 15.9
11.31 9.68
8.31
10 5.81
0
STATE INST. DIRECT OTHERS CAT. OTHER AND
VIOLENCE UNKNOWN
B&H Observ. Area
47
60
50.7 Comparison of military and
50 civilian victims of the 1941‐1945 War
42.2 for B&H and the observed area
in relation to number of victims
40
30
25.27
20
12.2
9.2 7.43
4.73 6.37
10
0
STATE INST. DIR. VIOLENCE OTHERS CAT. OTHERS AND
UNKNOWN
B&H Observ. Area
90
Comparison of civilian victims 81.4
80 of the 1941‐1945 War for B&H 76.7
and the observed area
70 in relation to total number of victims
60
50
40
30 23.3
18.6
20
10
0
MILITARY VICTIMS CIVILIANS VICTIMS
B&H Observ. Area
48
According to the category or manner of death there were 4,110 or 23.30%

military victims (members of the former Yugoslav Royal Army 1.21%,
members of the PLA 22.09%), 13,528 or 76.70% civilian victims: state
institutions (camps, prisons, deportation and forced labour) 2,151 or 12.20%;
from direct violence (mass and individual murders) 8,943 or 50.70%; other
categories 1,124 or 6.37%; others and unknown 1,310 or 7.43%. .
In relation to the total number of civilian victims in the observed area the
percentages are: state institutions 12.20% (in Bosnia and Herzegovina
31.04%), direct violence 66.11% (in Bosnia and Herzegovina 51.84%), other
categories 6.37% (in Bosnia and Herzegovina 5.81%), others and unknown
7.43 (in Bosnia and Herzegovina 11.31%). The area of Herzegovina is
characterised by a smaller share of the total category of “state institutions”
(camps, prisons, deportation, forced labour) in the percentage of total victims
and civilian victims relative to the average for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but
also a significantly higher percentage of victims of direct violence.
Victims of the 1941-1945 War in the area of

Herzegovina by perpetrators
War victims in the area of Herzegovina, by perpetrators
Perpetrators
Croatian troops32
Unknown
Total
Born in ↓
Germans33
Italians
→↓
Others
Chetniks
No.
∑ Herzegovina 17638 4683 526 796 221 129 11283

% → 100 26,55 2,98 4,51 1,25 0,74 63,97
1 Bileća 1574 237 41 179 10 2834 1079
2 Čapljina 2189 917 43 14 4 2 1209
3 Čitluk 89 11 1 ‐ 1 ‐ 76
4 Gacko 2069 4835 77 92 45 2436 1083
5 Grude 117 5 1 ‐ 1 ‐ 110
6 Jablanica 355 108 13 14 ‐ ‐ 220
32
Ustashas, Croatian Home Guard, Gendarmerie, police, including Croatian legionar unit,
Croatian and Muslim militia and SS units comprised of citizens of the NDH (Muslims and
Croats.
33
Including members of the 7th SS Division “Prinz Eugen” comprised of Yugoslav citizens
(Volksdeutsche).
34
Partisan 14
35
Ustashes 573, Muslims 175
36
Partisans 9
49
7 Konjic 1000 19037 43 33 5 3 726

8 Lištica 226 14 4 8 7 ‐ 193
9 Ljubinje 574 199 24 10 3 4 334
10 Ljubuški 427 60 6 ‐ 2 5 354
11 Mostar 2719 815 89 34 39 41 1701
12 Nevesinje 1424 249 42 14 38 5 1076
13 Posušje 134 16 ‐ ‐ 1 ‐ 117
14 Prozor 844 13 16 235 2 ‐ 578
15 Stolac 1686 48438 32 125 6 2 1037
16 Trebinje 2211 617 94 38 57 15 1390

Bosnia and Herzegovina‐born victims of the 1941‐1945 war by perpetrators
Total Perpetrators
Croat. troops39 Germans40 Chetniks Others41 Unknown
212384 72614 (3 4,19%) 11493 ( 5,41%) 6431 (3,02%) 1038 (0,49%) 120808 (56,88%)
by perpetrators
26.55% Croatians troops
2.98% Germans
63.97% 4.51% Chetniks
1.25%
Italians
0.74%
Others
Unknown
37
Ustashas 141, Muslims 49
38
Ustashas 444, Muslims 40
39
The database lists as executioners: Ustashas 69,581 and Muslims 3,033.
40
Including victims of other formations under German command, such as Cossacks, 45.
41
Italians 594, PLA 4, Partisans 79, Allies 103, rebels 50, others 208.
50
of the 1941‐1945 war
by perpetrators
34.19% Croatian troops
56.89%
Germans
3.02% Chetniks
5.41%
Others
0.49%
Unknown
According to perpetrators, out of the total number of recorded victims

(17,638), the largest part (11,283) and percentage is in the “unknown” group
(63.97%), which is more a reflection of the contemporary ideological and
political attitudes in the Socialist Yugoslavia about “brotherhood and unity”
and “not reopening old wounds” rather than the perpetrators being unknown
(e.g. there is data about persons who died in NDH camps, where the culprits
were not listed, or in mass slaughters committed by Croatian troops, without
listing the culprit). The data for the observed area correspond with the data
for the general area of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The largest number and
percentage relative to unknown culprits is in the category of “Croatian troops”
(4,683, i.e. 26.55%),42 Germans are listed as responsible for 526 victims or
42
Both in the “Victims of the 1941-1945 War” database and in relevant literature the cul-
prits are mainly listed to be the “Ustashas”, as if other formations took no part in the
crimes, when the crimes were committed by members of all armed forces of the Croatian
state. When identifying guilty parties for crimes it is usual to say “German”, “Italian”,
“Bulgarian”, “Hungarian” and others’ crimes (aggressor forces are implied); however, they
are almost never listed as “Croatian”, not implying the Croatian people but the Croatian
state and its armed forces, whether legitimate or paramilitary. This is also the result of the
“policy of brotherhood and unity”, to keep anyone from thinking that by any chance re-
sponsibility lies in a wider body than the Ustasha party organisation and their armed forces.
If anybody did mention the responsibility of the Croatian state in Croatian historiographical
opinion journalism, it is so labelled to place the “genocidal blame” onto the entire Croatian
people, which is false of course, because this sort of categorisation is then done by those
who comment that any emphasis on the responsibility of the Croatian state is an expression
of the outspoken responsibility of the Croatian people.
51
2.98%, Chetniks (not only members of the JVUO [Yugoslav Homeland

Army, troops commanded by Serbian General Draža Mihailović 1942-1944,
t/n] but also local groups beyond the scope of the JVUO chain of command)
for 796 or 4.51%, while the rest of the identified culprits are responsible for
350 victims or 1.99% (221 of which belong to Italians). The expression
“Croatian troops” is used purposefully because it both fits into the “Croatian
language,” and also encompasses all military and paramilitary formations,
police and parapolice forces – not only the “Ustashas” as a political
organisation with their own armed forces, whose ideology was the basis of
the newly-founded government and state organisation, but the responsibility
of the Croatian sate is emphasised as well.43
70 of the 1941‐1945 war for B&H 63.97
and the observed area, by perpetrators
60 56.88
50
40
34.19
30 26.55
20
10 5.41
2.98 3.02 4.51
0.49 1.99
0
CROATIAN GERMANS CHETNIKS OTHERS UNKNOWN
TROOPS
B&H Observer area
43
Crimes, especially from the first year of the war, if mentioned at all, were, in order to
conceal the true agitators and organisers of the massacre, imputed to the so-called “rogue
Ustashas” – local unorganised formations of Croatian and Muslim militias that were be-
yond state control. These formations were not beyond control, nor were they executing un-
planned operations in a spontaneous revolutionary zeal, but on the contrary, their actions
were well-prepared and ideologically primed massacres on religious and ethnic bases.
52
Victims of the 1941-1945 war in the area of Herzegovina, by

cause of death
War victims in the area of Herzegovina, by cause of death
Cause of death

Born in ↓ Executed Killed in Executed
Total→↓ Missing
action
∑ Herzegovina 17638 12028 4835 508 267
No.
% → 100 68,19 27,41 2,88 1,52

1 Bileća 1574 939 543 74 18
2 Čapljina 2189 1886 256 23 24
3 Čitluk 89 44 42 1 2
4 Gacko 2069 1474 502 72 21
5 Grude 117 34 71 11 1
6 Jablanica 355 222 128 4 1
7 Konjic 1000 529 414 36 21
8 Lištica 226 88 116 7 15
9 Ljubinje 574 426 129 14 5
10 Ljubuški 427 200 187 24 16
11 Mostar 2719 1862 735 70 52
12 Nevesinje 1424 801 550 47 26
13 Posušje 134 81 39 4 10
14 Prozor 844 694 132 15 3
15 Stolac 1686 133944 302 27 18
16 Trebinje 2211 1409 689 79 34
by cause of death
27.41%
2.88% Еxetuded
1.52%
Killed in
68.19% action
Died
Missing
44
Burned in fire 49
53
Comparison of data on victims of the 1941‐1945 war for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the observed area,
according to cause of death
Cause of death
Total
Executed Killed in action Died Missing
212384 158683 (74,72) 43179 (20,33) 7415 (3,49) 3107 (1,46)
80 74.72
68.19
70 of the 1941‐1945 war for B&H and
the observed area, according to
60 cause of death
50
40
30 27.41
20.33
20
10
3.49 2.88 1.46 1.52
0
EXETUDED KILLED IN ACTION DIED MISSING
B&H Observ. Area
Analysis according to cause of death shows the following: 12,028 people

executed45 (68.19%), 4,835 killed in action46 (27.41%), 508 died47 (2.88%)
and 267 missing (1.52%), which corresponds to the analysis of victims by
category, since civilian victims were mainly in the “executed” group, while
military victims in the “killed in action” group.
The percentage of people killed in action (27.41%) is only slightly higher than
the percentage of military victims (23.30%) because of more people being
killed in bombings and during battles. In relation to Bosnia and Herzegovina,
45
Includes: murdered, shot, slaughtered, burned alive, hung, drowned, poisoned.
46
“Killed in action” mainly means military victims (23.30%), but also the category of
“killed by a lingering explosive device”, which usually means civilian victims (but which
are statistically insignificant).
47
Died, succumbed to gunshot wounds, illness, hunger, cold.
54
the percentage of executed victims is smaller (74.72% for Bosnia and

Herzegovina) and the percentage of casualties killed in action is larger
(20.33% for Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Victims of the 1941-1945 War in the area of

Herzegovina, by occupation

War victims in the area of Herzegovina, by occupation
Official and expert,
Other occupations
Unemployed and
Industry worker,

Dependant48
teacher and
craftsman,
Born in ↓ Total →↓
professor,
unknown
Labourer
Farmer
∑ Herzegovina 17638 7560 823 1877 978 5369 505 526

No.
% → 100 42,86 4,67 10,64 5,54 30,44 2,87 2,98

1 Bileća 1574 732 66 119 52 522 58 25
2 Čapljina 2189 883 44 219 102 779 31 131
3 Čitluk 89 43 2 11 8 19 4 2
4 Gacko 2069 783 48 102 103 974 42 17
5 Grude 117 73 1 14 5 21 3 ‐
6 Jablanica 355 213 5 47 5 80 4 1
7 Konjic 1000 492 35 111 58 271 23 10
8 Lištica 226 118 8 29 3 65 2 1
9 Ljubinje 574 262 32 55 26 166 20 13
10 Ljubuški 427 169 32 76 40 89 18 3
11 Mostar 2719 748 254 495 317 727 112 66
12 Nevesinje 1424 687 62 176 73 373 36 17
13 Posušje 134 89 3 13 2 22 4 1
14 Prozor 844 701 26 27 9 72 3 6
15 Stolac 1686 664 102 124 56 640 46 54
16 Trebinje 2211 903 103 259 119 549 99 179
Analysis of war victims according to occupation shows that the highest

percentage is that of agricultural workers (41.01%), followed by dependants
(women, children, pupils, students, the elderly) with 34.04%. This structure
in the observed area differs from the data for Bosnia and Herzegovina due to
48
Out of which children born dugin the war – 166: Bileća 13, Čitluk 1, Gacko 33, Grude -,
Jablanica 5, Konjic 12, Lištica 1, Ljubinje 9, Mostar 16, Nevesinje 13, Posušje -, Prozor 4,
Stolac 12, Trebinje 21.
55
larger percentages in the observed area in the categories of agricultural

workers, industrial workers, craftsmen, tradesmen and labourers, officials and
experts, and less in categories of dependants, unemployed people and
unknown.
Farmers
B&H‐born victims
50 Industrial workers
42.86 of the 1941‐1945 war,
Labourers
by occupation
Officials and experts, teachers…
Dependants 30.44
Unemployed and unknown
10.64
4.67 5.54 5.85
HERZEGOVINA-BORN CHILDREN AS VICTIMS OF

THE 1941-1945 WAR
Children49 represent the frailest category of population during war. The
treatment of children, crimes against them and the ratio of children in war
casualties give a true image of the ideological and political nature of the
persons who commit crimes against children.
The total number of children up to 14 years of age in the area of the NDH is
74,762, which is 16.40% of all war victims recorded so far in the area of the
NDH, 60,234 of which were executed and 14,528 are listed as war victims
(killed in action, died, missing). In terms of ethnicity, there were 42,791 Serb
children, 5,737 Roma children, 5,434 Muslim children, 3,710 Jewish
children, 2,289 Croatian children and 273 of others and unknown.50
49
The category of “children” includes war victims of up to 14 years of age, meaning that it
includes persons who were born in 1927 and died in 1041, born in 1928 and died in 1941
and 1942, born in 1929 and died in 1941, 1942 and 1943, born in 1930 and died from 1941
to 1944, and all those born in 1931 and onwards.
50
Research by Dragoje Lukić: Dragoje Lukić, Deca na lomači rata u NDH 1941-1945,
Imenoslovnik 74.762 žrtve mlađe od 14 godina, knjiga 2, rukopis, Beograd 1998 (hereinaf-
ter: Lukić, Deca na lomači rata), Archive of the Museum of Genocide Victims, personal
56
Analysis of the suffering of children born in the area of Herzegovina,

according to the extent to which the victims of the war were recorded in the
aforementioned revision of the Census, shows that out of 17,638 casualties
there were 2,235 (12.67%) children up to 14 years of age (for Bosnia and
Herzegovina the percentage of children victims is 19.55%), and out of 13,228
civilian victims children make up 16.90% (for Bosnia and Herzegovina the
percentage of children victims in the total number of civilian casualties is
24.03%). Children victims in the observed area account for 5.38% of all
children casualties in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, speaking of the total
number of victims, that percentage for the observed area in relation to Bosnia
and Herzegovina is 8.35%.
Herzegovina children war victims by gender
Born in ↓ Total Children Male Female
No. ∑ Herzegovina 17,638 2,235 1,205 1,030
% → 100 12,67 93,91 46,09
1 Bileća 1,574 225 116 109
2 Čapljina 2,189 447 199 248
3 Čitluk 89 2 2 ‐
4 Gacko 2,069 441 216 225
5 Grude 117 13 6 7
6 Jablanica 355 35 28 7
7 Konjic 1,000 131 88 43
8 Lištica 226 28 23 5
9 Ljubinje 574 67 36 31
10 Ljubuški 427 22 16 6
11 Mostar 2,719 197 117 80
12 Nevesinje 1424 114 65 49
13 Posušje 134 13 8 5
14 Prozor 844 35 26 9
15 Stolac 1686 299 159 140
16 Trebinje 2211 166 100 66
Children war victims born in Herzegovina
Born in ↓ Total Children % of ∑
No.
∑ Herzegovina 17,638 2,235 12.67
1 Bileća 1,574 225 14.29
2 Čapljina 2,189 447 20.42
3 Čitluk 89 2 2.25
4 Gacko 2,069 441 21.31
5 Grude 117 13 11.11
6 Jablanica 355 35 9.86
fund: Dragoje Lukić (LF DL); Dragoje Lukić, Bili su samo deca, Jasenovac grobnica
19.432 devojčice i dečaka, Laktaši – Beograd 2000, I, p.24.
57
7 Konjic 1,000 131 13.10

8 Lištica 226 28 12.39
9 Ljubinje 574 67 11.67
10 Ljubuški 427 22 5.15
11 Mostar 2,719 197 7.25
12 Nevesinje 1,424 114 8.01
13 Posušje 134 13 9.70
14 Prozor 844 35 4.15
15 Stolac 1,686 299 17.73
16 Trebinje 2,211 166 7.51
Herzegovina children war victims
by gender
46.09%
53.91%
Male
Female
Comparison of data for
war victims in Herzegovina
20000 by gender: total/children
17638
18000
16000 13754
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
3884
4000 2235
2000 1205 1030
0
TOTAL MALE FEMALE
Total ‐ War Victims Total ‐ Children War Victims
58
According to analyses of the figures: in female children casualties born in

Herzegovina, 46.09% are female (in the total number of victims of this area,
22.02% are female casualties), and 53.91% are male (in the total number of
victims 77.98% are male). Out of the total number of male war victims
children account for 8.76%, while out of the total number of female victims
22.52% are children.
Children war victims in Herzegovina, by ethnicity
Born in ↓ Total→↓ Serbs Croats Muslims Others
No. ∑ Herzegovina 17638 1463 179 559 3451
% → 100 65,46 8,01 25,01 1,52
1 Bileća 225 53 ‐ 167 5
2 Čapljina 447 426 15 6 ‐
3 Čitluk 2 2 ‐ ‐ ‐
4 Gacko 441 357 ‐ 83 1
5 Grude 13 1 12 ‐ ‐
6 Jablanica 35 6 7 21 1
7 Konjic 131 50 23 41 17
8 Lištica 28 ‐ 28 ‐ ‐
9 Ljubinje 67 56 1 10 ‐
10 Ljubuški 22 4 9 9 ‐
11 Mostar 197 107 35 47 8
12 Nevesinje 114 99 ‐ 13 2
13 Posušje 13 2 10 1 ‐
14 Prozor 35 ‐ 16 19 ‐
15 Stolac 299 147 22 130 ‐
16 Trebinje 166 153 1 12 ‐
Children war victims in Herzegovina,
80 by ethnicity
65.46
60
40
20
8.01
0 1.52
0
Serbs Croats Muslims Others
51
8 of which were Jewish and 9 were Roma children..
59
Comparison of data for victims
of the 1941‐1945 war
66.28 65.46 by ethnicity: total/children
70
60
50
40
30 25.01
18.89
20 13.44
8.01
10
1.39 1.52
0
Total Children
70 66.28 65.46
Percentage children in total population
60
and war victims
50 45.8
40
30.67 25.01
23.43
30
13.44 18.89
20
8.01
10
0.1 1.39 1.52
0
POPULATION WAR VICTIMS
60
Children war victims in Herzegovina, by year of death
∑ Year
Born in
Children↓ 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
No.
∑ Herzegovina 2235 944 370 543 289 89
% → 100 42,24 16,55 24,30 12,93 3,98
1 Bileća 225 167 18 22 14 4
2 Čapljina 447 348 10 19 64 6
3 Čitluk 2 1 1 ‐ ‐ ‐
4 Gacko 441 64 158 210 8 1
5 Grude 13 ‐ ‐ 11 2 ‐
6 Jablanica 35 9 15 9 2
7 Konjic 131 20 12 75 13 11
8 Lištica 28 2 ‐ ‐ 12 14
9 Ljubinje 67 38 11 16 1 1
10 Ljubuški 22 3 1 4 4 10
11 Mostar 197 21 30 33 95 18
12 Nevesinje 114 5 32 47 20 10
13 Posušje 13 ‐ 5 6 1 1
14 Prozor 35 ‐ 25 7 3 ‐
15 Stolac 299 197 38 51 12 1
16 Trebinje 166 78 20 27 31 10
Children war victims in Herzegovina,
by year of death
17%
24%
42.24% 1941
4% 13% 1942
1943
1944
1945
∑ WV Children aged 14 and below as war victims in B&H, by year of death
1941‐45 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
212384 41515 (19,55%) 8676 19169 8957 3829 886
% from WV 41‐45100 20,90 46,17 21,58 9,22 2,13
61
According to ethnicity, 65.46% were Serb children (in the total number of
victims in this area Serbs account for 66.28%), 8.01% Croatian children
(13.44 Croats in the total number of victims), 25.01% Muslim children
(18.89% Muslims in the total number of victims) and 1.52% were children of
other ethnicities (the percentage of others in the total victims is 1.39%).
Children aged 14 and below as war victims in Bosnia and

Herzegovina, by year of death
45 42.24
Comparison of data for victims
40 37.52 of the 1941‐1945 war by year
35 of death: total/children
30
24.3
25
20 18.47 17.96
16.55
14.92
15 12.93
11.13
10
5
3.98
0
1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
Total Children
The highest death toll of children was in 1941, whose ratio was higher than
for the total victim count that year, and double the ratio of child casualties in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. The percentage of children war victims in the
observed area is significantly smaller than the total for Bosnia and
Herzegovina in 1942. For the rest of the war years, the percentages are quite
similar for both children casualties and total casualties in this area, as well as
for children casualties in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
62
50 46.17
Comparison of data on children
45 42.24 in B&H and the observed area,
40 by year of death
35
30
24.3
25 20.9 21.5
20 16.55
15 12.93
9.22
10
3.98
5 2.13
0
1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
B&H Observer area
Children war victims in Herzegovina, by perpetrators
Children war victims in
Herzegovina, by perpetrators
3.09% 19.37%
2.51%
Croatian troops
1.39%
Germans
10.96% Chetniks
62.68% Italians
Others
Unknown
63
The perpetrators were listed as Croatian troops for 62.68% of children

victims, while they are held responsible for 26.55% of the total victims;
Germans were listed for 3.09% of the children, opposed to 2.98% for total
victims; Chetniks were responsible for 19.37% of the deaths of children and
4.51% of the total victims; Italians were responsible for 2.51% of the deaths
of children and 1.25% for the total victims; other known perpetrators were
responsible for 1.39% children and 0.74% for total victims, and 10.96%
perpetrators were unknown for children, while the percentage is 63.97% for
total victims. What is notable for the 1964 Census for the observed area is
that the majority of perpetrators for children were listed, while for the total
victims the percentage of unknown perpetrators is significantly higher.
Comparison of war victims by perpetrators: total/children
70 62.68 63.97
60
50
40
30 26.55
19.37
20 10.96
10 3.09 4.51 2.51 1.…
2.98 1.25 0.74
0
CROATIAN GERMAN CHETNIKS ITALIANS OTHERS UNKNOWN
TROOPS
Total Children
VICTIMS OF THE 1941-1945 WAR, BORN IN THE AREA

OF HERZEGOVINA, OVER 60 YEARS OF AGE
Next to children, executions of the elderly during a war, i.e. persons who are
mostly not able to work or fight, as a rule represents a crime of genocide or a
war crime. The largest number of recorded fatalities among civilians in this
area were persons of working age (13,791 or 78.19%).
64
Herzegovina‐born war victims over 60 years of age52
∑ Chil‐ % of War victims over 60 % of
To‐
Born in ↓ dren ↓ ∑ war years of age ∑ war vic‐
No. tal→↓
victims tims
∑ Herzegovina 17,638 2,235 12.67 1,612 9.14
1 Bileća 1,574 225 14.29 124 7.88
2 Čapljina 2,189 447 20.42 186 8.50
3 Čitluk 89 2 2.25 1 1.12
4 Gacko 2,069 441 21.31 227 10.97
5 Grude 117 13 11.11 9 7.69
6 Jablanica 355 35 6.86 22 6.20
7 Konjic 1,000 131 13.10 71 7.10
8 Lištica 226 28 12.40 14 6.19
9 Ljubinje 574 67 11.67 24 8.71
10 Ljubuški 427 22 5.15 209 5.62
11 Mostar 2,719 197 7.25 132 7.69
12 Nevesinje 1,424 114 8.01 4 9.27
13 Posušje 134 13 9.70 70 2.98
14 Prozor 844 35 4.15 219 8.29
15 Stolac 1,686 299 17.73 250 12.99
16 Trebinje 2,211 166 7.51 24 11.31
60
50
48.32 Comparison of data for war victims:
Total/over 60 years of age
40 37.52
30
23.14
18.47 17.96
20 16.38 14.92
11.13
10
7.82
4.34
0
1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
Total Over 60 years of age
52
Comprising persons born in 1885 and killed in 1945, born in 1884 and killed between
1944 and 1945, born in 1883 and killed between 1943 and 1945, born in 1882 and killed
between 1942 and 1945, and all persons born in 1881 and earlier.
65
20000
17638
18000 Comparison of victims of
16000
the 1941‐1945 war by year of death:
total/victims over 60 years of age
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2235 1612
2000
Тotal war victims Children war victims Over 60 years of age
Comparison of data for war victims: Total/over 60 years of age
1612
Total
Over 60 years of age
17638
66
60
Comparison of victims of
48.32 the 1941‐1945 War according to
50
42.24 year of death: total/children/victims
40 37.52 over 60 years of age
30 24.3
18.47 23.14
16.55
17.96
20 16.38
14.92 12.93
11.13
10 7.82
4.34
3.98
0
1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
Total Children Over 60 year of age
In the observed area the number of war victims over 60 years of age is 1,612,
accounting for 9.14% of total victims. The highest rate of death was in 1941
– 48.32%, which is significantly higher than in total victims (35.53%),
although in total victims the same year has the highest rate of deaths as well.
Also, the percentage of victims in this category is higher than in total victims.
Although statistical methods in historiography may seem dehumanised, one
should bear in mind that each number represents one person, with all their
innermost feelings, troubles and joys of life, individual pasts and plans for the
future. And when that person is a child, then those plans for the future are as
immeasurable as the grief of their families, as well as of the nation.
67
SUMMARY
This analysis surveys the area of Herzegovina as comprising 16

municipalities, which span 9,616 sq. km, accounting for 18.78% of the area
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. 9.75% of the area of the NDH. The
municipalities analysed are: Bileća, Čapljina, Čitluk, Gacko, Grude,
Jablanica, Konjic, Lištica, Ljubinje, Ljubuški, Mostar, Nevesinje, Posušje,
Prozor, Stolac, and Trebinje. According to the 1931 Census, the population
of the observed area was 320,343 people, 30.67% of which were Orthodox
Christians, 45.80% were Roman Catholic, 23.43% were Muslims and 0.10%
was of other religions. According to demographic calculations in 1941, the
population of the observed area would be 384,412, which amounts to 6.12%
of the population of the NDH.
In this area a total of 17,638 fatalities were recorded, which is 8.30% of the
total recorded number of victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. 3.87% of
victims recorded in the NDH, and 4.59% (7.49% in Bosnia and Herzegovina)
of the estimated population of the observed area in 1941. The percentage of
victims born in the area of Herzegovina in relation to the estimated population
is lower than the average for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Analysis of victims in Herzegovina according to the various categories yields
the following results:
- by gender: 77.98% of the victims were male and 22.02% were female
(27.98% in Bosnia and Herzegovina); when only looking at children, 46.09%
were female, and 53.91% were male;
- by ethnicity: 66.28% of the victims were Serbs (who were 30.67% of the
population), 13.44% were Croats (45.80% of the population), 18.89% were
Muslims (23.43% of the population); in relation to the estimated number of
residents in 1941 the recorded victims account for 9.92% among the Serbs
(12.57% for Bosnia and Herzegovina), 1.35% for Croats (1.66% for Bosnia
and Herzegovina) and 3.70% for Muslims (3.64% for Bosnia and
Herzegovina), or if we are to look at the Croatian and Muslim population
together, since they together constituted the “Croatian political people” in the
NDH, i.e. were regarded as a single nation, then the recorded victims account
for 2.14% of the estimated population (2.57% for Bosnia and Herzegovina);
68
for children, 65.46% were Serb children, 8.01 were Croatian children and
25.01% Muslim children;
- relative to the total number of war victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina
according to year of death, this area is specific for having a significantly larger
percentage of casualties in the first year of the war – 37.52% victims in 16%
of the duration of the war, while the average for certain units of time was
more than double of the number of victims in the remaining period of the war;
nearly half of the lives of children (42.24%) perished in 1941;
- by perpetrators, Croatian troops take up 26.65%, Germans 2.98%, Chetniks
4.51%, Italians 1.25%, other known 0.74% and unknown 63.97%.; for
children victims the perpetrators were listed as Croatian troops for 62.68% of
the victims, Germans for 3.09%, Chetniks for 19.37%, Italians for 2.51%,
other known 1.39% and unknown 10.96%;
- by category: military victims 23.30%, civilian victims 76.70%; (state
institutions: camps, prisons, deportation and forced labour 12.20%, from
direct violence 50.70%, other causes 6.37%, other and unknown 7.43%); the
area of Herzegovina is characterised by a smaller share of the total category
of “state institutions” in the percentage of total victims and civilian victims
relative to the average for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also a significantly
higher percentage of victims of direct violence;
- by cause of death: 68.19% executed, 21.41% killed in action, 2.88% died
and 1.52% missing;
- by occupation, relative to the average in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
percentages in the observed area is larger in the categories of agricultural
workers, industrial workers, craftsmen, tradesmen and labourers, officials and
experts, and smaller in categories of dependants, unemployed people and
unknown; categories of agricultural workers and dependants account for
almost 2/3 of all victims;
Analysis of the suffering of children born in Herzegovina, according to the
extent to which the victims of the war have been recorded in the
aforementioned revision of the Census, shows that out of 17,638 casualties
there were 2,235 (12.67%) children up to 14 years of age, and out of 13,228
civilian victims children make up 16.90%.
Next to children, executions of the elderly during a war, i.e. persons who are
mostly not able to work or fight, as a rule represents a crime of genocide or a
war crime. In the observed area the number of war victims over 60 years of
age is 1,612, accounting for 9.14% of total victims. The highest rate of death
69
was in 1941 – 48.32%, which is significantly higher than in total victims

(35.53%).
Although statistical methods in historiography may seem dehumanised, one
should bear in mind that each number represents one person, with all its
innermost feelings, troubles and joys of life, individual pasts and plans for the
future. And when that person is a child, then those plans for the future are as
immeasurable as the grief of their families, as well as of the nation.
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74
Srboljub Živanović
CRIMES OF THE ROMAN

CATHOLIC “CHURCH” IN
HERZEGOVINA AGAINST
THE SERBS, JEWS AND
ROMA PEOPLE
Historical sources tell us that Herzegovina has always been an area of special
interest to the Roman Catholic “Church.” The majority of the population in
Herzegovina had been Serbs, of the Orthodox Christian religion, although a
portion of the population converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule and oc-
cupation. There were few Catholics, so the Roman Catholic “Church” had
been trying for centuries to convert the Serbs in some way, i.e. to catholicise
them and expand its influence. The prevailing idea was that if Serbs were to
accept Catholicism, they would eventually become Croats, loyal to Rome.
These politics of the Roman Catholic “Church” was particularly prominent
during the Austro-Hungarian occupation and subsequent annexation of Bos-
nia and Herzegovina, and most so during the World War I. Promptly after the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian
throne, the Roman Catholic “Church” and its bishops called upon the Mus-
lims and Croats to retaliate against Orthodox Serbs, to kill, torture, rob and
blame them for all sorts of affairs. There were crimes against Serbs in all
villages and towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A prominent role in spreading hatred towards Orthodox Serbs was that of the
monks in Catholic monasteries, friars and Jesuits, as well as various Catholic
activists. Roman Catholic schools, seminaries and organisations turned into
hubs of ethnic hatred towards Serbs. It would be too large a digression to
75
name all these monasteries, all the friars and Jesuits, as well as Roman Cath-
olic bishops, who had committed and enticed others to commit crimes against
Serbs. Unfortunately, in between the two world wars, first within the King-
dom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then within Yugoslavia, these crimes
of Roman Catholics, i.e. Croats, were not spoken of or written about, because
the state policy was to reconcile the criminals and their victims, who were
Orthodox Serbs. The authorities feared that the truth of the suffering of Serbs
by Roman Catholic Croats and Muslims could offend one of the three tribes
of the same people, as Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were then labelled. Alt-
hough Croatia and Slovenia lost the war, as integral parts of the Austro-Hun-
garian state, and Serbia was on the winning side, and although it was a well-
known fact that Croats and Slovenes as soldiers in the ranks of the Austro-
Hungarian army and occupying forces had committed numerous crimes in
Serbia, these facts were suppressed, they weren’t spoken of or written about,
because the Croats and Muslims had joined forces with Serbia and become
citizens of the same kingdom.
At the same time, the Roman Catholic “Church” continued to spread hatred
against Orthodox Serbs and to indoctrinate generations of future criminals
and slayers of Serbs, who would become prominent during WWII and the
Independent State of Croatia, which included Bosnia and Herzegovina. The
Roman Catholic “Church” continued to pave the way and train recruits for a
repeat of the slaughter, pillage, torture, rape and extermination primarily of
Serbs, as well as other non-Catholics, Jews and the Roma people. Although
the Roman Catholic “Church” in Herzegovina was detached from the author-
ity of Bosnian archbishops since as early as Pope Pius IX, i.e. since 1846, its
anti-Serbian politics had not changed. And in Herzegovina, the Franciscans
were also very prominent in spreading religious friction and antagonism to-
wards Orthodox Serbs and Jews. This is best evidenced in articles published
in Catholic press of the time. Franciscans, Jesuits and Catholic activists used
any occasion to belittle the Orthodox Church and what it stood for, constantly
insulted Orthodox priests and bishops and used any occasion to intensify all
sorts of feuds. The Franciscans from the Široki Brijeg Monastery near Mostar
and their activists, teachers from the Catholic Gymnasium, were the most per-
sistent in that dissemination of hatred against Serbs. They used any means
available to further religious and ethnic intolerance. At the same time, Ortho-
dox Serbs never harboured or displayed such intolerance or hatred towards
Catholic Croats nor Muslims. To Serbs they were brothers that followed a
“different law.” Many even felt sympathy towards Roman Catholics and
Franciscans. Some Croats were aware of the hostile activities of the Francis-
cans and Catholic priests in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. One of them was
76
Stjepan Radić, president of the Croatian Peasant Party, who served as Minis-
ter in the Government at the time. One time in 1926 he said: “I used to greatly
value the cultural and ethnic work of the Franciscans of Bosnia and Herze-
govina, only to be disappointed in the end and realise that they were dishonest
liars. All their ethnic and cultural work is nothing else but deception and mis-
direction of the people to make it easier for them to exploit the people. They
used and still use the church, pulpit and confessionals only for their lowly and
selfish purposes.”
When WWII broke out and Serbs were occupied by Germans, Bulgarians,
Hungarians, Italians, Albanians and Croats, and when the Independent State
of Croatia was proclaimed, the anti-Serbian rampage of the Roman Catholics
in Herzegovina boomed. The Roman Catholic “Church” in Herzegovina was
headed by an elderly bishop, Franciscan Alojzije Mišić, born in Velika
Gradiška. For 30 years he had lead the Roman Catholic “Church” in Herze-
govina before he died in 1942. As the bishop he was in the forefront of the
Roman Catholic clergy in hatred against the Orthodox Serbs. To him, Croa-
tia’s Poglavnik [head of state, now synonymous with Pavelić, t/n] Ante
Pavelić “was a model Catholic Christian.” In his newsletter no. 670, published
in Mostar, he glorified the Ustashas and the newly-established government in
Zagreb, and ordained that all Herzegovina’s Roman Catholic churches were
to hold Mass to honour the newly established Independent State of Croatia.
After he died, Franciscan bishop Alojzije Mišić was replaced by Jesuit Petar
Čule, who was recommended for the position by war criminals and Archbish-
ops Ivan Šarić and Alojzije Stepinac. Pope Pius XII, known collaborator to
German Nazis and Hitler, was among the first to support the dissolution of
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the occupation of Serbia and creation of the In-
dependent State of Croatia as a Civitas Dei or a Catholic State and he ap-
pointed Petar Čule, a known Ustasha as the bishop of Herzegovina. Regularly
travelling across Herzegovina, bishop Čule disseminated the Ustasha propa-
ganda, especially in Catholic centres of Ljubuški, Široki Brijeg, Čapljina and
other places. For his activities against Serbs, Jews and Roma people, Petar
Čule was dignified by the Poglavnik of the Croatian state, Ante Pavelić, who
stated that Čule was commended for spreading the Ustasha ideology, and was
awarded the Order of Merit, Grand Cross medal. From the very beginning of
the war, the Roman Catholic “Church” in Herzegovina, as well as in all other
parts of the Independent State of Croatia, performed forced conversion of Or-
thodox Serb population to Catholicism, although there were very few Catho-
lic Croats in Herzegovina. According to Zdravko Antonić, all Catholic priests
in Herzegovina performed forced conversion of Serbs to Catholicism. A spe-
cial prominence in these activities belonged to Don Ilija Tomas, friar Tugomir
77
Soldo, friar Viselko from Čapljina, Don Ante Bakula and many others. Cath-
olic priests ordered the newly baptised Serbs to attend holy mass regularly,
which many Serbs tried to escape under various excuses. The Orthodox Serbs
were forced to convert to Catholicism hoping to save their necks and avoid
death. Soon it turned out that conversion to Catholicism didn’t mean much,
as they were slaughtered by the Croats in 1941.
Armed Roman Catholic priests and other Croats and Ustashas demolished
Orthodox churches, seized and destroyed registers of births, marriages and
deaths, pillaged church treasures and were particularly cruel towards Ortho-
dox clergy. They terrorised innocent and helpless Serbs, tortured, raped, pil-
laged and murdered all Serbs, sparing not even small children, women, the
sick, or anyone else they got hold of. Special notoriety in committing crimes
in Mostar went to Leo Petrović, secretary of the Catholic bishop of Mostar,
who had a PhD. He personally led campaigns of slaughter, torture and rape
in various places in Herzegovina. He followed everywhere his chief, bishop
Petar Čule, who made a public statement that he was firmly supporting the
Ustasha regime and the Independent State of Croatia, and that “his task was
to be as forthcoming to the state authorities as possible and to be a loyal aide
to the masterpiece of the Independent State of Croatia, created by the Po-
glavnik.” That is why he was appointed to be the bishop of Mostar with the
“blessing of the Holy See and Poglavnik Ante Pavelić.” It is a known fact that
in the summer of 1943 he went to the Vatican to commend the Independent
State of Croatia and its leaders. That is why he was specially commended by
Pavelić. Full members of the Yugoslav government-in-exile in London were
also Roman Catholics, a Croat and a Slovene, Kraljević and Šutej. They tried
to prevent any mention of crimes committed by Roman Catholic Croats and
their Muslim aides in all of the Independent State of Croatia, including Her-
zegovina, against Orthodox Serbs, Jews and the Roma people.
At the same time, on behalf of the royal government, Minister Grol said in
his speech in March of 1942 in London, that “Yugoslavism is the only way
to go,” so in the name of that policy the crimes against Orthodox Serbs, Jews
and the Roma people were kept under the carpet, even though the royal gov-
ernment itself in London had already been in possession of a memorandum
from the Serbian Orthodox Church on the crimes being committed in the In-
dependent State of Croatia, on the slaughter, murders, tortures, raping and
pillaging of Serbs, about the extermination of the Orthodox clergy, destruc-
tion of churches etc. This memorandum was brought to London by Sekulić.
On the occasion, our great poet, diplomat and patriot from Herzegovina, who
is now buried here in Trebinje, Jovan Dučić, horrified by such politics from
78
the royal government-in-exile, sent a letter of protest on 27th March 1941 to

Radivoj Knežević, who was in the position to influence the government to an
extent, pointing out to him the unforgivable defectiveness of the royal gov-
ernment politics. In that letter Dučić says: “The Serb people have been de-
prived of a precious moment for Serbs to declare an ‘urbi et orbi’, in a distinc-
tive voice to be heard all over the world, that in our country 500,000 frail
children were slaughtered by a people that used to be our compatriots, who
are even today represented by their distinguished envoys, which is a precedent
in European history. This has cost us the respect of the Christian peoples. It
is both grievous and fatal for us that we have lost the right to use these crimes
as grounds to claim the right to arrange our own home in a different way.”
Today we are all quite aware of just how right Dučić was.
Immediately after the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Croats es-
tablished authority in Herzegovina. In Trebinje, the Ustasha Logornik [county
Ustasha garrison commander, t/n] was Muhamed Šaćir, a Muslim, who was
a dentist from Trebinje, and one of the members of the Ustasha command was
a Roman Catholic priest, Don Marijan Vujinović, who was the parish priest
of Trebinje. Mass murders of Serbs began as early as 31st May 1941. Serbs
were being robbed, tortured, raped and killed. A curfew had even been in-
stated for all Serbs. Don Marijan Vujinović promised Serbs that, if they were
to convert to Catholicism, they would not be persecuted and would be spared.
In Ljubinje, the Roman Catholic parish priest Jozo Zovko was especially
prominent in exterminating and catholicising Serbs.
In Mostar, Radoslav Glavaš, a teacher from the Franciscan Gymnasium in
Široki Brijeg, was the most notorious in torturing and exterminating Serbs.
In Konjic, the most notorious figures in the persecution, pillage, torture and
murders of Serbs were Tugomir Musa, Slavko Lubirdi and Nikola Ivanković.
On St. Vitus’ Day [Vidovdan, a major Serbian Orthodox holiday celebrated
on 28th June, t/n] Roman Catholic priests organised forced conversion of
Serbs to Catholicism, and the main protagonist was Nikola Ivanković.
The chief criminals in the Ljubuški County were Bono Jelavić from Vitina,
Simon Buntić, parish priest from Černo, Juro Vrdoljak, then Božo Čurlin,
Miloš Dane and others.
In Stolac, a prominent figure in the persecution and extermination of Serbs
was Marko Zovko, a Roman Catholic priest.
In Čapljina, among the organisers of the slaughter of Serbs were Don Ilija
Tomas, Tugomir Soldo and parish priest Niko Filipović.
79
The spiritual leader and organiser of the slaughter of Serbs in Gornje Hrasno
was Don Ante Bakula, a Roman Catholic priest.
In the Independent State of Croatia all military, i.e. Ustasha and National
Guard troops had Roman Catholic priests in their ranks, a chaplain who exe-
cuted and preached politics that was derived from the cooperation of the Ro-
man Catholic “Church” and Pope Pius XII with the state authorities of the
NDH. In that context all Roman Catholic priests in Croatia instigated reli-
gious hatred towards non-Catholics, i.e. towards Orthodox Serbs, Jews and
the Roma people, fighting to “convert” them to Catholicism or physically re-
moving them via torture, rape, starvation, slaughter and murders in various
ways. The criminal exploits of the Roman Catholic priests in Croatia were
fully supported by the Pope’s emissary to the NDH, Ramir Markone. The
chief army chaplain in Croatia was the war criminal, archbishop of genocide
from Zagreb, Alojzije Stepinac. The Vatican and Roman Catholic “Church”
worked closely with the Croatian Ustashas and influenced their criminal pol-
icies. The largest contribution in their cooperation with the Ustashas in their
operations against the Serbs, Jews and the Roma people came from Francis-
cans, especially those from Široki Brijeg in Herzegovina. Aside from the Ro-
man Catholic clergy, also very prominent figures in the massacre of Serbs,
Jews and the Roma people were the Catholic and laity organisations, such as
the Great Brotherhood of the Crusaders, the Great Sisterhood of the Crusad-
ers, the Eagles etc. All these organisations were inspired by the ideology
spread by Hans Ivan Merz, who has recently been beatified on the way to
becoming a Catholic saint by Pope John Paul II, no less than in the Petrićevac
monastery in Banja Luka where the Franciscans commenced the slaughter of
school children and adults in Banja Luka and the area. Many members of
these Crusaders organisations volunteered for the Eastern Front, to fight
alongside the Germans against the Russians. Some of them even received
high German decorations for their feats against the allies, such as Don Antun
Vajs. Also, Pavelić’s Croatian government decorated many Roman Catholic
priests who have excelled in crimes against Serbs, Jews and the Roma people,
such as Zvonimir Brekalo, decorated with the Order of the Crown of King
Zvonimir, Josip Bujanović, decorated with the Order of the Ante Pavelić Sil-
ver Bravery Medal, Berto Dragičević, decorated with the Military Order of
the Iron Trefoil, Dionisije Jurčev, decorated with the Order of the Ante
Pavelić Silver Bravery Medal, then Mijo Jagadar, Franjo Macenauer, Zvonko
Lipovac, Vjekoslav Simić, Ivan Hrstić, Marijan Majić and many others.
80
We must point out that the Roman Catholic “Church” and the Vatican had
never denounced the atrocities committed by its priests and high-ranking of-
ficials in Herzegovina, as well as all of the Independent State of Croatia.
After WWII ended, during Communist dictatorship, the wrongly founded pol-
itics were continued, but now under the new slogan of “brotherhood and
unity” of the Yugoslav peoples. The Vatican, i.e. the Roman Catholic
“Church,” made efforts for the crimes committed by Roman Catholic Croats
against Orthodox Serbs, Jews and Roma people to be concealed and over time
lessened and forgotten. This is why nobody spoke of these crimes in Tito’s
Yugoslavia. Nobody officially talked about them, and the individuals that
spoke out would be swiftly silenced. Croatian crimes were ascribed to abstract
fascists, who had never existed in Croatia. Memorials to victims were filled
with writings how these were “victims of fascism.” No one dared mention
that the slayers and murderers had been Croats and Muslims. The fact that
many of the killers with blood on their hands had been Roman Catholic priests
was completely ignored. According to American sources, 1,400 Roman Cath-
olic priests in the NDH personally took part in the slaughter and torture of
Serbs, the rape of women and girls, including little girls, the pillage and forced
conversion of Serb victims to Catholicism. Now we can find published doc-
uments on the cooperation of Josip Broz Tito with the Vatican, aimed at sup-
pressing Serbs, about Tito’s cooperation with the Roman Catholic “Church”
and the Ustashas in Croatia. Many crimes against Orthodox Serbs had been
ascribed exclusively to Croatian Ustashas, and it is now known that crimes
had been committed by everyone in Croatia, the government and parliament
who passed the most hideous racist laws that outlawed Serbs and Jews, de-
clared “undesirable elements” whom any Croats could kill, rob, rape, torture
or do whatever else they pleased, without having to answer for it to anyone.
Serbs, Jews and dogs were banned from inns and public places. They were
made to walk on the road like animals and not on the sidewalk, they were
marked with ribbons etc. It is known that Roman Catholic peasants used to
kill their Serb neighbours in order to take their crops, tools, houses etc. Crimes
were also being committed by intellectuals, pupils and students, in one word,
practically all Croats, and the Muslims that had joined them. Various Catholic
organisations such as Crusaders, Catholic Action, Assembly of Spiritual
Youth and others were especially notorious in their crimes. Nuns were very
notorious in torturing and killing small Serb children. Roman Catholic priests,
who themselves personally killed, slaughtered, tortured, robbed and raped
Serbs, publicly called upon the Croatian people to kill and exterminate all
non-Catholics, i.e. Serbs, Jews and the Roma people. All this was well-known
to Communist authorities in post-war Yugoslavia, but no one dared do or say
81
anything about the crimes committed by the Croats. According to the writing
of Partisan general Pavle Jakšić, it was the Croatian communist principal Vla-
dimir Bakarić himself, Tito’s right-hand man, who suppressed any attempt of
speaking about the slaughter of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia,
about the Jasenovac system of Croatian camps for the extermination of Serbs,
Jews and Roma people. Thanks to him the entire Jasenovac camp complex
was levelled to the ground, all facilities removed and all traces of this place
of torture destroyed. The Jasenovac camp itself kept running, being used for
killing Serbs for another six months after Belgrade was liberated. This camp
had never been liberated and conquered, but the Croats withdrew from the
camp without combat at the end of the war.
A small number of Roman Catholic priests, criminals and notorious killers
were put to trial after WWII. It was those priests whose crimes had been too
obvious and could not be ignored. Some of these priests had kept journals
where they noted down all the crimes against Serbs they had committed,
which women or girls they had raped, places where they had done it, and
places where they had killed them afterwards. These journals were preserved
and delivered to investigators. Some Roman Catholic priests had sent letters,
which were later captured, to ministers in the government of the Independent
State of Croatia, in which they lauded their criminal work, hoping to get dec-
orations.
And so the genocide policy against Serbs continued after the so-called liber-
ation in the form of forced relocation of Serbs from western areas eastward,
to Vojvodina, with the aim to genetically and economically weaken Serbs in
Bosnia, Herzegovina, Banija, Lika etc., i.e. to reduce their numbers in the
western areas. After relocating to flatlands, these highland people soon started
to dwindle on a mass scale.
All institutions of the Roman Catholic “Church” in Herzegovina, as well as
in all of Croatia, were still the seminaries of Ustasha ideologies that produced
slayers of Serbs, Jews and the Roma people, trained rapists, torturers and pil-
lagers that committed numerous crimes in the Independent State of Croatia.
These institutions included Catholic gymnasiums in Sinj, Široki Brijeg,
Travnik and Visoko, seminaries in Mostar, Makarska etc. Of course, they also
included the Faculty of Theology of the Zagreb University. Široki Brijeg
Monastery, with its Catholic gymnasium and Catholic church, was a hub
wherefrom friars spread death in all directions, says Viktor Novak in his book
“Magnum Crimen.” Tugomir Soldo from Široki Brijeg was a member of the
Committee for the extermination of Serbs, and as such in his sermons in his
82
church he called upon Catholic Croats to mercilessly kill Serbs, and he him-
self led a group that massacred over 600 women and children and dumped
their bodies into the Šurmanci pit cave.
The Roman Catholic “Church” and the Vatican have never denounced the
criminal activities of Herzegovina’s bishops and their open cooperation with
Croatian slayers, murderers, rapists, robbers and torturers who had committed
heinous crimes against Orthodox Serbs, Jews and the Roma people. None of
them lost their positions in the Roman Catholic “Church.” At the same time
the bishops, Franciscans, Jesuits and Catholic activists had never denied their
affiliations, cooperation or associations with the Croatian Ustashas. At his
post-WWII trial the bishop of Mostar, Petar Čule, openly stated that he had
always considered himself a subject of the Independent State of Croatia and
that he had agreed with the Ustasha politics.
References
Antonić, Z., Dokumenta o genocidu nad Srbima u Bosni i Hercegovini, Akademija

nauka i umjetnosti Republike Srpske, Banja Luka i Srpsko Sarajevo, 2001.
Novak, V., Magnum Crimen, Nakladni zavod Hrvatske, Zagreb, 1948.
Lukajić, L., Fratri i ustaše kolju, Fond za istraživanje genocida, Beograd, 2005.
Opačić, P., Skoko, S., Rakić, R., Đurđić, M., Genocid nad Srbima u dvadesetom
veku, Grafopublik, Beograd, 1992.
Simić, S., Hercegovački biskupi za vreme okupacije Jugoslavije, Kultura, Beograd,
1990.
Strnjaković, D, Najveći zločini sadašnjice, Dečje novine, Jedinstvo, Gornji
Milanovac, 1991.
83
Savo Skoko, PhD
GENOCIDE CRIMES OF
THE INDEPENDENT STATE
OF CROATIA AND THE
GERMAN AGRESSOR IN
GACKO FROM 1941 TO
19441
Hasty Ustasha preparations for genocide against the Serbs of
Gacko
The Ustasha regime was established in Gacko on 24th May 1941. On that day
in May the Ustasha commissioner Alija Šuljak formed a ceremonial proces-
sion of Muslims and several Croats who, under fascist flags, went from one
county office to another, promptly replacing officials of the previous govern-
ment with new ones, Ustasha officials, exclusively Muslims and Croats. The
establishment of Ustasha authority was met with a euphoric joy on the part of
the Muslims, who had swarmed in from the surrounding villages and into the
“Metohija,” so much that all you could see were their red fezzes.
Three days upon the establishment of the Ustasha rule, the Ustasha commis-
sioner Herman Togonal, failed student of veterinary medicine from Travnik,
came to Gacko along with 15 Ustashas of West Herzegovina, who were led
1
Text taken from the following books: Savo Skoko, Krvavo kolo hercegovačko, I-II, Beo-
grad – Pale 2000 and Savo Skoko, Čitulja žrtava ustaško-nacističkog genocida u gatačkom
kraju 1941-1944, Beograd 2006. The text was abridged and adapted for the needs of these
proceedings by Draga Mastilović, MA. Considering the limited capacity of this paper, only
some names of genocide victims were listed, and interested readers can find the full list in
the aforementioned books by Sava Skoka, PhD.
85
by Josip Gambač from Široki Brijeg. At the beginning, their activities were
aimed at arming and mobilising Muslim youths to the NDH armed formations
(Croatian Home Guard, Ustasha Militia and Gendarmerie), but primarily to
rogue Ustasha squads, whose task was the ethnic cleansing of the eastern parts
of Herzegovina from the “Vlach barbarians.” For these purposes, they built
the Ustasha county garrison in Gacko and Ustasha municipal garrisons at
Kula Fazlagića, Gacko and Borač. Hasan Čustović, who had up to then been
manager of the Gacko Post Office, was appointed county garrison com-
mander, Džemo Tanović municipal garrison commander at Kula Fazlagića,
and Meho Salčin municipal garrison commaned at Borač.
Promptly after covering the area of Gacko with a network of armed outposts
and forming rogue Ustasha teams and squads, the Ustasha Advisory Board,
made up of Hasan Čustović, Smajo Dilić, Mahmut Čampara, Džemo Tanović,
Josip Rom, Ivo Rilović, Mustafa Mumo Hasanbegović and Omer
Kapetanović, called an assembly of all newly-appointed Ustasha officials and
notable citizens, some of whom were Serbs, on 2nd June at the Gacko hotel,
to present the directives of the Ustasha Main Headquarters and the corre-
sponding tasks given to the local Ustasha officials. The key speaker at the
assembly was Ustasha commissioner Herman Togonal. He pointed out that it
was an opportunity to restore all the lands and privileges that had been taken
away from them when the Ottoman empire dwindled, promised to appoint
more Muslims to public service, primarily to various armed formations, an-
nounced construction of mosques in Kazanci and Korita, called Muslims
“Croatian flowers,” assured everybody present of the invincibility of Nazi
Germany and fascist Italy, and concluded that the Muslims of Gacko them-
selves were to remove the main obstacle to their prosperous future – the Serbs
– and exclaimed ecstatically: “A last bullet for the last Serb!” This ludicrous
exclamation was opposed only by old man Hamid Kurtović, having said that
the Serbs and Muslims of Gacko had “always paid dearly for the mutual con-
flicts they were always pushed into and that they shouldn’t repeat their mis-
takes this time!” Unfortunately, old Hamid’s words of reason were lost in the
hysterical sabre-rattling of the Ustasha officials, who had been informed that
the first wave of Ustasha genocide against the Serbs of Herzegovina had be-
gun the previous day with murders of innocent people in Mostar, Trebinje,
Nevesinje, and even Gacko. Namely, in the middle of the night between 1st
and 2nd June, i.e. on the eve of the assembly, Togonal and his entourage
stormed the house of Blagoje Šarović in the village of Stepen, woke up the
residents and, while a part of his entourage was battering Blagoje and his
wife, the rest of them were searching the house supposedly for weapons and
military equipment. Having found no such items, they planted several rifle
86
bullets in a chest and showed them to Togonal. He immediately drew his pis-
tol and shot Blagoje, who had already beaten almost to death, right there in
his house in front of his whole stunned and bewildered family. On the same
night, three men from the Jakšić family were arrested – Luka, Kosta and
Trivko – chained and herded to Gacko. Their house was first pillaged. On the
morning of that day in the village of Korita, three Svorcan brothers were ar-
rested – Milovan, Andrija and Radule, along with Vukota Jakšić. In the vil-
lage of Pržine, the traditional folk singer Radovan Šarović was arrested and
taken to the county prison in Gacko. Beside him, Filip Starović, chairman of
Gacko’s Salonika Volunteer Association, was also arrested and taken to the
infamous Jasenovac concentration camp, where he was later executed.
Bestial orgies of the Muslims of Gacko in the village of Korita
The village of Korita lies on the border between Herzegovina and Montene-
gro, scattered across several hamlets on both sides of the road that runs from
Gacko to Bileća, from Kobilja Glava to Panike. Being closely connected to
Oputna Rudina and Banjani, Korita represented a corridor that Serbs from
Herzegovina used to use to get away from Ottoman and German aggressors,
to seek refuge with their brothers in Montenegro. The Ustasha high command
knew this very well and decided to close that corridor promptly after occupy-
ing Eastern Herzegovina by completely destroying the village of Korita.
Immediately after establishing Ustasha authority in Gacko, they quickly sent
to Korita a squad of around 30 men from the Čustovići, Škaljići, Mehići,
Redžići, Tanovići, Fazlagići, Brkovići and Hebib families, commanded by
Muharem Glavinić, an imam from the village of Ključ. His squad, upon arri-
val to Korita, set up a base at the local Falcon Hall and school and immedi-
ately showed the local people that the Ottoman gendarmes, who had kept forts
in Korita, Kobilja glava and Panik up to 26th August 1875, had been angels
compared to them. Several of them stormed the inn and shop of Milija and
Golub Bjelica and posted an order on the front door that the proprietors
weren’t allowed to serve alcohol to anyone but them, and took away any val-
uable goods from the store. Another group robbed the Procurement and Sales
Cooperative, and another one stormed Todor Svorcan’s sheep pen, picked out
several rams and herded them away.
A vast majority of adult people were oblivious to the misfortune that knocked
on the door of every Serb home that morning, even when the Ustasha patrols
spread across the hamlets of Korita, summoning all male persons over the age
87
of 15 to urgently report to the Falcon Home, allegedly to collect their new ID

cards and receive orders from the new Ustasha authorities. They were sum-
moned under the threat that the families of those who do not comply would
be deported to concentration camps in Italy and Germany. All men that were
found at home were arrested by the patrols and driven to the gathering point
which was at the Falcon Home. All the villagers of Korita who were arrested
– 125 of them, were packed into the grand hall of the Falcon Home, where
they spent 2nd, 3rd and 4th June and two sleepless nights. During that time,
the Ustashas brought in reinforcements and prepared the slaughter. It was
very easy for them to assemble over 200 volunteers for the execution of the
slaughter, from Gacko, Gračanica, Avtovac and Fazlagića Kula, mainly
youths 18 to 23 years old, drawn by the prospect of pillaging Serbs and join-
ing well-paying Croatian armed forces, primarily in the Gendarmerie and Mi-
litia. The prisoners of Korita were deeply disturbed when on Wednesday, 4th
June they noticed trucks coming from Gacko, full of Ustasha devils. One of
the prisoners observed what was happening outside through a hole in the side
door. He saw the newcomers lining up in front of the Falcon Home, and being
read the Ustasha oath by one of the commanders. The youths were holding
their left hands on their chests and repeating the words of the oath. Having
taken the oath, the Ustashas of Gacko hurried to demonstrate their loyalty and
affiliation to the new state, which demanded of them to cleanse its yet indis-
tinct eastern border with blood and steel. One group of heavily armed perpe-
trators stormed into the grand hall of the Falcon Home and first ordered the
prisoners to crowd into one corner of the hall, and then brought out one group
at a time of the exhausted, hungry and thirsty men into a separate room, where
there was another group of slayers, armed with reels of annealed wire, rope,
iron poles, knives and other utensils for torturing and killing the martyrs of
Korita. The third group were: Muharem Glavinić, Husein Čustović, Omer Ta-
nović, Dervo Čustović, Alil Pašić, Arif (Alil) Tanović, Zulfo Mehić, Aziz
Tanović and Rašid Pašić. The leader of this group was Šerif Zvizdić-Galavić
from Gacko. First they tied each prisoner’s hands individually behind their
backs, and then tied two or three of them together, back to back. Then they
were all, without exception, brutally beaten and tortured. As soon as the night
came, the Ustasha criminals loaded the tied men in groups into Mumo Ha-
sanbegović’s truck from Avtovci and drove them to the Golubinka pit cave at
Kobilja glava and killed them there, mainly with blunt objects, and pushed
them down into the 26 metre deep pit. From 9 p.m. on 4th June to 5 a.m. on
5th June the truck had transported all the arrested men of Korita in seven
rounds to the execution site. In total, they transported 125 prisoners from the
village of Korita, Zagraci and some other villages – Bjelice, Glušci, Nosovići,
88
Rogači, Svorcani, Milovići, Starovići, Šakote, Trklje, Radani and Šarovići.

They were all tortured and humiliated in various ways at the edge of the pit,
and then thrown into it. Only Jakov Milović managed to escape, owing to an
amazingly brave act of resistance to the perpetrators by a twelve-year-old boy
named Kosta Glušac. After Jakov Milović had escaped, the perpetrators con-
tinued their blood bath with more caution. They did not waste time taking
clothes off their victims at the edge of the pit, but killed them straight away,
sometimes even with firearms. The murderers pushed in a pile of rocks after
each group of victims.
Only eight men survived the hell of the Korita pit cave – Dušan and Aćim
Jakšić, Radovan Šakota, Rade Svorcan, Vidak and Vlado Glušac, Obren No-
sović and Milija Bjelica. Some of them had been stabbed with bayonets, oth-
ers were more or less seriously wounded, and some were unharmed. On the
next day, 5th June, when the Ustashas from Kula were herding their cattle to
Kula Fazlagića down the road that passed by the pit, they noticed Aćim Jakšić
trying to get out of the pit-grave. They lowered a rope to him to get him out
and finish him off, but instead of grabbing hold of it he jumped back in so
they threw three highly powerful hand grenades in after him that caused more
or less severe injuries to many of the victims who had survived the previous
night’s massacre, or were even killed by the detonations. In spite of that, in
the night between 5th and 6th June, Dušan Jakšić and Obrad Šakota managed
to crawl out of the pit cave, reach the nearby Montenegrin village of Crkvica
and inform its residents of the tragedy of the Korita village. Thanks to that, a
group of armed men (from the Mićunović, Musić and Kurdulija families) ex-
tract the eight aforementioned surviving martyrs from the pit cave. It should
also be mentioned that a man named Vidak Glušac died right before the ex-
traction.
The remaining men of Korita, who had been left locked up in the local ele-
mentary school, were killed on the morning of 5th June, on the road near the
school, and two of them were killed at about two kilometres away from the
school on the road to Bileća. These men had been used by the perpetrators as
moving targets for training their youths in rifle and machine gun shooting.
They would bring two men tied together out onto the road and order them to
go down the road to Bileća. When they would get to a distance of 30 to 50
metres, the murderers shot them in the back. Since some of them were inex-
perienced in shooting rifles, let alone machine guns, two of the prisoners –
Dušan and Milovan Milošević – survived this crime.
89
On the same day at Kobilja glava six members of the Milović family from the
village of Zagraci were killed. They had escaped into the forest and the Usta-
shas did not catch them with the first group of the Milović family, who were
herded to Korita and thrown into the Korita pit cave. However, they were told
that the runaway Milović men were to report immediately to the Gendarmerie
outpost in Stepen and that nothing bad was to happen to them in that case.
Falling for the deception, the nine Milović men headed on the morning of 5th
June to the neighbouring Muslim village of Ključ, hoping that the Muslims
there would help them and protect them from unpleasant surprises.
And so, during 4th and 5th June 1941, 132 Serbs from the villages of Korita,
Zagraci, Pržine, Cernice, Hodžići and Nemanjice were brutally killed by their
neighbours, the Muslims of Gacko. Apart from the ones we have listed here,
according to the report from the State Commission to Investigate Crimes
Committed by Nazis and their Allies, another 50 men were thrown into the
Korita pit cave, out of whom only Nikola Šarović was identified. Some of
them were youths from Bosnia, who had come to Gacko to look for the horses
that the Yugoslav army had seized during the April War mobilisation.
Use your stocks, waste not ammunition
The Serb population, aided by fighters from the bordering Montenegrin vil-
lages, responded to the heinous Ustasha crimes in the village of Korita by
attacking the Croatian Gendarmerie station east of the Avtovac-Korita road,
and as early as 6th June they occupied the Gendarmerie outpost in Brljevo
(Kazanka), and on the next day, 7th June, the Gendarmerie outposts in Stepen
and Jasenik.2 That day, the surprised Ustashas arrested almost all Serbs from
Gacko, Avtovci, the village of Miholjače, as well as individuals from other
villages of Gacko that they could get their hands on. A total of 200 people
were arrested and imprisoned in the county prison and county court in Gacko,
as well as the municipal prison in Avtovac. As previously mentioned, on 9th
June Nevesinje and Gacko were visited by the Ustasha commissioner for Bos-
nia and Herzegovina, Jure Francetić, who issued orders to execute 20 of the
most notable and respected captives from each of the two prisons in Nevesinje
and Gacko, because of the armed resistance that the people of these counties
put up to the Ustasha slayers. The list of ten of the most respected captives
2
Considering that the topic of this paper is limited only to Ustasha crimes of genocide in
the area of Gacko, the June uprising of the Serbs of Gacko was not elaborated here in any
more detail.
90
from the Gacko prison was compiled by Mahmut Čampara, who was the
Ustasha Logornik at the time. The chosen ones were brought out of the prison
around noon, loaded into a truck and transported to Stepen via Avtovci. There
they were thrown out of the truck, which returned to Avtovac to load ten more
captives from its prison and bring them to Stepen. From there the whole group
was taken to a clearing between Stepen and the Muslim village of Međulići.
“There were a few Ustasha perpetrators waiting for us there” – writes priest
Novak Mastilović, the only one of the twenty captives to survive the massacre
– “maybe a dozen of them. As the bus was rushing towards Pavlić (the name
of the pasture the Ustashas chose as the place of execution), the leader of this
Ustasha gang suddenly yelled: ‘Get the machine gun, get the rifles, we’re un-
der attack!’ The driver halted the bus so that the Ustashas around him could
get into position and open fire towards the Mount Somina … It was clear to
us from the start that it was too cheap a trick, but we could provide no re-
sistance. At the door of the bus the Ustashas turned around, pointed their guns
at us and ordered us to get out. The first one to get out was Jovan Lojović, an
old man of 75. At the very door he was hit so hard with the stock of a rifle
that his head was smashed to pieces; the old man collapsed into the canal,
while his brain was splattered on the clearing. Having seen how terribly the
innocent men were being killed, we all rushed towards the exit, wanting to go
to our deaths as soon as possible. I was the sixteenth or seventeenth to get out;
I can tell by the position of my seat on the bus. Since there was no way of
running away, I decided to try and deceive them, pretending to be dead. So I
didn’t get out down the steps, as my friends had, but when I got quite close to
the door I jumped amid my dead friends and stayed there motionless. While
I had still been on the bus I watched the Ustashas abuse my dead friends; they
smashed the heads of all of those who had been shot down with their rifle
stocks. I didn’t suffer any serious injury when I jumped. As soon as I was
among the dead bodies I heard the leader of this Ustasha gang command:
‘Strike them with your stocks, don’t waste ammunition.’ Once the whole
group had been murdered a new command was heard: ‘Give each of them
another bullet’, followed by individual gun shots. They shot the corpses in the
head one by one, and when they reached me someone said: ‘This one has
already got it in the head.’ I was saved by an incredible coincidence; an entire
lump of brain from one of the men who were killed after I got out ended up
on my head, so the murderers thought it was my brains.”
The corpses of the murdered Gacko men remained unburied for two days, as
an example to the rebellious locals, on the one hand, and an insurmountable
gap that separated the Serbs and Muslims of Gacko on the other hand, only
to be hauled away and thrown into the Golubinka pit cave at Kobilja glava.
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The exact number of people who were dumped into the pit at Korita has never
been determined. A deposition by Mahmut Tunović, one of the participants
of the crime, stated that a total of 186 people were thrown into that pit.
The Crystal Night of Gacko
After going through a severe clash with rebels on 23rd June 1941 and fleeing
their positions at the village of Pržina, Ustasha criminals retaliated against
helpless Serb population at Zborna Gomila. The Ustashas of West Herze-
govina lead a group of men from that village (they left the women and chil-
dren to the Ustashas of Kula) to Avtovac, and added to them several captives
of the Avtovac prison and archpriest Vidak Višnjevac, who had been brought
in from Gacko. The priest was 70 years old. His arrest came as a surprise to
everyone, because of the well-known fact that during the interregnum in
1918, as chairman of the People’s Council in Gacko, he played a prominent
role in defending the Gacko Muslims from komitadji [a member of a guerrilla
band in Macedonia or the Balkan countries, t/n] groups from Montenegro.
Instead of gratitude, among the Muslims of Gacko were such people (Mahmut
Čampara, for instance) who would bring the seriously ill priest out of his
home on 23rd June, throw him in a car and drive him to Avtovac to be exe-
cuted. Upon arrival to Avtovac he was handed to the Ustashas that had fled
their positions at Pržina, who gravely tortured and abused him. Witnesses said
that his hair and beard was doused in oil and gas, and then burned! He was
killed at the Avtovac cattle market along with 13 other prisoners and thrown
into the cesspit of an Austro-Hungarian army camp, all previously brutally
tortured, just like the priest. On that horrible night in Avtovac, nine Serbs
from Gacko were murdered in this picturesque small town on the Mušnica
river. On the same night 28 captives were transported from the Avtovac
prison to Nevesinje, where they were butchered and buried in pit no. 6 at the
Nevesinje army camp. All these completely innocent men had previously
been brutally tortured and abused, and then bludgeoned to death with blunt
objects.
A special chapter in the grim stories of Gacko’s history is the monstrous de-
struction of the families of Vule Bjelogrlić and Mitar Govedarica in the vil-
lage of Vrbici near Gacko. Since he failed to take revenge on the Bjelogrlić
family on 7th June for the deaths of Adem and Arif Tanović in Lipnik, the
mayor of the Avtovac municipality Džemo Tanović tried to use the presence
of West Herzegovina Ustashas to have his way. But since the murderers and
arsonists from West Herzegovina did not feel like going somewhere where
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they could get killed, the only thing Džemo Tanović could do was to take
revenge on the helpless families of Vule Bjelogrlić and Mitar Govedarica,
who lived in the village of Vrbica, right under the noses of Ustasha garrisons
in Gacko and Avtovac. He gave this assignment to Halid Voloder, a coach-
man who used to serve Mumo Hasanbegović before the war, the most blood-
thirsty Ustasha thug not only in Gacko, but possibly in the entire Bosnia and
Herzegovina. This monster and a group of those Muslim youths who had got
their hands bloody up to the elbows at the Korita pit cave came in the evening
of 23rd June to the village of Vrbica, closed the families of Vule Bjelogrlić
and Mitar Govedarica into their houses, barricaded the front door, and then
doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. Twenty people were burned
alive. Milan Šolaja, the next-door neighbour of these families, gave a state-
ment to the Gacko court on 11th August 1951, saying that he had arrived in
Vrbica on 24th June and witnessed a terrible sight: “The corpse of Vule
Bjelogrlić,” says he, “was on its back, holding two children in each arm, while
the entire family of Mitar Govedarica was huddled against the wall.” The
stenographic notes of the PLW fighters state that the slaughter in Vrbica was
survived by two young and remarkably beautiful girls – Nada Bjelogrlić and
Boba Govedarica. They were taken to Kula Fazlagića, where they were raped
and abused and ultimately slaughtered and thrown in one of the local infa-
mous pit caves, tombs of the Serb population that had lived in Kula Fazlagića.
That is how Džemo Tanović cowardly avenged his father Arif, an infamous
Austro-Hungarian Schutzkorps militiaman, by slaughtering Vule Bjelogrlić’s
and Mitar Govedarica’s innocent children.
After their inglorious return from Stepen and Pržine to Gacko, the Ustashas
of West Herzegovina and Gacko “heroically” lashed out on peaceful citizens
of this small town where Serbs and Muslims had coexisted for centuries. In
the night between 23rd and 24th June, they arrested all Serbs over the age of
15. An authentic period document states that these prisoners were “most bru-
tally tortured, murdered with mallets, jemmies and pickaxes, strangled with
wire, thrown into pit caves on the brink of death and burned alive.” Major
Franjo Sudar’s Ustashas were the fiercest in these blood orgies, while the lo-
cal Ustashas, except for a few individuals, were holding lanterns for them and
stood by as the carnage went on. However, some of them were competing
with the “Ljubuški boys” as to who can kill their victim in the most gruesome
way. Hence, for example, Avdo Zvizdić struck Spasoje Bukvić, a respected
tradesman and one of the men who had been charged for high treason in Banja
Luka in 1915/16, so violently with a pickaxe in the head that his hat was
driven deep into his brain and was taken out only during the exhumation of
the victims in the Gacko “Garbunište” on 20th October 1941. Further, on the
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night between 23rd and 24th June 1941 in the Gacko court prison, 18 notable
citizens of Gacko were brutally killed and buried in the Gacko “Garbunište”
( a coal mine). Their mutilated corpses were transported in Šerif Zvizdić-
Galavić’s car from the prison to the “Garbunište” and buried there, even those
who were still hanging on to their lives. The exhumation of the corpses of the
aforementioned captives was performed on 20th October 1941, with the au-
thorisation of the Italian general Alessandro Luzano.
The Ustasha monsters violated not only the property of the men they had ar-
rested but also their wives and sisters. Spiritual genocide should also be added
to these morbid crimes. The wife of the district governor in Gacko, Anka
Rom, launched an intensive Proselyte campaign among the mothers and
wives of the arrested or already murdered Serbs, promising them that all the
prisoners whose families convert to Catholicism would be released immedi-
ately. It should be noted that this campaign did not advance in Gacko, because
it was interrupted by the June uprising of the Serbs of Herzegovina.
The brutal ethnic cleansing of Kula Fazlagića
Having suffered defeat at the village of Pržine, the Ustashas from West Her-
zegovina headed for Avtovac and Gacko and committed the crimes described
in the previous chapter, while the Ustashas of Kula began their bloody oper-
ation of ethnic cleansing of the Kula Fazlagića area. On that horrid June night,
they arrested all Serbs living in Zborna Gomila and the nearby village of Ha-
bule, namely the Popović, Zlatanić, Vukotić,3 Boljanović and Nikolić fami-
lies. All these families were locked up in their barns and cabins on 23rd June
and placed under guard. Inside their houses the Ustasha criminals from Kula
had their way with the women. During the whole night and the next day they
brutally tortured and abused these innocent people in various uncivilised
ways, raped all the young girls and women and looted their property. No one
can deny that the bestial slaughter of Serbs in the Gacko County were com-
mitted neither by Jure Francetić, nor Franjo Sudar, nor Herman Togonal, with
their Ustashas brought from the side, but primarily by the Muslims from Kula
Fazlagića! The aforementioned Ustasha officials only encouraged them to this
3
Savo Skoko’s book Čitulja žrtava ustaško-nacističkog genocida u gatačkom kraju 1941-
1944 lists in two places the Vukotić surname, as victims of the Ustasha slaughter of Serbs
in Kula Fazlagića, but the list of victims of that slaughter contains the surname Vuković,
meaning Radojka Vuković, an 18 year-old-girl and Milica Vuković of unknown age and re-
lation to the aforementioned Radojka.
94
insanity. On 24th June 1941 they (the Ustashas of Kula) transported the entire
Serb population of Zborna Gomila to the BuKovač precipice and threw each
and every one of them into the infamous Hadž pit cave: from the two-year-
old girl, Slavojka Popović, to the aged housewife, Mara Zlatanić! Not a single
Ustasha from elsewhere took part in this crime!
On the same day when the people from Zborna Gomila were killed, all nine
members of Todor Nikolić’s family were also killed. They had lived in the
village of Habule in Kula Fazlagića. Dervo Čustović, along with Smail Ta-
nović and a few other butchers from Kula, on the night between 24th and 25th
June, threw Todor’s entire family into the Čavča pit cave, near the village of
Drugovići in Kula Fazlagića. Their cattle and property that had any value was
looted and vandalised, and their houses were left gaping eerily, to remind the
Muslims of Habule that up to 24th June 1941 their good neighbour Todor
Nikolić’s family had lived there.
On that fateful night the last remaining Serb families that lived in Kula
Fazlagića were slaughtered – the families of Špiro and Piljo Boljanović. At
the break of dusk a group of horsemen appeared, made up of known butchers
of Kula: Smajil Tanović, Salko Vukotić, Zejnil Sukić, Derviš Sukić, Rašid
Brković, Abid Zekić and Dervo Čustović. They stopped at Piljo’s house
(Špiro had been killed on Pavlić near Stepen), entered the house and told the
frightened man of the house to gather all his cattle and family members, to be
transported to the Serb villages on the north-east edge of the Gacko plains.
He was also told that he should show his gratitude for the service they would
be doing to him by preparing them a good dinner. When they had filled their
bellies with cooked mutton and maize porridge, the perpetrators tied their
hospitable hosts with wire, two by two, drove them to the precipice of the
Mušnica river, brutally killed them there and threw them into the Ćućina pit
cave. By shear accident, Piljo’s sixteen-year-old daughter Milica and eleven-
year-old son Rade survived the slaughter. Whether Milica was intentionally
thrown in alive, or had the executioner, since it was a dark night, missed and
thrown her in alive, is not known, but her grim fate is. On the next day, 25th
June, Ustasha patrols spotted her and took her to a stone house between the
villages of Bašići and Drugovići. She was caught by one of the most blood-
thirsty Ustashas from Kula – Dedan Bašić, who took her to the Mušnica river
precipice and threw her again into the Ćaćina pit cave. Her brother Rade fared
better. When he had been brought to the edge of the precipice, tied to his
father Piljo, they were shot point blank. The bullet that was meant for Rade
pierced his school hat, cut through the cord of his sunshade, but missed the
head. His next lucky break was when he and Piljo were pushed into the pit
cave, because they stopped on a protrusion near the top of the pit. When the
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villains left the precipice, yelling and singing in exaltation, little Rade man-
aged to snap off the wire around his hands and break free from that hell hole
and survive the horrible tragedy of his family and the Second World War.
After slaughtering the Boljanović brothers’ families, the murderers looted
their properties.
This is how Kula Fazlagića was brutally ethnically cleansed, by slaughtering
the entire Serb population that used to live in that area – the Popović, Zlatanić,
Vukotić and Boljanović families. They were all slaughtered, from infants to
the weak elderly. The only to survive, as we have seen, was the eleven-year-
old Rade Boljanović and no one else.
Thirty to one
The most powerful Ustasha strongholds in Eastern Herzegovina were the

Muslim enclaves of Kula Fazlagića and Borač. This is why the Gacko rebels,
in cooperation with Pivljani and Golijani families, started preparing in late
August for an attack on Gacko and Kula Fazlagića. Facing obvious prepara-
tions for a rebel attack on Gacko, the commander of the Ustasha-Home Guard
garrison, Major Ferdo Muslović, asked for urgent help from Nevesinje, Bileća
and Borač, where there were more than Muslim Ustashas. At the same time
he helped the Ustasha devils at the Kula Fazlagića prepare for defence and
authorised their requests for looting and destroying the surrounding Serb vil-
lages.
The first point of attack was the village of Srđevići, located at the south-west
edge of the Gacko plains, under Mount Bjelašnica, surrounded on the east
side by a network of Muslim villages of Kula Fazlagića, where there were
around 800 heavily armed Ustashas. The village had a total of 33 houses (30
Kovačević households, two Popovac households and one Milošević house-
hold. Fearing heavy resistance from the Kovačević family, the Kula Ustashas
tried to do their best in the preparation for their attacks against the Srđevići
clan, and to get not only the authorisation, but also the help of the regular
Croatian troops that were stationed in Gacko. They got the opportunity to
involve the regular Croatian troops in their raid on the Srđević clan in early
September 1941, when the Nikšić guerrilla squad arrived to the Gacko region.
That was the period when other komitadji squads were arriving from Monte-
negro. One such group with around a dozen armed men, headed by Jakov
Bjelica, an old komitadji trooper, appeared on Mount Bjelašnica, not far from
the village of Srđevići. Upon arrival to Mount Bjelašnica, which he was very
96
familiar with, the group leader picked their camp site and with five other men
he came down to the Srđevići village, settled in Gojko and Stevan Milošević’s
house and asked for the villagers to take some food the next day to the rest of
his squad, which had stayed on Bjelašnica. However, two men from the Ko-
vačević clan – Rade and Milovan, who had been sent to take the food to
Bjelašnica, were captured by Muslim groups from Bašići and handed over to
the commander of the Gacko Gendarmerie squad, lieutenant Đuro Kindl.
When the captured Kovačević men told him about the presence of Montene-
grin komitadji on Mount Bjelašnica, the commander of the Ustasha Home
Guard garrison in Gacko, major Ferdo Muslović, issued orders to cleanse the
Gacko villages of “Chetniks”: Srđevići, Medanići, Lukovice, Gradina, and if
possible Fojnica and Ljeskov Dub as well, which would secure the right flank
of the “Majksner” Home Guard group which, under direct command of the
commander of the Nevesinje brigade, colonel Franjo Šimić, was already rush-
ing from the crossroads at the village of Plužina to aid the threatened Gacko.
This order cleared the Kula Ustashas to destroy the aforementioned Serb vil-
lages, primarily Srđevići. Archive material from Ustasha-Home Guard
sources shows that the attack on Srđevići, on the morning of 5th September,
involved Ustasha squads from the villages of Bašići, Kula, Cernica, Medanići
and Gacko – around 350 to 400 men. In the night between 4th and 5th Sep-
tember, they completely surrounded the Srđevići village. At the break of
dawn, the chief commander of the Kula Ustasha squad, Mušan Džeko, sent a
message to the Serbs of Srđevići not to resist, but to gather in the middle of
the village and hand over their weapons and the Montenegrin komitadji group
that was in the village. Being in a hopeless situation, the people of Srđevići
tried to negotiate with their neighbours and save whatever they could. Know-
ing very well how good were the promises of men whose weapons had been
soaked in Serb blood for the previous two months, the negotiators of Srđevići
returned to the village with their heads low. “Having grasped the difficult
position of all the people in the village,” Lazar Kovačević points out in his
statement, “several bold men decided to use only 10 rifles (out of the twelve
they had at their disposal) to break through the Ustasha ring and save the lives
of the children, women and the elderly.” None of these bold men had ever
considered the odds of that desperate attempt where the ratio of troops was
over 30 to 1 in favour of the enemy, because they all knew too well that failure
would lead both them and their families straight to the Mušnica River preci-
pice, or one of the infamous pit caves of Kula, the untold tombs of the Serb
population that used to live in the area of Kula Fazlagića until June 1941.
Since they had had only 12 armed fighters, nine men were chosen do breach
the Ustasha lines, and only three to protect the residents, who moved towards
97
the intended point of breach. As soon as they realised that the weapons and
Montenegrin komitadji weren’t going to be handed over, the Ustasha-Home
Guard troops attacked the village from all sides. The attack was supported by
two 76 mm mountain guns that barraged the area around the houses of Lazar
and Nikola Kovačević. Although their enemy was highly superior and with
more machine guns than the Srđevići men had rifles, the nine fighters lunged
like tigers over the embankment, drawing the enemy’s left flank and opening
a way out for the extraction of non-combatant residents from the Ustasha
perimetre. Covered by rifle fire of the remaining three fighters, the villagers
rushed over the bridge in the village of Donje Selo and ran through the space
that opened up towards the villages of Medanići and Lukovice. Fortunately,
the Ustashas of Kula, too busy looting the abandoned houses, did not pay
attention to the villagers escaping the perimetre. They obviously did not feel
like going into a skirmish where one could get killed, so instead of charging
after the villagers they “fearlessly” dove into stealing. Thanks to the unprec-
edented courage of a handful of armed men and the insatiable greed of the
Kula Ustashas, the people of Srđevići hadn’t shared the fate of Serbs who
lived in the area of Kula Fazlagića up to June 1941, but managed to break out
of the lethal embrace of their neighbours – Muslims, understandably at a high
cost. A total of 21 people were killed, from baby boy Veselin Kovačević, who
was less than a year old, to eighty-year-old Ruža Kovačević, who refused to
leave her hearth, so the villains extinguished that hearth with her blood! Eight
people were wounded, and seven were captured. They were mainly elderly
and ill people, who were protected by members of the Home Guard who had
arrived in the meantime, transported to the Gacko prison and later released.
Continuing their vicious campaign against the surrounding Serb villages, that
day the Ustasha hordes attacked the village of Lukovice, but encountered sur-
prisingly strong resistance. Having encountered a strong resistance, the Usta-
sha bashibazouks retreated from that attack and attacked the unprotected Serb
villages of Medanići, Nadinići, Macanovina, Ruda Glavica, Rudo Polje,
Kravarevo, Višnjevo and Mala Gračanica. The latter three were attacked by
the Ustasha horde from Gornji Borač, commanded by Marijan Banovac, com-
mander of the gendarmerie outpost in Šipovica. The Ustashas from both Kula
and Borač killed even the Serbs’ cats, let alone the people. In Rudo Polje they
found only an elderly couple – Andrija Gojković and his wife Milica (both
over the age of 70). Andrija’s hands were tied behind his back with wire, and
then he was pushed into a well while he was still alive, and Milica’s throat
was slashed in a grove near the village, their sheepdog tied next to her corpse.
As if having realised what their satanic intentions were, the dog chewed on
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the bark of the tree he was tied to, but did not touch the body. In Mala Gračan-
ica, a village that had been under control of the Croatian troops and gendar-
merie since the Ustasha government was established, the Ustashas of Borač
brutally killed all the Serb populace they had found in the village. In all the
villages mentioned, the properties of the runaway Serb residents was system-
atically pillaged and destroyed.
Having concluded that the Croatian armed forces in Herzegovina were over-
powered in the June uprising of the Serbs of Herzegovina, the Italian aggres-
sor decided to reoccupy the demilitarised zone. The reoccupation was carried
out by four Italian divisions: the “Re,” “Sassari,” “Lombardia” and “Marche”
division. Since there was no resistance from the Serb populace to the Italians,
the reoccupation was executed in mid-September in only a few days.
Heroic resistance of the village of Bodežište to the Ustasha

hordes
The arrival of the Italian troops into the demilitarised zone caused the uprising
to dwindle in all of Eastern Herzegovina, including the area of Gacko. There
was a two-and-a-half-month recess in fighting, which allowed the anguished
Serb populace to compose, get organised and prepared for a more efficient
defence of their threatened biological survival. However, it was at that time
that the tragic division occurred among the rebels into two irreconcilable fac-
tions – the Partisans and the Chetniks – and even their mutual armed confron-
tation! This circumstance and Partisan attacks on Italian squads and transport
convoys pulled the Ustasha regime out of the crisis it had fallen into because
of the reoccupation of Eastern Herzegovina. Launching armed conflicts
against the Italians, at a moment when the barehanded Serb people were
forced to desperately defend their biological survival, when the wounds of
June and August had still been bleeding, when only the cries of orphaned
children and widowed women were heard in Serb homes in Mostar,
Nevesinje, Gacko, Bileća, Trebinje, Stolac and Čapljina, when the unprece-
dented harsh winter disallowed for any possibility of life in refuge and when
hunger knocked on the doors of poor Serb villages – cannot be rationally ex-
plained. Instead of striking their disunited enslavers and slayers, the Serbs of
Herzegovina attacked Italian squads and transport convoys and, opening up a
new ideological front, united the Ustashas against themselves. This brought
more innocent Serb victims, more burning Serb villages, more arrests and
deportations of Serbs to infamous concentration camps, more ethnic cleans-
ing by Ustasha hordes, not only of individual villages, but of entire areas. The
99
Ustasha squads from Kula Fazlagića and Borač were exceptionally prominent
in those roles, having become the incarnation of atrocious and unrestrained
Ustasha ideologies, a nightmare for the surrounding Serb villages. In the
meantime, with Italian authorisation, the Ustasha government organised these
squads according to a Militia-based system of patrol corps, i.e. mercenary
search squads modelled after the Austro-Hungarian Schutzkorps in WWI.
It was at that time that the situation in north-Eastern Herzegovina was getting
progressively worse. Following an unsuccessful raid of Montenegrin Parti-
sans in Pljevlja, the Italians left Foča, Goražde, Čajniče and Rudo, relinquish-
ing these places to the Chetniks, who had accepted their offer of passive col-
laboration. Fleeing from the Chetniks, around 700 members of the Ustasha
Militia and Gendarmerie took refuge in Gornji Borač, producing a swarm of
around 2,000 Muslim warriors armed to the teeth. Following advice from the
Gendarmerie lieutenant colonel Alija Džemidžić, they disarmed Military
Krajina’s Second Battalion, which had been retreating towards Gacko through
Borač. They seized 20 machine guns, over 1,000 rifles, all the ammunition
and hand grenades. This allowed them to start their massacre campaigns
against the surrounding Serb villages in order to destroy the Serbs and loot
their property. In the first half of December 1941 they devastated Serb vil-
lages in the valley of the Sutjeska river – Suha, Tjentište, Mrkalj, Popov Most,
Đurevo, Ljubina and others. From the daily chronicles of the Gendarmerie
High Command of the NDH we learn that on that occasion “113 Chetniks and
communists” were killed. In fact these victims were women, children and the
elderly.
After thoroughly devastating Serb villages in the valley of the Sutjeska river,
the Borač troops launched their next campaign on 19th December in the vil-
lages of Obalj, Strane and Tmuše, but were met with unexpectedly strong
resistance. Knowing that their families would suffer if they were to give way
to the superior enemy, the armed fighters in the attacked villages were excep-
tionally zealous in defending their homes, inflicting significant losses upon
the attackers.
Near the end of 1942, the situation in the plains of Gacko and Nevesinje was
rapidly deteriorating, because relations between the Chetniks and the Parti-
sans were worsening. The leaders of the fighter patrol corps managed to mo-
bilise around 500 people from Borač, Kula Fazlagića, Gacko, Gračanica, Ba-
hor and Mrđenovići, for their massacre campaign against Serb villages in the
plains of Gacko and Nevesinje. Long convoys of the elderly (men and
women) with packhorses were moving behind the armed men, on their way
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to pillaging. The first to be struck were the villages of Gornja Bodežišta, Ta-
rajin Do and Vratlo, which harboured a local Partisan company (around 25
armed fighters), a company from the Piva District battalion (around 35 men),
a platoon of the First Gacko Partisan battalion (14 men) and Vule Skoko with
five other men. During a long and very cold winter night, the patrol corps
soldiers sneaked up to these villages and at the break of dawn charged with
full force. The drowsy villagers started panicking, especially when the Piva
Company abandoned the village and broke through the perimetre towards the
village of Brajićevići. A group of unarmed men, women and children fol-
lowed in their footsteps, only to come across an Ustasha squad who gunned
them down with their rifles and machine guns! Only around twenty armed
men were left in Gornja Bodežišta after that and the remaining villagers from
the three attacked villages. Coming face to face with the highly superior Usta-
sha perpetrators, the handful of armed defenders relatively quickly got over
the panic that had spread among the non-combatant villagers, organised a de-
fence perimetre in the central part of the village where, aided by all of the
villagers, heroically endured the consecutive fierce charges of the highly su-
perior Ustasha troops, inflicting serious damage up until nightfall. Then the
armed fighters, some of them shrouded in white sheets, broke through the
enemy’s perimetre and extracted the remaining villagers. That day a total of
ten people fell into the Ustasha hands. All these people were driven to the
Gendarmerie outpost in the village of Šipovica, and amazingly, they were
released the next day, 5th January. Only Anđa Terzić had the misfortune of
going away with her two children to her cousins’ in the village of Pridvorac,
where she and her children were brutally killed on 7th January.
The ethnic cleansing of Gornji Borač on Christmas Eve 1942
The previous text shows us that, after the armed conflict of the Herzegovina
Partisans with the Italians, rogue Ustasha hordes were activated at Kula
Fazlagića, Borač and Bjelimić, undertaking massacre campaigns against the
surrounding Serb villages. Having suffered serious losses in their attack on
the villages of Obalj, Strane, Tmuši and Gornja Bodežišta, the Ustasha Militia
from Gornji Borač attacked the helpless Serb populace in the villages of
Pridvorica, Šipovica and Krupac. Four Bejatović families from Mjedenak got
away just in time and escaped to the neighbouring village of Kokorina (it
would be fair to say that they were helped by the Muslims from that village,
their closest neighbours). Serbs and Muslims had co-existed in these villages
for decades. In the village of Šipovica, where the Croatian Gendarmerie was
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situated, headed by Marijan Banovac, there were only two Lera families liv-
ing there, having moved there from Čepelica, near Bileća. Two Slijepčević
families and one Hrnjez family used to live in Krupac, and 5 families in
Pridvorica (the Gojković, Adžić, Skolac, Nosović and Doder families).
Pridvorica is the most peaceful village in Gornji Borač. It is no accident that
it was here that the first Slavic settlers stopped when they came to the region
of Herzegovina and founded the Viševa district and built Kamber’s Town be-
cause Pridvorica, surrounded by mid-sized mountains with thick forests and
lush pastures, provided very favourable living conditions for nomads. How-
ever, when the surrounding mountains get covered in snow ant the Neretva
River rises, Pridvorica gets completely cut off from the rest of the world for
a few months. It seems that this was the reason the Serbs of Pridvorica were
spared during the June and August slaughter of Serb populace in Herze-
govina. Their neighbours patiently waited for these families to harvest their
crops and for snow to cover the surrounding mountains, completely excluding
any chance of escape, before they would slaughter them and get hold of their
possessions. In this criminal plan the slaughter was scheduled for 7th January,
on the Orthodox Christmas Day, so that the perpetrators could have a plentiful
feast after the slaughter. However, patience ran thin in the group that was
designated to murder the families of Stevan and Gavrilo Lero in the village
of Šipovica, so they stormed the Leros’ houses on Christmas Eve with their
blades unsheathed (both families were having dinner) and brutally massacred
over 15 people (only 13 were recorded, because no one knew the smallest
children). According to a statement by one of the participants in the carnage,
the massacre was survived only by Jela Lero, a young and pretty girl, who
was taken away.
On the next day, at dawn of 7th January, every house in Pridvorica was
blocked not only by the Ustasha perpetrators but also with deep snow, which
had fallen continuously for several days and nights. Instead of the traditional
first guest that wishes the family prosperity, the first to come into the families’
houses were the Ustashas, informing them that Marijan Banovac had issued
an order that all grown men were to come straight away to the village church
to discuss and agree on the time and manner of evacuation of the Pridvorica
Serbs to the plains of Nevesinje and Gacko. The men complied with no ob-
jection or resistance and headed, escorted by the armed Ustashas of course,
to what would be their place of execution – in front of Nikola Doder’s barn,
which was near the church. There they were immediately tied up, subjected
to horrific torture and abuse and ultimately killed with rifle stocks, daggers
and bats; some had their heads cut off with axes, which was determined when
the bodies were exhumed to be buried. When all the adult men were killed,
102
the younger women and girls were forced to pick up the mutilated bodies of
their fathers, husbands and brothers and toss them into the lower section of
Nikola Doder’s barn. All these unfortunate women and girls were then raped
and afterwards locked up into the upper part of the barn along with their chil-
dren, mothers, grandmothers and mothers-in-law. The barn was in the end
barricaded from the outside and set on fire. When Partisan units liberated
Pridvorica on 17th April 1942, they found a gruesome sight: scorched human
feet sticking through the door of the lower section of Nikola Doder’s barn.
Inside they could see a pile of half-charred corpses. There, stuck on the sooty
walls that eerily protruded upwards, were female braids that, oddly enough,
had not burned up, but had remained stuck to the singed walls as silent wit-
nesses to the terror that took place there. Here and there around the barn were
the bodies of those who had managed to jump out of the inferno and had at-
tempted to run away, but the villains’ bullets were faster than them. In the
barn of Tomo Adžić in the village of Stojčići, where the families of Tomo,
Rajko and Mile Adžić were killed in the same manner as those in the village
of Bruci, groups of huddled corpses were found in the corners, obviously par-
ents and children. Over 160 people were killed that day in Pridvorica. The
exact number cannot be ascertained since no one knows how many babies
there were that others did not know about. Since no one managed to escape,
all the Serb hearths in the village were extinguished forever. This Christmas
Day slaughter, according to statements which two direct participants of the
slaughter made to the officials of the State Security Administration, was sur-
vived by a four-year-old girl named Gospava Goja Skoko, who ran away to
the neighbouring Muslim house when she saw armed men coming, where she
was accepted and hidden by Delvija Čolpa from Gračanica, maiden name
Krvavac. Little Goja stayed alive until 17th April of that horrid war year, and
then, as the Partisans were closing in on Borač, when the dawn of liberation
was coming, Goja was not there to see it. At that moment of hope she was
torn out of her saviour’s hands by the hardened Ustasha (Čolpa from
Pridvorica), who yelled out: “If none of your family has survived, neither will
you!” and slit her throat, thus brutally killing the last Serb resident of the idyl-
lic and tame village of Pridvorica in Gornji Borač.
Victims of the Nazi and Ustasha genocide in the village of Izgori
The village of Izgori is located in the upper course of Sutjeska River, scattered
into 17 hamlets at the foot of Mount Volujak, from the Jabuka rock face in
the west to Kuke in the East. Since to the west Izgori is adjacent to a network
103
of Muslim villages of Gornji Borač, which had joined the Ustasha movement
when the Independent State of Croatia was formed and wholeheartedly ac-
cepted its genocide platform, the western hamlets of Izgori were in a very
difficult situation, under constant threat from attacks by rogue Ustasha hordes
from Gornji Borač.
As early as July 1941, these hordes attacked, pillaged and burned the hamlets
of Krnja Jela and Breka. Near the end of December 1941, these hamlets were
attacked for a second time and destroyed. However, the fiercest and most
massive attack on the village of Izgori was carried out by the Patrol Corps of
Borač and Gacko on 9th April 1942, commanded by the leader of the Gacko
Patrol Corps, First Lieutenant Ćamil Krvavac. The Borač Patrol Corps paid
dearly for this massacre campaign against the villages of Izgori and Čemerno.
According to a report by the 6th Gendarmerie company they lost over 20 men
(7 killed, 14 wounded, 1 captured). The villagers from Izgori also had a lot of
casualties. Milutin Šupić, Andrija Tepavčević, Ignjat Škiljević and Gavrilo
Mastilović all died in defence of the Borovno-Zlatica-Bulin Greb line.
The Gacko Patrol Corps had waited for over a year for a favourable oppor-
tunity to take revenge on the villagers of Izgori for this defeat. They got the
opportunity in early June 1943, when the [Dom-do] battalion from Gacko,
comprising 592 troopers, was adjoined to the 7th SS Division “Prinz Eugen”
during operation “Schwarz.” It was this division that carried out careful
sweeps across the field during the battle of Sutjeska, in order to annihilate
those Partisan squads that had nоt managed to break through the perimetre,
along with villagers who helped them out. The Patrol Corps from Gacko were
most efficient in these operations as they knew the terrain very well. In the
evening on 6th June troops of the 7th SS Division “Prinz Eugen” were re-
grouping on Lukavica and Čemerno, and on the morning of 7th June one part
of the battalion headed towards Vratar, while the other half marched towards
the Trnovac lake. The Vratar troops carefully swept through the hamlets of
Mastilovina, Grab, Zlatica, Crni Potok, Osoje, Godijevci, Borja, Slavigora
and Zapuće. The SS and Ustasha troops plundered and burned the abandoned
houses, because the residents had escaped on the previous day to the rough
terrains of Volujak’s southern cliff, mainly to the Slavigora forest. This forest
was in fact teeming with wolves and bears so few people had ever gone there.
However, on 8th June the Gacko Patrol Corps brought the SS troops to Slav-
igora, where they found the refugee camp with 83 people, mainly the elderly,
women and children. They were gathered into a single group and then gunned
down with rifles and machine guns. By sheer coincidence the massacre was
104
survived by Anica Dubljević, who had been slightly wounded and had laid
low on the ground.
The other group of the 7th SS Division Prinz Eugen, which had advanced
towards the Trnovac Lake over Čemerno and Brajčin Laz, was tasked to care-
fully sweep through the Gornje Selo and ruthlessly punish its villagers, but
failed to properly carry that task out. An officer from its advance guard and a
few of his men came round Nikola Mastilović’s cabin and asked Nikola’s wife
Mileva to give them each a cup of milk. Having served them milk, she refused
to accept the money they had offered. Her meek and benign nature evoked a
human feeling in that cruel SS officer, so he asked Mileva to give him some
flour he saw in a bag. She answered:
- All the flour I own is in this bag. If I give it to you, there will be nothing left
for us.
- You won’t need the flour for longer than an hour – the officer told her in
Serbian.
Having realised that he had asked for the flour only to tell her what he told
her, Mileva told her first neighbours about it. This frightening news spread
through Gornje Selo and surrounding settlements like wildfire. Thanks to that,
the villagers left their homes just on time and escaped to Volujak’s rough
rocky terrain, hiding in its caves, forests and ravines. After an hour or two the
SS and Ustasha punitive expedition appeared, systematically searching every
house, barn, cabin, and even potato bunkers. Furious for not having found
anyone, they brutally killed cattle, dogs and cats. As seen here, Gornje Selo
did nоt meet the same destiny as Donje Selo, which got devastated both when
the SS and Ustasha troops were marching from Čemerno to Vratar and when
they were retreating towards Gacko. After the 3rd Partisan division was de-
feated at Sutjeska, on 12th June 1943, its surviving fighters scattered across
the surrounding forests. So on 13th June the SS troops and the Gacko Dom-
do Battalion were systematically sweeping the terrain, killing even animals
they encountered, let alone men. In one house they found Jelka Mastilović
and Ljubica Drakula with six children, shot them with bursts of gunfire and
in the end burned the cabin where they killed them. The tragedy of Boriša
Mastilović’s family was even greater. Boriša was killed in the battle of Sut-
jeska as the quartermaster of the 1st Battalion of the 10th Herzegovina Bri-
gade, and his wife Jelka was brutally killed along with their three children,
thus forever extinguishing their hearth in the village of Izgori. That day the
SS troops or the Gacko Patrol Corps found the old Ruža Mastilović on a field
below their house and riddled her with bullets. In Misijevina, a small hamlet
of only two houses, they killed Filip and Neđo Mastilović, and in Oštra
105
Glavica they killed Trifko and Mićo Mastilović and Mićo’s wife Jovana, and
so on.
During 13th June the SS troops and Gacko Patrol Corps killed around 30
weakened Partisans in the area between Trnova Luka and Grab, who had been
trying to make their way to the closest Serb villages in the Gacko plains after
the debacle at Sutjeska.
After the Sutjeska battle, the village of Izgori fell into grave silence. No hu-
man voices were heard, nor do any girls’ songs, nor any cowbells on large
herds of sheep and cattle, because the shepherds had muffled or taken them
off. From 7th to 13th June 1943, 122 people were killed in the village of
Izgori, from infants of less than a year of age, to ninety-five-year-olds. 28 of
them were from the Ateljević clan, 14 from the Vukajlović clan, 27 from the
Dubljević clan, 5 from the Drakula clan, 4 from the Vidojević clan, 20 from
the Mastilović clan, 6 from the Marković clan, 2 from the Rakočević clan, 13
from the Šupić clan, and one Aprcović, one Vuković and one Tijanić. It
should be noted that the victims of the Nazi-Ustasha genocide in the village
of Izgori should include the people who were killed during the advancement
of the SS and Ustasha troops across the territory of Gacko towards Čemerno
and Sutjeska. The preserved material from the State Commission to Investi-
gate Crimes Committed by Nazis and their Allies shows that nine people were
killed on the occasion. Therefore, the total number of people killed in the area
of Gacko right before and during the battle of Sutjeska is 131. This number
might not be precise either, but it surely is close.
They killed our people, but God charged them
Two weeks after the aforementioned massacre in the village of Izgori, an even
worse destiny came upon the residents of Ljeskov Dub, a village on the right
side of the pathways from Nevesinje to Gacko. After the enemy perimetre
was breached in Balinovac and the Bistrica River, Tito set aside the 10th Her-
zegovina brigade from the Main Operational Group of the High Command
and sent them back to Herzegovina, to fight on their own as well as they could.
Upon crossing the Kalinovik-Sarajevo road and after a four-day rest in the
Gvozno Field, this brigade headed for north-Eastern Herzegovina and along
the way, in the night between 18th and 19th June in the settlement of Boljuna
near Obalj, neutralised the Chetnik Command of Operational Units for East
Bosnia and Herzegovina, commanded by major Pantić and Fehim Musakad-
emić. Continuing their journey, over Donji Borač and the village of Kokorina,
106
the brigade attempted to cross the path from Gacko to Nevesinje, but they
encountered the marching column of the 4th battalion of the 7th SS division
Prinz Eugen, and were forced to retreat to Donji Borač, having lost a few men
in a skirmish with the SS. Despite that, after two days in Donji Borač, the
brigade crossed the path from Gacko to Nevesinje in two groups during the
night between 26th and 27th June. The group led by Vlado Šegrt arrived to
Ljeskov Dub on the morning of 27th June and received food and refreshments
from the villagers, only to go on towards Barni Do after a short period of rest.
Unfortunately for them, a member of the Chetniks, peeved because of the
murder of major Pantić and his associates, notified the commander of the 1st
SS battalion First Lieutenant Wagner, convinced that the SS would quickly
and easily rid the local Chetniks of their enemy number one. As it turned out,
the SS were more interested in the villagers that provided food for the Parti-
sans.
On the very day, 28th June, two SS battalions (1st and 4th) and the Gacko
Dom-do battalion began a concentric approach to Ljeskov Dub, in four attack
files. The right file of the 1st SS battalion, with Ustashas from Gračanica and
Gacko, led by former Ustasha Logornik in Gacko, Smajo Dilić, approached
along the pathway from Gacko to Nevesinje towards Varoški Potok, where it
made a turn to the left and blocked Ljeskov Dub from the north. This is how
Ljeskov Dub was encircled on St. Vitus’ Day, 28th June 1943, by around
2000 heavily armed SS and Ustasha troops. Having surrounded Ljeskov Dub
from all four sides, they were not interested in the location of the Partisans.
Their blade was facing the barehanded villagers of Ljeskov Dub. Captain
Han, who led the right column of the 4th SS battalion, calmly watched
through his binoculars as the 10th Herzegovina brigade was moving away
from Zajasen towards Stevanović Folds, doing absolutely nothing against it.
Instead, he ordered his troops to turn right from Pandurica and come down on
Donji Drežanj, a village where the Nevesinje anti-fascist uprising began on
3rd June 1941, and to slaughter all the villagers. With the German meticu-
lousness, the soldiers executed their orders, brutally killing old men, women
and children, pillaged and burned their poor houses. In total they killed 36
people from the Ivković and Vujadinović families, nine of which were chil-
dren under ten years of age, and ten old men and women.
The left column of the 1st SS battalion, whose core was made up of Ustashas
from Kula Fazlagića, also left a bloody trail. They captured Trivko Milošević
in the village of Lukovice, and three reapers, Vlado, Janko and Miloje Đerić
in Margop, and slit the throats of all four of them.
107
Oddly enough, no one was killed in Ljeskov Dub that day. However, on the
next day, 29th June, when the shooting squads of the SS and Ustashas came
down on the village, their soldiers showed their true, wicked faces at the first
step. They drove people out of their homes, old people, women and children,
and forced them to a gathering point. The villagers of Kljetina, Novakov Kraj,
Vrteljača and Ogumanje, 112 of them in all, were gathered at the “Koritnjača”
drinking fountain. The women and children were led to Spasoje Mučibabić’s
house. Only 16 adult men were held up at the “Koritnjača.” As soon as the
column of women and children moved away from the gathering point, the
detained men were ordered to line up in a single file. Although they were in
a hopeless situation, the lined up men of Ljeskov Dub started a desperate
struggle for their lives. Since they had not been tied up, with their bare hands
they grabbed the barrels of machine guns, which were pouring out deadly rain
killing eight of the men instantly, while four of them were shot on the run and
four managed to escape.
The second act of the horrid drama took place in the house of Spasoje
Mučibabić, where the perpetrators gathered 96 people from Donje Selo.
There, packed like sardines, the crowd of frail locals was showered with gun-
fire from rifles and machine guns, as well as packs of hand grenades, whose
thunderous noise intermixed with the death cries of these sufferers, who were
soon crushed by the burning roof and scorched in this living inferno. Oddly
enough, this Dante’s hell was survived by several people. Out of the 112 vil-
lagers from Donje Selo who were driven to the gathering point at the “Korit-
njača” drinking fountain on that fateful morning, only ten survived – 7 men
and three women. In Spasoje Mučibabić’s house 102 people were butchered
and burned to death.
Act three of the Ljeskov Dub tragedy took place in the hamlet of Mokri Do,
where the SS and Ustasha captured 44 people and drove them to Obren
Mučibabić’s threshing floor. Here they segregated the men from the women
and children and took them to Obren Mučibabić’s barn. Having realised what
was about to happen, several young men slipped through an opening in the
lower part of the barn and tried to escape, but at the exit they were met by
machine gun fire and killed. The ones that remained in the upper part of the
barn were immediately killed as well. None of them attempted to get away
nor survived the massacre. Having killed off the adult men, the villains forced
the women and children into Obren Mučibabić’s house, which had a relatively
spacious hearth and one large room, whose floor and ceiling were made out
of fir. These two brimming full rooms were showered through the windows
and doors by a hurricane of gunfire from rifles and machine guns, and in the
108
end by packs of hand grenades, whose violent explosions ripped up beams

and the roof, scattering dismembered human bodies all over. And yet, six
people survived this slaughter. Hence, in Mokri Do, 38 people were killed,
and 6 people survived the slaughter.
The fourth act of the tragedy of Ljeskov Dub took place in Bisačina, the far
south-west hamlet of Ljeskov Dub. Since the grown men of this hamlet had
escaped to the forest the previous day, the SS drove the elderly, women and
children out of their homes under the excuse of taking them to questioning in
the headquarters. However, when they were being herded into Milan Mi-
lidrag’s barn instead of to the HQ, and when they started hearing gunfire from
Mokri Do, even the children realised what kind of questioning this would be.
Some of the women refused to peacefully go into the barn because they sensed
that it was actually a burning stake for them, and some of them tried to get
away. The SS were forced to open fire before all the victims had entered the
barn. In spite of this, some of them managed to escape from this execution
site as well – Milosava and Janja Milidrag, the latter with an infant in her
hands. Two little girls escaped as well – Jelena and Janja Milidrag. The others
were killed with machine guns and hand grenades tossed into the crowd of
helpless men, women and children. This barn was set on fire as well, just like
the houses in Donje Selo and Mokri Do. In Bisačina a total of 24 people were
killed. Five of them managed to escape.
In Ljeskov Dub, on 29th June 1943, a total of 158 people were brutally killed.
We should add to that the 37 victims that the 4th SS battalion killed in Donji
Drežanj and Podgraće on St. Vitus’ Day, 28th June 1943, which means that
in those two days over 200 people were killed, many of which were children
under the age of ten.
109
Draga Mastilović, MA
THE ROLE OF MUSLIMS

IN THE GENOCIDE
AGAINST SERBS IN
EASTERN HERZEGOVINA
IN 1941/1942
One trait of the genocide against Serbs in Eastern Herzegovina in the Second
World War is that the majority of mass crimes were committed by the local
Muslims, often the victims’ closest neighbours. Above all, it is characteristic
that the Muslims of Eastern Herzegovina joined the Ustasha movement in
1941 on a mass scale and committed organised crimes against the Serbs. Be-
sides that, their atrocity and brutality in executing the crimes was on par with
their Croatian superiors and ideologists. On 17th September 1941, Uglješa
Danilović, then member of the Pokrajina Committee of the Communist Party
of Yugoslavia for Bosnia and Herzegovina, wrote a report to Svetozar Vuk-
manović Tempo, saying among other things the following: “There are stories
that the Ustashas in Berkovići cooked children alive and made their mothers
eat them, and then killed them afterwards; that they raped girls and women
and so on. In each case it was local Muslims who committed the monstrous
deeds, and in almost all parts of Eastern Herzegovina Muslims took the Usta-
sha side on a mass scale.”1 All this warrants scientific research into what ac-
tually motivated the Muslims of Eastern Herzegovina to side with the Croa-
tian Ustashas, and how numerous were they in that movement.
Eastern Herzegovina was scarcely populated by Croats and Catholic popula-
tion. 2 It was then a logical step for the Ustasha authorities in this area to turn
1
Uglješa Danilović, Sjećanja, knj. 3, Članci i ratni dnevnik, Beograd 1987, p. 501.
2
For example, the 1931 Census recorded only 83 Catholics among 15,235 residents in
Gacko, 436 Catholics out of 21,273 residents in Bileća, and 996 Catholics out of 23,563
111
to the Muslim populace, propagating the ideology of Muslims as the “flowers

of the Croatian people,” one that was proposed in his racist theories by Ante
Starčević.3 Even before the Second World War, some Muslims from Herze-
govina were disseminating Ustasha ideologies in the area, most active of
whom was Alija Šuljak from Trebinje, who was a teacher at the Trading
Academy in Dubrovnik. He and Prof. Haki Hadžić, Džafer Kulenović and
Ademaga Mešić were at the head of the Muslim Ustashas.4 After the April
War, when the NDH was formed, Šuljak was appointed Pavelić’s main aide
and commissioner for Eastern Herzegovina; he went on a tour of Herzegovina
to organise the Ustasha authorities and win over Muslims to the Ustasha
movement. His great power, as Pavelić’s main aide, was indisputable at least
in Eastern Herzegovina, which was a thorn in the eyes of the few Croats in
the region. Šuljak himself appointed Ustasha commissioners in the seized
Serb shops in Trebinje, choosing exclusively Muslims, and in a meeting in
the same town he commended the Muslims for being “better Ustashas than
those in Zagreb,” which outraged the Croats in Trebinje, because, as they said
themselves: “It was an insult for us, but we kept quiet. 5 Šuljak not only or-
ganised the Muslims in Herzegovina for the Ustasha movement, but he was
the motivator for the mass crimes against Serbs. He led by example, showing
his coreligionists how to purge Herzegovina of Serbs, for example in Mostar
on 23rd June 1941, when he personally arrested and murdered the Serbs of
Mostar on the bridges of Neretva.6
When he came to Herzegovina, Šuljak held a series of meetings with Muslims
and with fiery rhetoric invited them to commence the annihilation of Serbs in
the area. Archives of the State Commission to Investigate Crimes Committed
by Nazis and their Allies record: “First he held a series of speeches in rallies
residents in Trebinje (Definitivni rezultati popisa stanovništva od 31. marta 1931. godine,
knj. III, Beograd 1938).
3
More on the racist theories of Ante Starčević can be found in: Milorad Ekmečić, Susret
civilizacija i srpski odnos prema Evropi, Novi Sad 1997, pp. 63-69.
4
Savo Skoko, Milan Grahovac, Zločini Nezavisne Države Hrvatske i nemačkog okupatora
u Hercegovini 1941-1945. godine, Zbornik dokumenata, Vol. I (hereinafter: Zbornik, Vol.
I), edited by Draga Mastilović, MA, and Gordana Mastilović, Beograd – Gacko 2011, doc-
ument no. 7, p. 81 (Decision no. 26154 of the FPRY State Commission for the Investiga-
tion of the Crimes of Fascist Occupiers and Their Collaborators, declaring Alija Šuljak a
traitor of the people and a war criminal).
5
Zbornik, Vol. I, pp. 194-195, doc. no. 42 (Letter from four Croats from Trebinje to the
Grand Prefect of the Dubrava district in Dubrovnik, dated 3rd August 1941).
6
Zbornik, Vol. I, p. 82, doc. no. 7, (Decision no. 26154 of the FPRY State Commission for
the Investigation of the Crimes of Fascist Occupiers and Their Collaborators, declaring
Alija Šuljak a traitor of the people and a war criminal).
112
in Trebinje and Mostar, agitating the Muslim masses against Serbs. The most
notable of these speeches is the one from May 1941, held at The Naglić Hotel
in Mostar, where he directly invited the Muslims to ruthlessly destroy Serbs,
promising them that they would be awarded a lot of Serb property.”7 In the
initial stage of establishing Ustasha authority in Herzegovina, it seems that
these Šuljak’s closing words were the key motivator in winning over the Mus-
lim masses to the NDH. Truth be told, Šuljak used to give euphoric speeches
about Croatian nationalism to the Muslims, like the one in Mostar on 7th Jan-
uary 1942, when he said: “I am thrilled to say that on the eve of our festivities
our Poglavnik’s thoughts are with you, the soldiers who are fighting in the far
fields of the Soviet Union for the salvation of Europe, including all of us...
Today you heroically fight alongside the bravest army of the world, the sol-
diers of the German Reich against a common enemy... because you are aware
that it is your sacred national duty to answer to the call of your Poglavnik...“8
However, such Ustasha propaganda from Muslim ranks in Bosnia and Her-
zegovina could hardly mobilise the Muslims in Herzegovina for the Ustasha
movement on such a mass scale, because most of them, unlike their ideolo-
gists, had felt no affiliation to the Croatian people whatsoever. Primarily, the
Muslims in Bosnia in Herzegovina were still feeling affiliation to the Turkish
state, as recorded in certain documents of the State Commission where they
still call themselves Turks. The only similar argument the Ustasha ideologists
could count on was religious fanaticism, because it was one of the main driv-
ers for Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and their religious hatred was
undoubtedly directed mostly at Serbs. The reasons behind the hatred could be
traced to the period of Ottoman rule in these regions, but also to later periods,
when the Austro-Hungarian aggressor was trying to deepen the religious ha-
tred between Orthodox Christians and Muslims, thus preventing their coop-
eration against the occupying regime. The highlight of religious hatred was
the First Balkan War, when Serb weapons, under the noses of the Muslims of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, pushed the border of the Ottoman Empire away
from Bosnia and Herzegovina, effectively ruining the dreams of the local
Muslims of these regions once again becoming part of the Turkish state. Ac-
cording to some authors who have dealt with this issue, such as Čedomil Mi-
trinović, the hatred the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina had felt then to-
wards Serbs fending off the Turks was merely later skilfully channelled and
used by Austro-Hungary, which produced the events of the First World War.9
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
9
Čedomil Mitrinović, Naši muslimani – studija za orijentaciju pitanja bosansko-hercego-
vačkih muslimana, Beograd 1926, pp. 56-58.
113
Aside from that, unhealthy political relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina after
the First World War, and especially the confiscation of land from Muslim
feudal lords within the agrarian reform and abolishment of feudalism, the
penetration of Stjepan Radić’s ideology into these districts in the early 1920s,
and the pro-Croatian allegiance of a part of the Muslim political elite, helped
this religious hatred to maintain its intensity up to the Second World War.
Skilfully channelled by Croatian nationalists during the Second World War,
it became a dangerous weapon in the hands of the genocidal Ustasha ideol-
ogy.
A special problem was the fact that some Muslim clerics were candidly in
service of the Ustasha regime and were the leaders in mass atrocities against
Serbs. A striking example in this respect is Muharem Glavinić, the hodža [Is-
lam preacher, t/n] from village Ključ near the town of Gacko, in Herzegovina,
who personally led his mosque-goers from village Kula Fazlagića during the
execution and throwing of the Serbs from village Korita into Golubinka pit
cave.10 Similarly, the documents of the State Commission for War Crime
Investigation say that hodža Brezović from Berkovići became an Ustasha
commander in 1941.11 Hodža Muhamed Krpo became a member of the Usta-
sha camp in Konjic immediately after the establishment of the camp.12 Hodža
Uzeir Delalić from Borče was “one of the main advisers and organisers of
Ustasha squads.”13 For the sake of truth, at least according to what Dr Savo
Skoko claims, it must be said that, in the conference held on 30th December
1941, hodža Uzeir Delalić and Šaćir Fržina were the only to oppose their co-
religionists' intentions to slaughter all the Serbs from Gornje Borče.14 How-
ever, this voice of reason could not save the majority of Serbs from Borče;
for example, the Serbs from village Pridvorice were sadistically tortured and
10
Savo Skoko, Milan Grahovac, The Atrocities of Independent State of Croatia and Ger-
man Occupier in Herzegovina 1941-1945, Zbornik, Vol. II (hereinafter referred to Zbornik,
Volume II), prepared by Draga Mastilović and Gordana mastilović, Belgrade – Gacko
2012, document #14, p. 88-93 (Verdict by Mostar District Court No. 270/46, 14th August
1946 against war criminal Muharem Glavinić).
11
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 33 (Verdict by Mostar District Court No. 270/46, 14th
August 1946 against war criminal Osman Djulepa).
12
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 45 (The Ustasha Atrocities in the Konjic County)
13
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 2, p.33 (Herzegovina County - A Short Register of Mass
Atrocities from 1941)
14
Savo Skoko, Obituary of the Ustasha-German Genocide Victims in Gacko County 1941-
1944, Belgrade 2006, 149-150.
114
then, “with Islamic ritual, slaughtered like sheep by their Muslim neighbours
at Orthodox Christmas in 1942.”15
Apart from this, an undoubtedly strong motive for massive joining of the
Muslims from Eastern Herzegovina to the Ustasha movement in 1941, at least
according to documents from that period, was the possibility of fast enriching
i.e. plundering of movable and immovable property of the killed Serbs. That
was, at least in the beginning, one of the main points of the Ustasha propa-
ganda for winning the Muslims over to join the Ustasha movement. It has
already been said that the main Ustasha ideologist in Eastern Herzegovina,
Alija Šulјak, was promising Serbs’ property to Muslims if they eradicate the
Serbs from Herzegovina. Other Ustasha ideologists from Eastern Herze-
govina were committed to the same idea, giving a personal example how to
treat Serbs and their property. For example, in the verdict against Mahmut
Čampara, the Ustasha commander in Gacko, it was stated that he had "worked
as an immediate perpetrator of the private property looting. ”16
Such propaganda spread by Ustasha ideologists must have undoubtedly bear
fruit, especially in lower social class of Eastern Herzegovina Muslims. This
was noticed by other authors who had been dealing with this issue. Thus, for
instance, Dr Savo Skoko, in an attempt to discover what had motivated the
Muslims to take part in genocidal atrocities against the Serbs in the Second
World War on a large scale, he concluded that, besides religious hatred, the
most common motive was the looting and possibility to take away the prop-
erty of killed Serbs, thus becoming the permanent ownership of the looters.
In that respect, he provides a few examples: "We were promised that all Ser-
bian houses and land would be given away to Muslims, all Serbs killed or
evicted to Serbia and their households settled by Muslims,” says one of the
captured participants in the throwing of the Serbs from village Korita into the
Golubinka pit cave (Ustasha Major Mahmut Tunović). Another captured
Ustasha (Šućrija Fazlagić), among other things, said the following during the
hearing: “One day in May 1941, I came to village Avtovac to borrow 300
dinars from the merchant Mustafa Hasanbegović, to buy a fez for my father.
Mustafa told me: ‘Why are you always begging for money? Go to Panta
Runda's (a Jewish merchant from Avtovac), kill him and take everything he
owns.’” These examples show why, among other things, the poor Muslims,
who had always lived on the edge of existential minimum, had been mas-
15
Ibid., 154
16
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 16, p. 96 (Verdict by Mostar District Court No. 270/46, as
of 10th May 1946 against war criminal Mahmut Čampara).
115
sively joining the Ustasha units. However, they would immediately after-
wards be pushed to the point of no return" 17 – concludes Dr Savo Skoko.
However, it would be wrong to think that it was only the stratum of poor
Muslims in Eastern Herzegovina who massively joined Ustasha units; many
well-off people, like merchants, craftsmen, clerks, land owners etc. did the
same. For instance, in the aforesaid complaint by Trebinje Croats about the
behaviour of Muslims from that town, after the establishment of the NDH,
among other things it was said that all commissioners in the shops having
been taken away from the Serbs in Trebinje were exclusively Muslims, who
hoped that the shops they had been entrusted with would eventually become
their own property.18 The commissioners in these shops did not belong to the
poor part of society; they were also shop owners, and some of them were said
in the document to have closed their shops in order to become commissioners
in Serbian shops or paid other people to run their shops.19
All things considered, it is no wonder that all Ustasha killing campaigns and
pogrom of the Eastern Herzegovina Serbs were accompanied by the mass
looting and marauding of Serbs property, which occasionally seemed to have
been organised. For example, during the attack by 500 Muslims from Borča,
Kula Fazlagića, Gacko, Gračanica, Mrđenovići and Bahori, “long files of el-
derly people with pack horses were going after the armed men, with the in-
tention to loot.”20 Similarly, Lutvo Džubur, one of the eye witnesses of the
looting in the Serbian village of Korita after the throwing of the villagers into
Golubinka pit cave, says the following about bringing the looted livestock to
Kula Fazlagića village on 5th July 1941: “During the afternoon, clouds of
dust could be discerned across Pusto Polje, raised by countless flocks of sheep
and herds of cows moving towards Kula Fazlagića. All the people, men and
women, from Kula villages went up on the surrounding heights watching this
sad site.”21
In Ustasha and Croatian Home Guard documents there are also traces of mass
looting of Serbian villages by Muslim Ustashas in Eastern Herzegovina. For
17
Savo Skoko, Obituary of the Ustasha-German Genocide Victims in Gacko Region 1941-
1944, p. 25.
18
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 42 (a letter by four Trebinje Croats in Dubrovnik, 3rd Au-
gust 1941).
19
Ibid.
20
1944, p. 138.
21
Quoted from: Savo Skoko, The Bloody Reel of Herzegovina, book 1, Belgrade - Pale
2000, p. 58.
116
instance, the attack of 5th September 1941 by Muslim Ustashas on the Ser-
bian village Srđevići in Gacko County was described by lieutenant Đuro
Kindl, the gendarme platoon commander in Gacko, in the following way: “As
soon as the gendarmes got into the village, they blocked each house, advanc-
ing towards the eastern side of the village. Taking advantage of that moment,
the Muslim villagers, with or without arms, began to set houses on fire and
loot, taking away everything from deserted houses.”22
Numerous documents of the State Commission for War Crime Investigation
also testify about the mass looting of Serbs property by their Muslim neigh-
bours. The looting of the Serbian village of Vlahovići, during the capturing
of Serbs from that village on 4th and 5th June 1941, was described in the
Commission documents in the following way: “While arresting villagers and
ransacking their houses, the Ustashas went on a looting spree, taking away
money, bedclothes, food and everything else of some value. The Ustashas
brought and collected the looted things near the primary school in Vlahovići
village. Among other things, 50 or 60 horses were also looted from this vil-
lage. The Ustashas loaded the looted things onto the horses and brought them
to Rankovci village. The remainder of the loot, which the Ustashas could not
take to Rankovci village, were partly destroyed and partly given away to local
Ustashas and Muslim villagers, who assisted in searching for and capturing
the Serbian men.”23 The other Serbian villages in Ljubinje County were ma-
rauded by Ustashas in the same way, while all looted things from these vil-
lages were collected in Rankovci village in an organised manner and after-
wards transported to Ljubinje. This shows that the looting of Serbian prop-
erty, having been done in parallel to the extermination of the Serb population,
was often conducted in a designed and planned manner rather than spontane-
ously and uncontrollably. After all, the plan of total extermination of the Serbs
in Herzegovina was pursued in the same manner.
Apart from movable property, the looters also wanted immovable property,
especially in the villages where the Serbs had been totally exterminated. A
similar example is the Serbian village of Pridvorica in Gacko County, whose
all villagers, from newborns to old people, were brutally killed and burnt on
7th and 8th January 1942 by their Muslim neighbours. Their estates and im-
movable property were confiscated by their recent neighbours. In some coun-
ties, the liquidation of Serbs and occupation of their estates was also con-
ducted in a planned manner rather than spontaneously. This was also testified
22
Savo Skoko, Obituary of the Ustasha-German Genocide Victims in Gacko Region 1941-
1944, p. 128.
23
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 51, p. 244 (The Ustasha Atrocities in Ljubinje County).
117
by the Bileća District Head Marko Šakić, who gave his testimony before the
State Commission for War Crime Investigation on 1st November 1946, say-
ing that in late June 1941, Boro Rotkvić from Trebinje, the first assistant to
Jure Francetić and the Ustasha delegate for Herzegovina, brought him a list
of 250 Serbs from Bileća to be liquidated and their estates handed over to
Muslims, also in accordance with the delivered list.24 This monstrous plan
had never been carried out, partly due to the opposition of Marko Šakić alone,
but mostly due to the Serb uprising, which was shortly after sparked in Bileća
County.
Be that as it may, the fact is that in all places in Eastern Herzegovina, imme-
diately upon the establishment of the Ustasha local government, the most re-
sponsible positions were, besides Croats, given to Muslims. Muhamed Šarić
was appointed the Ustasha Camp Commander in Trebinje, while his deputy
was Pero Šutić, the merchant. Members of the Ustasha Headquarters in
Trebinje were chemist Salko Regulović, photographer Jure Knežević, Nikola
Kisić, Reverend Marijan Vujinović and others.25 Although the Ustasha au-
thorities included those few Croats from Trebinje, the Muslims, as larger in
number, were in command nevertheless. This is also obvious from the afore-
said letter by Trebinje Croats to the Great District Perfect of Dubrovnik
County. In that letter, written on 3rd August 1941, four Croats from Trebinje,
some of which were notorious Ustasha war criminals, like Juraj Knežević and
Nikica Kisić, complained to the Great District Prefect of Dubrava County,
seated in Dubrovnik, about the behaviour of Trebinje Muslims, who had sud-
denly become “greater Catholics than the Pope.” Among other things, the let-
ter says the following: “Before the arrival of our Ustasha army, the situation
was somewhat bearable because they had been Croats in the offing; they had
been very timid and when they needed to utter the word ‘Croat’, they would
turn their heads several times to make sure nobody could hear them [...] Now,
since 20th May onwards, they have become so great patriots that we, Croatian
Catholics, have been so disfavoured as to fear for our own lives. These new
Croats are our Muslims [...] Ustashas came to Trebinje with our army and
began to punish the Chetniks [the Serbs, t/n]. The Muslims wanted to prove
themselves as patriots as much as possible so that they strived to cleanse the
town from as many Serbs as possible; the result was that some people got
killed who were less guilty than those who stayed alive. In one word, they
would imprison the one who was disfavoured by a policeman rather than
24
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 36, p. 177 (BiH State Commission record, compiled on 1st
November 1946, about the hearing of Marko Šakić).
25
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 42, p. 37 (Herzegovina County - A Short Register of Mass
Atrocities from 1941)
118
those who deserved it.”26 A State Commission document lists the following
Muslims as the most notorious war criminals in Trebinje: Šarić Muhamed, a
dental technician, president of the municipality in Trebinje and Hakija Šaran,
the chief of police. There was a note beside the names of these two men say-
ing, “a horrible slayer.” Furthermore, the document lists the following Mus-
lim Ustashas as notorious war criminals: Hilmija Habdul, Omer Bračković,
Šerif Salkić, Muharem Salkić, Ibro Salkić and Maho Salkić, Adem
Kapetanović, Fehim Rolić, Salko Resulović, Ibrahim Zubčević, Suljo
Zubčević, Hasan BuKovač, Muhamed Tafro, Hasan Arslanagić, Ibro Arslan-
agić and Ahmed Arslanagić.27
Immediately after the establishment of the NDH authority, two Ustasha Gen-
darme commands were formed with the headquarters in Mostar and Bileća.
The Bileća branch, with platoons in Trebinje, Bileća, Gacko and Nevesinje,
was in charge of Eastern Herzegovina. It was not at all by chance that lieu-
tenant colonel Muharem Aganović was appointed as the Bileća branch com-
mander. According to document of the State Commission, he arrived in
Bileća accompanied by 200 or 300 soldiers – Ustashas, “who wore red fezzes,
Muslim hats, on their heads.”28 Besides, local Muslims were entrusted with
the main positions in the Ustasha authority in Bileća County. Zaim Muštrović,
a grocer from Bileća, was appointed as the Ustasha Logornik, Meho
Zubčević, a tailor from Bileća, as Tabornik [municipal Ustasha commander,
t/n], and Salko Drljević, a teacher from Bileća, as Head of District.29 Since
Logornik Muštrović was an elderly and rather inactive man, Alija Šuljak ap-
pointed Šukrija Čustović, a barber from Bileća born in Gacko, as the new
Logornik. According to the records from the hearing of Marko Šukić, who
was sent from Sarajevo to Bileća as the head of district on 8th June 1941, it
seems that Bileća was lucky to have him as the district head, because it was
apparently owing to him that, during June, the Serbs from Bileća did not have
the same destiny as the Serbs in other Herzegovina counties. Namely, alt-
hough Alija Šuljak asked the district head Šakić to have respectable and well-
off Serbs and their families killed, and give their shops and estates to Mus-
lims, complaining that Marko Šakić had not implemented the Ustasha order
26
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 42 (a letter by four Trebinje Croats to the Great Great Dis-
trict Perfect of Dubrava County, 3rd August 1941).
27
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 43, p. 198 (A List of Notorious Ustasha Slayers in
Trebinje County)
28
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. (Herzegovina County - A Short Register of Mass Atroci-
ties from 1941) p. 36 (Herzegovina County - A Short Register of Mass Atrocities from
1941)
29
Ibid.
119
to send the Orthodox priest to a concentration camp, Šakić did not execute
the orders given by Alija Šuljak.30
In Ljubinje County, the joining of Muslims to the Ustasha movement started
as early as April 1941 and became massive very soon. As early as late May
1941, a high Ustasha delegation comprising Petar Petković, Jure Francetić,
Ivan Prpić and Franjo Vidas received a warm welcome by Muslims from Lju-
binje town and surrounding villages, while the welcome speech was given by
Ustasha Meho Kozlić, “glorifying the conquering army and the Ustasha
movement”31 At that time, the Ustasha authority in Ljubinje was established,
headed by Ustasha commissioner Juro Boroja and Leo Togonal, the Ustasha
envoy for Ljubinje County. Nazif Selman from Žabice village was appointed
the Ljubinje gendarme station chief. In the forthcoming days the Ustasha
leadership organised a number of gatherings aiming to win over the Muslims
from Ljubinje County to join the Ustasha movement on a massive scale. At
one of those massive gatherings in Ljubinje, there were around 500 to 600
people, mostly Muslims from the very town and surrounding villages, while
Leo Togonal [a Croat, t/n] would often wear a red fez in gatherings to encour-
age Ljubinje Muslims to join Ustasha units in large numbers.32 The results
of such Ustasha propaganda are very visible in the State Commission docu-
ments which, among other things, say the following: “By persistent glorifica-
tion of the new order, establishment of NDH and augmentation of the fascist
county forces, as well as different promises and assigning of different posi-
tions, Ustashas managed to draw a large number of Muslims from Ljubinje
County to join the Ustasha movement. About 300 Muslims from Ljubinje
town and surrounding villages immediately took weapon and joined the Usta-
sha units. The largest number of the Muslims joining the Ustasha movement
was from the villages of Žabice, Kruševica and Risnik.”33 Together with
Croatian Ustashas, they committed horrible atrocities against the Serbs from
Ljubinje County in the forthcoming days and months. The State Commission
documents mention a large number of Muslims from Ljubinje County who
took part in these monstrous atrocities, among which the most notorious were
individuals from the following families: Burek, Elezović, Malohodžić,
Taslaman, Žustra, Zečić, Mahmutović, Zubović, Meretilić, Rogačević, Česić,
Kurelјić and many others.
30
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 36, p. 177 (BiH State Commission record, compiled on
1st November 1946, about the hearing of Marko Šakić).
31
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 51, p. 241 (The Ustasha Atrocities in Ljubinje County).
32
Ibid., p. 242.
33
Ibid.
120
In the town of Nevesinje, the Ustasha authority was established by the noto-
rious Franjo Sudar, born in Gospić, Lika, one of the pre-war immigrant Usta-
shas. His main assistants, especially in planning and carrying on the horrible
atrocities against Nevesinje Serbs were the Croats Đorđe Preko and friar
Miroljub Skoko, and Muslims Šukrija Pekušić and Suljo Bašagić. They were
the members of his headquarters. Đorđe Preko was appointed the headquar-
ters commander and Šukrija Pekušić his deputy, while Suljo Bašagić became
the Mayor and one of Ustasha judges.34 Among Muslims from Nevesinje,
who were notorious in torturing and killing Serbs, the State Commission doc-
uments single out the three brothers from the Sabović family: Murat, Meho
and Šućur, then brothers Mujo, Nezir and Salko Ćatić from Hršut village,
Muho Toporan and Ibro Maslo from Pridvorci village, Bajro Gaković and
Ćamil Sajinagić from Kovačići village, Smajo Jugo from Postoljani village,
Adem Dugalić from Nevesinje etc.35
Gacko was a county with the highest percentage of the Muslim population in
Eastern Herzegovina and therefore the joining of Muslims to Ustasha units
was the most massive in this county, and the Ustasha atrocities were the
bloodiest in this very county. Immediately after the establishment of Ustasha
authority in Gacko, Hasan Čustović, former post office manager, was ap-
pointed the first district military commander. Together with Herman Krešo
Togonal, the Ustasha officer for Gacko County, he incited and organised mass
atrocities against Gacko Serbs, which were perpetrated by local Muslims.36
Apart from him, the Ustasha leaders in Gacko were Džemo Tanović, Mahmut
Čampara, Smajo and Hamid Dilić, Smajo Kurtović, Josip and Anka Rom,
Mumo Hasanbegović, Omer Kapetanović, Fehim Pašić, Avdo Zvizdić etc.37
Ustasha municipal military commanders sent Mahmut Čampara to Gacko,
Džemo Tanović Ibanović to the villages Kula Fazlagića and Avtovac and
Meho Salčin to Borča village, while in all Muslim villages in Gacko County
34
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 22, p. 136 (State Commission Decision No. 1763, as of
8th August 1947, on declaring Franjo Sudar a war criminal) and document No. 24, p. 148
(State Commission record as of 18 June 1946, on the hearing of several witnesses about
Ustasha crimes of genocide in Nevesinje).
35
Zbornik, Vol. I, document from No. 23 to 35, pp. 144-172.
36
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 9, p. 96-97 (Decision by the BiH State Commission No.
1583 on declaring Hasan Čustović as a war criminal).
37
1944, 55,
121
armed military units were formed with the local Muslims, the so-called Usta-
sha roj [a military unit roughly equal to a squad, t/n].38 In all units, com-
manders and soldiers were almost exclusively the local Muslims. The most
notorious Ustasha slayers in Eastern Herzegovina were from Kula Fazlagića
and Borča, two districts comprised of clusters of mainly Muslim villages. The
Ustasha authorities, upon the approval by the Italians, formed the Ustasha
militia comprising Gacko Muslims, or patrol corps, after the similar units in
the First World War. As early as late 1941, there were over 2000 heavily
armed Ustasha militia members, including 700 of those who were not from
Borča but who had come from Foča, Goražde and other places in the Drina
River valley, fleeing from the Chetniks who had occupied and kept these
places under control. The only task of this militia from Borče was to assault
and plunder the surrounding Serbian villages. Their commitment to the task
was so passionate that the NDH head of state, Ante Pavelić, decorated in June
and July 1942 even 150 Muslims from Borča, giving them credit for brutal
extermination of the Serbs in those areas.39 Kula Fazlagića was also a big
Ustasha stronghold in Gacko County, which is the common name for a com-
plex of the Muslim villages on the southern rim of Gacko field. Together with
Muslims from Gacko, Gračanica and Avtovac, they massively joined Ustasha
units in early June, while “for a great number of Gacko Muslims, especially
those from Fazlagića Kula, the Ustasha gun became the greatest sanctity after
Allah.”40 It has already been said that Kula Fazlagića Muslims, lead by hodža
Glavinić, committed the first organised mass crime against the Herzegovina
Serbs in Korita village, in the night between 4th and 5th July 1941. After that,
they brutally cleansed Kula Fazlagića from Serbs, whereas their genocidal
campaign across Serbian villages was stopped by the June uprising of Serbs
in Gacko. However, the Serbian villages in vicinity of Kula Fazlagića unpro-
tected by the rebels continued to be the target of their campaign. For example,
Muslim Ustasha squad from Kula Fazlagića, Gacko and Gračanica, with
around 400 Ustashas, attacked the Serbian village Srđevice in early Septem-
ber 1941, killed all villagers who did not manage to get through the siege,
looted and then burned the village to the ground. After that, they continued
their killing spree against the Serbs from the villages of Medanići, Nadinići,
38
Their commanders were: Jašar Selimović in Dobro Polјe, Nazif Voloder in Nadinići,
Zajko Muhović in Muhovići, Sajto Bašić in Bašići, Arif Zulović in Drugovići, Ajdin Škalјić
in Klјuč, Alija Hebib in Cernica, Džemo Tanović Ibanović in Međulići, Avdo Zvizdić in
Gacko, Avdo Krvavac in Gračanica, Mujo Bauk in Ravni and Meho Salčin in Borče (Ibid,
19)
39
Savo Skoko, The Bloody Reel of Herzegovina, book 1, 342.
40
1944, 124.
122
Rudo Polje and Mala Gračanica. Up until the end of the Second World War,
Kula Fazlagića remained an Ustasha stronghold in Herzegovina and a con-
stant threat to the Serbian population in that area.
In the end, it needs to be said that Eastern Herzegovina was not an exception
in terms of the massive joining of Muslims to Ustasha units in 1941. The
similar situation was also in other Herzegovina counties. The municipality of
Berkovići can be taken as an example; at the time, it belonged to the Stolac
County, where the main organisers and perpetrators of the massacre of more
than 200 Serbs from this municipality, in June 1941, were Muslims. The most
notorious among them was Osman Đulepa, the Ustasha municipal military
commander and his closest associates: hodža Brezović, Osman Jašarević and
Meho Jašarević and others.41 Besides, the State Commission documents list
the names of a large number of Muslims from the counties of Stolac, Čapljina,
Mostar and Konjic, who not only organised mass massacres of Serbs in these
counties but took part in the slaughter as well. The survived witnesses even
claim that organising the Ustasha militia began immediately after the collapse
of Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the April War 1941, and “the organisers are the
locals, mostly Muslims, while the Croats were much less involved in the Usta-
sha movement.”42 Not to mention the executors of women, children and old
men from Prebilovci village, like Murat Šoš, who engaged in looting the Ser-
bian houses in Prebilovci while the victims were still locked in the school,
and his sons Ramo, Salko, Halid, Meša, Ahmet and Mujo, who were winning
their sad glory of Ustasha warriors by raping Prebilovci women and girls,
even little girls, in the Prebilovci school.43 And not only them, but many,
many others.
Talking about the substantial presence of Muslims in Ustasha troops in West-
ern Herzegovina, a convincing proof is a list of Croats and Muslims who took
part in arresting and killing Serbs in the town of Mostar and its surroundings.
The list was compiled by two Croats from Mostar, Cvitan Spužević and
Blaško Slišković, during WWII or, more precisely, in February and March
1943. The original list is stored in the Archive of the Serbian Academy of
Sciences and Arts (SANU) and has been published recently. Among the total
41
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 33, p. 164 (Verdict by Mostar District Court No. 79/45,
as of 12th February 1946 against war criminal Osman Djulepa).
42
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 3, p. 11 (Record from the hearing of witnesses Petar Ku-
rilić and Predrag Marić, as of 11 March 1043 in the
43
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 64, p. 336 (State Commission record as of 7thJune 1946,
on the hearing of several witnesses about Ustasha crimes of genocide in Nevesinje).
123
of 533 names of the war criminals who were the leading arrestors and execut-
ers of Serbs from Mostar during WWII, there are 106 Muslims.44
It must not be forgotten that a group of distinguished Muslims from Mostar,
mostly of pro-Serbian or pro-communist orientation, led by Husaga Čiškić
and Smailaga Ćemalović, tried to implement a resolution designed to turn
back their Muslim compatriots from a tragic path they were directed to by the
new Croatian government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The resolution con-
demns “countless atrocities, injustice, iniquities and forced conversions to
Catholicism having been done and being done against the Orthodox Serbs,”
which is entirely unfamiliar to the “soul of every Muslim" since the Islam
religion “considers a mortal sin the killing or torturing of the innocent as well
as looting other people's estates and undertaking forced conversion.”45 The
signatories of the Resolution appeal to Muslims not to fall for the intentions
of intellectual originators or perpetrators of the atrocities and recommend liv-
ing with their neighbours in peace and harmony.46 However, this voice of
reason did not echo too far, while the signatories of the Resolution themselves
feared for their own lives, especially those who felt and declared themselves
as Serbs. Such is the example of Smailaga Ćemalović, the second signatory
of the Resolution and probably one of the main instigators of its preparation.
Otherwise, Smailaga Ćemalović had been a well-known Serbian national ac-
tivist since the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Among other things, he established the Serbian revolutionary youth associa-
tion called The Serbian Youth together with the Serb Vladimir Gaćinović in
Sarajevo in 1912. He had been pursued for his national activism by the Aus-
tro-Hungarian authorities and captured in the concentration camp in Arad dur-
ing the First World War. In the period between the two world wars, he became
one of the most distinguished members of the People's Radical Party in Her-
zegovina. However, he was martyred for his Serbian national orientation in
Jasenovac concentration camp.
Given all this, it is clear that the main force of the Ustasha movement in a
large part of Herzegovina consisted of local Muslims and, had it not been for
44
Mile Stanić, A List of Croats and Muslims who participated in arresting and killing Serbs
in Mostar and its Surroundings, "A Collection Book for BiH History" No. 7, SANU, Bel-
grade 2012, 686-399.
45
Zbornik, Vol. I, document No. 94, p. 427 (The Resolution of Mostar Muslims).
46
Some of the signatories of the Resolution were: Husaga Čišić, Smailaga Ćemalović,
Omer Kalajčić, Omer Ćabić, Ibrahim Fehić, Ibrahim Slipičević, Sulejman Krpo, Dr Salih
Komadina, Mehmed Grebo, Husen Puzić, Ahmet Karabah, Ibrahim Ribica, Derviš Grebo,
Ahmet Avdić, Ibrahim Lakišić, Hasan aga Hadrović, Alaga Duraković and Hadži beg
(Ibid).
124
their support and mass participation, Croats would have been unable to com-
mit such horrible genocide and atrocities against the Serbs in that area. This
especially refers to the Eastern Herzegovina, where the Croats were in a size-
able minority and, as such, unable to independently implement the Ustasha
leadership's directives on the extermination of the Serbs from that area.
A special chapter of the dishonourable role of a great majority of Muslims
from Eastern Herzegovina during the Second World War is the unparalleled
brutality, sadism and merciless destruction of the Serbs, from babies in cots
to helpless, even immobile elderly. A vast number of documents, as well as
literature from that period speak about the brutality and sadism, but nobody
has ever managed to get deeper into the psychological profile of those who
were able to commit such appalling atrocities against their recent neighbours,
friends and even best men and godfathers. Not to mention the psychological
profile of those who were capable of slaughtering, impaling, throwing into pit
caves and burning children, even tiny babies. Out of innumerable examples
of unheard-of brutality and sadism, this is only one from the indictment of the
Mostar District Court against the Ustasha slayer Himzo Vukotić from the vil-
lage of Cernica near Gacko, who, based on the testimony of the witnesses,
one of whom was his own wife, Selma Vukotić, “expressed particular blood-
thirstiness, and who used to eat bread dipped into the blood of the killed.”47
No comment.
47
Zbornik, Vol. II, document No. 29, p. 138 (Verdict by Mostar District Court No. 807/46,
as of 31th May 1946 against war criminal Himzo Vukotić).
125
Boško Buha
NDH ATROCITIES
AGAINST THE SERBS,
JEWS AND ROMA IN
NEVESINJE COUNTY
1941-1945
Throughout history, Nevesinje was taking an active part in all rebellions and
uprisings sparked by the Serbs, since the Battle of Kosovo in the medieval
period onwards, against different occupiers and their terror. Some of the up-
risings were organised and lead by Nevesinje Serbs themselves, whereas
other uprisings were joined by Serbs and other peoples who lived in that area.
Uprisings and rebellions were often sparked regardless of the power and cru-
elty of the enemy as well as the cost to be paid. Nevesinje had always been
attacked but never submissive or conquered. Nevesinje Serbs want to live hu-
manly and in freedom and this is why they discard a life in slavery and choose
liberty: EVERYTHING FOR FREEDOM, FREEDOM FOR NOTHING!
Throughout many centuries, blood of defiant rebels was shed here, freedom
celebrated and lives lost for freedom and in its name.
In their struggle for survival, the Serbs showed fierce determination and re-
markable courage, the witnesses of which are all the uprisings, sparked in
1875, 1882, 1941 and 1992. This is how Nevesinje has left significant marks
in the history of Serbs through its righteous struggle for the survival of Serbs.
All that influenced the fundamental strengthening of Serbs and their urge for
freedom.
This caused Nevesinje to be a constant target of the cruellest assaults by the
enemies of Serbs, who did not have other choice but to disappear or stand up
and fight for their survival and freedom paid for with many lives.
127
The panorama of Nevesinje, with the garrison buildings as its main landmark, which the
Ustashas turned into their notorious camp in 1941, and where several hundreds of
Nevesinje Serbs were killed
After the April War of 1941, the situation in the dismembered and occupied
Kingdom of Yugoslavia was characterised by a brutal terror by the occupier
and its local supporters, as well as anti-occupier mood of the Serbs. There
were signs of passive resistance against the occupier across the Serbian areas.
When individual and, later on, mass arresting began, the Serbs started the
armed resistance against the occupier, defending themselves from biological
extermination and without waiting for any appeals or orders.
The best confirmation of this is the July 1941 uprising, when virtually the
whole of Europe was occupied by Nazis and fascists, the cruellest tyranny in
the human history. This uprising was the spark that flared the fire of the four-
year liberation war against the fascist occupiers and their local helpers. That
was a spontaneous, nationwide rebellion against horrible atrocities of NDH,
committed in order to entirely uproot the Serbs from rebellious Herzegovina.
Therefore, it was again the fight for survival at hearths of their great-grand-
fathers.
Besides this basic reason for the uprising, the other, equally important reason
was, which needs to be pointed out, the Soviet Union entering the war against
the Axis powers. That gave Herzegovina Serbs unwavering faith in the un-
breakable power of Russia and traditional strength of the Russian people.
128
That news was, as historians say, a flash of lightning which enlightened the
dark atmosphere of hopelessness shrouding the Serbs in the puppet state of
NDH, and incited the spontaneous armed resistance against the NDH. Alt-
hough the rebels in the June 1941 uprising could not expect any kind of help
from anywhere, they decided to spark the uprising, the first in occupied Eu-
rope, because the physical existence of the Serbs in the region was threatened.
The Serbs, noticing the Ustashas' intention and realising the danger they were
in, began to resist and seek refuge (in the closest forests and mountains).
The June uprising prevented, at least temporarily, a planned Ustasha geno-
cide, the so-called “St. Vitus’ Day Campaign,” as well as all actions having
been done since the establishment of the Ustasha authority in Nevesinje.
The first attempt of the establishment of the Ustasha authority in Nevesinje
took place on 15th April 1941. However, it was not a success. Only after the
decision by the Axis powers in the Vienna conference held on 21st and 22nd
April, when Bosnia and Herzegovina formally became a part of the NDH,
was the Ustasha authority established in Eastern Herzegovina during April
and May 1941, under the auspices of German and Italian troops. Representa-
tives of the local Ustasha authority welcomed the occupiers with flowers. In
Nevesinje, it was done by the following highest Ustasha officials: Smajo Jugo
from Postolјani village, Jure Vasilј and Stjepan Buconjić from Srednja Voda
village, Rizvan Ćatić from Rabine village, Sulejman Bašagić from the town
of Nevesinje (also Adem Hajrović and Adem Dugalić), Luka Jarak from
Bakračuša, Halil Kosović from Postolјani, Vidak Arapović from Palјev Do
(Bišina) and Nikola Mlađenović.
A wholesale massacre of Herzegovina Serbs during the April War did not
happen owing to the intervention of the Italian occupying troops, who offered
protection to Herzegovina Serbs. Unfortunately, the order in troubled Herze-
govina imposed by the Italian troops did not last long – until the signing of
the so-called Treaties of Rome on 18th May 1941 by the Independent State
of Croatia and Kingdom of Italy. The day after the signing of the Treaties, the
Italian consulate in Zagreb submitted a note verbale to the NDH to inform
that all civil administration on the territory of the NDH having been until then
under the authority of the Italian occupational forces was to be transferred, as
of 20th May, to the Croatian government. Thus the whole of Herzegovina was
at the mercy of Ustashas. Meanwhile, the authorities of the newly formed
“independent” Croatia enacted a number of legal acts practically outlawing
the Serbs, Jews and Roma.
129
Therefore, the Ustasha authority in Herzegovina was established only after

the Treaties of Rome – in the period 20th May – 1st June 1941. Under the
auspices of the NDH armed forces, which were being formed and which took
over all garrisons and gendarme stations being previously controlled by the
Italian troops and the Carabinieri. At the same period, municipal authorities
and county councils were established, as well as districts. Eastern Herze-
govina belonged to the Great District of Dubrava, with its seat in Dubrovnik.
Parallel to the establishment of state authority bodies, an extensive network
of Ustasha organisational units was being developed. The establishment of
the Ustasha authority was accompanied by a fierce anti-Serb campaign with
the maximum of exploitation of negative historical legacy, which left deep
traces of chauvinism and ethnic and religious hatred.
Nevesinje garrison building as a collection centre for the Serbs captured by Ustasha
patrols
In the early May, the first military NDH unit came from Zagreb to Nevesinje
and together with them an Ustasha squad led by officer Franjo Sudar (arrested
in 1945 and sentenced to death as a war criminal). By the end of May, these
units were joined by 116 local Ustashas and 150 Ustashas from other places.
Also, a regiment of the Italian Blackshirt Division and a regiment of the Cro-
atian Home Guard from the Adriatic Division Zone stayed until 17th June in
the Nevesinje Garrison. Thus the town of Nevesinje also became a polygon
for the mustering and training of fanatical Croatian and Muslim degenerates,
who would soon perpetrate terrible atrocities against the innocent Serb popu-
lation. Until that moment (the arrival of Ustashas from other places), the local
Ustashas were rather unnoticed. Only four of them were publicly known and
talked of (Sulejman Bašagić, a bankrupt land owner appointed as the
130
Nevesinje mayor, Šućrija Pekušić, a bankrupt merchant appointed as the

Ustasha commissioner in the local council, Đorđe Preka, a bankrupt tavern
owner appointed as the Ustasha district military commander and friar Jure
Jarak).
By late May, 116 people had joined the Ustashas in Nevesinje. They were all
from Nevesinje County and were mostly Muslims, since a small number of
Croats lived in Nevesinje anyway. Nevesinje County encompassed the area
of today’s municipality, Ulog and several villages of today's municipality of
Gacko. The County was a part of the Great District of Hum with its seat in
Mostar. An Ustasha military district command was formed on the site of
Nevesinje military barracks, while Ustasha municipal military commands
were formed in Sopilji and Rabina. Gendarme stations were established in:
Nevesinje, Lukavac, Fojnica, Rilje, Ulog, Kruševljani, Bišina and, during
summer, Morine. Ustasha units from other places, mainly from Ljubuški,
came to Nevesinje in late May.
When they came, the local Nevesinje Ustashas immediately joined them and
started their propaganda campaign. They declare themselves competent ad-
ministration authority even for the civil NDH authorities and begin organising
and establishing their power. They replace the officers such as head of county,
mayor, school principals, while commanders of gendarme stations receive a
circular notice ordering to hand over the station to one of their gendarmes,
who is either Croat or Muslim, if they have not already done it themselves.
After that, they begin making lists of Muslim and Croatian cadres to consti-
tute administrative bodies.
The same day, the Ustashas imposed a 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. curfew, obligatory
blackouts and prohibition of putting any Croatian symbols on Serbian houses
except for a white flag, while other houses must have a Croatian flag raised.
The purpose of this order was more than obvious – a clear and public marking
of Serbian houses, so that Ustashas knew which houses to raid and take Serbs
to the military camp, from which very few of them came back, as well as to
know which houses to plunder. With the same purpose, the Ustashas ap-
pointed “commissioners” for the shops owned by Serbs. Upon their arrival in
Nevesinje, the Ustashas immediately pulled down the monument erected in
memory of the 1875 Nevesinje Uprising, and Nikola Mlađenović issued an
order for all Serbs to submit a request for conversion into Catholicism.
After the establishment of their authority, the Ustashas hurried to carry out
their plans to destroy the Serbs and Jews who lived in this area. After short
military and political preparations, the Ustasha authorities began the first
wave of genocide against Herzegovina Serbs in the night between 31st May
131
and 1st June 1941. The method of arresting and apprehending was brutal, as
well as the execution itself. In groups of three, the Ustashas raided Serbian
houses at daybreak, forcing sleepy people out of their beds and taking them
to collective centres “for a hearing.” Each group had a local Croat or Muslim
with them, who knew the victim in person.
In Nevesinje, they first arrested the most respectful people, a proven method
of Serbian enemies for intimidation and beheading of the people. They were
all killed afterwards. The collective centre for all arrested Serbs was the
Nevesinje military barracks turned into an Ustasha camp.
After covering the whole of Herzegovina with a dense network of Home
Guard garrisons, Ustasha gendarme stations and military units, Ustasha
troops moved “from words to deeds.” After the coming of a gendarme platoon
led by Rudolf Kučer to Nevesinje and 150 “Croatian protective hunters" from
Western Herzegovina and the first lieutenant Franjo Sudar with a dozen of
Ustashas, several days after joined by 116 volunteers from Nevesinje and its
surroundings, who had already been received a military training and were
uniformed, arresting and apprehending Nevesinje Serbs “for a hearing” and
their execution at the Ustasha camp in the military barracks became more
intensive. As early as 1st June, the first and completely innocent victim died
in rebellious Nevesinje; it was Miloš Ninković, a third-grade student of the
Public School.
The first lieutenant Franjo Sudar himself killed the student before a large
number of appalled citizens. That was the cruel, atrocious way the first inno-
cent victim of the newly formed Ustasha local authority, a 14-year-old stu-
dent, fell in Nevesinje. That horrific crime was allegedly committed because
Miloš's father Svetozar, the head of Nevesinje tax administration at the time,
fled from Ustashas taking away the key to the administration safe deposit box.
An Ustasha troika searched for Miloš's father Svetozar and when they did not
manage to find him, they directed they anger at Miloš.
In fact, Miloš told Franjo Sudar that his father had gone to the village of
Odžak to visit a friend. Lieutenant Sudar immediately had Miloš put into a
truck and driven to Odžak. Since they did not find Svetozar there, the Ustasha
patrol realised they had been tricked so they roped Miloš to the truck and
dragged him nine kilometres along a potholed macadam road all the way
down to Nevesinje. When they arrived at the town square, in front of a tavern
called Pod lipom [Under the Linden Tree, t/n], the most famous and best vis-
ited tavern in the town, the boy was unconscious and covered in blood. They
ordered town criers to announce lieutenant Sudar's command that all citizens
132
come to the town square immediately, under the threat of a heavy punishment
for those who disobey.
In less than an hour, a large number of citizens gathered in the square; there
was also Miloš's mother, who was watching the execution of her son. Pointing
his finger at tortured Miloš, who was entirely covered in blood, lieutenant
Sudar addressed the crowd, saying that “the Croatian kangaroo court sen-
tenced this student to death as he had hidden his father, a Chetnik and fugitive,
deceived the Ustashas and therefore deserved to be sentenced to death.” He
pulled out his gun and, to absolute astonishment of the present citizens, shot
the helpless boy in his face several times.
The following day, another victim fell, a man called Đorđo Buha. The Usta-
sha authorities, aware of the Serbian centuries-old libertarian spirit, hurried
to intimidate the Serbs and discourage any idea of rebellion against their
newly established authority. However, this produced the opposite effect and
made the people of Nevesinje the first to rise against fascism and their puppet
governments and states such as the Independent State of Croatia.
The suffering of Đorđe Buha was connected with the notorious Ustasha
Franjo Sudar, who led a punitive expedition of 70 Ustashas to the village of
Plužine to arrest respected Serbs and bring them to the Nevesinje camp, which
had been turned into a collective centre. When they caught up with Đorđo
Buha on the Ulog-Kalinovik road, who was transporting sacks of flour from
a watermill on the Zalomka River by cart, they asked him his name. When he
introduced himself, Franjo Sudar told him: “We actually need you, because it
is you we've been searching for.” They killed him on the spot, hung his dead
body upside down and pushed his cart and oxen into an abyss by the road.
Đorđe's corpse hung under the road to warn and intimidate, so that everybody
could see it.
After Đorđe's execution, the Ustasha unit proceeded to Gornje Plužine to con-
tinue killing and taking captives. They drove in a bus and a personal car. On
their way from Gornje Plužine to Donje Plužine, the bus broke down so they
had to stop and stay there for a while to fix it. While they were fixing the bus,
a man called Dušan Laketa was going along the same road on horseback,
carrying some flour from the same watermill as murdered Đorđe Buha. Dušan
Laketa went by Đorđe Buha's corpse and when he noticed the Ustashas re-
pairing the broken bus, he immediately realised what had happened and who
had done it. Since he was alone with his horse, he easily slipped away unno-
ticed and rushed to his village of Gornje Plužine to inform the villagers about
what he had just seen. Rushing to his village, he came across some shepherds
133
who had also seen the same from a nearby forest and who told Dušan what
they had seen.
After that, Dušan was fully aware of what had happened on the road near his
village. As soon as he got there and told everybody what he had seen and
heard, adult males from the village immediately packed their things and fled
to the nearby forest, aware of their fate if the Ustashas found them at home.
When they fixed the bus, the Ustashas arrived in their destination in Gornje
Plužine.
They immediately spread out; one group surrounded the village, while the
remaining Ustashas searched the houses and other buildings, asking women
and children where their fathers, husbands and sons were. The Ustashas found
only two boys in the village and took them towards lieutenant Sudar's car,
where he was sitting and waiting for his prey. Furious about the failure of the
action, he ordered the Ustashas to release the two boys, because they had not
managed to arrest the ones they had been searching for, i.e. six respected
youths and adult males. By a turn of fate, of all the people on their hit list,
they found and killed only Đorđe Buha.
These days, Ustasha patrols from the Bakračuša gendarme station (on the
Nevesinje - Mostar road) also killed a man called Milan Brstina, allegedly
because he had bravely fought against the Ustasha rebellions in Mostar during
the 1941 April War, as a soldier of an artillery battery. These men were the
first three victims of the Ustasha regime in Nevesinje, in late May and early
June.
After the capitulation of the Royal Yugoslav Army in April 1941, many citi-
zens of Nevesinje got killed on their way back home from the places they had
lived and worked in until then. Such was also the fate of Radovan Bratić and
Vaso Aleksić, both from the village of Crgovo. Radovan was a teacher and
reserve army officer in Užice, Serbia, and Vaso worked in a textile factory in
Ivanjica, Serbia. On their way back to Nevesinje, Ustasha patrols arrested
them in Sarajevo, where they disappeared for good. Their relatives have never
either discovered what happened to them or found their mortal remains to
give them a decent Christian burial. This is just one of the numerous examples
of where and how Serbs from Nevesinje and other places lost their lives at the
hands of the Ustasha regime.
The first mass atrocities in Nevesinje committed by Ustashas took place in
the village of Udrežnje on 2nd June 1941. At the dawn of 2nd June 1941,
about 80 members of lieutenant Sudar's Ustasha horde raided the village, 10
kilometres away from Nevesinje, and brutally killed 27 people. They went
134
from house to house, knocking on the door and asking for somebody to come
out. Most often, that would be the head of the family as it took place at the
daybreak. When somebody would come out, he would be killed instantly in
the doorway. The killed were from the following families: Vujadinović, Dra-
gović, Kljakić, Šipovac, Vukosav and Škipina. Two of the killed were
women. Brothers Veljko Kljakić and Milovan Kljakić were killed in the small
village church, where the Ustashas barbarically broke the church furnishings,
ripped the icons with bayonets, burnt the Gospel books and threw priests'
cassocks over the corpses of Kljakić brothers. One man was brought to
Nevesinje to be killed later as well as other captives. That was the 28th victim
that day. During their return from the village to Nevesinje, the Ustashas dec-
orated the barrels of their guns with roses. The number of roses in the gun
barrel represented the number of Serbs killed that morning.
The following day, 3rd June 1941, the Ustashas set off for the village of Donji
Drežanj with the same intention. However, people from Drežanj had already
learnt about the atrocities committed in Udrežnje, since the Ustashas had
spent the whole night revelling in the Nevesinje hotel and other taverns, brag-
ging about their misdeeds and saying they were preparing to do the same in
Drežanj. The villagers of Drežanj took those threats very seriously, so they
were cautious the whole night, keeping guard around the village. The adult
males from Drežanj gathered in the house of Tomo Ivković, a First World
War Serbian soldier and holder of the Order of the Star of Karađorđe [the
decoration established in Serbia in 1904 by King Peter I for exceptional merit
rendered to the King, State and Nation, for civilian or military service, t/n].
Present was also Obren Ivković, a non-commissioned officer, later famous
Partisan commander and a national hero of Yugoslavia.
135
They were discussing what to do the whole night. Eventually, they decided to
mount armed resistance in case Ustashas raid the village. There were 40 guns
in the village. They also decided to evacuate women, children and the elderly
together with their personal belongings and livestock to a nearby woody hill
called Glog, at first light. How seriously the Ustashas were preparing for at-
tacking the village and how much they were afraid of the villagers is visible
from the fact that they sent a reconnaissance plane, which was a clear sign
that the attack would soon begin, which happened two hours later.
Lieutenant Sudar's “protective hunters” tried to repeat in Donje Drežnje what
they had done in Udrežnje, but the villagers of Donje Drežnje opened fire and
made the Ustashas flee in panic. It was only in the second attempt in the af-
ternoon, when the Ustashas received powerful reinforcements which they
managed to get into the village, deserted since the defenders had run out of
ammunition and decided to withdraw as the Ustashas were too strong after
the reinforcements came. As a result, the defenders left their posts and with-
drew towards the other villagers who had sought refuge before.
The only people they found in the village were an elderly woman called To-
dora Ivković, who they shot in the mouth, and a woman called Cvijeta
Ivković, who was also from the same village, with a one-year-old daughter
Anđela. The Ustashas cut open Cvijeta's chest and put the little girl onto them.
On their way back after returning to Nevesinje, they came across a man called
Branko Stajić, who was from the neighbouring village. The Ustashas took
hapless Branko with them, tortured him brutally and eventually killed him.
Needless to say, Ustashas would have slaughtered all the villagers of Donje
136
Drežnje in the same manner, as they had done with the villagers of Udrežnje,
if they had not mounted the armed resistance. These shots from Donje
Drežnje practically marked the beginning of the armed resistance against the
Ustasha regime and their German and Italian protectors, the first resistance
against fascism in occupied Europe.
That was the beginning of the Nevesinje anti-fascist uprising, which, on 24th
June, grew into a general uprising on the territory of Nevesinje County. Our
distinguished historian and participant in these happenings, Savo Skoko, says:
“The first armed resistance against the Ustasha terror in rebellious Nevesinje
sparked off the June uprising of Herzegovina Serbs against fascism. After that
resistance, the idea of a massive uprising and elimination of the Ustasha re-
gime in Eastern Herzegovina spread widely across people, who were becom-
ing more and more aware that the newly established state would not restore
at least some order and prevent the rampage of irresponsible groups and indi-
viduals. The belief was also dismissed that armed resistance should be
avoided and, instead, people should seek refuge in Montenegro or elsewhere
until the chauvinist euphoria was over and life got back to its normal course,
as it was more than obvious that it was a bandit state that outlawed the Serbs.”
After the unexpected armed resistance in Donji Drežan, the Ustasha hunters
did not dare to get into pathless Nevesinje villages anymore; instead, they
focused on quiet town people and villages accessible by road.
Those days, the Ustasha “protective hunters” also arrested nine respected men
from the villages of Rabina, Bukorić and Jasen, took them to the Nevesinje
camp and executed. After these atrocities, lieutenant Sudar drove by trucks
full of Ustashas to the village of Ulog on Neretva River to arrest brothers
Radovan and Danilo Tunguz, the sons of famous Pero Tunguz, one of the
main leaders of the 1875 Nevesinje uprising against the Ottomans. Lieutenant
Sudar was affraid of his sons and their reputation among the Serbs. He knew
that they would also, like their father, lead people against the Ustasha terror.
So he decided to liquidate them without delay. On the way from Nevesinje to
Ulog, Sudar arrested a road worker called Milan Ćeklić, who was at work,
took him to Ulog and shot him theatrically the same way he did the day before
with a man called Miloš Nišavić in Nevesinje, before the villagers of Ulog,
and with Luka Bojović, the respected merchant from Ulozi.
Another group of “hunters” raided the village of Grabovica and killed Milan
Stajić, a gendarme who had fled from Ustashas to his village to avoid execu-
tion. Afterwards the Ustashas burnt several houses and killed a woman with
a child in her arms and threw her in the fire of a burning house. On their way
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back to Nevesinje, they captured a housewife called Ljubica Unković, who

was carrying lunch for her family members who were working in the field,
killed her and left her body in the middle of the road.
The impact on important international agreements and treaties on situation in
small places is illustrated by an event that took place in Nevesinje. Namely,
when Milan Nedić [a Serbian general and politician, the chief of the general
staff of the Yugoslav Army, minister of war in the Royal Yugoslav Govern-
ment and the prime minister of a Nazi-backed Serbian puppet government
during World War II, t/n], under the pressure of Nazi Germany, agreed to
form the government in Belgrade, he also set a condition that the Germans
exert pressure on Ante Pavelić to stop the killing of Serbs in NDH. That had
effect, as the captives who were in the army barracks were set free.
At that moment, they did not know about the agreement but though that it had
to have been an act of good will and mercy, or even some political changes.
The freed captives were shouting in the streets: “Long live Pavelić!” How-
ever, their joy did not last long; these days, the notorious Ustasha slayer Jure
Francetić [an Ustasha Commissioner for Bosnia and Herzegovina regions of
NDH and commander of the 1st Ustasha Regiment of the Ustasha militia,
later known as the Black Legion. In both roles he was responsible for the
massacre of Bosnian Serbs and Jews, t/n] came to Herzegovina and immedi-
ately ordered the execution of 20 respected Nevesinje Serbs. Ustasha patrols
did it quickly and arrested again those who had been set free several days
before unless they hid somewhere out of the town. So long was the joy of
those martyrs and the Ustasha promise.
After the armed resistance of the villagers of Donji Drežanj, Ustashas were
quiet several days, waiting for help. They would arrest people only in the
town and its suburb. They did not wait for help for too long, since Jure Fran-
cetić, the main Pavelić's commissioner for Bosnia and Herzegovina, was sent
to Northern Herzegovina. He arrived in Nevesinje on 9th June. In order to
intimidate the people of Nevesinje and let all those who would dare to rebel
against the Ustasha authority know what kind of fate they would suffer, the
same day Jure Francetić issued an order to the Nevesinje Ustasha camp for
the execution of 20 most respected captives who had been arrested by Lieu-
tenant Sudar’s “protective hunters” as revenge for the armed resistance. As
ordered, the twenty people were massacred with specially designed iron bars,
mallets, rifle butts and knives in the cells of the Nevesinje military camp in
the night between 9th and 10th June.
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Before they were killed, the captives were sadistically tortured. The Ustashas cut
off their genitals, gouged out their eyes, plucked the beard and moustache, broke
their arms and legs, hammered nails into their heads, ripped their bellies open and
eventually beheaded them.
They threw the corpses of massacred captives into holes near the former gen-
darme station, covered them with earth and flattened, and then seeded potato
over them. The following people were buried there: Milso Glogovac,
ĐorđeVučetić, Nikola Mandić,Gojko Čorlija, Đorđe Bajović, Nikola Adžić,
Petar Savić, Boro Vasilјević, Niko Grujičić, Stanimir Popović, Savo Jeremi ,
Tripo Šolaja, Božo Savić, Desimir Bošnjak, Vukašin Samardžić, Mihajlo
Mandić, Risto Todorović, Vukota Radović, Radovan Vujičić and Mirko
Gačić.
The corpses were dug out after the arrival of Italians in Nevesinje in Septem-
ber 1941, who re-established their authority, re-occupied the area and sus-
pended the Ustashas for their extreme brutality and atrocities they had com-
mitted against the Serbs in Nevesinje County.
After the coming of Jure Francetić to Nevesinje and the brutal massacre of 20
most distinguished men from that town, the rumours spread among people
that the Ustashas were preparing a detailed plan to destroy the Serbs from
Nevesinje County. In accordance with that, town criers would call for Serbs
to come to the military camp, regardless of the sex or age. They sent the same
orders to villages, which is best illustrated by an order sent to the teacher
Blažena Đačić from the primary school in the village of Rilja.
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The letter said that she was to assemble all of her pupils and their parents on
20th June for the alleged school certificate award. The real plan was to take
all of them to the Nevesinje camp. The Ustashas also drove a bus in front of
the school. However, the people saw through their real intent knowing what
sort of atrocities they had done before, so that only one pupil appeared that
morning. It was him who left the memory of that event.
After the failure of their plan, the Ustashas did not give up their criminal in-
tent and therefore they sent an order to the village of Zalom for all men aged
16-20 to come to the gendarme station in Rilja on 23th June 1941 for an
agreement with the new authorities. That morning, a few trucks came to Rilja,
which was a clear sign that the Ustashas intended to pick up everybody who
followed the order and take them to the Nevesinje camp. Unfortunately for
them, the trucks returned empty, just like the buses two days before. The fact
that also influenced that nobody from Rilja came to the meeting with the Usta-
shas was the news, which people from Zalom heard that morning, that the war
had started between the Soviet Union and Germany. The people became filled
with excitement and shots were fired to celebrate the news, so the decision
was made not to go to Rilja to negotiate with the Ustashas because they as-
sumed what would happen to them.
The villagers of Zalom made a brave and life-changing decision to go to Rilja
but with guns in their hands together with the villagers of Kolešče (rebels
from across Zalomka River, who had already been under arms and organised
in the Kolešče regiment for protection of the village against Ustashas' raids).
Communicating by firing shots and shouting to one another from the sur-
rounding hills, they agreed to launch a joint attack on the Ustasha gendarme
station in Rilja, which they did. This is how the first Ustasha gendarme station
in Nevesinje County fell into the hands of the rebels, which happened exactly
in Rilje, and afterwards they seized control of the stations in the villages of
Lukavac and Morine. A decisive role in making the decision not to go to Rilje
unarmed, as it would mean surrendering to the Ustashas, had Lazar – Lale
Milanović, a WWI soldier and the youngest holder of the Order of the Star of
Karađorđe. Besides, it was certainly the news on the Soviet Union entering
the war against Nazi Germany.
During the seizing of the Rilje gendarme station, six gendarmes were captured
as well as a lot of weapons and ammunition. The other six gendarmes man-
aged to avoid the seizure because they had already gone away to the village
of Kifino Selo, where they killed Drago Samardžić and Filip Marić from the
village of Bratač. They were the first victims of the June uprising against the
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Ustasha regime in Nevesinje. The day after the seizure of the foregoing gen-
darme stations, 24th June, a massive uprising and assault on Nevesinje began
to free the numerous captives captured at the camp in the centre of the town,
who were gathered there to be massacred exactly on St. Vitus’, thus having,
as Ustashas would say, “the bloody St. Vitus’.”
After the seizure of the Rilje gendarme station and before the attack on the
town, the rebels seized the gendarme stations in the village of Lukavac in the
night between 23th and 24th June. They captured 15 Ustashas together with
their commander. Among the material, weapon, ammunition and other mili-
tary equipment, they also found a list of 250 men who gendarmes had in-
tended to arrest and sent to the Nevesinje camp as captives, whose fate would
be identical to those who had been arrested and taken to the camp before. The
June uprising prevented that there and in other places. That is the real signif-
icance of these uprisings.
Before the June uprising was sparked off, Ustashas made another ma-
jor raid in the village of Ulog, which belonged to the Nevesinje County. They
demanded all men aged 16-60 to come to Nevesinje. In order to hide their
criminal intentions, they called both Serbs and Muslims. When 936 of them
came to Nevesinje, the Ustashas immediately separated the Serbs from Mus-
lims and ordered Muslims to go back home. The Serbs were detained and
imprisoned in the army barracks. In the following days they conducted hear-
ings and, according to the criteria on their own, sent some of the prisoners
home and detained the others in the camp. The detainees were killed together
with other captives who were being brought to the camp before and after that.
The first mass atrocities in Nevesinje
The first day after arriving in Nevesinje, the Ustashas arrested 50 persons; 30
of them were brutally beaten and 20 detained in the camp and killed after
beating and torturing. The total of 173 Serbs were killed in the Nevesinje
camp i.e. all the people they managed to arrest until then. After they massa-
cred the Serbs, they threw them in pits previously dug by the prisoners them-
selves. These mass graves were on the north side outside the camp, while the
biggest number of them were in the courtyard and gardens of the gendarme
station.
The torturing and killing was brutal, worse than any form of sadism. The case
of Bogdan Đaković, a priest from the village of Kifino Selo, is an example.
During the exhumation he was found horribly disfigured, his teeth broken and
141
his beard plucked out and thrust into his mouth. He had a few nails hammered
into his head and a big plate used for shoeing horses was nailed to his chest.
When the Italians re-occupied this area and re-established their authority in the
autumn of 1941, they found six mass graves in Nevesinje. In these graves were
buried only the victims of Ustashas killed during June. There were around fifty
Nevesinje citizens, while the others were from the surrounding villages.
A report from 18th July 1941 by Mate Rukavina, the Nevesinje gendarme
commander, on the number of men taken captives the day before Saint Vid
Day illustrates the brutality of the Ustashas in Nevesinje:
“The nineteen people from Nevesinje whom the Ustashas took captive in the
period 25th - 28th June were all killed. For some of them their families know
they were killed, while for the others their families think they have been taken
to a concentration camp.
Even more plastic picture of the Ustasha regime in Nevesinje was presented
by the Ustasha officer Stjepan Pavičić in his letter to a Chetnik commander
(after the separation between the Chetnik and Partisan movement) which says
the following:
“I am in possession of specific information on the monstrous atrocities com-
mitted by “the so-called Ustashas in Nevesinje,” and then continues: “Do we
live in civilised Europe or a wild jungle in Africa? Atrocities like these have
142
never happened even there. No wonder these people have rebelled. I would
have done the same if I were in their place.” This is a quotation from Stjepan
Pavičić's letter (he died in Plužine on 30th June 1941 in combat with rebel
forces).
The attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union was additional encourage-
ment for Ustasha leaders to organise the so-called “St. Vitus’ Campaign,” a
mass slaughter of Herzegovina Serbs, an act of revenge for the assassination
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, in 1914, which took place on the
same day (28th June). This “campaign” was launched on 22nd June, the same
day when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, by mass arresting of
Serbs and Jews in Eastern Herzegovina municipalities.
In a few days, thousands of people were captured by Ustasha units. They were
crammed into Ustasha prisons, schools, youth culture centres, tobacco ware-
houses, railway stations, storages, basements, army camps and gendarme bar-
racks. The prisoners were tortured and heavily beaten and then, almost dead,
driven to numerous and notorious Herzegovina pit caves and thrown into
them or from bridges into rushing rivers of Herzegovina, or buried in animal
carcass pits, mines, cesspits and who knows where else.
The massacre of Nevesinje Serbs began in early June 1941 and, after the at-
tack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union and sparking of the June uprising,
it was carried out on a massive scale. This libertarian town was engulfed in
such irrational and bloody hysteria, which in the course of two or three nights
of this Ustasha “St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre” claimed 137 victims killed
in unspeakably cruel and bestial way. This is best seen from scanty records
made by the Serbian Orthodox Church in Nevesinje during the exhumation
of the corpses for a decent burial. Below are some of the names from the list:
Milso Glogovac, head totally broken, right arm broken, face deformed, both legs smashed.
Nikola Nenadić, hands tied with a thick wire, face disfigured, nose cut off, left eye gouged out.
Mirko Žerajić, mouth gagged, killed with a blunt instrument by hitting in the head, teeth broken.
Risto Todorović, hands tied on the back with a thick wire, mouth broken, the jaw removed, left eye
gouged out.
Đorđo Vuković, hands tied on the back with a thick wire, nose cut off, and skull smashed.
Milovan Vučinić, hands and body wrapped around with a thick wire, skull pierced with a sharp
instrument, ears cut off as well as the fingers on both hands.
Drago Vučinić, eyes gouged out, arms and legs broken.
Vidoje Vučinić, hideously disfigured, ears and nose cut off, eyes gouged out, teeth broken, stomach
ripped and head totally smashed.
Regarding the suffering of Jovo Buha and Trifko Milošević, it was recorded
that the two of them went from their villages of Gornje Rilje and Balabani to
Nevesinje to buy some supplies, primarily salt. Two kilometres from the city,
143
an Ustasha patrol intercepted and arrested them, tied their legs and put them
upside down onto the pack saddle of a horse. Their heads were dragging along
a potholed macadam road all the way to the town camp. This is where the
Ustashas finished off the two poor men as well as many others before and
afterwards. Their bodies were found together with other corpses of the killed
in the camp during the exhumation and subsequent burial, approved by the
Italian command in September 1941.
These massacres were committed not only by the Ustashas who came from
other places but also by the local ones, like next-door neighbours of the vic-
tims or even women. For example, Štefica Bunoza, a Croat girl from
Nevesinje, asked the first lieutenant Franjo Sudar to allow her to kill Milan
Pajšalić, a tall, handsome 20-year-old man, who she was, presumably, vainly
in love with. Lieutenant Sudar allowed her to do that, so she killed the young
man in an incredibly cruel way: she gouged out his eyes and cut off his nose,
then she put the disfigured man into a manure cart and drove him across the
town so that people could see what she did to him; then she finished him off
and threw him into a pit together with other executed prisoners.
In similar or even more atrocious way, 144 victims were killed in the cells of
the Nevesinje camp and buried in six holes dug by the prisoners themselves.
In the first hole, near the gendarme station, 20 corpses were found of those
who were killed on 9th June on the order of Jure Francetić, which he gave as
144
soon as he arrived in Nevesinje. In the second hole, also near the gendarme
station, 5 bodies of respected Nevesinje Serbs were found. In the third hole,
near the officers' pavilion, 17 corpses were found, six of which were identi-
fied as respected Serbs from the Nevesinje County. In the fourth hole, near
the officers' pavilion, 7 massacred Nevesinje Serbs were found. In the fifth
hole, also near the officers' pavilion, 20 bodies were found. In the sixth hole,
by the Military Camp, the largest number of dead bodies were found, 74 of
them. Forty-eight corpses had never been identified due to severe disfigure-
ment.
Those days the Ustasha slayers killed Serbs not only in the town but also in
the north part of Nevesinje field. In the village of Zaborani, Ustashas carried
out an unprovoked killing of three young Serbs: Vlado Bulajić, Jovan Kandić
and Gojko Kecman, all killed and buried in a place called Stoči, while broth-
ers Rade and Milan Bjelica, their neighbours from the village of Ćesim, as
well as a man called Milan Bovan were taken towards Nevesinje and killed
in the notorious ravine called Ždrijelo. A list of other villagers of these vil-
lages is provided in the appendix to this document. At the same time, a group
of Ustashas led by Ilija Rotim arrested Vlado Radić and Pero Pušković, whose
horribly mutilated bodies were found nearby Ivan Buconjić's house a few
days later. Ustashas killed not only men but women as well. A 75-year-old
woman called Mitra Vujičić from the village of Presjek went to Nevesinje to
buy some things, but never came back home. A few days later she was found
slaughtered and robbed near her house. Ustasha forces which were on the
march from Berkovići to Nevesinje raided the village of Trusina a few days
before the Saint Vitus’ Day, arrested eight people and took them to the village
of Dabar to execute them there with mallets, pickaxes and axes. They stabbed
a young man called Božo Gambelić in his nose and kept him like that the
whole day to finish him off in pain and suffering.
As for the suffering of people living in the villages, apart from those being
apprehended to the camp for hearing and alleged obtaining of some infor-
mation, where they would most often be killed in a brutal way, the villages of
mixed ethnic (Serb-Muslim) composition suffered extremely cruel fate. A
dramatic example of that are the villages of Luke and Bijenje, where the Mus-
lims killed dozens of their Serbian neighbours, mainly women, children and
the elderly (a list of the killed from the village of Luka is given in the appen-
dix). However, the most dramatic and notorious example is the village of
Humčani, 12 km away from Nevesinje. In the daybreak of 7th July 1943, the
Muslims and Croats from that village stormed the refuge of the Serbian vil-
lagers, a few hundreds of metres away from their houses, while they were
145
sleeping and killed 32 of them. A monument in memory of that massacre was

erected in the middle of the village.
The Monument in village Humčani
A man called Rade Jamina was burnt alive in his house, while Vlado Radić
from the village of Pridvorci and Pejo Pušković from the village of Sopilje
were taken to the natural ravine called Ždrijelo, killed and thrown into the
ravine.
Ždrijelo is notorious a place of execution of the Serbs by their Ustasha neigh-
bours, led by Ilija Rotim, Bajro Gaković and Karlo Čuljak.
146
Ždrijelo, a natural ravine where surface and spring waters from a part of Nevesinje
field were drained and today the excessive water from the Alagovac reservoir. A
place where the Ustashas frequently brought and killed Serbs from the surrounding
villages in 1941.
The Ustashas from the villages of Bijenje and Postojani, led by Salem
Kazović, Mujčin Dedović, Huso Lerić and Hamid Kosović, arrested re-
spected Serbian men from these villages, their neighbours, and took them to
Nevesinje to a police pavilion or the camp. Before taking to Nevesinje, they
would be gathered in the village tavern called Han [inn, t/n] in the village of
Postoljani, owned by Smajo Jug. Then they were tied with barb wire to be
prevented from fleeing while walking 10-12 kilometres to the camp. This
group of Ustashas arrested and took away the following people before St. Vid
Day: Milan Draganić, Boško Rašović, Milan Mačar, Kojo Mačar and Rade
Rašović. While tying their hands, the Ustashas were beating and torturing the
captives. They knocked out nine of Milan Draganić's teeth, collected them on
a piece of paper and made him swallow each of them while he was taking
heavy beating. The others were tortured in no easier way. Out of five of them,
Rade Rašović was the only one who was freed, since his sister managed to
“ransom” him for a jug of honey and pair of woollen socks. She was going
behind the Ustasha patrol carrying those presents and begging to free her
147
brother. Eventually, they did it. This is the best example of how cheap a hu-
man life is in a war and how great human misfortune, cataclysm and eclipse
of mind a war is. The other captives were brought and handed over into the
Nevesinje camp, an Ustasha collective centre for people brought from all
around the Nevesinje County to be slaughtered in the so-called “bloody St.
Vitus’.” The fate of a man called Kojo Mačar is also a specific story. His
mother sent him to take his imprisoned brother Milan a jumper and a pair of
socks. When he arrived at the prison, he talked to a guard and the Ustashas
there detained him immediately. Eventually he died in prison, while his
brother Milan managed to escape and save his life. Namely, Kojo's brother
Milan and Milan Draganić managed to escape from prison. Milan Draganić
had a small file hidden, with which they managed to cut the barb wire their
hands were tied with and escape from prison during the night. However, they
did not dare to go home because their houses were under surveillance as soon
as the Ustashas in the camp noticed they had fled. Instead, they ran to a hill
above their houses and spent three months hiding there. During that time,
Ustasha patrols kept their houses under constant control, carefully watching
every move.
The following examples also show that Ustashas, after establishing their au-
thority in the Nevesinje County, began to arrest and kill the most distin-
guished people – those who were, in their opinion, the most dangerous to their
authority. In the village of Biograd, ten kilometres away from the town and
the biggest village in the Nevesinje County, which encompasses 18 hamlets,
they immediately arrested the village school teacher Danilo Kuljić as well as
the village headman DaniloVuković. An Ustasha patrol consisting of only
two men came to the village school, ordered the teacher to let pupils go home
and come with them to Nevesinje for an interview with the new authorities.
Since they were armed, he had to obey. The teacher naively trusted the Usta-
shas; he even went home, almost two kilometres away from the school, to
change clothes while the patrol was waiting for him in front of the school.
This is a typical example of naivety, inborn honesty and goodness of our peo-
ple, who always trusted the authority even if it was of an occupier and centu-
ries-old enemy.
Danilo's family members tried to dissuade him from turning back to the
school and surrendering to the Ustasha patrol; they advised him to flee to a
nearby forest, predicting what could happen to him. His uncle offered him a
gun to be able to protect him if the things go wrong. He did not agree to it.
The most persistent person in dissuading Danilo from going back to the Usta-
shas was his nephew Branko Kuljić, later a well-known Chetnik commandant
148
in Nevesinje. He escorted him with a gun in his hands all the way to the
school, trying to put him off but he did not manage to. The teacher's explana-
tion was if he disobeyed the order by the Ustasha patrol or killed them, Usta-
shas would later on seek revenge against his family and most likely the whole
village. This would most probably have happened. He simply could not ac-
cept that somebody gets killed because of him. Therefore he decided to carry
the cross of his fate alone. He also told his nephew that, if by chance he gets
into a trouble in Nevesinje, his godfathers from the Muslim family Dugalić
would protect him. All that proved to be wrong; the teacher did not appraise
the situation well so he naively trusted the new authorities. He went with the
Ustasha patrol to Nevesinje, where he was apprehended, deceived and even-
tually killed like hundreds of others from that town. Three months later, when
the bodies were exhumed of those killed in the gendarme barracks and the
Nevesinje camp, Danilo Kuljić's body was among them as well as the body
of Danilo Vuković, the village headman and the teacher's assistant. They were
taken together and killed in the same way to return home in caskets and to be
buried in their home village.
Danilo Kapor from the neighbouring village of Odžaci was arrested by his
next-door Muslim neighbours, who were afraid of that brave, bad-tempered,
hefty village guy. They took him from the village of Biograd the same way
they took both Danilos to the Nevesinje camp, where they were all tortured
and killed. With the same intent, an Ustasha patrol went to the village of Ulog;
to apprehend and kill two brothers, sons of Pero Tunguz, the famous
Nevesinje rebel and one of the main leaders of the 1875 Nevesinje uprising.
However, they did not succeed as the brothers were extremely cautious and
distrustful of the new authorities, knowing that the enemy was never to be
believed. Nevertheless, Ustashas would often conduct raids in the Ulog area
as well as in other places, arresting and killing completely innocent Serbs
from that area. Given that the villages in that area were multi-ethnic, the raids
were, unfortunately, frequent and very successful. Most often, they would
make raids during Serbian religious holidays, when a large number of people
were assembled in one place. The best example of that was a raid conducted
by the Ustasha neighbours on the eve of the Orthodox New Year of 1942,
when dozens of Serbs from the Ulog villages were killed. According to a rec-
ord made by the Ulog Orthodox Church parish, shortly after the end of war,
the Ustashas killed 46 Serbs from these villages. A more detailed list is pro-
vided in the appendix.
When the Nevesinje camp, gendarme station and police pavilion were
crammed with Serbian captives to be killed in the bloody St. Vitus’ campaign,
the “Extraordinary Legal Provision” was issued these days by the Ustasha
149
leader Ante Pavelić, ordering the suspension of further performing of the “St.
Vitus’ Campaign.” Unfortunately, it was just for the time being. Namely, the
German and Italian commands were informed that a massive uprising of peo-
ple had been sparked against the Ustasha regime in Eastern Herzegovina,
where the Croatian armed forces were suffering great losses. The German and
Italian representatives in Zagreb demanded from Pavelić to take not only mil-
itary but also political measures to re-establish order in the rebelled area, but
primarily to stop bloody Ustasha orgies against the Serbs in that area.
Accepting their “recommendation,” Pavelić issued the aforesaid legal provi-
sion. However, Pavelić's real intention was not to stop the massacre in the
NDH but only to legally oblige the Ustasha authorities to leave the Serbs
alone temporarily and shift the focus on sending Jews collectively to outdoor
concentration camps and, once and for all, cleanse the Croatian land and only
then to deal with the Serbs again. In line with the provision, a state of emer-
gency was declared in Herzegovina and a special Pavelić's assignee sent there
- Lieutenant general Vladimir Laksa. His proclamation temporarily stopped
massacres of Herzegovina Serbs, which saved lives of the urban population
of Nevesinje (about 800 men, women and children), who were planned for
the “bloody St. Vitus’” slaughter. After this order, which was printed in the
form of leaflets and scattered from Italian planes flying over the town, all
captives from the Nevesinje camp were set free.
The real truth is that the St. Vitus’ massacre of Herzegovina Serbs was actu-
ally prevented by the uprising in Northern Herzegovina sparked on 24th June
1941, encouraged by the Soviet Union entering the war, rather than by the
extraordinary proclamation by the Ustasha government. At the same time,
that was the first organised resistance to fascism in occupied Europe, first
anti-fascist Nevesinje uprising and the beginning of the liberation war of the
peoples of Yugoslavia against the fascist tyranny. This fact speaks for itself –
directly and convincingly – about a powerful influence of the June uprising,
sparked by Herzegovina Serbs in 1941.
Another great success of the uprising lies in the fact that, as early as Septem-
ber 1941, the Ustasha authority, the worst form of fascist tyranny in occupied
Europe and the whole world, was suspended by the Italian re-occupation of
Herzegovina. In its monstrous atrocities against the Serbs, Jews and Roma
people, that tyranny was worse than all crimes committed by then against
enslaved European nations and other countries all around the world.
Also, the truth is that Ustasha atrocities would have been much more massive
if people had not practiced overt disobedience, individual or collective, and
150
if neighbours had not saved one another's lives by informing about the ensu-
ing danger of execution, arresting or taking to the town camp, where those
who were brought there were mostly killed instantly. Some of them were
simply finished off there after heavy beating and torturing they were exposed
to prior to apprehending into the camp, while the majority of them were
“kept” for the St. Vitus’ slaughter. There are a lot of wonderful examples of
neighbour solidarity and life-saving as well as those, unfortunately, opposite
examples, which all depended on the personality and family upbringing.
These were some positive cases.
Blažena Đačić, a teacher in the Rilje village Primary School, saved the lives
of a dozen of men from the village of Koleška, who were invited by Ustashas
to repair a damaged part of the Nevesinje - Gacko road and a bridge. Namely,
the Ustasha authorities had ordered the local road worker Spasoje Kovačević
aka Pajo to call all adult and work-capable men to repair the road and bridge.
Many people unquestioningly obeyed, but the Ustashas' intention was evil
and covert. The Ustashas invited the men to gather in one place so that they
could arrest them more easily and faster and drive them to the Nevesinje
camp, the collection centre for everybody from the Nevesinje County to be
slaughtered on Black St. Vitus’ Day.
That day, Blažena Đačić, a Croat, was coming back from Mostar to her school
in the village of Rilje. On her way back, she heard that Ustashas intended to
arrest all people they came across on the road and take them to the Nevesinje
camp, which would have sealed their fate. Teacher Blažena arrived at a cross-
roads of the Mostar - Nevesinje road by a car. She proceeded towards the
Rilje School on foot and came across the people repairing the road and bridge
(today known as the Red Bridge). She knew them all as she was their chil-
dren's teacher. She immediately informed Pajo the road worker what she had
heard on her way from Mostar and practically ordered him to let the people
go home otherwise they would all get arrested and taken to the Nevesinje
camp. The road worker obeyed immediately and by doing so, that honest and
humane teacher in the full sense of the word, as well as the road worker saved
dozens of the Koleška villagers (Koleška is the common name of the village
and about 20 of its hamlets). This is a truly wonderful example of humanity,
personality and a professional.
The next example is similar, almost identical to the previous one. A road
worker on the Nevesinje - Ulog - Kalinovik road called Bećir Đuliman, a
Muslim, also saved some people who had been invited to repair the road. A
notorious Ustasha called Šukrija Pekušić, also a Muslim, appeared on the
same road as if by chance, stopped and talked with the road worker for a
151
while. As soon as the Ustasha left towards Nevesinje, Bećir told the workers:
“Stay here pretending to do some work for a few more minutes and then run
home, can't you see he has gone to bring soldiers and arrest you all!” Only
these two impressive examples decreased the number of Ustasha massacre
victims in the Nevesinje County in the first wave of atrocities against the in-
nocent Serbian population.
Similarly, people in Nevesinje still remember and keep from sinking into
oblivion examples of a neighbour saving his neighbour's life by a secret sign
or whisper, telling him to run away otherwise he would lose his life. That was
commonly done by women, as they were capable of obtaining confidential
information in their specific, womanly way. Passing by Serbian houses as if
by chance, they would say in a low voice: “Let women come to our homes
and you, males, run to the forest!” That used to be a sort of unofficial pass-
word, but also a clear sign what was to be done. Having heard that, people
would act without thinking as it meant saving their life.
The response of the Ustasha Headquarters to the first armed resistance to the
Ustasha reign of terror was a mass massacre of captives from Herzegovina;
the Ustashas deeply believed they would destroy every thought in Serbs about
resistance and a fierce struggle for their physical survival. But they were
wrong. Although the blood of the innocent was being spilled since the first
day of the Ustasha regime, the bestial crimes did not stop but, on the contrary,
incited the armed resistance of Herzegovina people.
The attack by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union additionally fostered Usta-
sha leaders to organise the so-called “St. Vitus’ Campaign” i.e. the mass
slaughter of the Herzegovina Serbs. Mass arresting of the Serbs and Jews in
Herzegovina began on 22nd June, the same day when Nazi Germany attacked
the Soviet Union.
In a few days, thousands of people were captured by Ustasha units. They were
crammed into Ustasha prisons, schools, youth culture centres, tobacco ware-
houses, railway stations, storages, basements, army camps and gendarme bar-
racks. They were tortured and tormented in these prisons and then, almost
dead, driven away in trucks, thrown from bridges into Herzegovina rivers or
buried in deserted mines, cesspits or pit caves, such as the notorious Čav-
karica, Golubinka, Korićka and others.
The massacre of Nevesinje Serbs began on 1st and 2nd June 1941 and, after
the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union and sparking of the June
uprising, it was carried out on a massive scale. This libertarian town was en-
gulfed in such irrational and bloody hysteria, which in the course of two or
152
three nights of this Ustasha “St. Bartholomew's Day massacre” claimed 137
victims killed in an unspeakably cruel and bestial way. The planned St. Vitus’
massacre of Serbs in Herzegovina was actually stopped by the June uprising
in Northern Herzegovina, which started on 24th June, influenced by the So-
viet entering the war, rather than by Ante Pavelić's order called “Extraordi-
nary Legal Provision,” made under the influence of the Allies and great losses
suffered in conflict with Herzegovina rebels.
The June massacre of Nevesinje Serbs lasted from 1st June to 29th June 1941.
During that short period, 450 people from the Nevesinje County were killed.
Dozens of villages were totally burnt and even more partially.
The memorial in memory of victims of Ustasha terror in Nevesinje – the town

cemetrey
Ustashas caused complete devastation in Serbian towns and villages across

Eastern Herzegovina. Those despicable crimes done for total physical exter-
mination of the Serbs in that traditionally rebellious province were presented
in Croatian propaganda as fighting against the Chetniks who, allegedly, had
been preparing an uprising against the Croatian authority. The atrocities were
committed exclusively against the Serbs and Jews, while Croatian and Mus-
lim anti-fascists were spared not only from killing but also sending to Ustasha
collection and concentration camps. This is confirmed by an order of the
153
Ustasha authority, the Ustasha gendarmerie as from 14th August 1941: “All
imprisoned communists of the Roman Catholic, Muslim and Evangelistic re-
ligion shall not until further notice be sent to concentration camps without
permission of the relevant Directorate and shall remain in prison.”
First days of the Ustasha regime in traditionally troubled Herzegovina were
marked not only by massacres of Serbs but also armed resistance (the June
uprising) of Herzegovina Serbs against the Ustasha terror – the anti-fascist
Nevesinje uprising, which marked the beginning of the liberation war of the
Yugoslav people against the fascist occupation and tyranny.
It is by no means accidental that the June uprising was sparked at the moment
the Soviet Union entered the war against the Axis powers because the rebels
did not feel so hopelessly lonely any more, which dramatically boosted their
combat morale and confidence of all Serbs in traditionally rebellious Herze-
govina. The June uprising was not organised by any political party; it was
sparked spontaneously at the news about the Soviet Union entering the war,
that is, when necessary conditions for armed resistance against fascist tyranny
were created. The whole Serbian population of Northern Herzegovina took
part in the uprising. Every man capable of fighting in any possible way
grabbed arms to fight for freedom. “The uprising was the yeast and the spark
that flared the fire of the four-year liberation war against the fascist occupier.”
(Savo Skoko, historian)
The Herzegovina Serbs got the honour and glory to raise the flag of
the anti-fascist movement spontaneously and without anybody's call or lead-
ership. This is the very reason why the June uprising represents the brightest
point of the anti-fascist liberation war of the Herzegovina Serbs during the
Second World War and an eternal source of libertarian inspiration for young
gThe best proof of that are the results of the short June uprising. In 15 days
of the uprising, 438 Croatian, Muslim and Italian fascists were put out of
combat, of which 144 were killed (not counting the local or, as the regular
Ustasha troops used to call them, wild Ustashas), 234 wounded and 60 cap-
tured. Among the killed were some highly positioned officers of the Croatian
armed forces - the commander of Pavelić's Guard, captain Mijo Babić and
Stjepan Pavličić (a notorious Ustasha, participated in the assassination of
King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in Marseilles, in 1934) and other Ustasha
commanders and commandants. Besides, several Ustasha gendarme stations
were seized. Captured were considerable quantities of arms, ammunition,
food, hit lists of the Nevesinje County Serbs and other war material, while
telephone and telegraph lines between Nevesinje, Gacko and neighbouring
towns were disconnected. enerations.
154
Exhumation of victims of the Ustasha terror

Undoubtedly, the June uprising represents the most glorious moment in the
history of anti-fascist, liberation war of Herzegovina Serbs during the Second
World War, the moment to remember young generations for centuries how to
defend honour, pride and human dignity of their people, their ethnicity, reli-
gion and right to living.
Since the June uprising was a spontaneous revolt of broad masses of popula-
tion, it did not have nor could it have had an organised military or political
leadership. The role of leadership was taken on by commanders of the peo-
ple's army regiments formed on the eve of and during the uprising. Immedi-
ately after the beginning of uprising, two clearly visible tendencies appeared
- the communist and monarchical one – but without the fatal dogmatism that
would appear afterwards.
The Herzegovina Serbs got the honour and glory to raise the flag of
the anti-fascist movement spontaneously and without anybody's call or lead-
ership. This is the very reason why the June uprising represents the brightest
point of the anti-fascist liberation war of the Herzegovina Serbs during the
Second World War and an eternal source of libertarian inspiration for young
generations. Wild Ustasha hordes of joined Croats and Muslims with the help
from regular Croatian army captured, mainly deceitfully, thousands of inno-
cent Serbs, tied them with wire, rope and chains and then killed them or threw
them alive into the notorious Herzegovina pit caves.
After the terrible massacre of Serbs in the first half of August, a pow-
erful counter-attack by Herzegovina rebels brought the Croatian armed forces
155
in Eastern Herzegovina to their knees. The Croatian government estimated

that it was impossible to keep Eastern Herzegovina under control and, as a
consequence, decided to hand over the whole area to Italian troops to re-oc-
cupy it.
Exhumation of victims of Ustasha terror after the re-establishment of Italian

authority
The re-occupation was performed in the period 1st September - 18th Septem-
ber 1941. The Serbs did not fire a single shot on files of Italian vehicles be-
cause general Ambroso, the commandant of Italian Second Army had prom-
ised them protection from the rogue Ustasha regime. Namely, the Italians
concluded that the uprising of Herzegovina Serbs was nothing but a strong
response to appalling atrocities committed by Ustashas. In accordance with
that, the Italians were firmly convinced that they would manage to pacify this
region without spilling the Italian blood by removing the Croatian civil and
military regime, protecting the Serbs from the Ustasha knife, abolishing dis-
criminatory measures instituted against Serbs and guaranteeing the safety of
property for all, regardless of their ethnicity and religion. In Herzegovina,
they managed to do that.
The fundamental difference between first actions by the rebels in some places
in Northern Herzegovina in June and the massive uprising sparked in
Nevesinje on 24th June is that the former was a desperate move of embittered
people to genocidal atrocities of the quisling Ustasha regime. Their reaction
156
was aimed at preventing Ustasha massacres, arson and plunder, protecting the
lives of innocent people and forcing the NDH officials to restrain the Ustasha
scum to ensure that the non-Croatian and non-Muslim citizens were treated
in accordance with international conventions, and not like game hunted for
sports.
Therefore, it was all about self-defense and prevention rather than armed re-
bellion before the Soviet Union entered the war. Until then, Herzegovina
Serbs had sought any kind of modus vivendi with the occupier and quisling
authorities because everybody understood that a massive-scale uprising in the
given historical context would be a perilous adventure equal to self-destruc-
tion. After the USSR entered the war, the balance of power in European the-
atres of operations radically changed so that the rebels did not confine only
to the protection of physical survival but also sparked the uprising to destroy
the occupier in general. Therefore it is totally understandable why the echoes
of the Soviet engagement provided an unprecedented libertarian inspiration,
which grew into a massive uprising of people first in Northern Herzegovina
and then, in five days or so, the whole of Eastern Herzegovina. That news
aroused enthusiasm in Herzegovina Serbs, condemned to the physical exter-
mination, as they had the absolute trust in the power of Russia.
157
Božidar N. Čučković
THE KILLING OF THE

SERBS IN THE AREA OF
LJUBINJE MUNICIPALITY
1941-1945 BY THE
INDEPENDENT STATE OF
CROATIA (NDH)
THE GUVNO PIT NEAR THE VILLAGE OF KAPAVICA
Introduction
The village of Rankovci is located in the front of the slope of Đurđeva Glava,
overshadowing it perpendicularly and concealing it under its nook. A road
leading to the Municipality of Ljubinje has existed in the village for centuries.
After the capitulation of the old Yugoslavia, Italian troops reached the terri-
tory of Ljubinje County, ruling there until 25 May 1941, when the Ustashas
took control of the area. The first Ustasha ringleaders were: Jure Borje, who
was born in the village of Ravno and was an Ustasha commissioner in Ljubi-
nje; Mato Baroje, a road-mender from the village of Ravno; Vide Žutac, a
forester, and Pero Vukić, called Gaga, both from the village of Ravno. These
four men established the Ustasha regime in the Municipality of Ljubinje.
Commissioner Jure Borje was considered one of the most energetic organis-
ers and initiators of all atrocities committed in the territory of Ljubinje
County.
159
Under the order of Jure Borja, Neđo Mijanović, Mijo Batinić, Đorđe Batinić
and Ljubica Vujević, a cook at the Gendarmerie station, were arrested in Lju-
binje on 25 May 1941. The Ustashas kept them imprisoned for several days
and later released them. This release was a pure delusion and a lure for the
Ustashas to arrest a greater number of the Serbs in order to kill them. In late
May, a special Ustasha envoy, Leon Togonal, arrived in Ljubinje and organ-
ised a gathering of Catholics and Muslims at the place called Konac Polje in
the Ljubinje County. “The gathering could number around five to six hundred
persons,” said Petar Šakic. “Only Muslims and Catholics were invited to at-
tend the gathering. The Catholics came from the villages of Ravno, Velje,
Međa, Turkovići, Trebimlje, and Belenići, and the Muslims came from the
town of Ljubinje and surrounding areas. On that occasion, Togonal delivered
a hate speech towards the Serbs, emphasising that the Serbs were foreigners
– newcomers, hence there were no place for them in the NDH.
Having spent 2-3 days in Sarajevo, Tonogal returned to Ljubinje together
with the numerous group of Catholics from the villages of Ravno, Velje,
Međe, Turkovići, Dubljani and Trebimlje. The group accounted for two hun-
dred persons. The procession was led by Togonal riding a white horse, while
at his right side, there went teacher Vido Đajić from the village of Ravno,
though he was born in the village of Čapljina, and Vido Ljevak, the Head of
the post office in the village of Ravno. The two of them rode horses too. The
rest were walking behind them. Ustasha Togonal was wearing a fez together
with some people from the procession. The fezzes stood for a lure in order to
gain more Muslim followers of the Ustasha movement.
Within two or three days, around 300 Muslims from the surrounding villages,
mostly from the village of Žabice and from the villages of Krusevica and Ris-
inik joined the Ustashas. The village of Žabice was known for the fact a prom-
inent Ustasha and former cattleman, Mustafa Saliman, lived there. Having
strengthened and increased in number, the Ustashas established a gendarme-
rie station in the Municipality of Ljubinje. Nazif Salman, a former gendarme-
rie sergeant from the village of Žabice, was appointed head of the station. The
Gendarmerie station included two former police constables, Salih Džonlagić
and Hajro Civgin from the village of Plevlje. (Civgin withdrew from Yugo-
slavia with occupational army). Apart from them, Gendarmerie station was
backed with 15 Ustashas that allegedly came from Zagreb. Among them, I
met Ante Miskulin from the town of Slavonska Požega. According to his talk
and boasting, he was an old emigrant from the Janka Pusta camp – Hungary.
I also met some Salopek, allegedly from the town of Bjelovar, the illegitimate
son of some Barice Salopek. These two persons were the severe executioners
160
and the killers of many people from Ljubinje County during the mass slaugh-
ter of the Serbs in June 1941.”1
On Tuesday 3 June 1941, the Ustashas besieged Serbian villages from all
sides. A guard was deployed along the road from Kapavica to Zegulja all until
the main road from Stolac to Ljubinje. The guards were arranged in the way
they could not see each other. Not even a bird could fly over without being
noticed.
People, believing that nothing dangerous might happen to them if they obeyed
the new authorities, accepted the invitation to follow the Ustashas, not know-
ing they were heading for an irreversible route to an abyss of death. They
were followed by two or three Ustasha rogues and murderers. It was a sad
column of more than a hundred young Serbian people led by two or three
armed scoundrels. All of them were murdered by the Ustasha daggers or fire-
arms and then thrown into the bottomless pit.
People are arrested in villages across the county
The slogan “if we find nobody at home, we will burn everything” was a pure
lie.
“A group of the Ustashas, comprising MUSTAFA ZEČIĆ from the village of
Vlahovići, MUSTAFA BUREK from the village of Kapavica and MUSA
SERAK from the village of Miljanovići entered the Radići hamlet of the vil-
lage of Vlahovići and captured Petar Kovač, Ilija Domazet and Vaso Čolić
(plus three more persons whose names the witness did not listed – Author’s
note).* They took them to the fallow ground behind the wall, around some 50
metres away from the road and killed them there. After the victims were mur-
dered, Ustasha Musa Serak turned the corpses of Pero Kovač and Ilija Doma-
zet in prone position. Afterwards, Musa stopped at the house of Jovo Mu-
tapdzić and took away his horse, confiscating also the saddle from Drago Ko-
vač. He saddled the horse, mounted it, and joined a large group of the Usta-
shas and went to the center of the village with them.”2
1
Petar Šakić, AJ-F-110, item 55.588
*
Anđelko, Vojko and Maksim Perišić were also killed.
2
Savka Kovač; AJ; item 55.194.
161
Rade Kovač found Anica, Petar Kovač’s mother, wailing over the bodies of
her son and her son-in-law Ilija. Meanwhile, the Ustashas headed for the vil-
lages of Vlahovići and Pocrnje.
“Around 4 p.m. on 3 June 1941, the Ustashas arrived to the Ljubomislja ham-
let” – narrates Branko Pavic, who managed to escape from the Ustashas from
his doorstep and whose father was captivated by the Ustashas in front of his
house – “The Ustashas entered the village without any military order, as
mobs. Some of them would ride a horse, and some would carry the seized
goods. They were clad differently and armed with various weapons. They
stopped before every house, searching for military equipment and weapons
and taking away everything they found. They asked women and children
about the things they were searching for… Old Pero Pivac answered that he
had “two sons of his legacy,” whom, together with 22 their neighbours, the
Ustashas led away.” The village remained empty, desolate, robbed with peo-
ple taken away.”3
“Through his open door, Vlado Šarenac noticed his two acquaintances wear-
ing the Ustasha uniform. Those were VIDE ŽUTAC and MATO GAGA…
Taken aback, Vlado emerged from the house…Seeing the Ustashas carrying
weapons, an idea to start running crossed his mind. However, a group of his
neighbours was with the Ustashas and he reluctantly joined the group, looking
at his neighbours while trying to read from the faces what was going on.
Then Žutac took a gun from his pocket and pointed it at the perplexed villag-
ers and said:
Put your hands up!
Astounded even more, the people looked at each other as though they did not
believe their eyes and hesitatingly put their hands up, looking confusingly at
Žutac. Other Ustashas pointed the rifles at them as preparing to shoot imme-
diately. A thought “why… why?... was crossing the villagers’ mind. Among
the Ustashas, they recognised their former friends. They watched in shock,
for it seemed as those were not their friends but people with clenched lips and
blood-thirsty eyes, whose looks wandered from the villagers to Žutac, as if
waiting impatiently to start the fire at the crowd, their former friends.
Žutac turned towards Mate:
3
Branko Pavić, “Vlahovićke plime i osjeke”[“The ebbs and tides in Vlahovići”], in: Herce-
govina u NOB [Herzegovina in NOB], Vol. 3, Sveto Kovačević (ed.), Vojno-izdavački cen-
tar, Beograd, Istorijski arhiv Hercegovine, Mostar, 1986, p. 45.
162
“Search them.”
With a gun in his hand, Mate approached the villagers searching the pockets
of the frightened people, putting watches, knives, money in his pocket and
throwing everything else on the ground. Meanwhile, a larger number of the
Ustashas gathered and entered the surrounding houses robbing everything
they found. Screams and cries of women could be heard from the neighbour-
ing houses, and somewhere a gunshot echoed too. In some yards, they found
horses with the pack saddle, took them and uploaded the looted items. The
women remained speechless (…)
With a revolver in his hand, Žutac toured the yard yelling furiously:
“You Serbs oppressed us for a long time, but now it is enough for our time
has just come!”
“What harm did we Serbs do to you? Our hardships are of the same origin,”
Gaso Pavić dared to speak while holding his hands up.
“Silence!” shouted Žutac pointing a gun. “If I hear someone utter a word, I
will kill him.” Then he raised his look above the heads of the villagers. “Go
ahead!” he ordered and gestured in the direction of a neighbouring house.
Surrounded by the Ustashas, the villagers walked languidly towards the house
of Dusan Pavic. In front of the house, they saw Pera Pivac’s sons, Danilo and
Rada , who, at their father request, were going back home when the Ustashas
intercepted them on their way and pushed them against the wall while point-
ing a rifle at them. Thrown things and food were lying across the yard while
the Ustashas trampled on them, loading some stuff at the horse. But many
things still remained to be loaded. Loaded with the items, they reached the
house of Jovo Šarenac. There stood a group of people from the surrounding
villages with their hands up, frightened and gloomy. With the entrapped vil-
lagers from Ljubinje, the Ustashas went to the village of Drvenica and there
captured Mij Bogdanović (since others, taking advice of their Muslim neigh-
bours, left the village) and then deported to all of them the village of
Vlahovići.
The Ustashas imprisoned all arrested Serbs from various hamlets of the vil-
lage of Vlahovići in two school classrooms. Among the detainees, there were
many old people, middle-aged people and a lot of young men.”4
Pero Knezević from the village of Vlahovići, managed to run away when the
Ustashas entered the village. For two or three days, he was hiding in the hill
4
Stevan Jakovljević, Jama, pp. 248, 254.
163
of LuKovač. The Ustashas came to his house questioning about him. They
slapped and beat his 60-years-old father Milan asking him to say where Pero
was. Before that, they took away his brother.
“If Pero does not appear, we will kill his brother,” the Ustashas threatened.
DERVO ZEČIĆ from the village of Vlahovići met Pero who went to report
to the Ustashas and told him: “Run away, where are you going? ”Our task is
to kill all people from 16 to 60 years old.” Dervo joined the gendarmerie later.
Someone called Bender from the village of Miljani told his wife Timija Me-
dan that people should not come to their homes if they were hiding some-
where. “Here they beat and kill everyone. Let them hide until they see what
will happen.”5
The next day on 4 June 1941, the Ustashas arrested 54 Serbs from the village
of Vlahovići. During the night, they kept them imprisoned in the building of
the elementary school from the village of Vlahovići. A very sad record of the
surviving people form the village of Kapavica remained. It was recorded by
Branko Pavić and it read as follows:
“Fifty-five people were deported to the school in the village of Vlahovići, and
six people were killed on their doorstep. The Ustashas went to sleep to the
Zazica neighbourhood. There they ate, drank and caroused. The guard keep-
ing 55 detainees acted very cunningly. He took off the rifle from this shoulder,
barred the door with it and hung a lantern on it, and then he addressed the
dejected people, saying the following: “People, sleep here tonight, that is the
way it is. Do not anyone try to run away. They would blame both me and you.
Besides, after the hearing you will all go to your homes. Now, I will go to the
village to get some sleep.” So, the Ustashas went to sleep in the village and a
lantern kept the watch all night and none of the detainees moved a single step
as if they were encircled with barbed wire of high voltage electricity. The
prisoners were certain that there were not guilty, hence there was no reason
for anything to happen to them except to be released in the morning, because,
for God’s sake, why would the state destroy its innocent and loyal citizens.”6
It is still a mystery how come this sly murderer, this neighbour of theirs, knew
his victims and their naivety and trust that well?!
Some Ustasha evildoers captured the Serbs, while other went from house to
house, robbing their property and taking it away on the stolen horses.
5
Pero Knežević, in an account told to the author.
6
Pavić, ibid., p. 45.
164
“In the crowd, there were some confused women (of Muslim origin –author’s
note), and children, whose agitated eyes watched the pile of looted things.
“Brothers Muslims and Croats,” yelled Ustasha Žutac –“our time has finally
come”… “These things are the things the Serbs have been taking from us for
more than 20 years, and now the time has come for each of us to take back
what once belonged to us. Move forward, and take these things.”
With everybody looking on, the Muslims went for the things. Upon seeing
the frowns of the villagers, some of them approached prisoners as if justifying
themselves. They would say:
“We took only a couple of things… If you return alive, we will see what we
are going to with it.”
Salko Zecic, a true Muslim, passing the prisoners with a bunch of things
added:
“What one could do, no overturn can occur without troubles. All this is ac-
cording to the law and merit.”7
When the Ustashas entered the village of Vlahovići and arrested all Serbian
men, they stopped at the house of Trip Knezević and pointed a rifle at him
and his son Stevo.
“They asked for some money,” said Trip’s sister Božica, “My brother gave a
couple of hundred dinars [the official currency at the time, t/n], then he and
his son Stevo were taken away to the gendarmerie station….
I saw the Ustashas beating my brother and his son…
The next day, Trip’s wife came to the gendarmerie station where she found
Dzafer Zecic, a parasite from the village of Vlahovići, whom she asked to
help her with her husband and son. Dzafer answered her in the following way:
“Be glad if they give you your son Stevo back, the Ustashas aren’t giving you
your husband back.”8 Nonetheless, they were both thrown into the pit.
7
Jakovljević, ibid., p. 254.
8
Božica Knežević, AJ-DKRZ; file 5728; item 55.158.
165
The collection of the Serbs in the village of Kapavica
The village of Kapavica is situated in the valley between the hill of Oblo the
slope of Đurđeva Glava on the one side and Radmilje Mountain on the other
side.
A witness of the Kapavica pit, Nikola Corovic, says:
“When they started with the arrests and loots in the village of Kapavica, I run
away from the village. I watched everything from the forest. I took some meat
and a piece of bread. My brother Milan suggested that I should hide in the
slope of Runjeva glavica:
“There I had seven or eight our people. We better be together.”
We joined the group hiding in the slope of Runjeva Glavica. Without agree-
ment or plans, someone would utter a reason for going back to the village, for
instance to see their cattle, or to hoe the land or to get some woods. Eventu-
ally, they all split up. Milan too went to bring his horses. He was gone for a
long time. When he returned, I asked him:
“Where have you been, Milan? What took you so long?”
He kept silent. I supposed it was some fatal silence, or some inner nightmare,
something that prevented him from saying anything. After a long silence, he
raised his head up and said:
“I won’t flee,” he was barely heard, “they are going to kill everyone. I have
nothing but a wife. I have just got married. You are married with four chil-
dren. Your whole family will face a very harsh situation. They will kill them
all if we escape to the forest. I am going to surrender.”
I remained silent. Torn apart between these two sides, I reasoned: “Am I go-
ing to flee and he to surrender. Is my life worthier than the lives of my brother
and children? Am I going to let them kill my family? One life in exchange for
five others. I jumped as if being hit by a lever.
“I am coming with you, let God be with us!”
“No accusations – no punishment,” we thought and encouraged each other.
My 19-years-old son Vlado met us on our way.
“There is army at the site of BosKovač dol. The women say you should not
appear,” said Vlado, and made a pause. “I saw the soldiers taking our neigh-
bours and friends, leading them away tie.” (…)
166
“That is not true!” Milan exclaimed suddenly. “All that is a result of your
female imagination! (…) Let the women talk, what do they know,” remarked
Milan in a bit milder tone. “They always sense some evil. The prophets of
doom.” (…)
We went to the cottage in the locality of Radmilje Mountain. There we were
caught by two Ustashas. They told us to go to the army that was at the place
of BosKovač Dol. One Croat gave us a signal not to go. And a Muslim wear-
ing a cap with capital U letter said: “I will go with you.” I guess he was afraid
we would run away, or he wanted to kill us on the way.
Two cousins of the Gordić family, who lived together, were hoeing potatoes.
“Let them go,” those are good people,” said the first Ustasha. However, upon
reaching them, the Ustashas killed them in the potato field.
When we came to the place of BosKovač Dol, the leader of the Ustashas,
Ante Miskulin, was standing at a rock. I was in front of the group.
“Where were you yesterday when my army was in the village?” he asked with
his sharp and piercing look.
“I was in the cottage.”
“What is your nationality?”
I hesitated with my answer. I was thinking what to answer. I measured the
weight of each word, rearranging the word order. I wanted every word to be
expressed in a good, smart and reasonable manner.
“I am an Orthodox,” I finally answered.
Then I saw a fist in front of my face kicking me and making me stumble. He
did not wait to get myself together, but hit me again this time slapping me
with his knee. The blood gushed from all sides. Even today I remember the
consequences of that blow. I could never see well with that eye. I rolled with
my untouched eye, staring questionably and Miskulin.
The day after
On 3 June 1941, the Ustashas first entered the Vukovici hamlet of the village
Vlahovići and arrested seven people. The next day, on 4 June, they killed six
of them, while Milos Ilije Colić managed to escape. The same day, they ar-
rived at the center of the village and captured twenty-one persons. The Usta-
shas brought them in front of the building of the gendarmerie station from the
167
village, and during the night they took them to the village of Rankovici. At
the time, an Ustasha camp existed in the village.
The Ustashas formed a camp in Paceljev’s barns and in Jovan’s gazebo in the
village of Rankovici. It was not accidental that the Ustasha officers picked
this village to establish a camp. This village is situated at the crossroads be-
tween the villages of Vlahovići, Ubosko, Kapavica and Pocrnja. In addition,
the Ustasha leadership had in mind the fact that a lot of people from this vil-
lage were killed in the battles in region of Dobruja and the Salonika front,
fighting as volunteers in the ranks of the Serbian army. Therefore, they
wanted to take revenge on them.”9
Leon Togonal was the first one to start with the killings of the Serbs. Thus, as
soon as he entered the village of Rankovci with several Ustashas, he went into
the house of Mitar Milojevic… When at Tonogal’s question about whether he
was a Serb Mitar replied affirmatively, the Ustasha cursed him and said:
“Why don’t you go to Serbia then, you Serbian bastard, what are you doing
here in Croatia?!” He also asked for weapons and when Mitar could not give
it, for he did not have any, Togonal instantly killed him, saying to his Ustashas
that they too would be killed in the same way if they did not murder the Serbs
the way he did.10
“Immediately after I was detained,” says Vaso Krunic, “I heard some gun-
shots in front of the house of Mitar Milojevic. Shortly afterwards, the Usta-
shas took away Mitar’s son Đoko, Mitar’s brother Risto and his son Milorad.
These persons were with the Ustashas when they found me. It was from them
that I found out about the murder of Mitar. During the day, the Ustashas
brought around 30 persons from the village of Kapavica. Among them was
Stevo Milosević from the village of Vlahovići, who was going to Ljubinje
that day, but the Ustashas detained him while he was passing through the vil-
lage of Rankovci.”11
On 4th June, the Ustasha withdrew across Radimlja Mountain, where people
were hiding. There they arrested Vlado Đurić, Maksim and Marko Gordić,
Milan and Nikola Ćorović and brought them to Gordic’s threshing foor, where
they walloped them brutally. Old Marko Gordić had his glasses inserted into
his eyes. The same day, on 4 June 1941, the Ustashas continued with arresting
Serbian men. The Ustashas gathered all arrested Serbs in the elementary
9
Savo Skoko, Pokolji hercegovačkih Srba [The Killing of the Srbs from Herzegovina],
Stručna knjiga, Beograd, 1991, str. 64.
10
AJ-DKRZ: F. 24.319.
11
Vaso Krunić, AJ-DKRZ; item 55.189.
168
school in village of Vlahovići, which was located beside the gendarmerie sta-
tion. Having spent the night on the premises of the school, the next day, the
arrested villagers were taken to the collection camp in the village of
Rankovci. While taking them to the camp, they were accompanied by armed
Ustashas. Peacefully, speechless, they entered the rooms from which they
would never come out again. The first column of tied persons from the village
of Vlahovići consisted of the Knezevics, the Krunics, the Perisics, the
Sikimicis, the Piljevics, the Cerovins, the Ljubenkos and others. The follow-
ing villagers were not among them: Ilija Domazet, Petar Kovač, Vasa Colic,
Anjdelka Perisić and Vojko and Maksim Perisic. They resisted the arrest, so
the Ustashas killed them at their doorstep.
The same day, on 5 June, the Ustashas went to the villages again collecting
the remaining people, bringing them in groups and imprisoning them. There
was no resistance. People, afraid that they might lose their land and family,
were mostly silent, waiting for something.
Among the arrested inhabitants was the Orthodox Christian priest Stavro
Manastirlić from the village of Rđus. His cassock was ragged. The Ustashas
greeted his arrival with shouts, which were accompanied by an offensive in-
terruption: “Look, we have brought you a priest to read some God’s service
for you. So, you cannot complain about us.”12
In the village of Ubosko, on 6 June, they arrested 41 persons. The same day,
the arrested people were deported to the camp. The column of the villagers
consisted of the following families: the Banđurs, the Bukovićes, the Janjićes,
the Mičetas, the Ćuks, etc…
In the village of Kapavica, they deprived of liberty 28 persons of Serbian
nationality, of whom 11 managed to escape from the place of execution. In
the third column, there were the following families from the village of Kapa-
vica: the Đurićes, the Klimetas, the Corovics, the Gordics and others…
The fourth column from the village of Pocrnje included the families of Krlj,
Milosevic…
Thirty-five Serbs from the village of Rankovci were taken away. Those were
the Bukovics, the Janjics, the Kruljs, the Milosevics… A total of 168 people
from 16 to 60 years old had been arrested.
12
Jakovljević, ibid. p. 265.
169
The camp in the village of Rankovci was already peopled with residents of
the villages of Ubosko, Bancic, Pustipuh, Kapavica, Rankovci and other vil-
lages in the vicinity. There were 164 people. All of them were squeezed into
a valley enclosed with a smaller wall. They sat and conversed. They were
allowed to receive the food from their homes and to meet and talk with their
family members, mostly their wives, who visited them and delivered their
messages to those at home.”13
Upon the arrival of every new Serb, the Ustashas would record the name and
surname of every victim.
“Apart from that, they would search each person. They confiscated all the
money, the tobacco, the rings and better footwear and clothes.”14
The women from the all villages would bring their food in bundles. They
would throw these bundles across the wall into the fenced area. Though hun-
gry, people did not feel the need to eat. They would take the food and share
it among themselves. Among the elderly, there were the sick people who re-
fused to eat.
(…)
Women would approach the Ustashas, asking what would become of their
husbands and families. The Ustashas assured them that no harm would be
done to the prisoners and that soon they would be released. Later, uttering
swearwords and threats, they forced them to leave.
“…There was not any sign that would announce mass slaughter and execu-
tion. They sent my father home since he was 50 years old, but he did not want
to go alone. He said: “Tomorrow, we will leave all together.” They ordered
his sons to come and report to the Ustashas so that any suspicion that they
were insurgents would be discarded. The Ustashas walked all across the
camp. Some of them would go to the village, bringing new victims. Others
were frequently pensive, watching the prisoners with sympathy. That night, a
quarrel was heard among them, then the harsh row and protests and then sev-
eral rifle and machine-gun shots. Several people, who came with the Ustashas
without knowing the purpose of the murderers’ raids on the Serbian villages,
escaped from the camp that night.”15
13
14
Rade Pivac, AJ-DKRZ; item 55.197.
15
170
Bosa’s way through the Ustasha guard
The residents of the village Rankovci were gathered for the last time. Šćepan
Pecelj was sitting in front of the house of Jovan Pecelj. Until the setting of
guard, Šćepan would walk across the hill to the houses located in the end of
the village. He visited his in-laws, the Kruljs. Before the night, Šćepan begged
a guard to let him return to his home. The thought of his home and family
brought a lump to his throat, and it pained him from inside. It seemed as is
the lump was getting bigger and bigger. (…) At his insistence, the guard let
him go.
Upon hearing that Šćepan came back, the Ustasha leaders Vide Žutac and
Mustafa Burek ordered to drive him off to the place from which he came.
When Miho Bender heard that they would be thrown into the pit, he ap-
proached Šćepans’s wife Bosiljka (Bosa) and told her to find her husband and
to tell him not to come back, and that he and the ones with him should hide
themselves.
After collecting and imprisoning the villagers of Rankovci, Miho met Bosa
again. Since he was certain that Šćepan was still in the village, he addressed
Bosa in a strict manner: “Go and tell him and the ones with him to flee. This
is not authority.” (…)
It was still the daytime. Stooped and reticent, with her head bent, Bosiljka
tried to pass almost unnoticeable. She reached to house of the Krulj family
and found there 12 family members, Milan Milojević and her husband Šćepan
Pecelj. She told them everything, but they did not realise the severity of her
words or the danger that was looming over their heads, hence they did not
decide to run away or to hide themselves immediately. Nonetheless, after
some consideration and agreements, they all decided to conceal themselves.
Apart from that, Šćepan wrote a message to Dusan Krulj from the village of
Vitonja instruction him to run away too.
Bosa reaches the village of Vitonja. Dusan reads the message. He frowns.
Nothing is clear to him. He does not believe it. He discards any doubt that
some killings might happen. Having contemplated for a while, he wrote a
message and gave it to Bosa to give it back to her husband. In the letter, Dusan
scolded Šćepan, noting that he was ignorant and that he had become a typical
rebel. “If we run away, then they will burn our village and drive our cattle.
They will rob us,” pointed Dušan.
171
They did not believe Šćepan nor did they run away. The very next day, they
were captured by the Ustashas and taken to the village of Rankovci, and then
thrown into the Kapavica pit.
The camp in the village of Rankovci
By Saturday, 7th June, the Ustashas gathered 168 people from the villages of
Rđus, CucKovač, Ubosko, Vlahovići, Kapavica, Rankovici and other sur-
rounding villages. The Ustashas soon killed one of their Ustashas, a sixteen-
year-old Romany, Osman Kurtović Taslaman. The Ustashas planned to say
that they were attacked by some Montenegrins and that for one killed Ustasha
they would shoot a hundred of Serbs.
The purpose of killings increased the anxieties among the Muslim population
for they had to prove ready for the killings of the Serbs. The Muslims had to
kill Hasan Marić, called Šesto [in Serbian, the word šesto means sixth, t/n]
because he had six fingers. Hasan was small and stunt, so the Ustashas
thought there would be no harm if they killed him. However, someone told
Hasan about this plan and he run away. The execution of Roma Taslaman was
performed by Leon Togonal himself. He even delivered a eulogy for him.
How ironic. Osman was buried with full honors!
The first night of their detention, the prisoners did not undergo any torture by
the Ustashas. Other nights were more terrifying. No one could sleep in the
prison.
“During the night, the Ustasha guards would not let the inmates sleep because
they would often shout: “Throw a bomb among them!”
The Ustashas swore and threatened with bombs. The place was overcrowded.
Occasionally, the Ustashas would lead away some persons for a hearing.
There they would beat until the victims lost their consciousness. Painful cries
reached those waiting in line. The most shocking thing was the fact that these
torturers were mostly people from the locality of Ljubinje, their neighbours
with whom they would take their cattle to the pastures of Treskavica and
Zelengora Mountain every spring.
The Ustashas especially bore a grudge against Veljko Perisic, who was a mil-
itary officer, Danilo Škorić, a Thessaloniki volunteer and priest Stavro
Manastirlić. When they would bring them out of the room, they would return
bruised and beaten. All three would be beaten and battered with fists, rocks,
legs and gunstocks. “These three men were thrown into the pit with other
172
victims, but I believe,” says Ilija Mičeta, “that even if they had not been
thrown into the pit, they would not have survived, since they were totally
exhausted and broken from the blows they received.”16
Dull blows, cries and painful whining could be heard from those unfortunates.
This fierce torture of the innocent people went on and on every day. The Usta-
shas would open the door and kick in the beaten up ones among others.
In the morning, they would bring out the arrested in the garden near the prison
and at the end of the intersection of the road to the village of Vlahovići. There
they very guarded vigilantly. They did not let them eat. Miho Bender, the
camp commander, brought bread baked under the ashes and two lumps of
cheese and said: “According to the law, I am forbidden to do this. This food
is not mine, it is taken from the house of Šćepan Pecelj, so if any of you
survive, remember to give this back to Šćepan.”17
Feeling tense and with his legs convulsed, Nikola Ćorović was squatting. He
did not know whether that feeling arose from the fact he disobeyed his brother
when he told him to go voluntarily to the place of execution or because of
something else. He was helpless in the column of tied unfortunates. His soul
was filled with anxiety and confusion. All around, the threats emanated from
loaded guns were directed at his unprotected chests.
After some interrupted sleep in the room full of stink and fatigue, the dawns
would not bring nothing better than this despair. People were crammed, ago-
nising all the time. No one could stretch a bit due to the jammed space. The
inmates took their clothes off, wearing only a shirt and pants. The sultriness
was unbearable. There was almost no air. The size of the room containing
prisoners was of 3x4 metres. Above the room, there was the attic of two me-
tres. There were no widows, so they nearly died because of the lack of air. A
small glass in the wall was the size of 30x20 cm, inserted in the way it could
not be removed.
The days passed by, and the inmates were hopefully waiting.
There was guard stood by the well. The ring at the door was blocked with a
tree branch, so that the door could not be open from the inside. The house was
16
Ilija Mičeta, AJ-DKRZ; itme 55.192,
17
Jovan Brkljača, an account told to the author.
173
located 100 metres below the road to the village of Rđus, and the hut 50 me-
tres below the road. The fenced garden was next to the road, at a distance of
10 metres.18
Ustasha Bokica Burić from the village of Ravno came without weapons. He
was excited about the number of the arrested Serbs. He peeked through the
door and jerked because of the sultriness. He tired to remove the glass in the
wall. Having failed to do that, he broke it with his hand. A piece of light came
from the outside. It was still dark in the room. Stone and earth below the feet
of the inmates. No sanitary facilities. Faces and urine all around.
At first, the inmates stoically endured the barbarous behavior and unbearable
conditions of life in the prison, but over the time, their nerves began to stir.
Some of them started shouting: “Let us go or kill us, this cannot be endured
anymore!” The guards would shout back with curses.
Standing at the door, Vlado Sarenca was touching the hinges and spoke si-
lently:
“I will lift up the door, and then you, the young men, go for the guards.
“Listen, people! said Stevan Pecelj, Leave it. Who would dare do to that, they
will kill 200 of us. We will make things even worse if we try to do some-
thing.”19
People tried to persuade those who were indecisive, but no avail. The other
inmates, mostly the older ones, would not allow anyone to try anything. The
boys made several plans to escape since the doors were very weak, and there
were only two or three guards. They could have killed them and many would
have escaped.
“We did nothing wrong. They have no reason to kill us,” the elderly would
say. They hoped that they would be released. However, they could not pro-
vide the excuse for the beatings. The elderly thought it was better to be pa-
tient. Uroš Domzet wanted to flee from the room. But he could not fit in the
rafters. Then he tried to escape through the attic but the old men pulled down
his legs. He hesitated for a while and then he realised that was of no use if he
tried to make his situation even worse.
Around 8 a.m. on Saturday, Sava Maltez was summoned for a hearing.20 After
half an hour, he did not return. No one knew what was going on. He went out
18
Testimony by Nikola Ćorović, in the possession of the author.
19
20
Savo Maltez was a stone-dresser in Dubrovnik. He was member of the KPJ from 1938.
174
and headed for the village of Vlahovići. They let him go. This encouraged
others and gave them hope that they too would be released soon.
They drove them to the garden again, where no one dared to move or to bring
them food. Women were not allowed to come close to the garden or to bring
the food. However, the women persisted in their intentions to be near their
husbands, although there were the Ustashas with their fingers on the triggers.
The first tying
Saturday afternoon, 7th June, about 1 p.m. The Ustashas told the arrested
people that they would take them to the Municipality of Ljubinje for a hear-
ing. At the pit which was located in front of the improvised prison, stood
around 50 Ustashas.
“… No one believed that the death was very near. In the afternoon, between
6 and 7 p.m. the roll-call began. It was almost anonymous. Every next person
was addressed as “the following.”An Usatasha wearing a helmet was standing
in front of the door. It was the former gendarmerie Master Corporal
Sadžak.”21
Next to him, stood another two Ustashas. One was holding a rifle pointed at
the chests of the inmates, and the other was holding a rope in his hands.
The first to be tied was Gojko Piljevic. He stepped out and the Ustashas tied
his left and. Thus, the tying of the prisoners commenced. Each prisoner had
his left hand fastened and the right one put up in the air. The short rope man-
aged to tie 12 people. Then, the Ustashas soaked the rope so it would become
tight and thus easily carved into the flesh. They tied them in twos, and with
the rope stretching along the procession. Only the last and the first person of
the group were tied longitudinally.
“As soon as they tied me with Uroš Domazet, I untied my hands. They tied
Uroš four times, and me only once.”22
The dusk. Niko Bogdanović approaches the guard asking him to let him per-
form his biological needs. As soon as he got out of the sight, he jumped across
He took part in all the demostration staged by the HSS against the authorities of pre-war
Yugoslavia. The Ustashas thought he was their own, that he was a Croatian, so they asked
him: “What are you doing here?” “They forced me to!” “Go home!”
21
22
Jovan Brkljača, an account told to the author.
175
the wall in the valley. He started running, holding his pants in his hands. In
the moment of jumping, he hurt his leg, but he did not feel it. Several Ustashas
set off to pursue him. Niko runs across the walls and rural pastures towards
the Danguba hill. He was trying to deceive the Ustashas. As soon as they
would shoot, he would lie down, waited for a while and then started running
to save his life. At the top of the hill, he was wounded in the heel. But he
managed to escape. Ustasha Miskulin scolded his subordinates because they
let him escape. He was afraid that he would carry the news to the villages of
Gleđevci/Bančići, Mišljen, Pustipuhe, Varduša and Obzir, so the people
would escape. The Ustashas strengthened the guard.
“… Given the fact that the tying took longer than it was envisaged, the night
was nearing, which made the Ustashas postpone the crime of genocide till the
next morning.”23
The night was terrible. More than 160 people confined in one small room. No
one could go out to perform their physiological needs. The people would
trample on each other, while the camp guards threatened with “a bullet
through the head.” Some braver young men decided to break the roof, kill the
guards and enable a flight for others. The elderly hampered their plans, threat-
ening that they would immediately inform on them. They waited for the next
day and, together with it, their doom.
It started to rain, and it thundered. Upon hearing both a gunshot and thunder,
the old people said: “Hey, Lord, have mercy on us. It is better for us to be
killed by your hand than die at the hands of these rogues.”24
Night, 7th June, everything became peaceful. The storm, which had hitherto
prevailed over Ljubinja, quieted down. In the prison of the village of Ranko-
vici, not a hush could be heard. A guard could be seen between a joist and the
wall. Something was happening. The uproar in front of the door increased.
“We were too late to go Ljubinje,” the Ustashas whispered to each other.
“If they are going to send us to Ljubinje,” whispers Uroš, “we are going to
flee.” “Somewhere along the road, and near the village of Kapavica, there is
a narrow street. We will use the opportunity and escape across the wall. The
Ustashas won’t be able to go by us. Some of them will go at the beginning of
the procession and some of them at the end of it. The distance between them
will be 50 metres.”25
23
Pavić, ibid.
24
AJ-DKRZ; F. 24.319.
25
Brkljača, ibid.
176
The decision was irrevocable.

The unfortunates thought that they were going for a hearing in Ljubinje. They
wanted to escape or otherwise to be killed. They could not endure any more
the stink and stuffiness. However, this uncertainty lasted until 3 p.m.
The people are tied again
The door lock squeaked. The door swung open. In came the Ustashas with
their rifles ready. The executioners waited at the exit. Gendarmerie sergeant
Sadzak ordered the inmates to go out one by one.
“Will we carry the food and our bags?” asked the prisoners anxiously.
“You won’t need it. We have found a girl for each of you.”26
It was 8th July. The day was bright and sunny. It was Sunday. As soon as it
dawned, the prisoners noticed how the number of the guards increased. The
guards took turns and threatened with their stringent tone for an attempt of
flight. The prisoners were so close to each other that they could not wait to
start moving. Re-tying started again, and it was done in the same manner –
tying the hands behind their backs and soaking the rope. Among the tied per-
sons was Vaso Krunic, a forester from the village of Vlahovići, who was sum-
moned to Ljubinje several days earlier to swear the oath to Commander
Pavelic. He received a written confirmation, about which he talked to none.
Now, sensing a fatal danger, he remembered that he had that piece of paper
with him. He thought that might be an important piece of paper that could
spare his life. He took it out of his pocket and showed it to the nearest Ustasha.
“What, you Serbian swine to pledge to a Croatian nobleman!” the Ustasha
snapped the paper, tore it and threw it away, then he hit Vasa in the temple
with his fist, striking him with the gunstock in the groin. Afterwards, the he
tightened the rope, fastening his right hand even more.”27
People were being caught in the web of the rope. The Ustashas tied the pris-
oners one by one, pushing those tie persons into the yard. They tied 10 people
with one rope; one by one. It turned out later that this was not done by acci-
dent.
26
Ibid.
27
177
Troubles and death on the way
When the last person from the last, 17th column was fastened, a signal for
movement was released. The long column of the Serbs from Ljubinje set off.
The black procession of people meandered though the small road from the
village of Rankovici leading to the village of Kapavica. Walking across the
ruined road, with their tied hands, the people started staggering out due to
exhaustion. Some old men would limp. They would collide with those before
them, falter and then topple down, causing the slow down of the column. The
Ustashas would shout from both sides of the column, uttering the blasphe-
mous words and hitting mercilessly in the backs of the exhausted old men if
they happen to see someone making a pause or catching a breath. While pass-
ing, the scared and unfortunate victims watched their gardens and fields sown
with potatoes, wheat and chard. Their anxious glances wandered to the almost
ripe stalks of grain and the green leaves of chard and potatoes. That was the
fruit of their hard work and sweat spilled while working. They looked back
towards their homes, leaving behind them their children, uncultivated land
and their newborns.
Uroš Domazet was right when he said there was going to be turmoil and op-
portunities for escape. When they reached the narrow street between the stone
fences of the ranches of the villages of Kapavica and at the exit of the village
of Rankovci, a commotion occurred. The back rows crammed towards the
front rows. Uroš tried to untie himself, but he was not able to untangle the
knot since he did not agree beforehand with his companion Pero Knezević
who was tied with him. Pera’s hand was still tied when Uroš tired to jump
over the wall. The twitch pulled him back to the road. An Ustasha immedi-
ately approached and wounded him mortally. With an agonising cry, he
slumped down among the feet of the tied persons. Thus wounded, the man-
aged to hide in the thicket, escaping further torture of the enemies. After two
or three days, he died of the wounds. Uroš’s wife Petra set off to find her
husband and bring him home. She found him badly wounded in the house of
Mitar Milojevic. As she walked to find her husband, in the village of
Rankovci, she met Džafer Zečić, Murat, mullah Musa, Halil, Nezir, Šaćir,
Šljok and Mehmet Mahmutović – all from the village of Vlahovići – coming
back from the pit, the execution place which contained the buried corpses of
victims. Actually, the corpses were covered with thorns and rocks. “I was
grieving after my husband,” said Petra. While passing, Murat Zečić said to
178
me: “What are you yelling for, go to the pit, and take home that trash of your
husband.”28
The same bullet struck Michael Perisić below his knee. One Ustasha ap-
proached wounded Perisic, who was kneeling on one knee. He bent his head
down, moaning loudly. The Ustasha tried to untie the knot, but failed. The
knot was firmly tied to a rope which was imprinted deeply in his arm, which
was swollen and almost all bluish. He cut the knot with a knife, pushed
Mihajlo out of the road and fired at close range. Eventually, Mihajlo died of
his wounds.29 Rade Pivac claimed that Mihajlo Perisić died from his injuries
in the hospital two years later. Mihajlo was hit with two shots. Both he and
Uroš were wounded with one shot which was fired by Mustafa Burek.
Mihajlo became a cripple. He could not move his legs or his hands. He was
paralyzed. He could not move without the help.
The Ustasha pushed forward the column of the people, who passed by
Mihajlo and Uroš. Taking advantage of the scuffle, Arsen Cerovina managed
to jump over three fences and to escape the gunfire of the executioners.
“Hold it, priest!” Priest Stavro Manastirlić was tied together with Danilo
Škorić.30
The Ustashas continued to hit and torture the helpless prisoners in order to
kill any resistance. They were very harsh towards Stavro Manastirlić, a priest
from the village fo Rđus, at whom they would mockingly shout: “Read a req-
uiem, priest!”
As soon as they turned off the main road, the majority of them guessed where
they were going. The column slowed down. With their hands tied, people
pressed against each other. The old men still staggered and tumbled. The
young ones helped them. As soon as someone staggered, he would be hit by
the gunstock. Near the Milojević house, Rade Pivac managed to untie himself
and escape. The Ustashas fired after him, wounding one guard. Mustafa Bu-
rek accidentally fired at some Boro from the village of Casva. Fortunately,
the bullet missed Rade. Among the tied persons, there were some people from
the village these unfortunates were heading for. Nevertheless, no one knew
about the bottomless pit in which they all would be thrown, whether alive or
dead, within a couple of hours. Many of them asked how come the Ustasha
camp commander knew about the location of the pit. The only explanation
28
Petra Domazet; AJ-DKRZ; file 4728; item 55.187.
29
Dušan Šarenac; AJ-DKRZ; file 4728; item 55.200.
30
Ćorović, ibid.
179
could found in the memory that some German tourists would come to Yugo-
slavia before the war, exploring and taking photos of the pits, collecting var-
ious insects living in those pits and after that, mapping the caves they found
on the topographic maps. Only with that map could the Ustasha camp com-
mander find the Kapavica pit.”31 In that he was heartily assisted by Mustafa
Burek.
Someone managed to pull out his hands from the dry rope. Near his house, in
the village of Kapavica, Mitar Brkljaca decided to flee. “Let be what should
be! It will be better if I die here on my land. Who knows where my bones will
rot if I carry on!”
“After him, after him!” shouted the Ustasha furiously.
Mitar runs across the village of Osoje. He sprints through the grass and shrub-
bery, changing his directions once in a while in order to deceive the Ustashas.
The Ustashas mount the acclivity and observe. Mitar reaches the crest of the
hill, thinking he got away and trying to see where the column was. At the very
moment he fell down mortally wounded.
Branko Banjur followed Mitar’s example. Since he could not choose, he
turned towards the cemetrey on the hill of Oblo. However, he was hit with a
bullet. He collapsed. Neither attempt of flight succeeded.
There is no one in the village of Kapavica. All residents fled to Radmilja
Mountain. Ustasha Pero Prkut recognised Milan Đurić in the column, with
whom he used to play cards. They were together in the army.
“Shall we play a game of blackjack, Đurić,” shouted Pero. He leaned the bar-
rel against his chest and fired, grinning maliciously, “Tell me, will you play
the cards now?”
He also shot Milan, standing right by the column. The same bullet broke Lju-
ban Klimeta’s arm. He tied him again and returned to the column. Ljuban
reached the pit alive. The same bullet remained struck in Damjan Pecelj’s
shoulder. Even today, it is still in his shoulder. When the weather is about to
change, he instantly recollects the past event.
Miloslav Pecelj, a seventeen-year-old boy, lost consciousness and fell down.
Then an Ustasha fired at the unconscious Miloslav and Milan Đurić, who was
dying.
31
180
At the top of the column went the priest from the village of Rđus, Stavro
Manastirlić. The Ustasha would shout at him: “Hurry up, pastor! Take your
Serbs to the church! Let them confess their sins!”
In Burek’s neighbourhood, the Muslim population gathered to watch the per-
secution of their Serbian neighbours. Burek’s wives would say to the Usta-
shas: “What a catch.” While passing through this quarter, the Ustashas started
zealously swearing and hitting the victims. The most fierce and blood-thirsty
ones, who used gunstocks, were Salko Kuralic, Murat Login, Adem Burek
and Ivan Oberan from the village of Velja Međa.
They persecuted the barefoot persons across the karst grounds. Only Risto
Pecelj managed to escape on the way from the village of Kapavica to the
Guvno threshing floor.
Two weak old men, Danilo Krulj and Đuro Đurić, fell on the ground and they
dragged them for some hundred metres. When they reached the place of
Guvno, old Danilo wailed:
“Kill me, I cannot carry on any more!”
“Who is the one saying he cannot go anymore?” shouted an Ustasha. “Untie
him and bring him here!”
“Well, you came exactly where you needed to come,” said one of the Ustashas
and fired a bullet through his stomach.
Danilo screamed and tumbled. While the Ustashas threw the tied people into
the pit, Dusan was rolling on the fallow ground, moaning loudly.32
Milan Ćorović was near his brother Nikola. His heads were right beside each
others, although he did not want to be tied in pair with this brother. “At least
one of us should remain alive if we found an opportunity to flee,” thought
Nikola.
“If you can untie, do it, and run away,” I advised my brother Milan.
“Even if you had wings like a fairy, you could not save your head. Cannot
you see how many of them there are. Maybe it is not that bad as you think. “
“If I get a chance for flight, I will run,” I replied.33
He was turning around in small circles, unable to get rid of his ominous
thoughts. Those whirlpools of ominous thoughts, anger and bitterness were
32
AJ-F-DKRZ; F. 24.319.
33
Ćorović, ibid.
181
clashing inside him. Everything around seemed as haze. He felt defenseless

and broken. These attempts of flight slowed down the pace of the column.
They entered the village of Donja Kapavica in the evening. From that point,
they turned right on the side road leading to Lubinje though dense under-
growth of ash trees. Some of them still believed they were taking them to the
hearing in the town of Ljubinje.
The people arrive at the place called Guvno
The arrested people were brought to the threshing floors called Guvno, a
small field of some hundred square metres.
In fact it was a plane field where the villagers would thresh grain every sum-
mer; hence the place was called Guvno [In Serbian, this word means a thresh-
ing-floor, t/n]. The filed was occupied by the cordon of the Ustashas and their
leaders Boroje, Žutac, Togonal, Miskulin… A hope for salvation vanished.
As soon as the column of tied people stopped, the camp commander, who was
waiting for them, ordered them to sit down. The frightened people thought
that the tyrant would run over them with horses and kill them that way.34
“When we came near the pit,” narrates Stevo and Miha Milosević, “and were
told to sit down, I saw one Ustasha, who was the commander of those crimi-
nals, coming to us from the pit… He was riding a white horse… He dis-
mounted, and asked for a knife. One of the Ustashas gave him the knife, and
he said: “Ah, look how sharp it is.” These utterances caused excitement and
joy among the Ustashas. They started to rejoice and laugh thunderously. This
Ustasha headed for the top of the column, approached the first victim, grabbed
his chin, turned his head to left and right, at assumed the posture as if intend-
ing to slaughter him. Then he quitted this idea and returned the knife to the
Ustasha, ordering us to lie on our backs, taking away our belts and scarves.
The Ustasha cut them in pieces. Then, we were blindfolded, and deported to
the pit in groups. I found out later that that Ustasha commander was Ivan
(Leon, author’s note) Togonal.”35
As the column of people was overcrowded, the arrested Serbs we almost sit-
ting on each other. The Ustasha ordered again:
“Lie on your backs!” And all the victims did so.
34
35
Stevo Milošević; AJ-DKRZ; file 4728; itme 55.198.
182
Machine guns were set around them. The majority of the Ustashas, who left
the column two or three hours earlier, came again, forming the guard. The
tied Serbs were struck with the truth. “So, this is the place where they are
going to question and not the town of Ljubinje,” as the Ustashas told them,
thus taking them in.
“Take their belts, and put them around their eyes!” was the next order of Usta-
sha Vid Žutac.
The Ustashas went down among the people, carefully removing their belts
and slashing them into pieces. The victims were wondering what they would
do with those red pieces. Instantly, they were blindfolded.”36
The Ustasha Mahmut Mahmutović Mašo approached Vlado Šarenac. They
were good friend once.
“Dear Mašo, don’t fasten it that much…
“Hush there. If I hear you grunt once more, I will see who the Commander
is,” said Mašo, and fastened as stronger as he could. His left eye was covered,
but below his waist, with his right eye he could see something. Milorad Šar-
enac, who was tied with him, whispered something in his ear: “Now, they will
perhaps trample on us with horses. If so, hold one of the front legs of a horse
and clench your teeth around it.”37
Mustafa Zečić from the village of Vlahovići was putting belts around the vic-
tims’ eyes. He was shot after the war.
They trampled on people, taking their belts and blindfolding them. Pero Mi-
losević resisted blindfolding and as a consequence he was beaten and in-
jured.38
One side of the field was encircled by a fence and on the other side by ma-
chine guns. Mate Vukosavić from the village of Dubljani was a marksman.
“We all clearly knew what would become of us, so we started saying goodbye
to each other,” narrate those who survived this torture. Some of them were
saying goodbye to their children, parents, siblings; some of them cursed the
Ustashas, and some of them defiantly shouted: “Long live Russia.” Some
young men encouraged their friends saying: “Be brave!”39
36
37
38
Knežević, ibid.
39
Simo Radić, Ljubinje i Popovo polje: rad u pozadini 1941-1945 [Ljubinje and Popovo
Polje: Work in the Background 1941-1945], p. 42.
183
The execution methods
After the victims were blindfolded, the camp commander ordered: “The first
group, move forward! Take ten of them!”
That command was repeated for several times. It took 10 minutes for a group
to reach the pit. Afterwards, the roll-call was continued.
The first “rope” of the tied persons headed towards the pit. A crowd of the
Ustashas rushed after them in order to rob them. They took rings, golden teeth
and other items of value which the victims had with them. The salvo, uproar
of the Ustashas and some cries could be heard. They did not shoot them all.
Namely, six people from one of the “ropes” were killed and thrown into the
pit. With their weight, they pulled down into the abyss the other six people.
The human bodies tumbled into the chasm. The skulls cracked, brains spilled
out and bones broke. All that was watered with the blood of the innocent and
poor Serbian villagers. This abyss became their common grave.”40
The survivors say that many people were thrown alive into the pit and left
there to die in agony.
…They take them around two hundred metres away from this terrible
place…. Meanwhile, those who tried to escape were killed. Older people
from the bunch say to their families: Goodbye, my brother!” Milan Ćorović
calls the marksman: “Hey, Mato Vukosavic, we have had enough festive days
spent in Dubrovnik together. I even plowed your land with my bulls. Give me
a cigar and I will forgive you everything!” Mato briskly retorted: “I don’t need
your forgiveness!”
Vaso Krunić calls his neighbour, Ustasha Zec: “Hey, young man. Say hello
to your father! Ask him to take care of my children!”
“Don’t worry, they will soon join you!” stormed the Ustashas unanimously.
“Traitors! You tricked us and brought us here. If someone survives, our time
will come. Be sure that we will remember this conversation.”
Rajko Ćuk from the village of Ubosko watched all this. (…) When they saw
the pit, fights broke out. Vaso, Slobodan Milosević and Ilija Miceta tried to
escape. A hundred of rifle shots could be heard after them. The ground was
shaking as if they were on the battlefield. All this was of no avail. They man-
aged to escape.
40
184
“In the moment they took me and my fiends, who were fastened with one
rope,” says Stevo “I, Lazo Šarenac and Luka Sikimić managed to untangle
the knots and to untie our hands. In that way, we succeeded to run away.”41
While walking towards the pit, Rajko Cuk untied his hands. Having seen the
abyss of the pit, he stepped out of the line, and at the same time when an
Ustasha fired at the chest of the man standing first in the line, he jumped over
the pit, knocked down the Ustasha who fired and run away. While fleeing, he
was wounded in head. He toppled down in one ditch. He came round to before
the dawn, feeling the pain in his head. He opened his eyes. With the help of a
dry tree branch he walked slowly, making pauses in order to rest and rear-
range “the bandage” on his wound.
Across the slope of Đurđeva Glava, Rajko accidentally came to the village of
Donja Ivica. This was a Serbian village. He stopped by to have a glass of
water and to find some footwear since he lost his during the flight. He also
came to say to the others to start fleeing in order to escape the doom. The
villagers did not believe him. They did not even believe that he was Rajko
Cuk. They thought he was a spy and had come to deceive them so that the
Ustashas would entrap them as fugitives and kill them. They tied him without
giving him any food or drink, since no one from the village knew him until a
girl came to see him. She confirmed that he was Rajko Cuk and that he used
to go hunting with her father. Aside from that, Rajko had a birthmark below
his nose, which made it easier for her to recognise him. After than, they untied
him and gave him to eat and drink. They immediately fled towards the locality
of Sitnica, and thus none of the people from the village of Donja Ivica were
killed by the Ustashas.
The Ustashas continued “with their job” at the Guvno pit below the village of
Kapavica. They would bring group by group to the pit. The tied persons
reached the edge, while being kicked with the gunstocks. People died in hor-
ror before the chasm. They were brought around the pit, from the back side.
The machine gun was on the south. Đurđev’s head was shaking from the rifle
and machine-gun shots. The Ustashas killed the first there persons tied with
the rope.
They toppled down pulling with them those who were alive. Not all the vic-
tims were murdered. The killed victims would wrench those alive who were
tied with the remaining part of the rope. By the machine-gun, stood an Usta-
sha with a pole which had a hook at its top with which he would pull the rope
if the one of victims stopped. Extending out his hooked pole across the pit
41
Milošević, ibid.
185
and with the rope, the Ustashas would throw the people who remained alive
into the pit. Thus, by pulling the rope towards the pit, the Ustashas would
control the falling of the victims in the pit. Forty people both murdered or
alive were thrown into the pit.
Before he was shot and sent down into the darkness of the pit, Lazar Banđur
shouted: “Kill us, just kill us, some Serbs will survive. Someone will avenge
us!”
The priest from the village of Rđus remained silent. He was silently murmur-
ing something in his chin. Maybe, those were the prayers for the salvation of
his soul and the souls of the unfortunates for whom he was reading the last
requiem.
“With darkened consciousness and looks, the villagers staggered, placing
their hands under their ribs in order to reduce the pain. They would lift their
feet as not to trip over something. With creeps down their spine, they waited
for every salvo, and their body would convulse from the terrible anticipation.
They were focused on the words: “Now, now is the time.” But the waiting
seemed without end… Now, now was the time… A laugh and murmur could
be heard. … They were humans too… They would not do it…. Perhaps…
Now, now was the time! Someone regrouped them and pushed them forward.
Their feet were above a precipice. Sensing some danger, they tried to move
backwards while instinctively providing resistance. Several gunshots echoed
and some cries were heard. Those alive felt how something pulled them
down… and those who were behind them started pushing while the ground
disappeared below their feet. And all of a sudden they are tumbling to an
abyss, pulling behind them the rest of the tied persons… A terrible bang of
their heads. A horrible clash. Moaning. From above, the rifles blared. Cries.
Over the heads of the wounded, some warm liquid is being spilled. A Muffled
groan. They are pressed with some weight; they are left with no air, as if they
sank deeper and deeper into some chasm, unconscious, with their minds
empty.42
One man’s escape from the pit
“Only two companions stayed to escort the final human dispatches tied in
rope. Rade Pivac was the first to escape from one of them. One of his escorts
ordered the other detainee to run after him and catch him. He himself also
42
186
took to chasing, shooting as he ran. It was Salko Kuralić, an Ustasha from

Kapavice. All that time, the second escort kept his barrel turned to the ground,
and with his back turned to the captives, gave them a sign to flee. Ten men
escorted in that rope were thus saved from a certain death. Gojko Piljević
Vlado Pavić, bound the first and the last, could not pull off the rope, so they
began to flee together. They got tangled in the branches. The Logornik, who
was mounted, caught up with them (Vide Žutac, author’s note) and shot them
with a gun. There were hesitant people in that criminal mob, without the cour-
age to leave this gang of criminals, but who did not want to kill innocent
people.”43 These gangs were made up entirely of volunteers .
The line grew shorter. They were closer and closer to their plunge into a deep
abyss. (...) “The same rope bound together two brothers; Novica and Slavko,
two sons of the Bukvić family from Ubosko, walked side by side. Novica was
the sixth, and Slavko the seventh in the column held together with the rope.
Though restrained, they clung to each other in this fateful moment, as if want-
ing to protect each other from the Ustashas, roughly pushing them and kicking
them in the back. There was so much they would have wanted to say to each
other, so many things to remember, their family, to send a word of message
to them; yet, their eyes were blurred, while their mind’s eye flying from the
dead man on the road to the yelling Ustashas, savagely yelling, as if in a hurry
to finish their bloody business as soon as possible.
“My poor souls... who are we leaving you to!” cried Novica...
Slavko Bukvić was in the back part of the rope enclosure and was pulled for-
ward by the dead. He buckled, his consciousness already blurred, and leaned
over the pit, but his brother, to whom he was bound, still kept him standing.
A gun snapped. Novica collapsed from the edge, along with a group of people,
collapsing into the abyss. Some still sobbed, others were heard moaning...
From above the pit, the Ustasha kept firing at those who still showed signs of
life, until the crying waned.
Slavko breathed hard, as if a burden had been laid on his chest; something
warm flowed over his face and went down his neck. Not realizing what had
happened, for it was too abrupt, he breathed in, and had a sensation he was in
a crevice that pressed against him harder and harder. His left hand went numb,
as if prickled by thousands of pins. He would have liked to get rid of that
unbearable burden, but his feet were restrained, and something kept drum-
ming above him, then a bang, like a gunshot, and finally – human voices.”44
43
44
187
He was not able to hear any moans or calls... Was he deaf? Everything seemed
so unusual. He was stuck under a flat protrusion. All around him, the dark pit
was quiet... As the opening of the pit was quite narrow and the victim tied
together, the opening was jammed with human bodies. Someone’s body was
stuck between the rocks in the cave. The bodies blocked the pit and there was
no place for the survivors, as if the abyss did not want to receive the innocent
detainees in its bosom. So, not all of them had fallen to the bottom.
As previously mentioned, Mustafa Burek from the village of Kapavice
checked and measured all pits around Ljubinje. He had overestimated the ca-
pacity of this one, because it got filled to the very edge before they had exe-
cuted all the Serbs they had brought. When a group of the killed got stuck in
the opening, the executioners began shouting:
“The pit’s full. We can’t push any more of them in... There’s no place. We
should fill it with stones.”
The words sobered Slavko up. He remembered everything that had happened
and in what kind of position he was now. His brother pressed against him. A
dead hand protruded from below a motionless body, as if it had paused, upset
and confused by the heaviness above. He writhed and struggled to untie his
left hand. His brother’s streamed over him; it was still warm. The smell of
blood and the fumes exuming from the dead suffocated him.
“He opened his eyes and saw a speck of light through the human corpses
around him. It was like a beast’s eye, glistening in the dark, so he went numb
again and kept quiet. Somebody wheezed below him... He saw the shimmer-
ing light again... ‘A star,’ he realised. ‘I need to escape... or they’ll bury me
alive.’ He strained his right hand and pulled the rope off his left hand... Then
he turned his head down, pressed against someone’s head and chest with his
hands, and raised his back. somebody's corpse is osuljao by it and felt sud-
denly relieved . Besides himself, he saw his brother Novica, whose eyes were
half-open and glassy, with two lines of blood coming out of the corners of his
mouth. ‘My poor souls... who are we leaving you to!’ He remembered his
brother’s last words. His soul shuddered... Surrounded by dead people on all
sides, it seemed to him as if the swelling corpses around him would jump at
him at any moment, grab him tight in their deadly embrace... Gripped by the
irresistible urge to live, he suddenly straightened up, standing on the chest of
someone’s corpse... It was quiet around the pit. He took a deep breath and
looked at the sky, which was now dim, with dusk covering the place like a
soft blanket. The wind roared as if luring him... A dull and gruesome death
rattle came from the pit. As if running from death itself, Slavko trampled over
188
the corpses, stumbling, until he grabbed the bulging stones at the pit opening.
He then paused, listening...
A murmur reached him from a distance. He thought of his friends at Guvno
and, without second thoughts, crawled to the top. The wind caressed him, the
soft rustle of leaves whispered to him. Down, at Guvno, he heard commotion,
bursting rifles. Driven by the self-preservation instinct, he raced in the oppo-
site direction, towards the woods, and hiding between the tries, disappeared
in the darkness, happy to be alive.”45
He wandered all night and did not get far from the pit. When dawn broke, he
climbed onto an oak-tree and spent the day there. His plan was to escape to
Radimlja that night. When he came home, some inner restlessness shook he
from inside. He was petrified, crazed; he had long listened to the moans and
agony of the victims dying in the abyss, wheezing, sobbing.
Since they could no longer throw the detainees into the pit, the Ustasha re-
turned to Guvno three “ropefuls”, with about 30 people.
“If someone tries to untie the rope or loses the blindfold, tie it back right
away!” shouted one of the Ustashas.
Just at that moment the band blindfolding Jovan Brkljača slid down his face.
Zair Šerak, from the village of Miljanović, rushed right over. Jovan said to
him: “Come on, Zaire , tighten it so I can live some more. Zair, my friend,
you and I have never been bad to Croats, never wished them evil. What’s this
for, Zaire?” “By God, Jovan, it’s you today, and it’ll be me tomorrow.” He
tightened the band around his head.46 Just at that moment, Jovan ripped the
band and jumped. He jumped over the fence into a wheat field. The machine
gun roared, but he did not hear Zair’s gun. Jovan was absolutely sure of that.
When you had run across the field, he grabbed the fence with his hands and
pushed through, with his head first. He did not dare go over the fence for he
would make an easy target for the Ustashas. He went to Bukovo Prisoje,
found a hiding place, and kept low. That was how he spent the rest of the day.
He found water in a trough below the Gradac church and drank.
“Around noon, he heard the calling of two shepherdesses along the creek in
Bukov Do. They were two girls, shepherdesses Vuka Bijelić and Persa Janjić.
He called them. He dashed down to the creek. Persa did not dare approach.
She got frightened. She did not recognize his voice. (...)
45
Ibid., p. 283.
46
Jovan Brkljača, from a testimony in the author’s possession.
189
Jovan returned to his shelter of the previous day in Bukovo Prisoje. They fol-
lowed him. After a half an hour, they went up to him, trembling. When they
approached, Jovan told them about everything that had happened.”47
One of the girls took her bag off her shoulder and gave him some corn bread,
onion and cheese. “Girls, leave your cattle as it is and run home. If the people
back home have not yet been captured by the Ustashas, tell them to get their
things and run to Sitnica tonight,” Jovan told them.
So they did, and everybody reached Sitnica by nighttime.
Pero Knežević was another person who escaped from the pit. They had al-
ready thrown in two to three pairs before it was Pero’s turn. They brought
Pero’s group. He had not realized it was a pit. He thought it was just a crack.
So he skipped over it, and dashed to Rankovci.
A massacre on unbroken ground
Four groups, with eight to ten people each, were still on the flat unbroken
ground. Those remaining at Guvno benefited from the falling dark. They
slowly freed their hands out of the ropes. They waited for the right moment.
The rope had sunk so deep into the flesh of some of the men not even their
teeth were able to get to the knot, and all the trying was in vain. They took
the blindfolds off. As soon as there were fewer Ustashas at Guvno, some of
the men seized the opportunity and started fleeing. They ran, jumping over
the bushes and shrubs scattered across Đurđeva Glava and Oblo Brdo.
When the Ustashas returned from the pit, they immediately opened fire on
those who were still at Guvno. Panic broke out. The Ustashas were dismayed
by the people’s fleeing. All of a sudden, there was incredible commotion. The
different commands coming from all sides only made the confusion worse:
“Shoot!” “Don’t shoot!” “You’re shooting at our men!” Thanks to this and
other circumstances (the convoy had arrived in Kapavica rather late, some
mobilised peasants did not want to shoot at their neighbors), many people fled
to the woods and the underbrush.
47
Ibid.
190
Guvna – a place of war crimes

Dusan Šarenac from Vlahovići also provided information about this tragic
event: “... When it was my and my friends’ turn, the group who wire tied
together with one rope, I removed my blindfold a bit and saw there were three
more “ropefuls” of victims, along with ours. This meant the Ustashas had
already killed the other victims, unless somebody had escaped from the pit.
They brought me and my group close to the pit. Since the pit was already full
– it was packed with corpses – they took us back to the place we were previ-
ously, blindfolded, 200-300 metres away from the pit. The Ustashas simply
shot the rest of the detainees, with one Ustasha standing behind one detainee
and shooting him in the back of the head with his gun. On hearing 1-2-3, the
Ustashas fired a volley and killed the victim. On hearing 3, which meant they
were going to open fire, I and Mirko Kašiković, my stepson, who was inside
the same rope as myself, fell flat on our faces. We did it between the com-
mand and the actually shooting, so we stayed alive. Later, I heard several
more people kept their lives by doing the same thing.”48 Similar accounts was
given by Lazo Šarenac and Duka Sikimić.
48
Dušan Šarenac, ibid.
191
Taking into account those who had escaped before the commotion, those who
had got out of the pit alive, and those who had fled along the way or while
they were kept in Rankovci, a total of 50 people had escaped.
“It was difficult for the abhorred fugitives to know what to do next, where to
go,” said Simo Radić. “Some of them kept roaming for a week before they
were reunited with their families on Mount Radimlja, where they took refu-
gee.”49 Those who immediately fell to the ground and kept quiet, they kept
their lives. Those who failed to free their hands and whose eyes were blind-
folded stayed at Guvno, where they were killed with rifles and machine guns.
Through all the commotion, shouts, curses, whispers, shooting, in that mind-
less and hopeless situation, Nikola Ćorović kept his resolve – he would flee,
as soon as an opportunity presented itself. Even if it meant doing an impossi-
ble thing. Nikola definitely took advantage of one such opportunity. By blink-
ing he made the frayed blindfold slip off his face. As soon as he saw the Usta-
shas were returning from the pit, he took to flight. The Ustashas opened fire.
He heard his brother Milan’s voice: “Hit again!” Nikola ran along the side of
the hill in the direction of Gradac. They shot, but in vain. He kept running
along the Bukovi Potok creek flowing over Mount Radimlja.
“Two men had collapsed over Ilija Piljević. Blood oozed from their wounds,
wetting Ilija, who lay flat on the ground. The blood of the people lying over
him streamed over his cheeks and the Ustashas thought he was also dead. Ilija
unnoticeably pressed a finger against the ground to make sure he was alive.
He even stopped breathing. Though he felt the pressure of the bodies on him
and went rigid and ached from lying still in an awkward position, all his ef-
forts boiled down to a single thought: “Endure, endure until they’re gone!”50
However, in his statement given to the State Commission to Investigate the
Crimes of Nazis and Their Allies, Ilija Piljević claimed he had pushed the
Ustasha escorting him at the pit and fled. Ilija and his brother Vlado were tied
with the same rope. Vlado helped Ilija, who was in front of him, to free him-
self. “The Ustasha Mijo Kristić from Orahov Do noticed Vlado was helping
his brother Ilija loosen the rope, so he hit him on the head with the butt of his
gun and severely injured him.”51 Yet, Vlado succeeded in escaping from the
pit, while their third brother, Gojko, perished.
49
Simo Radić, ibid., p. 43.
50
51
Ilija Piljević, AJ-DKRZ; item 55.159.
192
The killings at Guvno
Seven men of the Krulj family were tied with the rope the Ustashas brought
back from the teeming pit to Guvno: Vlado, Vojislav, Danilo, Dojčilo, Pavle,
Radomir and Rajko, two men from the Milošević family, Miloš and Šćepan,
and Reverend Stavro. They were standing, while the rest were lying on the
ground. An order came: “The barrels two inches from the backs of their heads!
Fire!”
All the Serbs who were standing used the executioners’ lack of skill and delay
in shooting and simultaneously collapsed to the ground. Thus four of the Krulj
men kept their lives: Vojislav, Danilo, Radomir and Rajko. When the Usta-
shas were already on their way to Ljubinje, marching and singing, thinking
they had killed everybody, Rajko was the first to untie himself. He did not
immediately take to flight, but turned the men in the rope around to see if
there were more survivors. He untied Vojislav and Danilo, and then turned
Radomir around, who was all covered in blood, but still breathed. Shaking
him, he asked him: “Radomir, are you still alive? Come up, let’s run!” “I’m
not alive!” answered Radomir. He could not feel any wounds, his breathing
was normal, perhaps somewhat fast, but he was convinced he had not sur-
vived the massacre. Because he was not able to see any wounds on him, Rajko
helped him up. The four of them took to the woods, in the direction of Ću-
kovci, to their homes.
Pero Knežević came back to Guvno in search for his brother. He drove Danilo
Ljubenko with him. In the group he found the heavily wounded Đorđo Čolić.
A bullet had gone through past his left lung and come out at the armpit. “After
committing this terribly atrocity,” says Đorđo Čolić, “the Ustashas stayed
there for only a few more minutes. I heard an Ustasha give an order to rum-
mage the bodies and finish off the survivors. Tripo Knežević was lying over
me, son of late Jovan, from the Vlahović clan, who was fatally wounded, but
still showed signs of life. One of the Ustashas came up to him, fired a bullet
and finished him off. Then the Ustashas left. There were a few people among
the victims who came out unwounded.”52
“Šćepan Krunić was there, lying among the pile,” says Pero Knežević. “He
hadn’t been shot. He untied himself. He asked me drowsily: ‘What are you
52
Đorđo Čolić, AJ-DKRZ; item 55.198
193
doing?’ ‘Smoking, can’t you see!’ I told him calmly and yet, my fingers trem-
bled as I rolled a cigarette. The trembling would not stop! ‘I don’t know if I
fell asleep or fainted,’ Šćepan responded.
I had taken a shot in the left shoulder-joint. I used my teeth to untie the other
men. In the meantime, although only wounded, Đorđo kept quiet, as he heard
Pero and Šćepan talking. He thought they were the Ustashas. It was only when
he recognised their voices that Đorđo plucked the courage to call in a feeble
voice: ‘Oh, my god, is that you?!’
Šćepan lifted me onto his shoulder and took turns to carry both me and Đorđo,
since we were both heavily wounded. He carried me for about 3 km. He took
me to the village of Kapavica. He laid me in a secure place and left me there;
the place was a stable near Risto Mijanović’s house. He took Đorđo to the
Vlahović house. He rushed to the village and told my sister about the events.
The following night, Šćepan and two women came to fetch me.
This is what the Ustashas sang as they marched to Ljubinje, after the atrocity
(genocide, the killing of the Serbs):
Gone are the Serbs, their Serb candles,

No more Serbs to boast their Serbdom.53
After the killings, the Ustashas had covered the pit with some leafy branches;
the next day, they strew some earth over the bodies of the people they had
shot in the open, at Guvno. The day after that, members of the people’s fam-
ilies, while still in refuge, collected and buried the dead.
The victims’ remains rest in the deep shade of the pine-trees standing at
Guvno. The memorial erected there will stand in the victims’ memory, a
warning to us all.
The memorial built in 1961, commemorating the Serbs shot by the Ustashas
at Guvno near Kapavica, used to read:
“Eternal glory to the victims who perished at this place on
8th June 1941, to the thirty-two men brutally tortured and
killed by the Ustashas, allies of the Nazis.”
53
Pero Knežević, from an account given to the author.
194
The memorial at the Kapavica pit, 200 metres away from the Guvno grounds,
where the Ustashas tortured people and threw them into the pit alive, used to
read:
“Eternal glory to the victims who perished at this place on
8th June 1941, to the seventy-two men brutally tortured
and killed by the Ustashas, allies of the Nazis.”
Both memorials were built by the NOR Veterans’ Alliance in 1961.
As demanded by the villagers and relatives of the victims, both plaques were
replaced with new ones at the commemoration ceremony held on 10 June
1990. Since all the victims were Orthodox Christian, in the new plaques the
sign of cross now stood instead of the five-pointed star.
The memorial plaque at the pit now reads:
“Blindfolded, their arms tied, 57 Serb victims ended their
lives in this pit, thrown in alive.”
The Guvno memorial plaque reads:
“When the pit was full, it was here they murdered 57 Serb
victims.”
There is a third memorial plaque, put up in the village of Rankovci:
“In June 1941, the Ustashas, local Nazi collaborators,
tricked into rallying 150 innocent Serbs from the sur-
rounding villages, aged 16-60, at this very place. After
brutally torturing them from three days, they blindfolded
the people and tied their arms, and eventually pushed
them alive down the Guvno pit, near Kapavica.
Their bones lying in the pit serve as a reminder and warn-
ing to all generations, present and future, that this must
never be forgotten, lest such evil should occur again. The
martyrs’ names stand on the memorial plaques at the pit.”
SUBNOR
Families and citizens
1990
The Guvno pit near Kapavica is situated by the old Ljubinje road. “The pit
entrance is narrow, the pit itself is rather deep, its wall uneven, with lots of
protrusions. Doctors from the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Belgrade de-
scended into this pit as well, after speleologists had removed a ton of earth
195
and rock. When they reached the bones, they found a skull with long mum-
mified hair and a beard, which must have belonged to the Reverend (Stavro
Manastirlić, author’s comment), who is known to have been executed there.
The villagers changed their minds then and chose not to let the experts bring
the bones to the surface and examine them, although they had already been
packed at the bottom, following the usual procedure. They decided the bones
should stay in the Kapavica pit, and have a church, that is, a monastery built
next to it. Pehaps some day it will be possible to examine these bones as
well.”54
Kapavica pit cave
54
Prof. Vladislav Božić, “The opening of pits holding the Serb victims of genocide in Bos-
nia and Herzegovina”. A paper read to the SANU (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
on 23 November 1991, p. 12.
196
The positive examples
Even though the names of the Ustasha atrocious perpetrators have been listed,
it is necessary to state there were some positive cases.
Petar Šakić, commander of the NDH gendarmerie station in Ljubinje, warned
his friends to keep clear of the Ustashas. When the people came to hand in
their weapons, he told them not do it, and gave some of the collected arms
back to their original owners, under the cover of the night.
Also, Ljubo Mihić notes that there were Ustashas, among those who came to
Rankovci, who were recruited by force and did not want to engage in the
killing or burning of property:
“On 4th June 1941, the Ustashas were at Rankovci with the the seized men,
watching over them and preparing to kill them and throw them in the pit.
Those they had not seized, who families were being threatened, did not know
what to do. Nobody knew what fate awaited the captives. One of the Ustasha
troops at Rankovci was Mišo Kralj from Golubinac (Belenići), in Popovo
Polje. He and Šćepan Krulj from Rankovci did the national service together
during the time of the old Yugoslavia. It was during that day that Krulj found
out where Šćepan’s house was and informed him about the Ustasha’s inten-
tions, advising him to flee his home. On 4th June 1941, rather late, around 11
o’clock at night, Kralj was on guard for his Ustasha troops; he took off his
shoes, took them in his hands, and armed with a gun, walked for about 500 m
to Vlado and Nikola Krulj’s house. When he opened the door, there were 12
men sitting inside. Seeing a man in Ustasha uniform, with a gun on his shoul-
der, barefoot and with his shoes in his hands, the people froze. To this, Kralj
said:
 People, I plead with you in God’s name, run! Where’s Šćepan Krulj? Tell
him to go and hide in the woods right away!
Milan Milojević, one of the men who were in the house, asked:
 The Ustashas took away my father and brother today, what will happen to
them?
Kralj responded:
 All the captives will be killed and thrown in a pit. Run for your lives! Don’t
let the Ustashas capture you alive! Tell everybody to run. I left my guard duty
to come and tell you. I have to go. Don’t tell anyone who told you you need
197
to run, because the Ustashas will kill me if they find out. Give my regards to
Šćepan, tell him to go away, immediately.
Give him regards from the man who shared bread with him in the army. Mišo
Kralj from Belenići.
Kralj went back to his place of duty barefoot, so the rest of the Ustashas did
not see him. As soon as Kralj left, the Krulj men from the house fled to the
woods – Vlado, Dušan, Ilija, Jovo, Kosta, Maksim, Milan, Nikla, Rajko and
Svetozar, Svetko, and with them Šćepan Pecelj and Milan Milojević.
“It was thanks to Mišo Kralj all of us survived,” says Milan Milojević, an eye
witness and survivor. Šćepan Krulj also escaped and kept his life.
There were people who joined the ranks of the Ustashas, but when they saw
the Ustashas were ready to kill, they returned their homes. One of them was
Pero Bender from Mišljen. Pero spent several days with the Ustasha troops,
but when he saw the Ustashas killing innocent people at Ubosk and Rankovci,
who were all his Serb neighbours, he deserted from the Ustasha units in
Rankovci and went back to Mišljen. He warned every person he met on his
way back home to Mišljen not to let the Ustashas capture them alive.
Some Serb women were on their way to Ljubinje to get passports to take cattle
across to Mount Treskavica. They met Pero at Nikolj Brdo; he had a gun in
his hand and a “U” written on his hand.
 Pero, are they issuing passports? the women asked.
 Don’t even think about it, turn around and run! The Ustashas are killing the
Serbs! Pero responded.
On his way, he stopped by at Stajčića Mahala and told Đoko Rudan:
 Đoko, run to the woods, don’t let the Ustashas capture you alive! They’re
killing everyone, just run!
Pero went home and never joined the Ustashas again.
There was a man in Vlahovići, called Šljuka, who told his neighbour to take
the pupils to a safe place.
One Ustasha was taking five men across Mount Radimlja and asked them:
 What did God make the woods for? In other words, he was obviously ad-
vising the men he was escorting to run to the woods and save their lives.
An Ustasha told Đurić:
198
 Go to the hedge and change your clothes! In other words, he was telling him
to run away and hide.
But he did not take the advice and came back again.
There was a gendarme called Bučuk at Zmijinac. He warned the friends he
could trust not to hand in their weapons. When one of them brought a weapon
to the gendarmerie station, with the intention of handing it in, Bučuk waited
till they were alone and told him:
 Take your piece home and hide it away, you’ll need it before soon! Don’t
tell anyone who told you.
In the evening of 4th August 1941, Mato Bender went from one Serb house
to the next, telling them he was no longer able to keep them safe, advising
them to flee. Your property will be here, waiting for you, the same as you
leave it. That night, the Serb population of Mišljen took refuge in Ilija. No-
body got killed.
Marko Bender, who was a Croat, went from home to home, after his Serb
neighbours had taken refuge, and blocked the doors, so nothing would disap-
pear from the houses for as long as they were away.
Jokan Budimčić, a centenarian from Mišljen, stayed in the village, together
with his daughter-in-law and her three small children. The good Croats of
Mišljen kept vigil over this Serb house lest someone should come and try to
kill them. They were thus guarded and survived the times.
It is interesting to note that Marko Boro, a 20-year-old Croat, son of Stanko
and brother of Nikola, an Mišljen Ustasha, took refuge in Ilija with his Serb
fellow villagers. Marko took his father’s advice and did not join the Ustashas.
– I’m coming with you, may whatever happen to you happen to me too. We’ll
share the same fate.
He and Aleksa Samopjan kept hidden at Pješivac for two days and went to
Mount Ilija. Aleksa Samopjan discouraged Marko from taking refuge, saying
anything could happen.
 People have taken refuge, fleeing from the pits, people slaughtered and
thrown in by Nikola, your brother, and they will think you have come to spy
on them, and kill you.
 I’ll kill Nikola, my own brother, this murderer killing innocent people,
Marko said.
199
“Still, they succeeded in dissuading him from going, and he returned from
refuge to his home in Mišljen,” said Aleksa Samopjan, an eye witness of the
events.
Nikola learnt how his father Stanko and brother Marko felt about the whole
situation. Somebody told him Marko had joined the Serb refuge and they had
sent him back. When he came home to Mišljen, his own brother, Marko, was
his first victim. They recruited him by force and he never returned. Nikola
also threatened his father Stanko, but eventually let him be.55
On one occasion, Ustahsa troops came to the hamlet of Radići, to the house
of Jovo Mutapdžić, son of Milan. A Croatian woman from the village of Ko-
manje Brdo, whose name was Stoja Mutapdžić, was at the house.
“Two men walked into my house that day,” says Jovo, “they were two Usta-
shas, Salko Taslaman, from Kruševica, and Pero Radić, from Velja Međa...
One of the Ustashas, Pero Radić, immediately asked Stoja to come out of the
house and had a talk with her there. In the meantime, the other Ustasha,
Taslaman, searched me. Next, both of them left my house and went to the
next, my next-door neighbour, the home of Rade Kovač. Stoja Mutapdžić
came back into my house and told me to leave immediately and not come
back home for a while. I took her advice and went south, where I hid in a
bush.”56
Stana, Branko Pavić’s aunt, went to see Šaćir Šljoka from Vlahovići and asked
him:
 What’s happening, Šaćir?
 The Ustashas will come and go. Perhaps they’ll take the military stuff with
them. Brano should hide for a while. He’s a schoolboy. The rest of you can
stay as you are.
Stana told Brano about his conversation with Šaćir and gave him his advice.
Brano went into hiding and kept alert non-stop.
In the end, a bit about the various data supplied by some of the witnesses. I
collected this information while doing my research, and it has all been double
checked with the contemporaries of the event, the people who came from the
villages that suffered the Ustasha persecution. The Ustashas had brought 168
villagers to the camp at Rankovci. They released three of the men, who were
55
Ljubo Mihić, Turistički motivi i objekti Stoca i okoline, Skupština opštine Stolac, 1973,
p. 340.
56
Jovo Mutapdžić, AJ-DKRZ; item 55.194.
200
elderly. As for the rest, 165 of them, 115 were either killed or fatally
wounded. Fifty people escaped. If we remember that six people had been
killed in Vlahovići, the total toll of this atrocious campaign was 121.
Twenty-nine villagers from Vlahovići perished (victims who died in the pits),
of whom 27 at Guvna; as for two of the victims, Uroš Domazet and Mihajlo
Perišić, they suffered deadly wounds on the way to the pit (they were both
buried in the village cemetrey; their names stand on the memorial); Rankovci
lost 23 villagers, Pocrnja 13, Kapavice 17, and Uboska 33. Twenty-five peo-
ple from Vlahovići escaped from the execution place, along with another 25
from the villages of Pocrnja, Kapavice and Uboska. No villager from
Rankovci escaped this horrible death.
Memories swell as I recall the words of Cvija Sorajić, a soothsayer from
Dubočica, and feel like meeting death itself:
 My children, my dear fellow-villagers! I can tell, I can see it – so do swear
you will fill Kapavica the pit with earth. Harsh times await you, terrible things
will happen. Or it’ll see to your end.
Ten years later, the prophecy came true. The villagers had not obeyed her.
They died terrible deaths.
The Kapavica perpetrators
The reports of the State Commission to Investigate Crimes Committed by

Nazis and their Allies state that approximately 400 Ustashas took part in com-
mitting this horrendous atrocity, who mainly came from the Ljubinje
County.57 Here is a partial list of the names of the perpetrators:
Last name /father’s name/ first name, place of residence

1. Bender /.../ Vido, called Margin, Mišljen
2. Bender /Stanko/ Vinko,Velja Međa
3. Bender /.../ Mijo, called Micin, Mišljen
4. Bender /Nikola/ Niko, Mišljen
5. Bender /.../ Pero, Mišljen
6. Bender /.../ Rafo, Mišljen
7. Boro /Mišo/ Nikola, called Niko, Čavaš
57
AJ-DKRZ; item 60.660.
201
8. Brajić /.../ Andrija, Ravno

9. Brajić /.../ Boško, Ravno
10. Brajić /Đuro/ Miško, Ravno
11. Brač /.../ Ivan, Cicrina
12. Bubalo /.../ /.../, Dubrave kod Stoca
13. Bukvić /Ivan/ David, Ravno
14. Burek /Meho/ Adem, Kapavica
15. Burek /Mujo/ Adem, Kapavica
16. Burek /Bećir/ Mustafa, Kapavica
17. Burek /Ahmed/ Salko, Kapavica
18. Burić /.../ Andrija, Ravno
19. Burić /Pero/ Boško, called Bokica, Ravno
20. Burić /Grgo/ Pero, called Gaga, Ravno
21. Burum /Mato/ Tomo, Gajići
22. Vlahinić /Jozo/ Vide, Ravno
23. Vukosavić /Nikola/ Andrija, Dubljani
24. Vukosavić /Mato/ Mato, Dubljani
25. Vukosavić /.../ Mijo, Dubljani
26. Vukosavić /Nikola/ Nikola, called Nikica, Dubljani
27. Vukosavić /.../ Nikola, Dubljani
28. Vukić /.../ Vlaho, Trnčina
29. Vukić /Grgo/ Pero, called Gaga, Ravno
30. Dubelj /… / Spaho Kijev Do
31. Đajić /.../ Vide, former teacher, Trebimlja
32. Elezović /Šaban/ Mujo, Poljice
33. Žarak /Nikola/ Đuka, Čvaljina
34. Žustra /.../ Ibro, Grablje
35. Žustra /.../ Mujo, Grablje
36. Žustra /.../ Salko, Grablje
37. Žutac /Nikola/ Vide, forester, Ravno
38. Zeko /Ivo/ Ivo, Trnčina
39. Zečić /Smail/ Mujo, Vlahovići
40. Zečić /Omer/ Musa, imam, Vlahovići
41. Zećo or Zečić /.../ Murat, Vlahovići
42. Zećo or Zečić /Smail/ Mustafa, Vlahovići
43. Zećo or Zečić /Avdo/ Džafer, Vlahovići
44. Zuškić /.../ Alija, commander of Gendarmerie station, Vlahovići
45. Kristić /.../ Mijo, Orahov Do
46. Kuralić /…/ Salko, Kruševica
47. Lonac /Vide/ Jozo, Trnčina
48. Lučić /.../ Martin, Ravno
49. Malohodžić /.../ Adem, Vlahovići
202
50. Malohodžić /.../ Murat, called Longinovac, Grablje

51. Malohodžić /.../ Šukrija, Grablje
52. Mahmutović /Mahmut/ Adem, Vlahovići
53. Mahmutović /Meho/ Mahmut, called Mašo, Vlahovići
54. Mahmutović /Bećir/ Hasan, Vlahovići
55. Miškulin /.../ Ante, Ustasha emigrant, Slavonska Požega
56. Mutić /.../ Ibro, Kruševice
57. Oberan /.../ Jozo, Velja Međa
58. Palameta /.../ Miho, called Miško, Mišljen
59. Palameta /.../ Niko, Čavaš
60. Palameta /.../ Pero, Mišljen
61. Prkut /.../ Pero, Belenići
62. Prce /.../ Stanko, Prhinje
63. Pupo /Mato/ Đuro, Čvaljina
64. Radić /Marko/ Nikola, Gajići
65. Radić /.../ Pero, Velja Međa
66. Rajić /.../ Mijo, Orašje
67. Rudinica /Đuro/ Vlaho, Ravno
68. Salman /.../ Salko, Žabica
69. Sorić /.../ Jure, former Gendarmerie sergeant, Ostrožac
70. Taslaman /.../ Salko, Kruševice
71. Togonal /.../ Leon, Travnik
72. Čokljat /.../ Miljenko, Do
73. Curić /.../ Niko, Velja Međa
74. Čigrija /.../ Hajro, former Gendarmerie sergeant, Sandžak
75. Šerak /.../ Huso, Miljanovići
76. Šarić /.../ Safet, Ljubinje
77. Škurla /.../ Miško, Trebimlja
The names of the masterminds and executioners of the Ljubinje atrocity
1. Andrijić /Nikola/ Mato, Zavala

2. Aidrić /Miho/ Andrija, Zavala
3. Andrić /Andro/ Nikola, Zavala
4. Bakšić /Zulfo/ Šaćir, Ljubinje
5. Bender /Ivan/ Mate, Velja Međa
6. Berberović /Huso/ Adem, Ljubinje
7. Berberović /Huso/ Zulfo, Ljubinje
8. Berberović /Huso/ Tahir, Ljubinje
9. Bokica /.../ Ivan, called Čepikuće, Ston
203
10. Boroje /Božo/ Boško, Ravno

11. Boroje /Mato/ Boško, Ravno
12. Boroje /Mato/ Dragan, Ravno
13. Boroje /Mato/ Jure, Ravno
14. Boroje /Ivan/ Mate , roadmender, Ravno
15. Bošnjak Don Jozo, former priest, Trebinje
16. Brajić /Đuro/ Miško, Ravno
17. Brač /Nikola/ Miho, Ravno
18. Brač /Nikola/ Nikola, Ravno
19. Bukvić /Pero/ Ivica, Ravno
20. Bukvić /Pero/ Niko, Ravno
21. Burić /Boško/ Andrija, Ravno
22. Burić /Božo/ Boško, Ravno
23. Burić /Ivan/ Vide, Kotezi
24. Burić /Vlah/ Ilija, Ravno
25. Burić /Marko/ Pero, Ravno
26. Burum /Mato/ Martin, Orahov Do
27. Burum /Mato/ Nikola, Orahov Do
28. Burum /Pero/ Pero, Orahov Do
29. Burum /Mato/ Tomo, Orahov Do
30. Vlahinić /Miho/ Ivan, Ravno
31. Vukić /Boško/ Grgur, Ravno
32. Vukić /Mato/ Đuro, Ravno
33. Vukić /Ivan/ Nikola, Ravno
34. Vuković /Vidoje/ Marko, Ravno
35. Vukosavić /Mato/ Pero, Dubljani
36. Vukosavić /Ivan/ Sava, Dubljani
37. Granić /.../ Jure, former monopoly officer, Ljubinje
38. Gubelić /Meho/ Ahmet, Ljubinje
39. Gubelić /Hadžo/ Osman, Ljubinje
40. Gubelin /Salko/ Ćamil, Ljubinje
41. Gubelić /Salko/ Huso, Ljubinje
42. Dizdarić /Abid/ Ale, Ljubinje
43. Dizdarić /Abid/ Meho, Ljubinje
44. Dizdarić /.../ Omer , inn-owner, Ljubinje
45. Dujimović /.../ Pero, former commander of Gendarm. garrison, Ravno
46. Duranović /Ibro/ Ethem, Ljubinje
47. Žarak /Miho/ Vlaho, Čvaljina
48. Žarak /Pero/ Ivan, Čvaljina
49. Žarak /Mato/ Jozo, Čvaljina
50. Žustra /.../ Mujo, Grablje
51. Zekić /.../ Mahmud, former teacher, Ravno
204
52. Zekić /Ivo/ Pero, Belenići

53. Zovko Don Jozo, former priest, Ravno
54. Zorac /Mitar/ Ivo, Ravno
55. Kozlić /.../ Meho, former municipal officer, Ljubinje
56. Krečak /Pero/ Pero, Belenići
57. Kristić /Pero/ Miho, Orahov Do
58. Kristić /Ivan/ Nikola, Orahov Do
59. Kristić /Ivan/ Pero , Orahov Do
60. Lonac /Mitar/ Miško, Trnčina
61. Lučić /Mitar/ Miško, Trnčina
62. Ljevak /Boško/ Vide, former municipal officer, Ravno
63. Ljevak /Luka/ Pero, Ravno
64. Ljevak /Pero/ Šćepan, Ravno
65. Ljuto /.../ Šaćir, Ljubinje
66. Malohodžić /.../ Meho, called Logo, Grablje
67. Marić /Ivan/ Marko, Gleđevci
68. Matijić /.../ Nikica, Ravno
69. Matijić /Mato/ Petar, Ravno
70. Matić /Mato/ Vlaho, Ravno
71. Matić /Pero/ Ivan, called Stolo, Dubljani
72. Matić /.../ Mato, Dubljani
73. Mijoč /Božo/ Jozo, Dubljani
74. Oberan /Marko/ Ivan, Velja Međa
75. Palameta /.../ Marun, Čavaš
76. Prce /.../ Vide, Prhinje
77. Rudinica /Pero/ Miho, Ravno
78. Rudinica /Ivan/ Pero, Ravno
79. Salman /.../ Mustafa, Žabica
80. Sadžak /.../ Husko , Pocrnje
81. Serdarević /.../ Rifat, Ljubinje
82. Serdarević /Zulfage Hamdija, former municipal prefect, Ljubinje
83. Skaramuca /Nikola/ Ivan, Ravno
84. Soldin /Hamed/Nazif , court officer, Ljubinje
85. Sušić /Nikola/ Božo, Čvaljina
86. Tančida /Mustafa/ Sulejman, officer, Ljubuški
87. Tomašević /Ivan/ Boško, Cicrina
88. Topalović /.../ Ćamil, former forester, Ljubinje
205
NAILS IN HUMAN SKULLS – THE PANDURICA PIT CAVE
The Pandurica pit cave, 2.5x15 m the size of its opening and 22 metres deep,
is located 15 metres from the road between Ljubinje and Trebinje, and about
100 metres from the asphalt road. The pit is about 5 km away from Ljubinje.
The opening is slightly narrower in its lower part, with two rocks standing
steeply towards the bottom. The deeper one goes, the wider the pit gets.
It was also back around 1938 that the Pandurica pit cave that a black porcelain
insultor was placed on the telephone post to mark its position, just like the
Jagodnjača pit cave near Ržani Do.
In parallel with a group of Ustashas seizing people in Rankovci, Vlahovići
and Kapavica and preparing to push them down the Kapavica pit cave, an-
other group of Ustashas was collecting the reputable Serbs from Ljubinje and
the surrounding villages and imprisoned them in the court and police goal.
After committing the atrocity at Guvna and Kapavica, Leon Togonal, the
Ustasha delegate, returned to Ljubinje with his Ustasha troops, finding be-
tween 70 and 80 Serb captives there, arrested in the meantime on Togonal’s
order by the Ustashas who had stayed in Ljubinje. The Ustasha patrols had
searched the villages, arresting men of reputation, those who had a strong
influence on their local surroundings. They thought if those men were exe-
cuted, it would be easier to capture the others and throw them in pit caves.
They said they would keep them in prison as hostages, to prevent the Serbs
from rebelling and rising in arms on St. Vitus’ Day.
The first thing the Ustasha mobsters deployed in Ljubinje and headed by
Adem Berberović did was vandalise the memorial dedicated to Slavko Rat-
ković. When the Ustasha horde rushed to pull down the memorial, it was the
Ustasha Adem Berberović, a mallet in his arms, who delivered the first blow.
“The sons of Pero Ćorović, a long-standing prefect of Ljubinje Muncipality,
who were rich Bosnian traders themselves, marked their Feast Day by send-
ing 20,000 dinars to the poor people of Trebinje, which was divided between
them irrespective of their religious affiliation. The Ustashas expressed their
“gratitude” by demolishing the tomb of Petar, their father. The list of similar
barbaric acts is a long one.”58
Five days after the Kapavica massacre, during the night between 13th and
14th June 1941, the Ljubinje Ustashas continued the genocide in the local
58
Danilo Tunguz Perović, Stradanje Srba Hercegovaca u prvom i drugom svjetskom ratu
[The Persecution of Herzegovina Serbs in the First and Second World Wars], p. 25.
206
area, by executing 36 captives from Ljubinje and the surrounding area. What
the Ustashas wanted to achieve first was make the Serbian people headless.
Apart from the Serbs who were seized and executed, Hakija Šarić, a Muslim,
and two Croats, Nikola Perušina and Nikola Zoković, also fell prey to the
Ustashas.
Hakija Šarić was a man of reputation in Ljubinje. He did not yield to Austria.
He volunteered to fight in the Salonika Campaign and a sergeant in the Ser-
bian army. He was deployed in Montenegro with the Austrian army, from
which he defected to the Serbian army, bringing a machine gun with him. For
his service he was decorated with the Order of the Star of Karađorđe and the
Albanian Retreat Medal. On the other hand, Hakija Šarić was someone who,
before the war started, took the fez off his head and put a zavrata on [tradi-
tional cap worn in Montenegro and Herzegovina, t/n] each year on 1st De-
cember before the war, the day of the unification, and went to church to attend
mass. He cursed the Ustashas quite openly, and in public. That was enough
of a reason for the Ustashas to kill him. It was Vide Žutac and Leon Togonal
in person who arrested him.
Nikola Perušina from Dračevo worked in Veličani. He was Reverend Božidar
Šarenac’s brother-in-law.59
59
Reverend Božidar, son of Reverend Šćepan Šarenac, was seized and imprisoned by the
Ustasha horde, and several days later thrown into the pit, in spite of the fact his father Šće-
pan, who had previously served as a priest in Ljubinje, had saved the fathers of those same
Ustashas back in 1918, when the Montenegrins and Herzegovinians were set on lynching
them because of the misdeeds they committed as Schutzkorps militiamen between 1914 and
1918. Namely, after 1918, groups of Montenegrins, headed by Blagota and Majo Vujović,
organised themselves into formations of various sizes and burst into Herzegovina, intent on
finding the atrocious and misdoing Schutzkorps militiamen and giving them tit for tat.
When the villagers of Čevljani came to Ljubinje, they were met by Šćepan Šarenac, the
Ljubinje priest, with Serbs from Ljubinje and the surrounding area. The priest took the
company and its leaders into the church and made them pledge, before the altar, not to take
revenge against the Schutzkorps militiamen, i.e. Muslims, and have bad blood between
them. After the events in the church, everybody was invited to join in a sumptuous feast,
which was how it all ended. All the militiamen kept their heads on their shoulders, and they
also kept their property, the only exception being individual cases of Montenegrin stealing
a few heads of cattle here and there, in the surrounding villages, and driving them home.
Reverend Božidar Šarenac, son of Reverend Šćepan, who came from the Vlahović clan, de-
scended from a family that had had clergy in the previous 300 years. Božidar was the last in
the line of priests this family had given. (Danilo Tunguz Perović, ibid.)
207
Nikola Zoković was Prefect of the Stolac County.60

Even though Perušina and Zoković were Croats, the Ustashas could not tol-
erate them, as they were both smart and educated. That was why they needed
to be removed, even eliminated, as they would have opposed the actions that
followed. They also perished because they disapproved of the Ustasha policy
of genocide.
The rest of the captives were mostly farmers, followed by merchants, teach-
ers, clerks, engineers, craftsmen, pensioners, priests, and students. They were
mostly men of reputation.
Borivoje Obradović, called Boro, a forestry engineer, came originally from
Lika. He had worked in Ljubinje for almost two years before he was perfidi-
ously killed. When the Ustasha murderers came to Ljubinje, he had already
left the town and was hiding; unfortunately, he got tricked by Ćamil (a for-
ester), his subordinate, returned to Ljubinje, and was seized by the Ustashas.
Just a few days before the atrocity committed at the Pandurica pit cave, En-
gineer Boro Marković arrived from Serbia, after being appointed had of the
Ljubinje Town Forest Administration.
The bones of the victims thrown down the Pandurica pit were exhumed for a
proper burial beside the parish church, which took place in the second half of
October 1990. Along with human bones and pieces of footwear, a fountain
pen was retrieved from the pit, with the name of Boro Marković still clearly
engraved in it.
“Blagoje Samardžić, originally from Berkovići, and Milan Kulušić, originally
from Davidovići, Bileća County, who had been gendarmes serving at the
Vlahovići Gendarmerie Station, were taken to Ljubinje by Gendarmerie Ser-
geant Alija Žuškić, originally from Ostrožac, and handed over to the Ustasha
authorities. The two men were killed by the Ustashas and thrown in the Pan-
durica pit on 20th June.”61
It was Leon Togonal who took Nikola Zoković to the prison in Ljubinje in
his car on 27th May 1941. He stayed in Ljubinje until 13th June 1941. All
trace of him was lost after that. “I have no reliable information as to what
might have happened to him,” his wife stated for the record, “but people know
60
Prior to World War II, Nikola Zoković was Prefect of the Slavonski Brod District, during
the time of the rebellion of the local Croatian peasants. Six peasants were killed in the re-
bellion. That was the reason why the Ustashas, when they took power, issued a warrant of
arrest for Nikola Zoković, which eventually cost him his life.
61
AJ-ZKRZ; item 55.184, place Vlahovići, Stolac County, box 212.
208
that many Serbs were killed at the Ljubinje prison that night, so I assume that
along with the other captives, my husband also perished in it.”62
The arrests proceeded between 3rd and 13th June 1941.
Commander of the Ravno Police Station thus informed the command of the
Fourth Police Regiment: “Following the verbal order issued by the High
Command on 12 June 1941, I hereby notify you that on 12 June 1941, four
men were arrested on the territory covered by this station, as ordered by the
Ustasha delegate for Trebinje County, and shot in Ljubinje the same day, of
whom one person came from Zavala, and three from Veličani, Ljubinje
County.”63
In his report to commander of the Ravno Police Station, the High Command
at Bileća, Sergeant Petar J. Dujmović says that “the following persons from
the territory of the station were killed: Đoko Telimbat, a teacher from Zavala,
Nikola Perušina, a teacher from Veličani, Božo Šarenac, the Orthodox Chris-
tian priest from Veličani, and Nikola Milić, a police officer from Veličani, all
four of them from Ljubinje County.”64
The Ljubinje Municipal Commission for War Crime Investigation stated in
one of its documents that Nikola Milić was killed by the Ustashas on 12th
June 1941 and thrown in the Pandurica pit cave, not far away from Ljubinje.
The murder of Milić and another 30-40 comrades was committed by as yet
unspecified Ustasha perpetrators, under the command of Leo Togonal, the
Ustasha delegate from Zagreb, and Juro Boroje, the Ravno Ustasha Commis-
sioner.65
The Ustashas previously tortured all these victims in prison. They beat them
and exposed them to torture five to fifteen days. As the torture proceeded,
other Ustashas walked around the town shooting their guns, to prevent the
screams of the Serbs tormented in the prison from being heard.
These reputable men were arrested and murdered in the Ljubinje County
Court Prison immediately after the Ustashas seized power. The Ustashas
mangled them severly, breaking and beating them – they literally massacred
them. Eventually, they tied them, those who were barely alive and the living
ones, loaded them onto a truck together with the dead, and took them to the
62
AJ-F-110; drawer 24.319; item 25/1-1.
63
Archives, box 143а, item 25/1 1.
64
Ibid.
65
Archives, ibid.
209
Pandurica pit cave, located in the vicinity of the village of Vođeni, into which
they threw them.
Especially infamous for their brutality in the county prison were two Usta-
shas, Ibro Teparić from Ljubinje, who repeatedly hit the body of Simo Bib-
erdžić’s wife, originally from Ljubinje, with the blunt end of his axe, and
Hajro Čingrija, previously a Yugoslav Gendarme, originally from Sandžak,
who shot Simo Kondić, previously a Yugoslav Gendarme from Ravno, in the
mouth and blew his head in pieces.
Ustasha Pero Kukrika, who was a guard at the Ustasha prison back then, com-
peted really hard against the others when torturing the arrested. A woman
came from the Ljubinje County came to bring food to her husband, thinking
he was still in prison. In fact, he had already been killed. She spoke to Kuk-
rika, to which he grabbed a big log and hit the poor woman until she col-
lapsed.”66
“Šaćir Ljuta from Ljubinje was one of the court prison guards. He was the
one who searched all the prisoners. He regularly confiscated money and any
belongings that were worthy anything, keeping them for himself. He also took
the food intended for the prisoners and kept whatever was good quality for
himself, giving only some of it to the prisoners. When the prisoners were
taken away to be killed and thrown into the pit, it was him personally who
tied them and prepared them to be taken away. As he tied the captives, he also
beat and tormented them.”67
“During the night between 13th and 14th June, in honour of Ante Pavelić’s
birthday, the Ustashas transported, by truck, these victims to the pit cave
called Pandurica, where they tortured them, took out their eyes, cutting their
arms, noses and other body parts, after which they finished them off. Whether
dead or still breathing, they were all then thrown in the pit.”68
A month after this terrible tragedy, Dušan Novokmet descended into the Pan-
durica pit. Looking for his brother Đuro and nephew Vlado, he came upon a
horrendous sight. He recognised the victims thrown in, massacred and lacer-
ated in all sorts of ways. Some of them had had their arms cut off, others their
eyes gouged out, noses cut off, heads split open.69 The arms of some of the
victims were tied with barbed wire, of others – with chain and a lock.
66
AJ-F-110; DKRZ; file 4727; item 55.186.
67
AJ-F-110; DKRZ; ibid.
68
AJ-F-110; drawer 24.312.
69
AJ-F-110; file 4728; item 54.985 А.
210
“After the remains were retrieved, the examination of the bones showed the
injuries, especially those on the bones of the skull, had marks indicating the
use of blunt, mechanical objects.
Only one of the skulls had been shot through with a firearm, most probably a
pistol bullet. As told by the eye witnesses, the young man whose head had
been shot through resisted the Ustashas, who had shot him in the head, with
all his strength.”70
The witnesses, who were present during the operation of the retrieval of the
remains, claim that only screams, mallets and death rattle were heard at the
Pandurica pit cave, and that the Ustashas, on hearing their screams, next shot
from their guns and threw bombs (an unexploded bomb and several gun bullet
cases were found at the bottom of the pit).
The Ustashas who had perpetrated the killings and were accountable for the
said group of victims ending up in the pit cave later said to the people in
Ljubinje that Leon Togonal was present during the killings and that it was
him who had killed Nikola Zoković. Zoković was a Croat; Togonal shot a
bullet into his mouth from his pistol, saying to his prey: “This is the kind of
foundation that the Independent State of Croation should and is being built,
you traitor!”71
Nikola Zoković, although a Croat, the Prefect of Stolac County, disapproved
of the Ustashas’ killing of the Serbs in Stolac as well as all the pillage that
followed it, which is why Leon Togonal personally took him to Ljubinje.
“Having done what they had wanted to do at the Pandurica pit, the Ustashas
returned to Ljubinje and had a major feast. They roasted rams and split be-
tween them the goods looted from the Serbs living in the vicinity of Ljubinje.
The biggest Ustasha evil-doers gathered for the feast and celebration, such as
Leon Togonal, Jure Boroje, Božo Burić, Don Jozo Zovko, Vid Đajić, and
some other people. On that occasion, Don Jozo proposed a toast and blessed
their doing.”72
None of the victims were successful enough to escape; the Ustashas had
learned from their experience in Kapavica, so they planned and committed
this crime with greater care. This pit cave was also concreted after the war.
The bones of Ljubinje villagers are stil there where the villains pushed them
down as long ago as 1941.
70
Božić, ibid., pp. 6-7.
71
AJ-F-110; drawer 24.319; item 56.588
72
Notes: Archives VII, box 1995, reg. no. 3151/7.
211
Next to the pit, a plaque stands, with these words inscribed in it:
“Eternal glory to the victims who perished at this place
on 12th June 1941, to the thirty-two men brutally tor-
tured and killed by the Ustashas, allies of the Nazis.”
The memorial was erected in 1961.
“Thirty-six male skeletons were found in this pit, of whom the youngest was
around 19 years old, whereas the others were aged between 25 - 45. Dog
bones were found in this pit, together with those that had belonged to hu-
mans.”73
The huge pile of rocks the Ustashas threw at the victims is irrefutable, “con-
clusive proof of the pure hatred of the executioners and their unimaginable
brutality.”74
Along with the bones, a big number of little wire nooks, irregular in form,
were also retrieved, and so were other kinds of wire, bent to form much bigger
circles – the ends of all of them joined and twisted. When the events were
reconstructed, it was concluded the smaller pieces were used to tie the vic-
tims’ arms behind their backs, and the bigger ones to tie pairs of victims
around their waists and push them into the pit tied like that...75
During the exhumation, Miroslav Kurtović, one of the participants, said that
along with other things “a great number of circles made of wire were found
in the pit […]; hands and arms in barbed wire […]; hands tied with pieces of
chain and locks […]; and other kinds of bones with injuries obviously made
by a mallet... nails were found in the skulls in both Pandurica and Ržani
Do...”76 In this pit also, like the one at Ržani Do, dog bones were retrieved,
together with those that had once belonged to human beings.
A single memorial ossuary will be constructed near the Ljubinje church, for
the bones of the victims of pit Kapavica near Ljubinje, pit Pandurica, and also
Jasenovac victims, where they will be given a proper burial.
In 1990, speleologists began the exhumation of the victims’ bones from the
Pandurica pit cave. Milovan Turanjanin was among the first to go down into
the pit and recognised his father Vlado’s opanci [traditional shoes made of pig
73
Tunguz-Perović, ibid., p. 13.
74
Božić, ibid.
75
Miroslav Kurtović, “Neviđena brutalnost u Pandurici” [“Unprecedented brutality at
Pandurica”], Javnost [The Public], Vol. no. 5, 17 November 1990.
76
Božić, ibid.
212
skin, t/n]. Namely, he was eight years old when father took him to the shoe-
maker’s, and he remembers the tiny nails, which can still be clearly seen, the
craftsman used to repair his father’s opanci. Also, he remembered his father
going to town with a bandage around his broken arm, never to come back
again. He also remembered the year of 1941, when the sponger Mustafa Sal-
man dropped by at his father’s house. “Asked by Vlado’s wife where her hus-
band was, he answered: ‘I don’t know, he’s gone to Serbia.’ When she asked
what he would be doing in Serbia with only one arm, the sponder said: ‘He’s
working there.’ She insisted: ‘How come, without one arm?’ The sponger said:
‘He’s carrying water.’”77
Having heard this conversation when he was only twelve years old, Vlado’s
son often dreamt about drinking the water brought by his father. The dream
was a recurrent one, so he often bent above the pit, wishing for one thing
alone, that his father be taken out and buried.
During the exhumation of the bones, “he cried a river, a well, and it was the
same dreamy water Milovan had drunk for 50 years.”78
Do we need to drink the water from our dreams again, or should the perpetra-
tors start drinking it instead – let the reader be the judge. Finally, let not the
following go unmentioned: both sons of Perušina, the teacher, both of them
Croats, came to their father’s funeral in Ljubinje.
The Serbs, previously tormented in prison in Ljubinje and then loaded onto a
truck, some of them dead and others half-dead, were transported to the Pan-
durica pit cave, finished off there and thrown into the pit. It was night, be-
tween 13th and 14th June 1941.
Not all the victims were thrown into the pit cave the same day, the previously
stated one. Four people were pushed down between 22nd and 26th June 1941.
Various sources have stated between 29 and 57 people were thrown into the
Pandurica pit cave. Following the exhumation, the exact victim count was
ascertained at 36.
The Ustashas pushed down 36 people, aged 13 to 26, in June 1941, of whom
32 Serbs, 3 Croats and 1 Muslim.
77
Kurtović, ibid.
78
Radomir Bulatović, “Mir mučenicima na Pandurici” [“Eternal rest for the Pandurica mar-
tyrs”], Javnost [The Public], Vol. no. 5, 28 September 1991.
213
The majority of the victims were farmers (13), followed by merchants (6),
teachers (4), gendarmes (4), engineers (2), pensioners (2), lawyers (2), stu-
dents (2), a priest and a manual worker.
214
215
Slavko Šanjević
THE PERSECUTION OF
ORTHODOX PRIESTS IN
THE DIOCESE OF
ZAHUMLJE-HERZEGOVINA
INFLICTED BY THE
CROATIA 1941-1945
On the territory of the former Nazi puppet state of NDH, the following legal
acts were drafted and enacted: the Constitution, laws and by-laws in accord-
ance with which planned and systematic ethnic cleansing would be performed
until complete eradication of the Serb, Jewish and Roma population. By a
decree of the Ustasha Headquarters as from 22nd April 1941, the NDH began
the ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Jews and Roma from public services and econ-
omy. Their residence was forbidden in the northern part of Zagreb, and on
30th April 1941 racial laws were enacted, which were transferred from the
Nazi Nuremberg Laws of 1935, such as the legal provision on racial back-
ground, on nationality and on protection of the Aryan blood and honour of
the Croatian people. The so-called Mountain Division of the SS Handschar [a
handschar or handžar is a scimitar, a backsword or sabre with a curved blade,
originating in the Middle East, t/n] with participation of the Bosnian Muslims
and in agreement with the Palestine Mufti and Hitler. A regiment from
Trebinje was a part of the division. This created conditions for the genocide
against the Serb, Jewish and Roma population. This is how many places of
massacre appeared. Pit caves and ravines were filled with victims, they were
locked in their houses and burnt alive, forced into concentration camps that
217
lasted for a different period of time as the victims had never been killed sim-
ultaneously. The atrocities were perpetrated individually and in groups. As
already known, the NDH was established on the territories of Croatia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina and the region of Syrmia [Serbian: Srem, a fertile region of
the Pannonian Plain in Europe, between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is
divided between Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west, t/n] up to the town
of Zemun.
The Ustashas had made a plan of liquidation, in line with which they first
killed the Orthodox clergy, the First World War volunteers, army officers,
teachers and members of the Sokol Movement [from the Slavic word for fal-
con, a youth sport movement and gymnastics organisation, t/n] in order to
eliminate the most distinguished Serb representatives. After that, continued
to kill the Serb, Jewish and Roma population without exception and in all
possible ways.
In order to comprehend the number of victims in the Diocese of Zahumlje-
Herzegovina of the Serbian Orthodox Church, it is not just enough to know
the number of the killed priests; what also should be taken into account is the
1931 state census as well as the ethnic composition of the population in the
Diocese. By comparing the overall number of killed priests with the number
of Serbs, the percentage is obtained of the tortured and then killed priests, the
highest in former Yugoslavia. The Serbian Orthodox Church and its clergy
had served their people for centuries creating their history together. The
Church did not separate from its people either during the times of full devel-
opment of the Serbian state and culture or during hard periods for the inde-
pendence of state and people, as well as throughout the centuries of slavery
under the occupiers.
This is why Ustashas primarily wreaked their anger on patriotic Orthodox
priests. The Orthodox priests were killed brutally; they were quartered before
their people, their eyes were gouged out, their ears and noses cut off, they
were poisoned, strangled, beheaded, hanged, impaled, their beards and mous-
taches were plucked out, they were thrown alive into fathomless pits, mas-
sively shot or taken to concentration camps.
218
The building of the Serbian Orthodox Church (built 1743) in Osijek before the war.
Ruins of the same church, completely destroyed in early 1942.
The Ustasha atrocities were worse than those from the period of the Inquisi-
tion. Several examples of the physical and mental torturing of priests can
prove this. The old and blind priest Vukosav Milanović was forced by Usta-
shas to listen to them slaughtering his children and, when they finished the
sadistic job, they let the priest wander around and suffer even more. The mu-
tilating of priest Milan Banjac bears testimony to the atrocious mind of Usta-
shas; they cut off his hands, feet, nose and ears, putting the cut off organs in
front of his mouth, cursing him and shouting: “Lick your dog blood!” What
to say about the fact that Ustashas ripped alive two pregnant women, Ljubica
and Danica, the wives of priests Spaso Lavrenja and Miloš Vujić, took the
children out with bayonets and, afterwards, killed all of them? Or, how to
comprehend wrapping his own intestines around priest Đorđe Bogić's neck
or slaughtering priest Bogoljub Samardžić's children of in front of his eyes?
Seriously ill priest Vidak Višnjić from Gacko was forced out from his bed
and killed with an iron crowbar. One metropolitan and two bishops were ex-
ecuted in the most gruesome way, while another metropolitan was hevily
beaten and banished to Belgrade, where he soon died from the consequences
of torturing.
219
In the NDH, in the period 1941-1945, more than 450 Orthodox churches were
burnt or desecrated, the most lasting historical monuments of the Serbs. In
these temples were destroyed monumental iconostases, thousands of icons, a
large number of rare manuscripts, including the register of births, marriages
and deaths, extensive archival materials and a large number of church ritual
objects of cultural and historical importance and beauty. The NDH denied the
old Latin proverb in the cruellest possible way: “Ars longa, vita brevis” (Art
is long, life is short). The fate of the Serbian people and its clergy is inextri-
cably tied to the fate of Orthodox churches and art treasures.
The NDH was simultaneously destroying the Serbian people, Serbian
churches and art treasures. Those who had ordered this as well as the perpe-
trators of the crime were well aware that they were achieving their ultimate
goal, which was to destroy the ethnic identity of Serbs and their historic pres-
ence in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Srem District. It can be con-
cluded that the biological, cultural and spiritual genocide was achieved.
Ghastly was the sight of NDH military trucks transporting Serbs to camps and
then broken icons, iconostases, books etc. to Jasenovac concentration camp
to be chopped with axes and used as firewood for heating the camp offices.
The same axes smashed the heads of Serbs, Jews and Roma.
Facing this truth, we should stop and ask the question: Is not that a total gen-
ocide? The science and Serbian writers paid little attention to the suffering of
the Serbian Orthodox clergy and religious and historical monuments, and
works of art in them. An appalling massacre of 1500 Serbs in the Glina Ser-
bian Orthodox church was described but there is scarce or no mention of the
destruction of an iconostasis [in Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall
of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a
church, t/n], the work by the painter Pavle Simić from 1886/1887; the same
case is with the destruction of the 18th century iconostasis from the Orthodox
church in Stara Gradiška, the work of an unknown painter from 1847; the
iconostasis from 1758 in Slatinski Drenovac, by the Belarus-Ukrainian
painter Vasil Romanovich, or the iconostasis by Jovan Četirević in Velika
Pisanica, painted in 1780. In the church of the Rakovica Monastery in the
Srem District, the iconostasis from 1763 by the great icon painter Vasilije
Ostojić was burnt, while in the church of Hopovo Monastery, the iconostas
from 1776 was burnt, which was the work of Todor Kračun, the best Serbian
baroque painter. From the aforesaid six gold plated and wood carved iconos-
tases alone about 300 icons of a great historical and artistic value were de-
stroyed. Also, the icons painted by old icon painters should not be forgotten,
220
who were neither scientifically documented nor published. This represents a

considerable, immeasurable and irreparable cultural and historical damage.
It was done with bad intention and in a planned way as the fruitful religious
and national mission of the Serbian Orthodox Church was an obstacle to the
Ustasha and Catholic clerical circles, who strived to destroy the existence of
Serbs. This is why Serbian religious monuments were the target of their van-
dalism, the monuments which were the most significant landmarks of centu-
ries-long presence of the Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Srem.
It must be pointed out that, after the WWII, instead of their reconstruction,
the further destruction of already ruined religious structures in Bosnia and
Herzegovina was continued. This remains of killing the wounded. In the pe-
riod 1945-1960, dozens of damaged Orthodox churches in Croatia were lev-
elled to the ground. The worst example is a systematic destruction of the
Jasenovac concentration camp complex, where all structures were destroyed
and the traces of Ustasha atrocities wiped out. Nowadays, the permanent mu-
seum exhibition displays a false revisionist picture rather than the atrocities
committed in the period August 1941 - 22nd April 1945.
Depicted below is the persecution of some priests.
PETAR ZIMONJIĆ
Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia
Born in Grahovo on 24th June 1866. The son
of Bogdan Zimonjić, a Herzegovina hero of
the 1875 uprising known as the “Nevesinje
Rifle.” He completed the seminary in Reljevo
in 1887 and then the theological college in
Černovci in 1893, after which he was ap-
pointed as a lecturer and, a year later, profes-
sor of the Sarajevo Theological College. He
became a monk and was ordained a hier-
omonk [also called a priestmonk, is a monk
who is also a priest in the Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholicism, t/n] on
8th September 1895. He worked as a professor until 20th June 1901, when he
was appointed a consistorial advisor in Sarajevo. He was consecrated as the
Metropolitan of Zahumlje-Herzegovina on 27th May 1903 and the Metropol-
221
itan of Dabro-Bosnia by the decree of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Ortho-
dox Church (hereinafter referred as to “the Holy Synod”) as of 7th November
1920.
When he became the Metropolitan of Zahumlje-Herzegovina, he brought the
spirit of peace and organised systematic work into the life of this diocese,
which had been endangered by perennial fights taking place in this area dur-
ing the mandate of the metropolitan Serafim Perović. When he became a pro-
fessor in the Sarajevo theological college, he continued with his archpastor
work in the spirit of the holy Gospels and in regard to consolidating love,
brotherhood, unity and positive action for the benefit of his congregation but
also for the common good of the whole population there.
His office in the Zahumlje-Herzegovina diocese was during the difficult pe-
riod of bitter struggles for the religious autonomy in Bosna and Herzegovina,
when the Bosnian Serbs began to rock the foundations of the Austro-Hungar-
ian Empire.
Before Metropolitan Petar, Serbian metropolitans in Mostar were the minions
of Austria-Hungary. They were renounced and openly opposed by people.
After the coming of Metropolitan Petar to Mostar, the Serbs were finally re-
lieved as they knew that a patriot had come to lead their diocese – a man
whose patriotism was well-known among them. The religious life became
very active, which resulted in the religious autonomy after several years.
Some other struggles followed that for the religious autonomy in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. During that period the Serbian National Organisation was
founded, Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908,
when the conflict escalated not only with Austria-Hungary but also the Vati-
can and its propaganda supported by Austria-Hungary, which earnestly
strived to establish the Roman Catholic Church through suppressing other re-
ligions, especially the Orthodoxy. Proselytism was also taking place at the
time. However, adhering to people and their interest, stable, tactful and intel-
lectual Metropolitan Petar was able to maintain the church and people remain-
ing “as strong and sublime as a Biblical prophet.” His magnificence was es-
pecially pronounced during the Great War, in which he behaved like a hero.
He also remained the same after 1918, until the rest of his earthly life. For his
archipastoral and national activism, Metropolitan Petar received the Grand
Cross of the Order of St. Sava, Order of the Star of Karađorđe and Officer's
Cross of the Order of the White Eagle.
When the attack began of Nazi Germany on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, on
6th April 1941, the grizzled metropolitan Petar was in Sarajevo. After the
222
bombing of Sarajevo, the metropolitan took a friend's advice to find a tempo-

rary shelter in the Monastery of Holy Trinity near the town of Pljevlja, where
he stayed until the second day of the Orthodox Easter, 21st April of the same
year, when he returned to Sarajevo. However, arresting and murdering Serbs
in Sarajevo and its surroundings had already begun at the time, so the metro-
politan was suggested to seek refuge in Serbia or Montenegro. He did not
accept the suggestion and his answer was this: “I am the people's shepherd
and my duty obliges me to, wherever I shared good with the people, share and
endure evil in the same way, and therefore one must share the destiny of his
people and stay with his people.” Six days after his return from the Monastery
of Holy Trinity to Sarajevo, on 27th April, the metropolitan palace was raided
by five Gestapo agents with a German military officer, who had the order to
search the Metropolitanate. After a bitter and heated argument, the officer
asked metropolitan Petar:
- Are you the metropolitan who demanded a war against the Germans?
Then he pointed out that the metropolitan should be killed for these and sim-
ilar words.
- Sir, you are terribly wrong, we are not to blame for the war, we have not
attacked anybody but, be careful – we won't allow anybody to kill us, we are
not a drop of water to be swallowed just like that but the people who have the
right to living – the metropolitan raised his voice.
As the interpreter did not translate his words properly, the metropolitan ad-
dressed them in German, which surprised the Germans so that they left the
Metropolitanate shortly after without searching the place.
In early May of 1941, the Ustasha commissioner for Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Božidar Brale, a Catholic parish priest, called metropolitan Petar by phone to
order him that, the same day, the metropolitan order his priests and parishes
not to use Cyrillic anymore and to replace their stamps with the Latin ones.
He also said that if the order was not executed within the given deadline, the
metropolitan would be held responsible.
- The Cyrillic script cannot be abolished in 24 hours. Besides, the war has not
been over yet - replied the metropolitan shortly, which was the reason for his
arresting on 12th May 1941.
After this conversation with parish priest Brale, metropolitan Petar called for
nearby priests to come to the Metropolitanate for consultation and instruc-
tions. When some of the priests asked him whether to seek refuge in Serbia
223
due to the ensuing danger, the metropolitan replied: “Stay with your parish-
ioners; whatever happens to them let it happen to you as well.” Each of them
obeyed, enduring later arresting, torturing, persecution and suffering, while
some of them survived and lived in freedom.
At 16.30 of the foregoing day, 12th May, Ustasha agents came to the Metro-
politanate and for alleged hearing forced metropolitan Peter to go with them
to the Directorate. Only after three days, on 15th May, the metropolitan came
to the Metropolitanate escorted by two Ustasha agents, took some things and
said they were taking him to Zagreb. He really was brought to Zagreb in the
evening of 17th May and imprisoned in the police prison in Petrinjska street,
cell 34 on the third floor, along with archpriest Milan Božić, Dr Dušan Jef-
tanović and Dr Vojo Besarević. The following day, the metropolitan was pho-
tographed and his finger prints were taken. After certain time, he was trans-
ferred from Zagreb to the Kerestinec camp (near Samobor), where he was
kept until 15th June and afterwards brought to the Zagreb police to be taken
to Gospić. He endured a brutal torture in the Gospić camp. According to the
survivors, Ustashas ordered him to lie on the ground in the courtyard for 8
days; he had to carry logs on his back, clean the courtyard and toilets and was
very often forced to preach to Serbs “the way he used to preach before.”
The first version says that metropolitan Petar was taken from Gospić to
Koprivnica and, having become mentally disturbed, transported to the Stjen-
jevac hospital to disappear without a trace.
The second version says that he was taken to the Jadovno camp on Mount
Velebit, where Ustashas tortured him and forced him to watch every day the
slaughtering, murdering and other atrocities committed against the innocent
victims. Eventually, they took him to a ravine above the camp and, before
they pushed him down into the hole that had swallowed thousands of his com-
patriots, an Ustasha approached and hit him in the back of his head with a
mallet.
According to the third version, the metropolitan was taken from Gospić to the
Jasenovac concentration camp, where he was killed in a brick factory and
thrown into a fiery furnace to burn to ashes.
Whichever of these versions is truthful, in any case the 75-year-old metropol-
itan, who had been preaching for half a century that all people were equal and
to be loved regardless of their religion, ended up as a martyr, following the
psalm from the Revelation: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee
a crown of Life.” (2.10)
224
NIKOLAJ JOKANOVIĆ
Bishop of Zahumlje-Herzegovina Diocese
Born 17th March 1874 in Šobadinci, the
Bileća County. His secular name was Aleksa
Jovanović. He attended primary school in Mo-
star and Sarajevo, and completed the Sarajevo
seminary in 1893. He worked as a teacher for
a short time and, in 1894, enrolled the theo-
logical college in Černovice. He graduated in
1898. Immediately after he was appointed a
theology teacher in Sarajevo, where he stayed
until 1901. The same year he was ordained as
a priest and appointed a counsellor of the
newly formed Consistory of the Banjaluka-Bihać Diocese. In 1905, he was
awarded a red belt for faithful service and was ordained as archpriest in 1912,
while in 1920 he was awarded a pectoral cross by the Holy Synod. He stayed
on his consistorial duty until 1923, when he was retired upon his own request
and appointed the hegumen [the head of a monastery of the Eastern Orthodox
Church similar to the one of abbot, t/n] of the Gomionica Monastery [42 kil-
ometres west of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, t/n]. He did not stay
for long in the monastery but he managed to improve it by developing fruit
harvesting and kettle breeding. He was also active in the field of literature.
During his work as a teacher, he wrote the course materials in all theological
subjects he taught. Famous is his tract in ecclesiastical criminal law: “On the
overthrow as an ecclesiastical punishment in first centuries of Christianity
until today.” He presented in his articles a good number of data on the history
of churches and monasteries in the Bosanska Krajina region, which were
printed in Schematism, Volume I of the Diocese of Banjaluka-Bihać for 1901,
which he edited himself.
Upon invitation by the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Dr Gav-
rilo Dožić, the later Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, he accepted
the duty of the deputy archpriest of the Diocese of Montenegro and the Litto-
ral in July 1935. Besides that duty, he was also the hegumen of the Monastery
of Saint Peter from 1936 since earlier that year he had become a monk in the
Monastery of Saint Basil of Ostrog. In April 1936, he was ordained the pro-
tosyncellus [a bishop’s principal deputy, t/n] and archimandrite [a superior
hegumen appointed by the bishop to supervise several “ordinary” hegumen
or monasteries, t/n] in 1937.
225
He was elected as auxiliary bishop to Patriarch Gavrilo on 22nd June 1938

with the title Bishop of Polimlje with the seat in Cetinje. He was ordained as
the Bishop of Zahumlje-Herzegovina in 1940.
After the capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Ustashas wanted to kill
him but his life was saved by the Italian Headquarters in Mostar. After a lot
of effort he managed to go to Serbia, where he, having endured years of tor-
ment, died old in Sokobanja on 26th march 1943.
DUŠAN AŠKRABIĆ
Deacon and religion teacher in Mostar
The Diocese of Zahumlje-Herzegovina
Born 17th January 1908 in Avtovac. He completed the Sarajevo seminary in
1930 and was ordained as a deacon in 1931 and appointed as a religion
teacher in Mostar, where he worked until the occupation.
Dušan Aškrabić was arrested together with over 140 respected Serbs from
Mostar in the night between 24th and 25th June 1941. This group of Serbs
was forced onto trucks and taken towards Široki Brijeg. Ustashas took deacon
Aškrabić off the truck on Marinski bridge, slaughtered him and threw his
body in Neretva River.
DUŠAN S. BLAGOJE
Priest and parish priest in the town of Stolac
Born 31st January 1909 in Čapljina. He completed the seminary in Bitolj,
Macedonia, in 1930. He was ordained as a deacon on 14th July and as a priest
on 16th July 1931 and appointed as a parish priest in Stolac, where he stayed
until his death. He worked as a member of the management of Serbian Cul-
tural Society “Prosvjeta,” Saint Sava reading room in the Red Cross.
On 22th July 1941, the second big wave of arresting Serbs began, which
lasted until the afternoon of the following day. This is when priest Blagoje
was also arrested. In the evening of 23rd June all the arrested had been tied
226
with a wire and driven towards Ljubinje on two trucks. Ustashas killed them
in the village of Lastva, near Ljubinje, and threw them into a deep pit cave.
SAVO BUKVIĆ
Protopresbyter and member of the Mostar Ecclesiastical Court
Born in Grahovo on 24th June 1879. He completed the Sarajevo seminary
and was ordained as a deacon in 1st October 1904. He served as a deacon in
the Mostar Orthodox Cathedral until 29th April 1928, when he was ordained
as a protopresbyter.
He sought refuge in Serbia in 1941 and died in Belgrade.
VIDAK VIŠNJEVAC
Protopresbyter and religion teacher in Gacko,
Born in Grahovo on 17th June 1870. Upon completion of the theological col-
lege he was ordained as a presbyter in 1891 and given the parish in the village
of Nadaćani near Gacko. He spent the First World War mostly in prison and
internment. He was a religion teacher in Gacko after the war.
Before the Saint Vid Day of 1941, Ustashas forced him out of his sickbed,
took him out of the house, wrapped his head with gauze, pour petrol on it and
ignited it and then, when he was in agony, took him away and killed him with
an iron crowbar.
VLADIMIR ČEJOVIĆ
Protodeacon and secretary to the Mostar Ecclesiastical Court,
Born in Montenegro. In 1940, he was moved from the Diocese of Montenegro
and the Littoral to the Mostar Ecclesiastical Court.
227
When the monastic brotherhood of the Monastery of Žitomislić was being

captured, he was in the monastery and, although he could have stayed there
as a Montenegrin, he insisted that they capture him as well: “I want to go with
my brothers” – he said. He was taken away together with them, pushed into a
pit cave and stoned.
This example is a vivid reminder of a theologian, Professor Nikola Mačkić,
who voluntarily went to death together with his students in the Kragujevac
Massacre [the murder of 2,778 Serbian, Jewish and Roma men and boys in
Kragujevac, Serbia, by German Wehrmacht soldiers on 20th and 21st October
1941, t/n].
JEFTO M. VUJOVIĆ
Protopresbyter, a member of the
Mostar Ecclesiastical Court and deputy
archpriest in Mostar
Born 7th January 1894 in the village of Simijovi
near Bileća. He completed six classes of gram-
mar school and the Sarajevo seminary in 1917. He was ordained as a parish
priest in Kifino Selo, Nevesinje County, on 20th June 1917 and then in Ljubo-
mir and Nevesinje. In 1936, he was appointed a member of the Ecclesiastical
Court and deputy archpriest in Mostar.
Archpriest Jefto Vujović was an exemplary parish priest and very competent
church officer, which largely contributed to proper development of the reli-
gious life of the Diocese.
Ustashas arrested him on 24th June 1941 and, the following day, he was taken
towards Široki Brijeg together with other arrested Serbs. After a brutal tor-
ture, he was pushed alive into a pit cave near the village of Služanj, where the
other prisoners also ended up.
228
VLADIMIR GVOZDENOVIĆ
Archpriest, a parish priest in Mostar
Born in the town of Duvno on 18th November 1866. After completion of the
Sarajevo seminary, he was ordained on 9th July 7 1894 and appointed a parish
priest in his home town Duvno, and later on a parish priest in Mostar, where
he lived for the rest of his life.
He was arrested by Ustashas on 24th June 1941 and the following day taken
together with other prisoners towards the town of Imotski. On their way there,
they were all killed and thrown into a pit cave.
ILARION DERETIĆ
Hegumen, head of Zavala Monastery
Born in Orahovac near Trebinje on 1st July 1887. He attended monastic
school in Žitomislić Monastery. He was ordained a hieromonk on 4th March
1918. When the war started, he had been the head of Zavala Monastery.
He was killed by Ustashas on 23rd June 1941 in Popovo Pole.
BOGDAN ĐOGOVIĆ
Priest, the parish priest in Kifino Selo
near Nevesinje
Born in Rijeka near Nevesinje on 19th January
1905. He completed the theological college in Ce-
tinje, Montenegro. He served in the parish of
Vranštica-Kičevo and was an episcopal vicar. Af-
ter the coming of Bulgarians to Macedonia, he escaped to his birth place and
served as a temporary parish priest in Kifino Selo.
229
Ustashas arrested and taken him to Nevesinje, where they killed him on 21st
June 1941, and thrown into a pit cave near the military cemetrey.
VASILIJE KOVAČINA
Priest and parish priest in the town of
Metković
Born in Gnojnice on 13th December 1912. He com-
pleted the seminary in Cetinje, Montenegro, in
1936. He was ordained as a deacon on 13th March
and as a priest on 14th March 1937 and appointed a
parish priest in Biograd near Nevesinje. He was moved to Metković after-
wards.
He was arrested on 18th June 1941 by Ustashas and taken to Trpanj, Croatia,
and a few days later to Janjina, then Ston [all places are in Croatia, t/n], and
finally to Dubrovnik. On 27th June 1941, he was taken towards Zavala Mon-
astery and slaughtered nearby.
DUŠAN KRNJEVIĆ
Archpriest, military chaplain in Mostar
Born in the village of Fatnica, Herzegovina, on
16th July 1882. After completion of the theological
school in Prizren, he was ordained as a priest on 5th
June 1905 and appointed the parish priest in the
town of Čajniče, Eastern Bosnia. Later on, he was
elected a parish priest in Mostar. After the First
World War, when he served as a military chaplain, he returned to Mostar and
remained on the same duty until the capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugosla-
via.
He was arrested by Ustashas on 20th July 1941, during the third mass arrest-
ing of Serbs in Mostar and its surroundings. About 300 Serbs tied with wire
230
were taken to Gospić, Croatia, and killed alongside with thousands of other
patriots.
STAVRO - STANKO MANASTIRLIĆ

Priest and parish priest in Pocrnje near the
town of Stolac
Born in Avtovac in 1908. After completion of the
Cetinje seminary in 1936, he was ordained as a par-
ish priest in Pocrnje, where he stayed until the oc-
cupation of Yugoslavia.
He was killed by Ustashas and thrown into an abyss located between the vil-
lages of Kapavice and Rankovići in Ljubinje County.
VOJISLAV MEDAN
Priest in Dabar
Born in Berkovići near Stolac on 28th May 1916.
He completed the theological college in Sarajevo.
He was ordained as a deacon on 8th June and as a
priest on 9th June 1938 and appointed as a parish
priest in Dabar, where he stayed for the rest of his
life.
Priest Medan was killed by Ustashas in late June 1941 in his house, in the
presence of his wife.
231
SEVASTIJAN MILOVANOVIĆ
Hieromonk, a parish priest in Duvno
He was born in Srem District. He belonged to the monastic brotherhood of

Žitomislić Monastery and was a parish priest in Duvno, where Ustashas killed
him in 1941.
VUKAŠIN PETKOVIĆ
Priest, a parish priest in Mostar
the Diocese of Zahumlje-Herzegovina
Born 5th February 1904 in Foča. He completed the
theological college in Sarajevo in 1926. He was or-
dained as a deacon on 12th June and as a priest on
13th June 1927 and appointed as a parish priest in
Konjic, from where he moved in 1931 to become a
parish priest in Mostar.
Priest Petković was killed together with priest Petar Pejanović and a large
group of respected Serbs from Mostar, who were arrested on 24th and 25th
June 1941. They were all killed in the surroundings of Mostar on 26th June
1941.
PETAR PEJANOVIĆ
Born 19th February 1911 in Mostar. He completed

the theological college in Sarajevo in 1932. He was
ordained as a deacon on 27th and as a priest on 28th
232
January 1933, and appointed a parish priest in Biograd near Nevesinje, from
where he moved to Mostar to serve as a parish priest. Ustashas arrested him
on 24th June 1941 and took him away together with priest Vukašin Petrović.
They were both killed near Mostar.
DUŠAN POPOVIĆ
Religion teacher in Trebinje,
Born in the village of Pliskovi near Gornja Biskupija. After completion of the
Cetinje seminary in 1933, he enrolled the theological college in Belgrade.
After graduation he was appointed a religion teacher in Trebinje, where he
lived when the occupation began.
To avoid the Ustasha terror, he moved to Northern Dalmatia, where his sister
worked as a teacher. He and his whole family decided to join the uprising
against the occupier, considering the Partisan movement as the only way out
of the difficult situation the country was in. He condemned the cooperation
with the occupier and fell out of Chetniks' favour, who were punishing the
peaceful locals who supported Partisans and rejected the collaboration with
the occupier. Given all this, the Chetnik headquarters decided to put him and
his family under surveillance, looking for a right moment to capture and liq-
uidate them.
OGNJEN RADIĆ
Born in Nevesinje on 17th July 1907. He completed

the theological college in Cetinje in 1928. He was or-
dained as a deacon in 25th and as a priest on 28th July
1929. He was appointed a parish priest in Ljubomir, and afterwards he was
moved to the parish seated in Mostar. Bishop Tihon awarded him with red He
233
was arrested by Ustashas on 24th June 1941. ON 26th June 1941, he was
brought to the bridge called “Carinski most” by Ustashas, slaughtered and his
body thrown into Neretva River. He was awarded the red belt for his faithful
service in 1936.
DRAGO RISTANOVIĆ
Theology student, Diocese of Zahumlje and Herzegovina
Born in Hrupjela near Trebinje in 1920. He studied at the Belgrade Theolog-

ical College. He was arrested in June 1941 by Ustashas and held in prison in
Caprag near Sisak. His later destiny remains unknown.
JOVAN SLOMOVIĆ
Archpriest, a parish priest in Konjic
Born in Čajniče on 7th January 1885. He completed
the Sarajevo seminary and was ordained as a presbyter
on 1st Octobre 1908. He sought refuge in Serbia dur-
ing the Ustasha terror. Together with archpriest P.
Rađenović, he was arrested by a German punitive ex-
pedition. After enormous suffering, he died in Bel-
grade in 1943.
SPIRIDON STAROVIĆ
Protopresbyter, a parish priest in Avtovac
and Nevesinje episcopal vicar,
Born 12th December 1876, in Bonjani near Herceg
Novi, Montenegro. He graduated from the Belgrade
Theological College in 1899 and was a religion
234
teacher in Konjic and Ljubinje. He was ordained on 2nd March 1903 and
appointed as a religion teacher in Avtovac. As a teacher, he was often tortured
and persecuted by the Austria-Hungary regime in 1901 and 1902. As a priest,
he protested against the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in
1908. He was arrested immediately after the Sarajevo assassination of Arch-
duke Franz Ferdinand and deported to Arad, Hungary, where he was kept
until 4th July 1916.
He wrote a popular booklet titled The Last Days of the Vife and the Burial of
Duke Bogdan Zimonjić. He published a large number of sermons in maga-
zines Bratstvo, Vesnik, Srpski sveštenik, Golub, etc.
Archpriest Starović was arrested by Ustashas on 7th June 1941 and taken to
Kobilja Glava, on the Gacko - Bileća road, where he was killed with a mallet.
LJUBOMIR M. HAJDINOVIĆ
Priest, a parish priest in Čapljina
Born 12th July 1906 in Duvno. He completed the theological college in Sa-
rajevo in 1928. He was ordained as a deacon on 20th June and as a priest on
21st July 1930, and appointed a parish priest in Duvno. Later on, he served in
parishes in Dračevo (near Ljubinje) and Blagaj, after which he was appointed
as a registrar in the Ecclesiastical Court in Mostar. In 1940, he moved upon
his own request to a parish in Čapljina, where he was when the war broke out.
He was awarded the Order of the Yugoslav Crown of the 5th degree.
In the period 23rd – 26th June 1941, more than 1,500 Serbs from Čapljina
and surrounding villages were arrested. Among them was priest Hajdinović.
At first, they were all captured in Čapljina, and then taken in groups to the
silo, where Ustashas would take off their clothes leaving them in their under-
wear, tie them with a wire, put them onto trucks and transport them towards
Metković and Ljubinje, killing them along the way. The same way priest Haj-
dinović ended up in early July 1941.
235
BOŽIDAR ŠARENAC
Parish priest in Dračevo near Ljubinje,
Born in Ljubinje in 1907. He completed the theologi-
cal college in Sarajevo. First he was a parish priest in
Poljice (Popovo Polje) and then in Dračevo. Priest Šar-
enac was killed by Ustashas in July 1941. Afterwards
the Ustashas killed his wife in Popovo Polje.
LJUBO HAJDINOVIĆ
Priest in Čapljina
Taken to Hutovo together with other Serbs, tortured, beaten, his beard
plucked out, his eyes gouged out and pushed alive into the Gradina pit cave
in Hutovo.
VUKAŠIN PETKOVIĆ
Parish priest in Mostar
Ordained in Konjic in 1927, arrested in Konjic by Ustashas on 25th June 1941
and taken together with a group of respected Serbs from Mosta towards Široki
Brijeg, where he was tortured and pushed alive into the pit cave together with
Jefto.
MLAĐAN (father's name Risto)

Born 1922 in Ljuta, municipality of Konjic, he was a novice of monastic
school, preparing to become a monk in Dečani Monastery in Kosovo. In April
1941 he returned home in Ljuta fleeing from Balli Kombëtar [an Albanian
236
nationalist, anti-communist and anti-monarchist organisation established in

November 1942, t/n] and then went to Žitomislić Monastery.
Ustashas arrested him on 26th June 1941 and pushed him alive into Vidonja
pit cave near Čitluk.
MONASTIC BROTHERHOOD OF ŽITOMISLIĆ MONASTERY

Just before St. Vitus’ Day, the Ustashas raided Žitomislić Monastery and took
all the monks they found to the Ustasha gendarme station in Žitomislić. After
a few days they were transported to the other bank of Neretva River and
killed, then thrown into a pit cave and covered with stones. Their bones still
rest there. Their names are given below.
237
NOVAK OKILJEVIĆ, a novice of Žitomislić Monastery, a 15-year-old boy

from Ulcinj, Montenegro.
DOSITEJ VUKIĆEVIĆ, a hieromonk and member of the Žitomislić Monas-
tery monastic brotherhood. Born in Mostar in 1915. He completed the Mo-
nastic School in Visoki Dečani Monastery [a major Serbian Orthodox Chris-
tian monastery located in Dečani, Kosovo and Metohija, t/n] and was or-
dained as hieromonk in March 1941.
KONSTANTIN VUČUREVIĆ, a hieromonk, the hegumen of Žitomislić
Monastery, born in Zupci, near Trebinje.
MAKARIJE PEJAK, a hierodeacon, born in Bijelo Polje. He was ordained a
hieromonk together with hieromonk Dositej in March 1941.
MARKO PRODANOVIĆ, 4th year theological college student, born in Mostar.
BRANKO BILANOVIĆ, a theology student, born in Avtovac.
When the Ustashas raided the monastery, they also found Hierodeacon Vla-
dimir Čejović, who they did not want to take; seeing they were taking the
other monks, he shouted: “Take me with my brothers!” So they did.
ŠPIRO STAROVIĆ, born 1871 in the village of Sombor, near Gacko, com-
pleted a theological college. He was an archpriest in Avtovac, near Gacko, in
1941. He was killed in Pavlić, Gacko municipality, together with 18 men.
DUŠAN BLAGOJE, son of Simo, born 1909. Completed theological college
in 1941 and worked as a priest in Stolac. Taken away by force, tortured and
pushed alive into Ržani Do pit cave.
238
Manojlo Ćuk
JAGODNJAČA PIT CAVE IN

RŽANI DO – THE SITE OF
THE USTASHA
ATROCITIES AGAINST
THE SERBS OF POPOVO
POLJE AND
SURROUNDINGS
Such panels on the suffering of Herzegovina Serbs during the period of the
Independent State of Croatia will show, for the umpteenth time, after 72
years, how much we have been ethnically inert, uninformed, confused and,
above all, still too weak to respond to the present historical moment. Unfor-
tunately, that is the fact and we are only capable of recording what happened
to us (with a considerable delay), until we finally realise that even today we
are still floundering in our own blood as victims of a long-term ethnic strategy
of our historical enemies.
Here we are before you today for a single reason - a familiar and binding one:
the blood of my ancestors has never stopped warning me, keeping me restless,
for my own name is my warning; the name of my 15-year-old uncle Manojlo,
who was pushed alive into the pit cave in the village of Ržani Do. My warning
is also three generations of my ancestors whose lives were ended by the Usta-
sha dagger. Until this year, I did not have any male ancestors buried in the
family graveyard because, together with my aforesaid uncle Manojlo, his 40-
year-old father Jovo was also pushed alive into the pit cave, while his 68-
year-old father Mijo also disappeared without a trace. My uncle Manojlo,
239
grandfather Jovo and great-grandfather Mijo were the three pillars of my fam-
ily destroyed by the Ustasha genocide. It was pure luck that my father Danilo,
a frail child at the time, escaped death and procreated so I can testify today.
As a member of the family which suffered the Ustasha pogrom in Herze-
govina, I will speak about the fate of only several thousands of Serbs from a
part of Popovo Polje [a karstic plain in Herzegovina, t/n], or more precisely,
from its northern part encompassing around 20 villages. Again, the date of
the unprecedented crime was the fatal Monday, 23rd June 1941. Reading the
previous books of proceedings from panels convened across Republic of
Srpska, we cannot resist the feeling that the project of eradication of Serbs in
the part of BiH encompassed by the NDH was the agenda set from the very
establishment of the NDH in April 1941. The deadly harvest of the Serb el-
derly, women and children had no other rule but: Exterminate all Serbs with
a gun, dagger or a pit!
For all those who will read this in the future, especially for those who are not
from this region, I must provide a closer look at the geographical and geopo-
litical aspect of the place of the Ustasha blood feast in Eastern Herzegovina,
or more precisely the northern part of Popovo Polje. Popovo Polje is located
in the bordering part of both pre-war and post-Dayton municipality of
Trebinje, in the south-west, beginning with the Popovo Polje plain, around 30
kilometres from Trebinje, stretching as a fertile plain along Trebišnjica River
for further 15 kilometres. More than 50 villages gravitated towards this fertile
field and very important wheat growing area. The villages belonged to the
municipalities of Trebinje, Ljubinje, Stolac and Neum. The Popovo Polje area
covers 4,000 hectares of arable land, 48% of which was cadastre-registered
ownership of the Serbs, while around 4% was state-owned and 2% was the
ownership of the Muslims. The rest was owned by the Croats. I point out that,
until the Dayton peace agreement, almost all land was within Trebinje mu-
nicipality with the exception of several dozens of hectares that belonged to
Neum municipality. I point this out for two important reasons. One of the
reasons is well known and common for all parts of the NDH; slayers and
exterminators of Serbs were stimulated and awarded by their genocidal state
for faithful service in eradication of whole families. In return for that, they
were supposed to get complete households on the condition that the total ex-
termination was done. Therefore there is a partial reason, apart from that of
genetic and pathological origin, why they killed everybody, from newborn
babies to old people. In the beginning, in 1941, the victims were those eligible
for military service; afterwards, Ustashas would kill everybody, aiming for
the total extermination. Hatred and greed emerged from the bottom of the
240
animal drives in humans, shaped by the ideology of the Vatican cross and
Islamic crescent. No wonder that the strategy of endless extermination of the
Orthodox Serbs and their extirpation have continuously lasted until today.
The proof for this statement is happenings from 1990s as the continuation of
the process of moving the western border of the Catholicism toward the east-
ern part of Popovo Polje, shaped in the Dayton Agreement. This is the second
reason why Serbian Popovo Polje almost disappeared through two processes:
the NDH and the Dayton one. I do not want and do not dare to think that our
Dayton negotiation team, a member of which was also distinguished profes-
sor Vladimir Lukić, knew that the 1% less territory given to Republic of
Srpska just as well fitted into a perfidious strategy of Ante Pavelić and his
heir Franjo Tuđman in the formation of the newly established Croatian mu-
nicipality of Ravno, the majority of which had belonged to Serbs, thus turning
the strategic plan into reality. After the Dayton Agreement, the area of Bobani
Plain all the way to Venice, which had been an area with over 30 Serbian
villages and hamlets, became Dubrovnik hinterland, while arable Popovo
Polje was divided by the Dayton Agreement between Federation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina (3,000 hectares) and Republic of Srpska (1,000 hectares).
(Remember the aforesaid cadastre ownership of arable land) Serbian villages
are now in FBiH, as well as a significant tourist potential of Vjetrenica cave
and, for people from Popovo Polje, the only ray of spiritual light, the Monas-
tery of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, an endowment of the Ne-
manjić dynasty [the most important dynasty of Serbia in the Middle Ages, and
one of the most important in South Eastern Europe, t/n] from the 13th century.
We were taken away the backbone of our survival in the micro-identity of the
Serbs from Popovo polje and nothing is the same after such a spiritual loss.
The hegumen of this monastery in Zavala [a village in southern Herzegovina,
t/n] baptised my great-grandfather Tripo in 1860, while I was baptised exactly
100 years later, in 1960. In only two kilometres as the crow flies, two signif-
icant spiritual and economic capacities were taken away from the Serbs. To
make the cynicism even worse, they tried to fool us into believing that this
happened because the pen used to draw the borderline in the Paris Protocol
was thicker than the one used in the Dayton Agreement. I am convinced that
nowhere else is the perfidious Ustasha strategy of geopolitical planning more
obvious than in the case of Popovo polje. I do not point this put accidentally,
given that the data available to me will be evident in ten to twenty years, and
also surprising to gullible Serbs.
Therefore, let me remind you that back in May 1992, when the occupying
Croatian Army in its aggression against BiH, which the international commu-
241
nity knew about but pretended it did not exist, Croatian general Janko Bob-
etko with his troops, during “the fighting for the southern front,” deeply en-
tered the territory of Trebinje municipality and, during the major hostilities,
the administrative centre of Ravno municipality was being built. Concrete
works were performed during the breaks of artillery fire. Three years later, it
proved that the Croats had already had the federal borderline in Herzegovina
in 1992. However, that was just a continuation of the genocide against the
Serbs perpetrated in 1941. These days of May, the army of Croatian aggressor
brought German instructors and intelligence officers to Bobanska plain to se-
cure Dubrovnik hinterland for the strategic Adriatic-Ionian motorway to-
gether with the Neum corridor to connect Croatia by land. Nowadays, the
Serbs use this issue for daily politics purposes, unaware of the fact that this
was solved long ago. We will be astonished by what will have happened in
this region by the year 2025! Unfortunately, we become aware of their plans
only when we pay a high price of our inferior position of the coexistence in
the Balkans. We often wonder how come that we need ten years or more to
realise our neighbours' plans. It should be clear to everybody that it is about
a long-term national strategy being systematically developed to the detriment
of Serbs, along with centuries-long support by Catholic Europe and, in mod-
ern history, Germany as well. Unfortunately, we blindly believe that we will
be left alone because they have accomplished their historic goal.
My uncles and grandfathers also believed that their Croatian neighbours from
village Dubljani would not do them any harm. These days of June 1941, they
behaved honestly and naively. My father told me that, just a few days before
the massacre, our neighbours from the families Vukosavić, Mioč and Matić
drank wine and ate minnow fish in our house, tapping my grandfather's Jovo
shoulder and making promises: “Don't you worry, Jovo, while we are here in
the village, nobody will do you any harm!” Only a week after these gentle
words, the same Ustashas called my grandfather, who was in his boat on the
river, to come with them to the village school. Can you only imagine the na-
ivety and faith of my grandfather Jovo that he paddled back to the bank and
voluntarily went to the alleged meeting?
To make the irony worse, the two Ustashas and Jovo were waiting in the street
for his wife Persa (my grandmother) to bring him his coat from the house.
Something strange happened during the gathering of Serbs in Popovo Polje,
which only confirms to what extent the project of destruction of Serbs was
developed and planned and, above all, disciplined in its national and fascist
manner, so that the exceptions were purely coincidental. Even if they hap-
pened, their ending was also projected. Five days before the Monday of 23rd
242
June, the postman in village Veličani, Ivo Bogdanović, a Croat from Slano (a
place in Dubrovnik municipality), was assigned by Ustasha Jure Boroje in a
organisational meeting in village Ravno to inform all heads of families and
the men eligible for military service to assemble for an important meeting in
front of the village post office at 8 a.m. on 23rd June. Knowing the real in-
tention of the Ustashas, Ivo did not do that; that morning he was alone in the
empty post office when the Ustashas arrived. The postman's fate was identical
to the fate of Serbs – he was tied up and brought to the village school in the
evening. Later on, Jovo Kovač, who escaped that evening from being killed
and thrown into a pit, told me that the postman was the last to get onto the
truck, tied in pair with my 15-year-old uncle Manojlo. Those who were get-
ting onto the truck last were the first to be killed before the pit, so that it is
likely that the two of them were the first to be thrown into the pit. This tells
us that there was one human among thousands of beasts and what his fate
was. Today we can only guess how disappointed the Ustashas must have been
and how many villagers would have survived had the plan of gathering Serbs
been conducted as planned by the Ustasha headquarters in village Ravno. The
forthcoming years of the war will show that Ustashas were eager to complete
their unfinished job from 1941 in 1943 and 1944. On that 23rd June, the Usta-
shas managed to deceive 33 villagers of Veličani into coming to school.
It is obvious that the plan was disturbed in the morning of 23rd June, so that
the Ustashas did not manage to collect so many people in the northern part of
Popovo Polje. For a better reconstruction of events during that day, and to
make the picture of Popovo plain more complete, I will briefly describe what
Popovo Polje was like those days of June.
Seldom does it happen that fields in Popovo Polje are still not cultivated in
late June and that flood waters remain in the field for over eight months,
which happened in 1941. Flood waters recede from the top of the field and
all people capable of working, as the water is receding, rushes to cultivate the
fields as soon as possible. The land is very difficult to cultivate if people are
just two days late. Moisture of the land is constantly monitored and, if possi-
ble, half of a field is being cultivated while the other half is still flooded.
During years like these, it is questionable whether corn will be harvested be-
fore new floods in October. Otherwise, the crop is lost, which certainly leads
to widespread famine. Ustashas, and besides our neighbours, knew well that
during such years, when sowing is done later than it should be, all men capa-
ble of field work rush to the fields and work there day and night. They knew
well that this was the right time to apprehend their Serb neighbours during
those several days. As a collection centre, they chose the pre-war primary
school in village Veličani. This is why they had to raid Veličani first and, if
243
the water was still below the village, to surround peasants in their fields from
the northern part of the village pushing them to the water. That morning, ac-
cording to the witnesses, in the relatively small area, there were over 250 pairs
of yoked oxen ploughing the land, so that we can just presume how many
people were helping the ploughers. That morning the Croats did not come out
to their fields, but nobody suspected that could be a trap until the Ustashas
began to tie people and send them to BuljKovač. This again confirms the fact
that postman Ivo Bogdanović was the only to deserve to be called a human.
The Croats all around Popovo Polje knew what Ustashas were preparing and
they all had the same task.
Confirming this thesis of the ultimate Croatian goal, I must refer back to one
event during the day. When the Ustashas had done the main part of their job
by dusk, a group of Serbs was brought from village Dračevo. Suspecting that
all this was a trap and that terrible atrocity was to ensue, Vlado Setenčić seized
the opportunity to wrest himself from the Ustasha who was taking him to be
tied in front of the school. He started to run towards a hill in the northern part
of village Dubljani. Running for almost three hundred metres between the
Ustasha bullets, he was severely wounded but he nevertheless managed to
reach a big rock towards village Dubljani. The following day, Croat Marica
Đojić, a shepherdess, found him and got back home to call Ustashas. All in
wounds, Vlado was tied alive to a truck and dragged along a macadam road
for 8 kilometres to the pit cave in village Ržani do, so that he was almost
dismembered when they finally got there. That was also one of numerous
proves that all Croats had the same task.
With all that blood of the Popovo Polje Serbs shed, knowing for sure that in
the whole of Popovo Polje there are virtually no houses without civil victims,
it is hard to believe that all these abysses and pit caves were filled with con-
crete in 1960s.
Being present during the exhumation of bones of Popovo Polje martyrs and
their burial, the famous Serbian poet Matija Bećković noticed a nib pen
among personal belongings and, inspired and bittered, wrote a poem as a
curse to all of us who had participated to the crime of silence during the com-
munist state. Here are just a few lines from the Bećković's poem:
ENGINEER OBRADOVIĆ'S PEN
244
In Eastern Herzegovina
In Ržani do
On the bottom of the pit
Among bones
Wooden combs and rubber boots
Colourful cloths
And patched handkerchiefs
Plaits and hairpins
Grains of rye
Carried in pockets and footwraps
A nib pen was found.
When it was dug out from the pit

After fifty years
It was immediately recognised
As engineer Obradović's pen
------------------------------
(closing lines of the poem)
------------------------------
They say that the pen, dumb and unused
Returned to the pit and covered itself with earth
Sealed itself
In heaven and earth
Giving no signs of life.
Waiting for someone who deserves to find it
Because we still are not the people it belonged to.
245
Personal belongings of the exhumed martyrs, with the nib pen
Even today we are getting rid of the shame and invoke God with a humble
excuse: Forgive us, dear Lord! Forgive us for leaving our dearest ones scat-
tered for fifty or sixty years in the monstrous NDH not doing anything until
1990s even to list their names and decently mark the places where they rest
in peace forever.
We tend to search for some excuses and vindications and, by the inertia of a
devised communist lexical construct, qualify these victims in a simplified and
general way as the victims of fascist terror. Unfortunately, the truth is merely
partial. These victims are the victims of nobody else but fascists, Ustashas,
the Croats. All the stories I had been listening for years from my parents,
neighbours and relatives, which refer to the period 1941-1945 about the suf-
fering of civilians on the right side of Popovo Polje, had always referred only
to our neighbours, our exterminators, the Croatian Ustashas.
Today, it is hard to believe that so little has been written about so many atroc-
ities. Only in 1980s, more precisely in 1986, did Božo Slavnić produced pos-
sibly the most important document on the events in Popovo Polje in 1941, in
the book titled Popovo Polje in The National Liberation War. As a former
soldier of the National Liberation Army, he was lucky to find live witnesses
246
for his monograph – Jovo Kovač from village Veličani, Anđelko Popović
from village Drijenjani and Pero Misita from village Kijev Do. Fortunately,
the author recorded an authentic story, well known to me, from my neighbour
Jovo Kovač, one of the key witnesses in the post-war trials of some Ustasha
war criminals.
Pre-war primary school in BuljKovač, village Veličani. Collection point for the
people of Popovo polje on 23rd June 1941.
Accounts by Jagodnjača survivors (Ržani Do)
Although the Ustashas made sure that no one taken to Jagodnjača would came
back, as dead people cannot speak, there are witnesses nevertheless. Three of
them: Anđelko Popović from village Drijenjani, Jovo Kovač from village
Veličani and Pero Misita from village Kijev Do managed to untie themselves
when they were brought to the pit. They flashed past the Ustashas and disap-
peared in the dark. The Ustasha rifles and machine guns burst after them.
Luckily, without success.
Account by Anđelko Popović, one of the three survivors from Jagodnjača pit:
247
On 23rd June 1941, most people from the northern part of Popovo Polje were
ploughing their fields. They were all in a hurry to sow their farming fields, so
as not to remain unsown due to sudden receding of flood water. In order to
help the ploughers finish their work in time, many people from other villages
of Popovo Polje and Bobanska plain joined them. Suddenly, around 11 a.m.
the wife of Božo Derikučka from village Veličani ran into the field looking
for her husband. On her way, she was spreading the word that Ustashas had
come to Veličani, arresting and taking away all men. My neighbours and I
yoked the oxen and started to run towards Lisina. Unfortunately, we got back
after an hour thinking the Ustashas would not come, especially to the field.
Just as we continued to plough, we noticed a passenger car and truck going
through village Dračevo. They got to village Mrkonjići and made a turn to-
wards village Poljice. Ustashas jumped out of the truck and started to move
towards us. As soon as they got closer to the ploughers, they opened fire.
They fired at those who started to run. I gave up running away, when an Usta-
sha jumped in front of me. Together with a group of my neighbours, the Usta-
shas led me to village Mrkonjići. They gathered us there and forced us to go
to village Veličani, where they closed us in the school building. It was around
3 p.m.
A lot of guards were posted all around the school. At 8 p.m. a truck came.
The Ustashas loaded the truck with people whose hands were tied on their
back. They went towards Ljubinje. An hour later, another truck came to take
away more people. They were also taken in the same direction. A bit later
they took us who had remained, first one by one and then in twos. They drove
us out on the road and led us towards Ljubinje. At the exit from Veličani, we
caught up with the last truck. It was broken. They forced all people out of it,
joined them with us and lined us up together. An Ustasha told us we were the
prisoners and that we were being taken to Ljubinje for hearing. He also told
us that all of us not found guilty would be set free. He added that we had to
be loyal to the Croatian state and Ustasha authority. We arrived at village
Strujići. They made a small break there as they were thirsty and needed to
drink water. Shortly after, we proceeded. We walked past Kotez and came
200 metres away from the Ržani Do pit, which we had not known of before.
The Ustashas ordered us to kneel down. One of us attempted to escape. The
Ustashas killed him on the spot. One of the Ustashas ordered that everybody
who tried to escape must be shot in the head.
Kneeling, we noticed, as there was the moonlight, that the men from the be-
ginning of the file were being taken away somewhere. After that we heard
screams and shots. A bit later they ordered us to lie on our back on the road,
248
our hands still tied from behind. Immediately after a truck came so they or-
dered us to move aside to the left. It was difficult to do as we were tied in
twos. The truck passed by and someone jumped to his feet to run away. The
Ustashas opened fire and killed five people. On that occasion Marko Mar-
ković, who was tied together with me, was wounded. He screamed in pain.
The Ustashas were still taking away the people from the beginning of the file.
It was our turn now. While lying on my back, I managed to untie the rope on
my right hand. When the Ustashas ordered us to start moving, Marko Mar-
ković told me he was not able to get up as he was wounded in his leg. Cursing
his Serbian mother, they ordered him to walk on one foot. We managed to get
up somehow. While we were waiting to be taken to the pit, I managed to untie
the rope completely. One Ustasha noticed I was doing something so he put
the gun barrel between my eyes and said I would get what I deserved. The
Ustashas led 12 of us towards the pit. I was not able to start running at the
same moment, as the terrain was not suitable for escape. When we got to
around 70 metres from the pit, I noticed that the terrain was suitable. I jumped
out suddenly and run uphill through the Ustashas. They opened fire on me
and shot the fingers on my left hand. The Ustashas were running after me for
a while and then gave up, thinking they had killed me. I managed to escape.
It was 24th June, around 2 a.m. I crossed the road and sought refuge in the
mountain. In Mount Bjelasica area, I found a large number of men, women
and children from Popovo Polje villages, who had sought refuge from Usta-
shas. I met some neighbours from my village in Vjetreni Do. 1
This is an account by Jovo Kovač, another witness of the horrific atrocity,
from the aforementioned Božo Slavnić’s book Popovo Polje in The National
Liberation War:
“I was born in the village of Veličani in 1902, where I still live. I cannot speak
about the war without mentioning the events that took place on 23rd June
1941. That day, a group of Ustashas raided my village and surrounding vil-
lages. Their captured 40 people in Veličani, among who was Ivo Bogdanović
from Slano in Dalmatia. They brought us to the Veličani primary school. They
also put there the people they had arrested in the surrounding places. I do not
know the exact number of them. None of us knew either why we had been
gathered there or where they intended to take us.
When the night came they tied us two by two with our hands behind the back.
They separated one group and put them onto a truck. I was on this truck too,
1
Popovo Polje in National Liberation War, 1986
249
tied together with my neighbour Božo Dostić. I also recognised Lazo Slavić
on the truck. They drove us towards Ljubinje.
Concreted entrance to Jagodnjača pit, Ržani Do
Meanwhile, while I was on the truck, I managed to pull one hand out of the
rope, while I untied the other one when I got out of the truck. The truck
stopped about 15 metres away from Ržana pit. They lined us up towards the
pit. Some people were crying for mercy, saying they were not guilty. The
Ustashas ignored them. A shot was fired at the beginning of the file. I jumped
out and started to run towards the forest. They were shooting at me but did
not manage to hit me. I was running through the forest and came across a
village. The villagers recognised me and gave me first aid.”2
That fatal Monday of 23rd June 1941, the Ustashas executed their plan to
seize the right side of Popovo Polje, encompassing the villages from Galičić
to Žakovo. The following day, the hunt for Serbs continued on the other bank
2
Božo Slavić, Popovo Polje in National Liberation War, 1986
250
of Trebišnjica River; it turned out less successful for the Ustashas since the
information of the Monday massacre spread across the rest of Popovo Polje.
Anđelko Stanković, a witness to the massacre, is still alive. I recorded the
authentic story only about 20 days ago and, above all, I am glad that there are
still living witnesses from that period in this quite late historical project. This
is Anđelko Stanković's story:
Anđelko Stanković
“I am Anđelko Stanković, from village Poljice - Popovo Polje,

where I was born in 1926. In 1941, I was 16. My father died in
1938, so I had to endure the hardship of being a fatherless child
since my early age. Among other jobs, I also had to plough. In
1941, my uncle Jole Kosović, from village Raptije, came to help
me sow.
On 23rd June 1941, a file of peasants with yoked oxen and full
equipment started from Poljice along the road to the field before
the dawn. We were going towards the bridge to cross on the right
bank of Trebišnjica River, where the majority of our arable land
was. Due to a long distance, we would start from home very early
251
in the morning, much before the dawn. That morning, it was prob-
ably around two after midnight when we started since it took us
almost an hour to get to our field. At three and a quarter, the blue
sky appeared in the east, announcing the dawn. However, it was
still quite dark. I think that between 35 and 40 pairs of fully
equipped oxen together with peasants left the village that morn-
ing, so that the file must have been almost two kilometres long.
My family, my mother, my aunt and her husband Jole Kosović,
my uncle, were at the beginning of the file. Near the bridge on
Trebišnjica River we encountered two boys (by their voices I as-
sumed they were young) who were coming from the direction of
the field. I had never found out who they were. As it was still
dark, I did not notice that they carried any weapons or luggage.
They greeted us and stopped. In a very quiet voice, they told us
not to go to the field that day and to go back home immediately,
since Ustashas would pick all the plowmen in the field during the
day. They even mentioned the village where the Ustashas picked
and slaughtered everybody but I did not hear its name.
I had never heard of “Ustashas” before. The young men did not
introduce themselves, but they warned every individual along the
file, as I later heard from the others. My uncle was 40 at the time
and what he had heard from the boys did not upset him whatso-
ever. Unlike my uncle, I was trembling with fear as I had never
heard before about slaughtering people, not to mention throwing
them into pits. Frankly, I did not feel like going to the field any
longer, but I could do nothing as nobody from the file returned.
Shortly after encountering the boys, we managed to reach our
fields and each of the peasants managed to plough first furrows
before the dawn. The people worked hurriedly to finish as much
as possible while the oxen were calm before the heat came and
flies started to attack the animals. Sometime after eight o'clock,
we heard gunfire in village Dračevo. Shortly after, from the di-
rection of village Drijenjani, single shots were heard, a sign to me
that I should run. Interestingly enough, neither my uncle Jole nor
the others paid attention to what was going on in Dračevo and
Drijenjani. However, it gave me the creeps and I kept looking to-
wards village Mrkonjići thinking: If the trucks from Mrkonjići
start towards the field, I will leave my uncle and the oxen and run
towards the bridge, which I did shortly after. I was running for
my life and my mother followed in my footsteps. We were going
252
across the fields near the road, which curves near the bridge. From
that place, I turned my head to see the trucks approaching, around
300 metres away from us. I realised that crossing the bridge was
impossible. Trebišnjica River, with its flood waters, seemed as
wide as the Danube to me. Several metres before the bridge, we
found a ditch beneath the road and hid there. In the ditch we found
our neighbour Pero Miljević (1905). Immediately after we hid in
our shelter, a truck roared above our heads. Ustasha Nikica
Vukosavić from village Dubljani, who I had never seen before,
came out of the truck cabin. Only later did I learn from the elderly
that it was him who led the operation in our part of the field. Curs-
ing and shouting, they took down from the truck one of the Usta-
shas, who was hurt probably due to a sudden braking of the truck.
Later on, we saw that the Ustasha was dead drunk. I heard Nikica
asking the others who that Ustasha was and who had sent him
there in such condition. I heard one of them saying that the
drunken Ustasha was from the Sadžak family from village
Žabice, near Ljubinje. I had heard of that surname before and also
known that the Sadžaks were Muslims. Nikica Vukosavić ordered
two Ustasha to wash the injured and drunk Ustasha in the river
and drive him to the Poljice railway station to send him to Mostar
hospital. When the three Ustashas came to the river, they could
almost notice us. Luckily, none of them looked in our direction
and so we escaped certain death. I could clearly see the two Usta-
shas holding the injured one, who was vomiting while they were
washing him. At the same time, I heard the conversation between
the Ustashas above us, who were standing by the truck. One of
them asked his colleague how many bullets he had. The other re-
plied he had only two. The first Ustasha said he had no ammuni-
tion at all as he had spent it all. Later on we heard that the Usta-
shas, moving from village Mrkonjić, got off the truck in groups
of five or six searching the field around four kilometres in length.
They were moving downstream of the road, surrounding the area
around the river. While we were in our shelter, the truck went to
Poljice and we could hear the Ustashas calling to each other and
firing occasional shots deeper in the field. That morning, there
were over a hundred peasants from village Poljice; eleven of them
were captured and taken to the primary school in BuljKovač-
Veličani. The same night they were killed and thrown into a pit,
which we learned only after two days, when Jovo Kovač, Anđelko
253
Popović and Petar Misita had managed to escape death in the pit.
I also need to finish the story about my uncle Jole and my aunt,
his wife, who my mother and I had left when we escaped to the
bridge.
Uncle Jovo dug a deep furrow with his hoe, lay in it and the aunt
covered him with the weed the women had removed during the
ploughing. When my aunt covered him with the weed, she ran
away upstream towards village Lug. My uncle told me that the
Ustashas had been only 50 metres away from him, commenting
that the plowmen had escaped from that field too. People were
running away and hiding wherever they could. My neighbour
Jovo Radonja told us afterwards that he was going downstream
through water for about 100 metres until the water was up to his
chin. He hid behind a black locust tree, watching the Ustashas
come to the field to ask the women where their male family mem-
bers were. He stayed alive as they did not notice him. A lot of
peasants escaped swimming across Trebišnjica River. That morn-
ing, Sava Setenčić, who was a bad swimmer, drowned just a few
hundred metres downstream of the bridge where we were hiding.
On 23rd July, the Ustasha hunt for the Serbian peasants who were
working in their fields was over until lunchtime. Afterwards, I
found out that they were led on foot to village Veličani. It was
only on 24th June that Ustashas came to my village led by Vid
Žutac from village Ravno and Nikica Vuskosavić from village
Dubljani and took away Risto Miljević (1889), the president of
Poljice municipality, and his son Jovo (1920). The same day, they
took Boro Ninković from Trebinje, who was a clerk in the Poljice
Municipality.
These June events and Ustasha carnage in Popovo Polje villages
forced people to move to the surrounding hills, where they soon
organised and armed in preparation for resistance. Much, much
more was written about that, but that is not your topic of interest.”
The same day, Risto Gavrilović from village Sedlari was also in the northern
part of Popovo Polje together with his brother Anđelko. His family had also
been impatiently waiting for flood water to recede from their fields so that
they could begin ploughing. Risto Gavrilović was born in 1926, so he was old
enough to well remember these two fatal days. This is his story about the
events of 23rd and 24th June 1941:
254
“I am Risto Gavrilović, my father’s name was Savo, born in vil-

lage Sedlari [municipality of Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
t/n] in 1926. I have a clear memory of the war, so that each event
from these years left etched on my memory. I also well remember
that morning of 23rd June, when I went with my brother Anđelko
and two pairs of oxen to plough. The skies seemed different that
morning than other days. It was not my imagination, but really an
unusual sight. That morning the skies were red, like an omen of
the innocent blood of the plowmen and peasants of Popovo Polje
shed the same day. The same sights in the sky appeared after the
collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Old people spoke that the
same thing happened before Saint Vid Day in 1914, immediately
before the outbreak of the Great War. That morning, we came to
the field early to find plowmen who had already been there and
who had started to plough before the dawn. In my opinion, as I
thought of that afterwards, that morning there were more than 250
pairs of oxen in the area of several dozen of hectares. You can
than calculate the number of people there, given the fact that
every yoke had to be served by at least two men. That was the real
place and time for Ustashas to commit a crime and arrest innocent
people, who unfortunately were all their neighbours. To make my
story more detailed, I must get back several months before the
event. Immediately after the declaration of the NDH, my father
Savo was being called to village Ravno, as he was a councillor of
the Zeta Banovina [a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia be-
tween 1929 and 1941, t/n] in the period 1929-1941. By set of cir-
cumstances, Pero Prkut, a Croat from village Dubljani, worked as
a field worker for my family. My father would sometimes pay
him his wage in money but sometimes also in food. Even when
he did not work, my parents would give some food to his wife
Manda to be able to feed the family. All of our Croatian neigh-
bours from Popovo Polje had known what would happen to the
Serbs long before their pogrom. One of the few who were willing
to help was Pero Prkut, who needs to be mentioned here. He
would send his wife Manda to Risto Kurilić's, in village Dračevo,
and then Risto would come to us to warn my father not to go to
Ravno. Therefore my mother, after they had called my father for
the second time in May to return his medals to Ravno, went there
in person and took the two medals my father had been awarded
by King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1930 and 1931. In early
255
June, immediately after the establishment of the Ustasha authority

in Ravno, headed by Jure Boroja, the prohibition of movement
from one village to another had already been imposed. Carnage
was likely to happen, but the Serbs of Popovo Polje could not
believe, until their blood was shed, that their neighbours would
do something like that. Even when they were killed and thrown
into a pit, and when Pero Misita came to our village to say what
had happened, none of the elderly believed him. You can just im-
agine how much they trusted their neighbours!
However, that morning of 23rd June, when gunfire started in vil-
lages Dračevo, Drijenjani and Mrkonjići, and afterwards on the
bridge, it made the people agitated so they began unyoking the
oxen and withdrawing downstream and towards the river. We had
no dilemma about what to do either. Both Anđelko and I would
reach the river in no time. A lot of people had already gathered
by the river. The river was large but some of them were thinking
about getting in. When we reached the river, we saw Nikola
Setenčić from Dračevo drowning and being carried away by the
river. Roughly, there were about thirty of us in one place. We
were encouraging one another to plunge into the river and start
swimming. At that moment, a man called Risto from village Tulje
approached and, producing a knife, said: “Men, get into the water
and swim. I will be waiting for them, I'm not afraid to die. I
brought my bloody greatcoat from the 61st Infantry Regiment, I
do not fear them!” We felt slightly encouraged after such words
so we began crossing the river in large numbers. Many of us lost
our clothes and shoes; naked and barefoot, we made it to the rail-
way. We waited for the train having been standing in village Grm-
ljani to pass. Then we crossed the railway and headed towards our
hill. We reached Lukači and then JabuKovač. There were about
15 of us. Shortly after, a few of us came to the summit of Osoje
hill to see what was going on in the field. We had a clear view
from the hill. There were a few oxen and women in the field,
striped with unfinished furrows. On the other side of the field, we
saw groups of people going along the main road, like a train miss-
ing a car here and there. Ustashas were leading groups of Serbs
on foot towards Drijenjani and Račevo. At the moment, we did
not have a clue where they would end up. Only in a few days
would we find it out.
256
We were waiting for dusk in our barns and our mother brought us
some clothes and footwear. That evening we got down to our
house, had some dinner, took a blanket and headed for the hill
again. We spent the night in barns. In the daybreak, Ljubo Ko-
vačina woke up our father and us to tell us that village Sedlari had
been blocked. We only had enough time to get up and go unno-
ticed deeper into the hill. It was already 24th June and that day
Ustashas made a raid on our village. Our village was blocked by
the Ustashas from villages Orahov Do and Ravno. They came by
truck near the village in the morning. The truck was driven by
Miško Brajić from Ravno, accompanied by Vide Žutac and a man
called Gaga. They came straight in front of our house. They were
looking for our father, threatening to kill him. They demanded
money as they knew that my father Sava had worked in the United
States. Vide Žutac from Ravno ransacked the house and found six
golden rings under my father's bed. The rings were for us, the six
children and, apart from them, there were two watches with an
inscription, a golden and silver one, which my father had got from
the German company with which they had traded from America.
The inscription was in German, with my father's name. They
plundered houses in village Sedlari, taking everything they
wanted. That day they arrested Milan Obradović and Jovica
Akšam from village Čvaljina, who had spent the night in the vil-
lage. They proceeded to Poljice and arrested Risto Miljević and
his son Jovo. The same day, they took Boro Ninković from
Trebinje, who was a clerk in the Poljice Municipality.
In only five days or so, while we were still on the hill, we learnt
about that crime only when Pero Misita came, one of the three
who had escaped the death in the pit on the evening of 23rd June.
The elderly did not believe again. When Pero Misita went away,
a neighbour of mine commented that he had lied completely be-
cause it was not possible that people could throw living people
into a pit".
257
Risto Gavrilović, son of Savo
During 23rd and 24th June 1941, those two dark days for the people of
Popovo Polje, Ustashas, in their own “neighbour like” manner whether from
a boat or a field or even people's houses, caught and in a brutally cruel manner
murdered and threw into the Jagodnjača pit 185 men, mostly householders.
People under the age of 16 were: Milorad and Tomo Lakić, Ljuban Oro and
Milan and Pero Pribišić. People thrown in the pit who were older than 70
were: Nikola Gluhajić, Komnenović, Mijat and Nikola Semiz and Lazo
Slavić. Ustashas' plan and organising commenced a few months earlier, and
according to all historical evidence, it is known that the Treaties of Rome
from 18th May established the strategy of Ustasha organising in Eastern Her-
zegovina. The strategy was put into practice between 20th May and 1st June
1941. Pavelić, while he was still in emigration, developed this strategy which
was then supposed to be put into practice. The ultimate goal was, with the
help of Germany and Italy and the blessing of the Vatican, to create the Inde-
pendent State of Croatia over the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina
together with Srem, stretching to Zemun. Serbs, Jews and Gypsies would not
be in this state, they would have to be removed willingly (allocated to Serbia)
258
or by force (executed or catholicised). The military government structure

which would annihilate the non-Croatian population was camps headed by
camp commanders in major towns and counties. In this kind of formation, to
carry out these monstrous crimes in the municipalities of Ravno and Ljubinje,
Pavelić sent his emissary dr. Leon Togonal who arrived at Ravno on 21st
May. He immediately formed a camp led by Jure Boroja, a law student from
Zagreb, who immigrated to Argentina before the war, but now has returned
to Ravno for this task.
Togonal and Boroje formed squads in villages and appointed squad leaders:
Luka Boro for the villages Čavaš and Orašje, Mato Kukuriku for the village
Kotezi, Pero Čokljat for the village Do, Jozo Mioč for the village of Dubljani
and Mato Andrić for the village of Zavala. Formations were ready and action
was taken swiftly. Already on 3rd June 1941 in Ljubinje, there was around
600 Ustashas from the municipalities Ravno and Ljubinje lined up before
Togonal, Boroje and Jure Francetić, who was the Chief Ustasha Commis-
sioner for Bosnia and Herzegovina. After taking the oath in front of catholic
priests Don Josip Zovko from Ravno and Andrija Mojić from Trebimlja, they
were ready for the crimes committed immediately afterwards.
The first victim, on that same day, 3rd June, was a prominent householder
Mitar Milojević from Rankovci, near Ljubinje. He was killed in his own
house by Togonal himself in the presence of Ustashas with an Ustasha-like
audacity: “Who shall not kill Serbs in such a way, shall be killed!” Mass
crimes began to be committed and in only three months, by the end of August,
more than 600 Serbs, all civilians, were killed in the municipalities of Ravno
and Ljubinje.
In just those two days, people from 16 villages in Popovo Polje were taken
away and they were:
VELIČANI 10 Lakić Mirko /Mitar/ 1890

11 Lakić Mijo /Mitar/ 1893
1 Derikučka Danilo /Mijat/ 1910 12 Lakić Milorad/ Mijo/ 1893
2 Derikučka Nikola /Vaso/ 1880 13 Lakić Trifko /Tomo/ 1881
3 Derikučka Mladen /Nikola/ 1923 14 Lakić Tomo /Trifko/ 1926
4 Derikučka Savo /Boško/ 1878 14 Lakić Mijo /Jovica/ 1895
5 Dostić Božo /Jovo/ 1897 15 Milić Miloš /Tomo/ 1914
6 Dostić Uroš /Jovo/ 1900 16 Milić Gojko /Savo/ 1913
7 Ivanišević Vidoje /Risto/ 1910 17 Oro Jovo /Gajo/ 1924
8 Kovač Vaso /Todor/ 1892 18 Oro Luka /Jovo/ 1893
9 Komnenović Risto /Jeremija/ 1868 20 Oro Ljuban /Luka/ 1926
259
21 Oro Risto /Risto/ 1922 DRAČEVO

22 Oro Savo /Đuro/ 1873
23 Pendo Gajo /Nikola/ 1908 Anđušić Đuro /Trifko/ 1890
24 Slavić Lazo /Trifko/ 1871 Anđušić Sava /Risto/ 1922
25 Ćuk Lazo /Simo/ 1881 Biskup Lazo /Kosa/ 1910
26 Ćuk Svetozar /Lazo/ 1926 Biskup Đorđo /Kosta/ 1912
27 Ćuk Jovo /Mijo/ 1901 Biskup Jovo /Kosta/ 1914
28 Ćuk Manojlo /Jovo/ 1926 Biskup Risto /Mijo/ 1909
29 Ćuk Mijo /Jovo/ 1923 Bumba Gojko /Todor/ 1902
30 Cimirot Jovo /Mijo/ 1909 Bumba Kosto /Jovo/ 1896
31 Cimirot Milan /Mijo/ 1912 Grče Radoslav /Jovan/ 1920
32 Šarić Arsen /Savo/ 1906 Kosović Jovan /Lazar/ 1878
33 Šarić Dušan /Mitar/ 1910 Kurilić Petar /Savo/ 1893
34 Bogdanović Ivo /Nikola/ 1922 (a Croat Perišić Velјko /Risto/ 1912
from Slano - a mailman) Peško Vaso /Risto/ 1895
Pribišić Milan /Božo / 1925
GALIČIĆI Pribišić Pero /Risto/ 1925
Pribišić Pero /Luka/ 1902
1 Komnenović Milovan /Đuro/ 1922 Rundić Milorad /Ilija/ 1923
2 Nožica Anđelko /Marko/ 1916 Semiz Mijat /Boško/ 1870
3 Semiz Nikola /Boško/ 1871 Setenčić Vlado /Jovo/ 1908
Setenčić Milan /Jovo/ 1910
D U B LJ A N I Setenčić Vaso /Jovo/ 1921
Setenčić Nikola /Risto/ 1906
Glavan Gojko /Ćetko/ 1918 Setenčić Sava /Luka/ 1870
Glavan Danilo /Savo/ 1907
Glavan Dušan /Mitar/ 1903 D R I J E NJ A N I
Glavan Ilija /Jovan/ 1894
Glavan Mijat /Jovan/ 1898 Bakmaz Milan /Lazo/ 1914
Glavan Spasoje /Jovan/ 1900 Gluhajić Velјko /Miho/ 1920
Glavan Nikola /Ilija/ 1882 Gluhajić Nikola /Pero/ 1886
Glavan Jovo /Nikola/ 1919 Gnjato Ilija /Risto/ 1908
Glavan Ilija /Nikola/ 1921 Drapić Miloš /Pero/ 1905
Glavan Milan /Nikola/ 1923 Marković Marko /Jovo/ 1898
Jakšić Anđelko /Mišo/ 1894 Marković Milan /Ilija/ 1914
Jakšić Danilo /Pero/ 1892 Mitrinović Jovan /Trifko/ 1909
Jakšić Lazar/ Pero/ 1900 Mitrinović Milan /Đuro/ 1902
Jakšić Jovo /Ilija/ 1906 Stojanović Božo /Stevan/ 1896
Jakšić Maksim /Jovan/ 1904 Stojanović Mitar /Jovo/ 1900
Jakšić Mišo /Mirko/ 1909 Ćaćić Jovo /Todor/ 1880
Jakšić Nikola /Đuro/ 1906 Ćorić Jovo /Lazo/ 1913
Jakšić Šćepan /Savo/ 1881 Ćorić Jovo /Nikola/ 1903
260
M R K O NJ I Ć I P O LJ I C E
Bošković Božo /Risto/ 1919 Zerdo Đuro /Jovan/ 1896

Bošković Jovan /Ilija/ 1880 Zerdo Radoslav /Jovan/ 1920
Bošković Trifko /Jovan/ 1917 Kovačević Jovo /Špiro/ 1923
Bošković Milorad /Jovan/ 1923 Kovačević Jovo /Pero/ 1885
Bošković Stevan /Lazo/ 1904 Kusalović Novica /Mijo/ 1923
Dropo Boško /Todor/ 1890 Kusalović Todor /Savo/ 1924
Kuštrov Obren /Lazar/ 1893 Kusalović Đorđo /Đurica/ 1892
Kuštrov Velјko /Obren/ 1921 Kusalović Čedomir /Đorđe/ 1922
Kuštrov Šćepo /Jovo/ 1902 Ljepava Jovo /Vlado/ 1924
Lučić Dušan /Mijo/ 1905 Milјević Risto /Jovo/ 1889
Lučić Dušan /Aleksa/ 1895 Milјević Jovo /Risto 1920
Lučić Ilija /Radule/ 1895 Mostarica Milovan /Božo 1906
Lučić Jovan /Risto/ 1898 Stanković Nikola /Lazo/ 1900
Lučić Krsto /Risto/ 1899
Lučić Jovan /Jovo/ 1909 SEDLARI
Lučić Ilija /Jovo/ 1917
Lučić Lazo /Boško/ 1901 Kovačina Savo /Stojan/ 1901
Lučić Luka /Risto/ 19.. ? Obradović Milan /Nikola/ 1885
Lučić Risto /Boško/ 1907 Pramenko Savo /Risto/ 1913
Milutinović Luka /Jovan/ 1899
Milutinović Simo /Trifko/ 1890 G R M LJ A N I
Pavlović Ilija /Jovo/ 1917
Božić Savo /Vaso/ 1907
T U LJ E Delić Lazo /Jovo/ 1877
Kurilić Mirko /Risto/ 1899
Masleša Vaso /Risto/ 1901
Masleša Đuro /Lazo/ 1902 Z A V A L A (with hamlets Budim Do and
Crnogorac Božo /Risto/ 1906 Mareva Ljut)
Crnogorac Risto /Nikola/ 1921
Crnogorac Rade /Nikola/ 1924 Vukanović Anđelko /Pero/ 1894
Vukanović Dušan /Vukan/ 1906
Vukanović Branko /Vukan/ 1908
ŽAKOVO Vukanović Danilo /Vukan/ 1918
Vukanović Ljubo /Jovo/ 1895
Vukasović Đorđo 1865 Vukanović Jovo /Ljubo/ 1923
Jakšić Milan /Jovo/ 1911 Vukanović Risto / Jovo/ 1902
Popović Pero /Lazo/ 1895 Vukanović Đoko /Jovo/ 1903
Vukanović Risto /Nikola/ 1895
Vulić Danilo /Tomo/ 1894
261
Deretć Ilija - Ilirion 1884 (abbot of the B O B A N I V I L L A G E S (Dobromiri,

monastery in Zavala) Slivnica, Šćenica...)
Korać Obrad /Nikola/ 1884
Milić Mirko /Luka/ 1885 1 Vukanović Vlado /Simo/ 1907
Misita Drago /Rade/ 1921 2 Vukanović Dušan /Nikola/ 1896
Misita Živko /Jovo/ 1883 3 Miletić Pero /Đuro/ 1902
Misita Branko /Živko/ 1921 4 Miletić Risto /Đuro/ 1896
Misita Mijo /Vladimir/ 1919 5 Miletić Krsto /Miloš/ 1894
Misita Ljubo /Jovo/ 1922 6 Miletić Milan /Krsto/ 1914
Mićević Ljubo /Jovo/ 1889 7 Miletić Jovo /Krsto/ 1921
Mićević Drago /Ljubo/ 1912 8 Radulović Đuro /Stevo/ 1912
Mrakić Velјko /Jovo/ 1919
Mrakić Dušan /Lazo/ 1900 S T O L A C (brought in by trucks the night
Mrakić Živko /Ilija/ 1912 before the slaughter in Popovo Polje and
thrown into the Jagodnjača pit)
Mrakić Maksim /Miho/ 1900
Mrakić Milan /Joko/ 1892
Bogdanović Vaso /Savo/ 1921
Pendo Nikola /Risto/ 1890
Drekalović Žarko /Jovo/, student 1917
Pendo Svetozar /Nikola/ 1922
Đulbabić Jovo /Đuro/, merchant, 1883
Srba Ćetko /Tomo/ 1885
Đulbabić Dobroslav /Jovo/, coppersmith, 1903
Srba Lazo /Ćetko/ 1916
Đulbabić Vlastimir /Jovo/, merchant, 1908
Srba Tomo /Lazo/ 1906
Giga Risto /Jovan/ teacher, 1881
Čalak Anđelko /Lazo/ 1914
Giga Dimitrije /Jovan/ 1884
Čalak Savo /Mirko/ 1896
Giga Jovan /Risto/ clerk, 1882
Šešelј Rajko /Savo/ 1898
Giga Lazar /Trifko/ clerk, 1880
Hamović Pero /Mitar/ jeweller, 1893
Ravno, Čvalјina, Kotezi, Do, Strujići and other
villages Kurilić Ilija /Jefto/ clerk, 1889
Kurilić Jefto /Ilija/ student, 1915
Akšam Jovica /Jovo/ 1885 Kurilić Strahinja /Ilija/ student, 1921
Bakotić Risto /Ćetko/ 1888 (Kotezi) Mihić Velјko /Lazar/ driver 1910
Bakotić Nedelјko /Risto/ 1923 Miholјević Risto /Todo/ 1905
Popović Đorđo /Vlado/ 1890 (Bjelošev Do) Marić Dragan /Pero/ teacher, 1915
Popović Risto /Đorđe/ 1919 Milićević Čedo /Vaso/ 1919
Bajalo Risto – Kotezi Mitrinović Šćepan /Savo/ 1921
Janjić Trifko.– teacher, Kotezi Pavić Gojko /Risto/ 1893
Hamović Drago, village Do Radojević Neđelјko /Pero/ 1908
Marić Jovan, Strujići Ružić Ljubidrag /Miho/ 1913
Tilimbat Đoko, teacher, Strujići Ružić Sergije /Miho/ 1920
Ružić Miladin /Svetozar/ clerk, 1915
Spahić Drago /Đorđe/ 1920
262
FROM POPLAT NEAR STOLAC

During the two days of the large raid in Popovo
Jokić Dejan /Stojan/ teacher, 1922 Polje, people from other places not in
Popovo Polje were there for various
Mihić Marko /Nikola/ student, 1917 reasons and they were thrown in the pit
Mihić Miho /Nikola/ 1920 together with people from Popovo Polje
Mihić Jovo /Nikola/ 1923 and they were:
M R K O NJ I Ć I Grubišić Š. Vaso 1895 – Vranjska near Bileća

Kozić P. Maksim 1899 – Krajpolјe near
Ljubinje
Bjelica Janko /Perin/ 1897.
Blagoje Dušan /Simo/ priest from Stolac, 1909
Vasković Ilija /Đuro/ merchant, 1906
Kondić Simo /Blagoje/ Bosanska Dubica, 1888
Vasković Marko /Đuro/ merchant, 1910
Ninković Boro /Kosta/, clerk from Trebinje
Along with the ones caught and killed at the Jagodnjača pit - Ržani Do, Serbs
from Stolac and also from Čapljina and Mostar were thrown into this pit. A
few years after the horrific Ustasha crimes committed against the people of
Popovo Polje, witnesses in trials in Mostar revealed that the pit Jagodnjača
engulfed its first Serb victims the night before 22nd June and that in that night
42 Serbs from the Stolac area were thrown into the pit. Even on 27th June,
from the direction of Mostar, mutilated corpses of Serbs were brought to the
pit by trucks.
Documentation which indisputably confirms these crimes still exists in the
Archives if the Historic Military Institute in Belgrade registered under K.87,
no. 6/91, which is in the form of an Ustasha report of the 4th Croatian Police
Regiment as follows:
“The Commander of the Bileća wing with the number 86 from 15th July 1941
delivers: The Commander of the Police station Ravno, Petar Dujmović with
the secret no. 39 from 7th July 1941 delivers the report to this wing as follows:
During the Ustashas’ organising and carrying out of their activities in the pe-
riod from 23rd to 25th July of the current year, in this station's area, 150 Or-
thodox Serbs were caught and killed by Ustashas. After these events, the rel-
atives of the murdered have gone in refuge into the hills and woods; all the
men with their wives and children and only out of fear because of mentioned
murders in the following villages: Zavala, Mareve Ljuti, Grmljana, Sedlari,
Veličana, Drijenjana...” 1
1
Božo Slavić, Popovo Polje u NOB
263
Civilian victims of the Jagodnjača pit and civilians killed in other ways by
Ustashas:
Killed outside
Nо. Name of the victims’ village Ržani Do pit
of the pit
1 Veličani 34 27
2 Galičići 3 2
3 Dublјani 18 9
4 Dračevo 23 15
5 Drijenjani 14 1
6 Mrkonjići 22 ‐
7 Tulјe 5 13
8 Žakovo 3 ‐
9 Polјice 13 5
10 Sedlari 3 20
11 Grmlјani 3 ‐
12 Zavala 22 ‐
13 Budim Do 10 2
14 Mareva Ljut 1 1
15 Čvalјina 1 6
Bobani (Dobromiri, Slivnica,
16 8 ‐
Šćenica)
17 Ravno 4 24
18 Stolac 24 ‐
19 Berkovići 3 ‐
20 Poplati 4 ‐
21 Čaplјina 1 ‐
22 Vranjska near Bileća 1 ‐
23 Krajpolјe near Ljubinje 1 ‐
24 Trebinje 2 ‐
25 Krnjev Do 1 ‐
26 Dvrsnica 3 ‐
27 Strujići 2 ‐
28 Do 1 ‐
29 Kotezi 3 ‐
30 Orašje 4 ‐
Total 223 139
264
I have transferred two testimonies of participants of the book Popovo Polje in

NOB by Božo Slavić, recorded during their lives. Perhaps the greatest fortune
was that there were three people from Popovo Polje, three witnesses who
managed to return from the pit, to be key witnesses in the post-war trials for
crimes committed in Popovo Polje. It is uncertain whether the Ustashas, our
neighbours, from a few surrounding villages would have remained unidenti-
fied if these witnesses had not survived. The names of the most bloodthirsty
Ustashas were: Jure Boroja, Ivan Stole Matić, Martin Buruma, Jozo Mioča,
Vido Žutac, Nikola Buruma, Mipko Brajić, Mirko Brajić, Jozo Mioča, Nikica
Vukosavić, Đura Mihajlović - Šakica, Vido Prca, Savo Ćojić, Božo Puljić,
Ilija Raguža, and dozens of other cutthroats would have remained unknown
to the descendants of the victims and it is uncertain whether they would ever
have received a rightful punishment.
The evil which comes with the clouding of the human mind, a crime that no
one will ever be able to explain, was committed in the whole area of Herze-
govina. It seems to me that it was nowhere as atrocious as in Popovo Polje.
Even now, after so many years, stories are told about the events which marked
the lives of all of us from the families of the victims. And what was recorded
and historically substantiated remained somewhat scarce, insufficient and
faintly recorded as an event or a minimised crime. For example, I will state
one case of a heroine, Cvijeta Glavan from the village Dubljani. This family
tragedy was mentioned in seven lines in Božo Slavić's Popovo Polje u NOB.
On 23rd June, this woman, in this all-around Popovo Polje slaughter, in just
this one day lost: her husband Nikola and sons Jovan (22), Ilija (20) and Milan
(18). On that night, they were thrown in the Jagodnjača pit on Ržani Do. Only
fifteen days later, her first neighbour from the same village, Đuro Mihajlović
- Šakić, came to their house with a group of Ustashas in the evening and they
committed an unprecedented atrocity. When they stabbed mother Cvijeta
through the arm and breast she fell down and in a semi-conscious state
watched as they first cut the throat of her father-in-law, a ninety-year-old
Mišo, and then her sister-in-law Janja. After that her sister-in-law's six-year-
old Anika and finally her two-year-old daughter Dobroslavka. Ustasha Đuro
took six-year-old Anika from her sister, lifted her by her hair and held her for
another Ustasha to rip her open from the throat to the bottom of her stomach.
Mother Cvijeta watched and listened when the executioner, holding her little
Dobrila by her legs and turned upside down, said: “Don't scream, you Serbian
bastard, this won't hurt, a will slaughter you slowly.” He cut the child's throat
while the blood ran onto the hearth. Mother Cvijeta survived a sevenfold fam-
ily tragedy and lived with the pain until 1991. She passed on and joined her
martyrs on 11th April of that year.
265
On those July days, when this unprecedented crime took place in the Glavani
house, Ustashas from Ravno, Orahov Do and Dubljani went back to Serbian
villages to loot Serbian property and kill the remaining children and elderly.
My father, Danilo, told me that he had narrowly avoided death for the second
time during those days, because Ustashas came to our house to round up the
rest of the family. My father, who was twelve at the time, managed to escape
with his mother Persa behind the barn and from there watch the brutality and
the beating of helpless elderly people. My grandmother Janja, who had lost
her eyesight, was beaten by Ustashas with gunstocks and then threw her off a
six-metre-high wall into the garden. She fell on the ground and was dead on
the spot. They took my grandfather Mijo somewhere. Even to this day we do
not know what they did to him. During the Ustasha rampage that day, they
noticed our neighbour Mijo Milić as he was working in his potato field under
our houses. The Ustashas killed him with a shot from the road and he re-
mained with a hoe in his hand. When she saw what happened to her son, his
mother Janja rushed down the road. Ustashas were waiting for her to reach
her killed son. When she bent down to pick him up, a salvo was heard. She
fell over him and then the Ustashas' ovations and roars for successful shots
began. That day was survived by our other grandfather Tripo who lived with
the family but had no children of his own. He happened to be in the vineyard
and he remained hidden under the vine leaves. On that occasion, he was for-
tunate to stay alive, but not the second time around... Ustashas came back to
our house for the third time, led by Nikica Vukosavić and Jozo Mioč on 4th
September 1944, in a last bloodthirsty campaign in the village Veličani. On
that morning, my father, as a young boy, ran into the house in order to get his
grandfather out to hide, but he refused to do so and quite calmly said: “You
run, my child, I will not. Let them kill me; I need not live longer!” My father
hid behind the house, between two stones, and only ten minutes later a burst
fire was heard. After Ustashas had left, he went back into the house and saw
a horrific sight. Using an automatic rifle, through the window, they shot the
old man who was lying on a stone bed. The burst fire blew his head off. That
was the fifth victim from our house and the only one killed with a bullet.
266
At forty-three metres in the Jagodnjača pit (October 1990)

On the morning of that 4th September 1944, when Ustashas attacked the vil-
lage at dawn from the direction of Zavala, the children of Savo Penda, Milica
(18) and Jovo (15), did not manage to escape. My father, often with tears in
his eyes, used to tell me about this event and about his neighbour Jovo who
he socialised with and spent the days of his childhood. All until that final
night, Jovo used to sleep with him on the threshing floor in the corn stalks.
That evening, he did not come to the threshing floor, and at dawn, Ustashas
staged a surprise attack. The brother and sister did not hear the shots, so Usta-
shas caught them easily in the surrounded village. Jovo was captured in the
house of Milan Milić. They pushed him under a wine barrel, stacked sacks of
grain over the barrel and then set the house on fire. My father told me that
when they came back to the village a few days later in the debris of the burnt
house they found the remains of his corpse among the hoops of the incinerated
wooden barrel. There is no end to the inspiration for different ways of killing
for the genetically distorted Ustasha nation, which is confirmed once more.
Milica, Jovo's sister, a eighteen-year-old girl, was caught on the road near the
wheelwright shop. The following day, when they found her on a wall next to
the road, her hands were shoved up to the elbows in between her ribs and her
breasts. She was naked and her throat has not been cut. Oh my God, can an-
yone even imagine the torments she was in when she left this world?! Milica
267
and Jovo were orphans since 1941 and almost the same fate came upon their
mother Stana.
I return to the beginning of my narration in order to, once more, confirm that
we were living in a time period of the crime of silence for fifty years. As I
write this, it seems that, with some relief, I justify myself, but I still am
ashamed, sad and rightfully reprehended by the pen of engineer Obradović in
the last line of a Matija Bećković poem.
Bibliograpy
Slavić, Božo, Hercegovina u NOB, Trebinje, 1986.
Bošković, Nјego, Ržani Do, a poem.
Bećković, Matija, Izabrane pjesme, Oktoih, 2006.
268
Memorial crypt of the martyrs of the Jagodnjača pit in village Veličani
269
270
Milenko Jahura
THE KILLING OF
SOUTHERN
HERZEGOVINA SERBS IN
THE GENOCIDE OF THE
CROATIA 1941-45
Southern Herzegovina is a geographical-historical name, which in Serbs, un-
like Croats, is rarely used today in this and similar kinds of considerations. I
find this an unjustified forgetting of one Serbian area with an unfortunate fate
and many national, cultural-historical and other values, to which conquerors
lay claims today. It is the area of lower Herzegovina, which is called Humina,
and belonging to it are the areas of Stolac (excluding Dabar, which, until re-
cently, administratively belonged to it), Dubrava, Hrasna, Čapljina and
Ljubuški. I consider it justified to focus here on the lower Neretva area, that
is Metković and Opuzen, which are now in the state of Croatia, but leave out
Ljubinje, which represents the border between Southern and North Herze-
govina.
A fact that should be stressed, and which cannot be disproved, but is often
disregarded, is that this is historically a Serbian land which was up to the mid
fourteenth century a part of the Nemanjić state where, up to then, only Ortho-
dox Serbs lived. Unfortunately for Serbs, this land's general and strategic im-
portance was easily noticed by others, unlike us whose land, by every right,
it should have been. That is why our rulers frequently gave it up “easily” and
instead of there, looked for an access to the sea on other shores. I will dare
say that this is, along with other misfortunes, a cause of Serbia's fate as a
landlocked country.
271
The first Ottoman census of Herzegovina 1474-77 marks this area as a Ser-
bian land. The names of villagers are purely Serbian. There were a few Mus-
lims (such as in Bitunja near Stolac). Shortly after the census, conversion to
Islam became quite common here. After selling Ston with Stonski Rat and
Primorje, and then Konavle to Dubrovnik, a forced catholicising of the area
began. Catholics from Primorje were gradually, in the first few centuries very
slowly, moving deeper into the area of Southern Herzegovina. In the 17th
century, Orthodox people are still the majority in Hrasno, Burmazi and
Kruševo. Bishop reports from that period mention a multitude of Muslim and
Orthodox people – “Ottomans and Schismatics” – in Dubrave, without any
Catholics. It was the same in the Neretva valley, on both banks. Starting in
the 18thcentury, and especially in the 19th, encouraged by the Vatican and
Austria, Catholics on a large scale populate the area from the village of Do-
branja, under the mountain Žaba (which they call their base) into Hrasno,
Burmazi and Kruševo and further into the area around Stolac, but also into
villages Prenj, Crnići, Aladinići, Hodovo and so on. By doing so, they, from
the east, completely surround or enter many settlements which were, up to
then, purely Serbian or mixed Serbian-Muslim settlements in Dubrave and
around Čapljina. At the same time, they advance along Neretva from the
south, on both banks, and to Čapljina from the west, and also from the direc-
tion of Ljubuški up to Neretva and over it. This had created preconditions for
taking this land, for what genocide was the final tool, already used in other
parts of the world. The preparation of masses for the confrontation with Or-
thodox people is done by Jesuits who come here in the second half of the 19th
century. Then, after the unfortunate year of 1878, the occupation government
favours Catholics in which they instill the Croatian national awareness and
name, and, at the same time, successfully works on the permanent discord
between Muslims and Orthodox Serbs.
For Serbs in Southern Herzegovina, the year 1939 was also unfortunate with
long-lasting and fatal consequences. At that time, the Stolac and Mostar coun-
ties, and by that the entire Southern Herzegovina and the Neretva valley, were
attached to the Banovina of Croatia. The counties had a Croatian majority
because included in them were compact groups of Croatian settlements
around Neum and in West Herzegovina. On the Serbian side, there was no
one to take interest in and fight for the border of Banovina, if it was already
being made, not to be drawn following county lines, but along the national-
religious lines within those!? By doing so, with the outcome of the April war,
the conditions were created for the Croatian genocide against Serbs in South-
ern Herzegovina 1941-45 and later. For the executors of the genocide that
was a successfully achieved national and historical goal, but for the victims,
272
an unprovoked historical disaster. I personally feel it is more appropriate to

use the word “Croatian” than the word “Ustasha” genocide, because of anal-
ogies to other similar situations in the world and the fact that many executors
of crimes over Serbs were not Ustashas, but they committed the crimes as
civilians, often armed with nothing more than stakes and knives. Moreover,
crimes were also committed by members of the Croatian Home Guard, gen-
darmerie and the NDH police, Croats in German units, and so on. Muslims,
who were in those units, who killed Serbs, did it as Croats of Islamic faith in
the name of the Croatian state at the time.
In the Croat population, and mostly in Muslim as well, the annihilation of
Serbs had general support because of an already rooted hatred for them. There
is much evidence about the participation of women and minors in those
crimes. The Roman Catholic Church openly supported NDH. Diocesan
priests, friars and bishops were members of the Ustasha organisation and
Ustasha officials. They participated in the genocide as instigators, organisers,
and some of them as direct executors of the persecution of Serbs and their
killing. Rare were case of protecting Serbs, who all died innocent before God.
Why, especially in this area, was genocide against Serb committed so exten-
sively and with such hate, brutality and sadism, without any sympathy for the
suffering of the victims, many of which were children? Along with the gen-
eral reasons for annihilating Serbs in NDH, here there are additional ones.
This area is of special strategic significance to anyone who wants to rule the
Adriatic coast and its hinterland, but also Bosnia and even further. Through
the valley of Neretva, which is wide and fertile in the area of Čapljina and
Metković, runs one of the most important transport routes. As the most con-
venient route, it connects by road and railway the Adriatic with not just Sara-
jevo and Bosnia, but also central and north Europe. From Čapljina a railway
siding to the east connected Bosnia, and through that Serbia and Croatia, to
Dubrovnik, Boka Kotorska, Trebinje and Nikšić. Another important road
goes across Čapljina, from the west, towards Stolac and Eastern Herzegovina.
All these routes go through Serbian settlements, practically in front of Serbian
houses. These are not just roads for armies and goods, but also paths for reli-
gions advancing and receding. Out of all those religions, only Catholicism
has been continually expanding for three centuries now. In the way of its fur-
ther advancement towards Drina and Serbia were Serbian settlements, espe-
cially those settlements which were grouped left of the Neretva river across
from Čapljina, and also the ones in the nationally and religiously mixed Du-
brave and around Stolac. In Stolac and Čapljina, Orthodox Serbs constituted
the intellectual, cultural and economic elite, which had to be destroyed and
273
deprived of its material possessions. The same greedy desire existed for Ser-
bian peasants who had plenty of land and livestock.
Serbs in this area had deep historical roots, tradition, old churches and mon-
asteries. They came out victorious from World War I with a major contribu-
tion to overthrowing the Austro-Hungarian monarchy as the key stronghold
of the Vatican in this part of Europe. Many Serbian volunteers from this area
contributed to that magnificent victory. There were 18 volunteers just from
the village of Prebilovci. The success of Serbia, which forgave its enemies
and took them into a common country, the values and riches of the Serbian
people in Southern Herzegovina, all that only enlarged the inferiority com-
plexes and the willingness of neighbours of other religions to annihilate eve-
rything Serbian, forever.
An ideal opportunity for that presented itself after Hitler and Mussolini's
breakup of Yugoslavia and the establishment of the Independent State of Cro-
atia, a dark and criminal formation. The Croatian population greeted it with
euphoria. Muslims did as well, although they were slightly less thrilled. What
kind of mood was present can be seen from the fact that, in Čapljina, led by
Catholic priests Jure Vrdoljak and Ilija Tomas, pre-war members of the Usta-
sha organisation, NDH was proclaimed on 8th April 1941, two days before
Kvaternik proclaimed it in Zagreb! The intoxicated chauvinist masses at-
tacked and disarmed the Yugoslav Army, they looted Serbian property and
stopped traffic on the railway and roads. By doing so, they broke the vital
connection between military commands and military units. The army units
stationed in Čapljina, mostly made up of Croats, disintegrated and partly
joined the rebels whose numbers constantly grew through reinforcements
from West Herzegovina. Everything there was stirred up and everyone was
ready for action. All Catholic churches rang their bells calling to arms. Even
parish priests took up arms. Croats captured hundreds of soldiers and recruits,
especially sailors, who did not manage to get to their units, as well as refu-
gees, civilians from Serbia. Their fate is unknown even today, and it is uncer-
tain if it has even been investigated? It is possible that they all died in the pits
west of Čapljina?
However, soon after, Ustashas had their first defeat in Čapljina, in one of the
rare successful operations of the Yugoslav Army in the April war. This hap-
pened far from the front and fighting the foreign aggressor. But, the army
faced open treachery from Croats in the military and population. Defeatist
harangues, desertion, sabotage, diversions and other actions from an arsenal
of insidious fighting, turned into armed ambush and open rebellion and taking
over of power on behalf of the invaders, even though the invaders' troops
274
were hundreds of kilometres away. In that struggle against Yugoslavia, at its

beginning, Croats act under the guise of Maček's “peasant protection,” a par-
amilitary organisation, which overnight became the Ustasha movement.
After the coup in Čapljina, a unit of the Yugoslav Army, in which there were
cadets of the NCO school from Bileća, on 13th April went by train to Gabela
and performed a counter attack to free Čapljina and unblock vital traffic
routes. The fighting lasted for two days with a high number of casualties on
both sides. The Croats were defeated and pushed back towards Ljubuški and
the Yugoslav Army entered Čapljina in the evening of 14th April. There were
some accidental civilian casualties in urban fighting. A military column was
also attacked in Dubrave, from an ambush by a large number of Croatian re-
bels, two of which were killed since the soldiers responded to being fired
upon. An armed Croatian insurrection also occurred in Metković. It was led
by a Catholic priest, Don Vlado Bilobrk. The gendarmerie station was at-
tacked. Its commander, the honourable lieutenant Karabeg, a Muslim from
Mostar, committed suicide as he did not want to surrender. The Croats cap-
tured a gendarme Simo Čalija, a Serb, who they tortured, killed and then
hanged. He was the first victim of genocide in this area. Already on 15th
April, in Metković, Croats arrested and imprisoned Serbs from that town.
Croats caused fighting, and through armed insurrection and crimes they vio-
lated the applicable criminal law. By doing that, they bear the responsibility
for casualties on both sides. However, the Croatian propaganda, joined by the
bishop from Mostar Alojzije Mišić, immediately accused the army and Serbs
of “attacking civilians and of crimes against Croats in Čapljina,” representing
the killed rebels as innocent citizens. The army retreated from Čapljina during
the night 16/17th April. The following day, the Italian occupation troops en-
tered Čapljina and straight away continued towards Metković, Stolac and Mo-
star. In the time period between the retreat of the Yugoslav Army and Italians'
arrival, the previously shattered armed Croatian groups entered the town.
They broke into Serbian houses and shops, started fires and looted. Two Ser-
bian women were killed with axes. They began to imprison and beat up Serbs
without any reason whatsoever. In that way, on the first day of Croatian rule
in Čapljina, the Croatian state showed its bloodthirsty and criminal nature.
The violence was soon stopped by arrival of Italians, which were there until
the end of May 1941. According to the Treaties of Rome, made with NDH on
18th May 1941, the Italians agreed to withdraw from the II occupation zone
and hand over power to the Croats. Life for Serbs was bearable in this area,
until the withdrawal of the Italians. On 29th May, Ascension Day, the patron
saint day of the church, was celebrated even in Čapljina, with young men
275
singing in the churchyard. The Croats, who were waiting for the Italians to
leave, did not waste any time in preparing for the genocide, but they watched
everything carefully. So those who started to sing first, such as Spaso Šiljak
from Klepci, would be among the first victims of the slaughter. Spaso's
daughter Sena, born in 1941 after her father's death, wrote these moving lines
on the grave stone of her father-martyr, whose body was, like thousands of
others, washed away by the Neretva river:
“Ascension Day remembers your last song, / And I don't remember an image
nor grave, / But only pain I share with this stone.”
After the occupation, the Ustasha apparatus was formed in Čapljina. The head
of the Ustasha headquarters for Herzegovina was the lawyer Pavao Canki,
who later became the Croatian Minister of Justice and Religion. The Ustasha
commissioner for the Stolac county (according to some sources for the whole
Herzegovina!) was Don Ilija Tomas. For Čapljina, which was a county
branch, and in NDH a county, the commissioner was the merchant Pero Jukić
- Gering. The handover of power was done by the priest Tomas as, at the time,
the head Ustasha in Čapljina. This was done by the order to Ivan Dragić, a
municipal notary, to: “in the name of Poglavnik and the Ustasha movement,
by the orders of Canki, Chief of the Ustasha Headquarters, hand over all
power to Pero Jukić!” Along with Tomas and Jukić, members of the Ustasha
organisation were Tugomir Solda, Mirko Lovrić, Marko Jelčić, Marko Vidić,
Ahmed Kapetanović, Dane Vego – Gvardijan, Janko Vego, Berislav Pavić,
Nikola Grepo, Ivan Rebac – Apel, Jure Mrčić, Ešref Zuhrić, Mile Ostojić,
Slavko Sušak and others.
The first Ustasha camp commander was Franjo Vego, a law student. Deputy
camp commanders were Niko Filipović, who was also the camp officer, and
Ahmet Kapetanović. Later on, camp commanders were Rudo Vrdoljak, Ah-
met Kapetanović, Vid Džajić and Martin Prkačin. Ustasha camps were
formed in all municipalities, while Ustasha squads were formed in villages.
The Ustasha organisation was not formed only in Prebilovci, a large Serbian
village with over a thousand inhabitants, in which only three Muslim families
lived with a total of thirty people. Ustasha collaborators, through which Usta-
shas received information about the people of Prebilovci, were the village
mukhtar Murat Šoše and his sons - Ustashas: Halil, Ahmet, Ramo, Mujo and
Meho.
In Čapljina, there was a secret advisory board, which in its meetings deliber-
ated on the fate, that is, the annihilation of Serbs. Its members were Pero
Jukić, Don Ilija Tomas, Mirko Lovrić, Berislav Pavić, Franjo Vego, Dane
276
Vego, Janko Vego, Ivo Gabrić and others. Jukić and Tomas were at the head
of the board.
The Ustasha commissioner for Stolac was Franjo Smole. The Ustasha board
members were Omerbeg Rizvanbegović, catholic priest Don Marko Zovko,
Ilija Raguž, Stanko Raguž, Božo Puljić, Stanko Obradović, camp officer and
Aladnići town assembly chairman Martin Maslać, Petar Marić, Hamid Hrle,
Vide Palameta, Mihovil Seko and others. The camp commander was Marko
Ćorić. Ustasha camps were formed in municipalities, while Ustasha squads
were formed in villages. The enthusiasm for NDH and the willingness for
crimes against Serbs was present everywhere and it was the same as in
Čapljina. Still, it can be said that the most powerful villain organisation was
in the village of Prenj. It was led by Niko Jerinić.
The Croatian crimes committed against the Serbian people in Southern Her-
zegovina were one of the worst and most shameful events in human history.
The Croatian great-state policy had attempted in 1941 and in 1992 it suc-
ceeded in completely getting rid of Serbs and everything reminding of Serbs
in the Neretva valley, Dubrave and Stolac. How and why it came to it that in
a significant part of a nation such hate is accumulated, so powerful that it was
able to initiate cruel killings and a complete annihilation of another nation?
But also their acquaintances and neighbours who, personally, have not done
anything to them and who, up to the war, were their friends and sometimes
best men or even relatives? The answer cannot be found only in history, but
also in medicine, ethnic and social psychology and perhaps some other scien-
tific disciplines. Crimes were committed during all wars and after them. They
were to be expected against Serbs even after April 1941. More from Germans,
Bulgarians, Arbanasi, Hungarians than from Croats. It is not known that an-
yone had predicted such a tragedy for Serbs in the Croatian state, if it were to
be created. That could not have been imagined. The Serbian people were com-
pletely unprepared for the situation in which they found themselves in NDH.
They did not just loose a state but were beheaded in every sense. They were
stripped of all their rights: their name, language and script, religion, property,
life and even a dignified death... They could be tortured and killed by anyone,
without having to answer for that. It seemed that the new Croatian state,
which was said to be a thousand-year-old dream, was solely formed to kill,
humiliate and plunder Serbs. But Serbs did not believe that. Some did not
believe it even when they were tied up at the execution site and saw death
around them. So how can a state kill the people who live in it without judg-
ment and guilt?! In that manner, in front of Gavranica pit, when the shots have
already hit the tied up Serbs, old Jovan Đogo still did not doubt his neighbours
and shouted: “Oh, Croat brothers, someone shot us!” For a long time, the
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Serbs, and it seems that even many today, cannot comprehend that such vile
people exist, who call you to come somewhere, swearing even on their own
children that nothing bad is going to happen to you, and then tie you up and
beat you, humiliate you in that condition and finally take you to a pit? How
can someone callously lie and swear falsely, renege on their promise, and still
go to mass on Sundays and pray to God? Or how can your godfather betray
you and hurt a child with a knife, his godchild, who you entrusted him to
guard from villains?
Not all Serbs were so naive to go as sheep for the slaughter, especially when
they heard about these first crimes. There were ones who were ready to flee
and willing to fight. However, older Serbs prevented the younger ones from
doing so by telling them that nothing is going to happen, because they are
guilty of nothing and that by running and resisting they can only cause loss
of their or other people's lives. Mothers called their sons to come out of the
forest and go with neighbours - Ustashas, who have come for them, giving
them their word that nothing is going to happen to them. It was not so rare
that five sons went with their father to the place of execution or five adult
brothers with their adult sons. In the area of Southern Herzegovina, it was not
easy to save themselves no matter what they tried. They were all cut off from
Eastern Herzegovina by a chain of Croatian and Muslim settlements around
Stolac. In addition to that, most settlements were mixed, even many streets
and neighbourhoods, so the chances of getting by guards and lookouts were
minimal. It was especially not possible with entire families. Most cases of
trying to escape ended tragically. Armed resistance was highly risky, not just
because of the total blockade, but also because it would give a reason for
killing the infirm and all Serbs in mixed settlements. The situation of a block-
ade, curfew and the danger of getting caught and killed influenced Serbs not
to go anywhere far from their houses and fields. So they did not know what
was happening in the next village, let alone in Eastern Herzegovina or be-
yond. All of that, but also other reasons, made the Ustasha effectiveness in
annihilating Serbs even greater than in other regions.
After establishing its organisation, the Croatian government, seeing a historic
opportunity, developed old plans and prepared for committing genocide
against Serbs. That had been, without a doubt, thought about before and the
persecution of Serbs in World War I has turned out to be an introduction or
general rehearsal for annihilation. Serbs were first asked to surrender their
weapons, under threat of death. Under the pretext of entering military records,
Ustashas determined the number and age of future victims and prepared lists
for executions. Gradually, discriminatory measures grew stronger and various
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bans were imposed. Then, in the first half of June arrests of prominent Serbs
began and of all those who could lead people in resistance to future crimes.
At that time, in Eastern Herzegovina, around Nevesinje, Gacko and Ljubinje,
mass slaughter of Serbs started, because of which an armed uprising of Serbs
broke out in order to defend their bear lives. Starting the slaughter in areas
where Serbs were the majority, compared to Muslims, was a logical step in
generating a strife between Serbs and Muslims and creating a tighter bond
between the latter and Croats. Furthermore, it was planned for these, tradi-
tionally rebellious, areas to be pacified through mass crimes for an easier an-
nihilation of Serbs in Southern Herzegovina. The expected resistance of
Serbs, which occurred, was to serve as a justification for intensifying crimes
and a total annihilation of all Serbs in the Neretva valley and Southern Her-
zegovina. The Serbs in these parts did not have any information, because of
the complete blockade, about the events in Eastern Herzegovina, especially
about the mass killings of Serbs in pits, which was soon about to happen to
them as well.
The orders to begin the crimes were given by Pavao Canki himself, who came
to Čapljina at the end of May. At the railway station, he was greeted by a
platoon of armed Ustashas. Report: “Normal operation!” to which he replied
angrily: “What is normal, you haven't killed anyone yet?!” And at mid June,
the killing of prisoners began. The first victims were Mile Vitković, a young
man from Čapljina and Ognjen Ždrakanović, a prominent householder and
elder of the Sokol troop from Prebilovci. They succumbed to torture, which
had been going on for days without end. Mile expired in the Grammar schools
building and Ognjen on the streets of Čapljina. Their graves were never
found. Their bodies were probably thrown into rivers, Mile's into Neretva and
Ognjen's into Trebižat. Others were killed in the same manner, around ten of
them. Tortured and beaten up, they were transported by truck to Vitina, near
Ljubuški, where they were killed in a butcher's shop. The railwayman Slavko
Dučić was taken by train to Hutovo and killed there. After these first killings,
came the first well planned mass killing of Serbs, known as the “St. Vitus’
massacre.” The second large scale massacre started at the beginning of Au-
gust and it was called the “St. Elijah’s Day [an Orthodox Christian holiday,
Ilindan, celebrated on 2nd August, t/n] Massacre.”
In the St. Vitus’ massacre (which for Ustashas meant retribution for St. Vitus’
in Sarajevo 1914 and a new, bloody humiliation of Serbs on this great holi-
day), after a treacherous arrest and tying up in wire and chains the always
gullible Serbs, who put faith in their “neighbour's word,” at many pits and
other places of execution, almost all adult Serbs were killed from the villages:
Gabela, Dračevo, Dubravica, Klјenak, Kolojanj, Cerovica, Grabovina,
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Gornje Hrasno, Kruševo, Burmazi, Poprati, Ošanjići, Dabrica, Kozice, Pješi-

vac, Šćepan Krst, Ljublјenica, Prenj, Pjesci, Lokve and Rečice, as well as a
large number of Serbs from Tasovčići, the town of Čaplјina, Stolac, Ljubuški
and other towns.
The largest number was killed in Opuzen in Dalmatia, in Vidovo Polje, near
the village Struga, in Mogorjela and “Brijest” in Čapljina, where victims were
thrown into dug pits, also into karst pits Ržani Do, Bivolje Brdo, two Kukauša
pits near Masline, Jasoč, into two pits in each of these places Hutovo, Prenja
and Poplata, then Poplata into which the brotherhood of the monastery
Žitomislić was thrown, also the Barev pit near Šćepan Krst, Gavranica near
Hrasno, Humac, then Cerno and Vitaljina near Ljubuški, and close to the rail-
way station Krupa near the village Dračevo, “Opuzen” near Gabela, on the
bridge in Čapljina... The largest graves for Serbs were rivers, especially
Neretva, but also Buna, Trebižat and Bregava. Serbs were slaughtered and
killed with rifles on the bridge in Čapljina or by the railway in the village
Šurmanci. Their bodies were thrown into Neretva. After that, the dead bodies
of many Serbs were transported by trucks from Dubrave to the bridge in
Čapljina and from there thrown into the water. The carcasses were removed
from the water outside of Metković and buried in the ground there. After the
Italians protested against polluting the river, the Croats began to take victims
from the railway station Šurmanci on a hill to the Golubinka pit and in it throw
people who were still alive. A great number of Serbs from the area of South-
ern Herzegovina were killed in Croatian camps in 1941, especially in Gospić,
with execution places Jadovno and Pag.
The slaughter was prepared until 22nd June. On that day and the previous
night, in the area of Čapljina and Stolac, all villages in which Serbs lived were
blocked. At the same time, arrests of Serbs began, everyone older than 15 and
in some cases even younger. Arrests were made under the pretext of prevent-
ing a possible rebellion of the Serbian people on St. Vitus’. The wave of ar-
rests went around Prebilovci, the largest Serbian settlement in this area. The
people of Prebilovci, with a large territory behind, hid in the woods, caves
and bulrush of Hutovo Blato, and the Ustashas were not yet ready to attack
this village. Also, Poplat was not attacked; it was the largest Serbian village
around Stolac. Arrests were made in houses and flats, but most frequently,
Serbs responded to invitations to gather at some location under different pre-
texts. Then they were imprisoned, tied and beaten and then taken to execution
places. Imprisonment was done in municipal prisons in Čapljina and Stolac,
the tobacco station in Domanovići, the reading room and Sokolski Dom in
Gabela, the road house in Dračevo, the primary school in Gornje Hrasno, the
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inn of Ustasha Petar Marić on Pileta (Aladinići) and other locations. A con-
centration camp was formed for Serbs in the grain storage facility “Silos,” on
the Modrič hill above Tasovčići. Most people brought here were arrested in
Tasovčići, Rečica, Počitelj, Klepci, Čapljina and other locations. From there,
they were sent to places of execution. Where, who and how someone would
be killed was decided at the moment, apparently without any particular sys-
tem, depending what the Ustasha headmen decided at a given moment, most
of all the Čapljina camp commander Franjo Vego. So, the victims' paths often
crossed.
Mass killings began on the night of 24th June at “Brijest” in Čapljina by
shooting around 80 Serbs. Most were from Čapljina and the village Grabo-
vina. They were previously arrested and imprisoned in the municipal prison.
Peasants from Grabovina were beaten while being taken to prison and forced
to sing the Croatian anthem “Lijepa naša” as they went through the streets. In
the evening, they were all, tied into a chain, taken into the street and by truck,
bus and a car taken to the silo on Modrič. However, from there they were
returned to Čapljina, after Ustashas reached an agreement in front of the silo.
At “Brijest,” there was a deep pit already dug out, in front of which local
Ustashas and Croatian gendarmes killed Serbs using fire arms. The director
of the tobacco station in Stolac, Desimir Mihić, managed to free himself from
the chains and escape with his fellow sufferer Maksim Andrić, a judge from
Ljubuški, but on the following day Andrić was again captured by Ustashas
and killed in Opuzen. Mihić swam across Neretva the second day after that.
He was hiding for a few days near Klepci and then headed towards Stolac on
foot along the river Bregava. The Ustashas caught him, but there was a tem-
porary cessation of killing Serbs on the proclamation of the Croatian vice-
marshal Laxa, so he somehow managed to get out alive and soon fled to Ser-
bia. He left a valuable testimony about the crimes at “Brijest” and reports
about other crimes against Serbs in the Stolac county. During his hiding in
Klepci he experienced Ustasha hypocrisy of his friend Don Ilija Tomas,
which nearly cost Mihić his life. On the fortieth anniversary of this crime, in
the nearby Međugorje, the apparition of the Virgin Mary was declared. This
obviously marked the anniversary of the beginning of the slaughter of Serbs,
and this date became significant for Croatian history and the Roman Catholic
church. On the same date the mass executions of Serbs at the execution place
Jadovno began which was part of the Croatian death camp Gospić and also at
many other places.
On the following day, 25th June, Croats from Dračevo, a village on the left
bank of Neretva in front of Metković and across from Gabela, arrested all
their Serb neighbours, adults and locked them in the road house. Two hours
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later they took the Serbs to the basement of the railway station Krupa. Also
brought there and imprisoned were Serbs from Herzegovina Glušci, Kljenak,
Višići and Serbs who were there on duty as railway guards, so there was a
total of 44 imprisoned Serbs. Ustashas from Dračevo were joined by a group
of top Ustashas from Čapljina and two villains from the village Hotanj. Then
came the horrific torture and beating up of powerless and innocent people. It
was done with gunstocks, stakes, legs and other objects; they were breaking
their spines, jaws, teeth, nasal bones... They were tearing out moustaches and
beards, throwing them on a pile and then tramping on them. The killings were
done in the immediate vicinity. By mere accident Vukan Lojpur and Jovo
Ćorić from Dračevo survived. The Croat Tomo Rebac brought Vukan to a
pile of killed and half dead Serbs and shot him twice, but neither of the bullets
hit him. Jovo Ćorić had a severe head gun shot. Jovo and Vukan lay low
among the dead bodies. After the executions, the villains went to a nearby inn
of a Croat Božo Krvavac where they drank and sang to an accordion. Vukan
and Jovo seized the moment and escaped. During the night the Croats went
back to the scene of their crime. They buried the dead bodies and the ones
who were still showing signs of life in a previously dug hole. On the following
day, they ploughed that land, together with the hole they closed, and planted
corn over it, then they arrested Serbs from the area of Donje Hrasno - Ko-
lojanja, Dubravice, Cerovice and others. They executed all of them on the
following night. First, they slaughtered some of them on the right side of
Neretva, at the Opuzen locality near Gabela. Then, they returned to the rail-
way station Krupa and transported the remaining Serbs by truck to the town
Opuzen below Metković and killed them there. With them, Strahinja (father's
name Todor) Toholj from Čapljina was killed, who escaped from the pit in
Hutovo on the previous night, but was caught somewhere in Popovo Polje
and then taken to Krupa by train. In the above crimes, more than 70 Serbs
were killed from Dračevo, Sjekosa, Kljenka, Herzegovina Glušci, Dubravice,
Kolojanja, Cerovice, Višići and several other villages.
From the “Silos” in Tasovčići, during the night 24th/25th June, Ustashas took
a group of 40 Serbs (at least 36) and, tied in wire, took them to Hutovo by
bus. The journey of these wretched people to the place of execution took sev-
eral hours on a gravel road across Stolac and Hrasno. Most of them were
prominent and educated people and also those who the Croatian government
considered to be “dangerous Serbs.” Most of them were from Čapljina and
Tasovčići. They were brought to a pit called Gradina, above Hutovo. Escort-
ing the buses were several cars with Ustashas from Čapljina. In Hutovo, they
were greeted by a large group of Ustashas led by camp officer Ivan Mus-
tapčić. The tied up Serbs were horrifically tortured, especially the priest
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Ljubomir Hajdinović, the parson of Čapljina, whose eyes they gauged out
with a bayonet. Then they threw them into the pit. Several Serbs managed to
escape from this pit, but all of them were caught afterwards and killed. Along
with the Gradina pit, Croats threw Serbs into the Hadžibegov Bunar pit in
Hutovo as well, mostly those who they arrested on trains. Alongside Ivan
Mustapić, people who stood out in crimes in Hutovo and Gornje Hrasno were:
Vide Obad, Baldo Raič, Šćepo Previšić, Mišo Maslać, Boško Vukorep, Luka
Vukorep, Mato Konjevod, Spasoje Raič, Ilija Mustapić, Ivan Butigan, Nikola
Raič, Jozo Raič, Mijo Raič, Anđelko Raič, Anton Rajvan, Ilija Raguž, Marko
Raguž, Mato Raguž, Mitar Marčinko, Vide Prkačin, Pero Vujinović, Stjepan
Raguž, Grga Vujinović, Stojan Raguž and many others.
The greatest mass crime in the St. Vitus’ massacre in Southern Herzegovina
was on the night 26th/27thJune, below the town of Opuzen at “Topola” in the
Neretva delta. The victims were brought by trucks from the concentration
prison “Silos” in Tasovčići and prisons in Sokolski Dom and the Croatian
Centre in Gabela, Krupa, Metković and other prisons. The total number of
killed Serbs was around 400 and one Yugoslavian-oriented Croat from
Metković. The largest number of victims were from Gabela, then from Du-
brave villages Rečice and Lokve, and also from Tasovčići, Čapljina, Klepci...
Just from Gabela, there were about 140 Serbs, among who were also two
women. It needs to be said that Gabela is an old and historically well-known
village, in which there are remains of a great Orthodox church from the Ne-
manjić period. The people of Gabela built a new church in the mid 19th cen-
tury. Over time, Catholics who immigrated there became the majority in this
wealthy village, but 2/3 of the fertile land was still owned by Serbs in 1941.
Serbs from Gabela were rounded up fraudulently on 15th June. From this vil-
lage, 8 Serbs were previously killed in the village Struge. A part of the ar-
rested were separated, as the strongest, “for labour in Germany.” However,
they were taken to a nearby village of Struge and killed there or they were
buried half dead in a hole in the ground. One wretched person somehow man-
aged to escape, but he was caught in Čapljina and killed. The remaining vic-
tims in Gabela, as well as those in the silo, were savagely tied with wire,
tightening it into the flesh to the bone. In front and behind the trucks, which
were used to take them to Opuzen, were cars with Ustasha officials. Ustashas
sat on the trucks, on the victims themselves, and they were singing.
Arrests, imprisonment, tying up, taking away the victims, all was described
in detail by Stojan Raguža, a squad commander and a monstrous villain from
Domanovići, in an investigation in 1952. He killed Serbs in most places of
execution in this area. In the investigation, he stated that he himself had killed
at least a hundred Serbs! He named other villains, who were eager to go to
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pits and other places of execution. Most of them lived peacefully in their
homes and were not tried even after Raguž's testimony.
At “Topola,” the victims were killed in the marsh, in the water, with rifles, by
cutting their throats, with stakes and in other ways. The bodies of many vic-
tims were taken away by the river Neretva to the sea, and the ones who were
buried in three holes in the ground were relocated, after the war, to a memorial
crypt, near the Orthodox church at the cemetrey in Gabela. The killed Catho-
lic was buried separately, and after the war his body was taken to his birth-
place, Korčula. The killers came back from Opuzen, singing, with the plun-
dered valuables of the victims. After the slaughter, part of the executors and
the Ustasha officials were greeted with a speech and were given lunch by the
Catholic parson from Opuzen, Don Martin Gudelj.
Except the above crime, in the area of lower Neretva, many more crimes
against Serbs were committed. The prominent merchant from Metković,
Boško Popovac, with his sons Risto and Marko and a priest Vasilije Kovačin,
the parson of Metković, were all arrested on 18thJune and first taken to Trpanj
by bus, then to Ston and finally to Dubrovnik. From there, on 27th June, with
7 other Orthodox Serbs, one Muslim and one Catholic (all from Dubrovnik),
they were taken towards Slano by bus. The torturing on the bus was captured
on film into a masterpiece “Occupation in 26 pictures” by Lordan Zafranović.
They were killed near Rudine. On their way back to Dubrovnik, the executors
celebrated this crime in one inn. In clothes sprayed with the blood of the vic-
tims, they were drunk and were showing their bayonets to the people there,
boasting with the crime they had just committed against innocent people. In
the Croatian genocide in 1941, about 20% of the Serbs in the lower Neretva
area were killed. Up to now, 107 victims' names are known. Most of them
died in September 1941 in the Croatian death camp Jasenovac, 87 of them,
all women and children. 77 of those victims were from the village Glušci from
families Bojbaša, Pucar, Vuković, Arnaut, Likić and Brstina. Two Serbs, the
only ones from Opuzen, were also killed, and there were also victims from
the village Slivno.
Little is known and even less written about the history of Serbs in Ljubuški.
The “more informed” ones know that, in Ljubuški, there used to be an Ortho-
dox church, which Croats tore down in 1992, and also that Ljubuški Serbs
were annihilated by Croats and Muslims in 1941. Everyone Serbian, from a
newborn in a cradle to 95-year-old men, everyone died in the pits around
Međugorje. It is a shame how little we know about the Serbs in Ljubuški and
in West Herzegovina in general, which was historically Serbian until not so
long ago, but its people first changed their religion and then accepted Croatian
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nationality. In Ljubuški, Serbs made up about 10% of the town's population

in 1895, and also there were many Serbs in surrounding villages. A church
dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel began to be built in 1860 and was
finished in 1864, before most other places in Herzegovina. Soon after they
opened a Serbian school, which they financed themselves, as well as the
teachers. Until 1941 Ljubuški was a separate parish of the Orthodox church,
and it had its own parson. Unfortunately, the Ljubinje county gave Croatia its
most horrible villains and Serbs-killers, Ustasha ministers, many officers,
commanders of legions and death camps. They made sure to annihilate all
Serbs in the area they were from, which was not a problem considering the
small number and complete isolation of the victims.
In Ljubuški, the greatest villains were Ivan BuKovač, Stanko Vasilј, Grga
Vasilј, Božo Čurlin, Bono Jelavić, Don Jure Vrdolјak, Šimun Buntić, Zvonko
Rogić, a wholesale merchant Ante Gavran, Franjo Sudar, Petar Marinović,
Križan Ostojić, Dane Miloš, Marina Ereš, Alija Taslidža, Nikola Pažin,
Hajrudin Osmić, Meho Počijak, Nikola Zurić, Srećko Nujić, Mate Bezer, Ilija
Mucić, Jure Primorac, Franjo Luburić and many others.
The first group of Ljubuški Serbs was arrested on 25th and thrown into the
Gaj pit in Cerno, between Čitluk and Tromeđa. The second group was killed
on 17th July in the woods and thrown into the Čeveljuša pit, near the village
Vitaljina (Hrašljani), three kilometres south of Ljubuški. These victims were
particularly tortured, stabbed and slaughtered with knives. There is still the
story about the 95-year-old Vasilije Vitković, whose chin they skinned with
a knife and told him: “Shout: Long live the Poglavnik!” To which the old man
responded: “Do your job, son.” The third, larger, group, which had a lot of
women and children, was killed on 6th August in the Gaj pit, near Cerno. It
is thought that about 200 Serbs were killed in this pit. Part of the Serbs,
amongst who was dr Aleksandar Lukač, a physician, were killed at the bank
of the Trebižat river and their bodies were thrown into the river. Some were
killed in death camps Gospić and Jasenovac. After 6th August 1941, only four
women, girls and two men were left in Ljubuški. Only fifty victims' names
are known and their real number or names will, most probably, never be de-
termined.
A large number of Serbs from the Stolac county was killed in the Lazina pit,
at the property of the Catholic monastery Humac, near Ljubuški. The greatest
crime there occurred on 30th June 1941, around 2 a.m. Three trucks brought
86 Serbs, mostly from the village Kozica near Stolac. This happened after
Laxa's proclamation. When the first truck arrived, Ustashas tricked the Serbs
out of the truck by telling them they were going to the monastery and that
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they would stay there. The Ustashas brought them to the pit and shot them.
The wretched people in the other two trucks heard that so they did not want
to get out. Ustashas dragged them out by force and killed them with knives
and axes, all in one human pile. The screams of the people being slaughtered
were heard far into the night. The following day, Croatian peasants dragged
the dead bodies of the killed Serbs for 300 metres and threw them into a pit.
Slavko Šotra managed to escape from this pit, but he got lost and came across
the same Ustashas who slaughtered people at the pit. He was killed by
Hajrudin Osmić from Ljubuški.
In the villages of Stolac county left of Bregava, except Poplat and Gornje
Hrasno, Serbs were the minority and they could do nothing to jeopardise the
Croatian majority. Still, upon them came all the ferociousness of hate and
cruelty of their neighbours. In Kruševo, along with Croats, Serbs from the
Radoš family lived. Almost all of them were killed, mostly in 1941. The no-
torious Ustasha camp officer Stanko Raguž and many other villains came
from this village. Prior to St. Vitus’ 1941 they took the Radoš family to the
right side of Bregava. They were tortured in the inn of Petar Marić in Pileta
and from there they were taken to the Kukauša (Vreuša) pit and thrown into
it. Up to now, 12 victims from the Radoš family have been identified.
From Burmaz, the names of 20 victims of the Croatian genocide are known.
They were killed, most of them on 26th June 1941 in the St. Vitus’ massacre,
in front of their houses in the hamlet Prokazići by their neighbours Croats,
who were commanded by Grga Vujinović, a camp officer from Burmaz. On
that occasion, a total of 18 people were killed with rifles. Some managed to
escape right away, others survived, wounded or unharmed under the dead
bodies.
The large Serbian village of Poplat, near Stolac, has a lower percentage of
victims than other villages in Southern Herzegovina. On the night of 2nd Au-
gust, the people of Poplat got organised, left the village and went to the Lju-
binje area. The plan of Croatian authorities was to annihilate these people as
they did the people of Prebilovci. People were already ordered to prepare to
be “moved to Serbia.” In dealing with Ustashas that meant being killed in one
of the pits. The names of 37 victims are known. Most of them died in the
Bodirogina pit, in the village itself, during August 1941. The others died in
Vidovo Polje, Ržani do and other locations. During their night-time fleeing,
some of the people got lost and fell into the hands of Ustashas who threw
them into the Bodiroga pit. Only about 30 people stayed in the village, mostly
the elderly, women and children. In the night 30th/31st August, most of them
were rounded up by local Ustashas and taken to the same pit. On the way
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there, some people managed to escape and hide. There, 14 people were
thrown into the pit, 4 of which were still alive children. The following day,
three children were saved, but one girl could not be pulled out, so she stayed
there and died in torments.
In several hamlets in Gornje Hrasno, an old Serbian village, well-known old
families lived that were mentioned even in mediaeval sources: Bukvić, Ćuk,
Đogo, Komad, Medan, Vukosav and Žarković. Since the seventies of the 20th
century, Gornje Hrasno belongs to the Neum municipality and it is near the
road that leads from Stolac to this seaside town. Until the founding of the
Neum municipality, it belonged to Čapljina, which it is about 16 km away.
From Stolac, in whose county it used to be, Gornje Hrasno is about 11 km
away. On 27th June 1941, Croats, mostly neighbours, tricked all the Serbs
into gathering, all the men over 14 years of age from Gornje Hrasno, and
locked them up the primary school in the village centre. “The reason” for
locking them up was that St. Vitus’ was on the following day and there was
an alleged fear of a Serbian uprising. Under the pretext that they were being
taken to Stolac, they were calmly tied with rope into pairs. They were taken
towards Stolac at night, but over a mountain trail which leads to the Gavranica
pit, on the Kozarica hill. Those wretched people were stopped, many of them
bare foot, in front of the pit and after the command: “Za dom spremni!” [an
Ustasha salute during World War II, meaning: For homeland - ready! t/n]
Many fell to the ground dead or wounded. But, as luck would want it, Usta-
shas killed one of their own by accident. That got them confused, so they
stopped firing. Thanks to that, 39 Serbs managed to free themselves of the
ropes and escape into the hills. There were wounded among them. At dawn,
the Ustashas killed the remaining wounded Serbs who could not run away.
They threw 66 bodies into the pit and covered them with branches and stones.
In March 1943, Ustashas killed 5 more women and children from the Đogo
family.
In the Dubrave area, between the Neretva river to the west and the mountains
Hrguda and Sniježnica to the east, during the last ten days of June 1941, the
bloodiest massacre against the Serbs took place. The largest number of vic-
tims was in the pit in the village Bivolje Brdo. The pit is located about 50
metres from the road which goes from Mostar to Domanovići, where it forks
one way towards Mostar and the other way towards Stolac. Considering the
number of victims, it is the second pit in Herzegovina. It is estimated that
around 1500 Serbs died in torments in it, mostly from the areas of Čapljina,
Stolac and Mostar, but also from many other places in Bosnia and Herze-
govina. From the village Lokave, at least 60 Serbs were killed, most of them
in Bivolje Brdo and the rest in Opuzen, Pileta, Vidovo Polje and other places
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of execution. Up to now, the names of 62 victims from the village Rečica are
known. A small number died in the Bivolje Brdo pit, even though this pit is
only a few kilometres away from Rečice. The wretched people from this vil-
lage were mostly taken to “Silos” on Modrič and from there to Opuzen, where
they were killed by the hands of their neighbours Croats and Muslims, led by
the monstrous Stojan Raguž, a camp officer from Domanovići.
There were 35 victims identified by name from the village Pijesci. They were
arrested under a pretext. Most of them were taken to the village Buna and
executed there. Their bodies were thrown into Neretva. Others were, mostly,
taken to Domanovići and from there to the Bivolje Brdo pit, into which they
were pushed alive. The village Žitomislić, excluding the monastery, had at
least 33 victims of the Croatian genocide. Almost all were arrested a day be-
fore St. Vitus’ and taken to the Croatian death camp Gospić by train. They
were killed either on Velebit or on Pag? If someone survived until the Italian
re-occupation, they were taken to Jasenovac and killed there. At that time,
that camp was being formed. The brotherhood of the monastery Žitomislić,
consisting of three monks, two neophytes, two theologians and one deacon
from Mostar, were also taken across Neretva under a pretext. There, Croats
tortured and humiliated them. After that, they were taken to the Vidonja pit,
near the village of Blizanci, and they were thrown into it alive and buried with
rocks afterwards. Vidonja is just one of the pits in the Međugorje area in
which Serbs were killed in NDH.
In the village of Prenj, Serbs were almost completely annihilated. They were
a minority there in a Croat-Muslim surroundings, in a village which produced
the most notorious villains. In the St. Vitus’ massacre, adult men were killed,
most of all in Pileta (Aladinići). It happened in Petar Marić's inn, who was
one of the greatest perpetrators of Serbs in Dubrave. Serbs came there on the
invitation of Ustashas, together with Serbs from Trijebnje, Pješivac and other
villages. They were in the inn all day, even drinking, and some of them were
sent home to fetch more money by the Ustashas. In the evening, they were
killed with knives, mallets and rifles. Their bodies were loaded on trucks and
taken to Čapljina, which is about twenty kilometres away, and thrown from
the bridge into Neretva. There are records that some of the dead bodies from
Pileta were transported to Bivolje Brdo and thrown into the pit there. Others
were then killed in the pits in Prenj: Vučkova or Vučija pit, Golubinka and
Rudine. Serbian women and children from Prenj were killed in the last days
of April 1942. It was done with axes, knives and rifles. Then, they were
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thrown in the mentioned pits. From the village of Prenj, the names of 53 vic-
tims are known, mostly from the family Andrić, and also from families
Pokrajčić, Brkljača and Puhalo.
In the village Pješivac (Rivine), where Serbs were a small minority, 13 vic-
tims are known by name. Out of those 13 victims, 9 were killed in Pileta, one
in Stolac and one in each of these pits: Jasoč, Kukauša and Bivolje Brdo.
There were 7 victims in the Pičeta family, among them also a 13-year-old
boy. Among the 6 victims from the Pudarić family, there was also a 14-year-
old boy.
In the St. Vitus’ massacre, a village severely perished was Kozice, a purely
Serbian village in which well-known families of Šotra, Šakota, Pudar and
Ćorluka lived. A part of these families lived in the nearby village Trijebanj,
where one of the oldest Orthodox churches in Herzegovina is located. Unlike
Kozice, Trijebanj was a mixed village. From Trijebanj and Kozice, around
120 Serbs were killed, mostly men over 16, but there were also women and
children among the victims. The Croatian camp officer and executioner Mar-
tin Maslać called the Serbs from Kozice and told them they had to report to
the Aladinići municipality on 26th June. In the invitation it was stated that
Serbs must obey the Independent State of Croatia, its laws and orders and that
they had to be orderly. More than 80 people from Kozice responded to this
invitation. Maslać told them that he had to keep them there until after St. Vi-
tus’. After a while, he told them that he had to take them to Domanovići and
that he had the order to tie them up, but he was not going to do that if they
will be calm and not run away. The Serbs promised that they would comply
and they were taken to Domanovići, escorted by 20 armed Ustashas. They
were locked up in the Tobacco station where they were tied up and viciously
beaten with gunstocks which made sculls crack. There, the living lay with the
dead and await their fate. For most of them, it was the Bivolje Brdo pit. They
were taken there with four trucks and, tied in pairs, taken off the trucks and
to the pit, into which they were thrown alive. The ones who managed to untie
themselves and escape the Šotra pit were: Nikola, Branko, Lazar and Risto.
Ustashas stopped the killing when two tied up men from Kozičani grabbed
and into the pit with them pulled the notorious Ustasha Meho Delić from
Rečice, together with his rifle. Serbs who were yet not thrown into the pit
were returned to Domanovići and two days later taken to the Catholic mon-
astery Humac, near Ljubuški, where they were killed and their bodies thrown
into the pit. Part of the Serbs from Kozice died in the Kukauša pit and in other
locations. Serbs from Trijebanj were mostly killed in Pileta and their bodies
were transported to Čapljina and thrown into Neretva from the bridge.
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During the Croatian genocide in NDH, around 60 Serbs from the village
Dabrice were killed. Crimes were committed in different locations, but mostly
at the Kukauša (Vreuša) pit near Masline, from which 11 people from Dabrice
managed to escape. The others were killed at the Jasoč (Prokop) pit in Crnići,
Vidovo Polje and the village Dabrica itself. From the Jasoč pit, one Serb from
Dabrica managed to escape. St. Vitus’ 1941 was the date of death for most.
The executions were done with mallets, knives and axes, and only the ones
who tried to escape were fired upon with guns and machine guns. After being
arrested and taken away, Serbs from Dabrice were kept, for some time, in the
barn of the innkeeper Boško Perutina, who treated the murderers with wine.
The execution at Kukauša was led by the infamous Baldo Bošković - Krakić
with 60 of his cutthroats. The murderers were also the victims' neighbours -
Mato Papac, Hamza Bajgorić, Mato Medar, Halil Bajgorić, Omer Zukanović,
Avdo Begović, Mumin Žugor, Ibro Šetka, Meho Boškailo, Ivan Raguž, Petar
Proleta, Ivan Radić and others. The latter ones caught one man called Herbez,
from Dabrice, who had escaped from Kukauša and they brought him to the
pit again on St. Vitus’. They lowered him into the pit to pull out Veljko
Herbez, who was still alive. When they pulled them out, they killed both of
them and threw them into the pit again.
Also in the village Ljubljenica, where Serbian families Gelo and Vukosav
lived, Ustashas killed almost all Serbs in 1941. The names of 44 victims are
known, 23 of which from the Gela family, who was completely annihilated
and that family name ceased to exist, and 21 victims from the Vukosav fam-
ily. Adult men were killed on 27th June 1941, mostly in the Barev Do pit.
Women and children were burned alive in a barn in Ljubljenica on 28th Au-
gust 1941, on the Orthodox Assumption of the Virgin Mary. A twelve-year-
old girl, Slavojka Vukosav, jumped out of the flames and escaped. In her tes-
timony in 1990, recorder on VHS, Slavojka, amongst other things, testifies
how Croatian girls were singing and dancing next to the barn where the Ser-
bian women and children were burning. Spasenija Gelo also survived with
severe burns, but she died some time later. This crime was committed by
Ustashas: Baldo Bošković - Krakić, Smajo Rizvanbegović, Stojan Maslać and
many others.
Serbs from the village Šćepan Krst, from families Rupar, Ivković and
Vuković, were also killed in the St. Vitus’ massacre by their Croat and Mus-
lim neighbours. The places of execution were pits Barev Do, Kukauša, Jasoč
and Vidovo Polje. The names of 18 victims are known.
From the village Poprati, which is located directly in front of Stolac, from the
direction of Mostar and Čapljina, the names of 19 Serbian victims are known
290
- all men between 20 and 54 years of age. Almost all of them were from fam-
ilies Đurić and Jokišić. They were arrested on 27th June 1941, tied up with
wire and taken to the Stolac prison. All of them were killed on St. Vitus’, after
horrific torture in the vicinity of their village, in Vidovo Polje.
The same thing happened with Serbs from the old Serbian village Ošanjići.
The names of 15 Serbian victims are known, mostly young men from families
Milutinović, Vujinović and Čalija. They were also killed in Vidovo Polje,
close to their village.
The annihilation of Serbs in the town of Stolac and its surroundings was com-
pletely marked by the great Serbian religious holiday. On St. Vitus’, in Vi-
dovo Polje, at the Crkvina locality next to the river Bregava, which was called
Vidova Rijeka or Vidovštica in the middle ages, directly under Stolac, which
used to be called Vidovski or Vidoški Grad, around 200 tormented Serbs were
killed and buried in two dug out pits, out of which blood sprang afterwards.
The victims were mostly from Stolac and surrounding villages: Poprate,
Ošanjići, Do, Komanje Brdo, Poplate, Dragovilj, Dubrave villages, but also
from Čapljina and its surroundings, Dabar and so on. After the war, they were
exhumed and taken to the Orthodox cemetrey in Uzinovići. No mark was ever
put up in the place of the killings.
Like once in the past, after the long ago finished Battle of Kosovo on St.
Vitus’, in the Serbian villages of what was once the Stolac county, only Ser-
bian widows and their children were left. Even before this unprecedented
crime, the terror against Stolac Serbs began immediately after the establish-
ment of the Croatian authorities. Cyrillic signs were removed and Serbs were
prohibited to be in the company of more than two Serbs. Imprisonment of
certain Serbs began immediately, under the pretext that they were members
of the Chetnik organisation. The first executions in the nearby pits began.
People were released from prison and then locked up again. A mass arrest,
taking away and killing of people at the Ržani Do pit took place between
Ljubinje and Popovo Polje, which happened from 22nd to 24th June.
Amongst the victims was also the young pries Dušan Blagoje, who was born
in Čapljina. He was thrown in the pit with his most prominent parishioners -
the intellectual elite of Stolac. The victims were horrifically tortured in prison.
The prison walls were left bloody after the Serbs were taken to the place of
execution.
During July 1941, after the Laxa proclamation, there were fewer mass crimes
against Serbs in the area. However, the atrocities were committed against
Serbs from other areas who were brought by trains and trucks and killed in
pits Šurmanci and Bivolje Brdo. Serbs from Sarajevo and its surroundings
291
were brought by train to the railway station Šurmanci. Waiting for them were
the people of Šurmanci, Međugorje and Bijakovići, who were well organised
into a crime group called Pitters and they threw them into the most horrible
and deepest pit, Golubinka in Gornji Šurmanci, from which no one came out
alive. In the same period, Catholic priests in all parishes, started a campaign
of catholicising the intimidated Serbian widows and orphans. The catholicis-
ing did not save lives, but it had a function of soothing the remaining Serbs,
so that during the following month they would, like lambs to the slaughter,
be sent to the pits.
So it did happen, and the naivety, honesty and blind faith in the word of their
Croat and Muslim neighbours proved fatal for Serbs. That is why the St Elijah
massacre was worse than the St. Vitus’ massacre by the number, age and sex
of the victims. They targeted the largest Serbian villages Prebilovci, Klepci,
Opličići, the remainder of Tasovičići and other places. The crimes were
mostly committed in two “Golubinka” pits, in Šurmanci and Bivolje Brdo.
They are the two largest places of execution of Herzegovina Serbs. The St
Elijah massacre began in Čapljina on 1st August with the slaughter of 31
Serbs from the Trebinje area at the railway station in the town centre. They
were probably being sent for execution to Gospić? On the same day, in Stolac
and Ljubinje many Serbian families were arrested and sent to the mentioned
Croatian death camp and its outpost on the island Pag.
At dawn, on 4th August, Ustasha squads from villages from the area of
Čapljina, Stolac, Ljubuški, Dubrave, Kruševo and Burmaz, following their
carefully prepared plan, in dense firing squads, surrounded the large area of
the village Prebilovci. For this villain action in Prebilovci, around 3000 Cro-
ats and Muslims were organised and at least 1500 of them, with fire arms,
went into the village itself. Croats from Gnjilište were led by Nikola Merdžan
- Škopiguda, Boško Rodin, Lovro Šarac, Mirko Pažin and Nikola, Marko -
Sandro, Mirko and Damjen Matić. Leading the ones from Loznica were Dam-
jen Matić and Ivan Tomić. The Ustashas from Čeljevo were led by Jago Ra-
guž and Pero Đevenica. From Višićani: Pero Blažević - Bekturan, Grga
Ljiljanić, Drago Blažević and Luka Karamatić - Doko. Leading the Croats
from Dračevo were Luka Bulum, Ivan Koncul and Ante Jurica. Ustashas from
Gabela were led by Slavko Šušak, Mijo Ćorić, Mato Katanić, Ivan Šiljeg and
Mile Ostojić. In charge of people from Strug were: Živko Dragičević, Kazi-
mir Ostojić and Jozo Ostojić. From Klepci: Vinko, Rudo and Rafo Brajković.
The column from Stolac and Kruševo was led by the camp officer Stanko
Raguž and on Košćela they were joined by Nikola Marković - Kreho. Leading
the villains from Počitelj were Hrnjica Begić and Ivan Čutura. At the head of
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villains from Hotanj were Andrija Jarak, Miho Jarak, Rafo Jarak, Pavo Beno
and Stanko Beno. Ustashas from Domanovići, Rečice and other Dubrave vil-
lages were led by notorious slaughterers and pitters: Mato Andrum - Vuk,
Osman Lizde, Stojan Raguž, Marijan Milanović, Petar Marić, Pero Dalmatin,
Martin Maslać and Niko Jerinić. No less terrible villains were from the village
Tasovčići: Ivica Butković, Đuro Pervan, Jusuf Muminagić, Mirko Knežević,
Kasim Kudra - Ćoso and others. The ones from Dretelj were led by Nikola
Grepa, Zvonko Jukić and Luka Pažin. Leading Ustashas from Čapljina,
Trebićat and Grabovine were Franjo Vego, Niko Filipović, Ahmet
Kapetanović, Andrija Buljan, Janko Vego, Pero Matić, Ivan Borovac -
Đondro. Damjen Brajković, Mirko Brajković, Žarko Storeli, Salko Šuko...
Ustashas from Studenac, Stubice, Prćevci and Zvirovići were led by Don Jure
Vrdoljak - Biščević, the parson of the Studenica parish.
The people of the village spent that night in the hills, but at dawn, the women
and children returned to their homes, not expecting the attack. On the previ-
ous day, some women from Prebilovci went to Klepci to see Don Ilija Tomas
– Dumilije and to Hotanj to the head Ustasha of the village, Pero Beno, seek-
ing protection from them. These two knew everything about the plan to anni-
hilate all the Serbs and about the attack planned for the following day. As
participants of this evil plan, they did not tell them to flee and save their lives,
but to calmly remain in their homes, even to gather in the village centre! Yet,
the people of the village spent that night in the hills, but at dawn, the women
and children returned to their homes, not expecting the attack. At that mo-
ment, not as part of the plan, Ustashas opened fire around the village, since
in the Bregave canyon they encountered some people from Prebilovci, who
came out of the cave in which they were hiding. As the shooting started before
the ring was closed on the east side, a large number of men from the village
Managed to escape to Hutovo Blato, where many survived in the bulrush.
Ustashas rounded up the women and children and locked them up in the vil-
lage school classroom. Around 11 o'clock, they took the captured people, in
columns of four, while severely beating them, to the old bridge on the river
Bregava. Before that, in front of the school, with their gunstocks and by
stomping on them, they killed the old women who could not walk. The ones
who reached the bridge, they put into four trucks and took to “Silos,” in the
neighbouring Tasovčići, which was, during that summer, the concentration
camp for Čapljina Serbs on their way to the pits. In that place, without food
and water, this group of wretched Prebilovci Serbs spent the night, with con-
stant harassment by Ustashas, who kept storming in with torches, looking for
beautiful girls to rape. From there, at dawn, when the Ustasha guard, for a
short while, opened the silo, Joka Ekmečić managed to escape, the only one
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of many girls who Ustashas took to the Šurmanci pit. The people from the
village school who survived were Mara Bulut, wife of Gojko, and Jela Ek-
mečić, wife of Marko, with two little girls.
In the afternoon of 4th and in the morning of 5th August, Ustashas around
Prebilovci captured and brought the remaining women and children to the
school, telling them they will be relocated to Serbia. The poor people believed
this, so they put on their best clothes and carried bundles. This group was put
through ever more horrible torture, especially the girls, while the captured
men were, after being tortured, killed in the valley under the village.
This group was, in the afternoon of 5th August, first on foot and then by
trucks, taken to the centre of Čapljina, to the railway station, where the group
from the silo was also brought later on. These women and children, around
600 of them, were cruelly pushed in and locked in 6 cattle wagons or G wag-
ons, with the temperature inside well over 40 degrees. All this took place in
front of the Croatian and Muslim population, who did not even offer them a
drop of water, let alone try to save them. In the evening they were taken seven
kilometres north, to Šurmanci, where they were left on the tracks, locked in
the wagons until the following morning, 6th August.
They were escorted by a large group of Ustashas from Čapljina and its sur-
roundings, led by Andrija Buljan, the monstrous camp officer from the village
Dretelj, and deputy camp commander in Čapljina, Rudo Vrdoljak from Dri-
novci. Waiting for them was also a large group of villains, mostly unarmed
villagers from Šurmanci, Međugorje and Bijaković, led by the infamous Ivan
Jovanović Crni, the head Ustasha in the village Šurmanci. There were more
than three hundred of them in total.
These nonhumans, equipped with 2 metre long wooden stakes called “pouz-
ice,” to which tobacco leaf wreaths are tied for drying, made the people from
Prebilovci leave the wagon and drove them up the hill. They were stopped
one kilometre from the Golubinka pit, at a spot called Vranac. There, they
were searched and robbed and then, after being divided into small groups,
they were led to the pit. The villains had various organisation during the exe-
cution of women and children from Prebilovci. Some of them were guarding
the people, others were watching that no one escapes, others were taking
groups of victims to the pit, then some were gathering stones in the vicinity
and others would later throw those stones into the pit. There was a special
group in front of the pit and around it; their role was to push the victims into
the pit. All of them were participants of the same crime and its full completion
depended on each of them. In groups of 30, the victims were stopped under a
tree - a terebinth tree, about 50 metres from the pit. From there, 5-6 would be
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taken to the pit and given to the villains who pushed and threw them into the
pit. During the execution, villains changed turns at the pit. As soon as one got
tired, another one would take his place. They pushed people in the pit using
stakes and they sadistically threw small children up in the air over the pit
opening, which is about 4 metres wide. Some of the girls from Prebilovci did
not allow the villains to push them in, but they jumped in the pit themselves.
The villains later told that Ljubica Bulut, wife of Manojlo, hugged her three
little children and said: “Let's fly, my little angels!” People who, in despair,
tried to hold onto the rock edges were hit with stakes on their hands and head,
until they would let go and drop down the pit, whose vertical fall is 27 metres,
and after a spiral steep, the pit ends with a large cave, at depth of 66 metres
from the pit opening. After the last victims was pushed into the pit that day,
Ivan Jovanović held a speech over the pit and the villains went to have lunch.
Three days later, all of them calmly went to Sunday mass to the church in
Međugorje.
Only from Prebilovci, around 600 women, girls and children were thrown
into this pit alive. The Supreme Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina mentions
the number of 570, Ustasha pitters 520 and the District Court in Mostar 470
victims from Prebilovci who died in the Šurmanci pit. Most of them survived
the fall, some with fractures, and also the rocks Ustashas threw into the pit
afterwards. Namely, the women and children from Prebilovci fell on a pile of
dead bodies of previously thrown in Sarajevo Serbs, which broke their fall,
whose consequences were less severe for children. The following day, Ivan
Jovanović Crni threw two bombs into the pit, most likely so that the people
in the nearby houses would not have to listen to the screams of those wretched
people. However, that had no effect, because the bombs had to have detonated
much earlier, before hitting the bottom of the pit, so the cries from it were
heard for 7 more days. Witnesses, Croats and Muslims, claim that around
2000 Serbs were killed in this pit. Testimonies of railway workers and wit-
nesses from Alipašin Most, near Sarajevo, state that, from that railway station,
around 15 railway cars of Serbs who were arrested in Alipašin Most, Ilidža,
Reljevo, Rajlovac, Novo Sarajevo and Hrasno were sent to Herzegovina. In
addition to these, it is known that railway cars with Serbs from Konjic and
Zenica were sent to Herzegovina, to the place of execution in Šurmanci.
In the following days and weeks, all until 28th August, Ustashas in Prebilovci
organises chases of the remaining Serbs, in which many more victims died.
Mass executions were done at Krvarica near Medan houses, next to the Škrka
lake, in Do under the village, on Gostiljac and next to the well in Bregava, in
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the hamlet Brdo, in the village cemetrey, in Orahov Do... More than 50 people
from Prebilovci were killed in Do. Along with the adult men, women and
children from the families Nadaždin and Medan, who lived near the school,
were killed there. Mileva Medan, wife of Bogdan, was giving birth at that
time. The villains cut open her stomach with a bayonet, they took out an alive
male child and named him Jovan. Then they killed it with a bayonet and put
it back in the stomach of the wretched mother who was dying in torments.
Dragutin Nadaždin was skinned alive and his flesh was salted by Croat Pero
Đevenica from Čeljevo. Lazar Nadaždin was buried alive in the ground.
Tripko Ćirić - Ćiro was also slaughtered in Do. Before that, they cut the throat
of his youngest child, the three-year-old Slobodan, while still in his arms.
Tripko's wife and all 9 daughters died in the Šurmanci pit. The teacher Stana
Arnaut and Slavica Bulut, wife of Žarko, a Slovenian woman, were tortured
and raped for hours, after which they mutilated them with knives and killed
them. Girls Kova and Joka, daughters of Obren Suhić, were raped in the val-
ley under their house in the hamlet Brdo and killed there with an iron pitch-
fork. On Kravarica, in front of their houses, grandmother Mara Medan was
slaughtered, along with her 4 daughters-in-law and 14 grandchildren and two
more children from Prebilovci. Also killed were 4 Mara's sons, one in
Čapljina and three at the Morin Otok locality. At the Orahov Do locality, near
Hutovo Blato, women and children were shot, mostly from families Bulut and
Dragićević. The shooting was survived by the thirteen-year-old Ćetko
Dragićević, who fell on the ground, next to his dead mother, with his coat full
of holes. They were betrayed by Croats from Košćela, where they were hid-
ing, and they were killed by Croats from Gnjilište. At the locality Morin Otok,
near Bregava, 50 people from Prebilovci were slaughtered; they responded to
the Ustasha invitation and promise of amnesty, despondent by the fact that
their entire families were killed in the Šurmanci pit. They were mostly adult
men, with their sons and grandsons. So, there, next to the 16th century bridge
on Bregava, tens of Prebilovci families completely ceased to exist. After be-
ing tortured in the village school and walking for 2.5 kilometres, they were
beheaded by a Gypsy, Ibro Mehić, a blacksmith from Tasovčići. Their heads
were buried in one and their bodies in another hole. Mehić, who spent several
years in prison in Zenica for this crime, after the slaughter, spoke with amaze-
ment, about how Aćim Dragićević jumped for 50 metres after he was be-
heaed. Along with Aćim, his father Đoko and his nine-year-old son Vukašin
were slaughtered as well. The last Ustasha intrusion in Prebilovci happened
on the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, on 28th August 1941, when the sur-
vivors from Prebilovci already returned to their homes and the Croatian col-
onists had left the village. Three young men from the Bulut family were killed
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in front of the village and also killed was a group of elderly people, women
and children near the well in the field next to the river Bregava.
The Croatian authorities started to implement an old idea, turned into a plan
and the decision to colonise Prebilovci with Croatian families as soon as they
went into the village and started to annihilate its Serbian inhabitants. That
plan meant destroying even the name Prebilovci and all memories of it. In
front of the village a sign was put up, Novo Selo [New Village, t/n] and on
the doors of village houses notices were put: “No Entry - Ustasha Residence!”
signed by Jozo Jelčić, a post-war high official. The colonising of Prebilovci
in order to “resolve burning economic and social problems of the Croatian
people of West Herzegovina” was worked on most by Don Jure Vrdoljak -
Bišćević, a Roman Catholic parson from Studenac. With a gun on his shoul-
der and under the Croatian flag, he led trucks full of Croatian peasants to
Prebilovci, where they were given houses of the killed and even still living
people of Prebilovci. These colonists, including their wives and children, par-
ticipated in actual hunts in the village territory, looking for tortured and
starved people of Prebilovci in order to kill them. The village was completely
plundered, including 12 000 of animals of small livestock and 1000 animals
of large livestock. The Croatian authorities brought to Prebilovci workers of
the Tobacco station from Čapljina to harvest tobacco from Prebilovci fields
and put it on strings. During the worst slaughters, their singing echoed
through the village. In the house of Murat Šoša, a kitchen was opened for
villains to eat there. The report of the wing constabulary in Metković, which
was under the command of the headquarters in Dubrovnik, from the begin-
ning of September 1941, state that “around 800 men, women and children in
cribs were killed” in Prebilovci by Ustashas, cynically adding that “it is not
as horrible, as the fact that the village was plundered to the last nail...” It was
concluded that Prebilovci was “an example of wealth, but that everything was
stolen, to the last thing. There is still some unclaimed livestock: horses, mules,
pigs, sheep and other wander without supervision in the field, eating crops,
destroying, in these harsh conditions, millions in value. Several thousands of
tobacco stalks rot away, unharvested; dead bodies by the road, only slightly
covered with dirt. A desperate state of things, so much so that one had be here
in order to believe it.”
There were no survivors from 57 families from Prebilovci. A total of 172
people of Serbian nationality from Prebilovci survived, 15 of which are
women, girls and little girls and 16 boys under the age of 15, of which only
two were born after 1930. Most of them survived in the bulrush in Hutovo
Blato, some of them in caves, grikes and in other places. Croats very accu-
297
rately stated that 156 men survived, which indicated that they had valid infor-
mation on the number of people killed and the number of people in the village
before the war. The survivors, who were locked up in the school, testified that
they were counted every 10-15 minutes. Two girls were forced to marry Usta-
shas, one married in Hotanj and the other in Počitelj. They survived the
slaughter and as soon as it was possible, they returned to Prebilovci. The Cro-
ats sang triumphantly:
Oh Pavelić, what can we do with the Serbs?

Tie them in chains, throw them in Šurmanci!
and
Serbian candles extinguished,
They will never again be relit!
The Dubrave village of Opličići, which is located by the Čapljina-Stolac road,

was the target of an Ustasha attack at the same time as in Prebilovci. From
this village, around 160 Serbs were killed, mostly men over 15, but there were
also women and small children among the victims. Most of them were killed
in the St Elijah Day massacre 1941, but many were killed on St. Vitus’ and in
various locations. For many, the place where they died was never established.
As there was a large number of Serbs left in this village, the Croatian author-
ities were ready to annihilate them all. Prior to the attack on Opličići, the
villains themselves put a red flag on the black poplar in the village centre,
which they ascribed to Serbs so they could justify their crimes. For the slaugh-
ter in Opličići, over 2000 Croats and Muslim from neighbouring Dubrave
villages were gathered. Some had rifles, but most headed into slaughter armed
with knives, pitchforks, scythes and other types of cold weapons. On 3rd and
4th August, they continually scoured the grounds and arrested Serbs. Some
were killed immediately, but most were imprisoned in the Tobacco station
building in Domanovići. After beatings and humiliation, the Serbs were tied
with wire in pairs and taken by trucks to the pit in nearby Bivolje Brdo. As
the pit is only about one hundred metres from the road to Mostar, the throwing
of the victims was done during the night and in small groups. The villains -
pitters were neighbours and acquaintances of the victims. Throwing into the
pit was survived by Mirko Ijačić and Jovo Pelkić - Knez, since they managed
to free their hands before being thrown and hold onto the rocks and roots at
298
the opening of the pit. Several girls and women jumped into the pit voluntar-
ily, wanting to share the fate of their brothers and fathers and their sons and
husbands. In this period, a small number of Serbs form Opličić were killed in
the pits Kukauša and Zvekalica, in Dubrave, near the village, in Aladinići and
in other places. The monster from Šurmanci Ivan Jovanović - Crni, with his
pitters, took over a group of people from Opličići from another monster,
Stojan Raguž, out of the prison in Domanovići and took them to an undis-
closed location, where they were executed. Đoko Peša's family of nine was
killed in the village. The most responsible for all these crimes was the men-
tioned group of hard villains from Aladinići, Prenj and other Dubrave vil-
lages, together with Ustashas Hajro Hadžiomerović, Sulejman Žarkušić, Safet
Kapetanović, Ivan Nogolica, Đuro Nogolica, Miho Matić, Ahmet Zvonić,
Ibro Šetko, Šaćir Đulić, Duran Đulić, Ivan Babić, Spasoja Prce, Marijan Mi-
lanović, Jozo Milanović, Jozo Čilić, Halid Begović, Miho Pavlović, Mato
Pavlović, Mato Bobet, Salko Klepo, Mujo Penava, Jusuf Penava, Ibro
Hodžić, Smajo Šuta, Osman Razić, Omer Čevro, Ethem Baraković and hun-
dreds of others.
On St. Vitus’, many Serbs from the villages Klepci and Tasovčići were killed,
and with Ustashas on their doorstep and with the perfidious and bloody pros-
elyte mission of Don Ilija Tomas, the parson of the parish in Klepci, a sworn
Ustasha since 1937 and the Ustasha Commissioner for the Stolac county, the
people of these villages calmly awaited the day of their execution.
Don Ilija and other Ustasha officials decided that it would happen on Monday
11th August, since on the day before that, this parson-Ustasha will catholicize
Serbs. The plan was to, on that day, completely annihilate Serbs from the
Čapljina municipality. They were thrown out of their houses at dawn and
then, escorted by Ustashas, taken to the silo in Tasovčići on foot. The elderly
women who could not walk, there were nine of them, were killed straight
away in Klepci, so everyone was clear about was in store for them. The
women and children were kept in front of the school, in which the adult men
and boys over 13 were tied and locked up. All of them, in a sad column, were
taken to “Silos,” where they were locked up together with Serbs from
Tasovčići, Čapljina, Počitelj and other villages. The men were untied there,
but in the evening they were tied up again, with hands on their backs. The
infamous villain Mato Andrun - Vuk, from Domanovići, twisted the wire until
it would cut into the flesh and then he would hit the wire and hands with
pliers. When the tied Serbs asked for their caps, which had fallen off as they
were being tied, the Ustashas began to laugh loudly and to make fun of them:
“What do you need caps for, when your heads will come off!” Several Usta-
shas savagely beat Kosta Mandrapa, from Klepci, in front of his five sister,
299
who tried to protect their only brother and without any fear tried to fight off
the Ustashas. Kosta bravely held up, cursing the Ustashas and praising Serbia
and Russia, so, for that, Ustasha Ivan Borovac - Đondro stuck a bayonet
through his mouth and into his throat.
Ustashas, through personal interventions, released some adult Serbs from the
silo in Tasovčići, and then for unknown reasons also released all the women
and children, who were already sentenced to death. They kept and forced into
marriage 19 Serbian girls, either for their beauty or their large dowry. All the
adult men and older boys from Klepci, Loznica, Gnjilište, Počitelj, Čapljina,
as well as most from Tasovčići, were tied up and by trucks taken to the Bivolje
Brdo pit, into which they were thrown alive. Only the young man Nikola Pu-
halo (Strahinić) from Loznica managed to escape. He testified that they were
arranged in trucks horizontally, as slaughtered cattle, putting 4-5 people on
top of each other. The perpetrators sat on top of them, beating them with gun-
stocks and stabbing with knives whoever they could reach. In Domanovići
they were met by the Croatian and Muslim population with curses and insults
and throwing rocks at the powerless Serbs, some of which had already suffo-
cated. As in other cases, the crimes were committed by the closest neighbours
of the victims from: Gnjilište, Čelјevo, Višići, Klepci, Loznica, Tasovčići,
Počitelј, Hotanj and other villages. During that night, between 200 and 300
Serbs were thrown into the Bivolje Brdo pit. The number of villains who took
part in this crime is very large, because they had to carry most Serbs on their
hands for 100 metres, from the truck to the pit. Afterwards, the Muslim Kudra
even bragged how he had to wrestle Pavle Marić, a young man from Klepci,
at the pit opening. Around 300 Ustashas took part in the operation in Klepci.
Almost none of the villains were tried for their crimes after the war, or they
got symbolic prison sentences. The Bivolje Brdo pit alone is 40 metres deep,
with several layers of human bones and dirt and rocks scattered over them.
The first human bones were found at the depth of 28 metres.
Soon, Italians occupied Herzegovina again, which to some extent stopped
Ustasha slaughters of Serbs in this area. By the end of the war, Ustashas killed
over 400 more Serbs, mostly women and children. At the beginning of May
1942, except the slaughter in Prenj and other villages, it should be mentioned
that a young man and five boys from Tasovčići were killed. They were butch-
ered with knives and their bodies were thrown into the Baba pit, on the hill
Modrič. Five victims were from the Bekan family and one from the Misita
family. In September 1944, around 150 women and children were arrested
and taken to the death camp Jasenovac by train. Most victims were from
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Glušci, Loznica, Klepci, Gnjilište and Lokve. Then, the village Loznica al-
most ceased to exist. This small village, mentioned in the charter of Prince
Miroslav from the 12th century, lost 80 of its Serbian inhabitants in the gen-
ocide, which represented 80% of their total number before the war. Young
male adults and their fathers were killed in the St. Vitus’ massacre. In Sep-
tember 1944, the mothers, sisters and wives with children were taken to the
Jasenovac hell. After they were sent to Jasenovac, they were never heard of
again, but it is clear that none of them survived. During their intrusion into
Loznica in 1944, Croats, even before they started to arrest people, raped two
Serbian girls, cut their throats and set them on fire in one barn.
The Stolac county People's Committee, in its report no. 2492/45, addressed
to the People's regional Committee in Mostar - Commission for the establish-
ment of crimes and damages, from 12th June 1945, reports that in the area of
that county the established number of crimes committed by the “occupiers
and their collaborators” was 4280 killed, 4534 missing and 499 incapacitated
for work. In the report, it is concluded that “over 80% of all crimes in this
county were committed by (Croatian) Ustashas,” as well that there were no
Jews living in this county and therefore no crimes were committed against
them. It should be noted here that Ustashas took part even in some crimes
which were attributed to the German occupiers. The report, virtually, con-
firms testimonies about 4000 Serbs from the Stolac county killed by Ustashas
in World War II. At least that many Serbs were killed in Southern Herze-
govina, if the area of Dabar is excluded from the Stolac county, but the
Ljubuški and Metković counties are included, as well as two Dubrave villages
from the Mostar county. Along with Serbian victims from the Stolac county,
the Croatian “forces” brought to this area and executed a large number of
Serbs from other Herzegovina and Bosnia counties.
The the State Commission to Investigate Crimes Committed by Nazis and
their Allies for Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the “Official Verification” no.
3478, issued in Sarajevo on 23rd October 1946, officially stated that
I - In the mass slaughter of Serbs, which was committed between 22nd and
28th June 1941, the number people who died was around 105 people from
Čapljina, 43 people from the village Prebilovci, 8 people from the village
Počitelj, 1 person from the village Gnjilište, 49 people from the village
Klepci, 8 people from the village Loznica, 3 people from the village Višići,
26 people from the village Dračevo, 44 people from the village Glušci Kljen,
52 people from the village Rečica, around 40 people from the village
Tasovčići and 147 people from the village Gabela.
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II - In the mass slaughter of Serbs, which was committed by Ustashas in Au-

gust 1941, the number people who died was around 800 people from the vil-
lage Prebilovci, around 209 people from the village Klepci, Tasovčići, Loz-
nica and Gnjilište and 29 people from the Trebinje county.
III - In the mass slaughter which was committed by Ustashas and Germans in
September 1944, 45 people from the village Loznica, 10 people from the vil-
lage Gnjilište and 10 people from the village Klepci were taken away and
killed.
This verification is issued on the basis of a list of victims and the records
which are in the possession of this Commission...”
In the area of the current Čapljina municipality, the Croatian forces killed
around 2000 innocent Serbs, which represented about 55% of their total num-
ber at that time. Crimes against Serbs in Čapljina and the whole Stolac county,
as well as the entire Independent State of Croatia, have features of genocide,
committed in the most horrific manner and with multiple and permanently
negative consequences for the Serbian people. Because of political plans and
international as well as domestic (among them also Serbian!?) influences, this
genocide has not yet been officially confirmed and it will most probably never
be. Instead of that a specific devious war is being waged against the victims
themselves, which can best be seen on the example of the village Prebilovci.
This, in many ways, key Serbian village, in the Neretva valley and Southern
Herzegovina, lost 85% of its Serbian inhabitants in the Croatian genocide
during the summer of 1941. According to research done by a Japanese news-
paper “Asahi Shimbun,” Prebilovci is the village with the highest casualty
values in Europe in World War II and the forth village in the world in that
war. According to the same newspaper, the Serbian tragedy in NDH is one of
the features of the global 20th century history. All this was not enough to
acknowledge and respect the village Prebilovci and its victims after the war.
On the contrary, the suffering of the village continued, exactly because of the
horrible truth of its victims, which, for many, was still dangerous.
The people of Prebilovci who had survived found the strength to renew the
village after the war. They remarried and had children again. For the sake of
false “brotherhood and unity,” they were not allowed to take their first-born
children out from the pit in order to bury them. They were under constant
pressure of UDBA [State Security Service, t/n] and Tito's authorities took
away their best land through various reforms and regrouping.
In many ways, The League of Communists was in line with Ustasha goals,
adapted to the times, but in the end it brought the country to its disintegration
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and new sufferings of the Serbian people. Most pits were sealed with concrete
in 1961 and next to them the Veterans' Association erected monuments in the
form of white granite pillars with inscriptions in latin script, on which it said
that that was the place where fascist or Ustasha victims were killed in the
summer of 1941, without stating the number or nationality of the victims, nor
even the villages they were from. This also sealed all Serbian requests to take
the remains of the victims out of the pits and give them a proper and Christian
burial. Only a few people answered for their crimes on the pits in front of a
court of justice.
Sixteen years after the committed crime and 12 years after liberation, in 1957,
UDBA organised a judicial farce by taking to the District court in Mostar 14
of at least 300 pitters from Šurmanci, Međugorje and Bijakovići and other
places, led by Ivan Jovanović Crni, who, in the meantime, was hiding some-
where in the Subotica area. A member of the judge panel, as a juror, was Jozo
Jelčić, who, in 1941, was helping Ustashas settle in the vacant Serbian houses
in Prebilovci. Only six of these ruthless war villains were sentenced to death,
the rest of them got prison sentences. One of them was sentences to only three
years in prison, which was a mockery of justice and suffering of the Serbian
people.
The village Prebilovci, which continued to exist after the war, thanks to the
superhuman strength and will of the fathers who got married again to girls or
widows from neighbouring Serbian villages and with them had new children,
some of them even in their seventies, did not give up nor forget its victims.
Other villages followed their example. In the village cemetrey, almost every-
one built family tombs and on them erected monuments on which the full
truth was engraved. They listed the names and years of birth of the victims,
where and by whose hand they died, often followed by verses and messages,
which bothered the authorities and the Croats, but no one was allowed to
touch them.
Since 1974, the families of the victims started to visit the pits in an organised
manner on the date of the killings, going through the Ustasha villages in long
lines of cars. Still, from 1947 to 1990 it was not allowed for priests to hold
memorial services at the pits. The people of Prebilovci started to observe 6th
August, the date of the killings of women and children in the Šurmanci pit, as
a holiday. They would not do any work in the field and the ones who had jobs,
would take the day off.
So, at the end of 1990, when the Titoist government started to lose power
before its inevitable break down, the people of Prebilovci requested the
Šurmanci pit to be opened and started the initiative to build a memorial church
303
in the village, in whose crypt the remains of the victims could be buried. They
were soon joined by other villages, requesting the other pits to be opened and
all the victims be buried in Prebilovci. In an actual, but spontaneous and non-
violent uprising, with excellent organisation and sacrifice, at the end of 1990
and the beginning of 1991, the following pits were opened: the pit Golubinka
and the pit in Benina Ograda, both of these in Šurmanci, Bivolje Brdo, Gornja
Kukauša, Donja Kukauša, Hadžibegov Bunar, Gradina, both of these in
Hutovo, Jasoč, Poplat, Golubinka and Rudina, both of these in Prenj, Zvekal-
ica in Opličići and the Vidonja pit. The pit Gavranica was not sealed up with
concrete, but the remains of the victims were taken out several years earlier
and buried in Gornje Hrasno. The pits which remained unsealed were Barev
Do near Šćepan Krst, the Bodiroga pit in Poplat and several other pits in West
Herzegovina: Humac, Vitalјina, Služanj, Cerno... The relics of monks and
neophytes were taken from Vidonja to the Žitomislić monastery, where, in
February 1991, they were formally buried. The remains of the Ustasha vic-
tims taken out of other open pits were cleaned and taken to Prebilovci, where
they were, with an around-the-clock watch, kept in the building of the Cul-
tural centre for more than 8 months. During that time, the foundation of the
Memorial church dedicated to Sabor Srpskih Svetitelja and the martyrs of
Prebilovci was built, with a crypt and a large marble altar in it.
Along with the service of Patriarch Pavle, bishops Irinej and Atanasije and
other priests, on the 50th anniversary of the killings, on 4th August 1991, the
foundation of the church and the crypt were consecrated as well as the remains
of the martyrs and after the service they were laid in the crypt. This moving
event was attended by 10 000 Serbs, mostly from Herzegovina, but also a
large number of prominent persons of the Serbian people from Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. However, looming over all this was
the threat of a war, which Serbs did not need, but also could not avoid. Around
Prebilovci, armed Croats already held their positions, while Radio Vatican, in
a show in the Croatian language, on the same evening, ominously accused
Serbs of building a stronghold in the valley of Neretva.
Opening the pits, burying the victims of Ustashas and building a memorial
church in Prebilovci, dedicated to the martyrs, next to old and new Ustashas,
bothered certain people in the country and abroad, whose main political aim
was to break up Yugoslavia down its AVNOJ seams at the expense and mis-
fortune of Serbs. These events uncovered the hidden or clouded truth about
the horrible suffering of the Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, whose
re-emergence was being prepared by many at the time. The remains from the
304
pits warned that such plans would not only be unrighteous, but also danger-
ous. Also, the newly developed Međugorje cult was in danger of being put to
utter shame. It turned out that so many pilgrims from around the world paid
tribute to a village whose people, in a pit near the village, executed all mothers
together with children from another village, only because they were of a dif-
ferent religion; and this village even produced 80 senior Ustashas for Pavelić
and the cruellest cutthroats in the concentration camp Jasenovac, such as
Mato and Staniša Vasilj. Opening the pits also annoyed influential members
of the AVNOJ-Tito and UDBA circles in Belgrade. All of them were bothered
by the fact that the bones of martyrs from Prebilovci opened the eyes of the
Serbian people, motivating it to resist breaking up the country. For that reason
it could frequently be heard in media and in political rallies that opening of
the pits encourages Serbian nationalism, corrupts national relations, disturbs
the public and there were even lies that the bones in the Šurmanci pit are not
only of Serbs and even various insults and threats. The victims were pro-
claimed guilty, a war on dead children was declared and Prebilovci were once
more doomed by the same demon.
The Serbs in the Neretva valley best sensed the danger to the Serbian people
after the changes in Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia itself. However, even
they could not foresee the event which would soon take place. Serbian politi-
cians on both sides of the Drina river and the Yugoslav People's Army stated
that they would not be forgotten and unprotected. In the end, all that turned
out to be without real value, as well as belief in civilisation legacy, the con-
science of the West, the power of the public, international law and so on.
Bosnia and Herzegovina received international recognition on 6th April 1992
and it was the same time the war started. The Yugoslav People's Army re-
treated from the new country on 19th May and on 31st May sanctions against
Serbia were introduced. Immediately after that, Croatia started an offensive
against Serbs in the Neretva valley who were left on their own and small in
numbers, not very well organised and demoralised. The operation was called
“Čagalj” [Jackal, t/n] and was approved by Tuđman himself and it was carried
out under the command of the Croatian Army Chief of Staff general Janko
Bobetko, with the details of the operation given in his book All My Battles.
Besides this book, precious evidence about this offensive was also a video
tape made by the attackers which, during the summer of the same year, found
its way to Belgrade. Bobetko revealed that the units which participated in the
attack on Prebilovci, Klepci and Tasovčići were the 156th brigade of the reg-
ular Croatian Army and the 1st brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, as
well as four sabotage units of the Croatian Army and a number of other units.
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The video footage clearly shows the significant participation of Paraga's Cro-
atian Defence Forces and the Muslim Green Berets. These forces were organ-
ised into two attack groups and were supposed to invade Prebilovci from two
directions, with the troubled memorial church, which Bobetko called an os-
suary, as their main target. The offensive started at dawn on Sunday 7th June
with tremendous artillery fire upon the mentioned Serbian villages from doz-
ens of various types of artillery weapons which lasted for hours. Upon these
villages, over the area of a few square kilometres, 7000 shells were fired in
only a few hours. On the same morning, the Serbian members of the Territo-
rial Defence unit and most civilians first retreated to Dubrave, with minimal
loses, and then further afield. Croats entered the abandoned Prebilovci and
Tasovčići the following day and in the next few days, they took the entire left
bank of the Neretva river, together with Mostar, the Dubrave plateau and Sto-
lac. The Serbian civilians they found, mostly elderly women, they immedi-
ately killed in a brutal manner and then they began the destruction of material
and spiritual wealth of Serbs. It was conducted savagely and systematically,
out of sheer frustration for not having captured alive Serbs, and this lasted for
weeks. The intention was to destroy everything Serbian and everything that
even remained of Serbs, so nature was also destroyed and the landscape began
to take on a different, mutilated appearance. Serbian property, which could
burn, was initially set on fire. In the following days, the engineering units of
the Croatian Army and the Croatian Defence Council and well-known con-
struction companies “Beton” from Metković and “Konstruktor” from Split
used explosives to tear down Serbian houses which had reinforced concrete
elements, churches, monasteries, tombs, cultural centres, schools, water and
electricity supply systems and everything else, all to the last stone by the side
of the road in which someone had engraved their name in cyrillics. The
Žitomislić monastery, the spiritual centre of Herzegovina Serbs and the Mo-
star Cathedral church, the largest Serbian church until the construction of the
Church of St. Mark in Tašmajdan, were turned into a pile of stones. While in
their home area everything was turned into dust, ashes and smoke, the Serbs
from the Neretva valley scattered all around the world as homeless people. It
was a historic devastation and a national tragedy, unprecedented since the
Ottoman conquest of Herzegovina in the 15th century. Then, around Serbian
villages, in the land which once was taken away by the Communists, several
settlements for Croatian refugees from central Bosnia were built.
Immediately after entering the village, the occupiers, almost ritually, burned
down Prebilovci. On the facade of the last house, an arsonist from a battalion
called “Mravojedi” [“Anteaters,” t/n] left a graffiti which read: “I destroyed
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everything I could.” It was not hard for them to terrorise the abandoned vil-
lage, with only Draginja Medić, a 64-year-old, left to “defend” it. She was
one of the four girls from Prebilovci who survived the 1941 massacre. She
refused to leave Prebilovci, in which she recently mourned her mother and
sisters, who died in the Šurmanci pit. She was killed as a martyr by the grand-
children of people whose killing she managed to evade in 1941, and the loca-
tion of her remains is still not known.
The occupation and burning down of Prebilovci, Klepci and Tasovčići was
not celebrated just by West Herzegovina, but also Dalmatia and most cheerful
was at the promenade Riva in Split. Even today, Croats celebrate this event
under the name: “June Dawn of Croatian Herzegovina.” By publishing in his
own book a decasyllabic paean to himself, with the name “Bobetkova garda”
[“Bobetko's guard,” t/n], the Croatian Army Chief of Staff, together with his
country and president, stood behind the savage crimes in the Neretva valley.
With excitement for destroying all traces of Serbs, the “people's” poet ac-
cused Serbs of stealing Croatian bones and invoking evil by inviting the Pa-
triarch to Prebilovci. An extract is quoted here:
While the Sun shines, Serbs shall curse it,
For destroying their army on Neretva,
It scorched Klepci and Gnjilište,
Once villages and nothingness now,
Prebilovci is an infamous village,
Wild hogs now graze there,
From Hrasno all the way to Stolac,
Everything gone, not even timber left.
Ustasha videos show that the village houses, the cemetrey and the walls of
the memorial church were undamaged when they got there and that against
this village, its deceased in the cemetrey and the martyrs in the church a pre-
meditated and monstrous crime was committed, unprecedented in history. In
the mentioned video, after showing Ustashas in front of the church cursing
Serbs and threatening to soon reach the Drina river, who could clearly be seen
was an architect from Čapljina called Zdenko Vego, a decendant of Franjo
and Janko Vego, notorious Ustasha camp officers in 1941, while he was sit-
ting in the crypt in a Croatian Defence Council's officer uniform, with his
hand on the model of the memorial church. So, to the great shame of Serbs
307
and all of human kind, the children of Prebilovci and other martyrs from the
pits fell into the hands of Ustasha villains once again, but this time of grand-
children of those who heartlessly threw equally helpless people into pits half
a century ago. After triumphant photographing and desecration of the bones
of their grandfathers' victim, the modern-day Ustashas started to remove all
remains of the church and the crypt. As their structure was massive, Ustashas
managed to demolish them in their third attempt and the explosion could be
heard all the way to Mostar, which is about 30 km away. Later, the machinery
pushed the remains of the devastated church about 50 metres away and the
terrain where the church once stood was covered with soil and levelled. In
research done in 2007 and 2008, it was concluded that the bones were inten-
tionally destroyed using plastic explosives and placed plane bombs, so only
7 crates of crushed bones were found, out of a total of 156 crates of preserved
bones which were buried there in 1991.
Just before the last war, the unknown author of “Kletva,” which was carved
into the monument to Ognjen Ždrakanović, the first Ustasha victim from Pre-
bilovci in 1941, cried out:
... Lock our bones tight in white marble forts!

Even dead, Ustashas could take our lives.
No, trust not silence, instead of us which speaks!
Indeed, the Prebilovci cemetrey, the dead in it and the monuments on which
the truth about Ustasha atrocities was written, was the target of a deranged
festivity. Many tombs were opened and the bones of some deceased were
taken away, others were taken out and scattered in front of the tomb or burned
in the tomb. After being burned, the only things left were parts of burned
skeletons and the brass handles of the coffins. Tripko - Triše Ekmečić, as a
victims of Ustasha crime with a delay, died of a heart attack next to the
Šurmanci pit as the bones were being taken out of it, in November 1990,
which was at the time being televised. In 1992, Ustashas found Tripko's
grave, blew it up and burned his bones in it, as well as the bones of his four-
year-old grandson, who died in 1984. Also burned were the remains of Mirko
Bulut, Rade Medan, Risto and Manojlo Šarić... The other monuments were
“shot” with Ustasha weapon fire and all the photographs of the deceased were
stolen.
308
The whole area of the village Prebilovci was desecrated and devastated in
many different ways. At the location of the memorial church and a part of the
cemetrey, a dump site for various types of rubbish was formed; it was re-
moved in 2002. The restoration of the village was thwarted, so only about
25% of the people who lived there before the war returned. For crimes against
Serbs in the area of Southern Herzegovina and the whole Neretva valley, the
Serbian National Society Prebilovci, in 2007 filed extensive criminal charges
to the Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to
which it has not responded up to now.
There are around 60 people - returnees, permanently living in the village at
the moment and twenty people live there for the most part of the year, peri-
odically. There are 15 children in that population. The water supply system
has reached the village, but it is not operational. All the households have tel-
ephone land lines and the village cultural centre has been rebuilt. Restoration
of the memorial church, dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ with the bless-
ing of bishop Grigorije, began in 2013. The foundation stone was consecrated
and laid by bishop Atanasije on 3rd August. Then, liturgy was served, where,
for the first time, hymn and kontakion of the saint martyrs of Prebilovci, in
whose memory a Slava cake and koliva were made, were sung. The people of
Prebilovci are still denied the right to renew and survive and innocent victims
are denied respect and the right to the truth about all the suffering. Unfortu-
nately, even Serbian countries, on both sides of the Drina river, still have not
acknowledged Prebilovci as a value which needs to be protected and pre-
served, so without real support the fate of the village remains uncertain.
The Neretva valley, Stolac, Dubrave and Hrasno remain a symbol of victory
of crime and utter exploitation of the genocide against Serbs. Only with re-
membrance and respect for its holy martyrs, love for its people and homeland
and with the willingness for certain personal sacrifices can Serbs return to and
survive in this frightening, but beautiful area.
Sources and references
Verdict of the District Court in Mostar K 77/57 from 2nd October 1957 with research
material.
Verdict of the Supreme Court of PR Bosnia and Herzegovina Kz 139/58, dated 17th
February 1958.
Verdict of the Federal Court Kz 9/58, dated 23rd June 1958.
309
The minutes from the hearing of the Ustasha squad leader Stojan Raguž in the
investigating prison of UDB in Mostar, July and August 1952.
Statement of Desimir Mihić from Stolac, Belgrade 19th March 1943 (Archives of
the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church).
Pali za slobodu Čapljina - Neum, 1941-45, SUBNOR Čapljina, 1984.
Đuro Ekmečić, Prebilovci neprebolna rana srpska, author's edition, Belgrade, 1994.
Mitar Šarić, Greh ćutanja je prekinut, ustaški zločin nad srpskim narodom u
Prebilovci avgusta 1941, edition of the Ministry of Culture, Information, Science
and Technology and Connections with Serbs outside of Serbia of the Republic of
Serbia, Belgrade, 1992.
Materials from the Documentation fund of the Prebilovci Serbian National Society
in Belgrade - the statements of survivors: Danilo Bulut - Baron, Gojko Bulut, Mara
(nee Moro) Bulut, Mirko Bulut, Danica (nee Ijačić) Banđur, Mara (nee Ekmečić)
Bjelica, Ćetko Dragičević, Lazar Ekmečić, Novica Ekmečić, Joka (nee Ekmečić)
Jahura, Milan Tripković, Šćepan Ćirić, Manojlo Šarić, Nefo Šoše, Radojka Vlačić,
Mitar Puhalo, Jovo Pelkić and Mirko Ijačić. - VHS recording of the operation
“Čagalj,” by Sead Šejtanić from Čapljina, June 1992.
Janko Bobetko, Sve moje bitke, author's edition, Zagreb 1996.
“Beži Jankec Hag ti bu pobegel,” Feral Tribune, no. 661, pages 12 and 13, Split,
18th May 1998.
Jevto Dedijer, Hercegovina, Nova knjiga - Podgorica and Vidoslov
- Trebinje 2001, page 71
Mihailo Dinić, Srpske zemlјe u srednjem veku / zemlјe hercega Svetog Save,
Dubrovačka srednjevekovna karavanska trgovina i Trg Drijeva u srednjem veku
Srpska književna zadruga, Belgrade, 1978, page 321
Ahmed Aličić, Poimenični popis vilajeta sandžaka Hercegovina, Oriental Institute -
Sarajevo, 1985.
HUM PROCEEDINGS IX, “300 godina župe Dubrave,” edition of Catholic
parishes, municipalities and branches of Matica Hrvatska from the area of Southern
Herzegovina, Aladinići 2006, pages 75-97 and 159 – 202 and others.
Savo Skoko, Milan Grahovac, Zločini Nezavisne Države Hrvatske i nemačkog
okupatora u Hercegovini 1941-1945, I and II, SPKD Prosvjeta - OO Gacko, „Filip
Višnjić“ Belgrade and Municipality Gacko, 2011 and 2012.
Milan Bulajić, Ustaški zločini genocida i suđenje Andriji Artukoviću, Rad, Belgrade
1988.
Božidar N. Čučković, Zločini u Hercegovini u Drugom svjetskom ratu, I and II,
Museum of Herzegovina, Trebinje 2003.
Viktor Novak, MAGNUM CRIMEN, Reprint, Nova knjiga, Belgrade, 1988.
Vladimir Ćorović, Crna knjiga, Editors, organisers and inheritance rights V. Ćorović,
Belgrade 1989.
310
Borivoje Borozan, Dolina Neretve, 1914-1918 godine u dokumentima i literaturi,

Prosveta, Niš 1992.
Milan I. Nadaždin, Krvavo lјeto u Ljubinju 1941, Svet knjige, Belgrade 2003.
Atanasije Jevtić, Velikomučenički Jasenovac, Glas Crkve, Valјevo, Sfairos,
Belgrade, 1990.
Luka Š. Popovac, Ustaški zločini genocida nad Srbima u Donjoj Neretvi, Novo
slovo, Belgrade 1990.
Metropolitan Vladislav, “Stradanje srpsko-pravoslavnog živlјa u žitomislićkoj
parohiji u vreme takozvane 'Nezavisne države Hrvatske',” Church Calendar for
1987, pages 78-81, Sveti Arhijerejski Sinod SPC, Belgrade
Pali u borbi za slobodu, Čaplјina - Neum 1941- 45, OO SUBNOR Čaplјina, Čaplјina
1984.
Pali za slobodu borci NOR-a i žrtve fašističkog terora stolačkog kraja 1941 - 1945
godine, author Anđelko V. Belović, SUBNOR Stolac, 1989.
Jure Galić, “Blajburg iz hercegovačkog ugla,” Sarajevo 2008.
“Zašto je svećenstvo bilo uz Antu Pavelića?” http://www.javno.ba/kolumna/zato-
je-sveenstvo-bilo-uz-antu-pavelia.html
311
Milenko Kojović
LET IT NOT BE
FORGOTTEN
NDH atrocities against
the Serbian people in the
period 1941-1945 in the
territory of the
municipality Berkovići
Seventy-two years has passed since the horrible suffering of the Serbian pop-
ulation, an unprecedented Ustasha crime in 1941 in the municipality
Berkovići.
There are fewer and fewer witnesses who remember and can describe the
Ustasha atrocities.
Everyone had to quiet about the Ustasha crimes committed against Serbs in
the NDH for the sake of “brotherhood and unity” and for not disturbing the
public (not quite certain which public). The forced silence, especially in Her-
zegovina, existed because all the crimes against the Serbian people, more than
90% of them, were committed by local Ustashas - neighbours.
In Berkovići, as early as 24th June, a large gathering of local people dressed
in Ustasha uniforms was noticed. Their leader - a camp officer, was a local
imam Muhamed Brezić, allegedly born in Vlasenica, then there were Osman
Đulepa, the mayor of Berkovići, his deputy Hasan and Osman Jašarević,
Ćamil and Adem Jaganjac, Bećir Bećović, Adem Đulepa, Murat, Adem and
Rizvan Nurko, Omer, Suljo and Adem Čamo, Ahmet Buzaljko, Asim Kur-
313
tović, Osaman Isaković, Alija Alilović and many others. They called them-
selves the Ustasha militia. They said that no one needs to fear them, because
nothing is going to happen to anyone.
By that time, they had already arrested Todor Radović, Marko and Ilija Vas-
ković from Berkovići, Janko Bjelica from Meča and Blagoje Samardžić.
They told the people that these prominent men wanted to organise an uprising
and they were taken to be questioned. It was soon found out that all five men
were killed and thrown in the pits Pandurica and Golubnjača in Ržani Do.
In these circumstances of fear and apprehension, the fatal day for the people
of Berkovići came, 28th June 1941.
Not suspecting what was about to happen, the people gathered in Berkovići,
responding to the invitation of local Ustashas on that day.
Along with local Ustashas, there were trucks of Ustashas coming from Stolac
and municipalities in West Herzegovina. Around 12 o'clock, Ustashas at-
tacked the barehanded people like beasts. A nightmare ensued, gunshots,
screams, moaning... they killed people on the spot where they caught them.
According to testimony and the list of killed and missing parishioners of the
Serbian Orthodox parish of Dabar, father Simeon, prior of the monastery Do-
brićevo and our long time local parson Slobodan Biberdžić, states names,
place and date of execution of the 231 victims.
Osman Đulepa, the mayor of Berkovići and a neighbour, came to Radan's
house and ordered them not to leave their home. Soon, a group of Ustashas
came, surrounded the house and caught eleven men and two women. They
took them to the gendarmerie station and killed them there. The rest they
caught after dark and started killing them with blunt objects, hitting them on
the head or cutting their throats with knives and bayonets. They showed no
mercy for children either, killing them in their mothers' arms.
Cvijeta Kojović, in a testimony before the country count in Stolac, states that
she witnessed murder in front of the house of Branko Kojović, his wife
Cvijeta was killed, her child Cmilja (a infant born in 1941) and Branko's
mother Đurđa. On that occasion, more than 170 helpless victims from
Berkovići and the surrounding villages died.
Entire families were slaughtered, so some families completely disappeared.
The family of the merchant Milan Vuković had six members. Milan and his
sons Momčilo, Obran and Slavko died and also Đuro's daughter Bosa.
Milan's sister Darinka and son Zdravko survived.
314
In the family of Dušan Hajrović, who had five members, the following died:
Dušan (48), Mila (38), Rade (2), Rajka (7) and Slavka (9).
Family of Tripo Biberdžić had 17 members: Tripo (81), Cvijeta (76), Anica
(25), others were Sava’s; Kostadin (10), Natalija (11), Nevenka (7), Nikola
(8), Stana (9), Tripo's: Đuro (36), Nikola (41), Đuro's: Bosa (2), Vasa (4),
Mileva (1), Sofija (6) and Divna (2).
In Tripo Biberdžić family, only his brother Sava survived. He survived the
shooting and as soon as he got the opportunity, he managed to escape. Usta-
shas fired upon him and wounded him, but, although he was shot and bleed-
ing, he managed to reach the refuge on Kubaša and tell what had happened.
Almost the entire village was slaughtered and only a small number of people
managed to escape that fate.
In a statement signed by 29 witnesses, among other things it is said that: “On
this occasion, Ustashas, with so many other people, cut the throat of Dušan
Hajrović from the village Hatelji, cut him into pieces and cooked his flesh in
a cauldron and then forced his wife Mila and children Slavko, Rada and Rajko
to eat that meat, and afterwards their throats were also cut.”
Ustashas gouged out Serbs’ eyes, took those eyes to Stolac and boasted how
many Serbian eyes they gouged out in Berkovići. The whole village was cov-
ered in blood.
About the sadist actions of Ustashas against Serbs and eye-gouging, the Ital-
ian writer Curzio Malaparte wrote in his book “Kaputt” under the title “Oyster
basket” on pages 307 - 308 published by “Minerva” (Subotica - Beograd,
1961):
“While he spoke, I gazed at a wicker basket on the Poglavnik's desk. The lid
was raised and the basket seemed to be filled with mussels, or shelled oysters,
as they are occasionally displayed in the windows of Fortnum and Mašon in
Piccadilly in London.
Casertano looked at me and winked: ‘Would you like a nice oyster stew?’
‘Are they Dalmatian oysters?’ I asked the Poglavnik.
Ante Pavelić removed the lid from the basket and revealed the mussels, that
slimy and jelly-like mass, and he said smiling, with that tired good-natured
smile of his: ‘It is a present from my loyal Ustashas. Twenty kilos of human
eyes.’”
315
In 1960, a former Italian civil official in NDH Francesco Bassotti stated for
the magazine “Il Borghese” the following: “Our soldiers, officers and I saw a
pile of human eyes. Everything Malaparte wrote was true.”
In Berkovići, Ustashas also killed Gojko Baćević, a soldier in the uprising
troop from Hatelj. On 3rd July 1941, on his way back from the village Luka-
vac, where he had been consulting with others, he found himself among Usta-
shas. He was captured and taken to Berkovići, where he was hacked up with
axes.
In that period, also killed in Berkovići were the priest Vojislav Medan - Ig-
njatov, who was born in Mostar, and Đuro Karavlah, the treasurer of the
Berkovići municipality, who was born in Croatia.
Ustashas Osman Đulepa, Husko Sadžak, Hasan Jašarević and others looted
the shops and houses of killed families Vasković, Biberdžić and Vuković. The
merchandise from those shops was taken to his own shop by Osman Đulepa.
That was the way the people of Berkovići died, were tortured beaten and ex-
ecuted in the most atrocious ways possible. Anyone who managed to escape,
fled to the refuges in Kubaš, Hrgud and Bežiđe.
While on refuge, they quickly
started to run out of food, so
people had to secretly return to
their houses for food. In such a
way Đurđa Kojović died (born
1896), the wife of Nikola. Usta-
shas slaughtered her and threw
her body in a landfill.
Memorial ossuary for the Serbian

victims of the Ustasha slaughter in
Berkovići in June 1941
316
Ustasha atrocities in the village Klečak
On 26th June 1941, in the village Klečak, five Ustashas, led by Osman Jašar-
ević, captured Petruša Bakušić, the wife of Božo, Sava Bakušić, the wife of
Savo, girls Dana (11), Mila (15), Cvija and a five-year-old boy Gojko, the son
of Danilo.
They ordered them to sit down and then they were shot with rifles.
All members of Jovo Bakušić's family were killed. Osman Jašarević and Šerif
Ćupina together with several other Ustashas took Jovo's wife and her daugh-
ters out of their house: Bosilјka (25), Sava (19) and son Marko (6) and killed
all of them.
On 26th June 1941, Ustashas captured Jovo Antunović with his sons Danilo
and Ćetko, Risto and Cvijeta (father's name Lazo) Anutunović and also Jovo
Bakušić with his son Vaso (22).
Ustashas killed Todor Antunović's three underaged sons: Gojko (12), Janko
(13) and Mišo (16).
They also captured Branko Samardžić, Anđa (father's name Stjepan) Ćuk and
Anđa (father's name Stojan) Ćuk, Slavko Ćuk, Stana Ćuk, Todor Ćuk, Tripko
(father's name Luka) Ćuk, Filip and Cvijeta Ćuk. They were all tied up, taken
to Berkovići and executed in one creek in the Voznice locality.
The captured people were ordered by Bećo Mahmut to dig a pit, determining
its size beforehand. When the pit was completed, all of them were killed and
thrown into it.
The atrocity in Suzina
After the mass crimes near the municipality Berkovići and the killings of Ser-
bian people, a group of Ustashas went to the village Suzina. On that day, 25th
June 1941, around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, a group of Ustashas led by
Husko Sadžak, son of Ibro from Žegulja, killed Luka Soldo (82), Šćepan
Soldo, his daughter-in-law Mileva (31), the wife of Janko Soldo, her daughter
Ljubica (15) and Stana Soldo (51), the wife of Dušan, and they severely
wounded Vukosava Soldo and Janko Soldo's four-year-old son.
The same evening, everyone fled into refuge. They stopped in Krstotine (a
large hole between Čunjaga and Kubaše).
317
The atrocities in Meča and Ljuti Do
After the bloody drama in Berkovići on 25th June 1941, two Ustasha pla-
toons, led by Husko Sadžak and Mašo Bećo, came to the villages Meča and
Ljuti Do on 26th June 1941. The Serbs did not notice them until it was too
late, so almost no one managed to escape.
The Ustashas threw out of their houses all the women, children, the elderly
and everyone else who was left in the village and they immediately started to
tie and beat up those people. The first ones to be tied were: Mitar Abramović,
Spasenija Bjelica, Darinka Dobranić and Mićun Milivojević. Ustashas cap-
tured 17 innocent Serbs and executed all of them. They killed everyone they
came across going through the village.
On that occasion, in Meča, an incredible drama took place between Spaso
Dobranić and Ustasha Husko Sadžak. As Ustashas were coming into the vil-
lage, Spaso was running towards Hrgud carrying his two sons in his arms,
Radovan (4) and Vidoje who was only one year old. A group of Ustashas
intercepted him and prevented him to run away. Among the Ustashas, Spaso
recognised Husko Sadžak who he served in the army with. Spaso expected
that Husko would help him, but he actually tried to tie him up. Spaso ran into
Husko with all his strength. They got into a grappling position and started to
wrestle. Spaso managed to overpower Husko, but then Ustashas Vilogorac (a
barber from Stolac) hit Spaso on the head with his gunstock. Somehow, Spaso
managed to break free and escape.
Immediately afterwards, the prisoners in the village were killed, among which
were Spaso's two young sons, Radovan and Vidoje. When the Ustashas left
the village, Spaso's wife Cvija went back to their home and buried her dead
sons.
The Ustashas killed everyone they captured, except Draginja Dobranić and
Saveta Bjelica, who were severely wounded, but they stayed alive among the
dead bodies.
On that day, Sara Bjelica, the wife of Mirko Bjelica, was also wounded.
Among the dead bodies, Sara found her son, one-year-old Milenko and her
other child wounded.
She took him and under the cover of night went to Hrgud, on 27th June 1941.
That was the first living witness who, to the people of Hrgud, brought the
news about the massacre committed on 25th/26th June 1941.
318
In Meča, 31 innocent Serbian victims were killed and in Ljuti Do that number
was 9.
The hell in Dabrica
As a village, Dabrica is not very noticeable, but, unfortunately, even less is

written about it.
The writer Njegoslav Bošković in his poem “Vapaj Straževice,” through tes-
timonies of people from Dabrica who survived Ustasha hell, tried to save
from oblivion some horrible things.
One of the witnesses, Đuro Ivelja, told the story of the horrors he survived at
the Kukauša pit in June 1941.
Starting on 20th May, the Ustasha organisation had a widespread develop-
ment in the wider area of Dabrica. Ustasha camp was formed, with camp
commander Božo Papac at its head. Alija Dvizac was named as his deputy,
he was a teacher born in Mostar. In the village they formed a squad, with Ilija
Lončar as the squad leader and Nikola Marić Šargaila, from Ljubljenica, as
his deputy. By mid June, there were about 100 Ustashas in the Ustasha or-
ganisation.
At the beginning of June, Nazif Žuna came to Dabrica from Stolac. He ar-
rested Vojin Ćupina, Bogdan Mihić and Jovo Gordić, a headman from
Dabrica.
Božo Papac, Alija, Hasan Bajgorić, the imam, and other Ustashas said that
Serbs need to be destroyed.
“Before God or Allah, it is no different to kill a Serb or some animal.”
In order to implement their villain plan, Papac and Dvizac asked for rein-
forcement of the Ustasha camp in Dabrica. To that end, the Ustasha camp in
Stolac sent two groups of Ustashas to Dabrice.
The first was led by Baldo Bošković - Krakić. There were about 50 of them.
The other one was sent to Šćepan Krst and it was led by Baldo Pažin - Gadžić.
People were told not to be afraid and that they are under their protection. The
people were sent to the school to hear some announcements.
The morning of 25th June came. During that morning, 80 Serbs from Dabrica
were captured. The first group was separated from the captured people. That
319
group, made up of 12 tied up Serbs, was taken to Stolac and executed in Vi-
dovo Polje. It happened on 26th June 1941. They were forced to dig the pit
themselves and then they were killed and covered with soil.
The second group had 17 Serbs. They were taken to the Jasoč pit which is
located in Dubrave. Only Panto Gordić managed to escape from this group.
The third group of 33 Serbs were tied and made to go in the direction of
Masline.
As they approached Hutovo, the column was stopped by a car. Stojan Raguž,
the camp commander of the camp in Stolac, came out of the car. From the
group he separated his friend Jovo Gordić, a headman from Dabrica, who he
served in the army with, took out his handgun and shot him several times.
According to the testimony of Đorđe Herbez about the Kukauša pit place of
execution, it was a real hell.
The Ustasha killing array was positioned in a reversed angle, so that the
mouth of the pit was at the corner apex. When the victims were pushed into
that space, then Ustashas would rush them with mallets, pickaxes, clubs,
knives...
It was the doorway to hell from which there was no return!
At one moment, several Serbs tried to escape. Đuro Ivelja and Đorđo Herbez
succeeded in doing so. Brothers Aćim and Blagoje were running in the same
direction. Ustashas caught up with Aćim and killed him with his gunstocks
and threw him into the pit, while Blagoje managed to escape.
In the bloody chaos, 12 people from Dabrice managed to escape. It was a truly
bloody night on the day before St. Vitus’.
The Gornja Kukauša pit was opened in mid November 1990. More than 70
skeletons were found.
On St. Vitus’, on 28th June 1941, Ustashas continued with their villain oper-
ation. On that day, they executed 17 more Serbs - people from Dabrica and
threw them into the Barev Do pit in Šćepan Krst. Two days later, Simo Rupar
came out of this pit alive.
Therefore, on this occasion Ustashas took to the places of execution 79 Serbs
from Dabrice (Vidovo Polje 12, the Kukauša pit 33, the Jasoč pit 17, the
Barev Do pit 17).
A total of 65 people were killed, while 14 people fled from a horrible death.
320
The Serbs who survived took refuge in Sniježnica, but occasionally went to
their homes for food.
In the hamlet Odžak, the family of Anđelko Vuković, who was thrown in the
Kukauša pit at the end of August, happened to be at home. On the Assumption
of the Virgin Mary, Ustashas captured a number of people from Dabrica and
among them the family of Anđelko Vuković. They captured ten members of
the family: his grandfather Marko (70), his uncle Milan (40), Anđelko's
widow Krstinja with their four children. Of their three sons, Čedo was the
youngest, he was four years old, and his other two brothers Tomislav and
Pavo were just one year older than him. Little Nada was still breastfed. Grand-
mother Gospava tried to escape, but she was shot and fell down dead.
Pavo went up to the attic and hid between baskets. Little Čedo pressed against
his grandfather Marko and held his hand.
One Ustasha cut open Krstinja's stomach with his bayonet and took out the
child. On her chest, little Nada was soaked in her mother's warm blood. The
stabbed grandfather Marko fell over little Čedo. The tip of the bayonet caught
the left side of the boy's face and got stuck in his left arm. The boy was silent
and he was lying there the pool of his own and his grandfather's blood, pre-
tending to be dead.
The Ustashas brought some branches and straw and set them on fire. Then
they went away.
The inside of the house filled up with smoke very quickly. The flame caught
the partition and rafters.
Pavo, who was hiding in the attic, jumped out, somehow managed to open the
door and came out into the yard. Little Čedo appeared at the door soon after-
wards. They ran along the hedge and hid in some thicket.
The day was coming to an end. Gunshots were heard in Dabrica. Little Čedo
and Pavo managed to take a difficult road and get to the village Jasena, which
was about 5 kilometres away from the scene of the bloody crime.
The fiery blaze in the village Ljubljenica
Two months after banishing the Serbs from this village and the from Šćepan
Krst into the Barev Do pit, at the end of August (28th/29th) 1941, on the
orders of Božo Papac and Hasan Bajgori, the imam, Ustashas rounded up all
the remaining people, 35 members of Serbian families - women, children and
321
the elderly from the families Vukosav and Gele in Ljubljenica. They took
them to a barn at the far side of the village and locked them up in it, and told
them to go to sleep and not to worry.
Around midnight, a fire started, first on the roof and then it caught the hay,
straw and finally the clothes of the people.
When the burning walls started to crumble, Ustashas took iron pitchforks and
waited for the victims, who caught fire, to come out and then they pushed
them back into the flames.
On that night, 34 people died a horrible death in the fire. Those families
ceased to exist.
As it happens, the twelve-year-old Slavojka Vukosav managed to escape from
the locked barn through a small opening without being noticed by the Ustasha
perpetrators. She was the only living witness to tell the truth about the horrific
Ustasha atrocities committed against the Serbian people, the women and chil-
dren of Ljubljenica.
***
The Ustasha perpetrators and pitters who took part in the above mentioned
crimes were Baldo Bošković - Krakić, Stojan Maslać, Smajo Rizvanović and
other notorious Ustashas.
Keeping silent about the real truth of the crimes in the post-war period led to
the fact that, after so many years, there was a tendency to equalise all victims,
regardless of the fact that the number of Serbian victims is many times larger.
An unprecedented crime against Serbs in the summer of 1941 was belittled
by the insults to the Serbian people with signs on marked places of execution,
because that counterfeited the crimes and the villains.
As God is my witness, my intention was not to motivate anyone to revenge
by stating these facts, but to remember with respect the innocent victims, the
sufferers who were killed in the cruellest possible way only because they were
Serbs.
It is our duty to remember those crimes and God forbid that they ever happen
again to anyone or anywhere.
322
Notes and sources
The records are based on the recollections and testimonies of the families and
descendants of the victims and taken from the following sources:
List of missing and killed parishioners of the Serbian Orthodox Parish of Dabar
Bosnia and Herzegovina State Archives
Killed NOR soldiers and victims of fascist terror in the Stolac area 1941-1945,
Politika Ekspres, 16th April 1991, feuilleton “Zločin u Hercegovini – krvavo ljeto
1941,” by Milan Nadaždin
Bošković, Njegoslav, “Vapaj Straževice,” a poem
Čučković, Božidar N., Zločini u Hercegovini u drugom svjetskom ratu, Vol. 2.
The presented data was gathered with the support of Radivoje Abramović, a
journalist of Radio-Berkovići, and Nikola Kojović.
323
Božidar N. Čučković
THE PERSECUTION OF
SERBS IN THE REGION OF
TREBINJE BY THE
CROATIA 1941-19451
INTRODUCTION
Upon the burial of the remains of the victims of Ustasha atrocities, retrieved
from 14 pit caves across Herzegovina and taken to Prebilovci and Veličani as
a pledge of the people’s remembrance and indebtedness, it was written that
those Serbian shrines were not there to commemorate revenge or divisions,
but to remind of love and kindness.
The post-war politics made every effort to disguise the Ustasha atrocities
committed during the time of the NDH. Many of the killing fields were left
unmarked. Who is to blame? Many rightly point their finger at the Serbian
leadership, since nothing could be done without their head nod. In the name
of the ideals of “the struggle for unity,” the politicians of the post-war period,
wholeheartedly supported by the Serbian politickers, did everything to cover
up the truth, just as they covered up the pits, and to deaden the consciousness
of the generations to come... To use the silence to distort the horrors of geno-
cide and by shrouding history in ever new veils of deception deprive the na-
tional being of the Serbian people of its inner light.
1
Adapted for Round table from authors book "Zločini u Hercegovini u drugom svjetskom
ratu" Volume I, Muzej Hercegovine, Trebinje, 2006, pages I-VII, 15-25, 63-64, 70-85, 119-
122
325
The Serbs are modest people, raised to cherish Christian values. There have
been attempts to deprive them of God, but these attempts have failed to cor-
rupt the character and soul of the Serb national being. Not only did “they”
rule the roast, we did the same, I mean “us,” those from our own ranks. Our
latest neocracy in the name of “brotherhood and unity” and dictatorship (and
not that of the proletariat) tore down everything it could. And when we
wanted to light a candle for our dead, they despised us. Forbidding all activity
to collect the victims’ names, as was done in Herzegovina by Todo Kurtović,
and not only him, meant cutting down the tree on which one people multiplied
and flourished, wiping out its existence, its genetic foundations... Such people
and their likes removed the roots of their own people’s national being, stifling
its life. We have been silent for 50 years. For more than 50 years we have had
a clandestine policy intended to make the totality of the nation forget, com-
pletely or partly, what had happened, primarily to the Serbian people. The
Serbian people have been forced to disregard all the evil perpetrated against
them, to forget the terrible past, along with their history, not to count their
dead and missing ones, not to commemorate their victims and, finally, not to
let their own broken bones rest in peace. All those victims at unrest, lying in
known and unknown pit caves, were sacrificed, in the name of Christ(!), at a
clerico-fascist alter.
When the people finally got to their senses and started asking that their dead
be returned to them, as an act of purely civilised conduct, not to awaken the
ghosts of national vengeance, it became a political problem, culminating into
a kind of political genocide against the Serbian people...
The Serbian victims were tortured in all imaginable factories of death: in the
tiniest and most spacious caves across our lands fettered in karst, in swelling
rivers, burning and unburning houses, underneath home icons as well as icons
standing in Orthodox Christian shrines, in damp dungeons and cellars, camps
and schools, pit caves and abysses, graves and holes, on all roads and paths,
wherever humans have ever set foot... with the knife and bayonet, axe and
cleaver, butt and flail, mallet and stone, bullet and bomb, stick and stake, teeth
and hands. All those great martyrs, overgrown with weeds, have long waited
– and are still waiting – for the people’s conscience to awaken, along with the
conscience of those who lord it over the rest of us, whose decision it must be
that all those who have suffered, the killed and slaughtered ones, are to be
laid to rest. (...)
No wonder the pit caves are still covered with concrete. The rare memorial
plaques state the misdeeds (they are very rarely called atrocities) were com-
mitted by either the Nazis or local traitors, quislings (sometimes the plaques
326
say, their local aids), or both. The Ustasha perpetrators remain hidden behind
the general and ambiguous term “aggressors and their aids.” Besides the fact
there are still killing fields and places of execution that have not been marked
to this day, all mass and individual graves, in which the Serbs were thrown
alive, ruthlessly, with neither children nor women being spared, there are in-
comprehensible inscriptions on the memorial plaques that have been put up.
Instead of saying clearly the victims were Serbs, they say they were “local
patriots,” “victims of fascist terror”; instead of saying it was Serbs, Muslims,
Croats, Jews, Roma, etc. that were killed by German and Italian fascists, Usta-
shas, Chetniks and other villains – openly stating their ethnic background,
they say the victims were “men, women and children.” The plaques marking
the pit caves and other places of execution must contain the names of the
aggressors, without whom there would be no such graves or pit caves. It
should be possible to say, for example , that it was “under the auspices of the
occupying forces – Italian, German or the two together – that their aids, Usta-
shas or Chetniks, killed...” – or simply “the aids of the occupying forces...”
There were no precedents to manners in which the killings were committed.
History has no knowledge of it, at least not the history of the human race... In
the speech he made before the primary school, before the coffin holding the
bones of the innocent Prebilovci victims, after their remains were transferred
from the Šurmanici pit cave to the village of Prebilovci, the historian Milorad
Ekmečić said: “Do not call this savagery, lest you offend the true savages of
the Amazon. They still hunt and exterminate each other there, but never do
they violate the golden rule of life, never do they kill women or children, who
are the source of regeneration, the source of all existence.”
327
THE PEOPLE OF TREBINJE ARE KILLED

AT THEIR DOORSTEPS
Although these murders cannot be called large-scale atrocities, they were still
part of a deliberate, premeditated campaign carried out in a single night. It is
absolutely irrelevant whether groups of Serbs were killed at specific places,
or individual people perished on their doorsteps, at several locations.
The goal behind the killing of the Serbs, whether it was groups of people or
individuals who perished, was to discourage them, to disorient them, so they
could not organise themselves and defend their bare lives. The killings com-
mitted by the Ustashas were premeditated. It seems that their plan made sure
specific people were killed in specific ways and at specific times, irrespective
of whether the killings took place on the spot, at a pit cave, in a burning house
and the like.
To accomplish their devilish intentions, the Ustashas set up camp in Trebinje.
Muhamed Šarić was appointed Logornik of the camp, Pero Šutić, a merchant
from Trebinje, became his deputy, with the following men as its members:
Jure Srinčić (Đorđe, author’s note), a druggist, Salko Resulović, Don Marijan
Vujinović, Juraj Jure Kežić, a photographer, Nikola Kisić, nicknamed Nikica,
a clerk, etc. Mohammed Tafro was appointed the District Prefect.2
When the Italian occupying forces arrived in Trebinje on 17th April 1941, its
people did not know the town would become part of the recently proclaimed
“Independent State of Croatia,” with Pavelić as its Poglavnik, or of the “inde-
pendent” Montenegro, under the protection of the Italian crown. During the
period of fifteen days, the Ustasha officials launched all kinds of activities in
the town and surrounding villages. The most pro-active among them were
Don Marijan Vujinović, a Catholic priest and religion teacher at the Trebinje
Gymnasium from 1921 to 1924, Šefko Duraković, Zaim Geljo, Sead
Zupčević, son of Ado, Salko Karamehmedović, Muho Karadža, Juraj Kežić,
called Jure, Nikola Kisić, called Nikica, Nikola Marolt, Antun Krnjač, called
Tonči, Salko Resulović, Mehmedalija Rokić, Ajdin Rokolj, Đorđe Srinčić,
Hilmija Habul, Muhamed Šarić, a dentist, Derviš Šehović, and others.
In addition to the above-listed, Milan Šakota, in his statement given to the
Refugee and Resettler Commissariat (this document is kept at the Archives
of Yugoslavia, folder no. 200, no. 2119), states the names of the following
Ustashas: Omer Bračković, Fehim Volić, Juraj Kežić, Nikica Kisić, Adem
2
DKRZ; item 21564; BiH ZKRZ, items 60.647, 50.010 and 58.376.
328
Kapitanović, Salko Resulović, Ivan Fistanić, Muhamed Šarić, Hakija Šarić,

Đorđe Srinčić, and settlers from Podgorica, Ibro Seknić, Maho Seknić, Mu-
harem Seknić, and Šerif Seknić.
The same names were listed by Vladimir Gerun, originally from Taleža (this
document is also kept at the Archives of Yugoslavia, folder no. 200, Refugee
and Resettler Commissariat).
Apart from the people listed above, a list with the names of supposed Usta-
shas was found in the offices of the Trebinje District People’s Committee,
without an official cover document, which suggests someone may have re-
move the compromising material after the liberation, in order to conceal their
criminal activities. The list contains the names of Ahmet Arslanagić, Ibro
Arslanagić, Hasan Arslanagić (one of the last two on the least died on the
Eastern Front ), Omer Bračković, Hasan Bukovac, Maho Busuladžić, Fehim
Volić, Ibrahim Zubčević, Suljo Zubčević, Adem Kapitanović, Juraj Kežić,
Nikica Kisić, Miro Radić, Niko Radić, Salko Resulović, Ibro Seknić, Maho
Seknić, Muharem Seknić, Šerif Seknić, Đorđo Srinčić, Ivan Fistanić, Hilmija
Habul, Hakija Šaran, and Muhamed Šarić.
In addition, an Ustasha youth organisation was set up, and Safet Mursel ap-
pointed its head (a student of the Trebinje Gymnasium, author’s note). Nazifa
Resulbegović was appointed his assistant, and she immediately put on the
Ustasha uniform.”3
The climate created in this Herzegovinian district after the capitulation of
Yugoslavia, premeditated by the Ustasha villains, fuelled the long suppressed
feelings of hatred and intolerance, especially in a number of perverted and
rude young people. It should be added this climate was pervaded with hatred
towards the Serbian people and desire for their annihilation. Those young men
boasted their loaded weapons and new black uniforms, which gave them both
the power and opportunity to arrest people, break into their houses and estates,
demolish, pillage, burn, rob, and soon also kill, without any accountability.
Those people were sick in their heads, if capable of causing harm to other
people, their first-door neighbours, godparents, friends. In Herzegovina, such
people are said not to fear God or feel ashamed before other people, to forget
about integrity, their cheeks thick-skinned.
3
Mile Ratković, “Maljem u zatiljak” [“With a mallet to the back of the head”] in: Hercego-
vina u NOB [Herzegovina in the NOB], Vol. 2. Sveto Kovačević, ed. Vojno izdavački cen-
tar, Beograd, Istorijski arhiv Hercegovine, Mostar, 1986.
329
Whatever was deadly and dark and sinister in these people’s hearts and minds
and had lain hidden beneath the surface of conscious behaviour, was now
allowed to emerge. They ridiculed the human condition, hurt people’s pride
and honour, humiliating and dishonouring them, by binding them like cattle
before slaughter. They were beside themselves with joy seeing proud elders
tremble as they pierced them with their harsh eyes, seeing women beg and
cry, children burst into tears and sob... because they were now the ones in
power, they were the authority, the power that be – they were the Ustashas,
the “vigilantes.”
On Slavic Apostles’ Day, 24th May 1941, Croatian troops, the so-called Cro-
atian Home Guard, arrived in Trebinje. They were the 14th Croatian Home
Guard Regiment (7th and 10th Battalions and the Trebinje Battalion).4 The
Regiment Command, auxiliary services and personnel, and the garrison bat-
talion were stationed in Trebinje, while the other units were sent to the town-
lets along the border with Montenegro. The Regiment Command arrived in
Trebinje on 30th May 1941. In front of the District Hall, the high “officer”
Reš gave a speech, which began like this: “My fellow Croats, Ustasha rifles
stand before you, which have fired at the Serbs, and will continue to do so for
as long as there is a single Serb alive...” Lieutenant-Colonel Muharem Aga-
nović, Commander-in-Chief of the Croatian Home Guard troops stationed in
Trebinje, gave a speech before the Trebinje Town Hall, and was the first to
openly threaten “that a hundred Serbs will be shot for the loss of a single
Croatian life!” The tone of the speech was one of open hatred for the Serbs,
from beginning to end. The Serbs still believed it was all mere intimidation,
not the painful and bitter truth.5
Everybody’s thoughts became morbid and bleak, and there seemed to be no
light in sight, not a single beam of hope. No smart words to hearten the people,
no words of explanation, connection, of direction to salvation and life.
In late May 1941, a group of nine Ustasha agents, the most radical of all
Ustashas, the so-called hunters, arrived in Trebinje. They were mainly uni-
versity university students from Zagreb, whose task was to carry out the prep-
arations for instituting the Ustasha administration. They meticulously organ-
ised and filed the previously collected data, based on which they later com-
mitted massacres, made arrests, interned people, etc.
Those data had been collected by Ustasha sympathisers in the days of the pre-
war Yugoslavia. Nikola Marolt was the man who reported on the discussions
4
Archives VII, NDH Collection, box 134, folder 3; item 13.
5
Rajko Bokić, Archives VII, box 200, item 39/6.
330
and decisions of the progressive men who used to gather at the pub owned by
Spas and Božo Anđelić. The pub was the meeting place of the people belong-
ing to the opposition civil parties and the then-illegal Communist Party of
Yugoslavia. Nikola, whose wife worked as a cook for the two publicans, came
to the pub and just sat there, speechless. He listened to what was said and took
notes. Mehmedalija Rokić and Sead Zubčević Ada produced the report on the
youths, members of the SKOJ or the Communist Party.
On Saturday, 31st May, a joint dinner was held at the former Officers’ Club
for the “protective hunters” and their local aids, during which it was decided
that all Serb men of reputation from Trebinje and the surrounding area were
to be arrested and executed.
Late in the evening of 31 May 1941, there was shooting in different parts of
the town and its immediate surroundings. There were shouts coming from
tipsy Ustashas, saying “Stop!” “Hold him, don’t let him go!” “Get him” “Hit
him!” They came from the Ustashas who were “repelling” a Chetnik attack,
intent on “seizing” Trebinje.
Immediately after the shooting, that very night and the next day, on 1st June
1941, the Ustashas went from one Serbian house to the next, killing people
according to a previously assembled list, who were those Trebinje Serbs they
“knew” had affiliated with the Chetnik organisation before the war. While the
Ustashas were killing, the Croatian Home Guard, under the command of Lt.
Col. Muharem Aganović,6 were deployed along the streets of Trebinje.
In its report dated 1st June 1941, the Division Command openly admitted to
the Command of the 4th Police Regiment that it was members of the Ustasha
Youth Organisation that shot around the town, “as previously approved by
the Zagreb university students.”7
Many Serbian houses were blocked. The troops remained in the streets, and
the whole event was actually staged by the Ustashas “so they would have a
pretext to start the killing and persecution of Serbs.”8
This is what the report addressed to the General Headquarters of the Adriatic
Division Area says about the described events: “It was 11 o’clock at night on
6
Muharem Aganović was a gendarmerie lieutenant-colonel and Commander of the Bileća
Police Division. The Croatian Home Guard officers who were in Trebinje at the time were
Commander of the 14th Croatian Home Guard Regiment and commander of the 1st Battalion
of Vojna Krajina.
7
Archives VII, NDH Collection, box 14За, item 12/1-7.
8
Jovanka Tešanović and Mileva Perković, Refugee and Resettler Commissariat, AJ-F-110;
folder 200, item 275.
331
31st May 1941, when the NDH Ustashas were attacked by Serbian Chetniks
in the area around the town of Trebinje. The Ustashas and police forces
searched all Serbian houses that night and raked the town streets. During the
search, Chetniks were shot in all the houses where weapons were found. The
execution was carried out on 1st May 1941, at about three o’clock in the morn-
ing. The number of the people executed was (eight) Chetniks and the secre-
tary of the Municipality of Trebinje, who was affiliated with the Montenegrin
Committee, and allegedly also with the Chetniks. All the Chetniks were shot
in their homes, except for the Municipal Secretary, who was shot in the build-
ing of the County Court. The shot Municipal Secretary was found to carry a
firearm...”9
However, the truth is something different. No Chetniks attacked Trebinje that
night; the whole thing was simply staged by the Ustashas, who needed a pre-
text to start the killing and persecution of the Serbian people. This triggered
the Ustasha search, which lasted all night.
The Ustashas split into groups, which were guarded by four to five Croatian
Home Guards. Each group was led by a volunteer, a local resident, a person
who knew the town well, who took them from house to house. As far as peo-
ple know it, some of these locals were policeman Hakija Šaran, Nikola
Marolt, Hilmija Habul, Đorđo Srinčić, Mehmedalija Rokić, Salko
Karamehmedović, Safet Mursel, Džemal Mešović-Longo and other people,
while Muhamed Šarić was in his car, circling around the town, making sure
the task of Serb execution was being carried out.
The part played by the nine Ustasha agents during the task completion was
special; five had put on balloon-fabric dolmans, and they were particularly
active in the massacre of innocent Serbian victims. These murderers killed
Serbian householders before the eyes of their wives, children and parents.
It was nine people the Ustashas killed that night, with their guns, either in the
people’s homes or nearby. They were Vaso Babić, a merchant, Milan Brković,
a toll-collector, Dušan Nogulić, an inn-keeper, Vlajko Palikuća, a shoemaker,
Gašo Kovačević, a supplier for the army, Ilija Kukurić, a shop-assistant (em-
ployee of Vaso Babić), Šćepo Đurić Žuti, a butcher, Radovan Lečić, a cooper,
and Vlado Popović The Greek, Secretary of the Municipality, who the Usta-
shas put in the county goal immediately after taking power.
9
Archives VII, NDH Collection, box 233, item 18/3-3.
332
It is interesting to note that Vlado Popović was taken out to yard of the District
Court by Ajdin Rokolj, his subordinate officer in the municipal administration
up until the war.
“Do as you wish,” said Vlado in a soft, broken voice.
Unexpectedly, Ajdin went up to him and hit him in the face with the butt of
his gun. Vlado fell to the ground and raised his hands to protect his face. Ajdin
placed him against the wall, and then, standing in the yard with the gun in his
hand, he fired a whole clip at Vlado. His look became empty. He was dead.
Mile Ratkovic wrote: “Traces of Vlado’s brain and specks of blood could
long be seen on the wall beam.”10
“They also tried to find Stevan Bratić, the butcher, who supplied the military,
but did not find him at home, because he had fled to Montenegro the night
before. When the killing started, his wife (Ruža) and her three children took
refuge in the flat of the police guard Hakija Šaran, a tenant of hers. When the
Ustashas came to her house, they banged on the door and yelled all sorts of
provocations, but she did not call back. When the Ustashas left, not finding
anyone in the house, Hakija forced her to leave his flat with her children.
Next, she found shelter at Milka Perković’s, who was her neighbour. When
dawn broke, Ruža gave her the keys to her shop and flat.”11
Vaso Babić was killed in his own backyard. “The Ustashas came at about 11
o’clock at night, to search the house, allegedly looking for weapons. It was
Jamal Mešović who pointed at Babić’s house, but kept at the door while six
Ustashas performed the search.
They began tormenting Vasa an hour after midnight. He admitted that he was
member of a Chetnik organisation, but did not want to give away the other
Chetniks. They threatened to kill all members of the family, and one Ustasha
even pulled a gun on Vaso’s granddaughter Jovanka, but none of those pre-
sent, Vaso’s shop assistant being one of them, paid any attention to the noise
made by the rowdy Ustashas. They looted the house and shop. It was Suljo
Zubčević who robbed the shop. He also broke into the storeroom in front of
the house and took a large amount of items and expensive furniture, as well
as hardware from the shop. The pillage went on and on. It was all done during
the night.”12
10
Ratković, “Salve mome gradu” [“Gun salutes to my hometown”], ibid., p. 3.
11
Tešanović and Perković, ibid.
12
Archives VII, box 200, item 6/4-1.
333
“Finally, they killed him at about five o’clock in the morning.”13

They captured Milan Brković at work, at the toll-gate, brought him home at
5.30, and roughed him up until 7.45. “Before the murder, the Ustashas
searched the house. They were looking for military items, weapons, and the
like. They did not find anything, because there was no military stuff in the
house. However, Stoja, Milan’s wife, a mother of five, saw one of the Usta-
shas take a few bullets from his pocket and place them in a nightstand drawer.
Then they snarled at her, why was she saying there were no weapons, when,
behold, there were those bullets. Stoja was lightly wounded. Afterwards they
killed her husband and left.”14 They killed him on the flat ground in front of
his house, in the presence of his wife and children. (...)
Ilija Kukurić was brought before the court gaol. He was quite calm. His face
was expressionless. They had deceived him. Rather than an interview he had
been brought for, he anticipated he was going to go on his last journey. That
was where they killed him, in the court yard.
Šćepo Đurić Žuti tried to escape. He sprang and dashed toward Gorička
Malta. Juso Seknić aka Zuza dashed after him, accompanied by several Cro-
atian Home Guards. He took to the upper road, and then, as the Home Guards
had already blocked the way out of town, he turned toward the Aleksić house.
He was wounded while jumping over a large wall. He managed to drag him-
self to the Catholic cemetrey. There he was caught by the Ustasha bullets and
fell dead under a mulberry-tree...
The hunt for victims took the Ustashas to a village in the immediate vicinity
of the town, called Dražin Do, located 5-6 kilometres away. Đorđo Srinčić
and Hakija Šaran came in a truck to the house of Dušan Nogulić, an inn-
keeper. What was happening, wondered the people in the house. “They took
Dušan out of the house, then another ten to fifteen steps, and killed him at the
lattice, practically in front of his home, that is, his tavern.15
In the village of Mostaći, the Ustashas first entered Vlajko Palikuća’s house.
The host had hidden in the stable, among his sheep. But the Ustashas found
him and brutally murdered him, before his mother and Anika, his wife. There
were only muffled gurgling sounds. After less than two minutes everything
went quiet again.
13
AJ-F-110, file 818, Ruling of the Mostar County Court, no. 1077.
14
15
AJ-F-110, file 818, Mostar County Court, verdict to Đorđo Srinčić, no. 4/46.
334
The Ustashas found Gašo Kovačević in his house, with his wife and seven
children, each reaching the older one’s shoulder. They searched the whole
house. They separated some trivial things, saying they were supposedly mil-
itary. After finding nothing, they secretly placed some ammunition. They
made Gašo join them to the road, where they had parked the car. He put his
things down next to the car. They took him to see the dead Vlajko Palikuća.
Gašo probably soon realised he should not hope he would be spared. After
that, he was ordered to return to home. But as soon as he turned around, with-
out even walking a few steps, the closest Ustasha raised his rifle and fired.
Gašo stumbled, tried to turn around, as if startled by something, but he failed,
falling near the beam on which he often rested, sitting with his neighbours.
His wife and children saw it all as it happened. Gašo’s mouth remained open,
as if it was going to scream again.
The face of Gošo’s wife contorted with fear and horror. She realised some-
thing might happen to her children too. Her eldest son Vasilije aka Šurko, a
20-year-old man, saw his mother stood petrified; her eyes were wide open,
gazing in silence. She held onto the courtyard gate with one hand, pulling at
her hair with the other. She turned her head to the house to prevent the chil-
dren from seeing her fears. There were too many pieces for this sort of mosaic
to fall into place in Šurko’s head, or a background against which he could put
them together... this kind of defeat was beyond his imaginatio.
It was Džemal Mešović aka Longo who brought the Ustashas to Radovan
Lečić’s house. The people in the house just were not unable to grasp their
neighbour’s act. The Croatian Home Guards surrounded the house, with
Džemal standing outside. The Ustashas went in and began shouting: “Give us
your weapon, now!” Then they searched the entire house and basement.
Shouting curses, they began to loot. They took out the meat and lard. They
led Radovan to the balcony. An Ustasha hit him, making his mouth bleed.
Radovan just stared at him silently. His lip was cut. Before the gate, an Usta-
sha shot him in the right temple. Radovan fell on the stones on which lay the
jerkey they had robbed him. The edges of the wound were singed, because
the killer shot from close range. He seemed to be observing the killer’s face
with curiosity, although his eyes were still closed. Akica, Radovan’s wife, just
stood watching, stunned beyong the ability to speak. Big drops of sweat trick-
led down her face.
The Ustashas threatened the families they must not bury the slain. Still, the
neighbours gathered the next day and buried the victims of the atrocity.
“All of the victims were killed in the same manner, with utter brutality. The
were killed on their doorstep or in the immediate vicinity (except for Đurić),
335
before their families, with a Parabellum gun. In most of the cases, the victim
was ordered to turn to the wall, after which the barrel was pressed against the
back of his head and the gun fired. Because of the position of the pistol and
close range the bullets were fired from, the heads of most of the victims liter-
ally burst, as if cut off the neck. All the killings were carried out by a group
of nine Ustashas, university students from Zagreb, of whom some had emi-
grated abroad before the war (except for Rokolj, the man who killed Popović).
Ustasha this group were subordinated to all the Ustashas deployed in the
Trebinje District and its surroundings at that time reported to those nine. Boro
Rotkvić was the fiercest and most ruthless among the newly arrived Ustashas,
who was a mechanical engineering dropout from Zagreb.”16 Even before the
war, he belonged to an illegal terrorist organisation called “Matija Gubec.”
The other members of the group were Jozo Jurković, Jukić, Tomić, Mladeno-
vić, Francetić and Babić-Ličanin, all radiating hatred and intolerance. “One
of them was a notorious man called Ivica... He said he was capable of roasting
Serbs live on a spit, and when he went to a tavern or the Officer’s club, he
asked for Serbian blood instead of wine. They spoke in the same dialect and
claimed they all came from Zagreb.”17
After people were taken out of their houses and killed on their doorstep, muf-
fled sobs and moans were heard. The families sobbed uncontrollably. They
held their faces in their calloused palms. They sought solitary places to mourn
their dear ones. The killed were never given the time bid farewell to their
closest and dearest.
After killing Dušan Nogulić, Vlajko Palikuća and Gašo Kovačević, the Usta-
shas returned to Zasad. They stopped by at Risto Oslić’s house. They were
searching for Tošo, who, luckily, jumped out the window. He had been in the
house when they killed Radovan.
“You let the most dangerous one go, shame on you!” Salko Resulović’s wife
yelled at the Ustashas. But Džemila Resulović, their neighbours, cursed them,
on the contrary: “Oh, may you be cursed by Allah for killing our neighbours!”
There is an adage which says you can tell the quality of a boat in a storm, and
of a true, honorable person in trouble.
Risto and Rade Bevanda, Tošo’s father and brother, hid themselves in a potato
field. The evildoers found them there, took them away and put them into gaol.
16
Milan Vučurević, Refugee Commissariat, file 200.
17
336
Until 2nd June, all the bodies were in their own homes, and only some were
in hospital. The victims killed in the town could not be buried without the
Ustashas first permitting it. They were all buried on 2nd June. Most of the
victims were buried by Roma people. The priest held a memorial service and
escorted to their eternal resting places only Vlado Popović and Šćepo Đurić.
Ivo Lučić from Zasad buried Lečić, Kovačević and Palikuća together with a
few neighbours. It was done at the cemetrey in Mostar on 2nd June, without
a memorial service.
After these murders, executed on 1st June 1941, panic broke out among the
Serbian population. In order to justify the killings, at least somewhat, and
calm the people, the purpose of which was also facilitating the further mass
killings in other parts of Herzegovina, including Trebinje, 2nd June the Usta-
sha authorities put up “posters” with the number of the killed, explaining that
they had been preparing an uprising against the Ustasha authorities, stressing
that most of the victims had been members of the Chetnik Volunteer Associ-
ation. It was but a pretext, an excuse for killing innocent people. Most of them
had been killed on the doorstep, with the victim count subsequently written
on the previously printed “posters.”
“Prior to 1st June 1941, Muhamed Šarić brought the printed posters from Du-
brovnik, which notified the population of Trebinje about the shooting of the
Serbs. There was an empty space in the posters, for the number of the killed
to be later filled in.”18
In addition, new posters were put up around the town, announcing prohibi-
tions and punishments. Among other things, the posters read: “Each dead
Croat will be avenged with the shooting of 100 Serbs,” and also, “A curfew
is introduced for the Serbs and Jews between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m.”
Panic spread through the Serbian population. People fleed the town, taking
refuge in the countryside, with their relatives and friends. Some even escaped
to Montenegro, the Montenegrin coast or the Bay of Kotor. The Serb people
grew more and more apprehensive, because there was every indication the
Ustashas would continue with the arrests and killings.
“Ruža Bratić set out on foot from Trebinje to see her husband. However, on
her way, she stumbled upon the corpse of Šćepo Đurić, her husband Stevan’s
butcher and shop assistant. It made such in impact on her that she began to
behave as if she had lost her mind. Instead of going to her husband, she ran
from village to village, on foot, shouting to the people they needed to flee, for
18
AJ-F-110, file 818, Mostar County Court, verdict to Muhamed Šarić, no. 4146.
337
Serb people were being killed. This alarmed the villagers, and men, women
and children collectively took flight to Montenegro. They had acted wisely;
otherwise, many of them would have been killed.”19
The archpriest Vladimir Popovic, who had lost one leg, was one of the refu-
gees. He described the persecution of the Serbs and terrible protests that took
place in the town of Trebinje in 1914.
(...)
On this occasion, I cannot but mention a good neighbour of mine, a Muslim,
Kasim Viđen. At the time when the Ustashas were secretly placing bullets
while searching people’s houses and arresting them for it, he sent Izet, his son,
to fetch me and my father and take us to their house.
“Nikola,” said Kasim, “for as long as times are evil, you and Boško will stay
with us and sleep in our house. For as long as I and my six sons are alive, not
a hair on your head will be harmed.”
Later, when Miloš Čučković and Branko Ilić were arrested in March 1942, I
found refuge for a whole month in the spare rooms of the house of this hos-
pitable family.
Izet joined the Ustashas. “That symbol on my head is one thing, what I bear
in my heart is something else,” he used to say. Whenever he left for work, he
dropped by our house to tell us where he would be. “If they come for a search,
just send Bosa (my sister, who was 13 years old at the time) to let me know.
I’ll come, I don’t want them planting any bullets in your home.” Most often,
Izet escorted the train from Hum to Bileće. To help the Serbian people of
Hum escape to Montenegro, he locked them in a compartment and unlocked
it again one or two stops before Bileća, thus helping them to avoid the bloody
Ustasha terror. I know he helped a Hum family, called the Bašićes, find shel-
ter in Montenegro.
Finally, a quote is in place from the report of Lt. Col. Muharem J. Aganović,
Commander of the Bileća Police Division, sent to the Command of the 4th
Croatian Police Regiment, about the shooting of the Serbs in Trebinje, which
says, among other things:
“On 28th May 1941, 10 Ustasha youngsters, students of the Zagreb Univer-
sity, arrived in Trebinje. They immediately ordered that all public notices and
inscriptions in the Cyrillic alphabet be removed from the shops and all other
19
338
places, which was done, and that two monuments, one dedicated to Njegoš
and the other one to the Martyrs of Trebinje, be demolished.
The night between 31st May and 1st June, members of the Ustasha Youth
Organisation shot guns around Trebinje, as instructed by the Zagreb students,
so a number of our soldiers and policemen were sent out to patrol the streets
and outskirts of Trebinje.
On 1st June 1941, between 5 and 7 o’clock, the said university students and
groups of our own troops shot Serb Chetniks from Trebinje and the surround-
ing area, more precisely:
1. Vlado Popović, notary of Trebinje Municipality, president and organiser of the Sokol Society in
Trebinje. He had continuously set an example and taken initiatives in his public work against
the general interests of the Croatian people.
2. Vaso Babić, a merchant from Trebinje, president of the Trebinje Chetnik Society, reputed as the
major proponent of Serb interests and opponent of the general interests of the Croatian people.
3. Dušan Nogulić, an inn-keeper from Dražin Do near Trebinje, deputy of the president of the
Chetnik Society and former Salonica volunteer.
4. Gašo Kovačević, formerly the master saddler of the 24th Artillery Regiment in Trebinje, a native
of the village of Mostaći near Trebinje. Member of the Chetnik society and a major proponent
of Serb national interests.
5. Radovan Lečić, a carpenter from Trebinje, an active member of the Trebinje Chetnik Society.
6. Vlajko Palikuća, from the village of Mostaći, an active member of the Trebinje Chetnik Society
and outspoken adversary of Catholics and Muslims.
7. Šćepo Đurić, a butcher from Trebinje, a prominent member of the Trebinje Chetnik Society.
8. Miloš Brković (Milan, author’s note), clerk of Trebinje Municipality, a native of Necvijeće,
Trebinje County, residing in Trebinje, an active member of the Trebinje Chetnik Society and
Salonika volunteer. Generally, a hater of Croats and Muslims, always ready for action against
Muslims and Croats.
9. Ilija Kukurić, from the village of Police, a radical Serb and active member of the Trebinje
Chetnik Society.
They were all shot in public places, in the vicinity of their dwellings.”20
20
Archives VII, NDH Collection, box 143 , items 12/1-7, 4/1 and 8/1-2.
339
THE HAMLET OF PRIJEKA VODA – LASTVA
A group of twelve Ustashas, headed by Baraković Osman from the village of

Skođigrma, and four local Ustashas, Zaim, Hilmo and Huso Habul and Huso
Demirović, headed by Tabornik Nazif Baraković,21 killed, on their doorsteps,
brothers Stevan and Jovan Begenišić, and Jovan’s sons, Marko, aged twenty,
and Petar, aged sixteen. Mato N. Putica, Commander of the Lastva Police
Station, reported his superiors “that on 14th June 1941, at about four o’clock
in the afternoon, disappeared from his home Jovo Begenišić, his sons Mirko
and Petar and brother Stevo, disappeared from their house.”22
One Saturday, it was 11th June 1941, the market day in Trebinje, Jovo’s wife
was returning home from the town and was overtaken by a truck, which had
with Osman Baraković and his Ustashas in it. “Osman had stayed at the
mosque in Gornja Lastva to show some unidentified Ustashas where he and
his group had committed murders on the doorstep of the Begenišić family
house.”23 “When Vida came home, she found four dead bodies in the house.
On her way back, she met her 12-year-old son Jovo, who was still alive thanks
to the intervention of an Italian, a teacher.”24
“...The first four men were buried in the vicinity of their home. This was also
in the report of the Lastva Police Station.” 25
Mitar Mrdić, one of the residents of the village of Lastva, an excellent source
of information on the local history and affairs, says in his book:
“The Ustashas who were the most prominent during the massacre in Lastva
Municipality were Bajro’s sons Bajro and Junuz Hadžimahović; Ajdin’s son
Sabit Bećirović; Zejnil, Mustafa, Osman and Nazif Baraković; Šerif Demi-
rović; Murat’s son Atif Kravica, nephew of Šaćir Jerković; Zaim’s son Asim
Begović; Alija’s son Šućrija Šehović; Arif’s son Asim Šehović; Alija’s son
Meho Šehović; Ibro Salković; Suljo’s son Ethem Bijedić; Iso’s son Fazlija
Mujačić; Ramadan Mujačić; Zaim, Hilmo and Huso Habul. About thirty men
21
Slavko Stijačić, “Doviđenja školo, počinje rat” [“Farewell to school, it’s time to go to
war”] in: Hercegovina u NOB [Herzegovina in the NOB], Vol. 2. Sveto Kovačević, ed.
Vojno izdavački centar, Beograd, Istorijski arhiv Hercegovine, Mostar, 1986, p. 457.
22
Archives VII, box 151 а: no. 40/12.
23
Mitar Mrdić, “Značajno ustaničko središte” [“A major insurgent stronghold”], in: Herce-
govina u NOB [Herzegovina in the NOB], Vol. 2. Sveto Kovačević, ed. Vojno izdavački
centar, Beograd, Istorijski arhiv Hercegovine, Mostar, 1986.
24
Tešanović and Perković, AJ-F-110; Refugee Commissariat, file 200.
25
Mrdić, ibid., p. 465.
340
from the village of Skođigrm joined the Ustashas, along with another 30 from
the villages of Donje Grnčarevo, Gornje Grnčarevo and Ušće. There has been
no news about them since.”26
During the insurgent attack on Lastva there were no casualties among the
Muslim population of the village. Only a few Ustasha houses were set on fire.
Around 30 Muslim households remained in Lastva. There were honourable
people among them, whose fate was determined by the winds of war. Ajder’s
son Ago Šahović was one of the most reputable men the whole of the munic-
ipality of Lastva, who thus addressed his fellow-Muslims from the village,
gathered at the local mosque in Gornje Grančarevo, upon hearing about the
first ever massacres committed by the Ustashas:
“Water flows, but hills stand still; we have to have good, neigbourly relations
with our Serb neighbours.”
26
Ibid.
341
ORANI DO – LASTVA
After the first Ustasha atrocities in Trebinje, the Serb population of the vil-
lages in the area of Zubci and Lastva (Lastva, Aranđelovo, Vučije, Klobuk,
Orahoac and Ušće) fled their homes and sought shelter in Bijela Gora, at a
place called Begova Korita, overshadowed by Mount Orjen. Early at dawn on
20th June 1941, two Ustasha columns were sent from Trebinje to Bijela Gora,
where the people were hiding. One column went over Zubci to Carevo Polje,
and the other across Lastva and Orahovac. They wanted me to surround and
apprehend all the people in their sleep, before dawn, to prevent them from
escaping to Montenegro.
That same night, between 19th and 20th June, Đorđo Srinčić was in company
with the other Ustashas, drinking and eating at Jazina, a pub owned by Jakov
Miljanović. On that occasion, he said he was going to Zubci that night and he
was going to make the people of Zubci pay.27 They indeed went to Zubci,
himself, Boro Rotkvić and Ethem Baraković, accompanied by another 300
Ustashas, armed to the teeth. They used cunning and deception. Namely, as
they approached the refugees, “the Ustashas came upon two girls, the daugh-
ters of Dušan Ćurić, son of Boško, and made them guide them to Krstati Do,
which was located about 4 km from the refugees. That was the place where
eight men and one boy from Zubci, from Carevo Polje, kept guard...”28 Dušan
Ćurić, the girls’ father, was one of the guards. When the Ustashas approached
Lazar Ćurić’s hut, where the guards stayed, two dogs started barking, but were
quieted by the girls, as instructed by the Ustashas. Unfortunately, the guards
relied on the dogs and were fast asleep. As a result, the Ustashas captured
them and disarmed them without meeting with any resistance.
“The Ustashas took the guards along as their guides. A guard tried to escape
but failed, as the Ustashas killed him.”29
The Ustashas progressed and totally took the refugees of Orahovac hiding in
Bijela Gora by surprise. There was a stone cabin in a clearing by the forest,
accommodating Marko Grubač’s family; it was the first to come under the
27
AJ-F-110; file 818.
28
Dušan T. Đajić, “Prva borba protiv ustaša u Bijeloj Gori” [“First clashes against the Usta-
shas in Bijela Gora”], in: Hercegovina u NOB [Herzegovina in the NOB], Vol. 1. Milenko
Đurović, Slobodan Šakota i Radomir Petković, eds. Vojno delo, Beograd, Kultura,
Trebinje, 1961, p. 111
29
Đajić, ibid., p. 112.
342
Ustasha attack. They were in the middle of preparations to continue and go

across, to Montenegro.
“Just as I and my brother Lazar had loaded our horses and were about to set
off to escape across the border,” says Vidak Grubač, “we noticed an Ustasha
firing squad, so close to us an escape would have been more than unwise,
especially as our two youngest brothers Nikola and Vaso were still sleeping
in the cabin (Gojko and Radovan had been on duty in the direction of Lastva).
I was relieved when I saw one of the Ustashas was Ethem Erkočević aka Šuca,
our forester. I addressed him, somewhat obligingly: “What’s up, Šuco, old
man!” To this he yelled: Take this Serbian trash away and beat the life out of
them!” They immediately attacked us, hitting us with the butts of their guns,
yelling maliciously: “Here you are, Vlachs, see Ustashas decorate you with
Karađorđe medals!” One of them, with a deep scar across his lip, hit Lazar so
hard he immediately collapsed, like a log. At that point, I pulled a knife and
ran toward him, upon which he turned his gun on me. Before he pulled the
trigger, I managed to catch the barrel and lift it up. The rifle shot while still
in my hand, but I did not let go of the barrel. Instead, I kept whirling the
Ustasha around until I had snatched it away from him. Lazar and our two
younger brothers took advantage of the commotion and fled into the nearby
forest. Despite a rain of bullets, I escaped and stayed alive, bringing the
snatched Ustasha gun with me.”
The Ustashas two of Marko’s sons, but they managed to get away and hide in
the woods. The Ustashas opened fire after them. The shots awakened the ref-
ugees, startling them to danger. The men, like most of the women, managed
to escape and hide. Nevertheless, a considerable number of women and chil-
dren remained in the cabins. The marauding Ustasha horde swooped down on
the cabins with refugees and took to robbery and collecting the livestock.
Several armed villagers, more precisely, seven of them (Vidak and Lazar
Grubač, two of Marko’s sons, Obren Vučetić and his brother, and Nikola
Đajić), put up heroic resistance. They started shooting from all sides, shouting
loudly: “Attack, brothers, Montenegrins! Let’s surround them, don’t shoot,
let’s capture them alive!“
The clash lasted several hours. Having failed to kill any of the refugees, the
Ustashas stepped back and withdrew in the direction of Lastva. During the
withdrawal, they shot the seven guards they had captured the night before, as
they were on their way to the refugee area. On that occasion, on 20th June
1941, the Ustashas shot the following men at a place called Orani Do, in the
lower part of Bijela Gora, in Lastva Municipality:
343
Family name /father’s name/ given name, year of birth, marital status [t/n]
1. Ćurić /Blagoje/ Anto, 1878, a father of six,
2. Ćurić /Boško/ Dušan, 1876, a father of eleven,
3. Ćurić /Boško/ Đoko, 1879, a father of six,
4. Đurić /Lazar/ Manojlo, 1900, single,
5. Ćurić /Lazar/ Novica, 1898, a father of nine,
6. Ratković /Sava/ Nikola, 1886, a father of four,
344
7. Ratković /Nikola/ Radovan, 1921, single,

8. Ratković /Lazar/ Đoko, 1922, single, from village Željevo.
The first four were born in the village of Konjsko. By killing only five of
these people the Ustashas orphaned 36 children. They all came from the mu-
nicipality of Grab – Zubci.
On their way to the village of Orahovac, the Ustashas killed Anđa Grubač,
née Ivanović, a 76-year-old woman.
That day, the Ustashas took with them 800 heads of both small and large
livestock. Bećko Šehović, a butcher from Trebinje, helped the Ustashas drive
the livestock. “The Ustashas forced Vlado Mrdić, an old man, to drive the
livestock for them to Lastva and Trebinje, along with the small Spaso, son of
the murdered Ante Ćurić. Somehow, Vlado managed to escape, while Spaso
was saved by Vehbija Ćerimagić, Omer’s wife and Alija’s mother (he died
while trying to escape from the Chetnik prison on 28th May 1942), by hiding
him in her house. The following day, when the Ustashas had gone to Trebinje,
Omar put a small fez on Spaso’s head, led him over the Arslanagić Bridge on
the River Trebišnjica and sent him forth to the village of Konjsko.”30
30
Slavko Stijačić, “Lastvanska opština u ustaničkoj borbi 1941” [“Lastva Municipality in
the 1941 uprising”], in: Krsto Galić (ur.), Zbornik sjećanja: radnički pokret, NOR i soci-
jalistička revolucija na području Trebinja [Book of Recollections: The Workers’ Movement,
NOR and Socialist Revolution in the Trebinje Region], Vol. 1, Zavičajni muzej, Trebinje,
1984.
345
346
THE PRIDVORCI PIT CAVE
After posting a set of announcements on the house walls in Trebinje, on 1st

June 1941, the Ustasha authorities arrested many Serbs. Twenty-six people
were arrested in the town, and 17 were captured in Pridvorci. In the next few
days, the campaign continued in the villages of Zasad, Mostaći, Police, Hru-
pjela, Gorica and Arslanagić Most. The arrests continued until the court and
police prisons in Trebinje were packed with people. A total of 120 Serbs were
imprisoned.31
On 1st June 1941, at dawn, the local prisons hosted, behind their heavy doors,
teachers, railway men, pupils, Presidents of the County and District Courts,
judges, merchants, craftsmen, farmers, young and old, rich and poor, only
because they had been born as Serbs. What they were subjected to was un-
bearable suffering and torture, both physical and spiritual. It was a hot June,
sizzling, and 40 or more people were stranded in a 16-square-metre room.
The cells had two small windows, no ventilation, and the people were sweaty.
While the detainees panted in their cells without a drop of water, the Ustashas
strolled along the shady, cool and ventilated corridors, peeked through the
tiny opening in the prison door, and cynically heckled the people inside:
“Look how they’re sweating! Like pigeons, ready to be shot. There are many
of them in here, that pit just won’t be able to take them all in...” etc. They then
cursed the people’s Serbian mothers, fathers, God; they giggled hysterically
and sang the kinds of songs only Satan has on his repertoire for those he tor-
tures in hell.”32
During the day, they took their Serb detainees, in groups and under heavy
guard, to do public work on the streets, humiliating them beyond the imagi-
nable: they were forced to sweep the town streets, “collect the waste and ex-
crement Roma people intentionally left in their neighbourhood overnight,”
and did the most diffcult kinds of labour: they carried tree trunks, pushed
wheelbarrows with the town waste, etc. The Ustashas especially enjoyed tak-
ing the arrested Serbs “up to the flour storerooms, in rain, and making them
carry bags with flour (weighing 80 kilograms) on their backs, soaking wet,
from one end to the room to the other. One can only imagine “how the flour
stuck and spread over the men’s wet suits.”33
31
According to Mr Milan Vučurević’s testimony given to the Refugee Commissariat in
Belgrade, only the room he was detained in had 47 people in it.
32
Rajko Bokić, Archives VII, box 200, item 39/6.
33
Bokić, ibid.
347
Indeed, coated in battar and white from head to toe, these people looked ri-
diculous both to the citizens and the Ustashas. Honourable citizens turned
their heads with disgust in order not to see their former friends and neighbours
in such a pitiful state, while the Ustashas and their sympathisers grinned,
pointing fingers at the once respectable Trebinje citizens, now returning back
to their cells. The “bearers of a of a millennial culture” now applied new con-
cepts and cruel means as they humiliated and killed the detained Serbs, both
physically and mentally.
Vule Vlačić, aka Jovo, was one of the arrested. He was denounced and ac-
cused by Nazif Šahović; they were both railway men. Vlačić was arrested at
the railway station in Trebinje. “Nikola Marolt and Šefko Duraković, two
Ustashas from Trebinje, handed Jovo to Hakija Šaran, chief of the Ustasha
police. They escorted him to gaol together. They beat and tortured him with
utter sadism. The next day, 5th June, Nikola visited the prison again and mo-
lested Jovo.”34 Next, they took him to the Court Prison, where he joined the
rest of the prisoners.
“The Ustashas Mustafa Šehović, Meho Šehović, Sabit Šehović, Lutvija Pirić
and Zaim Habul came to Jazine on 12th June 1941. There they captured Jakov
Miljanović, Obren Stijačić and Mihajlo Andrijašević, tied them with rope and
took them to the Trebinje gaol.”35
“Zaim Bračković arrested Jovo Madžar.”36
Three Ustashas, of whom one was an agent and two local Ustashas, came to
Police to get Ilija Kukrić and Trifko Babić. The Ustasha Zaim Geljo stood in
front of Ilija Kukrić’s door. They took the two men to the court prison.
“Aleksa Sokolović was arrested by Đorđo Srinčić, the Ustasha malefactor
Muho Kapić and others.”37
One night before the killings, Rašid Erkočević, a barber, visited Aleksa
Sokolović at his house, which is on Dalmatinske Brigade Street today, and
told him:
“You’re on their list, they’ll kill you. You’d better hide.”
“What have I, a poor man, done?”
“You’d better hide.”
34
AJ-F-110; file 818. Ruling of the Mostar County Court, no. 3/46.
35
AJ-F-110; file 818.
36
AJ-F-110; file 818.
37
Ruling of the Mostar County Court, no. 3/46.
348
That night, Aleksa slept in Podgljivlje.

When the Ustashas came to detain him, he was not there. They left two Usta-
shas from Imotski in the house. They believed Aleksa or his son Miro would
return. They stayed awake in the house all night.
In the morning, Jovanka, Jovo’s 17-year-old daughter stole past the Ustashas,
jumped through the window and rushed to Podgljivlje to tell her father not to
come back home. When she arrived in Podgljivlje, Aleksa was already gone.
Jovanka had taken the upper road, and Aleksa returned along the lower road.
She ran back, but did not catch up with him. Aleksa had already got into the
alley and the house. The Ustashas arrested him. As they were taking him, he
told the Ustashas:
“Well, if someone has to die, let it be me, just don’t touch my children.”
Calmly, without a word of farewell or goodbye, he went to his death, only
with a stick in his hand.
Vule – Jovo Vlačić, one of the witnesses from the Pridvorci pit, wrote this:
“There were several people from Pridvorci and Trebinje in prison, and a they
brought in a truckful of people from Zubci. There were Muslims from
Trebinje among the prisoners. I spent about twenty days in that miserable
place. I was convinced I would never see my family again. In the room next
door, they interrogated the prisoners, one by one, usually at night. They in-
terrogated me too, as they wanted to know what I had been doing in Monte-
negro. Several days later, they took me to a room with a lot of people. They
kept bringing new people in and taking the old ones out.
Around midnight between 22nd and 23rd June 1941, agents came with a
dozen Ustashas, opened the door to the prison room of the District Court, and
gave an order as to who needed to get ready. They told us we would travel to
Sarajevo to be tried. Those who were found guilty would have to take respon-
sibility for what they had done, whereas the rest would be released. They tied
us all together in the prison yard. I was the first to be tied; they tied me with
the old Aleksa Sokolović. They tied about 14 people (16, author’s note), two
by two. When they had tied the people, they took them to the bus ready and
waiting in front of the prison building. Along with six Ustashas, Nikola
Marolt, an employee of the orthopedic institute, also got on the bus. They
headed for the the train station.”38
38
Galić, ibid., pp. 321-323.
349
“Back then, the gaol-keepers at the Court of Trade in Trebinje were Nijaz
Babović, Meho Zubčević, Šaran Ramadan, Avdija Baraković, Salko
Karamehmedović, Reuf Agbabić, Zejnil Kusturica, Ahmet Mehaković, and
Bogdan Davidović.
President of the Court of Trade was Velija Arslanagić.”39
The night between 23rd and 24th June 1941, the bus belonging to Ibro Volić,
a firm owner from Trebinje, arrived at the prison at around midnight. The
agenst also came, with a dozen Ustashas. The Ustashas did not go to the upper
floor of the court prison; instead, they took 16 prisoners off the bus, exactly
as many as the Ustasha executioners were able to squeeze into the bus.
Together with the Ustashas Boro Rotkvić and Avdo Baraković, Nikola
Marolt tied the sixteen detained Serbs in pairs, in the prison yard. First they
tied Jovo Vlačić with the old Aleksa Sokolović. As they tied the people in
pairs, they put them on the bus, which stood the prison building, ready to go.
As far as Vojo Jovanović can remember, someone else, perhaps Risto
Dželmo, was tied with Božo Pidžula. Božo asked the Ustashas to let his 17-
year-old son Milorad come with him. He believed that he would save his son,
as older and more experienced, because he would be better capable of dealing
with any awkward situation. Unawares, the father took son to death. They
added Milorad to the row and got somebody else out of it.
When the prisoners were escorted past the train station, they realised they
were not going to Sarajevo. The Ustashas kept beating and molesting the pris-
oners along the way. They took them along the rutty road to the village of
Pridvorci.
The night was dark and warm.
The bus took them to a road intersection. One road lead to the village of
Todorići, and the other to Pridvorci. That was where the bus pulled up. Not
far from this intersection, a third road branched and took to Hum Hill. Right
at the beginning of this road there is a pit cave. In fact, it is a proper cave. On
one side of the road there was a small cliff reaching as far low as the Trebinje
Field, and there was a hill on the other side. By the way, the road had been
cut into the hill. The cave was discovered at the foot of the hill, near the road.
Its opening is as big as a room door, approximately 2x2 metres; one needed
to descend the cliff before reaching the pit itself. The cave is similar is size to
a large room.
39
SU 761/41 – Foundation of the Summary Court, box 6 of Trebinje County Court.
350
At the time when the bus with the detainees was arriving, there were already
several Muslims, Ustashas, in the pit, with a flashlight, and another nine on
the flat ground above the pit cave, the same people who committed the first
killings of the Serbs in Trebinje during the night of 1st June 1941. It was
delgate Boro Rotkvić’s members of the Ustasha hunter group that shot those
Serbs.40
“Nikola Marolt helped those Ustashas with the killings. Together with the
other Ustashas, he took pairs of detainees from the bus, killed them with a
hammer at the edge of the pit cave and pushed them inside.”41
The detainees were taken out in the order in which they were seated, so those
closest to the bus exit were taken out first.
They were taken from the bus to the cave in pairs. Two Ustashas took each
tied pair of detainees to the pit. Two or three Ustashas stood at the very en-
trance to the pit and around it. They were the executioners – they were the
ones who performed the killing. The others kept guard in and around the bus.
“It was silent like in a sepulchre. After a short agreement before the bus, the
Ustashas opened the door. They called Lazar Kukurić and Trifko Babić,
seated next to the exit, to come out. Tied together, the two came out unstead-
ily. They took them somewhere into the darkness. Anxiety and fear spread
through the bus. I was gripped by a sense of forboding. We all looked after
them, but saw nothing because of the darkness and bus headlights. No noise
disturbed the silence. Everybody on the bus wondered where they had taken
Lazar and Trifko, what would become of them.”42
They were being taken about twenty metres from the side road that leads to
the former Austrian fort on the hill Hum.
“Each of the Ustashas receiving the victims killed one of the two victims. The
killing was carried out with a special mallet, whose spike plunged in the back
40
Apparently, the person behind the name of Boro Rotkvić may as well have been Dido
Kvaternik. Two testimonies suggest this. Risto Ivanković, a citizen of Trebinje, recounts:
“Dido came to my house. He told me his father had told him to protect me, told him not a
hair on my head could be harmed. The two of us had served together in the Austro-Hungar-
ian army and were good friends. Dido gave me a kind of paper which said no one must
touch me.” The second testimony came from Đoko Babić: “During my studies in Zagreb, I
had some business at the UDB for the City of Zagreb, and a lieutenant-colonel from the de-
partment told me it was Dido Kvaternik who committed the killings in Trebinje, under the
alias of Dido Kvaternik.” The science of history will tell what the truth is.
41
AJ-F-110; Ruling of the Mostar County Court, no. 12/45.
42
Jovo Vlačić, witness of the Pridvorci pit cave atrocity, in: Galić, ibid.
351
of the victim’s head, between the head and the first vertebra. The mallets had
a handle made of wood, about 40-50 cm long. The heads of the mallets were
not pointed, they were blunt. The blow dealt with the mallet hit the victim’s
back of the head, killing him on the spot. The blows were so powerful they
almost always broke the back of the head, because the iron head reached all
the way to the victim’s brain and shattered it. Before they pushed the victims
down the pit cave, the Ustashas robbed them of all valuables they found on
them: rings, money, the watches they took off their hands and out of their
pockets, and some of the victims also lost their teeth and quality teeth pros-
theses. The Ustashas extracted Božo Pidžula’s and Trifko Babić’s gold teeth
with a pair of dental pliers. Those pliers were later retrieved from the pit cave,
with the victims’ remains. Nikola Marolt admitted at his trial he had sold three
gold teeth to dentist Hugo Frančeski after this atrocity, which must have come
from the jaw of one of the Serb victims killed at the Pridvorci pit cave.”43
The Italian military detained Nikola Marolt and intended to “send him to Du-
brovnik to their headquarters for extracting gold teeth from murdered Serbs
while serving as an Ustasha.”44
Next, it was Jakov Miljanović and Blagoje Ćurić’s turn, and after them came
Boško Šakota and Stevo Miljković. “The people went out and disappeared in
the dark,” said Jovo Vlačić, a survivor of the Pridvorci pit atrocity. “They
were swallowed by the dark night and damp pit cave. The people sitting tied
on the bus realised something terrible was happening out there. It was Jefto
Škoro and Vaso Popovčević’s turn. They seemed to have untied their rope
while still on the bus and just appeared to still be tied, pressing one against
the other. As soon as they got off the bus, they rushed into the dark. This took
the Ustashas by surprise. All of a sudden, chaos broke out, there was running
around and shooting. As we found out afterwards, Škoro fled to Aleksina
Međa and reached the village of Tuli in Zubci, wheras Popovčević escaped
through Pridvorci and reached Zagora. The Ustashas got back and regrouped,
and silence descended on the place again.”45
The detainees were killed at the entrance to the cave. By the entrance to the
pit a plank was laid, about two feet wide, with one of its ends resting on the
pit opening, and the other at its bottom. They put each corpse at the upper end
of the plank, and it immediately slid down to the bottom because the slope
was very steep. The corpses were met at the bottom by the local Trebinje and
43
Ruling of the Mostar County Court, no. 12/45.
44
Archives VII; NDH collection, 4th Police Regiment, box 143а, no. 44/10-1.
45
Vlačić, ibid.
352
Pridvorci Ustashas, who arranged them one next to another in one part of the
pit. They stacked the corpses carefully and meticulously. The corpses were
stacked like one stacked logs in a shed, as the Ustashas intended to kill and
throw all the remaining Serb detainees into the pit cave the same night. The
room in which the local Ustashas stacked the corpses measured 4x4 metres.
There was a recess on one side of the bottom of the pit, overarched by its
steeply descending stone wall.46
“All along, I’d been trying to bite loose the rope I was tied with using my
teeth,” said Jovo Vlačić. The Ustasha Nikola Marolt, who had been an ortho-
pedic technician, noticed it and told the other Ustashas. They immediately
threw themselves at me; their gentle strokes made my blood run. Marolt also
hit me on the head with his gun. Without waiting my turn, they took me out
alongside 65-year-old Aleksa Sokolović. Accompanied by two Ustashas,
walking right behind us, I went up the hill, where the others had also left.”
“The night was so dark you could see only a few steps forward,” continued
Jovo. “We saw the Ustashas behind us were carrying large hammers and guns.
They constantly urged us to go faster. We didn’t go far. Simultaneously and
suddenly, the two of us received blows with iron mallets. I lost consciousness
from the blow. My face hit the rocky ground below. I showed no signs of life.
When I regained consciousness, I found Aleksa sobbing painfully, his head
broken by the blow. I realised what was happening. I clenched my teeth and
kept silent. For a few moments I kept low, my face and body clinging to the
rock and earth below. Aleksa was not dead. He kept moaning. Because Aleksa
was apparently still alive, the Ustasha who had hit me reprimanded the other
one he was clumsy. “See how shut up the other one’s mouth, with the first
blow!” Then I received a second blow. Nevertheless, I quickly regained con-
sciousness. One of the Ustashas trod on one of my left hand finger with his
boot and shattered it. That was harder and more painful than than the mallet
blows, but I just lay completely still.”47
Jovo was rather portly and very strong. As Aleksa was still giving signs of
life, the Ustashas kept hitting him with their mallets, with blood gushing and
splattering all over Jovo’s face. Then, one of the executioners approached
them with a knife and cut the rope that bound them together. Next, he headed
for the bus to get another pair of victims. “As I was conscious and my hands
were free, I thought to myself - it’s now or never!”
46
Ibid.
47
Ibid.
353
When the Ustashas were putting Aleksa Sokolovića on the plank to send him
down to the pit cave, Jovo Vlačić managed to get on his feet. He looked at the
Ustasha without fear. A spark of anger flashed in his eye. He grabbed the
Ustasha who had given him the blows. “At that moment,” said Jovo, “he
looked weak and small. With all my strength I threw him to the ground and
rock on which I had lain up until that moment.” Jovo then jumped off the
road, to the side opposite of the pit cave, jumping over a 1-metre-tall wall
running along the edge of the road.
The Ustashas shot after the fleeing Jovo. He was hit by a single bullet in the
left leg. Fortunately, the bullet passed through the flesh and out the other side.
Although wounded, he managed to reach the village of Rapti four kilometres
away from the pit. He was bandaged there and sent to the hospital in Nikšić.
After this group of Serbs had been killed, there was a plan to kill more groups.
Since three of the detainees had managed to escape, the Ustashas got scared
they would spread the news across the Serbian villages, especially those in
Zubci, which was the area that a truckful of detainees came from. They would
find out what the Ustashas were doing to the arrested Serbs. Out of fear they
might be attacked and fearing for their own lives, the Ustashas stopped the
killing and throwing of the prisoners into the pit cave. This brought salvation
to all those Serbs languishing in the Trebinje prisons, whose lives were to
have ended in the Pridvorci pit cave, as planned by the Ustashas.
The day after the atrocity at the Pridvorci pit cave, the Ustashas left Trebinje.
“The Ustashas are now gone. Forget the gold and other valuables they took
from you. What’s important is that they are no longer here,” said Husnija
Arslanagić, the warden of the Trebinje prison.
The morning after, some Muslims from Pridvorci returned home from the
scene of the atrocity, their clothes all bloody. The old Osman Bračković had
brought a ladder to the “grave-diggers” before the killing started, which they
used to descend into the pit cave. Osman had forgotten to take it back. This
ladders was found in the pit cave during the exhumation of the victims of the
Ustasha genocide committed on 6th October 1941.
That fateful night, between 23rd and 24th June 1941, the following men were
killed and thrown into the Pridvorci pit cave:
1. Andrijašević /Vidak/ Mihajlo, 1897, Vilusi, carrier from Lastva;
2. Babić /Jovan/ Trifko, 1895, Police, railway corporal;
3. Madžar /Nikola/ Jovo, 1896, Pridvorci, inn-keeper;
4. Kukurić /Vukan/ Lazar, 1892, Police, inn-keeper;
5. Miljanović /Risto/ Jakov, 1870, Ljubomir, inn-keeper in the village of Jazina, Lastva;
354
6. Miljković /Šćepo/ Stevan, 1907, Zasad, town police;

7. Pidžula /Jovo/ Božo, 1888, Aleksina Međa, inn-keeper;
8. Pidžula /Božo/ Milorad, 1923, student of Gymansium UP Form;
9. Sokolović /Todor/ Aleksa, 1894, Trebinje, retired customs officer;
10. Stijačić /Gavrilo/ Obren, 1920, Jazina, Lastva, farmer;
11. Ćurić /Pero/ Đorđe, 1909, Trebinje, worker, wall-painter;
12. Ćurić /Đuro/ Blagoje, 1877, Željevo, inn-keeper, Trebinje;
13. Šakota /Milan/ Boško, 1900, Stolac, Commander of Trebinje Police.
The day after, 24th June 1941, Trifko Babić’s family celebrated St. Barthol-
omew Feast Day. They would long remember that day. Vasa, his wife, came
to the prison with Jovo, their son, and brought him breakfast. The turnkey was
not there, so she gave the food to Zejnil Kusturica, one of the guards. They
went off to get some cigarettes. When they came back, they found Zejnil sit-
ting on the doorstep of the guardhouse and eating the food.
“Why hasn’t Trifko eaten it?” they asked.
“He said he couldn’t, they’ve already had some,” replied Zejnil.
They went home. As they walked, they met Lutvo Zubčević on today’s Mujo
Zubčević Street. He had already heard about the killings at the pit cave.
“Vase, don’t be afraid. Trifko’s escaped to Montenegro.”
Lutvo mistook Jovo Vlačić and Jefto Škoro for Trifko, who had also been
dressed in railway uniform.
Vasa went to Pridvorci. Zaim Bračković kept guard at the pit cave and let
nobody come close. On the way, Vasa saw blood and caps.
She went to the village of Konjsko. They told her it was Jefto Škoro who had
escaped. It was all clear to her then. Trifko was not alive.
Two more people fled the death at the Ustasha hand at the Pridvorci pit, along
with Jovo Vlačić, aka Vule. One was Vaso Popovčević from Tvrdoš, who was
shot by the Partisans in 1942, and the other Jefto Škoro, a postal clerk, who
was later captured by the Italian Carabinieri and shot in Šibenik, accused of
aiding the NOP.
For the reasons of credibility and truth, hereby we quote the report sent to the
Commander of the 4th Police Regiment by the Bileća Police Division Head-
quarters, based on the notification of Lt. Col. Muharem Aganović, Com-
mander of the Trebinje Police Platoon:
“During the night between 23rd and 24th June 1941, a group of Serb detain-
ees, Orthodox Christians, were taken out of the Trebinje District Court. They
355
had been arrested in early June as members of the Chetnik Society, and ac-
cused of working against the Croatian and Muslim people.
This group, with 17 people in it, was conducted from Trebinje to the village
of Pridvorci, to a natural pit cave, located two kilometres away from Trebinje.
Thirteen of the people were shot and thrown into the pit cave. The people who
were shot were Bogdan Davidović, President of the Trebinje County Court, a
native of Čajniče; Lazar Kukurić, an inn-keeper from Trebinje, as a Chetnik;
Boško Šakota, Commander of the Trebinje Security Guard, a native of Stolac;
Stevo Miljković, a guard of the Trebinje Security Guard, a native of Mostaći
near Trebinje; the last two were members of the Trebinje Chetnik Society;
Božo Pidžula from Aleksina Međa near Trebinje, and his 18-year-old son Mi-
lorad, who always boasted his Serbdom; Vaso Bratić, a merchant from
Trebinje; Blagoje Ćurić, an inn-keeper from Trebinje, secretary of the Chet-
nik Society. I could not identify the others because this is still kept secret, and
members of the Ustasha hunters residing in Trebinje would not tell the names
anyone.
As they were escorted to the pit, three of the detainees escaped, Jovo Madžar,
an inn-keeper from Pridvorci, Đorđe Ćurić from Trebinje, and a railway man,
whose name I haven’t been able to find out. A patrol was sent in pursuit of
the three men the same night, but they were not caught because they appar-
ently knew the area well and were under the night’s disguise.”48
The above-quoted report of the Bileća Division Command state: “On 24th
and 25th June 1941, the villages of Poljice, Mrkonjić and others, inhabited by
Orthodox Christians and belonging to the area of the Croatian Home Guard
Police Station, were visited by members of the Ljubinje Ustasha Commission,
who detained 40 reputable Serbs, Orthodox Christians, and took them in
trucks to an unknown destination.” (This refers to the arrest of the Serbs from
the village of Popovo Polje and their throwing into the Golubnika pit cave at
Ržani Do, author’s note.)
Further in the report, the Ustasha Lt. Col. Muharem Aganović says he does
not know and does not list the names of detainees, “because they come from
various scattered villages,” and continues:
“...In the area of water, on the initiative of Mr Tafra, Prefect of the Trebinje
District, a campaign has been launched for the Orthodox Christians to convert
to the Catholic faith, or Islam, should anyone prefer so, and it has been quite
successful to date in this regard; for example, today we have had quite a few
48
Archive VII, NDH Crimes 1941-1945, box 143a, item 43/1-1.
356
Orthodox Christians volunteering to convert to the Catholic faith, and indi-

viduals have visited Don Marijan Vujinović, the local Catholic priest, and
said they want to become Roman Catholic, but do not know and are afraid
what might happen to them in 28th June, St. Vitus’ Day. In conclusion, there
is a possibility that Orthodox Christian Serbs are preparing for a general up-
rising in the former territory of Herzegovina.”49
“The corpses of the killed Serbs were retrieved from the pit and buried on 6th
October 1941. The operation was attended by Italian soldiers, who provided
the necessary tools and devices for retrieving the corpses from the pit, along
with the trucks to transport the corpses. They also attended the funeral pro-
cession and the funeral itself, during which a religious ceremony was held.
The thirteen victims were buried at the Orthodox Christian cemetrey in Podg-
livlje, in separate graves, one next to another. There were no incidents. The
Italians banned the Croats and Muslims to attend the funeral.”50
The report also says the following:
“On the 5th day of the current month, before the submission, the Italian au-
thorities permitted the exhumation of 13 corpses belonging to Serbs from a
pit cave near the village of Pridvorci, Trebinje District. The Italians provided
the Serbs with asbestos suits and gas masks to retrieve the corpses. Italian
troops were present during the retrieval of the victims and their funeral. Both
the retrieval and funeral were also attended by many Orthodox Christians.
Also present was Commander of the Italian troops in Trebinje, Col. Pignatelli,
and his Lieutenant (Agostino Guaraldi, a lawyer). The retrieval operation
lasted from 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., including the funeral ceremony at an Ortho-
dox Christian cemetary. Thirteen corpses were taken out and transported from
the pit to the cemetrey in three Italian trucks. Bells incessantly pealed.”51 The
funeral was hed at 4.30 in the afternoon. Several people made speeches. Dr.
Kraljević, leader of the local Serbs, dedicated his speech to the “innocent vic-
tims” killed by the hands of malefactors, to “heroic martyrs” etc., in which he
thanked the Italian army for making it possible for the murdered Serbs to be
49
Archive VII, NDH Collection, box 143, item 19/4-2.
50
Zbirka dokumenata [Document Collection], Vol. IV, Book 2, p. 302; Tripo Šarenac,
Kazivanja i dokumenti [Accounts and Documents], Opštinski odbor Saveza udruženja bo-
raca narodnooslobodilačkog rata, Bileća, 1987, p. 16; Archives VII, box 14За, item 19/1-2.
51
Ibid.
357
given a decent burial and accused the Independent State of Croatia and Po-
glavnik.52
The Croatian Home Guard Lt. Gen. Marić complained to the Ministry of the
Croatian Home Guard that “the Italian general Lusano said to our police ser-
geant he must attend the exhumation of the corpses of the Serbs from Hum,
which will be carried out in a couple of days... He is also to attend the inves-
tigation into these deaths, although the murders took place two or three
months ago.” Although the Ustashas had tried to keep the pit atrocity secret,
news of it spread the very next day, causing abomination in all honourable
local people.
Commenting on the interview given by Gianni de Michelis, Italy’s Minister
of Foreign Affairs, to the Vienna Courier daily, Mirko Vujačić said, among
other things, “it brought back those times, 1941, when the Italians, although
the aggressor, had sympathy for the Serbs, commiserating with them when
total annihilation was the only future the Croatian state had for them. Forced
to conquer the lands of other nations – that much must be admitted – the Ital-
ian people saved many a Serb life from the Croatian knife gliding down its
throat in many parts of Herzegovina in the sumer of 1941, and let the Serbs
of Herzegovina collect their murdered dearest ones from various places of
execution and bury them freely.
We must also not shy away from the historical fact, in favor of the historically
proven, traditional Italian sense of compassion, that those very Italians, alt-
hough officially conquerers of the land - enabled many Serbian refugees who
had fled to Serbia (as well as Montenegro, author’s note) to freely return to
their homes, preventing the Ustasha Croatian army from continuing its bloody
campaign across the rocks of Herzegovina.”
It was not uncommon for the Serbs fleeing the executioners sent by the Cro-
atian state to find refugee with the Italian occupation authorities. While the
Italians occupied the land inhabited by both Serbs and Croats, the Croatian
Ustasha units of butchers felt it was their duty to commit the bloodiest, un-
precedented atrocities in the areas traditionally inhabited by the Serbs, so for
the Serbs the Italian occupation of some regions formally annexed to the new
Croatian state meant protection from death by the knife and mallet. In these
times, tragic for the Serbian people, some Italian officers showed that the
spirit of Dante, Mazzolini, Garibaldi, Matteotti and other heroes and legends
52
Novica Kraljević, lawyer, an Italian collaborator and agent of the Italian OVR intelli-
gence service, mastermind and organiser of Chetnik activities in Šuma Trebinjska. Killed in
an ambush in 1942 for his quisling activities.
358
of the ancient, great Mediterranean country, a neighbour of Slavic people,

still lived in them, despite the fact they were also fettered in fascist chains.
Fascism and its evil must be separated from the Italian man, whose spirit
never fully yielded to it; it was thanks to this spirit that the Serbs found shelter
in times of evil, conquerers in no way comparable to their brothers in blood
war coming from the war-time Croatian state.”53
Only one of the thirteen graves in the Orthodox Christian cemetrey in
Podgljivlje, where the murdered Serbs were once buried side by side, is still
marked; it bears the name of Boško Šakota. His eternal abode was marked by
his relatives. No other notice, no information board.
This same place is still home to the remains of Lazar Kukurić, Jovo Madžar,
Božo Pidžula, Milorad Pidžula, Aleksa Sokolović, Blagoje Ćurić and Đorđe
Burić. Not even their bones have been moved, still lying in the same row they
were initially buried. This place should also be permanently marked, with a
cross and a memorial.
53
Mirko Vujačić, “De Mikelisovo razumijevanje Jugoslavije” [“De Michelis’ understand-
ing of Yugoslavia”], Politika, 22nd October 1990.
359
Pridvorci Pit Cave
360
THE HILLS OF TREBINJE – MURDERS AT

THE ČAPLJINA RAMP
Gendarmerie barracks were the first targets of the insurgents operating on the
territory of the Trebinje District and other Herzegovina districts, in the sum-
mer of 1941. The Zmijanac gendarmerie station was the first one to fall, in
the area of the Trebinje hills.
In early August 1941, units comprising Ustasha and Croatian Home Guard
troops from Trebinje, Ljubinje and Moska were on their way to the Zmijanac
gendarmerie station. The Ustashas and Croatian Home Guard had set on a
mission to cleanse the land of insurgents. They were led by Major Majer. The
combined Ustasha and Croatian Home Guard units were forced to retreat,
having suffered losses. After an unsuccessful attempt to reach a group of ref-
ugees hiding in Viduša on 2nd August, the Ustashas burnt several villages
along the way, committing crimes against the unprotected people. On this
occasion, five villagers were killed in the villages of Mountain Municipality.
They were:
Kokić /Luka/ Đuro, 1899, hamlet Vučiji Do, Trebinje hills;

Kokić /Spasoje/ Risto, 1883, village Kokići, Trebinje hills;
Rosandić /Đuro/ Obren, 1898, village Balari, killed at Djurdjev Do;
4. Rosandić /Jovo/ Saveta, 1901, village Grbeši;
5. Šišković /Vaso/ Vlado, 1900, village Grbeši.
In addition to the ones they killed, the Ustashas caught 28 dilligent, hard-
working householders at home or in the vicinity and took them to the Trebinje
prisons. There were two prisons in Trebinje, the police prison and the court
prison.
This is what the below-stated documents say about these happenings: “They
took the detained people from Trebinje to the camp in Čapljina. They killed
30 of them on the way, and they also took another 30 to Gospić and killed
them there.”54
The Command of the 4th Police Regiment sent a different report to the Min-
istry of the Croatian Home Guard. The report says that “during the cleanup
operations against the Chetniks in the area of Begović Kula 50 Chetnik aids
54
AJ-F-110; file 4398; item 60.495.
361
were captured, escorted to Trebinje and sent further to Mostar and the up-
country.”55
The report sent by the Trebinje County to the Ustasha Supervisory Service
says the detainees were “rebels, who attacked and captured the Police Lieu-
tenant Josip Petrlić and policemen Skender Kreštavac, Anđelko Kukrika and
Osman Koman, along with a number of Muslim peasants, and killed them all.
This all happened in the area of Begović Kula... After the above occurrence,
the Croatian Home Guard ran operations in the period 1st to 5th August in the
designated area, capturing all the persons, who were immediately taken up-
country by train.”56
However, according to the author’s research, the quisling units captured in the
said villages and took to Trebinje the following innocent people:
1. Brajić /Nikola/ Vlado, 1900, village Glavinić;

2. Brajić /Krsto/ Mićo, 1918, village Glavinić;
3. Brajić /Trifko/ Đuro, 1896, village Grbeši;
4. Brajić /Todor/ Pero, 1895, village Grbeši, hamlet Bjelave, killed in village Balari on 27th July
1941;
5. Brajić /Božo/ Radovan, 1922, village Glavinići;
6. Brajić /Ristan/ Risto, 1876, village Grbeši;
7. Brajić /Božo/ Svetozar, 1925, village Glavinići;
8. Brajić /Nikola/ Simo, 1896, village Glavinići;
9. Klapšnja /Stojan/ Nikola, 1870, village Begović Kula;
10. Ljubenko /Savo/ Đoko, 1880, village Grbeši;
11. Milojević /Pero/ Drago, 1921, village Grbeši;
12. Milojević /Gajo/ Ilija, 1884, village Grbeši;
13. Milojević /Gajo/ Jovan, 1875, village Grbeši;
14. Milojević /Pavle/ Luka, 1885, village Grbeši;
15. Milojević /Pero/ Mirko, 1910, village Grbeši;
16. Milojević /Aćim/ Simo, 1899, village Grbeši;
17. Milojević /Miloš/ Spasoje, 1897, village Grbeši;
18. Milojevic /Miloš/ Šćepan, 1885, village Grbeši, hamlet Jabuka;
19. Narandžić /Nikola/ Dušan, 1893, village Narandžić;
20. Narandžić /Nikola/ Luka, 1865, village Narandžić;
21. Rosandić /Simo/ Ilija, 1883, village Balari, Trebinje hills;
22. Rosandić /Đuro/ Obren, 1907, village Grbeši, killed in Đurđev Do, Trebinje hills, on 2nd May
1941;
55
Archives VII, NDH Collection; 4th Police Regiment, box 143; item 46/8·1.
56
Archives VII, NDH Collections; NDH Crimes 1941-1945, box 75, item 23/9-4.
362
23. Rosandić /Risto/ Jovo, 1863, village Grbeši;

24. Rosandić /Jovan/ Mirko, 1919, village Grbeši;
25. Šišković /Savo/ Milan, 1922, village Grbeši;
26. Šišković /Ilija/ Nikola, 1866, village Grbeši;
27. Šišković /Savo/ Obren, 1885, village Grbeši;
28. Šišković /Savo/ Savo, 1880, village Grbeši;
29. Šišković /Savo/ Trifko, 1924, village Grbeši.
In addition to the above-listed men from Trebinje hills, the Ustashas detained
the following people from the Trebinje surroundings: Marić /Tomo/ Spasoje,
born in the village of Zasad in 1902, Ratković /Pavle/ Aćim, born in the vil-
lage of Arslanagić Most in 1883, and Stijačić-Kovačević /Bogdan/ Mara,
born in Trebinje in 1895, an inn-keeper.
Mara was detained by the Ustashas in early August and killed somewhere in
the vicinity of Čapljina.
The two listed men were caught at home. During the search of Aćim Rat-
ković’s house, the Ustashas found a uniform of the former Yugoslav army
captain. They made Aćim put it on and boasted around the city they had “cap-
tured a captain of the Yugoslav army.” The two were added to the afore-men-
tioned Serbian detainees.
Two days later, on 3rd August 1941, the Trebinje Ustashas Ahmet Habul,
Mustafa Habul,57 Avdo Bajrić,58 Huso Selihimadžić,59 Avdo Baraković
and Jakov Dorina took a group of 31 Serbs from the Ustasha prison in
Trebinje to the railway station (Selihimadžić had previously provided a car to
accommodate these Serbs). The tied Serbs were driven to the railway station
in a closed cattle car of type “G.”60
The materials of the State Commission to Investigate the Crimes of Nazis and
Their Allies state the following: “It was during the day the Čapljina Ustashas
killed all 29 (31, author’s note) [detainees, t/n] by shooting them. They first
staged a farmer’s escape and used it as an excuse to murder the others. The
infamous Ustasha slaughterers from Čapljina took part in the massacre, and
we remember some of them were Huso Maksumić from Čapljina (shot), Mujo
57
Sentenced to death by hangign.
58
Avdo Bajrić was one of the participants in the Ustasha genocidal operations at Begović
Kula, the transport and killing of the Serbs at the Čapljina Railway Station; Mostar County
Court, item 119/53, dated 23rd February 1953.
59
Sentenced to three years of imprisonment.
60
AJ-F-110; file 818.
363
Misić from Čapljina (shot), an NDH pilot whose name we do not know, son
of Jakov Šulić from Dretelj.”61
This is what Sergeant Bećirspahić, Commander of the Čapljina gendarmerie
station, reported about the event:
“Today (4th August), at about 10 o’clock, 28 Chetniks arrived in a closed
railway car, sent from the Trebinje Ustasha camp to the Čapljina Ustasha
camp.
At about 12 o’clock the car with the Chetniks was outside the train station in
Čapljina. When the Ustasha guards opened the car to give water to the detain-
ees, as they requested, they attacked the guards and even snatched the gun of
one of the Ustashas; one Chetnik began running. The Ustashas then opened
gunfire on the fleeing Chetniks (in the previous sentence it says only one
Chetnik escaped, author’s note) and those who were in the car, killing them
all. Only one Ustasha was slightly injured in the arm. The corpses are at the
site of the event.”62
The Commission material clearly shows there was no attack on the Ustasha
guards. The detainees never attempted an escape either, because the victims
were tied by wires, two by two. According to eyewitness accounts, the car
door was never opened; instead, some drunken Ustashas came and started
shooting at the car. When they thought they had killed everybody inside, the
opened the car, jumped in and slaughtered the detainees with knives. Besides,
those people were no Chetniks; they were simply people gullible enough to
believe the Ustasha lies they would enjoy legal safety and their property
would be safe as well, so they stayed at home and were eventually killed.
One of the witnesses, well informed about the things happening at and around
the Čapljina railway station, says the following about the bloody massacre:
“One day (3rd August 1941), I was on duty as the signalman at the Čapljina
station. A passenger train arrived, accompanied with a closed freight car
loaded with 27 Serbs from Popovo Polje (they were Serbs from Trebinje hills,
author’s note). The car was detached in Čapljina and immediately afterwards,
at around 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the detainees were killed at the very
station. The murderers were Huso Maksumić from Čapljina, Ibrahim Baljić,
the station master, Franjo Veber, an engine driver, and Hasan Seferović, a
switchman, who did not shoot, but had a gun in his hand. Following an agree-
61
AJ-F-110; DKRZ; file 3846; item 56.709.
62
Archives VII, box 151 а. item 40; file 12; box 308; item 32/1-1.
364
ment with Ibrahim Baljić, the station master, Ilija Bakalar, the fireroom man-
ager, came at around midnight and brought an engine with engineer Filip
Kukić, who drove the dead people to the entry signal for Čapljina and threw
them into some pit there. The car was accompanied by Janko Vego, Marko
Tambić and Jure Bakalar, who told me where they had disposed of the
corpses.”63
In the evening, Pero Jukić, the Ustasha Commissioner for Čapljina, gave an
order to the fireroom manager to attach the car in question to an engine and
drive it away from the station, in order to dispose of the detainees there. Ac-
cording to the order, the car was pulled about 500 metres away from the
Čapljina station.64
The corpses of the victims were taken out of the car and buried in a common
grave, which was covered with slag, at a place called Kuk near Čapljina.65
During the construction of the standard-gauge railway between Sarajevo and
Ploče, the remains of 27 victims, of the total of 35 (some girls from the village
of Prebilovci were also buried there) were taken to a tomb (cemetrey) in the
village of Prebilovci.
Prebilovci
63
Mustafa Latić, A.J-F-1 10: item 56.736.
64
AJ-F-110; F. 23.888.
65
Sofija Šakota, AJ; Refugee Commissariat, file 200.
365
Milorad Nosović, son of Obrad
THE CRIMES OF THE

CROATIA AGAINST
SERBS, JEWS AND
GYPSIES 1941-1945 IN
THE BILEĆA
MUNICIPALITY
THE KORITA PIT
Introduction
Unlike other pits, which were filled with innocent Serbian victims, the Korita
pit has to be the most widely mentioned in historical and literary writings.
It was written about by historians Savo Skoko and Novak Mandić Studo, the
writer Vuk Drašković, the poet Božo Đuranović, Prof. dr Milivoje - Mišo
Trklja from Korita and many others.
It was lauded in a series of poems written in decasyllable and octosyllable
form as well as in many rhymes and so on. In their work, the authors strived
to include as much of the truth as possible in telling about this crime and they
gave their own view of the events, which were really worth the attention. In
this written account, I will attempt to give a concise image of the events that
took place at the Korita pit and also try to shed new light on some events and
explanations about which others have written hardly anything or nothing.
367
What is going to assist me in this is the fact that, as a five-year-old boy, I

remembered some scenes related to the Korita pit and, as a grown man, I
talked to people who survived that suffering and were taken out of the pit
alive.
I will describe the events which took place from 28th May to 6th June 1941.
In the introduction, I will talk about the distant past of the village Korita,
which certainly had an influence on this hideous event. I do this to help the
reader to better understand the events at the Korita pit and to resolve many
dilemmas which the younger generations have after reading the works of his-
torians and authors about the crimes in the village Korita.
The name of the village of Korita
Korita [the name of the village, Korita, has the same form as the plural form
of the Serbian equivalent of “trough,” t/n] look like a trough of irregular shape
which, at the far end, resemble an oval-shaped cauldron.
According to research of scientists and writers, this area or cove had three
trough-like concavities. One of them is the current village of Korita. The other
trough is the current village of Brestice and the third trough is the current
village of Hodžići. They were three trough-like concavities and that is why
this area, as a whole, was called Korita, that is in plural form. Through found-
ing a large number of beyliks in this area, the villages Brestice and Hodžići
got their names which they still have today, but the third trough remained
known under this name and kept the name Korita, although it would be logical
that it bears the name KORITO [singular form instead of plural, t/n]. The
village Korita covers about 30 km2 of area. The altitude of the village centre
is 870 m. The east part of the village borders Montenegro. One half of the
hamlet Biteljica belongs to Montenegro and the other to Herzegovina. The
north part of the village, directly above the hill and pit Kobilja Glava, borders
the territory of Gacko. All up to World War II, the village belonged to the
Gacko county. The village Korita borders villages Meka Gruda, Hodžići,
Brestice, Stepen, Prerace/Olobrđe Crkvice (border with Montenegro). It is
surrounded by mountains such as: Somina, Orlovo Brdo, Planik, Bobija and
so on.
368
The village Korita in the distant past
No other village in Herzegovina, and probably in the wider area, can be found
which, in all historical periods (the Ottoman rule, Austro-Hungarian rule,
World War I and World War II), suffered such horrific and bloody events as
Korita. That is the reason why travel writers named it “bloody Korita” in their
writing. I will support this with some examples, in order to shed light on an-
other aspect of the Korita pit case; an aspect which was not examined enough
by historians in the research connected to this village.
In geographical, military and geostrategic terms, the features of this village
have always made it an area of interest for many: traders and outlaws, con-
querors and defenders, the Ottomans and hayduks. In the village, there are
visible remains of Illyrian mounds, Greek boundaries, Roman legionnaires,
wedding party cemetreies, monuments. I will single out two significant his-
torical sites, the Old Road and the Ottoman Town.
The old mediaeval road, which stretched from the direction of Dubrovnik,
Trebinje and Bileća, runs through the central part of the village. As it exits
Korita, it stretches towards Gacko, Foča, Goražde, Višegrad and further on
across Užice towards Serbia. This road never brought Korita any good. Since
the rule of the Nemanjić dynasty in Serbia and to the Austro-Hungarian oc-
cupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, this road has been used for the
passage of convoys and trade, linking the coast and Dubrovnik with Hungary
in the north and Byzantine in the east.
Considering how many terrible events happened on this road, especially in
Korita, it has often been referred to as “the road of death.” Using this road,
caravans transported salt and cloth to Bosnia, Belgrade, Niš, Skopje, Sofia
and Byzantine and brought back wool and leather, as well as lead ore from
Bosnia.
As a village on the border with Montenegro, overgrown with dense forest, the
village Korita was a perfect place for the operation of hayduks, who caused
turmoil in the whole of Herzegovina. Organising ambushes, hayduk troops
robbed convoys and traders, often killing them in a cruel way and then skill-
fully retreating from the road with the spoils. Their biggest victims were Ot-
toman convoys and traders. These events were described in many folk poems,
where the term “bloody Korita” is frequently mentioned. A story like that is
told in an epic poem from that period when, on this road in the centre of the
village, hayduks ambushed and massacred a Turkish wedding party, which
can today still be “witnessed” in the shape of huge stone grave monuments
369
called “the wedding party cemetrey.” Even today, a pit called Dizdaruša ex-
ists into which, after they had killed him, hayduks threw a certain Bey Dizdar
from Korita.
In the village, there is another significant landmark which is connected to the
events which will occur to the great misfortune of this village. It is an old
Ottoman (Turkish) town, built on a hill in the centre of the village, not far
from the border with Montenegro. It was not built there by accident. Namely,
the following happened: southwest of Gacko, the town of Ključ was built
while Greeks lived in this region. After 1183 Stevan Nemanja banished the
Greeks from Ključ and appropriated this town where Serbian rulers changed
throughout the middle ages.
After the fall of Smederevo in 1459, the Ottomans charged Herzegovina; they
plundered and ravaged it. Three years before the Ottomans captured Ključ
(1469), Korita was, in January 1466, in Ottoman hands. None of the families
which were in Korita in 1941, with those family names, lived in Korita in that
mediaeval period. There were other families, such as: Novaković, Milićević,
Starovlah and so on. This tells us about the difficult life of Serbs under the
Ottomans and about constant migrations of Serbian people in the region.
The town of Ključ, occupied by the Turks, represented a point of dominance
in the restless area of the border with Montenegro.
The ruler of Ključ, Sulejman-pasha Resulbegović, could not ensure safety to-
wards the border with Montenegro, so on the vizier's order, he built a new
Turkish town in Korita, which was called Korita's town. Three-storey towers
were built, as well as two wells, a mosque and so on. The town was sur-
rounded with high walls and also protection from intrusions of hayduks and
rebels. By orders from Ključ, it was governed by the family Dizdarević. Ot-
toman rule over Herzegovina and Korita started in 1466 and lasted to 1st Au-
gust 1875 (409 years).
In 1875, Herzegovina rebels, with the help of Montenegrins under the com-
mand of Peko Pavlović, took the town in Korita, tore down the towers and
watchtowers and banished the Turks toward Cernica and Metohija (Gacko).
The towers, watchtowers and houses covered in straw were burned down. The
people of Korita were active participants in this uprising between 1875 and
1878. Vasilj and Trifko Svorcan from Korita were officers in the chain of
command of the rebel battalion. The Turks were banished from Korita and
the estates they used for centuries stayed behind. Even today, some valleys in
the village have Turkish name such as: Mujov Do, Ibrove doline and so on.
370
In 1878, in the Congress of Berlin, Austria-Hungary was given protectorate

over Bosnia and Herzegovina, which meant that Korita would not fare well
in this period. Muslims and Croats became loyal, even servants to Austria-
Hungary, which was not the case with Serbs. That is why the Serbs, after the
death of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, will be persecuted, killed and hung.
In the killing and persecution of Serbs, the cruellest were Schutzkorps, who
were formed by Muslims and Croats. In the hanging of Serbs in Avtovac,
three men from Korita were hung - Janko Kurdulija, Jovan Svorcan and
Spasoje Dumnić. People from Korita volunteered in World War I on a large
scale. Out of 132 volunteers, 63 soldiers lost their lives in the front lines, in
the Macedonian front and other places. Out of the 69 soldiers who survived,
only 37 died of natural causes. Ustashas threw 29 of them into the pits and
three died in World War II. An interesting fact is that, in 1915, the Austrians
and their helpers, the Schutzkorps, filled the Korita pits and coves with dead
bodies. An Austrian colonel, who was a company commander, also died there
and the occupation government erected a monument in his honour in the vil-
lage in 1917.
I gave this short overview of events in the village with the goal of showing
the reader that over the centuries many have left their mark on Korita, the
Turks, hayduks, Austrians, Germans, Schutzkorps and Ustashas. Not guilty
of anything, the people of this village paid a bloody price every time. Unjus-
tified hate existed towards the people of Korita only because they defended
their pride, because they were brave and unfaltering, and they were consistent
in their dignity and courage. That hate of the enemies of the village was
passed down from generation to generation, attributing many murders, which
they had nothing with, to the people of that village. It is known for a fact that
this hate was instilled in the minds of Gacko Ustashas and even though it was
not the deciding factor to attack Korita, it did contribute to an easier organi-
sation and psychological readiness of the butchers for their shameless deeds.
The Ustashas’ motivation to attack Korita
There are several reasons why the Ustashas decided to make Korita their first
target and here I am going to list a few of the most important ones:
In the general Ustasha policy, the idea was to clear the border area with Mon-
tenegro so that Montenegrins would have less support from Serbs living in
this border area. The Ustasha estimated that the greatest threat to them came
from the area where Korita was located.
371
Ustashas were aware that after the first such crime it would be difficult to
commit a second or third, because people would start to flee and give armed
resistance. The potential danger lay in the fact that Korita was the village with
the largest number of men in the Gacko county and killing the people of this
village represented the most useful hideous crime for the Ustashas.
It was considered that, in 1941, Korita was a very wealthy village for that
period. The fact that at the time of Ustasha plundering, according to the esti-
mate of the Commission for war damages, about 17 000 animals of small and
large livestock were taken from the village, which speaks about the wealth in
livestock of the village. An addition to the wealth was the fact that the people
from Korita who were at the Macedonian front had awarded land in Vojvo-
dina, Slavonia and other areas for which they received a very favourable rent.
Certain families had large sums of money, jewellery and expensive clothes -
their Muslim neighbours from the Gacko county knew all that. On the gravel
road, which connected Bileća and Gacko, there were three inns working at
the time in Korita, which further strengthened the economic power of the vil-
lage. The Ustasha appetite to get hold of all this was more than abundant.
Acquaintance and false friendship with the people of Korita, in which the
villagers believed, as honest men would, and the fact that the Golubnjača pit
was situated on the edge of the gravel road, all gave additional confidence to
execute the Ustashas' evil intentions successfully.
Why the deceit was allowed
From a present perspective, many people wonder how the people of Korita
allowed themselves to trust Ustashas to gather them in a “conference” and to
become victims of villains. It cannot be said that were no serious doubts in
the good intentions of Ustashas, but the circumstances of life and the dirty
policy of killing Serbs, which was carefully planned and of which people in
the countryside knew nothing, made a suitable ground for surprises and de-
ceits. Who knew about the motto of the clergy “one part of the Serbs we will
kill, one catholicise and another relocate,” or that Muslims had become “Cro-
atian flowers.” Here are some objective reasons, specific for the people of
Korita at the time. The people of Korita knew what life was like in this village
under the Dizdarević family for more than 400 years and they also knew about
hanging Serbs by the Schutzkorps in 1914 and burning the village to the
ground, but for them the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was sacred.
They loved and respected it. They believed that, in the Independent State of
372
Croatia, Croats cannot be their enemies by religion and cross. The opinion of
soldiers from the Macedonian front (volunteers) was respected and, at that
time, Korita even had a ban councillor which represented the entire popula-
tion of the Gacko county in the council. All that were some kind of assurances
that nothing surprising could happen to them. Who could even have thought
of a crime, to throw alive people in a pit?
The deceit could also be executed because the pit in Korita was the first mass
grave in this region. If the people of Korita had heard of these cases happen-
ing, they would certainly not have come to the conference and would have
given armed resistance. Not to mention the wonderful neighbourly relations
with Muslims in Gacko, meeting together and honouring each other, visiting
each other for various celebrations, being godfathers to each other and so on.
All that instilled trust into honest families of Korita for their neighbours. Not
to mention the friendly relations they had with Croats from Dubrovnik and
Konaval. They were always trading and making friendships. Through that
friendship, the people of Korita had trust in all Croats. The people in Korita
always respected the government and paid taxes regularly. If they did not re-
spect the new authorities of N D H, there could be consequences for their
families and children, their property and livestock could be seized. So, it is
better to be obedient and loyal to the new government. They did not do any-
thing bad to anyone, so there was no need for them to be punished in a harsh
and inhumane way. That is how honestly the people of Korita reasoned and
made their decisions which will cost them dearly.
The Ustashas arrive in Korita
In May 1941, Herman Krešo Togonal arrived to Gacko with a group of Usta-
shas and formed an Ustasha camp and headquarters for managing and organ-
ising the atrocities they were about to commit. Herman was a former student
from Travnik. He was appointed the Ustasha commissioner for the Gacko
county. Džemo Tanović - Ibanović from Gacko's Fazlagić Kula was ap-
pointed as the head commissioner for North Herzegovina. Josip Rosi, from
Donji Vakuf, was appointed chief of county in Gacko.
On 28th May 1941, a Wednesday, singing on a truck with displayed cheq-
uered flags, around 20 Ustashas came to the gate of the primary school in
Korita with the goal of establishing a base for putting into action their horrible
and well prepared plan. In the school, classes were held by teacher Zorka
Ivković. According to the statements of pupils at the time, Ustashas told the
373
children the following: “Listen, kids, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia does not
exist anymore. The new Independent State of Croatia is formed. The Italians
govern Montenegro. We are taking over power. Go home! There will be no
more classes, because we will be living in the school. Tell your parents that
everyone who has a rifle has to bring it and hand it over to us, immediately.
Military uniforms as well. We will go around the village and if we find some-
one who has these things and did not hand them over, they will be severely
punished.”
So, Ustashas settled in the primary school. The armoury in the school was
managed by an imam from Ključ by the name of Glavinić; he was about 35
years old. He finished 4 grades of primary school and 5 grades of madrasah
in the village Begović Kula, in the Trebinje county. He worked as a teacher
in Ključ. On 14th August 1946, he was tried in the District court of Mostar,
where it was proven that Glavinić formed an armed squad of the most notori-
ous Ustashas in Ključ. The simple Muslim people listened to him and looked
at him as a leader. He arrived to Korita with that armed Ustasha squad. As
soon as he established an armed base in the school, he began to spread ag-
gressive Ustasha propaganda. It was announced that the rule of the NDH in
this region is being established. Their task was to keep “public order,” so eve-
ryone must act according to the requirements of the new government. They
request people surrender all their arms and military equipment. Also, they
warn that no one has any reason to be afraid. However, they also warn that no
one is allowed to cross the border into Montenegro, because now that is a
separate country. Border patrols were formed on the border with Montenegro.
At first, they did not commit mass robberies. The first was at the agricultural
cooperative in Hodžići, about 2,5 kilometres from the Ustasha base. They
took some provisions. They brought bread from Gacko and other provisions
they took from the cooperative.
On 1st June, they put up a notice, signed by Muharem Glavinić, on the store
of Milija Bjelica in the village centre, about 400 metres from the school. The
notice stated that all adult men between the ages of 16 and 60 need to come
to a conference on Monday, 2nd June, in the Sokolski Dom building. Ustashas
went around the village and explained that the conference is going to be held
to explain how the people need to act because Korita is in a sensitive location
on the border with Montenegro. In the conference, it will be explained how
the people should behave and how and under which circumstances passes will
be issued, who will be able to go across the border and, generally, how to
behave in the new state of the NDH. Going around the village, Ustashas noted
in detail the state of things in Korita (how many houses there were, how many
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adult men there were, their movement, how much livestock they own and so
on). Two wealthy, for the period, merchant families Trkalja from Hodžići,
were included in the elaborate infernal plan for Korita. The plan also included
the villages Zagrac and Njemanica near the Muslim village of Ključ. The
prison facilities were not only Sokolski Dom in Korita but also the school,
where Ustashas had their base. The school was the place where a small num-
ber of people from Korita, Njemanica and Stepen were locked up and then
later shot. One day before the gathering of people from Korita, Ustashas cap-
tured the gusle player Radovan Šarović from Stepen, brought him to the
school, beat him up and cut his head off on the chopping block, after which
they threw his body and head in the septic hole in the school yard. The second
victims was Blagoje Šarović, also from Stepen. This happened on 1st June,
when the main organiser of the Ustasha campaign in Korita, Krešo Herman
Togonal, came from Gacko to Korita, with his escort, to see for himself the
“conference.” They came round Blagoje's house, where they staged that they
found weapons and ammunition in the house and in front of his wife and four
young children, they killed poor Blagoje.
The people of Korita did not know about these two murders, neither did peo-
ple in other villages, because peasants were not allowed to move freely and
so they could not get any kind of information.
The people are gathered at Sokolski Dom and the school
For the “conference” to be successful, on Monday, 2nd June, Krešo Togonal

and his commander Muharem Glavinić sent patrols in groups of three or
more, reinforced with newly arrived Ustashas, from their base to go all over
the village, from hamlet to hamlet, from house to house and personally invite
or take with them to Sokolski Dom everyone who they found at home. The
ones who were not home were left a message to come to the “conference,” if
necessary, under the threat of death.
Going around families in Korita, the patrols explained how a senior Ustasha
official will be there and that he will tell them about the new government and
about how they can move around and so on, and after that, everyone would
be free to go back to their homes. On the morning of 2nd June, I, a five-year-
old boy, was with my mother and grandmother at home in Korita. My father
was hoeing potatoes in the neighbouring village Hodžići. About 1 kilometre
away, three Ustashas were coming towards our house, shooting their rifles.
When they reached the house, they complained that people in Korita were
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shooting at them. “You see, we, as the new government of the NDH, want to
protect you from any harm and your people are shooting at us.” They asked
about my father and ordered that he immediately comes to the “conference,”
otherwise he would be severely punished. There was even a threat to the fam-
ily and children if he did not come. On 2nd June and in the two following
days, Ustashas arrested all the men they managed to capture between 16 and
60 years of age. Many people even came on their own to share the fate with
others, but some, despite all the warnings, did not want to go. One such person
was my father. When he came home that evening, despite all the persuasion
by my mother and grandmother, he did not want to go to the “conference,”
instead he spent the night in the forest, near our house. “I don't know why I
didn't go there. I simply didn't feel like going although I wasn't any smarter
than other people” said Obrad. There were other such cases of disobedience
to the Ustasha invitations.
Concerning the age of the arrested people, Ustashas went beyond the plan, so
they arrested Kosta Glušac, who was 12 years old, then Vukota Jakšić, who
was 14, and Jefto Svorcan, an 80-year-old man. By Wednesday evening, that
was 4th June, there were 125 people imprisoned in Sokolski Dom and there
were 10 people in the school building, which means that there was a total of
135 people imprisoned by that date. Not counting the Kurdulija brotherhood,
whose houses Ustashas did not dare get close to, except for one house, be-
cause this family lived in a forested terrain close to the border with Montene-
gro, about 68% of people of Korita, between the age of 16 and 60, were ar-
rested between 1st and 4th June.
Detained at Sokolski Dom
I spoke in person to two survivors who were taken out of the pit, Milija Bjelica
and Obren Nosović. I was especially interested in the events in Sokolski Dom
on 2nd, 3rd and 4th June. My interlocutors had identical testimonies.
Ustashas had strongly secured the building against prisoners' escape and a
potential attack of Montenegrins. At about 10 metres from the building, Usta-
shas set up a machine gun which was pointed at the doors and windows of the
building. The entrance was manned by several armed guards. Other armed
Ustashas constantly patrolled around the building. As the night of 4th June
was approaching, the number of Ustashas grew. For these two days, the pris-
oners received food from their families. When the food was delivered, no
contact between family members and prisoners was allowed. Before people
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got it, the food was carefully inspected. A guard would stir milk with a spoon
or break up a loaf of bread and so on, in order to see whether there is a letter
or some kind of message in the food. The prisoners in Sokolski Dom were
starting to lose their patience. The promise that they would be released after
an hour or two was obviously a lie. Putting off the conference until the com-
missioner arrived only deepened the suspicion about the Ustashas' sincerity.
The tension about what was going to happen to them was growing. Being
executed and thrown into a pit never crossed their minds. The idea of attempt-
ing to escape started to spread among the prisoners. One of the ideas was to
make, during the night, a hole in the wall on the south side of the building,
get out through that hole and escape. The south side of the Sokolski Dom was
not particularly guarded because that side did not have any doors or windows.
The other option was to have the single and strong young men charge through
the front door and take control of the machine gun. Such a strike should be
done through the windows as well and in that way enable the prisoners to
escape. The supporters of this option were Bogdan Svorcan and Gojko Bjel-
ica. They had support from the young, but not the older men, the Macedonian
front volunteers, village headmen and other prominent men. “No, for the sake
of God,” pleaded the ones who were against taking any action. “We will all
die and our families will be killed and robbed. We are going to be released
after the questioning by the Ustashas.” There were even some threats that
those who would like to organise the breakout would be reported. Village
headmen Vaso Svorcan particularly opposed the attempt of an escape. And
this is the reason why. The Ustasha headman Džemo Tanović invited his best
man Vaso to Metohija (Gacko), in the period when Korita was already occu-
pied, and told him to influence others and that they needed to remain calm
and dignified, to take care of their homes and property, because the new Cro-
atian government had no intentions to do anything and no one would miss “a
single hair on their heads.” That is why Vaso, using his authority and persua-
sion, insisted on no one trying to organise a breakout, because he had a solemn
promise of a Ustasha headman that nothing bad could happen to them.
In the evening on 4th June, Herman Togonal came in with a large group of
Ustashas into the Sokolski Dom and gave a speech in which he said that the
prisoners were only held for so long because they did not surrender their
weapons and military equipment and that meant that they did not recognise
the authority of the NDH. What was about to follow was the questioning and
those who admit to having weapons and surrender them would be released
straight away, but those who do not, will be sent to forced labour in Germany.
377
The people are tied up and taken to the pit
There were several rooms in Sokolski Dom. People were tied, beaten and tor-
tured in those rooms. The room behind the large hall, the co-called coatroom,
was where they took people for questioning, one at a time. They asked about
weapons and similar questions. The person whose name was called would be
tied in one room and placed in another.
“When they called my name, there, I found my brother Golub tied up,” the
survivor Milija Bjelica talks about what happened there. “Then, they tied me
up, with my back to my brother's back. A third man was tied up with us, but
to our side. All groups of three prisoners were tied up in that way. You cannot
move anywhere. If you try to move, one of you has to go forward, the other
one backward and the third one sideways, so movement was completely pre-
vented. Tied in such a way, we were pushed into another room. There we
waited to be transported to the pit. They tied us with rope. I recognised the
man who prepared the rope. He was Bećir Musić from Gacko, but he was
born in Korita. Halid Krvavac from Gračanica, who I knew, was the one who
tied us. Šerif Zvizdić monitored how tight the rope was around our hands. No
one in the large hall knew what was happening to the people who were called
out and taken away. They thought that people are being questioned and then
released. It was deep into the night when they tied up all of us. From time to
time, Ustashas came to the room where I was. They would beat anyone they
wanted to, they asked about weapons and made up excuses to beat people.
So, Simo Milović was beaten for alleged collaboration with Majo Vujović, a
well-known komitas.”
Obren Nosović, another survivor from the pit, also stated that they were hit
with gunstocks and other objects. The hate for Serbs and brutality towards
people did not subside. Relatives claim that a prominent man Staniša Dumnić
was tortured to death. “Blows and people screaming could be heard from ad-
jacent rooms,” said both Milija and Obren.
“In order for the people in the large hall not to hear the screams of the tied up
prisoners, Ustashas covered up people's screams with all kinds of songs and
shouting, so the people who were still not tied could not hear anything. When
the last people were taken from the large hall for questioning, they saw the
groups of three people tied up and the screams coming from the rooms. A
large truck came to the entrance of Sokolski Dom and it approached the en-
trance in reverse. Planks were placed, over which the group of three would
be pushed into the truck. Even then people were not aware that they were
going to their death. On the truck cabin, one Ustasha was holding a machine
378
gun and two guards were standing at two corners with their guns pointed at
them. No one was allowed to talk in the truck. If someone tried to say some-
thing, they would be hit on the head or killed with a rifle,” stated Milija
Bjelac.
The Golubnjača pit is open on the side closest to the road and it has flat access
there, so it can easily swallow people. At that time, it was about 26 metres
deep.
“When the truck came and stopped next to the pit, only then we realised what
all that was about,” the survivors say. Moaning of people thrown in the pit
before us could be heard. People started to shout and curse. Cries could be
heard, such as “You'll pay for this, you bloodsuckers! Smite, perpetrators,
there will be Serbs to avenge us!”
Ustashas would push a tied up group to the pit and then shoot them, stab bay-
onets in their chest, hit them with stakes, mallets, axes and throw them into
the pit, mutilated in such ways. They threw in grenades and broke off rocks
above the pit and threw them on the dead bodies, so that no one survives. Still
the moans of the living could be heard, but the perpetrators thought that those
were moans which death would silence. That lasted from 9 o'clock in the
evening until 3 o'clock after midnight, before the morning of 6th June.
A June night was coming to an end, so Ustashas hurried to finish the execu-
tions before it got light. The vehicle made about ten trips from Sokolski Dom
to the pit. In one round they transported 10-15 people tied together in groups.
In one of those rounds was Kosta Glušac and Jakov Milović. Kosta was not
tied because they thought that he was a harmless child. They did not know
that Kosta was a real hero. On the way to the pit, the brave boy untied Jakov
Milović's hands. When they stopped in front of the pit, the boy jumped out
and started to run. There was uproar among the Ustashas and they started
shooting and chasing Kosta. Jakov seized the moment and jumped off, but he
broke his right arm in the fall. Ustashas started to shoot at him and they
wounded him in the same arm, which was left permanently paralysed. How-
ever, young Kosta did not run into the woods, as Jakov did, but he went to his
parents' house, which was about one hundred metres from the pit. Ustashas
chased after him, caught him in his house and threw him into the pit, all beaten
up. All that time, Kosta was cursing and talking about Serbian revenge against
the villains.
Obren says, “I survived by mere accident. Ustashas were standing at the edge
of the pit and shoot the three of us. With their rifles, they killed the two men
who were tied with me. They fell down the rocks and they pulled me with
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them, so Ustashas did not manage to shoot me. I fell on top of dead bodies,
almost unharmed. Over dead bodies I managed to hide away in a recess in the
pit. Some time after that, a grenade exploded and I was severely wounded
across my arms and back. I experienced unbearable pain, but the thirst was
worse than the pain. In a semi-conscious state, I licked the rocks around me:
sweat, blood, brains and everything I could find in a deadly suffering of thirst.
The vehicle used to transport people was owned by Muma Hasanbegović
from Avtovci. On that night, it was driven by Mumo's son together with one
servant. On 5th June, the execution of captured Serbs and Ustasha plundering
continued with the song:
We, Ustashas, do not drink wine,

Only the blood of our Serbian brethren.
They went from one house to the next, pillaging each one in turn. They or-
dered the women and children to let their livestock out of the stables for them
to take it away with them. “Your men have been sent to Germany for forced
labour. Their families will be deported too. That’s why you don’t need your
cattle anymore,” the Ustashas told them. The women who opposed the Usta-
sha looting were beaten, and as they beat them, the violators cursed their vic-
tims’ Serbian mothers. They opened the girls’ endowment chests, took socks
and shirts out of them and changed, getting rid of their blood-stained clothes.
“Take that ring off your hand,” they said to the women wearing rings, “or
we’ll cut your hand off.” They knew exactly where they could find leather
coats and other valuable things, and took them. Vidak Nosović had brought a
gold-decorated baize suit from America and wanted his sons to wear it on
their wedding days. They took the suit out of the chest it lay in and threw it
into the fire. Stana, his hard-working homemaker, saved it; to this day, this
suit, saved by accident and never worn, is kept at Tvrdoš Monastery in
Trebinje, as vowed/decided by the descendants of the original owner of the
suit. In the morning of 5th June, when they started taking their cattle out of
the stables, Korita resounded with the bellowing of oxen, cows and calves,
and the bleeting of sheep and lambs. The men who were driving the livestock
away shot their rifles and rejoiced because of such fine spoils. I was only a
child, but those moments have been carved in my mind ever since. Never
before had we heard such uproar and bleeting of herds. The dogs did not bark,
they whined and howled. They forced the children to help them. They were
380
ruthless in their treatment of both the women and children. There was no rea-
son for them to be nice or gentle, like when they took the people away for the
“conference.” They had already done the main thing. The women, misfortu-
nate mothers, already widowed, whose children were now orphans, were
helpless and in no position to confront the looters. Massive herds of livestock
moved from everywhere, from each and every corner of the village, towards
Kobilja Glava and the pit. The livestock fought against being driven as well.
In some cases horses and cattle separated from the rest and turned back to the
village. Some industrious, undertaking men and women managed to save their
herds by forcing them to the village of Hodžići and across the border with
Montenegro, which later served a good purpose and helped the poor people
of Korita survive many calamities.
While some of the villains were plundering the village, others went on killing
the Serbs who had not been thrown down the pit the night before. That day,
it was 5th June, the school prisoners were shot, and another group of Serbs
executed near Kobilja Glava, in the vicinity of the pit. According to the sur-
vivors, eight people were shot near the school at about 4 p.m. (4 from Korita,
3 from Njemanica and 1 from Zagraci). Ten people had been brought to be
executed, but two of them, of the Milošević family from the village of Nje-
manica, managed to escape. As previously stated, Šarović, a folk gusle player,
had already been killed and thrown into a cesspit. Of the eleven people kept
at the school, nine perished. Another two villagers from Korita were most
probably killed the same day, one kilometre away from their homes. They
had let them bring their rifles, and once those were handed over, they took
them into the forest and shot them. People were killed at one more location,
the third killing site on 5th June, 200 m away from the pit. Apparently, the
Ustashas from Ključ had arrested nine members of the Milović family from
Zagraci and were taking them to the pit to throw them in. It was already late
in the afternoon. As they were approaching the pit, they came upon more
Ustashas with their loot. They were already in danger from Montenegrins and
the Kurdulija brethren. Apprehensive, they found no time to take the arrested
Milović men to the pit but rather summarily killed them on the spot. Five died
out of the nine they had brought. One was seriously wounded and died imme-
diately after the execution, but three of them managed to escape and kept their
lives. On 5th June, the Ustashas did not even let the pit alone. They knew
there were people in it who were still alive. They returned to the pit several
times, called the people inside by their first names, and said they were their
saviours from Montenegro. They invited those who still lived to crawl from
the corners of the pit to its centre so they could “pull them out and save them.”
Many believed, and as they, barely alive, drew towards the middle of the pit,
381
the Ustashas threw bombs and rocks at them and finished them off. We will
never know the number of those who had survived the fall in the pit, but many
more would have been saved if it hadn’t been for the Ustasha’s deception and
cowardly trickery. As they looted the Korita household, they did not burn the
houses or stables, as the Schutzkorps did in 1914. They hoped to get hold of
the rich estates of the Korita people for themselves.
Montenegrins learn about the Korita villagers in the pit
When the night fell on 5th June, the Ustashas retreated to Gacko and the
neighbouring villages, taking their loot with them. The village was shrouded
in unbearable sorrow. It was peaceful around the pit.
According to survivor accounts, it was some time during the night on 6th June
that Dušan Jakšić succeeded in pulling himself out of the pit; the youth was
capable of a feat the others were not. No one can understand how he managed
to climb the practically verticle sides of the pit, which one can only fly out of.
He used to say he only had an iron rod at his disposal and a few belts, which
he used to crawl up the vertical sides. In one part of the pit, hidden from the
entrance, a tree with branches grew. The same branches kept Radovan Šakota,
another survivor, from breaking against the bottom.
When Dušan had climbed out of the pit, he pulled Radovan up with the belts
he had tied one to another. While it was still dead of the night, the two headed
to the village of Crkvice, on the Montenegrin border. It all happened before
the dawn on 6th June. On the night of 5 th June, Jakov Milović had got to the
village, preceding the two. He told the villagers what had happened to the
people from Korita, but nobody belived him. They were reassured when
Dušan and Radovan arrived. The Montenegrins quickly got themselves ready
to go to Korita and save the people who had stayed alive. They made a deal
with the Kurdulija brethren. More than fifty Serb saviours reached the pit on
6th June. A most astonishing sight was what they found at the edge of the pit,
stains of blood, pieces of human brain and the objects used to push the people
inside. They posted guards all around the pit, with ropes and other tools at
hand to use to pull out the survivors. What made the action more diffcult was
the heavy stench of the already decomposing corpses and swarms of flies.
Those who needed to descend into the pit had the most difficult task. It was
Ljubo and Petar Kurdulija who volunteered first. They tied rope around the
survivors in the pit, and those above pulled them up along the steep walls.
The action lasted between two and three hours. Six people were pulled out.
382
They were: Milija Bjelica, Obren Nosović, Аćim Jakšić, Rade Svorcan, Vlado
Glušac and Vidak Glušac. Immediately after he was removed from the pit,
Vidak Glušac died because of the blows and injuries he had suffered. If Dušan
and Radovan are included, a total of eight people, of all Korita villagers, came
out of the Korita pit. Here is what happened to them afterwards: Milija Bjel-
ica, Obren Nosović and Radovan Šакота survived the Second World War.
They died by natural causes. Dušan Jakšić was killed by the Partisans in the
village of Kovači in the early 1944. According to hearsay, Aćim Jakšić joined
the Chetnicks, was wounded in combat during the liberation of Belgrade in
October 1944 and died in hospital. Rade Svorcan, who was an only child,
recovered from the terrible injuries he had suffered in the pit. He was
wounded in Korita fighting against the Partisans in 1943 and died in hospital
in Dubrovnik. Vlado Glušac died fighting as a Partisan in Montenegro in
1944.
The poor flee for Montenegro
Not a single soul could be found at Korita after the events of 5th, 6th and 7th
of June. The survivors, whether man, woman or child – fled to Montenegro,
to their friends, godfathers and neighbours, their brothers in roots, faith and
fate, willing and ready to jointly share the blows of destiny, as they had pre-
viously done in 1875 and 1914, and many other times of hardship. The Korita
houses were empty, the pens no longer had any creatures in them. The refu-
gees from Korita and other villages in this part of Herzegovina flooded the
area of Banjani in Montenegro, from Somina to Crkvice to Kapavica. Mon-
tenegrin families (Mićunović, Rogač, Orbović, Vukajlović, Kraljević, Ko-
vačević, Lučić, Đedović, Đutović, Bjeletić, Vujačić, to mention only some of
them) welcomed to their modest homes a real invasion of refugees from Her-
zegovina and shared with them even the most meager of meals. Can there be
greater sympathy, humaneness and charity? Both the deceased and their de-
scendants are greatly and eternally endebted to those people. A song has re-
mained going back to those throubled times:
Montenegro, you are our mother

you saved us from the Ustashas.
Some acts of integrity
383
There have been rumours the villagers of Korita had been warned to leave
their homes and take refuge, or else they would be killed. Tales of the guards
posted at the community centre and school of leaving their rifles and the
places where they had brought the arrested villagers to signal them they
needed to run, and of messages arriving from Muslims from Gacko and Bileća
to stay away and take care of themselves are mere fabrication. There were no
acts or indications that could have warned the arrested about the Ustashas’
intentions. As the pillage proceded, there were cases of individual Ustashas
standing up for this or that family, in protection of the innocent people from
the rampaging looters. The survivors stated that, for example, as Milija Bjel-
ica stood with his arms tied at the community centre, an Ustasha came up, lit
a cigarette and put it into Milija’s mouth, as he knew what relief it brought to
a person being in such an exasperating situation.
An Ustasha from Gacko took my aunt’s cattle and sheep from the stable and
pen. As he was an acquaintance, he left a dozen sheep inside the stable and
locked it for the other Ustashas not to see. As he was leaving, he whispered
in her ear about the sheep he had left in the stable. On one occasion, an Usta-
sha pulled his rifle to kill the woman of the house, and another one stopped
him, threatening to shoot him if he killed a mother of five – five underaged
children stood by her side. As some boys, some poor orphaned souls, were on
their way to the community centre, eager to find out what had happened to
their fathers and totally unaware of the Ustasha danger, an Ustasha met them
and warned them to run to the woods and stay hidden, lest they should be
killed, just like their fathers.
When the loot, the livestock brought to the Muslim villages of Gacko, was to
be shared, there were householders who refused to be a part of it, saying it
was somebody’s hard work, it was a sin. The Ustashas forced them to have
their share, in an attempt to make them dirty their hands too. Evidently, some
of those who took part in the bloody rampage had been misinformed and
tricked into joining. They had never dreamed the pit would happen, thinking
they were to send people to Germany and come back with a fat loot. Some
had been threatened by those leading the gangs to join in the bloody feast.
The misery suffered by the villagers of Korita is best shown by the infor-
mation collected by Professor Milivoje Trklja in the research he did.
“In 1941, Korita had 720 inhabitants. 12.9% of the population was killed in
the Ustasha genocide. Every eighth villager was killed. Of the ninety-three
villagers who were killed and who had lived permanently in the village, two
hundred and thirty-five children were orphaned (123 male and 111 female)
with the killing of those 93 villagers, who permanently lived at Korita.
384
Ninety-nine children aged 7 and below lost their fathers, and 106 were aged
7 to 15. Twenty-four old men and women survived the war, after losing their
feeders. Two hundred and twenty-nine small children were orphaned and
raised by single mothers, younger than 15, making up 31.5% of the popula-
tion permanently inhabiting the village,” says Milivoje Trklja in his book The
Korita Pit.
Evacuation of bones from the pit and the construction of the

ossuary and memorial
It was in the second half of 1952 that the people of Korita and the surrounding
area, which had lost villagers to the pit of Golubnjača in 1941, made the de-
cision to set up a board that would organise the extraction of the bones from
the pit and the building of an ossuary and a memorial at the centre of the
village of Korita, near the Sokolski Dom. The idea was put into practice and
eleven members were appointed. The Board immediately undertook the job
of organising the activities because of which it had been assembled. First of
all, they needed to get approval from the Bileća authorities and the NOR Vet-
erans’ Alliance. Their plea was heard and supported, and it was agreed not to
permanently concrete the pit, and to mark the site with a memorial plaque.
The design of the ossuary and the memorial was commissioned and paid for
by the County Council of the Bileća Veterans’ Alliance. Since the implemen-
tation required funding and there was none available, the Board decided to
raise the money from the victims’ descendants and the villagers of Korita and
the surrounding area. The material was obtained to build a wooden scaffold
to remove the bones from the pit. Around the middle of 1953, with all the
preparations in place, they began removing the bones, which took three
months. The victims’ bones were taken out, put in coffins and placed tempo-
rarily at the Sokolski Dom. The three corpses first thrown into the pit were
not removed, since they had not decomposed because of all the blood that had
spilt over them. They were eventually extracted in 1956.
When the bones were removed from the pit, it was found that they contained
167 skulls, which means that at least another 35 people had been thrown down
it. They had belonged to the people brought in from the villages around
Gacko. On 5th June, 17 Serbs were shot at Pavlića Crag (Stepen) and their
bodies brought to the pit and thrown in. A group of Jews had been brought to
Gacko from Mostar and Sarajevo, and they were also arrested. Most probably,
they also ended their lives down in the pit.
385
The construction works began in the first half of 1954, as organised by the
Board. The victims’ descendants volunteered and basically did all the earth-
works, which were really extensive. The Board played a trick on the County
Council of the NOR Veterans’ Allinace and asked for reinforcing bars and
cement to supposedly concrete the pit, as was common practice with the other
World War II pits. After procuring the construction material, the Board used
it to build the ossuary and the memorial.
The Korita pit made it into history as the only pit whose remains of the Usta-
sha genocide were extracted and given a proper burial. Golubnjača was never
concreted, to stand as an eternal reminder of the atrocious use it was put to by
the bestial criminals on 4th and 5th June 1941.
After the construction of the ossuary and memorial it was decided to recon-
struct the Sokolski Dom and turn it into a memorial building. No funds were
available and it was decided to raise them again. Assistance came from World
War I veterans, the volunteers of Salonika, living outside Korita, colonist
families, the people of Montenegro and Vojvodina, and the U.S. emigration.
It was thanks to this assistance that the ossuary and a part of the memorial
taking to the ossuary were completed by the end of 1955. This made it possi-
ble to remove the bones from the Sokolski Dom and place them at the ossuary
in 1956.
The memorial building works continued. In accordance with the design, the
ossuary and memorial were completed in 1965, and the only thing which re-
mained to be done, for which there was no funding available at the time, was
the sculpture on the memorial pedestal.
Eight granite plates were mounted on the front side of the memorial, with the
names of the 134 brutally murdered Serbs – thrown down the pit, shot at the
school, the Divljake hedge and the flat ground above Kobilja Glava. They all
came from the villages of Korita, Hodžići, Nemanjci, Zagraci, Cernica and
Stepen. They came from the families of Svorcan, Nosović, Jakšić, Bjelica,
Šakota, Dumnić, Glušac, Rogač, Kurdulija, Kovačević, Starović, Trklja, Mi-
lović, Milošević, Radan, Kostić and Šarović.
A marbel memorial plaque with an inscription was also placed on a previously
dressed part of the rock above the right-hand side of the pit. The rock also
holds an inscription, a message by the pit survivors, which reads:
Damned be you, the Korita pit,

You pushed us out of the afterlife,
386
Lulled us in your bosom,

Gravely wounded
By the cursed Ustasha bayonets
May our children know of this
May them remember and be wary
May history tell it
So it does not happen again.
The memorial was opened on 6th June 1966. More than 10,000 people from
Herzegovina, Montenegro, Vojvodina, Kosovo and Bosnia came to this first-
ever mass commemoration to pay tribute to the executed martyrs. Well-
known politicians and public figures attended the event. Speeches were held,
by Vukašin Svorcan from Korita, Radovan Papić, a federal people’s deptuy,
and Halid Čomić, a Partisan from Bileća and member of the Communist Party
from before the war.
No incidents happened at the commemoration, despite the presence of a few
Muslims and Croats. Until 1991, the memorial stood without a sculpture;
also, the ossuary and memorial were never consecrated in a religious ritual.
The authorities never allowed the consecration of such places, especially as
the memorial had a five-pointed star on it and an inscription of the NOR
Veternas’ Alliance.
It is known that the religious ritual was performed at the pit in 1942, by a
priest from the Crkvice Parish in Montenegro. Still, time passed, and new
generations came of age.
It was 1990.
The people of Korita, with the voices of the village youths the loudest, reso-
lutely decided to repair the memorial and the ossuary, replace the five-pointed
star with a cross, and have a requiem for the victims. A board was appointed
and delegated the tasks to sandblast the memorial, replace the fence and the
name plates, change the inscription on the pedestal plaque, replace the five-
pointed star with a cross, and finish the construction of the memorial by mak-
ing and mounting the sculpture. The whole thing was very difficult to accom-
plish, not only because there were no funds, but also because the project was
387
met with opposition by relevant politicians and the Veterans’ Alliance. Still,
it was the people of Korita who won the battle.
On 3rd June, it was all completed, except for the sculpture (reason: lack of
funding), and a gathering was held and attended by a dozen thousand people
and the media all the way from Belgrade and Podgorica. Eleven priests,
among them an evoy of Vladislav Nedić, the Bishop of Bosnia, consecrated
the ossuary and memorial. After this great success, everybody felt even more
enthusiastic about adding the sculpture to the memorial and finishing it.
Along with the Korita Board, a subboard was appointed in Belgrade, consist-
ing of people from Korita living there, in order to raise the funds needed to
build the sculpture in Serbia. The plan was to have everything in place for the
fiftieth anniversary of the atrocity.
Indeed, the response of enterprises and firms in Belgrade and Serbia was un-
expectedly encouraging. The impact of the people from Bileća and Herze-
govina running large enterprises and firms must not be underestimated.
Among them, a special contribution came from Slobodan Šarenac from
Bileća, the manager of a large Belgrade enterprise.
It was thanks to Mr Šarenac that Nandor Glid, a world-renowned artist, was
commissioned to do the sculpture. He designed and built a sculpture symbolic
of all that happened in the Korita pit during the night between 4th and 5th
June. The memorial with the sculupture was ready for an official opening on
2nd June 1991. It was Sunday, and over 15,000 people gathered from all parts
of Yugoslavia and abroad. The event was attended by many respectable peo-
ple, one of whom was Radovan Karadžić, then President of the Serbian Dem-
ocratic Party. The gathering was opened and emceed by Milorad Nosović
from Korita. Three people spoke at the gathering, among them Milorad Vujo-
vić, Mayor of Bileća, Professor Slobodan Svorcan from Korita, and dr Ra-
dovan Karadžić. The idea that largely marked each of the speeches was that
such things must never happen to the Serbs again. The tape was removed and
the memorial and sculpture opened by Jakov Milović, a survivor of the pit
atrocity, and Mr Radovan Karadžić, President of the SDS. The attendees will
long remember the performance of Ljiljana Blagojević, a famous actress,
whose father came from the local area. This great artist chose to tell verses
from a lament dedicated to the victims of the Korita pit.
388
Descendants for their forefathers
I may claim with absolute certainty that no one in the local area and beyond
has paid their tribute to their ancestors, their fathers and forefathers, with
more dignity and grandeur than the children of Korita, Njemanci, Zagraci and
other hamlets mentioned above in this account.
These people found themselves scattered around the world, but in their heart
and souls they had remained truthful to their homeland. This they proved on
this occasion, when they were asked to pay respects to their ancestors and
mark accordingly the place where they were killed. Three memorials to the
victims are located in Korita. One of them is the monumental memorial with
the sculpture, telling enough to any visitor that sets his eyes on it.
The second memorial is the Sokolski Dom, where the victims were first
brought and tortured. The descendants did not want to let it fall into ruin;
instead, they reconstructed it and maintained it, like the memorial located in
its immediate vicinity. The pit and surrounding area have also been duly
marked and kept, with marble plates mounted onto the cliffs next to the pit,
holding an inscription about this place of execution and verses written and
dedicated by a pit survivor.
A church has been built by the very pit, a gift from the Diocese of Zahumlje
and Herzegovina and the Maritime Diocese, initiated and constructed with
the blessing of His Grace Bishop Atanasije. All the three memorials are lit so
tourists visit them at nighttime as well. There are signposts on all roads two
kilometres away from the site, indicating the location of the venue to travel-
lers.
Memory of this place of execution and the atrocity has also been preserved
for eternity in writing, in the book The Korita Pit by Professor Milivoje
Trklja.
May this account of mine be a symbolic contribution to the memory of our
forefathers, an assurance they will not be forgotten, and may the children of
the victims of the Korita pit be eternally blessed for their sympathy and well-
doing.
389
THE USTASHA ATROCITY AT BRESTICE
The village of Brestice boasts a number of mighty elm-trees with magnificent

crowns, which it was named after.
It lies about four kilometres to the north-west of the village of Korita. Its south
end borders the village of Donji Hodžići.
The village of Ključ is seven kilometres away from Brestice, connected to it
with hardly accessible gorges.
According to historical research and live witness accounts, the Ustashas
wanted to embark on their bloody rampage on 4th and 5th June, with the op-
eration they completed at Korita. That is why Muslim Ustashas from Gacko,
led by the notorious Džemo Ibanović, came to the village of Brestice on 4th
June. They summoned the heads of families, especially those respectable
ones, and asked them to ensure all men aged 15 to 70 came to the Sokolski
Dom in Korita that day, for a joint “conference” with the people of Korita.
They needed to bring their arms with them and hand them over to the NDH
authorities. Nothing would happen to anyone and they would all be released
home afterwards. Whoever failed to obey would be severely punished. Thus,
the scenario matched that in Korita.
The people of Brestice gathered together and decided unanimously they
would not go to the “conference” or yield their weapons. They informed Iba-
nović and his men about their decision, who turned around crestfallen because
they had failed to make an agreement with the Brestice men.
The Ustashas failed in seeing through their hideous plans on 4th and 5th June,
which they nonetheless did, on 2nd March 1942, nine months after the Korita
massacre.
The circumstances considerably changed in those nine months.
The Serb rebels who had assembled to jointly put up resistence against the
Ustashas split into two politically opposed parties, the Chetnicks, who fought
for the King and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the other one, under the banner
of the Communist Party, who called themselves the Partisans.
The Serbs were to pay a hefty price for this division, and the people of
Brestice were to become its first victims.
390
If there had not been for the rift, the people of Brestice would not have fallen
at the hands of the Ustasha criminals. To shed light of the facts for the reader’s
benefit, let me say the following. It was in those days that a Chetnick battalion
formed at the border of Montenegro and Herzegovina, made up of Montene-
grins and Herzegovinians and named the “Border Battalion.” Milorad Bjeletić
was the commander of the battalion, and because he did not have one eye, the
Partisans also mockingly called it the “Blind Battalion.”
On the other hand, the Partisans had already formed their operations units.
Their operations headquarters was located in the village of Fatnica near
Bileća. All Partisan units of Herzegovina were under their command. The
Hodžić-Brestice Company formed in the area of the villages of Hodžići and
Brestice, with Rajko Milošević as its commissaire, a member of the SKOJ
[Young Communist League of Yugoslavia, t/n], from the village of Njeman-
ica. He was a relative as well as neighbour of some people in Brestice. As
these things were taking place, the people of Brestice kept vigil – they were
extremely cautious and well-organised, making sure they kept their villagers
safe from the Ustasha hordes they believed would be arriving from Ključ and
Gacko. They had set vigil right after the massacre in Korita. The people of
Brestice favoured the Partisans and considered themselves largely safe by vir-
tue of the fact the Partisan Headquarters was located in Fatnica and the pres-
ence of the Hodžić-Brestice Partisan Company.
The village of Brestice is rather small. Just prior to the tragic event it num-
bered 36 houses with 210 inhabitants, of whom fewer than 50 men would
have been able to fight. When the Ustashe took control of the village, twenty-
six men had guns in their possession. It will never be known why it was pre-
cisely then, on 2nd March, that the Ustashas chose to commit the last mass
atrocity on the Herzegovinian territory. They must have estimated the mo-
ment to be the right one. They had the information that on that day the Parti-
sans were getting ready to combat the Chetnick Border Battalion. So, it was
the day on which the Serbs would crack down on each other, clearing the path
for the Ustashas to massacre the people of Brestice. The Second Partisan Op-
erations Headquarters at Fatnica, whose population was predominantly Mus-
lim, also had Muslim Headquarters members. It may have been one of those
people, with Ustasha affiliations, who let the Gacko Ustashas know about the
happenings, including the conference that was to be held in Brestice in the
evening of 1st March, as organised by messengers of the Fatnica Headquar-
ters. They must have counted on the conference to make the people less wary
and turn the guards’ attention, which would allow the Ustashas to embark on
a killing spree.
391
Unfortunately, their estimate was right. Arrangements had been made for a
gathering to take place in Brestice in the evening of 1st March. All the villag-
ers had been summoned, and as requested by the Partisan Operations Head-
quarters, Rajko Milošević, Milorad Babić and Boriša Samardžić were also to
take part, all three of them neighbours and relatives of the people of Brestice.
The three representatives of the Operations Headquarters were delegated with
the task to ask the villagers of Brestice to choose ten volunteers to reinforce
the First Partisan Battalion, formed on 28 January 1942, with Vlado Šegrt as
its commander. The mission of the representatives of the Operations Head-
quarters was also to appoint Partisans to operate as representatives of the new
authorities in Brestice, as well as procure a certain amount of food for its units
from the village. Naturally, they also needed to make sure there were no vil-
lagers who disagreed with the policies of the Communist Party and the Par-
tisam movement. Rajko Milošević opened the gathering and removed a dis-
patch of the Operations Headquarters from his pocket, which he read and
asked that it be adopted and adhered with by the gathered people. The dis-
patch said the Chetnicks, led by Draža Mihailović, had joined the aggressor
and were now more dangerous than the Ustashas. The Partisans, with Com-
munist Party as their leader, were now the only armed force that fought the
aggressor and local traitors. Having betrayed the common cause, the Chet-
nicks needed to be nipped in the bud. The Partisans were not going to take
revenge after the war but promote brotherhood and unity, and they invited all
Muslims who did not have blood on their hands to join the Partisan ranks.
The victory was imminent and after the liberation, the factories and surplus
land would be confiscated from the wealthy. That was the official stance and
policy of the Party. The Chetnick betrayal deserved the most severe repri-
mand, along with the King, after his shameful flight to England.
The people got agitated after hearing the dispatch. One person’s reaction was
particularly heated; he was Stevan Luburić, World War I veteran, a Salonika
volunteer, disabled in the war. He had been awarded many decorations be-
cause of his achievements and conduct in combat. He had received the Order
of the Star of Karađorđe and the Legion of Order Medal, the Serbs broke
through the Salonika front, on the occasion of the first lineup of the Serbian
units, by commander of the Allied Powers in the Salonika Front, a French
general. Stevan was also recepient of three Obilić medals and other war dec-
orations. As such, courageous, deserving and daring, he felt entitled to oppos-
ing both the dispatch and Rajko’s speech. Stevan pointed to the far-reaching
consequences any rift in the Serbian army and people would have. He did not
let anyone call the Chetnicks traitors and compare them to the likes of the
392
Ustashas. Rajko opposed Stevan’s arguments. Harsh words were exchanged,

there were insults, physical conflict, even arms were pulled, and the gathering
went on in the same climate until dawn. Eventually, the dispatch was adopted.
Members of the SKOJ were the the first to put their signatures in its ac-
ceptance. Stevan was threatened with a most sever punishment. Unfortu-
nately, he would soon die, right after the event.
There was no vigil that night because of the gathering. A two-strong patrol
had been sent to keep guard. Just before dawn the people withdrew; worn out
by the argument and not having slept a wink, they sank into a deep sleep. The
two people from the village patrol, sent to keep vigil and walk around the
village, lay down to get some rest and fell asleep. It was the dawn of 2nd
March, and the whole village had sunk into sleep.
It was in those moments that the Ustashas arrived and encircled the village.
They came from Ključ, Kula Fazlagića, Cernica, Gacko and villages of the
Gacko County. The snow was deep and frozen. The Ustashas had covered
themselves in white cloaks in order to be less noticeable in the snow. They
carried rifles and machine guns in their arms and had bombs around their
belts. They were set on catching the people unawares, while they were asleep,
and slaughtering everyone. They moved around lightly as they had skis or
showshoes on. They posted heavy guard at all key points around the village,
to stop any attack that might come form the surrounding Serbian villages.
They approached the Brestice homes quietly, keeping the right distance, with
their guns at ready, aiming at the doors and windows.
It was at the crack of dawn that they opened fire. Terror-struck men, women
and children jumped on their feet and ran outside. They were welcomed with
bullets, bombs and the Ustashas’ lunatic shouting, “You’re not going any-
where, Vlach!”
They shouted actual people’s names, because they were neighbours; they
swore their Vlach mothers, ordering them to come out of their houses. People
jumped out of the houses scantily clad and barefoot, trying to get away. Few
only had guns, and the others reached for anything – axes, knives, shovels.
Those living in solid houses and who had fire arms defended themselves from
the windows. Weary mothers carrying children in their arms, as well as feeble
old men and women collapsed in the snow. Some had already left their houses
and were shooting at the Ustashas, saving the last bullet for themselves. The
Ustashas set fire to the houses, mostly covered in thatch. Women and children
fled out, trying to find cover behind the walls and fences fettered in ice and
sunk in snow.
393
One man’s feat deserves to be told about. After he had hidden his wife and
children from the burning family house in the garden below it, Nikola Lu-
burić, his axe in his hands, hid before the Ustashas behind the vice, in hope
he might protect his family. An Ustasha sighted him, and not knowing he was
armed with an axe, ran up to him to catch him alive. Nikola jumped from
behind the vice, raised the axe and cut the Ustasha’s head, and then grabbed
his gun and defended his family and himself for as long as he had ammuni-
tion. When he stopped shooting, the Ustashas threw a bomb and killed him.
The axe remained after him, to symbolise eternally the defence put up by the
brave people of Brestice, and was later exhibited in the Museum of the Rev-
olution in Sarajevo. Dead people’s bodies lay in the snow, and the cries of the
wounded echoed through the Brestice ravine. Everywhere the snow was
soaked with blood, spilt as men, women and children had tried to escape.
Here is a written account of the event by Drago Milošević, as given in his
book The Partisanship and Killing of the Serbs: “Bullets came from every-
where in this sheer hell, with human voices crying, screaming, calling for
help, threatening. The dead lay all over the place, while the wounded whined
and died without getting help. Those who were still alive ran from cover to
cover, mothers with their small children falling into snow, rising again and
fleeing, without knowing where.
The people of Brestice put up a superhuman fight, but there was no help in
sight. It was almost midday. The houses had already been pillaged and burnt.
The livestock had been taken out of the stables and pens, and the buildings
burnt to the ground. It was a terrible sight, with cows bellowing, horses whin-
nying, sheep and goats bleeting, and those driving them yelling and swearing
everything that belonged to the Serbs. Terrible noise was heard as the live-
stock was driven in the direction of Ključ and Cernica; apart from it, the loot-
ers were taking away furnishings and food, taken out of Brestice houses.”
Some time around noon, the sound of a machine gun, accompanied by gun
shots, was heard on the east side, coming from the direction of Korita. It was
Ljubo Kurdulija with some people from Korita, those the Ustashas had not
thrown into the pit. They were coming to Brestice’s rescue. At the same time,
gun shots came from the south. They were combatants from Donja Korita,
Hodžići, Meke Grude and other Serbian villages, coming to the people of
Brestice’s rescue. Seeing they would find themselves in danger, the Ustashas
took to flight, collecting their dead and wounded on the way. Still, they put
up a fight as they retreated from Brestice. The defenders had a hard time tar-
geting them because of the white cloaks they were shrouded in.
394
The Ustasha withdrawal was slow; some were dragging the wounded, while
others were driving the livestock or carrying the loot. They got killed as they
were fleeing. Seventeen were killed and many more wounded. The Brestice
rescuers greatest in number came from the Border Battalion, even though they
were expecting an attack from the Partisans that day. It only took two hours
that tragic morning for more than 200 defenders to arrive from all the sur-
rounding villages inhabited by the Serbs. Thirty-nine Serbs were killed at
Brestice on Monday, 2nd March 1942. Fifteen of them were women. A baby
was also killed, who was but ten days old. That morning, five people from
Korita were also shot, who had taken refuge in the village, in their relatives’
homes, after the tragedy at the Korita pit. A mother of three was one of those
who perished, after her husband’s death in the Korita pit on 4th and 5th June
1941.
One of the men who defended Brestice from the Ustashas that day was Gav-
rilo Svorcan from Korita; he was killed, orphaning five children. Fighting
against the Ustashas more men were wounded that day, some of whom were
Ilija Babić from Hodžići and Obrad Nosović from Korita.
According to historical research and witness accounts, forty-six men, women
and children were shot in Brestice that day, and another forty-three heavily or
lightly wounded.
Twelve houses and twenty-five stables and pens were burnt down, and more
than a thousand heads of livestock taken away.
I was seven years old at the time, and I can remember my father, Obrad No-
sović, coming home from Brestice in the evening of 2nd March. His right arm
had been riddled with a bullet and was wrapped in bandage. The bullet had
come through and the wound would not stop bleeding. On 3rd March, as he
was lying in bed, a Partisan patrol came by and began provoking him, saying
he had not been wounded defending Brestice but shooting at them with the
border Chetnicks. As punishment, they confiscated his gun. Evidently, they
fabricated the accusation only to disarm him.
It was godfathers, friends and people from the neighbouring villages who
came to the aid of survivors, the wounded, feeble and poor, taking them to
their homes and sharing with them whatever they had. These things are still
remembered and recounted by the elderly Brestice villagers because, as they
say, another person’s integrity and well-doing is not to be hidden. To com-
memorate the killed Brestice villagers, their descendants built a memorial
church dedicated to Margaret the Virgin-Martyr, also known as Margaret of
395
Antioch and Saint Marina the Great-Martyr. This church rises on hill over-
looking the village of Brestice and commemorates the Serbs killed in the
Ustasha terror in World War II. The names of the perished inscribed in the
church will continue to tell the sad story of persecution to ever new genera-
tions.
There is another item commemorating those sorrowful days and events, a
book by Drago Milošević entitled The Partisanship and Killing of the Serbs.
Drago Milošević was one of the children who survived the tragedy at
Brestice.
The villagers of Brestice, just like the whole Serbian nation, paid a steep price
for its partisanship. Stevan Luburić was killed only because he refused to take
an oath and join the Partisan movement, defending the Chetnicks instead. If
there had not been a conference or gathering at Brestice and bipartisan
fighting in it, the people would not have slept through the dawn and the vil-
lage guard would not have failed, both of which eventually helped the Ustasha
do what they did.
Today, the village of Brestice, which boasts a mild climate and fertile farm-
land, has a proper asphalt road, memorials and a church, but its inhabitants
live scattered across the globe. Prof. Radoslav Milošević most highly de-
serves to be credited with preserving the memory of the persecution of his
bretheren and co-villagers.
This is what he wrote in the magazine called Nova Zora [New Dawn]: “The
construction of the memorial church dedicated to Saint Marina the Great-
Martyr took longer than three years, with the money raised by the local citi-
zens, and with the assistance of Gacko and Bileća Municipalities.
On the occasion of consecration of the Church of Saint Marina the Great-
Martyr, the 70th anniversary of the killing of the Serbs of Brestice on 2nd
March 1942 was commemorated, as claimed in The Partisanship and Killing
of the Serbs by Dragutin Drago Milošević.
Today, the total population of Brestice numbers twenty-five children, of
whom eight are minors.
It is believed that more than 1500 people displaced from Brestice, coming
from three generations, can be found living across the world, in Bileća,
Trebinje, Gacko, Međa, Sečanj, Gajdobra, even Chicago.”
To finish this account, I can only borrow from the author of the article in Nova
Zora: “There is no such gift as when people do not forget their place of origin
and pay tribute to their forefathers, such as those shot on 2nd March 1942.”
396
I am proud and pleased to hopefully have contributed to the body of accounts

testifying to the suffering and killing of the Serbs in times of hardship and
deranged and dangerous human minds.
References
Korićka jama: prva Mašovna grobnica Srba u NDH [The Korita Pit: The First Mass
Grave of the Serbs in the NDH], by dr Milivoje Trklja Mišo
Partijanje i stradanje Srba [The Partisanship and Killing of the Serbs], by Dragutin
Milošević
Author’s recollections and interviews made with survivors
397
Korita pit
Korita Memorial
398
Korita Sokolski Dom
Brestice Memorial and Church
399
Novica Telebak
THE PERSECUTION OF
THE SERBS OF MOSTAR
It was the 1950’s. A Serb youth was in a neighbouring village. He stopped
before the house of the Croat who had helped killed his father and paternal
uncle.
A gorgeous young girl walked across the yard and their eyes met. As it often
happens in youth with forbidden love, the two fell for one another, got mar-
ried, went to a different town, found jobs, got together well and had two great
children.
Everybody avoided raising difficult subjects. The two families visited each
other and helped, especially the girl’s family. Dara, the man’s mother, fell
terminally ill and had one of her last conversations with Fima, the girl’s
mother.
Dara said: “My dear Fima, life has only been harmonious for our two chil-
dren. They have healthy and intelligent children of their own, and they make
us all very proud. It would be easier for me to breathe my last if I knew one
thing yet, where my family (and also yours) were taken away and killed.” She
stopped, and then went on, with a certain timidness in her voice: “Do you
happen to know, my dear?” Fima spoke, clearly and loudly: “Of course I do.”
This came as a surprise to Dara, so she rose a bit and said: “Why have you
never told me that?” Suddenly, as if the room and the two women became
scared of the silence. “It’s my strong faith,” said Fima, to which Dara indeed
breathed her last breath.
The Independent State of Croatia could have happened five years before or
after than it did, it could have happened in total secrecy, but it has always
been and will always be, as long as there is such wrath, hatred and crimes
against humanity.
401
People could have lost their freedom and lands in any way, as long as the
NDH (or any other form of it) made it possible, and yet, everything would
have been the same or at least similar.
“Pavelić’s madness,” as a Russian philosopher calls it, invigorated the fascist
blood stream, marked and permitted in order that its wildness makes the en-
emy’s blood run cold - and not only the enemy’s, but also that of his own
people, those that did not share his views.
Whatever has happened in the Balkans, especially the bad things, came from
the masterminds of the Vatican, including the Dual Monarchy and many other
things...
German interests, the non-acceptance of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats
and Slovenes, the coronation of evil, the creation of the NDH in April 1941...
Stepinac, Kvaternik, the Vatican, the Pope, never startled by the fact “the
Catholic Church has never saved any Serb.”..
It is only partly known how many Catholic prelates have killed or helped acts
of killing; the secrets will stay hidden, shrouded in the black cloaks, buried in
the dark and silence.
The Catholic clergy is the pulse of the blood of the Crusade movement, the
peal is the voice, the silence equals salvation.
Whatever was labelled as first in Zagreb quickly reached or simultaneously
emerged in Western Herzegovina, within the confines of the Franciscan mon-
asteries at Čantić, Široki Brijeg...
Why did the Serbs living in Mostar and the surrounding area perish? I am not
offering a response, I am simply asking.
The NDH, the Roman Catholic Church and their press were the ideologists,
and the apparatus that helped see it all through – it was the Ustasha move-
ment.
It is no wonder then that it was the clergy that held the highest military posi-
tions in the Ustasha ranks. These are the closing words in the book of confes-
sions published by a friar from Metković prior to his death, at a time which,
certainly not incidentally, coincided with the Croatian Spring, depicting the
evil he did (which he calls differently): “I did what I was trained to do, and I
now teach you to do the same.”
It should come as no surprise then that it was the Mostar Franciscans who
consolidated the local Ustasha authorities and formed elite Ustasha units, and
402
quite often set an example with their misdeeds. Some of them were killed in
combat and subsequently awarded the highest decorations by the Poglavnik.
The germ of the Ustashadom developed among the clergy, only to flower
among the people.
Soil is soil, it will sustain anything that will grow – including the “Croatian
flowers” (the Muslims who joined the Ustasha ranks), with such great mutual
affection that kept the relation intact but until the first harvest.
I address this question both to myself and you: what kind of person does one
need be, how great and brave, of what vision and self-control, of what recti-
tude of heart and awareness of self-tribulation, to rise on such soil, oppose the
intents of the majority and evil, and sacrifice oneself? It seems to me one
needs be great, greater than all those among our own people whom we habit-
ually call heroes! It was from such hellish abysses that righteous and honour-
able Croats arose, recognising the authorities but defying the lawlessness that
was aimed at others and that was aimed at themselves. There are no paths of
evil leading to that which is good.
There was nothing individual Croats could do but put themselves in front of
a gun, when it was the highest prelates of the Catholic Church that stood be-
hind it all, led by Archbishop Stepinac, with the Vatican entrenched either at
the front or rear.
Back in the day, the Muslims, their origins unclear, their identity muddled,
recognised the new authorities; it was partly of their own will that they be-
came part of the deadly scheme and apparatus, in which they did the dirtiest
jobs, probably in order to prove their allegiance.
Hatred for the Serbs just might be the only thing they have in common! The
Serbs as well might have made mistakes through centuries; when one aban-
doned one’s faith, for any reason, be it wilfully or under threat, it did not mean
they were no longer your brethren, that you needed to discard them – harshly,
the Serbian way, and turn them into your archenemy. That is what our people
have always called “the Serb way of doing things.”
The Serbs have always believed the following: “I’m not guilty of anything,
why would they hurt me?” In the early 20th century, the Serb population was
almost the same as the English population. Today, we are supposedly 10 mil-
lion, whereas the English are 60 million. It is terrifying to think where, how
and quite often for what cause we have wasted so many lives?!
403
The reasons are many; they are a true amalgamation of religious, national,
patriotic and all other aspects that mark human existence, but they all lead to
one thing, and one alone – Hatred!
In time, goals change, and it is only hatred that lingers. It may seem to have
disappeared – it keeps hidden, or is kept hidden, and when the naive and right-
eous start thinking it is gone, or are unable to see it – hatred delivers its heav-
iest blow.
The powerful apparatus of the fascist-racist attack against the Serbs, Jews and
Roma coincided with the Ustasha ideology shared by a major part of the Cro-
atian people. Coalitions have replicated themselves: Vienna-Vatican-Zagreb,
from trouble to distress to the Ustasha, the same deadly fate – by another
name!
There have always been members of the Croatian people willing to rise
against such darkness, slavery and death – in the words of Matoš the Poet -
“Black lords,” “Loyola’s black seeds, blessing deadly daggers and misdeeds.”
Being in it and going against it meant offering one’s cheek to death, making
it a true act of courage.
The tips of daggers will not turn downwards; if it cannot be Austria, let us get
Turkey back, if it cannot be Austro-Hungary, let it be Yugoslavia.
Sign what you have to sign but do what needs to be done and when it needs
doing. It all smoulders inside itself, between two faiths and two dynasties, the
Karađorđe and Habsburg ones. For some, God is in heaven, for others, it is
on a balcony.
Those who fought against the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
lived better in it than those who spilt their blood for it.
The paths may have differed but the destination has been the same all along
– the historical mission of Catholicism has been to make it to the Eastern
Slavs.
“The fields in the East will soon be ready to harvest. And who will the Lord
send first into these ‘eastern fields’ to collect his Catholic harvest, if not the
Croats, who share the border with the East... It is upon you now, the people
of Croatia, to take upon yourself the ‘duty of unification’ with your brethren,
from whom you have been separated for centuries merely by fatal chance,
fatal mishaps.”
It sounds familiar, like in one of those shows we have been seeing on televi-
sion, whereas it really comes from a text by Bishop Mahničko and is a century
404
old. Against the will of the majority, the kingdom turned into a state (field)
practically overnight, allowing everyone to subsist (do it) by planting their
seeds in it.
Inconsistency, gullibility, lack of orientation, lusting any and all kinds of
power, are only some of the illnesses troubling the Serbs, who fail to see they
are suffering from any sort of condition.
The Serb, perpetually self-taught in matters of history and nation, loves
power, loves any system in which he, corrupt, rash and flighty, turns bellicose
because of the notion of freedom resting in his subconsciousness.
He appreciates freedom, but only for as long as he has to fight for it. Berdyaev
says: “Man draws his freedom from the well that gives him life.”
A Serb will always take freedom, as well as guilt, as something personal,
simplified to the extent that he will judge himself as the judge of his people
would. The sentence uttered by the majority of the Serbs who naively put
themselves at the Ustasha mercy, only to be sent dying a terrible death: “I’m
not guilty of anything, why would they hurt me?” or “It all started so sud-
denly, it won’t last long.”
PITS, dear Lord, each and every Serb comes from a pit, while the Croats
claim the pits were nothing but mischief.
PITS, Borak, Vidonja, Šaranova, Grbin Brijeg, Rudnik, Ponornica, Golubara,
Furnaž, Bivolje Brdo, Ržani Do, Šurmanovačka, Golubinka, Cerno,
Dračevica, Plavac, Dvoglava Golubinka, Hutovka, and many unknown of, the
blue River Narenta and the black River Neretva, all of them unmarked mass
graves.
The evil-doers, their titles and knowledge, most often meant nothing, for it
was hierarchy that obliged; thus, obedience becomes uniformity, and it is in
the state of uniformity that evil and hatred are most easily inculcated, for they
are “the Devil’s food.”
The extent and intensity of memory is not determined by the one who did it,
but rather the one who suffered the doing; the bubble bursts through venge-
ance, or when an eye is taken for an eye.
Today, seventy years after the atrocity, the Serbian people do not call the evil-
doers from the valley of the Neretva by their actual names, but rather by the
crimes they committed; therefore, “Priest Satan,” “There’s Evil,” “Briška the
Freak,” “Dumo the Demon,” “Jablan the Misery.”.. This is a most excellent
example of the use and misuse of a destroyed mind.
405
Children are joy, tears of the world, God’s warp of innocence of humanity
and the world’s salvation. Who knows what God would do with the world
were it not for the innocence of children’s souls.
A child’s Drop of Blood is a sign of pathological hate; no Nazi aggressor is
known to have slaughtered a child. The Ustasha incarnations of evil killed
74,360 Serbian children, tots, those who had hardly uttered their first words
or taken first steps, as well as those recklessly juvenile.
The most brutal methods were used to kill Serbian, Jewish and Roma chil-
dren. Their minds monstrous, they did what no one had ever done; they buried
children alive. Life a living sorrow, life more difficult to live than death is to
die, dying harder to bear than death itself. They slit open pregnant women’s
stomachs, threw the foetuses into the air and stabbed them with bayonets.
Toddlers were torn apart, and the “nuns” from a convent are known to have
removed, fried and eaten children’s livers, and even forced their mothers to
eat them, under threat of death.
Those thirstiest for blood made necklaces out of children’s eyes. The Ustashas
immolated thousands of children, threw them down pits, or killed their par-
ents and converted them to Roman Catholicism.
As death cried and echoed, amidst atrocities committed against children, a
sworn (cursed) Ustasha said: “What do we have to do to you Serbs for you to
realise how much we hate you?”
Not that everybody slaughtered. A good deal of them were in favour of it, but
they all knew about those atrocities. Bloody is the Ustasha footprint, so even
today “soil boils with new blood.”
God decreed to people before Christ: “Do not take revenge, for it is mine to
avenge.”
Whether by force or trickery, deception, Orthodox Christians were converted
to Catholicism, to have a few more on this side, for those on the other to save
their bare lives. God only knows what such Halflings can turn into, as willing
to do evil to prove what he or she is.
Most often, evil is born in man when the Devil in him starts thinking he can
take over God’s work. The secret of good and bad lies along the same thin
line; as soon as they converge, they diverge (like circles on water), and man
can only tell them apart because one is desirable and the other is not. Uncon-
scious evil is our innate fear of our own evil. When one does evil to another
man, he deprives him of his freedom and life, but also deprives himself of the
most essential freedom.
406
Clean water comes from a spring, just as freedom lives in human heart, while
incense devours burning anxiety.
...
The Neretva pushing its sides apart.
A wasp nest not to be overgrown in moss
For as long as the question swarms: onto who is this blue?
Oh valley, tearful, the course of the scattered

Petrified, like a vine resting in shade
Lifeless in no-time
overrelieving on a cliff
made and left miserable
we speak but cannot hear ourselves
we yawn
as the demon sings a dirge.
Of you I dream, the sorrow-valley

rooted
sun-bathed forefathers of beauty
flutter in no-time.
(Source: Mind on Fire)
It took twelve days for the fascists to occupy, win and break Yugoslavia into
pieces. This made it possible for Pavelić to proclaim his fascist Ustasha state.
It made it possible for Broz and the communists to create the soil and provoke
a fratricidal war between fractions of the Serbian people.
Revolution and “brotherhood and unity” were the only ways to destroy Draža
Mihailović’s Serbian nationalist movement. The fratricidal war and tragic di-
vision of the people into the Chetniks and Partisans was like putting salt on a
bleeding wound. Until 1941, Mostar was a Serbian city; the Serbs were the
majority of the population, followed by the Muslims, and there were very few
Croats.
There is no city in Yugoslavia, perhaps not even in Europe, whose one half
of the population (Croats and Muslims) annihilated the second half, the Serbs.
407
This other half, armed with hatred and other evil conveniences, succeeded in
killing one-third of the Serb population of Mostar and relocate 7000-8000,
only because they were Orthodox Christian Serbs.
When the Ustashas rose to power and the Independent State of Croatia was
instituted, the mass killing of the Serbs in Mostar began, followed by the rest
of Herzegovina.
After Mussolini and Pavelić signed the Rome Agreement on 18th May 1941,
parts of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia under Italian occupation were integrated
in the newly established Independent State of Croatia. The imprisonment and
killing of the Serbs, Jews and Roma began as early as June, which was the
first in a series of mass atrocities committed by the Ustashas. The goal of
Pavelić’s strike of evil was to the destroy as many reputable Serbs as possible,
and use trickery and murder to scare the Serbian people and prevent any
chance of resistance. Having lost their leaders, in complete dismay, the Serbs
of Mostar and its surroundings were now an easy target for the Ustashas, who
committed two series of atrocities within a period of three months (June, July
and August).
It was mainly men who perished in the June slaughter, and in August, it was
mostly women, children and the incapacitated who died in large numbers.
It was Mirko Gregović, a Croat from Glina, a Serbophobe and destroyer of
Yugoslavia, who collaborated with Hočever, the Chief of Police, and
launched the killing of the Serbs and Jews in Mostar and the surrounding area
after the Italians’ withdrawal on 29th May 1941.
Mostar is special and different from other Yugoslav cities in that the Ustashas
immediately began killing the Serbs. They killed the soldiers of the Yugoslav
Army of Serb nationality working at the Mostar airport five days prior to the
arrival of the aggressor, on 13th April 1941.
Several people were taken to the River Neretva and shot there, some of who
were Dr Teodor Lukač, a well-known Jewish doctor, who was also very pop-
ular with the people, Mihajlo Blažić, Milan Vojinović and Luka and Ljubo
Kulaš, very reputable citizens of Mostar.
It was merely by chance that Dr Lukač survived. Although he was tied, he
jumped into the Neretva and stayed alive. It is thanks to his statements and
testimonies given after the war that we can learn the most about the position
and persecution of the Jews and Serbs in Mostar and the surrounding area.
408
Following a decree from Zagreb, Ivo Herenčić, previously deployed in Bel-

grade as an officer of the Guard and fired on ground of nationalism, was ap-
pointed Chief of Civil Authority in Mostar. The Ustasha Headquarters was
also established in Mostar, serving as an institution of the Ustasha authority,
headed by Stanko Šarenac, a former bank clerk from Mostar.
Herenčić was a prominent Ustasha, and with a group of specially appointed
men, he was granted special authority and played a special part in the geno-
cidal strategy of NDH. He was one of the four assassins who shot at King
Alexander in Zagreb in December 1933, after which he escaped to Italy and
joined Pavelić, where he was granted the highest titles and assigned special
duties. That was the kind of man they chose to send to Mostar.
The arrests and murders started in mid-June. The first captured the richest and
most reputable Serbs, a measure intended to secure peace and order by instil-
ling fear, whereas its real purpose was to trick the rest of the Serbs. In that
period they arrested Dr Milo Dokić, Priest Vlado Gvozdenović, Đorđe Peško,
Milo Čevaković, Dr Vlado Semiz and Aleksa Salatić, who were all killed in
the end.
Fear and terror gripped the city of Mostar. The Serbs were arrested at work,
in their homes, on the street, after which they were beaten, killed – mostly in
groups, and thrown into the Neretva or taken to West Herzegovina and thrown
into pits.
The Neretva carried the dead Serbs’ bodies away, and it was only those
washed ashore who were buried, with no name or symbol on a grave to iden-
tify them. The innocent Serbs of Mostar were mostly arrested, tortured and
killed by their former neighbours, now transformed into to Ustashas – Mirko
Bebek, Slavko Serdarović, Petar Budak, Salko Dizdar, Stjepo Soldo and
many others. An odd Serb was released now and then but only in order for
the rest to be tricked, after which they were arrested and died the most grue-
some deaths.
They set traps by putting up all sorts of proclamations that supposedly banned
the killing of any more Serbs in Mostar and the surroundings. It was in the
few days of Pavelić’s “ban on killing,” which lasted until the end of June, that
over 500 people were killed.
The majority of the Mostar Serbs killed in June were thrown into the Neretva
and the Golubinka pit, located in Šurmanci. The arrests, torture and killing of
the Serbs, Jews and Roma from Mostar and the surrounding area never really
stopped, although it can be divided into three major stages.
409
The first is generally called the “St. Vitus’ killings.” They were a series of
most gruesome murders, pillage and other bloody misdeeds carried out to “to
accomplish the sacred vow” as commanded by Poglavnik Pavelić and Arch-
bishop Stepinac.
It was in that period that the uprising began against the Ustasha mass killings
in Eastern Herzegovina, which led to the deaths of a number of the Ustashas
from Mostar. The fact that Pavelić appointed the notorious Ivo Herenčić,
nicknamed “The Consul,” as one of his most confidential men and a most
dangerous Ustasha, to be in charge of Mostar indicates how important the city
was for both Pavelić and the Independent State of Croatia. His “Mostar com-
pany” settled in the rooms of Queen Mary School, where they brought the
Serbs, who were then tortured, murdered and thrown into the Neretva, or
taken to one of the many execution places in Western Herzegovina, or to
Jablanica, Glina, Velebit and Jasenovac
The Serbs were taken to Čitluk, Široki Brijeg, Ljubuško and Međugorje,
where they were malleted to death, slaughtered with knives or thrown alive
down the precipices of deep pits, both known and unknown. The rare people
who accidentally survived used to say hundreds of names of these Serbian
victims, and tell about the suffering and torment of the dying.
It was in a single day that 250 children were killed in the Golubinka pit near
Šurmanci (brought in from other parts of Bosnia, Sarajevo, Zenica etc.),
whose life ended as they were thrown down and smashed against its sides.
There is no way of knowing how many innocent Serb victims perished in this
pit alone, but several witnesses have mentioned the figure of 2500 people.
The Serb villages around Mostar rampaged during the St. Vitus’ killings were
Bijelo Polje, Raštani, Gnojnica, Ortiješ, Lakševine, Malo Polje, Blagaj, Hod-
bina, Bogodo, Pjesci, Baćevići, Žitomislić and Dračevice.
One trick used by the Ustashas was the proclamation that Serbs could be
saved if they converted to Catholicism. Catholic priests visited people’s
houses and tried to persuade the Serbs. They handed out Catholic prayer
books and application forms, and persuaded the women, children and elderly
to talk to their escaped men and bring them back home to become Catholic
and thus Croatian, and thus protect themselves, their families and family
property from the Ustasha authorities. Very few of them agreed to it, whereas
the majority of the Serbs from the Mostar area thought and believed the Usta-
sha atrocities and evildoing stopped right then.
The propaganda activities which took the form of the “friendly advisory” by
the Catholic clergy and the 20-day lull were but a lie, well conceived and put
410
in practice. When the Ustashas resumed the arrests, torture and killing of the
local Serbs, especially those in the places surrounding Mostar, they became
even harsher, more cruel and gruesome.
The notorious “Mostar company” comprised of about a hundred Ustashas,
mostly from Bjelovar, Ljubuški, Čitluk, Široki Brijeg, Međugorje and Mo-
star, headed by Herenčić and a number of Muslim officers, like Hamir Vo-
loder, Džemal Konjhodžić, Muhamed Jahić and others.
News spread of village heads visiting the authorities for “informational talks”
and of the campaign to collect the Serbs and allegedly prepare them for reset-
tlement in Serbia. A part of those who were arrested were also released, but
many were taken to Mostar, beaten and sent to Jablanica, where they dug
trenches and were eventually murdered, or taken further on to their final rest-
ing places, whether known or unknown – Gospić, Velebit, Dvor na Uni, Lo-
bograd, Martinović Camp, Caprag, Pag, Jadovno, Jastrebsko, Jasenovac, and
many others.
Also, there were pits, like Ograde in Ljubuški, the two-headed Golubinka at
Gubavica, Šurmanci in Vidovo Polje, Rivine, etc.
Many of the Serbs were killed on the way, as they were taken in or sent away,
thrown into the River Neretva, down precipices and crags. This was the hard-
est, saddest and worst time for Mostar, with hundreds of Serbs brought to
Queen Mary School and surrendered to the notorious Ustashas.
It was a time of gruesome death, with very few being lucky enough to actually
take a bullet. Complete families were brought to the school, separated or
killed at nighttime, thrown into the Neretva or driven away. It was a time
when the Ustashas were bothered more by where and how they should kill
the Serbs, their neighbours, than by – why kill them? The same question is
asked again: only because they were Serbs?!
This time of trouble, like any time, proved again there are exceptions in every
nation and in any period. Mehmed Čehajić had worked as a policeman before
the war and was taken over by the NDH. Whenever he had a chance, he gave
the conversion form to the arrested people and thus saved members coming
from fifty innocent families. The Ustashas later learnt out about his activities,
took him to the Mostar Prison, tortured and interrogated him. He “died” in
Banja Luka several years afterwards. May you rest in peace, good man!
There were other well-intentioned people, who either helped or tried to help,
but whose assistance was not enough to significantly change the bleak destiny
of the Serbs. There were several Croats and Muslims kept in the adjacent
411
room, who were later released. One of them was Dr Esad Brkić, who later
testified and published an article, in which he said during his time in prison,
which was twelve days in all, at least a thousand Serbs were brought to the
building, tortured and then sent away.
There were only five Serb houses in Blagaj, from which six people were ar-
rested. Stipe Rozić was the Ustasha leading a gang of men that arrested inno-
cent Serbs in Malo Polje and the surrounding area.
Ninety-eight people were kept in Đorđe Skočajić’s basement, waiting for
whatever evil might befall them. They were transferred to the basement of the
Mostar Gendarme Station, where they were hit with guns and tortured. Three
of the men eventually died. After the Italians took over command, the Usta-
shas released the captives.
After 2nd August, one night the Muslim Ustashas from Blagaj, Hodbina and
another twenty villages surrounded Malo Polje and Blagaj, capturing twenty-
seven Serbs from the former and five from the latter. They tortured and shot
the captives on a hill near Mostar. The five Blagaj Serbs who were shot came
from the Skočajić and Kuzman families.
News of the killings reached the Serbs from Pijesci, so they decided to hide
in the woods around their houses. The Ustashas forced the women, by threat-
ening to hurt their children, to make the two most reputable men in the village
come in for a talk. The two men came and were released, in order to be con-
vinced the others could also come because nothing would happen to them.
Indeed, the men returned, but five days later, it was afternoon, twenty Usta-
shas – Džono, Puljić, Rahimić and others – blocked the village and arrested
thirty Serbs. Some of them were shot on the spot, and of those only Dušan
Pudar survived, although he was heavily wounded. The rest of the Serbs were
brutally tortured; the same night, they were taken to the Neretva, to just below
Ortiješ, and killed.
Four Serbs were killed on the bank of the River Buna. Kuljić was murdered
and thrown into the Two-headed Golubinka pit in Gubavica. Several Serbs
were taken to Mostar and released on St. Vitus’ Day. Pijesci lost twenty-one
men of Serb origin, who came from the families of Andrić, Pudar, Kuzman
and Ćorluka.
Baćevići, an ethnically homogeneous Serb village located on the right bank
of the Neretva, was attacked by an Ustasha detachment. The Ustashas arrested
nineteen people; they killed Danilo Golo and dragged him to the Neretva. The
Ustashas came from the adjacent Croatian and Muslim villages of Jasenice,
Rodoč and Slipčić, as well as Western Herzegovina. It is known the captives
412
were imprisoned in Queen Mary School. Some of them were taken to Jablan-
ica and killed the same night, while another group of slightly younger men
were taken to Međugorje and killed at an open pit. There is no information
about the final resting places of these people. A total of forty-four men per-
ished, members of the families Savić, Golo, Sudar and Škoro.
Vihovići is a place in the vicinity of Mostar. On 25th July 1941, the Ustashas
arrested, tortured and killed twenty-four of its Serbian inhabitants. They were
mostly miners, and were arrested as they were coming back from work, after
which the Ustasha Stojan Cvitković took them to the Mostar Gendarme Sta-
tion. Beaten and tortured, they were taken to some place where the Serbs were
executed. There is no information as to where and how they were killed. The
men who died were all Serbs and came from the Vihovići families of Borozan,
Kulidžan, Vuković and Čvore; twenty-nine of them perished.
On 18th June 1941, the Ustashas captured seventy Serbs in the village of
Dračevica near Mostar. They put them in a basement, and some embittered
Ustashas wanted to throw in bombs and kill them right away. They immedi-
ately killed Marko Kraljević, and then also his brothers Jovo and Milan. A
total of fifteen Dračevica Serbs perished; following the decree to stop the kill-
ing of the Serbs, the rest of the people were beaten and released from prison.
The Serbs from Malo Polje were arrested in June 1941. A trick was pulled
and their release ordered, but three of the captives were taken away, tortured
and murdered. The rest kept outside their houses hiding; believing the evil
was gone, they returned to their homes. It was August; the Ustashas burst into
the village and arrested almost thirty Serbs. They were all tortured and killed
on a hill by Mostar by Ustashas from Hodbina, Gnojnice, Blagaj... Twenty-
seven Serbs from Malo Polje were killed. They came from the families of
Kuzman, Jokanović, Čolović, Kajgo, Papić, Kapor and Marić.
The Serbs living in Hodbina were arrested on 25th June 1941. Villagers from
Pijesci and Gobavica were arrested at that time, and 16 people from Hodbina
were imprisoned in Buna together with them. The Ustashas tortured them but
eventually they let them go. Later, in August, the Ustashas took five Serbs
away, and no one ever found out about where and how they were killed. The
killed came from the families of Bošković, Bovan, Stević and Palavestra.
It was merely by a strike of luck that the Serbs from Lakiševine near Mostar
partly survived June 1941. On 30th September 1944, the Ustashas captured,
tortured and executed sixteen men of Serbian nationality. A few of them sur-
vived the shooting by the Ustashas Ikan Krtalić and Stanko Blažević. They
were killed together with the Serbs from Ortiješ. Lakiševine lost 20 of its
413
Serbian villagers, who came from the families of Ivanišević, Šupljeglav and
Vuković.
The Ustashas burst into the Serbian houses in the village of Gnojnice on 30th
September 1944. They were led by Ustashas Stanko Krtalić, Franjo Slišković
and Jozo Dragoje from Gnojnice. The captured were put in a basement, to-
gether with seventeen Serbs from Mostar who had land in Ortiješ. It was Usta-
shas Ivan Martinović, Vlado Mandić, Adolf Sabljak and others who tortured
and killed them. They took some of the captured Serbs to the places of exe-
cution in Mostar, while the rest were locked in Barišić’s basement, brutally
tortured, killed during the night without a single bullet being fired, packed
into sacks, taken to the bank of the Neretva and thrown into the river. The
bodies of two out of the twelve victims were found after the war. Twenty
Serbs were killed on that day, 30th September 1944; ten of the killed Serbs
were from Gnojnice, and they came from the families of Semiz, Šindik,
Matrak and Bulić.
Ortiješ is located five kilometres from Mostar. A notorious Ustasha gang led
by Hamo Hadžić came to the village, surrounded it and captured the men on
the pretext they would be sent to do forced labour. This was in September
1944, but Ortiješ had already had a close encounter with the Ustasha atrocities
at the same place, on 30th May 1941, when Luka Kulaš and the others were
killed, and only Dr Lukač survived. They were all tied and beaten, but that
was the way to bring them to the river. Once at the Neretva, they were killed
and the majority of them pushed into the river. Two men survived, Vlado
Savić and Mirko Berberović. Eighteen people were killed then, from the fam-
ilies of Berberović, Džonlaga, Karadeglija, Ćurić, Čabrilo and Mihić.
The Serbs from Slipčići were arrested just before St. Vitus’ Day, but they
were saved thanks to the notorious Ustasha Blažević, who was also a neigh-
bour of theirs. When he returned home, he noticed the Serbs previously cap-
tured by a different Ustasha gang. He ordered that they all be released, saying:
“Who are you to beat them? When the time comes, I’ll kill them all!“ (People
say it was a kind of showdown between the two, but nobody perished in
Slipčići during the war. When Blažević was tried for war crimes after the war,
almost all Slipčići villagers came to claim it was precisely him who had saved
them. He was sentenced to death.) Seven Serbs from Slipčići of the Škoro and
Janjić families were arrested, imprisoned at different places, tortured and
killed.
Raška Gora lies on the right side of the Neretva, about ten kilometres from
Mostar. In late June 1941, the Ustashas captured and killed six Serbs, who
were never heard of again. In 1944, in the morning of Catholic Christmas,
414
25th December, a gang of Ustashas burst into the village, led by the notorious
Dane Miloš from Goranci. They surrounded the houses and committed an
unprecedented massacre, killing all the men, women and children. Complete
families were immolated inside their homes, or shot in the yards, on the
street... Twenty-seven unarmed villagers were taken to a stable and immo-
lated. The youngest were killed with the eldest, and not even the four children
born that misfortunate year were spared. They took the captured to the back
part of the village and shot them. They threw bombs into the houses and set
everything on fire. Several people survived this hell, and Nada Janjić was one
of them, who was nine at the time. The Ustashas killed seventy-five members
of the Serbian Janjić family and burnt fifty-seven houses. Seventy-eight mem-
bers of the Janjić family and four members of the Berak family perished in
Raška Gora.
Raštani is a place five kilometres away from Mostar. As early as 22nd June,
Ustashas Grga Džajić, Aničić and Zadro burst into the village and murdered
Vidoje Đurasović, by slitting his throat by the River Neretva. Nikola
Trifković craftily avoided the same fate, only to die in a mine a few years
later. A total of fourteen Serbs were killed at various places - pits, the Neretva
and Gospić – during the war.
A criminal campaign was concurrently launched on Raška Gora and the ham-
let of Raštani, on Krenice Hill, on Catholic Christmas, 1944. Ustashas Šunjić,
Opašina and the rest of the gang surrounded and killed the complete Krzman
and Đurasović families, including the smallest of children and the eldest of
adults. The notorious Ustashas slaughtered, burnt and shot at the Serbian
weaklings. They slaughtered Mara Krzman’s six children right before her
eyes. Hurling the youngest one, not even a year old, up into the air, they let it
fall onto their knives. Eventually, they slit the mother’s throat as well. When
the Ustashas left, the villagers buried the victims and saw Darinka Krzman
was missing. They found her nearby, riddled with bullets. The dead mother
still “hovered” over her two-year-old daughter Slavojka, who was alive.
Forty-three Serbs were killed on that occasion, with the total victim count at
forty-eight. The victims came from the families of Krzman, Đurasović,
Trifković, Savić and Vujinović.
The Ustashas deployed in Široki Brijeg arrested the Serbs from the surround-
ing villages of Bogodo, Međine, Polog, Dobrun, Goranci and Biograc. All the
Serbs were imprisoned in the local school in Široki Brijeg. Six women from
Biograc followed to see where the men were being taken; the Ustashas
stopped them, shot them and buried them in the vicinity of the school, at a
415
place called Grabova Draga. Although heavily wounded, Goša Ivanišević sur-
vived. The notorious Ustasha Krtalić killed Stana Ivanišević. As she was dy-
ing, he cut her open and took a baby out of her stomach; the baby let its first
cries out by its mother’s side. They arrested seven people from Bogodo, bru-
tally tortured them and threw them into the Borak pit, in the village of Lištica.
On 2nd August, the Ustashas from Cim arrested 72 Serbs, aged 16-63, in front
of the church; some were killed on the way, while the others perished at
Queen Mary School. According to other testimonies, they were taken to
Jablanica and Velebit. The twenty-two people from Bogodo killed came from
the families of Ivanišević, Bojanić and Janjić.
The village of Ilići lies a few kilometres away from Mostar. Because of such
close proximity, they were among the first to fall victims to the Ustasha terror.
On the day of the arrival of the Italian and German aggressors, 17th April, the
Ustashas killed Đuro Borozan, and the next day they also murdered his 14-
year-old son; a few days later, his second son, Lazar, was also murdered. He
had two more sons; together with their mother, they were taken in the direc-
tion of Jasenovac and killed. The Ustashas who came to Ilići were headed by
Grga Đaić; on that occasion, they captured seven Serbs. The Borozan family
from the village of Morče lost sixteen of its members, either to slaughter, the
River Neretva or the pit at Viduš.
The village of Žitomislić lies between Mostar and Čapljina, 15 kilometres
away from Mostar. Shortly before St. Vitus’, on 26th June 1941, the monks
of the local monastery were asked to report to the municipal authorities,
placed in the building of the local railway station, as ordered by Ustasha Mato
Primorac, who had worked as a teacher before the war. Everybody came, and
the Ustashas immediately tied them. That evening, they tortured them, took
them out of the building, killed and threw them in the Tausovača-Vidonja pit.
The Ustashas who killed the monastery brethren were Božo Jerkić, Jure
Macanović, Galić, Martinović, Krućević, Krvavac, Buntić and others. The
monastery stayed empty and pillaged, after its eight occupants, men closest
to both God and people, were brutally murdered. The villagers stayed hidden
awhile, emerging from time to time, doing the odd chore.
Between 6th and 7th August, heavy rain drove the people into their houses.
The next morning, Ustashas Ivan Zovko, Demirović, Rahimić, Arapović and
others came to the village. They took twenty-eight Serbs with them and
locked them in the rooms of Queen Mary School. The newly-arrived saw
many beaten Serbs there, along with other men from their village, who lived
or worked in Mostar. They were tortured, and some were even killed; taken
to Jablanica, Gospić, Jadovno – they were all murdered. A total of forty-two
416
Serbs from Žitomislić perished, who came from the families of Gačić,
Svrdlin, Simić, Puhalo, Ljoljić, Golo, Kuzman and Mićević.
It was the final days of July. An Ustasha gang, led by Ivica Usmijanin, burst
into Donje Zijemlje, arrested forty-one local Serbs and took them to the gen-
darme station in Rujište. Once there, they were mistreated, beaten and tor-
tured, only to be transferred to the basement of the infamous Queen Mary
School a few days later. Beaten and exhausted as they were, they were taken
out and thrown into the Neretva; only very few of them ended up in the pits
of Western Herzegovina.
The victims came from the families of Antelj, Dabić, Lečić, Čalija, Karišik,
Matković, Račić, Sjeran, Pejdo and Vučić.
During the August campaign, the local Vrapčići Ustashas Škobo, Mikulić,
Kožulj and Mihalj beat 10 of their Serb fellow villagers, and then killed them,
at Šurmanci and God knows what places. The victims came from the Serbian
families of Došlo, Prljeta, Lozo, Antelj and Kuzman.
Bijelo Polje is situated 10 kilometres away from Mostar and covers an area
twenty kilometres in diametre, on both sides of the River Neretva. Potoci,
Vojno, Kuti-Livač, Željuša and Lišani suffered the Ustasha persecution
among the first, in June. Their inhabitants were taken to Jablanica and Gospić.
Thirteen Serbs were arrested and brutally murdered by these Ustashas: Ivica
Usmija, Nikola Golemac, Zovko Cvitan, Avdo Karabeg, and others. Thirty-
seven Serbs, who came from the listed villages, were executed at different
places. They came from the families of Bulajć, Aćimović, Vukosav, Čvoro,
Pejak, Tovarišić, Pejdo, Lozo, Kurteš, Kalem, Dabić, Radović, Telimbat.
Pregrađene and Ravni: members of the Pištala family were killed in June, the
Pantićes in July and early August, and in May 1942, Risto Kandić was ar-
rested, tortured and killed. At the head of these Ustasha units were Nikola
Golemac, Mate Primorac, Marijan Paponja, and Stojan Mandić. A total of six
Serbs perished. The Ustashas arrested and killed five Serbs from Ravni in
early August. The notorious Ustasha men burst into the village in December,
killing another six Serbs, one of whom was a 16-year-old girl. Another victim,
a 75-year-old man, was brutally slaughtered. Seventeen members of the Serb
families of Antić, Kandić, Lojpur and Golubović also perished.
Zelenika lies at the perimetre of Bijelo Polje. There are ten houses settled
between two Muslim villages, 3-4 km from Podgorani, while Hum has 300
houses.
417
On 25th July 1941, the Serbs from Zelenika were taken to the gendarme sta-
tion in Rujište. Some had been “invited,” and others captured through decep-
tion. They were tortured and beaten by the Ustashas Karabeg, Čolaković,
Šunja and Huban; six days later, they were taken to Queen Mary School. The
torture continued until the night between 1st and 2nd August, when they were
put on a freight train together with Serbs from Ljubinje and Berkovići and
transported to Jablanica, where they stayed for five days. An Italian order
came, and they were sent to Gospić and Velebit. Only very few of the four
hundred Serbs survived, while the rest were taken to the pits on Mount Velebit
and killed there. A small number perished in Jasenovac. Seven Serb families
from Zelenika lost 18 members, 13 from the Telebak family and 5 from the
Ivanišević family.
Podgorani is a village with two Serbian houses and two hundred Muslim
homes; it was from one of those houses that Spaso Škoro, my mother’s father,
was taken away, together with the Zelenika Serbs. When it comes to my fam-
ily, the Telebaks, the Ustashas killed four men and a woman (my grand-
mother). She was pregnant at the time, and an Ustasha hit her in the chest with
the butt of his gun. When she gave birth, she died.
Here is a list with the names of some of the Ustashas who were tried and
whom the Serbs still remember:
Stanko Šarac, Stjepan Barbarić, Petar Vrdoljak, Mato Buntić, Mirko Vrdoljak, Šimun Buntić,
Križan Ostojić, Anton Zličarić, Jozo Babić, Slavko Zovko, Ahmet Badžak, Dr Ivo Kordić, Dr
Drago Marušić, Friar Radoslav Glavaš, Dr Božo Nikolić, Josip Trejer, Krešimir Katalić, Petar
Budak, Mehmet Jahić, Iso Omeragić, Esad Kotle, Mirko Buhač, Mirko Bebek, Marko Zelenika,
Stanko Zelenika, Slavko Srdarušić, Niko Milićević, Božo Komadina, Stojan Mandić, Jakov
Krezo, Mate Primorac, Jakov Orlović, Marijan Paponja, Ibro Čolaković, Hasan Šunje, Avdo
Karabeg, Avdo Hubana, Tahir Grga, Stipe Grga, Salko Uremović, Miloš Dane, Mile Čarapina,
Bariša Aničić, Karlo, Nikola, Slavko Sunjić, Križan Ostojić, Šimun Buntić, Cvitan Zovko, Đuro
Spužević, Stanko Šarac, Mirko Gregović, Ivan Jovanović, Ivan Soče, Tadija Jerkić, Božo
Turudić, Ludvig Jovanović, Jozo Martić, Džemal Konjhodžić, Muhamed Jahić, Ivo Serdarović,
Franjo Sudar, Mate Roko, Mujo Demirović, Pero Krtalić, Duran Mehić, Ivan Martinović, Vlado
Mandić, Hamo Hadžić, Mujo Džiho, Franjo Zlomislić, Nikola Golemac, Ivica Usmijan, Grga
Kožul, Avdo Toropan, Šćepo Raić, Petar Vrdoljak, Mato Buntić, Stjepan Barbarić, Mirko
Idiljak, Križan Ostojić, Stjepan Vrdoljak, Salko Dizdar, Petar Budak, Boris Smoljan, Hasim
Badžak, Mujica Salčin, Salko Bjelić, Dr Muhamed Ridžanović, Vjekoslav Komljenović, Rafael
Boban, Đovani Popovac, Andrija Buljan, Jozo Jerković, Ivan Soče, Andrija Šego, Lovro
Blažević, Andrija Rotim, Mišo Penava, Jozo Slišković, Marko Puljić, Salko Džono, Ibro
Rahimić, Boško Puljić, Fehim Volić, Halil Pandur, Ahmet Torlo, Omer Trnovac, Stojan
Cvitković, Marko Filipović, Mato Lovrić, Šćepo Lovrić, Stanko Krtalić, Koraja Krešić, Adolf
Sabljak, Pero Martinović, Salko Krvavac, Ivan Krndelj, Božo Jerkić, Jure Macanović, Drago
Galić, Jozo Galić, Mato Galić, Šimun Buntić, Mićo Čarapina, Meho Demirović, Ramo
Rahimić, Alojz Matić, Ivan Grilmaut, Franjo Koskori, Niko Delić, Joco Rukavina, Tomislav
Mesić, Ivan Musa, Šćepa Barbarić, Pavao Cankić, Pero Jurić, Franjo Vego, Alija Šuljak, Smajo
Kurtović, Meho Salčin, Mate Roko, Mile Šunjić, Mujo Trbonja, Zijo Bakamović, Vlatko Prpić,
Ahmet Badžak, Šimun Benić, Drago Smoljan, Salko Dizdar, Škobo Pera, Škobo Stojan, Stanko
Mikulić, Nikola Kožul, Mujo Kuko, Ante Ogorelac, Mijo Babić, Mehmet Jahić, Josip
418
Rožanković, Grga Kožul, Nikola Golemac, Avdo Toropan, Šćepo Rajić, Jakov Krezo, Šćepo
Krezo, Jakov Orlović, Stipe Grgac, Vinko Primorac, Ivan Zovko, Mijo Babić, Jozo Rukavina,
Mirko Marušić, Alija Šiljak, Halil Voloder, Stjepan Šarac, Petar Vrdoljak, Mato Buntić, Mirko
Vrdoljak, Križan Ostojić, Anton Zličarić, Vicko Barbarić, Omer Sejfić, Tadija Jerkić, Marko
Cvitković, Keka Komlenović, Marko Drpoljić, Zdravo Ćosić, Salko Dizdar, Ilija Demirović,
Stojan Cvitković, Željko Stjepan, Vicko Barbarić, Frano Jurica, Šćepo Soldo, Martin Zolko,
Salko Mirica, Rafo Ondelj, Asim Ramić, Hamit Taslaman, Avdija Muratović, Vicko Mijan,
Karlo Kljajo, Jure Popović, Husein Jusić, Ivan Zovko, Pavo Mazgan, Jozo Križan, Mehmet
Novo, Franjo Sudar, Ante Mandić, Tomo Falak, Avgust Turk, Julius Hefer, Andrija Buljan,
Zvonko Mičetić, Andrija Jarak, Ante Božić, Trpimir Smoljan, Dragoje Silvestar, Mijo Rajić,
Džemal Konjhodžić, Ilka Jurišin, Hakija Begović, Boris Smoljan, Šimun Benić, Đuro Ostojić,
Nikola Knezović, Franjo Jakeša, Ivo Gril, Franjo Rajner, Pero Šimunović, Franjo Kikaš,
Mahmut Čemić, Fehim Pašić, Omer Sejfić…
The Serbs from Mostar and the surrounding area were killed and thrown in
these pits and precipices:
Borak, Vidonja, Šaranova, Rudnik, Ponornice, Blato, Kruščica, Furnaž, Golubara, Bivolje Brdo,
Baba, Golubinka, Ržani Do, Šurmanovačka, Cerno, Himac, Hutovo, Ararova, Gornja Kakauša,
Grazina, Hadžibegov Bunar, Danica, Molnar, Blatuša, Studenac and the black Narenta – the
deepest River Neretva.
Here are the names of more of such places:
Jasenovac, Jadovno, Velebit, Gospić, Slano, Pag, Jablanica Kruščica, Gragnik, Stara Gradiška,
Masline, Blato, Opuzen, Međugorje, Široki Brijeg, Čitluk, Ljubuški, Martinovići, Čapljina,
Dvor na Uni, Caprag, Glina, Hutovo, Metković, Tuzla, Sarajevo, Prozor, and many more
places, both known and unknown.
Accounts and testimonies to the persecution of the Serbs of Mostar and the
surrounding area now cover thousands of pages. In one hundred days, the
Ustashas heinously murdered over a thousand Serbs of all generations, from
babies to old people.
These things are horrifying enough to tell about, let alone experience them,
try to comprehend and come to terms with the fact they were something man
did to his fellow man, especially in the 20th century.
Slaughtering complete families; throwing children up in the air and letting
them fall onto bayonets; forcing tens of weaklings – women, children and
elderly – into houses and immolating them. Smashing live people against
precipices and throwing them into pits; gouging people’s eyes; throwing peo-
ple into rivers, half-slain; slitting pregnant women’s stomachs with bayonets
and removing their babies; killing with anything at hand, from a needle to a
mallet; raping, slitting throats, and shooting only very few of the victims.
If there are any more gruesome torture and killing methods, they were not
used only for the simple reason those atrocious killers did not remember them,
did not know about them, or could not conceive of them.
419
When an aggressor opens his heart and speaks about the brutality of perpetra-
tors, that already makes two pieces of conclusive evidence.
This is an extract from a previously published letter by the Italian general
Alessandro Lusana addressed to Mussolini.
“Duce!
My absolute loyalty to you entitles me, hopefully, to a slight disregard
for the strict military protocols in connection with an issue.
...
Words escape me, the words needed to describe what I found there. I
found a teacher and a hundred and twenty students in the big classroom,
all of them slain! None of the children were over the age of 12! The
word “crime” is inadequate and innocent – this atrocity was worse than
the worst of nightmares! Many had had their heads cut off and lined on
the desks. The Ustashas had removed the children’s intestines after slit-
ting their bellies and hung them, like decorative ribbons, under the ceil-
ing, nailing them to the walls! There were swarms of flies in the room
and the stench was unbearable, so we did not stay very long.
I spotted a bag of salt in the corner, it was already open, and came to
the most horrifying realisation that the victims had been slain very
slowly and their necks sprinkled with salt! Just as we were leaving, we
heard a child’s rattle from the back row. I sent two of my soldiers to see
what it was. They brought a pupil, who was still alive, breathing with
his throat cut half through! I put the poor child in my car and drove him
to our army hospital. They helped him regain his consciousness, and
then learnt the truth about the tragedy. The villains had taken turns rap-
ing the teacher, who was a Serb (her name was Stana Arnautović), and
then killed her before the children. They had also raped eight-year-old
girls. In the meantime, they had brought a Gypsy band and forced them
to sing and play! May our Catholic Church forever feel ashamed – a
man of God, a priest, had been in it. The boy we saved recovered soon.
We were not cautious enough, and as soon as his wound had healed, he
escaped from the hospital and went to his village to look for his folk.
We sent a patrol after him, but it was to no avail; they found him lying
slain on the doorstep of his house!“
One thousand five hundred and eight Serbs were killed in Mostar and
the surrounding area, of whom 1284 died at the hands of the Ustashas.
420
Žarko Kučinar
THE SUFFERINGS OF ONE

FAMILY ON 26TH JUNE
1941
The Kučinar family moved here in 1650, from the area of Bioko - Meduna.
Until then, they had been called Drekalović, and belonged to the Kuč tribe.
They were always proud of their ancestor Marko Miljanov Drekalović Popo-
vić and their Kuč tribe. During the great migration of 1650 Manojlo moved
to the hamlet Riđica, the village Burmaze, Municipality of Stolac, and all
Kučinar people from Riđica or Prokazići, from the village Burmaz, Munici-
pality of Stolac, are his descendants. The other two brothers moved in differ-
ent directions. Pijuk settled in Bijelo Polje and had no descendants, while Pijo
moved to the area of Mokro, between Pale and Sarajevo. As a libertarian fam-
ily, which was among the first ones who purchased the land from Stolac aga
Šarić, they honourably presented the Serbs who never diverged either left or
right, but only in the manner of a typical Serbian reverence.
Their slaughter was totally unprovoked, and they were great victims of the
Ustasha crimes and genocide. Aside from Riđica, where their homeland used
to be, one part of the Kučinar family also eventually settled in the hamlet
Prokazići, where they were killed on June 26th 1941. At the same time, in the
village Riđica there were no victims thanks to caution and warning given by
the deceased Inkonija Kučinar, who had escaped from the execution in
Prokazići and managed to tell them that the others were killed. On that day,
26th June 1941, a battalion was brought from Stolac, and this act of crime
was directed by Grga Vujinović, a former deputy of the Zeta province. To-
gether with the battalion from Stolac, neighbours Kazimir Bogdanović, Janko
Papac, Ćetko Marić and Ante Vujinović also came to the village Prokazići,
themselves having participated in the crime. Of the 48 souls living in
Prokazići, these nonhumans and cowards managed to kill thirteen Kučinar
people, as well as Luka Mičeta, who was originally from the village Čavše
421
but had been present there that day because his mother was from the Kučinar
family. Luckily, 50 souls were in the Mount Treskavica at the time. They had
gone to the mountain huts and driven the sheep out to pasture. A great thing
was also done by Stojan Kučinar, who at one moment shouted: “Get out, they
will slaughter us!” when they began collecting them and tying them in order
to throw them into a nearby pit Golubinka, already predetermined by the Vat-
ican-NDH plan.
On 26 June 1941 these people were killed:
• Kučinar Obren - 1876-1941
• Kučinar Simo - 1908-1941
• Kučinar Neđeljko - 1898-1941
• Kučinar Rajko - 1897-1941
• Kučinar Čedo - 1921-1941
• Kučinar Aleksa - 1909-1941
• Kučinar Budimir - 1932-1941
• Kučinar Ljubica - 1906-1941
• Kučinar Kosa - 930-1941
• Kučinar Olga - 1926-1941
• Kučinar Petruša - 1862-1941
• Kučinar Mitra - 1863-1941
• Kučinar Petra - 1865-1941
• Mičeta Luka - 1875-1941.
Having committed this shameful crime, three days after the massacre, Grga
Vujinović sent Catholic villagers to bury the victims and they found Neđeljko
Kučinar still alive. He was married to Anica Vujinović (Grga and Anica were
the children of two brothers and Anica never went to her family again after
her marriage). These villagers reported to Grga that his brother-in-law Neđel-
jko was alive, but he sent three Ustashas to kill him, which they did. When
they found Neđeljko alive, he naively suggested to them to go to Grga Vuji-
nović so that he could be led to the hospital in Stolac (before the genocide
Grga had said , “You might get whoever you want, I will get my brother-in-
law,” and the same thing was said by Stole Matić when he killed his brother-
in-law Glavan in Popovo Polje). This speaks enough of how mistaken Serbian
people was when creating the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes,
and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, with imperfect degenerate nations, who had
also once been Orthodox Serbs, and whose mindset did not go further than
the messages from the Vatican, or messages from the Ottoman tribute of
blood. They had once mostly been Orthodox Christians, so our Serbian people
believed them. The victims of this genocide were literally moved to a nearby
location Lokanj and there they were superficially buried into a hole from
422
which red topsoil used to be dug and served for collecting water. The entire
time after 1946, there stood a small cross , which, unfortunately , bothered
the Serbs too (Serbian authorities, because Kučinar people did not allow any
other sign to be put there except the cross. They were punished for that and
none of them could have a pension even though they also were supportive of
the primordial in the socialist movement 1941 they were friends with Čedo
Kapor, Halid Comić, Radovan Papić, Vlado Tomanović, but they disagreed
that a state is made together with our age-old enemies).
In this way I am trying to describe that crime, because even a bigger one will
happen if we forget this, and we should not forgive either until one of us from
the Kučinar family is alive (since many died, we also have audio and video
recordings of the witnesses of this crime, which the survivors provided during
the commemoration service in June 1991, which is published in the second
part of the book, editor’s note). The mainstay of this philosophy lies in the
fact that the children of these same villains in 1992 placed explosives and
blew up the monument and the bones of our ferociously tortured and killed
kin. The monument was made and consecrated by the Kučinars in June 1991,
and all the relatives of the Kučinar family with descendants, led by our dear
father Slobo (Simeun) Biberdžić, were present.
As a proud and well-educated family, the Kučinars today live in Smederevo,
Belgrade, Ljubinje, Trebinje and across the globe. Even today, unfortunately,
they are under some strange controls because they have always been believers
and reverent Serbs, without ideological deadlocks. At the moment there is a
fund-raising process for the reconstruction of the destroyed monument in Lo-
kanj, as well as for the construction of a small chapel in the Kučinar cemetrey
called “Demil’s Cross.” The very cross dedicated to Demil is by its dimen-
sions one of the largest stone monuments in Europe from the 1400’s. (The
tombstone is dedicated to Demil, brother of the late Vida, who lived in Stolac,
the former Vidoštak, and the same crosses, only of smaller dimensions, stand
above the graves of Demil’s brothers – on the Šćepan Cross in Dabrica,
Vojska Field in Bančići, and on Ljubomir. This is because Demil, Šćepan,
Vojko and Ljubomir were Vida’s brothers, and the patron saint of Stolac is
Saint Vitus, today called Vitus Field, and not Stolac field. All of this was
happening at the beginning of Christianity in Herzegovina.) The Kučinars’
motto has always been that the Serbian land is wherever our churches and our
victims are. With God’s blessing such crimes will never happen to us again,
and with God’s blessing we will never get separated and for the sake of
someone's interests be silent over this and similar crimes, because with these
monsters no state could have been created or survived (holy is the hand which
could retaliate without hatred in itself).
423
Tear of mine, you remembered it all, as long as you remember you will exist
too; the future is the remnant of the past; and it will exist till the past lasts; if
you have nothing to die for; you should not have even been born; If you do
not know why you were born; even for the real death you are late, as great
Njegoš said.
Note: Information about the sufferings of the Kučinars was elaborated by
Zarko, Manojlov, Kučinar, who had known the truth from birth, but had no
one to tell, so here the time has come to write it, to describe it and deliver it
in the written form to the literate and benevolent people who will further pro-
cess all the Ustasha crimes from 1941 and connect them with those from
1991.
Let us pray to God not to give us hatred, but forgetfulness neither.
At the commemoration ceremony, 26th June 1991
424
The monument in 1996
Sadness of the descendants over the devastated monument
425
Žarko Kučinar
THE CRIME IN
GAVRANICA
At the crack of dawn on St. Vitus’ Day, 28th June 1941, in Gornje Hrasno
102 men, Serbs from the village, were detained. They were then taken to Sto-
lac under the pretext that the Montenegrins had rebelled, so they would sup-
posedly take them to Stolac in order to get testimonies. The organiser of the
crimes against this population was Grga Vujinović, a deputy of the Zeta prov-
ince from Burmazi village, hamlet of Ober, Stolac Municipality.
When at the crack of dawn on St. Vitus’ Day the line of people was turned
from the road towards the Gavranica pit (which is located in the area of Gola
brda, towards the village Burmazi), it was led by a former police officer Ivan
Radović. Apart from Arapović, the perpetrators of this crime were the locals
from Donje and Gornje Hrasno – Konjevoda, Marčinko, Krešić, Sutale, Papac
(one of the few who refused to take part in this crime was Stojan Papac).
Of these 102 men, taken to the pit, the vilains managed to kill 64 men (from
the following families: Bukvić (20), Vukosav (2), Medan (12), Žarković (12),
Komad (8), Đogo (7), and one from the Lugonja family, who was not from
Gornje Hrasno but had found himself there, and one from the Ćuk family).
Salvation for those who had fled the crime was Stevo Đogo who shouted:
“Get away, people, the pit!” They were connected with ropes, as previously
Stoja Komad tossed the wire from the store into a water tank because she had
heard that they could be tied with wire.
(The bones of the martyrs have been evacuated from the Gavranica pit –
Hrasno tomb in the 1970’s. Late Danilo Bukvić had special merits for extract-
ing the bones and the bones were probably taken away so that it is not known
where they are buried in the subsequent war.)
Given that some escaped from the pit, the perpetrators cowards got scared and
did not perform crimes against children and women, which had been intended
427
for 28 June 1941 and the pit of the crime was in the very Hrasno field and
was called Benek’s pit.
Into the Hutovo pit, in the area of the Previš village, three Serbs were thrown
(one from the Bukvić family and for the other two it has not been known who
they were).
428
Slavko Šanjević
THROWN ALIVE INTO

PITS
The suffering of Serbs in

the area of Neum
Municipality
Above the Hutovo railway station, Neum Municipality, there are two pits, one
of which is about 250 metres away from the station and is called Gradina.
After torturing them first, the Ustashas threw four Serbs alive into this pit.
Another pit is around 1200 metres away from the train station and is called
Hadžibeg’s well. Thirty-two Serbs were thrown alive into this pit, after being
tortured first.
Around St. Vitus’ Day in 1941 in Čapljina, the Ustashas under the direction
of Ivan Mustapić brought by bus 32 Serbs from Čapljina and the surrounding
villages. This bus was accompanied by two cars, and previously it had been
reported to the Ustashas in Hutovo to await the arrival of the bus under escort.
The bus and escorts from Čapljina headed over Domanovići and Stolac to
Hutovo. After being tortured in Čapljina all the Serbs were individually tied.
When they were brought to Hutovo, the Ustashas led one by one to the pit,
first to the pit of Gradina, and the others to Hadžibeg's well, and threw them
alive into the pits.
It is difficult to describe the torture of the victims in Čapljina and in Hutovo.
It is known that firstly they were tortured in Čapljina and then tied up and
brought to Hutovo, and in Hutovo they were constantly beaten on the way
429
from the bus to the pits. Especially characteristic is the torture of the priest
Ljubo Hajduković. After tremendous torture his beard was plucked, and then
his eyes were pulled out.
The following persons participated in this crime:
Ivan Mustapić, Obad Vide, Baldo Rajić, Stipo Previšić, Mišo Maslać, Boško Vukorep, Luka
Vukorep, Mato Konjevod, Ivan Konjevod, Spasoje Rajić, Ilija Mustapić, Ivan Butigan, Nikola
Rajić, Mijo Rajić, Anđelko Rajić, Antun Horvat, Jozo Rajić, Zvonko Radoš – a teacher from
Čapljina, and Tomislav Marčinko.
Bibliography:
AJF – 110 doc. 3155, AU – F – 110 cat. no.: 60.414,

Ljubo Ijačić AJ-F-110 DKRZ, file no: 4472 cat. No.: 56/725,
Čučković, Božidar M., Zločini u Hercegovini u Drugom svjetskom ratu.
430

WITNESS
ACCOUNTS
431
Zdravko Šakotić
THE USTASHAS ATTACK

BIJELA GORA ON 20TH
JUNE 1941
Reverend fathers, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, it is my honour

to be in a position to greet you here as participants of this scientific confer-
ence, and wish us all a lot of success in our work. Had we had more luck, this
conference would have been held a long time ago, but as people of Herze-
govina like to say, better late than never. Still, seventy-two years later, very
few witnesses are still alive and we must rely on other people’s accounts.
I would like to dedicate my account to Orovac, my birthplace, and the events
that occurred seventy-two years ago, that is, I would like to remind of what I
said two years ago, more precisely, on 19th June 2011, when we marked the
seventieth anniversary of the feat of two truly courageous men, Vidak and
Lazar Grubač, who saved their village from genocide of the NDH against the
Serbian people, which is the topic of this conference. This is what I also said
back then, on 19th June.
The villagers of Orovac and their many descendants scattered around the
globe have lived long enough to see this conference take place, which was
unimaginable until recently. This dry, isolated land of herzegs, St. Sava and
St. Basil of Ostrog’s fatherland, the well of the Serbian language, Bijela Gora
– the White Mountains – a part of Herzegovina nestled against its sister, Mon-
tenegro, and Boka Bay, the Adriatic’s beautiful bride, home to rebels, heroes
and highlanders, opens its heart for us today and spreads its arms to greet us,
pleased and happy the time has come to remind us all, with this history lesson,
of the event that happened seventy years ago, when brothers Lazar (1909-
1999, U.S.) and Vidak (1912-2000, Igalo), sons of Marko Grubač, son of
Lučo, resisted the Ustashas and committed a true feat of heroism here above
this forest, at Radin Do, at the very border with Montenegro, and probably
433
stopped Ustashas from committing a crime of genocide they had planned

against the villagers of Orovac on 20th June 1941. With this self-preservation
act, which only brave people are capable of, those two men became local he-
roes and part of history. So here is what I said that Sunday, 19th June, as if
anticipating this conference:
“Dear guests, my fellow-villagers of Orovac, let God forever continue to
guide us, sharpening our pens and giving us plenty of strength so we can offer
a piece of historical truth to ourselves and the world at this hour, as we fight
for the incorruptible and veracious science called history.”
Indeed, this is that hour, right here in Trebinje, the story then begun continues
here and now, in this conference, and I certainly hope this is not where it ends.
It was Friday, 20th June 1941, a bloody June for the Serbian people of Her-
zegovina. The Grubač brothers were attacked, or rather surrounded by the
monstrous troops of the treacherous NDH. One Ustasha unit had come from
Rastuša, that is, from the direction of Zupci, another from Orovac, and still
another from Vučija via Budima. The Ustashas tightened their deadly circle
around the two; fortunately, they did not seal it, leaving a crack of free space
to free Montenegro, thanks to which this place, situated at the border, has
survived and still has offspring today. Had the Ustashas tightened the circle,
they would have captured the fleeing men of Bijela Gora and taken them to
the Brena pit at Barice in Orovac. The local Muslims-turned-Ustashas had
learnt about the pit and found it by forcing a local woman, Milica Grubač,
daughter of Nikola, to show them its whereabouts, which they would have
used for a bloody massacre, like the one which took place between 2nd and
5th June in Korita near Bileća, as well as other places across Herzegovina,
both before and after the Korita atrocity.
The truth is, the heinous murders committed ten days earlier at Prijeka Voda
in Gornja Lastva ought to have served as a warning to the people of Orovac.
It was Wednesday, 11th June; for no apparent reason, the Ustashas came to
the Begenišić house and killed two brothers, Jovo and Stevo, as well as Jovo’s
sons Mirko and Peko, right on their doorstep. The villagers of Orovac ought
to have been wiser and gone closer to the border with Montenegro. By doing
so, they would have avoided the bloody fate of the Serbs of Eastern Herze-
govina. Brothers Stevo and Jovo were killed at Prijeka Voda, together with
Jovo’s two sons, Peko and Mirko. Peko was a student of the School of Agri-
culture in Bar, and Mirko was to have graduated from the Petty Officer School
in Bileća, the class of Lieutenant-Colonel Bajo Stanišić, which he attended
with a few other cadets from his village, such as Rajko Šakotić and Rajko
Begenišić. He was taken to school by Trivko Begenišić, a proud recepient of
434
the Order of the Star of Karađorđe. The Ustasha bounty hunters walked past
Simo Šakotić’s house and went to the Begenišićes’, where they found Jovo
and Stevo, as well as Mileva, Jovo’s daughter. When they found out Jovo’s
sons had left to fetch some wood, they sent Mileva away, telling her to go and
find her brothers and tell them some people wanted to see them. Not antici-
pating the tragedy, she left to fetch her brothers. When they came, the Usta-
shas played their bloody part. The innocent men of the Begenišić family were
killed. Little Milorad was fortunate enough not to have been at home when
the murders happened; that morning, he went to the market in Trebinje with
Vidna, his mother. When they returned to Gornja Lastva, Vidna and Milorad
met the Ustasha patrol at the local mosque, who had just killed Vidna’s sons,
husband and brother-in-law, that is, Milorad’s father, brothers and uncle. One
of the Ustashas grabbed the ten-year-old and asked: “Should we do away with
this one too?” Another one responded: “Don’t, it’s been enough.” Vidna and
her son had no idea what they were talking about, and it was only when they
got home that they learned about the tragedy that had befallen their family.
It was for decades afterwards that we spoke – rather, whispered – about why
those things had happened the way they did, and only with the most confi-
dential of friends and relatives. Also, about who committed the atrocity and
for what reason. Some people think it may have been Ibro Salković’s revenge;
he was a deputy before the war, and upon his election, Jovo asked about how
that could be, when people knew his father, Fejzo Salković, a Schutzkorps
militiaman [Austria-Hungary’s auxiliary volunteer militia in Bosnia and Her-
zegovina, t/n] had killed Serbs in Korjenići in World War I? Ibro responded:
“Jovo Begenišić, this will cost you your life!” Others say it was Mahmut
Ćerimagić’s misdoing, who was also a Schutzkorps militiaman in World War
I, recognised as killer in Vladimir Ćorović’s 1920 The Black Book, who fled
in World War II, only to return afterwards and kill goats, forbidden by Tito
because they supposedly destroyed the woodland in Herzegovina. Those el-
derly people of Orovac who knew about Mahmut’s crimes in World War I
used to say, why, he should rather kill goats than people. When he heard what
people were saying, he moved to Bosnia, and to remove any incriminating
evidence against him, he bought all copies of The Black Book he could find,
at hefty a price, and the one person who would not sell his book to him was
Jovo, which was the supposed cause of Jovo and his family’s execution by
the Ustasha hunter unit. They were buried in Orovac, in secrecy, during the
night. In the 1970’s, their bones were reclaimed and moved, and on that oc-
casion a bullet was found in Jovo Begenišić’s skull.
We should not shy away from the fact there were honourable Muslims, for
example, a man called Avdo Baraković, who warned Simo Šakotić, later a
435
U.S. citizen, to take his family and go hiding in Bijela Gora. Novak, son of
Miloš Begenišić from Jazina, and Jovan Ratković from Lastva were similarly
pre-warned. Briefly, they took refuge with their relatives living in the moun-
tains, which most certainly helped them stay alive. Extra guards were posted
and the people were warned to be on full alert. When troops passed through
Orovac an hour or two after midnight, Radovan, son of Marko Grubač from
Pandurica, and Obrad, son of Rade Šakotić from Skorupan, fired shots to alert
the people, but hardly anyone heard them.
Back in those days, in 1941, communist units were deployed in Gladišta, just
above Begova Korita, commanded by Sava Kovačević. They had forbidden
the people to shoot guns, and the attack on the Grubač brothers was an imme-
diate signal the Ustashas had reached the mountains. This very shot and the
fight put up by people at Radnjin Do were essentially the first acts of people’s
uprising in the former Yugoslavia. Obviously, it was the shots fired in Bijela
Gora and Eastern Herzegovina (24th June) that marked the beginning of
armed resistance, and not those in Bela Crkva on 7th July or Drvar on 27th
July, as currently celebrated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The dates were de-
cided on by the Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Yugoslavia (CK KPJ) – an obvious case of application of double
standards – which disregarded the historical facts and postdated the beginning
of the uprising, which actually started on 20th June in our village, and on 24th
June in Nevesinje, as claimed by Vidak Grubač in an interview given to the
historian Savo Skoko, PhD, and written down and published in the books The
Killing of the Serbs of Herzegovina in 1941 (1991) and The Bloody Herze-
govinian Dance 1941-1942 (2000).
The Ustasha troops had used trucks to reach Konjsko from Trebinje. Accord-
ing to some accounts, there were about 400 troops, but it stays unclear
whether this was the total number of troops sent to attack Bijela Gora, or only
those who arrived via Zupci. Anto Ćurić’s Blagoje, Boško Ćurić’s Dušan,
Đoko Ćurić’s Boško, Lazar Ćurić’s Novica, Manojlo Ćurić’s Lazar, Savo Rat-
ković’s Nikola, Radovan Ratković, and Đoko Ratković’s Lazar were all cap-
tured in Carevo Polje and Krstasti Do, while they were still asleep. They were
taken to Milana Osijeka. Đoko, son of Lazar Ratković, who was 19, realised
they were being taken to Borova Glava to be shot. He tried to run away, but
a bullet caught him. The other seven members of the Ćurić and Ratković fam-
ilies were taken to the pine forest above Kremeniti Do, and three of the troops
were left to watch over them. The younger ones suggested running away, be-
cause like that at least someone would stay alive, but the old Manojlo Ćurić
said they were not guilty of anything and would not be killed, according to
436
Spaso, son of Anto Ćurić, who was 17 at the time and whom chance spared,
making him the only witness of this bloody feast.
- My brother and I were about to load our horses and try and flee across Alin
Brijeg to Montenegro – that’s where the border with Montenegro was, the
Ustashas did not dare go across. We wanted to get our bees across to Monte-
negro. We noticed a circle of 15-20 Croatian troops closing in on our house,
moving in closer towards us. Trying to run would have been senseless, be-
cause our younger brothers Vaso and Nikola still lay asleep in the hut. We
saw one of them was Ethem Erkočević Šuco, our local forester, originally
from Dživar, and were relieved. Being old acquaintances, I addressed him in
these words: “What’s up, Šuco?” Instead of greeting me back, he shouted:
“Take this Serbian trash away and beat the life out of them!” They immedi-
ately attacked us, hitting us with the butts of their guns, yelling maliciously:
“Here you are, Vlachs, see Ustashas decorate you with Karađorđe medals!”
They made us walk.
As Vidak Grubač recounted on several occasions until 2000, the year of his
death, one of the Ustashas, with a scar across his face, hit Lazar so hard that
he collapsed. – As “my” Ustasha kept me going, I tried to feel the curved
knife I had kept at the waist. He saw me do it, and thinking I was trying to
take out a gun, he turned his rifle to shoot me. Luckily, I was faster and man-
aged to push the gun barrel above my head before he pulled the trigger, which
sent the bullet intended for me flying into the air. I got badly burnt on that
occasion, and this burn can still be seen, Vidak told me in 1989. – The gun
fired with my hand around the barrel, but I wouldn’t let go of it; being
stronger, I swirled the Ustasha around me, until I had pulled the gun out of
his hands. The other Ustashas did not shoot at us, probably for fear they might
kill one of their own troops. The only thing I managed to say was: “Lazar,
they’re going to kill us, poor our mother!” Like myself, both Lazar and the
two youngsters, Vaso and Nikola, ran to the forest. Back in 2011 – it was two
or three months before he died – Nikola Grubač told me, Nikola Deretić was
also there, that his brother Vaso was wounded on the occasion, but luckily not
seriously. It was early in the morning when a machine gun suddenly opened
fire somewhere from the mountains, but they were lucky enough and no one
got killed. – All four of us were unarmed and decided to run in opposite di-
rections. As I fled toward Medov Do, I met Blažo Begenišić and told him
about what had happened. I said: “Godfather, Lazar’s dead!” – Vidak said. –
He just responded: “Praised be the Lord, there’s nothing anyone can do about
it!”
437
According to an account by Blažo Begenišić, mentioned above, soon after-

wards, in the midst of this pandemonium, he met Lazar, who told him Vidak
had been killed. Blažo denied the news, saying Vidak was alive, but Lazar
would not believe him, and only said: “If he had had the wings of a hawk, he
wouldn’t have been able to escape the bullets coming from so many Ustasha
rifles and machine guns.” “Vidak is alive, be sure of that, let go now – let’s
find more men and make sure they don’t loot Radin Do instead,” Blažo Be-
genišić insisted. Just before meeting the Grubač brothers, Blažo shouted these
words of warning from his house on Medov Brijeg across to his brother-in-
law, Rajko Šakotić: “Ho, Rajko, son of Vidak, take flight, here come the Usta-
shas, they’ve already killed the Markovac family in Radinj Do!” All the men
fled to Begova Korita, and the women and girl shepherds drove the cattle to
the border with Montenegro. Petrana Šakotić, my grandmother, daughter of
Vidak, was carrying a bucketful of hogwash to feed the pigs, when she spotted
the Ustashas coming across Alovića Brijeg, approaching the Šakotićes’ shep-
herd huts in Kaluđerski Do. She laid the bucket aside and took to the forests
in the direction of Medov Do. Yet, she was able to hear people talking right
above her, on the hill. She knew it was the Ustashas talking, so she hid in a
hollow beech-tree. When the Ustashas came to the pigsty, one of them poured
the hogwash in the trough for the pigs to eat, she had seen it with her own
eyes and told us about it. Blažo Begenišić loaded his blind mother Jegda onto
his back and carried her to a safe place in the woods, after which he took to
Rudine to try and find the people who were already on Montenegrin territory.
He had almost reached Rudine and was near a garden, when he saw a unit
approaching. “I lay down and kept quiet. Luckily for me, they didn’t see me,”
Blažo used to tell me, back in those days when I was a boy first and then a
young man, and tended sheep with him. It was an eye-opener for me – it was
the first time I had heard about the events that people so rarely spoke about.
He also told me his brother Ćuro had been in Gladišta then. When Ćuro real-
ised his brother was in mortal danger, he began crying and wailing but was
quieted by Sava Kovačević, who told him: “Come down, Blažo is an experi-
enced soldier, he’ll manage it.” The unit went past and did not see me – thus
recounted my uncle Blažo Begenišić.
According to the rest of his account, Vidak was armless, so on his way to
Begova Korita he forcefully took a gun from Ilija Deretić, son of Vidak, father
of the historian Jovan Deretić, who was three at the time and was still led by
the hand by his father. Lazar crossed Ledenik to get to Korita, took a gun from
Stevan Deretić, and the two were joined by the courageous Petar and Ogren
Vučetić from Zaslan, who came from Jarčišta up in the mountains. – Together
with Nikola Đajić, son of Obren, who came from Orovac, we reached the
438
house of Petar Deretić, son of Kojo, which was located on the territory of
Montenegro, a kilometre or two away from our hut. We armed ourselves with
buckets, set on scaring the Ustashas away. We hit the buckets to make noise,
and the four of us were as loud as if there were a major throng. We said, don’t
shoot, which we did individually, because we had five guns. We also yelled:
“Attack, Montenegrins, our brothers! Let’s surround them, don’t shoot, let’s
capture them alive!“ The Ustashas who were just loading the bees onto the
mules got frightened, left the loaded mules and escaped to Orani Doli, where
they were awaited by a group of Ustashas, with the captured Ćurićes and Rat-
kovićes. Borika, our frightened mother, kept walking around the hut, saying
repeatedly “Unpoor me!” instead of “Poor me!” The Ustashas took flight to
Milana Osijeka, and when they had reached the Austro-Hungarian barracks,
they asked for some water from Marija and Jelena Grubač. They also wanted
to know how the women could live on such arid land, on stone and rock. “No
need killing you, really, for God has punished you by settling you here!” The
Ustashas explained they were from Slavonia, and had local guides from Kor-
jenić and Trebinje. The shots heard above Bijela Gora had warned everybody
about the attack. They were cross their surprise attack had failed and shot the
patriots from Zupci, who were then buried in a mass grave in Orani Doli, on
the estate of Novak Šakotić, son of Ignjat, by the women from the huts in
Orani Do, Kremeniti Do and Odžinića Rupa: it was Kosa, daughter of Obren,
Kosa, daughter of Tomo, Đeva and Mara Šakotić, daughters of Novak and
Gojko, Ćetna and Vidosava Grubač, daughters of Savo and Rako, and Višnja
Deretić, daughter of Akim, who buried the shot men.
It was at that place that the families of Ćurić and Ratković built a memorial
at their expense, which they opened in the company of their families and
friends on 1st May 1988.
Two years ago, I met Gajo Ćurić at the previously mentioned gathering on
Bijela Gora. Gajo is a native of Trebinje, whose father Anto was shot in the
war. On that occasion, he presented me with a book he had just published,
Letters to a Grandson from America. In a chapter titled “Encounters,” it said:
“On 8th March 2001, I met an old friend of mine in San Francisco, Marko
Dučić, from Trebinje, who told me: ‘Remember I saw Milan Tica from
Konjsko? He recited parts of a song to me, and it has a mention of Anto, your
father, who was killed by the Ustashas in 1941. It was the first time I had
heard anyone had sung a song about the tragedy in Carevo Polje.’
Gajo Ćurić wrote that that night Milan told him parts of this song, which is
about a gang of Ustashas leaving the barracks and committing a crime in
Konjsko, that is, Carevo Polje, on 20th June 1941:
439
A company of Ustasha youths at the ready

They’re by Jozo Jurković headed.
Each dirt track and bush knows he
For a gendarme he used to be.
In the dark of the night, when the sun has set
Out they go to the rugged Zupce
Across Tuli and Turmente
To the river, the cursed outpour.
It is with a sixty-year delay that a song tells me the Ustasha company was
commanded and the octuple murder committed by Jozo Jurković, a Croat and
Ustasha, once a gendarme at Grab. For sixty years I blamed, in my memory,
the committed crimes on the Bijela Gora forester, a Muslim Ustasha; still, this
revelation has brought me no consolation. I remembered the account of Vla-
dimir J. Popović, the County Protoiereus and priest from Trebinje, and my
forefathers from Carevo Polje, killed and hanged back in 1914 by the Austro-
Hungarian Schutzkorps militiamen, who were just like the Ustashas depicted
in the song – who belonged to the same alliance. The tireless Gajo Ćurić, son
of Anto, has this song, by an anonymous author, in his book:
Dear Lord, such misery A black cloud shrouds the land.

Not far from the town of Trebinje. Lightning flashes, thunder strikes,
Such misery for our people. Forever the homes of the poor are shut.
In Luka Vukalović’s cradle. Crows caw, mountains tremble,
The cradle of a peregrine falcon, Here comes a bad year, the Serbs are a-cry-
ing.
That is sure to make your heart wail.
A black bird like lightning flashes.
Watching those poor martyrs,
It was the month of June,
The hardships of the hungry poor.
The day of the great Kosovo battle
Those tots crying in despair,
So the Serbs would remember it again.
As their hearths are forever gone.
A company of Ustasha youths at the ready
Just as one thinks, it will dawn again,
They’re by Jozo Jurković headed.
440
Each dirt track and bush knows he Hardly ever came he home.
For a gendarme he used to be. He rather rested on a cold rock
In the dark of the night, when the sun has set Whether rain or shine.
Out they go to the rugged Zupce That night he remembered well,
Across Tuli and Turmente It was through the window his son Jakov fled.
To the river, the cursed outpour. When son Blagoje saw their intent
Their hands the hands of cutthroats, With full force he pushed against the door.
Down Ceklino Polje they went Fast set on the thought,
By Stolci and Drobnjaci, They would not enter the room.
Intent to make Serb mothers cry. The executioners then asked about the old
man
To cover the land with blood,
If there were neighbours or acquaintances an-
To make children cry ywhere.
Leave them without their providers Men young or old,
Their old fathers or older brothers. Resting at home, still in the grip of sleep.
None of it Koštani foresaw, To greet them with a bad morning too,
Yet to the safety of their homes they with- To put them in real fetters.
drew.
Through another door they broke,
By incidence, or a strike of luck,
Capturing Blagoje’s Anto
No man was aslumber.
And his weakling, his son Spaso,
Both the adults and chidren
Who would not let his father alone.
Hid outside their homes.
A rest they took at the Empress’
Hoping for a better harvest
Their captives on they forced.
To Carevo Polje the cutthroats went.
Not down the King’s Field
To show who they really were,
But rather along štrajbuk to the Cross Plains.
To the end of the road, near the Empress’s
water. Six men were asleep there
It was there, at Dušan Ćurić’s In their innocent dreams they were fair,
They finally got lucky. Thinking not that very night
Good for them, good for the Devil The evil would come to take them away.
Dušan’s sweetheart perished too. Along the road to the Cross Plains
It was Dušan’s final dawn, It was Manojlo Ćurić that was taken first
The last time he heard his son Todor’s voice. Then Novica, his brother
As if he had known it, Fettered he was too.
441
Then Savo’s Nikola’s Savo Lazar’s Đoko was his name...

His mother still aching for him, Hardly had it dawned,
Another young man they tied Already to Bijela Gora they were gone...
On 6th January 2011, I learnt that one of the authors of this songs, Pero Mi-
jović, son of Jovan, was living in Herceg Novi, along with a friend of his from
Orovac, the village near Orani Doli, the site where my fellow-villagers from
Zupci were shot,” wrote Gajo Ćurić.
According to the information I have, Pero Mijović died before the above date.
My guess is no one knows which one of my fellow-villagers actually authored
the song. Those who did are long dead; the late Gojko Begenišić from Herceg
Novi told me he had listened to the late Mijović recite the song, but he never
paid much attention to it. Infuriated by the fact their plan had failed, the Usta-
shas took to Lastva not only the little Spaso Ćurić, son of Anto, and Vlado
Mrdić, who they had captured at Mrkov’s Huts, but also 500 heads of live-
stock, mainly small, from Bijela Gora. Some Ustashas from the Lastva family
of Ćerimagić reprimanded their soldiers for not bringing any girls from
Orovac to Lastva, to enjoy their beauty and copulate with them.
Because of the policy of brotherhood and unity later pursued by communists
Sava Kovačević, Vlado Šegrt, Radovan and Vukosava Šakotić and Božo
Deretić, and especially after the war, when Vlado Šegrt was the only survivor,
this event was swept under the rug. Ješa Burlica, the National Hero’s wife,
was silenced; in 1945, the year when the country was liberated, she was told
to keep quiet, and for the rest of her life she never dared say what Fazlija
Ćerimagić had asked the Ustashas to do. Certain people, e.g. Dušan Đajić
from Klek, credited themselves and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, in a
1961 collection of papers, with staging the above uprising, which is very far
from the truth. It was due to such things that the local people denigrated the
book and its authors, even the correct things stated in it. Risto Ćabak, a Lastva
forester originally from Nevesinje, felt this first hand, when he was silenced,
through no fault of his own, by the actual eyewitnesses in Bijela Gora. They
told him: “Dear Rile, will you please stop reading those things! They’re not
true. Here, have some lunch, and as for the book, take it to those who wrote
it!” As for the authors of the book, they were labelled what people in Herze-
govina label those who do not tell the truth.
As for us belonging to younger generations with the knowledge of the event,
who have heard Vidak Blaž and others tell their stories and written them
down, it has been our wish to have a historical lesson and attract the attention
442
of the youngest generations, about what happened on this mountain in 1941,

but also to say to our friends from the Trebinje and Herceg Novi branches of
SUBNOR what exactly happened and what the late Vidak and Lazar did for
the village, Trebinje county and wider area. We should not wish to lose this
feeling of indebtedness to our patriots either. Back in 1842, Njegoš passed
through this area on his way to Dubrovnik, where he was to have negotiations
with Ali Pasha Rizvanbegović. As he passed underneath Borova Glava, at
whose foot we are now, he said: “Good for these people if there’s a church
here one day, and bad if it’s a watchtower!” A watchtower is what the people
got, an Austro-Hungarian one. There was also the priest Todor Deretić and
the chieftain Todo Šakotić, and also such patriots as Trifko Šakotić and Obren
Grubač, the first to be hanged by the Austrians in 1914; also, Trifko Be-
genišić, recepient of the Order of the Star of Karađorđe, Jovan Đajić, a Span-
ish Civil War veteran, as well as those who protected the people from self-
destruction, such as the National Hero Radovan Šakotić, the Chetnick com-
mander Milan Grubač, son of Obren, and more recently, General Rade
Grubač, son of Nikola. May all dawns from now into the future be beautiful
– that must be our message to the world sent from this place, from Bijela
Gora, from this tri-border area without borders. May events such as this never
happen again, so Vidak’s or our other descendants never need raise such me-
morials and we live in peace and harmony with everyone. Even with those
who are our neighbours, and were once our enemies. As the poet Mateja
Matejić once said, we are children from a lineage of heroes; we do not forget
who and what we are. May this day and happening be the truth and sign-post
for all of us – that is what I said in Bijela Gora then, and repeat in this con-
ference here today.
I am thankful to the two sister organisations, the SUBNOR branches of Her-
ceg Novi and Trebinje, and their people for accepting my idea and the idea of
the people from Orovac, because it comes from the head of the whole nation!
I am also thankful to all members of the Board, who all helped as much as
they were able to! A special thank-you to Nikola Deretić from Herceg Novi,
with whom I did the most difficult part of the work! Many thanks to Slobo
and Dragan Mrdić for making sure this event was as it should be! Those were
my words of gratitude addressed to those who assisted me with my efforts.
I am thankful to our dear guests, Dejan Mandić, Mayor of Herceg Novi, who
has truly appreciated the friendship between Herceg Novi and Trebinje, and
is highly in support of the idea promoted by our Zupci brothers, for the two
towns to become twin towns, and to support those of us who are originally
from Orovac and are currently living in Boka! We are thankful to Zoran So-
rajić, Deputy Mayor of Trebinje, and his asssociates for being here with us
443
today! – Thus I spoke, and asked Zoran Sorajić and Dejan Mandić to remove
the drape and uncover the signpost to tell any chance traveller through Bijela
Gora that freedom fighters and freedom lovers, such as Vidak and Lazar, for-
ever live in the hearts of their people and their achievements are never forgot-
ten.
***
I have already spoken at length here today, but let me also propose to the
Conference organiser to continue holding similar events, and let us continue
dealing with those issues that were taboo until just yesterday, for well-known
reasons. For any future activities I propose The Republic of Srpska SUBNOR
(Alliance of People’s Liberation War Veteran Associations), and the agile
Slako Šanjević, who has already helped us, the people of Orovac, a lot with
this project. Let me propose we start planning a similar scientific conference
for next year right here, in Trebinje, to tell the truth about the genocide com-
mitted by Austria-Hungary and its locally-recruited Schutzkorps militiamen,
predecessors of the Ustashas, in Herzegovina, especially in the area of
Trebinje, ninety-nine years ago, that is, in 1914. That much we owe our fore-
fathers, and that is the only way for us to pay tribute to those who suffered
and were victimised. Let us search for evidence and books, for all that is
dormant in people’s minds, and collect it all in a single place; let us shed light
on all Serbian tragedies and all Serbian delusions, wherever and whenever,
just as Dragutin Milošević says in his book The Partisanship and Killing of
the Serbs. Thank you all!
444
Jovan Šarović
YOUTH ENCHAINED
My name is Jovo Šarović. I was born in the village of Sorlaci near Foča in
1937. I am a World War II camp prisoner, enslaved from 1941 until 1945.
My father and uncle lived in one house. Father Perko and uncle Mirko were
serfs on the estate of a family of affluent Muslim landowners. A land reform
was carried out in the old Yugoslavia, through which serfs became owners of
the land they had worked. The land my father and uncle were supposed to get
was the reason for their killing. According to what I have been told, they were
both poisoned by the Muslims when I was a six-month-old baby. Back in the
day, there was little chance for a family without any adult men to survive, let
alone a young widow with a baby to feed. Two hungry mouths were without
a provider. Marrying again was the only solution for my mother.
A widower from a neighbouring village, a father of four, came to ask my
mother’s hand in marriage. He needed a woman to take care of the children.
He did not need me and would not have me in his house. It is hard to imagine
and explain today to what extent women depended on their fathers, brothers
and husbands back then. I was left by the road, in the woods. My cries at-
tracted a passer-by’s attention and with the help of my relatives, I was put in
the Foča orphanage.
In the month of May or June 1941, I was deported to Croatia, to the NDH, by
the Ustashas, with another hundred children, women and men. Many people
said all trains with Serbian prisoners from Bosnia and Herzegovina were
headed for the camp in Jasenovac. As a child, there was no way for me to
know that, just as I did not know Germany, Italy and the NDH had split Bos-
nia and Herzegovina into interest zones at the beginning of the war. Herze-
govina belonged to Italy, which included Foča, as part of the Old Herze-
govina. However, before the Italians actually invaded the area and took ad-
ministrative control of it, the Ustashas succeeded, in a very short while, in
imprisoning and deporting a substantial number of the Serbs living in the up-
per part of the Drina catchment, using a variety of means of transport. The
445
Serbian population was decimated through massacres, banishment and camp

imprisonment, and a whole area of land was given to the Muslims, which
created a buffer zone between the NDH and Serbia.
Our journey by train was a long one, as we were locked in cattle cars pack
full of people. We could hardly move. Straw lay in the corners of the cars,
which we used both as bedding and to go to the toilet. The stench was unbear-
able. We smelt awfully as well.
We had very little food. Most often, it was stale bread, which they threw in in
the way one normally gave food to pigs; as for us, we fought even for the
smallest of pieces. Those among us who were children and had no adults to
look after them mainly stayed empty-handed in this fight for food. The chil-
dren who were with their parents got a bit of bread now and then. They had
their parents to fight for them. Having no parents, I had learnt the rules of the
game of life very early. While at the orphanage, I learnt not to cry, because
my crying touched no one’s heart, provoked no one’s commiseration. Crying
brought me nothing but spanking or flogging.
From time to time, we were given some water in dirty cans. The children
drank whatever was left when the adults had shared it between them and
quenched their children’s thirst. Those without parents, including myself, got
whatever the others had not taken, if anything. If there was no water left, that
was it. Nothing for us.
The first stop for our ghostly train was Alipašino Polje. We were temporarily
accommodated there in the way people kept livestock in pens, since they put
us in some cramped rooms. We were waiting for trains to arrive from other
towns in Eastern Bosnia. There was straw along the walls here as well. The
children were put up upstairs, on wooden beds, with six of them sharing one
bed. We all used a single blanket to cover ourselves, and fought all night to
protect at least a part of our bodies from the cold.
Those who were younger slept on the lower beds. It was really bad, as the
children sleeping on the upper beds urinated in their sleep. The urine leaked
down on us. We woke up wet and stinky; that was how new days began for
us.
The people talked about where they would be taken from there. Two places
were mentioned, Zagreb and Jasenovac.
I do not know how much time passed before we were sent forth. We arrived
at the railway station in Zagreb. There, they separated the children from their
446
parents, which resulted in total chaos – cries, screams, wailing, with the Usta-
shas yelling as they were taking the children away from their parents.
The children aged four to twelve were taken from Zagreb to children’s con-
centration camps. I do not know where they took me – whether to Jastre-
barsko, Sisak, Gornja Rijeka or somewhere else. Nobody told us where we
were or what would become of us. All I know is we were placed in shacks
and basements. The floors in the buildings were either compacted clay or
wooden planks. In the beginning, there were no beds. We either sat or slept
on straw on the floor. We used the same straw to urinate and defecate. There
was no toilet. If there were any, they must have long been clogged. They
brought two or three large cans and left them in the room we were in for us
to urinate and defecate. Unawares, at night we drank the contents of the cans
instead of water. We were terribly smelly and constantly suffered from dys-
entery.
I felt weak and nauseated, and kept vomiting. The pain in my stomach was
terrible. I ran to the cans as many as fifty times in one day and night because
of persistent diarrhoea, which was bloody and slimy. There were times when
I did not make it to the cans. Just like the other boys, I evacuated in my pants,
which were horribly filthy anyway, sticky with faeces.
There was not running water for us to drink or wash up, and we did not even
dare think about soap, towels or toothpaste.
What was it we ate? Almost nothing. Years passed before I saw fruit, vegeta-
bles, cookies or chocolate, so commonly enjoyed these days. Indeed, I had
my first chocolate in 1947 at the Children’s Home in Kiseljak. Whatever food
we were given to eat, we ate it without plates or spoons, let alone forks or
knives. There were no tables or chairs for us to use, only straw on the floor.
That was where we ate, slept and squatted during the day. When we got food,
we drank the stock, the liquid part from the bowls, and grabbed the solid part
of it with our hands and stuffed it into our mouths.
It was cold, because there were no stoves to keep us warm. We were in the
same clothes and footwear we had had on when they sent us on this journey.
They were completely ruined, but we had nothing to change into.
We were always ill, seriously ill, but no one took care and no one did anything
to help us. There were no doctors, nurses or medications. We were abandoned
to illnesses and quiet death. This situation continued until the end of 1942.
There was no laughter and no children played any games for a year and a half.
We were all terrified and depressed, exhausted from dysentery.
447
Children worn out through disease simply withdrew to a corner, kept to them-
selves, squatted against the wall, and the rest of us knew they were not going
to live and see the next day. Disease ruled our filthy confinement, to which
we were condemned. There were all sorts of diseases, but it was dysentery
that exasperated us, forcing us to constantly run to and from the cans. Due to
the effort caused by diarrhoea, children’s intestines kept falling out. The same
thing happened to me. We learnt how to help one another by pushing each
other’s intestines back inside.
The children were desperate anyway, but such terrible lack of hygiene and
dysentery that would not leave us be totally exhausted us. We were all dehy-
drated and emaciated – small, gravely ill patients, left without any protection,
consolation or help, at fate’s mercy.
We were later moved to a place I remember for its rough bunk beds. Misery
never left us, not even there. The bigger children slept on the upper beds, with
the smaller ones below them. I was rather small, so I slept on one of the lower
beds. The bed slats were strewn with straw, with nothing else on them. Six
boys slept in one “bed.” All six of them had to cover themselves with a single
blanket, which everyone pulled to his side, for it was far from being enough
to cover and protect everybody against the cold, not even a little bit.
The nights were terrible. I was regularly awakened by urine leaking from the
upper bed. The boys who slept above us, traumatised and terrified, relaxed in
their sleep and urinated in bed. We were totally soaked when we got up in the
morning. The urine dried on us during the day, only for us to get soaked again
the following night. This repeated night after night, day after day. We smelt
disgusting, but here was nothing we could do about it. We could not even
complain about it. There was no one willing to help us. All we could do was
sit quietly and endure, for as long as one was capable of endurance.
We often suffered from hunger and thirst, and were also frequently beaten, so
many of the children died. Those who were alive gazed at death and got used
to its icy closeness. All sorts of insects and parasites kept pestering both the
dead and the living. They played their part in spreading the diseases and in-
fections. Flies pestered us, transmitting intestinal parasites and diseases. We
were also infected with lice, which spread inexplicably fast. The Ustashas
forbade the children to take a bath or wash up, and since many children slept
together, lice simply spread from child to child. Not only lice – conditions
were perfect for the transmission of any sort of disease or infection. Two
kinds of lice attacked us: one that multiplied in our hair and lived off our
scalp, and another one, which lived in our clothes. They infested the area
around the collars of our shirts and the waist on our pants. They increased to
448
such huge numbers that they could not be destroyed with anything. The chil-
dren bore their painful biting and stinging, scratching all the time, making
wounds on their skin which soon got infected and turned into scabs and blis-
ters. We were also pestered by fleas, which could jump around on our bodies
and were thus even more dangerous. They especially liked biting the skin of
our legs, backs and bellies.
Once we began sleeping in those wooden beds, bedbugs appeared too, which
sucked our blood during the night and which we could do nothing to stop.
Each child had on his body innumerable traces of bedbug and flea bites, and
our shirts were stained with minute bloodstains, indications of insect bites. As
a consequence of dysentery, the children’s intestines falling out caused an
upsurge of flies. They flew in swarms attacking our bowels and our bloody
faeces, laying eggs everywhere.
Believe me, whatever you may have heard about children’s suffering and tor-
ture in the concentration camps, it is all true. I have been through it all, and
words escape me when I try to describe all our ordeals. One day they beat us,
the next they tortured us with hunger and thirst, filth and indifference, as they
let contagious diseases wear us out and finish us off.
A group of women dressed in white came only at the beginning of 1943.
Later, I found out they were nurses working with the Red Cross, headed by
Diana Budisavljević. They made lists with our names, wrote our given and
family names on pieces of cardboard, put them on pieces of string and tied
them around our necks. They transferred us to Zagreb. I finally took a bath
there, in a makeshift launderette. They took our clothes and put them in a
barrel, and then treated them with hot steam for lice and fleas. After that, they
sprinkled some powder on our heads and clothes, most probably DDT.
There were two huge sheds made of corrugated iron at the Zagreb railway
station. We spent the night there, with two children sharing one camp bed.
The next day they put us on a train to Suhopolje near Virovitica. They placed
us on an estate with a mansion and ancillary buildings. The estate also had
two Mašonry buildings, which looked like shacks. We were accommodated
in one of these two buildings, and the other one housed thirty or so Croatian
Home Guard troops.
The accommodation was good. Everybody had a bed of his own in the sleep-
ing rooms, with a mattress and a bed sheet. There was a dining room with
several tables. We ate seated at these tables and had plates, even iron spoons.
Compared to what we had been given before, the food was rather good. No
one beat us anymore. Occasionally, we felt looks of disapproval coming from
449
the Croatian Home Guard troops. We were now in custody of Roman Catholic
nuns. We were to be collectively converted to Roman Catholicism. We were
given new names, so I became Ivica Tarović.
Before the Syrmian defense lines were broken through, there were two at-
tempts by the Partisans to set us free, but it was only their third attempt that
was successful. Rumour had it the Partisans had been informed the Ustashas
were getting ready to kill all the Serbian children at the camp before with-
drawing from the area of Virovitica and Suhopolje. We did not know anything
about it, or about the shooting we heard at night, which came from the imme-
diate vicinity of the estate. We were simply afraid and crouched in the dark.
During my stay at Suhopolje, I walked around barefoot. Not only myself, all
of the children were barefoot. We wore nothing on our feet, no footwear,
which must have been their way to prevent us from escaping.
The Partisans put us on some wagons. I do not know what they call that type
of wagon, typical of the Virovitica area, but I do know they have a special
name. They were full of straw, and we just sank into it. It protected us from
the cold. They drove us to Vojvodina, which had already been liberated. We
travelled via Hungary and arrived in a Pannonian village, where people spoke
only Hungarian. The Partisans divided us and left us in different people’s
houses; they chose the houses based on their size and facilities. I was placed
in a wealthy villager’s home with another two children. We had already learnt
to read those people’s faces; we could see in their eyes what awaited us. We
felt freer in the presence of people with mild, friendly smiles on their faces.
If a householder met us with a cold and strict look, we left the house, escaped
through the snow and went to search for our friends.
Snow was 30 centimetres deep when we set off from Suhopolje. We got off
the wagons and went where they told us to go, barefoot as we were. We
walked through the snow, and it was only the next day that they got us some
wooden clogs. We lined them with straw and now had warm footwear, which
was certainly easier and more convenient to move around in than barefoot,
without any shoes on.
After this brief respite and the night spent in the Hungarian village, we con-
tinued our journey and arrived in Subotica. First, they took us to hospital for
a checkup. The doctors said I was suffering from trachoma. For several days
they put different sorts of drops into my eyes. The treatment was successful,
and I can still see well. Next, they put us in the lobby of the Subotica theatre,
together with the wounded Partisans, who were constantly brought in from
the frontlines.
450
A few days later, we were transferred from Subotica to a little town called
Pačir. The Partisans first put us all in a big room, and then sent out a public
invitation to the people of Pačir to accommodate us in their homes for a while.
The local people responded to the plea. They came and asked us if we wanted
to stay with them. An elderly man approached me and asked me what my
name was. I told him it was Jovica, and he said his name was also Jovica, so
I decided to go with him. We stayed in Pačir for about a month, and then
moved on. We stopped in Osijek. A group of twelve girls and three boys
stayed with the local nuns. I was one of those three boys, and I was the small-
est of them.
I started primary school in Osijek. It was the school year of 1945/46. At the
end of the month of August, an order came that all children were to be sent
back to their hometowns, from which they had been taken and sent to camps
in the Independent State of Croatia. We talked to each other about who came
from where and where we needed to go back. I listened to what the other
children were saying and realised I should go back to Bosnia, because a child
said he remembered there was polenta and milk in Bosnia.
Thus, in 1946, I said goodbye to those I had come to think of as my family:
Rade and Veliša Bajčetić, Stojko Maleša and Martin Sadlo. As for Blagoje
Subotić, my close friend, he had been located and claimed by his parents
while we were still in Suhopolje. From Osijek they sent me to Sarajevo, and
then to Kiseljak, where I continued school. I started the second form of pri-
mary school in the school year of 1946/47.
In 1947, a team of doctors came to the school for a special examination. I had
crusts on my scalp and was diagnosed with favus, so they sent me to Sarajevo,
to the State Children’s Hospital Neđarići in Alipašino Polje, for treatment.
The treatment took a while, as they radiated my head for about fifteen days,
after which they bandaged and cast my head in plaster. I had it on for a month,
after which a nurse came, put my head between her legs and cut through the
plaster with a pair of scissors, from the neck up, for a length of 7 centimetres.
She put her hands around my plaster hat and pulled it up, until it became
separated from the scalp. Next, she took a pair of tweezers and removed the
single long hair that still grew from the scalp. First, she cleansed my scalp
with iodine, and then rubbed some silicone cream into it. The iodine and sil-
icone treatment lasted six days, after which they let the scalp rest for a day.
The treatment was repeated the following week, and this went on for a month.
After the treatment, I started getting new, healthy hair.
After I had been cured, I went back to Kiseljak, where I finished the first four
forms of primary school in 1949. Next, they moved me to Kakanj, where
451
school continued. Until 1950, I had no idea where I came from or who my
family were, not even the names of my parents or any of my relatives. Then,
it became possible for children from the neighbouring villages to come and
visit the War Orphans’ Home. They stayed at the Home during the week and
travelled back home on Sunday to spend time with their families. They spoke
about their life at home, their parents, mothers and fathers, brothers and sis-
ters... Those of us who had none of it asked a million questions, amazed by
their explanations. What is a mother? What is a father? They explained to us
all people had families, parents, and it was normal to live with one’s family,
have a mother and father, brothers and sisters, a home of one’s own.
This made those of us who had been alone ever since aware of ourselves start-
ing to ask questions. Who were our parents? What were their names and
where were they? What was my mother’s name? What was my father called?
Did I have any brothers or sisters? What were their names? Where were they?
Where were my family? Where did I come from? From what town or place?
Having no answers to our questions, we started imagining our parents’ names,
the names of our hometowns and native villages. That was how I decided to
write a letter and send it to five different cities and towns: Banja Luka, Novi
Sad, Sarajevo, Foča and Rogatica. In the letter, I said I was searching for my
parents; my father’s name was Obrad, and my mother’s name Mara. Of
course, those parents were the product of my imagination. Still, a month later
all my questions were answered. A response to my letter came from Foča; it
said I came from the Foča area; my father, whose name was Perko, had been
killed in 1937; my mother’s name was Milica and she had married again to a
man from a neighbouring village after father’s death. That year, I travelled to
Foča, found my mother, met my relatives and started middle school. When
the first summer holidays began, the Home Manager told me I was not al-
lowed to stay at the Home during the holidays because I had a mother living
in the countryside and needed to stay with her instead.
I went to my mother’s in the country and was immediately made to tend the
livestock. I rode herd on both small and large animals. Somehow, I did not
manage to take to the work. The animals kept running into the woods, and I
was constantly after them, taking them back to the designated grazing areas.
I was not familiar with the land or people, their ways and habits. I was a
stranger in my native village and an unwelcome guest in my mother’s new
family. I was also hurt by the fact I was the only one they made do the shep-
herd’s work, while my stepbrother would not do it, even though it was his
cattle, his village, the village he had grown up in and knew better than I did.
I got cross and said I would not tend the cattle anymore. Mother immediately
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grabbed a stick and gave me a flogging. Such injustice hurt me even more
deeply. I felt mother was wrong and deep in my heart I took offence at her
treating myself and my step-brother unequally. I felt unwanted. I returned to
the Home, but the Manager abode by his decision and refused to let me stay
at the Home during the summer. I was on my own again and did not feel at
home anywhere. That night, I slept in the open air of Foča.
In the morning, I got on a train going to Sarajevo. I had a fight with the con-
ductors, who wanted to remove me from the train. Still, I managed to stay and
got to Sarajevo. I went up to the first policeman I saw and asked him where
the “ministry for orphans” was. We were in front of the City Hall and the
good policeman told me to go into the building through the back door, then
upstairs to the first floor, and look for comrade Zora.
I found comrade Zora in her office. She immediately asked me why I was
there, and I told her about what had happened to me, that I was not able to
stay either at the Home or with my mother’s second family. I told her I had
stayed in children’s homes in the NDH during the war, because at that time
no one dared say they were children’s concentration camps. She heard me,
got out, told me to stay there and went to another office. She was back after
about half an hour, probably after telephoning someone to check on me and
the circumstances of my life. I do not know what it was she had found out,
but when she came back, she tried to convince me I should stay and live with
her in Sarajevo. She said: “Why don’t you come and live with me? I don’t
have any children of my own.” I was suspicious and did not accept her offer.
The next day, comrade Zorica told me to go back, so I took a train to Foča.
When I got off the train at the railway station in Foča, I was in for a surprise.
Waiting for me there at the platform was a real delegation comprising munic-
ipal administration officers. It turned out they were all waiting for me to ar-
rive. They immediately reprimanded me for going all the way to Sarajevo to
complain, without talking to them first. “It could have been solved here. You
needn’t have gone all the way to Sarajevo and bothered comrade Zora with a
problem we can easily solve here. You only needed to talk to us.” I was im-
mediately admitted to the Home. Their treatment of me was now totally dif-
ferent. As if everybody had more respect and cared for me more after comrade
Zora had intervened. I never found out what it was comrade Zora from the
“ministry of orphans” of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina had told
them, but she may have rubbed some “comrades” noses in it for leaving a
long-suffering orphan on the street.
453
After a while, the Home Manager summoned me to his office for a talk. He
asked me if I wanted to go to senior high school, or preferred receiving crafts-
man training. I told him I wanted to be trained as craftsman. That was what
almost all my friends chose to do. It was the fastest way for a war orphan or
an abandoned child to start earning a living and stop being a “burden” for the
state.
In the late August, I received a letter in a blue envelope from the municipality
administration. It contained instructions that said I was to go to a vocational
school in Zenica. I took the letter to the Home Manager. He read it, opened
his drawer, took out some meal vouchers, passed them on to me and said I
needed to report to my youth counselor before I left.
454
PERSECUTION OF THE
KUČINARS, 26TH JUNE
1941 In villages Prokazići,
Burmazi and Stolac
Transcript of the video made on 30th June, on the occasion of the requiem
commemorating the victims of the atrocity
Witness 1 – Ikonija Kučinar:

Here’s where I was, the Ustashas made us all stand in a row and formed a
circle around us, all of them our neighbours. Then, here’s where I fell, and a
cousin, a woman, fell over me. This is where (indicates the place) the first
woman died, she just coiled, then they opened fire and this is where (indicates
the place) they fell dead. After that, everybody was killed, I ran over there
(indicates with her hand), I have a scar here, they shot after me, that’s how it
was, all the things that happened, they didn’t shoot me. I don’t know who else
was there, Sofija was there (points to a person).
First, the three of us went out onto the street, and the neighbour was taking
my father and woman cousin (speech interrupted by crying, then adds), we
asked him, “What will you do?” and he said, “We’re going to kill you like
rabits.” That’s how it was.
Witness 2 – Bosiljka Kučinar:

My name is Bosiljka Kučar, I was born here, into a big family, there were
twenty-nine of us. We had all had dinner the night before, in the morning,
what can I say, some soldiers came, asking – where are your men, some had
come from over there, others from over there, they made us all stand together
here (indicates the place), the men here, on these planks here, and us, the
women, here.
Then they reloaded their guns, pointing at us, and started tying us up, all of
them. A cousin of mine was in front of me, looking at those young men. They
got dismayed. As he looked at them, ho, one took to flight, then another one
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too. They started shooting. Women, children, shouts, yells, a total chaos, all
of a sudden. At that, I ran over there, Dušanка came after me, the two of us
are cousins, we got into a chest here and through that door – bang. Balls. I
looked, bang, bang, bang... And then the shooting stopped. Finally, a woman
(Witness 1 adds: “A woman got killed first,” and Witness 2 says: “They all
got killed.”) Then they stopped looking who they were shooting at, they just
shot at everybody. Then Slavojka came in and said, “There’s no one any-
more.” There was this girl, Zdravko’s, Zdravko was small, they took her to
the house. A neighbour asked for some water and she went in, then this guy
Đuro came. Well, yes, the dead lay like that, those of us who survived, we
covered them, cried, wailed. Then neighbours came, an hour or two later, to
start digging. We fled to the forest. Some people were wounded and we took
them to the woods, treated them, scraped ash-wood with urine, forgive me for
saying it, that’s how we treated them. There were more of them, they were
killed afterwards, left them all, including the [wounded] ones, in that place
(indicating the place). Right...
Witness 3 – Sofija Kučinar:

My name is Sofija Kučinar, married name Šinkov (possibly Činkov, record-
ing unclear). I remember when they brought us all together, to list all the men,
told us to get together, no matter where the people were, at work, doing some-
thing, they waited till we all got together, supposedly, to have men sign their
names, then to put us together based on that. So we got together, those who
were present, some people had gone to Stolac to get rations, your brother was
there (pointing to Witness 2), the late Ljubinka, the late Šeha, a few people.
And then, when we said there were no more people, they asked for a piece of
rope, any rope, whatever anyone had. They got him rope, and he shouted,
“How much is enough for one person?” On hearing that, Jovo’s wife
screamed: “Dear Lord, what will we do without our men!“ and he just stood,
the late man, turned around and shouted: “Are you crazy, or what!” and ran
that way (points the way). Suddenly, they just started shooting, randomly. For
all the smoke, no one saw anything anymore, what befell who. Koviljka and
this woman here (points to Witness 1), and someone called Milica, who’s now
dead, I think we stuck together, here, at this place. A bullet tore a muscle in
Koviljka’s arm, and she shouted: “My dear Sofija, look what happened to my
arm!” I was all covered in her blood (points to Witness 4), I just fell, as if I
had fallen asleep. When I woke up, not a living soul around, only the dead,
and the wounded, whining, those who had escaped from this poor house. Then
we got together and fled to the woods. We took with us the wounded, those
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we could help, carried them, treated them, hid in the woods all summer long,
boy, was it hard, we couldn’t help anyone.
Interviewer: Where did you get food?

We went back, took a thing or two from the houses. (Witness 2 adds: “There
was a baby with us, six months old, his mother had been killed, to feed him,
we had to milk the cows. Had to press a hand against his mouth in the forest,
so many times at night, so we weren’t discovered, a six-month-old baby,
squealing, here, ask Radmila. We ran and hid, it was so hard, we took food to
our men hiding in the woods, beat about the bush, had a hard time, boy, the
things we went through.”
Witness 4 – Vasiljka Mičeta:

My name is Vasiljka Mičeta, late Luka’s [daughter or wife, t/n]. Father got
killed here, I got wounded, mother got wounded. I was right here, where I
stand now, when the women started wailing. Mother Vjekoslava and the old
woman said: “Poor us, they’re going to kill our men today, what will we do
without them!” Stojan, the woman’s brother-in-law and the other woman’s
son, said: “What are you saying, mother, and you too, sister-in-law? The
neighbour’s not going to hurt us!“ Then they sent us, the women, away. There
they were again, inviting us to come. Mother Vjekoslava was down there, her
six-month-old baby sucking, they called her and said: “Put that blanket away.
What do you have under that blanket?“ The child stayed in the crib. They took
late Čeda’s tambura [a kind of string instrument, t/n], he was Zdravko’s
brother, and played. Čedo’s father told them: “He took it from my little one.”
Then, they asked mine [possibly father, t/n], “Where’s your gun” and he said,
“I fought in the war for six years, I haven’t had one since I got rid of the one
I had then.” The man told him: “Old liar! Let me teach you a lesson!” He fell
and never stirred again. When they started shooting, when Stojan saw they
were going to tie the people, he sprang to his feet and started running, and
they shot after him. Bullets came riddling, the people started falling. Then
mother Vjekoslava and I, standing shoulder by shoulder (points to her shoul-
der), as it hit her (indicates her own neck), she just fell on me. I was all bloody,
then I lay on the ground. I had no idea what had happened to him, I heard
somebody speaking. The fighting went on for about an hour. Just as I rose to
my feet, blood came out of my arm, head, knee, most of my wounds were
here (points to her legs). I saw a man at the back rise, move forth. I grabbed
457
the door and crawled, and when I looked around, it was only dead people all
around, that’s how it was.
Interviewer: Can you show me the scar on your arm?
Witness: Here’s where it was (points to her arm and leg), here’s the scar.
(They point to another woman’s scar. Witness 1 says: “It was all torn, like a
wolf ripped it. We treated her, her father dead, four girl orphans, the eldest
12, the youngest still a suckling, a baby.”)
Interviewer: Did you know the Ustashas were killing people?
Witness 2: We did, they said the Ljubinje County didn’t want to surrender.
“Don’t be afraid,” they said.
Witness 1: For ten days before that, their guards came to us every night to see
where our men were, and told us: “Lucky you! As long as we watch you, you
can sleep peacefully.” We’d come out to greet them, give them coffee, brandy.
They would leave, and then the next night other men came.
Interviewer: So, you didn’t think anything bad could happen?
Witness 1: Who could have expected it from neighbours, God forbid...
Interviewer: They were mostly neighbours, people who knew you?
Witness 5 – Spasenija Kučinar, married name

Milivojević:
Four neighbours came first, Kazo, Janko, Ivo, Đuro, Vujnović the Senior.
(Witness 1 adds: “Grgo,” Witness 5 confirms: “Grgo, yes.”) Тhose five men
458
came and said they had had roast children, if anything, they wanted water.
We just stood there... I was the first to dash into the room. A woman was
breast-feeding her baby, it was six months old, and Janko, one of the villagers,
told her: “Come over here!” She was the first to start crying and die. As I saw
they were going to tie them, I put my sweater on my head and ran into the
house. When they opened fire, she dashed right after me (indicates to Witness
2). That’s how I lost both my brother and father, and my whole family, thir-
teen, fourteen of them. We fled everywhere. We escaped to the top of Sit-
nica... And they swore they had eaten roast children, that they wouldn’t hurt
us.
Witness 6 - Danica Kučinar, married name Rudan:

(Before Witness 6 starts speaking, Witness 2 says: “She was small. I remem-
ber well, I can recall that day better than yesterday or five years ago. I’ll never
forget it.”) My name is Danica Kučinar. I was seven years old. Look at this
Zdravko here, he’s one week older than I. We were friends, we got on really
well. We were standing right here, in front of this house. When they started
shooting, and when it was, when late Stojan Kučinar, I know, when the Log-
ornik shouted – holding up rope, like this (demonstrates), he said: “Is this
enough for one person?” And he also gave them some yellow cookies.
Interviewer: What was Stojan’s last name?
Witness 6: Kučinar.
Interviewer: Who asked for rope?
Witness 6: The Ustasha Logornik; he was tall and stout. As he stretched that
piece of rope and said: “Is this enough for one person?” late Đoguša started
crying: “Poor us, they’re going to kill our men today!” To which he said, try-
ing to buy some time: “What are you saying, sister-in-law!” And then he
dashed fast like a bullet, from this house, wearing a coat and a white shirt. It’s
like I see it now, his coat fell. As he ran off, they opened fire, it was a real
volley.
I jumped out of the house, and Zdravko followed. We climbed the stairs and
hid in the bee house, behind the door, but they could easily see our legs, so
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we couldn’t stay there. So we ran back to the house, to a room, and Zdravko
hid underneath my late dad’s bed. My late dad used to sleep in that bed, and
his suitcase was there. He had some stuff, nobody ever messed with it, it was
but his. Money, watches. He used to have uncles in America, they brought or
sent stuff. He kept it under his bed. So Zdravko hid behind the suitcase, but I
didn’t dare. So I jumped out of that window and rushed back to the bee house.
Good Lord, I didn’t dare stay there either. So I ran down the stairs again,
couldn’t see a thing, bullets flying all around. I saw my late mother at this
door, doing this (spreads her arms), holding on fast with her arms, waving
like this; she was always bony, she was a thousand years old. She was waving
at somebody, but what I did with her, I just pushed her inside and closed the
door. Like people sitting in this sofa, there were people back then too. Any-
body would stand witness to that. As they didn’t see me close the door, they
started calling out: “Open up, Dane!” So I opened it. Somebody walked in,
and then somebody else called out: “Open up, Dane!” It seems to me, whoever
still breathed, I opened the door for them and they all hid here in the house.
There were old granaries in there, the girls all hid in the granaries. (Witness
2 and Witness 7 state they invited each other to get killed together.) Then
Koviljka came in, wounded, blood splashing, a terrible scene. Vasiljka came
in next, followed by Mara. I had a good friend, she was a year older than I,
we went to school together. Her name was Kosa, she came from our house.
She walked in, and I looked at her, not sure if it was really Kosa, yes, she was,
but she couldn’t tell it was I. It wasn’t her, it couldn’t possibly be her! She
looked a complete stranger. And we were both six years old! She was swaying
and yelling with pain. She was in a dress. A bullet had hit her here (points to
her hips) and gone out the other way. It wasn’t an explosive bullet. Nothing
really, just two bruises on two sides, and still she had changed so much I
didn’t recognise her. She died soon after that. She had an aunt and a sister, the
sister was six months old. It was summer, St. Vitus’, sizzling hot, but it was
cool in there, so her mother came to breast-feed her and just died here.
Witness 2: Her two children, no, it was three, were but babies.
Witness 6 (continues): Budimir was here too. I think he was two years older
than I. People from the village used to tell about it, those who came here,
really, we found his brain that day, on the wall here, it hit him here (points to
her head) and the brain came right out, it threw the boy two metres away, and
the brain wasn’t with him anymore. They collected pieces of the brain off the
460
floor the next day. That’s how it was, for sure. When the shooting stopped,
we walked outside, but there wasn’t a living soul about.
Witness 7 – Dušanka Rudan, nee Kučinar:

My name is Dušanka Rudan, nee Kučinar. (“We’re sisters,” says Witness 2.)
It was dawn, 26th July, a peaceful day. Everybody was off, minding a busi-
ness. I was above our house, carding wool. All of a sudden, some men from
the village came – Kazo Bogdanović, Janko Papac, Vide Papac, Ivo Papac,
Mate Papac – they were the young men we flirted and sat together in the eve-
nings with. We sat together, left the work. Where are your men? They’re here,
some are at home, others are away, minding their business. Ikonija’s father –
that’s this woman here, who spoke first – was there too. Leave the work, go
get him! They brought him here, all the way from the hills. As for some of us,
we fled to some newly cleared land, just to make sure we weren’t around.
They forced her father. It was that guy, Kazo Bogdanović. He had tied a “U”
to his hair, he was without a proper hat. To us he said: “What are you waiting
for? Go home!”
We did, we went home, such cowards. I sat down right here (sits on the par-
apet). My grandmother, Petruša was her name, she was eighty-five, brought
a cushion and sat by my side. We heard some shots. Well, they’ve already
told you how one of them went running, right in front of me. When I heard
the shooting, I bent over this sofa here. I screamed, thinking I would be hit
any moment. Nothing hit me. So I sat down. My grandmother was beside me
again. I told her I didn’t know what was happening. It fired just in front of
her, there was smoke, bloody hands. I saw it, they were shooting. I know my
mother was in the house. So I stood up, right away, grabbed the door handle,
but it was locked. It was my little sister and her, they had locked the door. I
asked ma to open it, but she said, NO. Mother recognised me but wouldn’t let
my little sister open the door for me. She said, let the little one stay here with
me. But the little one broke free and unlocked the door. I found her in the
chest there. “Come here, Dušanка, my dear sister, let us die together!” I said.
Interviewer: What is your advice to young people today?
Witness 7: Don’t trust anyone, that’s my advice to them. We trusted our neigh-
bours, and we could have escaped, we could have hidden in the woods.
461
Interviewer: So, they were mostly neighbours and people who knew you?
Witness 7: They were all neighbours, with whom we had spent time, taken
walks, gone to dances, spent evenings together, they were all bachelors. Then
they just came to kill us, all of them together. Neighbours, all of them. The
Logornik with them and soldiers, very few soldiers. Our local villagers were
with them, Nojan Marić, an officer, from those hills over there. He was an
officer, it was his call, like, he consoled us. He came with the Logornik.
Stojan brought him a chair to sit down, to which he retorted: “Čedo Milić sat
in that chair last night! Take that chair away from me!”
Interviewer: Right, did you know why they wanted to kill you? Was it because
they had lost men to an army, whether Chetnick or Serbian?
Witness 7: We don’t think it was that. My father had a deal with a guy called
Jozo Marić and nicknamed Bundavić. There were gun shots and he went to
the fields to tell them it wasn’t us. He came back with him. They met some
troops and he asked them where they were going. They said: “To round that
Serbian village up and kill them all.” That’s how he heard about it and escaped
first and told Jozo. There was a ravine and he said he would take it to avoid
the troops. That’s how my father stayed alive. I will forever be thankful to
Jozo for that, for not telling them my father was a Serb.
Interviewer: So there were people among them who ...
Witness 7: That’s how my father stayed alive. Only Jozo took our side, him
alone, nobody else!
Witness 8 – Zdravko Kučinar:

Eventually, they told us they had never meant to fire a single bullet. There
was a pit there, where wild pigeons nestled, and they had planned to drive us
there and throw us into it without ever pulling a gun or knife. It was they who
said so, in person.
462
Interviewer: You have now mostly told us about those events...
Witness 8: They didn’t tell half the story. Let me tell you about myself briefly.
When Stojan, our uncle, ran away, the shooting began, and I also tried to run
away, terrified as I was. Through this ravine. When I got on top, one of them
shot at me from a three-metre distance, didn’t kill me, he only wounded me.
I came back down this terrace, running for at least ten metres; all the while
they kept shooting, and the bullets riddled the wall beside me. What could I
do in such dire straits, there was a window on the opposite side, it was open,
good for me, the bee room. I dirtied it with blood. I guess the one who was
after me saw I was bleeding, he thought I had escaped him, and I had actually
hid under the bed. Danica told us about it afterwards. Under the bed, and he
took to pillage, taking things, like the hair trimmer, stealing, robbing. I could
see I was bleeding, my blood would expose me, so I rubbed it back (points
with his hand) so he wouldn’t see me, until he left the room.
When the shooting stopped, I went out, although with difficulty. I could tell I
was kind of weak, but still I went down into the yard. I saw bullet shells, bent
down, picked up the shells; I saw people lying, got chilled to the bone, alt-
hough I was sitting in the sun and it was just before noon. I sat down, shiver-
ing with cold. Then my late mother came, helped me, stopped the bleeding
using some primitive method. That’s how it all went, then she fled to the
woods with me. She hid me, treated me, and anyway, cured me.
Interviewer: What kind of advice would you give these children here, who
should they trust and who shouldn’t they trust?
Witness 8: It’s not easy to trust, now that trust has been broken. One has to
remember, the wolf may lose his teeth, but never his nature.
Witness 9 – Radovan Kučinar:

I finished the fourth form of primary school in 1941, I was twelve at the time.
When the people from the village came here... I think there were people from
our village, from Doluša, Sober, Sudora... Five village Ustashas came to keep
our men here. When they came, they asked that all people, men primarily,
463
stay there, in one place. There was another hamlet inhabited by the Kučinar
people, across the hill, one kilometre away, in a depression. As ordered by
Grgo Vujinović, the Burmaša headman, and Ivan Obradović, the Bjelević
headman, who also took part in the atrocity against us, they went to Riđica to
make the Kučinar people aged 12 and above report to them and be put on a
list.
Interviewer: It was mostly the Croats that attacked your village?
Witness 9: Mostly Croats, from Stolac... Two men we didn’t know set out for
Riđica, but didn’t know the way, and went to the Catholic village just below
Prisoja instead. They ordered that all the men of the village should assemble,
so our men in Riđica stayed alive. Because it was getting late, those Ustashas
asked for food. Late Stojan, the same man who escaped from here, offered
Marko the Logornik some comb honey. Back in the day, local people thought
it a greatest honour. He decidedly refused it and ordered the Catholic people
to bring a pot of vinegar and a bag of bread. They did, and the Ustashas who
had come from elsewhere, not the local ones, ate it.
Interviewer: You never fought with them before, for national or any other
reasons?
Witness 10: My father was saved by Jozo Bundavić Marić, who told him:
“Novak, run as fast as you can!” The Ustashas had some time to prepare them-
selves for the slaughter they were to commit at Hrasno. Because the dirt road
below Prisoje leading to Gavranića pit was all muddy and rutty – that is the
pit which the Orthodox Christian Hrasno villagers were later thrown in – and
the Ustashas were in a hurry, they asked the people to get them some rope.
Late Nedeljko told them: “We don’t have rope, but we do have twisted cord.”
“Fine, it’ll do.” When they brought the cord, the Logornik stretched it about
two palms: “How much do we need for one person?” On hearing that, the
women started screaming, and late Stojan, the one who escaped, shouted:
“What’s wrong with you, they can’t be crazy, why would they mess with peo-
ple in the administration?” He took advantage of the moment and took flight,
and three guns shot after him. As he ran away, they no longer cared about
whether the people were young or old, they just fired and killed randomly.
Because I was very young, there was no way for me to escape, so I just lay
464
down amongst the dead, next to dead Simo’s legs. I kept lying for as long as
they kept shooting, which may have been five to six minutes. All of a sudden,
the Ustashas yelled: “Run, run, run!” as they probably feared the runaway
Stojan might come back and open fire himself. As they set off fleeing, I got
to my feet. The Logornik and one more Ustasha in uniform, the one who stole
dead Čedo’s tambura, were at the exit. “There’s another one, damn it!” he
yelled and took his gun off his shoulder, but I was already gone, running away
with late Stojan. Five minutes later, the whole village was a-wailing. Late
mother called out: “Radovan, Radovan!” It was right at that moment I had
returned from the newly cleared land. Mother had an idea: she covered my
head with a white kerchief and dressed me as a woman, and then we escaped
to the hills together. In the meantime, the Logornik and his Ustashas returned
to Drenovac and ordered Grgo Vujinović to go back to the village, kill the
wounded and find and kill me, and to get rid of the bodies but make sure there
was no stench from the corpses. When the Ustashas came, there were
wounded people in the village, five, six or seven. They killed some, and as
for late Neđeljko, they slit his throat on his doorstep – and he could have
lived! They dragged the bodies to the place where people dug red soil for
cisterns, they sure knew about it, that was where they got it too, they knew
where the excavation was. The villagers and our local people transported
them on carts and wheels and threw them in there. Somebody told my father
they had buried the old woman Šakotuša alive... Upon that, she (points to
Witness 1) ran across the hill to Riđica and warned the people there: “You’d
better run, they’ve killed everybody back in the village!” It was thanks to her
the people of Riđica kept their lives.
Interviewer
Žarko Kučinar
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Milena Kundačina
RED SOCKS
If mothers could decide, there would never be war, anywhere; no cradle
would remain empty and no child would never feel the smell of burned ruins
and the sadness for a destroyed home.
I remember Mila, my grandma. That year during the war, our house served as
shelter for the relatives forced by the winds of war to leave their homes. It
was difficult for everybody, but Mila had the most difficult time. It was her
third war, perhaps the hardest one. This time, she had to abandon her home
and bring all her memories inside her soul. Popovo Polje mourned for her,
and she mourned for it. The most valuable things she brought with her were
the photos she kept in a small box. She leafed through them every day, when
she thought no one could see her. She spoke to them to comfort herself. She
never complained about anything, never told anyone a harsh word. Such was
Grandma Mila, the epitome of generosity and kindness.
She often talked to me because I listened carefully, while the others were
constantly in a hurry. I never found her daily need to speak with her own
photos funny. I felt her pain and shame because “she had to wander through
other people’s homes at an old age.” She was also good storyteller. Even to-
day, when I think of it, it makes me want to cry.
One winter night, we were sitting tucked next to the stove. There was a bliz-
zard outside, and an oil lamp illuminated the modestly laid table. It was al-
most dinner time, soft rosy bread and a pot of warm milk, and we were not
satisfied... Milk again, and we would have liked something sweet. Mother
was angry and urged us before dinner cooled “to warm up our hungry tum-
mies,” as she often said, to which Mila, well-minded and modest as always,
added: “Oh, my children! You don't know what famine is,” and kept on talk-
ing, pouring her soul out...
“Morning dawned. It was Sunday. We didn’t go to work in the fields. I entered
the room to wake Jovo up to take the cows out to pasture. He was asleep,
dreaming innocent, childlike dreams. He was only five years old. Lazar,
467
younger than him, stayed in grandmother’s arms, still sleepy, waiting to drink
warm milk. I cast a look at the house and went out happy, thinking how my
sons would grow up to become men one day. I led the cows myself, instead
of my Jovo. Poor me, I didn’t even imagine what was going to happen to me.
Both me and them. I was on the hill above the village when I heard wild
Ustasha voices. After a while shots were heard, burst of gunfire... Soon thick
smoke threateningly rose to the hill where I kept the cows. I had a terrible
premonition. I hurried home. Just to grab them and run away with them! But
in vain...
It was too late. I was greeted by a sharp burning smell. My mother-in-law lay
dead on the doorstep, with hwer eyes wide open, as if crying to prevent the
children from being wrenched out of her arms. My children were missing! I
fell flat on the floor... I cried without a voice for a long time, empty-handed,
my eyes wide open. My children were gone... I raised my eyes to the sky and
prayed for God to take my soul.
So I sat petrified on the doorstep until a neighbour, a Croat, came to me. He
told me the Ustashas had taken the children to their camp, and since he was
an engine driver, he could “find a way” to deliver a small parcel of food to
them, since he had an acquaintance in the camp. I fell flat before him, begging
him to take me to my children. He said I couldn’t go, but he would certainly
take a small parcel. I rose from the doorstep, hopeful I would see my children
again, praying to God to save them somehow. I rummaged through our stash
of grain, lest I should cook bread for them somehow, but in vain – my hands
would not listen to me. The next day I knitted little red socks... for my Lazar...
A tiny little parcel was ready the following day. Everything was packed with
love and hope. I blessed the neighbour for help and went home to wait... I
waited for days, months. It took almost a year. There was no trace of Ivan,
the neighbour. He was sent to work elsewhere. Little by little, I lost hope. The
house gaped empty...
I covered my hair with a black kerchief, my eyes constantly wandering to the
railway that had taken my children to death. Both to the railway and the vil-
lous side of the hills above the house, where I was that fatal morning.”
Mila trembled like leaves in a breeze, her voice somehow hollow and quiet.
Her eyes filled with the tears that were never going to drain...
“Soon, rumour had it that some prisoners were going to be released from the
camp in Sisak. A glimmer of hope appeared, some quiet longing and fear.
What if they didn't come?
468
As a matter of fact, one morning (it was Sunday again), Ivan came with my
Jovo, holding his little hand. The child kept stumbling, exhausted and weak.
He wore the same little jacket and pants. I looked in disbelief, was that my
child? He smiled sadly: “Mother, it’s me. Can’t you see...?”
I screamed and ran away, looking around frantically for Lazar to appear. But
in vain.... Lazar would never come... He was too small, weak and vulnerable
to survive the execution camp... He wasn’t alive to get his red socks, which
his mother had knitted with love and great hope.“
All of us kept silent. We were ashamed of grumbling about the dinner we
didn’t like, so we got up to dine in silence.
A few years later, when the war was over, Grandma Mila felt she would soon
be leaving us. She became sad and silent. Somehow, she began to fade away,
disappear, but her memories never stopped disturbing or haunting her. Soon,
she took to her bed, and we all made effort to make the last days of her life
easier and bearable, in order to keep us in good memory in the afterlife. One
morning she started to call. She was quite upset. A superhuman strong voice
erupted from her frail body: “Jovo, Jovo, hurry up...! Give me those little red
socks to take to my Lazar!”
We were speechless. Right away, we gathered round her. She sighed once
more. There was total silence. We looked at her widely open eyes, still glim-
mering with hope she would meet her little Lazar in the afterlife, wishing no
one would ever take him from her embrace again. Two big drops came out of
her dying eyes... The two tears rolled down her suffering face. She sighed and
departed... Departed to her Lazar...
469
Mira Kundačina
LOST IN THE
WILDERNESS
I have long wanted to write about that tortured soul, my aunt Desa. That good
and noble woman deserves it. Often, she jokingly says about herself: “I’ve
been to hell and back.” It is true, indeed. It is not easy at all to write about that
woman’s life. Even a good writer would be at a loss, dismayed by overwhelm-
ing, sad memories, pain and suffering. May Desanka forgive me if I make a
mistake or omit something, but God certainly knows that I have a sincere and
pure wish to leave a record of at least some of her suffering, should any of
her descendants ever wish to read it to their children. God forbid we forget it!
One Sunday morning, I went straight to my home village. I was overwhelmed
by the well-known homesickness that often disturbed me. It was a long time
I had last been to Kubatovina. The house where I was born still exists. Many
things have changed, but the soul always recognise and loves its birthplace,
no matter what kind it is. The village is slowly dying. Empty and abandoned
homes groan and there are ever fewer chimneys from which smoke rises into
the sky. Any home with a lively and cheerful yard is recognisable from afar.
A village without children’s merrymaking is such a sad thing! This village,
which is soundless now, was once full of laughter, hubbub, life... Oh, and
now... My heart collapses as I think of those who are neither there, nor any-
where else... The smiling faces of my childhood smile at me, as if from one
of Andersen’s fairy tales. And my aunt’s daughter, Vidosava, died a few years
ago. She just closed her eyes and went away quietly, silently, like the Little
Match Girl. Desanka’s wounds opened and bled. They would never heal.
When she saw me, she seemed happy. With a broad smile and a wave of the
hand she invited me in but was not able to speak yet. I understood everything.
All of this hurt me, my whole childhood was rekindled in my mind. Acci-
dentally, I remembered Jesus’ words as he was dying in torment on the Holy
Cross at Calvary: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?)
471
“I thought it better not to say nothing, to let it be forgotten. But, as I the mo-
ment approaches when I will come before the Lord, I have no peace of mind,
by day or night. I no longer know if I am awake or asleep. I no longer know
if I talk to the living or the dead, but they all want me to mention them at least,
not to forget, never again! Gog forbid, not even the worst of enemies!” She
sighed deeply and continued:
“My father, his brothers and relatives were deceived and killed. It was on St.
Vitus’ Day, 1941. In the evening, Pule Kokin – that was his nickname, a
neighbour, a Croat – visited our home and said that nobody was allowed to
leave Kruševo. Such were the orders. He said troops would come in the morn-
ing to confiscate all military items they found, such as overcoats, rifles, eve-
rything. We needed to have it all ready and wait to go to work in Vidovo
Polje. Father asked innocently whether to take working clothes, food, water,
but Pule just smirked ironically and said: “Everything’s ready, waiting for
you.” I remember it well although I was a little girl, barely eight years old.
Father had Maksim and Milan in his lap, his youngest sons, twins, who were
not even three years old. “Are they your boys, Danilo?” asked Pule and
sneered with a brutal sparkle in his eyes. “Yes, they are, the youngest,” said
father proudly and caressed the children, rocking them gently on his knee, for
the last time...
In the morning, as Pule said, troops came and took them away, supposedly to
the work, on the journey of no return. One man from the patrol did not mind
going all the way to the hill to take brothers Gajo and Gojko. He saw them,
he said, when they went to the hill and was sorry to go without them. After a
while, these two unfortunate men, two brothers, also came freely. Gajo had
served in the army, in the King’s Guard, so apparently, he was very important
to them. He was the first brother to die. They were going to die but they never
suspected it. They took them without tying them; otherwise, the others would
have become suspicious, and they also needed to be thrown into pits, when
pits became thirsty for human blood. Father turned back, as if he had sus-
pected he would never return. We looked at them and waved. A bloody St.
Vitus’s had dawned, without our ever suspecting it...
We watched them as they were moving out of sight. Father turned around to
look at us one more time. His brothers and nephews were walking behind
him. Nine men. Nine Radošes, like the nine Jugović brothers: Danilo, Jovo,
Milan, Marko, Ilija, Gojko, Gajo, Stojan, Lazar... Their hands were still free.
A dark cloud descended, blocking the sun from the house. An icy foreboding,
in everybody waiting, fearful. What if they did not return? My sister Anđa
and I were trying to help aunt Dubravka; mother smiled tensely with twins
472
Maksim and Milan. Nikola, my older brother, was already in Hrgud, at

grandpa Obren’s, my mother’s father. The house was full of fellows, but time
had stopped and turned into waiting. In the afternoon, Anđa and I took sheep
to pasture and sat in the shade, hidden in the bushes beside the road. Soon we
heard some steps and hid. We were aborred by the words we heard: “That was
pure joy, sending them all down the pit Bivolje Brdo.” We were numb and
did not dare make a move.
Later on, I do not know how, we found out that they had beaten our men up
at Masline, tied them with rope and taken them to Bivolje Brdo. They had cut
Gajo to pieces and thrown his dismembered body into the pit, while the others
– woe is me! were pushed alive... They pushed the first one and the others
collapsed after him. That night, I dreamed about my father, dragging himself
around the pit with his leg broken. It was a bloody St. Vitus’ for all villages
in Herzegovina. I have never realised why they did not kill all of us then.
After that terrible tragedy, grandpa watched over us constantly, like a guard-
ian angel. He wanted to take us out of hell and such surroundings, as if he
anticipated the arrival of new, ever greater tragedies. So we stayed in Hrgud
with him and grandmother from the autumn of 1942 until the spring of 1943.
She was his second wife and loved us very much. Uncle was not married yet.
Our step- grandmother, Domazet was her maiden name, was a very good, a
very noble woman. She did not have children of her own. I wish we had stayed
in Hrgud. Maybe more people would have survived. In the spring of 1943,
mother took us all back to Kruševo. I remember that when we returned, she
pulled the plough and tilled the field near the house on her own. The field was
called Mandolina. She sowed wheat for her children, not to be hungry, but the
field and the crops were never harvested. Shortly, we fled from home to take
refuge in Bačnik, near Kruševo.
NOP units had already formed by that time, and each and every hamlet had a
guard, a few soldiers. A man called Neđo had been sent to keep vigil in our
village. I did not know who he was or where he came from.
That fatal morning, I went to the hills to graze the sheep with Bosa Škoro.
She was my father’s niece. Seven days before, her brother had been killed as
one of the Partisans. Later, I found out that she was a prominent member of
the SKOJ. We heard shots in the village, bursts of fire. I shuddered with cold-
ness. I asked Bosa to go to the village, but she did not dare. I rushed alone. I
felt the smell of gunpowder in front of the house, and in the house there was
blood, frozen looks and motionless bodies… In the corner, Anđa, my sister,
reclined against the wall. She whispered to me: “Give me a hand to get up!”
She lay in a pool of blood. Little Maksim was in her lap, his eyes wide open,
473
his mouth ajar, with blood still trickling from it. I lifted his listless body mak-
ing sure I did not hurt him for he, poor fellow, was still warm and as if breath-
ing. Alas! I had thought nobody would ever separate me from the two of them.
I looked at their dead eyes and felt I myself had also been killed. They were
my dearest, dearer to me than God himself, and there they were, in my arms,
still warm. A moment later, I would not be able to do even that much. My
arms were empty! Milan, Maksim, dead you may be, but let your sister kiss
you one more time, I pleaded! Aunt Dubravka’s lifeless body rested on Anđa’s
chest. There were dead bodies everywhere, like freshly made hay. To make
the tragedy worse, one of the perpetrators was our cousin, Martin Raguž. His
mother was our aunt Sava, my father’s sister. Anđa had recognised him. I do
not know if it was miracle or God’s will that helped her survive, watch and
remember it all. She might have forgiven them for her own wounds, but she
has not forgiven or forgotten the feeling of hopelessness and sorrow as she
held her brother’s dead body, without being able to hug him or hold him
firmly. His death-rattle stuck in her soul, body, mind. She felt the Ustashas
were alert lest someone made a sound or a move, at ready to finish them off.
A thought that came from God knows where kept her numb and frozen.
Maksim died, leaving this world, this vale of tears, in unbearable pain.
That morning, mother had managed to escape, but in vain… Little Danica,
Milan’s daughter, had run away after her, but bullets caught her right behind
the house. Mother had managed to escape with a gunshot wound. On the op-
posite side of the house, down the street, Goša, Lazar’s daughter, had run off.
Her sister Rista had stayed with the rest of the corpses.
I helped Anđa to get up somehow. There were traces of blood and spilt brains
on her red sweater... We laid our brothers down, one next to another, to enter
the next world together, as brothers, as twins. Mother was not there and we
did not know where she was. There was no one to protect us any more. We
were alone. Horror-stricken, we left the bloody house. Those we loved the
most remained lying in there. Maksim and Milan remained, since the Usta-
shas had long kept a close eye on them. Anđa was thirteen years old, and I
was ten. So small but hardened through such distress. We took the cattle to
pasture and joined a unit which was in the vicinity. We were there for about
twenty days. Although we were hungry and thirsty, we were not able to eat
anything. The bleeding corpses of our beloved ones were on our mind... Fa-
ther was in the pit, mother ended up in the Italian hospital in Stolac, the three
of us were lost, all alone in the winds of war. Grandfather Obren sought for
us and managed to find my mother, but the doctor would not let him take her
away until she recovered. When he came back to fetch her, he found an empty
474
bed and was givne the explanation the Ustashas had found her, even there,
and taken her, God knows where. He kept looking for us, desperate to find
any of Sava’s children alive. He found us in a group of refugees, moving along
with a Partisan detachment. I will never forget our reunion. It seemed to me
we were again in God’s mercy. Grandpa looked at us speechlessly and tried
to smile but instead of a smile we heared scream, then there were tears and
silence... When he collected himself, he to us, his late daughter’s orphans. He
kept embracing and hugging us, as if he wanted to dispel the horror that had
lasted for years. “We’ll be in Hrgud any time, with lots of sun and bread wait-
ing for us. Grandmother has baked bread, and Nikola has been collecting stuff
and putting it in a little locker, for his sisters to have when they come. So
many things in there. Wait, you’ll see for yourselves!“ Granddad had encour-
aged Nikola in the same way nearly three years before, when he persuaded
him to go to Hrgud with him. Nothing had worked, and he had had to tell a
lie to make him go. I remember as he told him imploringly: “Come on, my
Nikola. There are all kinds of fruit. There you can eat whatever you like.
There are also dried figs there...” On his mentioning figs, Nikola just hopped,
said goodbye to everybody and followed Granddad obediently. Granddad
later recalled the trouble he had had explaining to him they would need to
plant some fig and carob trees before they blossomed and gave fruit for them
to eat... Nikola has never forgotten Granddad’s promises. He now tells the
same story to his grandchildren, remembering his favourite person from
childhood with sadness.
We arrived in Hrgud in the evening. The sun still shone over the tops of the
mountains. Granddad took us out into the garden near the house, still afraid
someone could find us, set some blankets and tucked us up warmly beside the
wall. He took a long time to tuck us up and babbled as he covered us, as if he
wanted to protect us from all the pain and suffering. Since we were exhausted,
we fell asleep immediately. We slept all night and all, until late in the after-
noon. It was the sleep of the desperate, lost in the wilderness.
For several years, we lived in peace and harmony, if I may say so. Three
orphans with their grandfather, grandmother and uncle. When we think of our
step-grandmother, we think of a good person, who took good care of us. We
were never left hungry or thirsty, we always had fine clothes and shoes. We
worked as much as we could and they all tried to help us to grow up and forget
all the pain. But that was short-lived. After the war, we were asked to register
with a board, who collected data on the war orphans. It was time for orphan-
age. Poor granddad resisted, asked and begged them not to take his children
to the orphanage, not to make them forget their roots. He asked and begged,
but nothing worked. In the end, he had to let Nikola go. It was time to say
475
goodbye again, time to shed tears. Grandpa just couldn’t stand it. He left both
us and this world and went to rest in peace with the other righteous souls. Our
brother prepared for a journey on which he was to forget he was an Orthodox
Serb, but just then we were still one heart and one soul.
One night, Anđa dragged us to the čardak to tell us something very important.
We were quiet and solemn, as if the gate of paradise would open. Anđa held
a big gold ring in her hand. She said that she was getting married, though she
was still but a child. The three of us looked at each other and did not know
whether to be happy or not. We could hardly imagine then it meant another
goodbye and more suffering for us. Anđa had found a new home, but not
happiness, since she would soon become a widow, with a baby that was only
fifteen days old.
Nikola went to orphanage. There he studied extensively about the brother-
hood and unity, National Liberation War and fascism. The Ustashas and their
monstrous crimes were never mentioned. Perhaps because of the brotherhood
and unity. He took it all for granted. Still, he never forgot our drinking foun-
tain and the walnut tree next to it, the hat father often wore on his head, his
mother’s warm arms and the embrace which had protected him from danger
and evil. Even now, when he is old and ailing, whenever it thunders, he re-
members hiding under frayed blankets and shaking with fear, feeling lonely,
abandoned by everybody. He will never forget, perhaps not even in the here-
after, Hrgud and granddad and all the fruit they were to have planted and
enjoyed together.
Who is blessed by the purple dawns of Hrgud now? Anđa only found peace
when she died and was buried beside mother and our little brothers. My fa-
ther’s bones, consecrated and kept at the Ossuary in Prebilovci, were eventu-
ally mined and turned into dust. Unknowingly, the villains have but sanctified
them.
As for my Desanka, she awaits the day in the hereafter when she will be reu-
nited with the lost ones. She sits on our doorstep, where the Ustashas slaugh-
tered our grandmother, dumping a dog’s dead body over her. Blind, she had
straggled after the column of refugees; they had caught up with her and used
her to show what would have happened to the others, if only they had waited.
Seated at her doorstep, this quiet woman sends a Christian message: “My
children, don’t take revenge. Revenge is not what Christians do. Instead of
revenge, devote yourselves to raising sons and daughters, our new morns, our
new dawns!”
476
CONCLUSIONS
The Trebinje Round Table, after hearing the papers, witness accounts and
discussion of the participants, unanimously adopt these
CONCLUSIONS
A book of proceedings of the Trebinje Round Table is to be published, in
Serbian and English, with the papers, witness accounts, discussion and con-
clusions of the Table. The proceedings will be delivered to the largest possible
number of institutions and individuals engaged in the study of war crimes and
genocide, in the country and abroad.
Regional or municipal round tables are to be organised annually, with the aim
to collect as much historiographic and documentary material as possible, par-
ticularly recollections of the surviving victims, their descendants and eye wit-
nesses, for publication and presentation to the new generations, and for telling
the truth about the persecution and atrocities against the Serbs, Jews and
Roma to the world.
State institutions will be encouraged to form an expert committee comprising
researchers, who will research the crimes of genocide and holocaust commit-
ted at all places of execution in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It is proposed that The Association “Jasenovac-Donja Gradina” start cooper-
ation with institutions in the Republic of Serbia as well as Serb associations
in Croatia, and collect the missing information on the persecution of the
Serbs, in order to initiate proceedings to declare the perpetration of total gen-
ocide against the Serbs. Simultaneously, places of execution are to be duly
marked and maintained and new memorials constructed, in parallel with fight
to create a basis in the legislation of the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and
Herzegovina to prevent the monuments and memorials commemorating the
persecution of the Serbian people from bearing ideological or anational ele-
ments.
All documentation about the atrocities and persecution (books, documents,
historical material, audio and video recordings, lists of perished Serbs, Jewes
477
and Roma etc.) is to be stored at The Museum of Herzegovina in Trebinje and

museums in Banja Luka and Belgrade.
All publications about the atrocities and persecution in Herzegovina are to be
collected and stored at The Trebinje Library.
The lists of victims and perpetrators are to be separately and continuously
amended. This work is to commence immediately, with the goal of the list
completion in the shortest possible time, and the lists are to be kept at the
aforementioned museums. Also, they are to be published as offprints and kept
at selected museums in Trebinje, Banja Luka, Belgrade, Jerusalem and New
York.
An initiative is to be started for The Ministry of War Veterans and Disabled
Persons’ Welfare of Republic of Srpska to commence, as shortly as possible,
the making of the lists of all Serbs from the territory of Bosnia and Herze-
govina killed in the liberation wars fought in the 20th century, and store them
in the said museums.
The identity of all perpetrators of the murders of Serbs, Jews and Roma com-
mitted on behalf of the Independent State of Croatia must be revealed, and
produced name lists stored at the said places. This activity is to commence as
soon as possible, while there are still eye witnesses of the committed atroci-
ties.
In the collection and systematisation of the materials related to the atrocities,
special attention is to be paid to the persecution of the weak, elderly, women,
mothers, children and unborn children, and the related role of the Roman
Catholic Church.
As we remain grateful to the media for their assistance to date, they are to be
encouraged to disseminate even more extensively the truth about the atroci-
ties committed by the NDH and the persecution of the innocent, both in the
country and abroad.
The Declaration of Genocide against the Serbs, Jews and Roma in the Second
World War is hereby given full support.
The Conclusions of the Trebinje Round Table are to be presented, by mem-
bers of the Organising Committtee, to the relevant institutions of the Republic
of Srpska, state officials, civil servants and other individuals dealing and con-
cerned with these issues.
In Trebinje, 28th September 2013
478

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(INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA)

Banja Luka, May 2014

JOVAN MIRKOVIĆ, MUSEUM CURATOR

WITNESS ACCOUNTS ........................................................................ 431

PERSECUTION OF THE KUČINARS, 26TH JUNE 1941

CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................... 477

GREAT HELP FROM THE

EVEN THE ITALIANS

“How to renovate the Donja Gradina Memorial Site”

The Fifth International Conference, held in Banja Luka in 2011, yielded,

I hope that my infinite devotion to you gives me the right to dis-

The word crime is a gross understatement – it was beyond all

where 4,000 Serbs had been dispatched! There will be a perma-

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION OF HERCEGOVINA IN NDH

The Large district (Velika župa) HUM (Mostar)

This analysis surveys the area of Herzegovina as comprising 16

IDENTIFIED VICTIMS OF THE 1941-1945 WAR IN

According to a report of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, drafted by

Victims of the 1941-1945 war in the area of Herzegovina,

MALE FEMALE N/A

Victims of the 1941-1945 war, born in Bosnia and Herzegovina,

Victims of the 1941-1945 War in the area of Herzegovina, by

Victims of the 1941-1945 war in the area of Herzegovina, by

% → 100 1,21 22,0926 12,20 50,70 6,37 6,64 0,79

According to the category or manner of death there were 4,110 or 23.30%

Victims of the 1941-1945 War in the area of

∑ Herzegovina 17638 4683 526 796 221 129 11283

7 Konjic 1000 19037 43 33 5 3 726

According to perpetrators, out of the total number of recorded victims

2.98%, Chetniks (not only members of the JVUO [Yugoslav Homeland

Victims of the 1941-1945 war in the area of Herzegovina, by

% → 100 68,19 27,41 2,88 1,52

Analysis according to cause of death shows the following: 12,028 people

the percentage of executed victims is smaller (74.72% for Bosnia and

Victims of the 1941-1945 War in the area of

∑ Herzegovina 17638 7560 823 1877 978 5369 505 526

% → 100 42,86 4,67 10,64 5,54 30,44 2,87 2,98

Analysis of war victims according to occupation shows that the highest

larger percentages in the observed area in the categories of agricultural

HERZEGOVINA-BORN CHILDREN AS VICTIMS OF

Analysis of the suffering of children born in the area of Herzegovina,

7 Konjic 1,000 131 13.10

According to analyses of the figures: in female children casualties born in

Serbs Croats Muslims Others

Children aged 14 and below as war victims in Bosnia and

Children war victims in Herzegovina, by perpetrators

The perpetrators were listed as Croatian troops for 62.68% of children

VICTIMS OF THE 1941-1945 WAR, BORN IN THE AREA

Тotal war victims Children war victims Over 60 years of age

This analysis surveys the area of Herzegovina as comprising 16

was in 1941 – 48.32%, which is significantly higher than in total victims

Antonić, Zdravko, Dokumenta o genocidu nad Srbima u Bosni i Hercegovini od

Dedijer, Vladimir, Vatikan i Jasenovac, Dokumenti, Beograd, Rad, 1987, p. 788.

Knjiga o Mostaru, Beograd 1988. 468

Čehić Namik, Prozorski kraj u oslobodilačkom ratu i revoluciji, 1941-1942, knj. 1,

CRIMES OF THE ROMAN

the royal government-in-exile, sent a letter of protest on 27th March 1941 to

Antonić, Z., Dokumenta o genocidu nad Srbima u Bosni i Hercegovini, Akademija

Savo Skoko, PhD

Bestial orgies of the Muslims of Gacko in the village of Korita