The Banski Grabovac massacre was the mass killing of 1,100-1,200 Serb civilians by the Croatian fascist Ustaše movement on 24-25 July 1941, during World War II.
Background
After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, Adolf Hitler set up the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a puppet state ruled by the fascist Croatian Ustaše regime led by Ante Pavelić.[1] The Ustaše then embarked on a campaign of genocide against the Serb, Jewish and Roma population within the borders of the state.[2]
Massacre
The massacre occurred after acts of resistance against the NDH by armed Serbian peasants.[3] The first major clash between the Ustaše and anti-fascists in the territory of Croatia took place in the village of Banski Grabovac on July 23-24 when 42 rebels charged a municipal building and train station, seizing more than 50 rifles.[4] On July 24-25, the Ustaše captured the village and arrested more than 1,200 Serbs from surrounding villages.[4][5] Approximately 800 people were shot and killed on the spot while others were taken to the Jadovno concentration camp and killed there.[3] Nearly the entire village's Serb population was annihilated.[5] Those killed on location were buried in mass graves near the village's station.[3]
References
- 1.Molnar, Christopher A. (2019). Memory, Politics, and Yugoslav Migrations to Postwar Germany. Indiana University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-25303-775-6.
- 2.Byford, Jovan (2020). Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia: Atrocity Images and the Contested Memory of the Second World War in the Balkans. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-350-01598-2.
- 3.[3.2][3.3]Tomic, Yves (7 June 2010). "Massacres in dismembered Yugoslavia, 1941-1945". sciencespo.fr. The Paris Institute of Political Studies.
- 4.[4.2]"WWII Serb victims commemorated in Croatia". B92.net. 22 July 2012.
- 5.[5.2]Biondich, Mark (2011). The Balkans: Revolution, War, and Political Violence Since 1878. Oxford University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-19929-905-8.