No. 97

STATEMENT OF TWO REFUGEES ABOUT THE MASS KILLINGS OF SERBS BY USTASHAS AND MUSLIM CIVILIANS IN THE VILLAGES OF ZBORIŠTE AND ČAGLICE NEAR VELIKA KLADUŠA, IN JULY AND AUGUST 1942.^[1]

15/4^[2]

The two refugees state the following:

The Italian army was in our village until the middle of July this year. After that, Ustashas and Muslims took hold of our village. They gathered all the Serbs, abused them and threw those severely wounded or still alive into the abyss named “Poljica”. The Ustasha that stood out in these atrocities is TILINGER^[3] Martin, former gendarmerie sergeant in Ravnice, Bosanska Krupa District. Among these unfortunates were: Stanko Medić, 65, Lujin Velimir, 60, Jovan Đeran,^[4] 50, Mile Đeran,^[5] 45, Đuro Suzić, 50, Đuro Belajac, 40, Stevan (40) and Ilija (42 years old) Drobac, Pero Šaša, 42 years old, Adam Mijatović, 45 years old, and his son Milan, 19 years old, Mile Zamaklar, 40 years old, Jovan Ostojić, 50 years old, Milan Ćirić, 25 years old, Petar Končar, 50 years old , Stojan Ostojić, 22, Rajko Banjac, 25, Mile Božić, 50, Đuro Drobac, 45, Petar Argarac, 70, Tomo Mijatović, 37, Rade Mijatović, 62, Mile Ciganović, 36, Ilija Balaban, 70, Milo Drobac, 40, Ilija Božičić, 50, Stevo Radošević, 25, Đuro Ostojić, 18, Pero Ciganović, 18, Šuro Grubor, 21, Stojan Božičić, 25, Ilija Milinović, 35 years, Damjan Davidović, 50 years old, Stanko Davidović, 40 years old, Miloš Zec, 70 years old, Milan Zec, 30 years old, Gruja Zec, 45 years old, Rade Zec, 50 years old, Ilija Zec 50 years, Stole Zec, 60 years, Gligo Popović, 25 years, Kosta Popović, 18 years, Lazar Davidović, 30 years, Vukašin Davidović, 37 years, Mile Davidović, 38 years, Cvijo Mandić, 25 years, Marko Romić, 65, Mile Romić, 21, Dušan Drobac, 18, Sava Zec, 21, Jovo Dejanović, 50, Ilija Mihajlica,^[6] 55, Pero Mujajlica,^[7] 40, Marko Banjac, 50, Ilija Banjac, 40 years, Pero Banjac, 35 years, Rade Babić, 70, Lazo Babić, 40, Mile Babić, 16, Vid Babić, 50, Petar Dabić, 65, Dušan Babić, 21, Ilibašiš^[8] Mile, 25.

On the same day, Pero Ostojić was wounded in Zborište; in this condition, he had to carry 80-year-old Marko Drobac on his shoulders. They were both killed on the way. This happened on August 1 this year. After this atrocity, whoever could escape, escaped from the villages of Zborište and Žirovac. Sergeant Pilinger, the Muslims Maša Duranović, Hasan Ljubijankić, the Mayor of Ljubinje, and Huso Begić, his deputy, came to Žirovac again. Pilinger persuaded the people to return to their homes and that no harm would be done to them. When they returned home, they were all killed in the most horrible ways. Women and children were killed with hoes, scythes, knives and other. And 3 days after this, still alive women with their necks cut were found in the trenches by the road. One girl, 15 years old, daughter of Grubor Radeta, survived; she was only slightly wounded, and the corpses of other unfortunates were thrown over her body. She freed herself from this horrible envelope and came to the village dressed only in a shirt that was soaked in blood. 15-year-old Jovanka Božičić was found in this group by her uncle Petar Božičić after 5 days. She lived under these bodies for 5 full days. She is now being treated in Glina by a doctor. There were 150 dead in these trenches and pits, mostly children and women. After this horrible massacre, a robbery of movable property took place in the village. When the village was completely looted, all the houses were set on fire. The village of Čaglica has a total of 35 houses. Only 7 men and 1 woman survived from the whole village. The men were taken to Vrnograč together with the Serbs from Zborište, where they were all killed, while the women and children died in the house of Petar Drobac, which they set on fire. That was on the night of August 19 of this year. The children were stoned alive, nailed to stumps alive, etc. Very often, children were found lying wrapped in diapers on the roads with their heads cut off. Women were raped and then killed.

My four children, father and my brother’s child were taken away and then burned. After we had escaped from Zborište, we spent 6 weeks in Žirovac, then went to Dvor where we got passes, and on September 11 this year we came to Belgrade.

^[1] АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 324.

^[2] Handwritten date and initials.

^[3] Pilinger.

^[4] Ćeran.

^[5] Same as previous.

^[6] Mihaljica.

^[7] Same as previous.

^[8] Ilibašić.

Subeditor’s Note

This – English – edition of the book is a translation of the one in the Serbian language, published in 2022 under the title Ustaška zverstva: Zbornik dokumenata (1941–1942). As far as the corpus of the Dossier from the personal fonds of Slavko Odić is concerned – and it makes the essential body of this book – the translation team worked from its Serbian version given in the said book and not from the German original.

The Serbian edition, with the documents translated from German, was printed in the Cyrillic alphabet, which necessitated some explanations provided by the Editor, Dr. Milan Koljanin, with regard to the linguistic traits, orthography and punctuation resorted to by the translators from German into Serbian (Tatjana Janićijević, Akademija Oxford) and the Editor. Naturally enough, numerous clarifications referring to the Serbian edition do not apply on the English one in most of the aspects of translation work. Hence the need to write this Note.

To begin with, the translators basically opted for the varieties of the American English rather than British English.

Personal names in the officially processed documents are most often written in what is today considered inverse order: family name/surname first, followed by one’s first/Christian name, without a comma in between.

Originally, the documents (letters, reports, statements etc.) were written (typed) in bureaucratic style and with a page layout practised by German offices, so these traits have been retained herein, and so have the obvious spelling and/or typing errors (personal names, toponyms); the latter have been corrected in the footnotes. The parts of text/sentences which are underlined or written with spaces between letters as means of emphasis correspond to the German original and its Serbian/Croat counterpart. The same applies to whole words or lines written in capital letters.

Punctuation has been kept almost completely, except when the meaning demanded comma (usually related to the rules of word order in an English sentence). Some marks, such as hyphens, dashes or slashes may impress the Reader as outdated or misplaced. Earlier typewriters did not have buttons with parentheses, and the slash was used instead of them.

Dates are written with differing uses or omissions of period (full stop), whereby month is written in three ways: fully in letters (20 January), in Arabic numerals (e.g. 20.1.) or Roman numerals (e.g. 20.I.). In rare cases, the slash can be found in dates (e.g. 12./X. 1941), but not as a regular separator between their constituents. Years are occasionaly written without the first digit, e.g. 942 instead of 1942, which is a frequent occurrence in oral communication.

Abbreviations, other than official identification means for offices, titles or codenames (VB, MA, RSHA etc.), have been translated (e.g. ’etc.’). The translators chose to retain the Croat/Serbian abbreviation for the name of the wartime ’state’, that is, ’NDH’ is standing for Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Independent State of Croatia) instead of the less known English name (ISC). Some words were written in a shortened form for the reason of economy of expression, and the habit has been transferred to the translation, including the Editor’s intervention in the Serbian edition: Reg.[ister], Gend.[armerie], Gor[nja] Tuzla.

Footnotes in the English edition partially differ from those in the Serbian version. Some proved to be unnecessary (those that provided original names which were transliterated into the phonetical Cyrillic alphabet). New footnotes have been added by the Subeditor in order to explain/clarify the specific, locally used, words or phrases with which the Reader may not be familiar (such as slava, din, sokolski dom), or to indicate some nuances in the meaning (student, profesor). Here and there, the Reader will find notes in brackets inserted into the main body of the text by translators or the Editor where immediate understanding was needed.

Finally, it is noteworthy that the above-mentioned bureaucratic style of the presented documents mirrors the established conventions of communication in Central Europe and the Balkans of the first half of the 20th century, particularly in state and military affairs, yet also illustrates the specific ’hierarchy’ of various authorities on the occupied territories during World War Two, accentuating the relations between the German organs/institutions in power and the various offices subordinated to the administrative and military system of the Third Reich. As to the information, facts and accounts of events recorded in these documents, they are the subject of the history science and studies related thereto.

A. Č. P.