Prebilovci massacre

The Prebilovci Massacre was one of the many atrocities perpetrated by the Ustasha regime in NDH during WWII genocide against the Serbs. Around 600 people, the entire population present at the time at the village, were slaughtered and thrown into a pit, and 4000 people were massacred in sorounding villages.

The massacre

Prebilovci, a small village near Capljina was surrounded on the night of August 4, 1941, by some 3,000 "Ustashi" made up of the village's Muslim and Croat neighbours. Expecting the attack, the townsfolk had fled to the hills on the night of August 3, but at dawn the women and children returned to their homes.

The Serbs of Prebilovci were herded together with other Serbs from the western part of Herzegovina and eventually six carloads of them were sent off on a train that was supposedly to take them to Belgrade. They were ordered out of the six cars they occupied at a town called Surmanci, on the west bank of the Neretva, and marched off into the hills never to return.[1]

Atrocities began in the villages including the killing of 50 infants who were swung by their legs so that their heads could be dashed against the school wall. There was continuous rape of the young girls there, and at other locations. On August 6, 150 "Ustasha" under Ivan Jovanovic ("Blacky") were joined by another 400 "Ustasha" from Capljina, and took the prisoners in rail cattle-cars to Vranac, some 500 to 1,000m from the Golubinks pit, one of many such natural, near-vertical cave formations in the region.

There the 550 "Ustasha" took small groups of prisoners to the pit and, family-by-family pushed them into it. The initial vertical fall was some 27m, followed by a 100m steep slope to the base of the pit. Small children were thrown up into the air before falling into the pit. One women is known to have given birth as she fell into the pit. The newborn infant died with her under the crush of bodies.

One entire family of 78 persons died in the crush of the Golubinka Pit in Surmanci. And after ali were pushed into it, the "Ustasha" sat around drinking and celebrating. Only 170 villagers survived. Remarkably, 45 survived the crush of the pits and escaped later to tell of the disaster. Only 14 of the 550 known "Ustasha" were brought to trial after the war, and one of the judges was himself an "Ustashi" close to the crime. Only six were sentenced to death, the remainder received prison sentences, majority around three years.

Tito had forbidden mention of the massacres but, by 1991, the new freedom allowed the families to exume the pit and bury their dead. The village, in 1941, had a population of 1,000. Earlier, it had given volunteers to join the Bosnian-Herzegovinian uprising against the Turks in 1875-78, and it had contributed 20 volunteers to the Serbian Army in Salonica in World War I and many villagers died as prisoners in Austro-Hungarian Empire concentration camps. Croat nationalists, however, harboured hatred at Prebilovci's contribution to the World War I Serbian army. The remains were dug up before the Bosnian-Herzegovinian civil war erupted in 1992, and a monument built. It has now been damaged or destroyed by the war. But even in 1991, when the carefully and reverently collected bones of the dead were being transported to a burial site, the truck passed under a bridge bearing the hastily-daubed sign in Serbo-Croat: "Come visit us again--God and the Croats.

Letter of Italian general to Mussolini

The massacre has sparked Italians occupying forces to react in disgust. This was illustrated by the letter written by the local Italian general to Duce himself. A quote from the eloquent letter illustrates what happened there:

Duce! My imesurable devotion towards You gives me, I hope, the right to, sometimes, bypass strict military protocol. That is why I feel free and obliged to promptly describe you one event which, three weeks ago, I have personaly witnessed. Patroling in towns Stolac, Capljina and Lubinye (about 60 to 130km north of Ragusa) I heard from our intelligence officers that Pavelich Ustashas have in the previous day done some crime in village Prebilovci, and that, when they hear about it, nearby Serbs are certainly going to be upset yet again. I miss words to describe what I found there. In big classroom, I found slaughtered teacher and 120 young pupils! No child was older than 12 years! Crime is not an appropriate, it is too inocent a word - that was above any madness! Many have their severed heads put orderly on school desks. From their severed bellies bowels were, like New Year's tinsels, spread across the classroom and nailed to the roof! The flies and unbearable smell did not allow us to spend more time there. I have noticed an opened bag of salt in the corner and I was stunned to realise that they have slauthered them slowly, salting their necks first! As we were just about to depart, from the back of the classroom we have heard a child rattling. I have sent two soldiers to see what it was. They found one pupil, still alive, breathing with throat half cut! I have took the poor child in my own car to our military hospital, and there we were able to awake him and from him we found out the full truth about the tragedy. The criminals have first, taking turns, raped the Serbian teacher (her name was Stana Arnautovich) and then, in front of the children, they have killed her. They raped even the eight year old girls. During all that time, a Gypsy band brought there was forced to play music and hit tamborines! To the utter disgrace of our, Roman church, one priest participated in all this! The boy that we saved recovered quickly. And as soon as the wound healed, he was able to run away from the hospital because of our inattention, and he run back to his village looking for his relatives. We send a patrole for him, but to no avail: they find him in front of his house, slaughtered! From more than a thousand souls in the village there is noone left! The same day (that we discovered later) when the crime in school was perpetrated, Ustashe rounded 700 inhabitants of village Prebilovci and drop them them into foiba, or killed them in the most bestial way on the road to the pit. Only 300 men saved themself: they were able to break Ustashi lines and to run to the mountains! These 300 survivors are stronger than the most elite Pavelich Ustashe division. All that they have to lose, they lost! Children, wifes, mothers, sisters, houses, possesions. They are free even from the fear of death. The only meaning of their lives is in revenge, in the horrible revenge - they are, in a way, even ashamed that they have survived! And villages, such as Prebilovci, are all around Herzegovina, Bosina, Lika and Dalmazia. Slaughter of Serbs has reached such proportions, that, in these areas, even water resources are polluted. From one spring in Popovo Polye, near the pit in which 4000 Serbs were thrown, a reddish water ran, I have seen it myself! On conscience of Italy and our culture a dark stain will fall forever if we do not distance ourselves from Ustashe and their demented crimes.

See also

• Prebilovci
• NDH
• Foiba massacres

External Links

• Prebilovci page with info of the WWII massacre

• Article about massacre comemoration

• Account in English