Garavice Memorial Park for the Victims of Fascism
The Garavice Memorial Park for the Victims of Fascism is a memorial on Mount Garavice near Bihać . In this place and the surrounding area, several thousand Serbs and Jews were probably murdered by Croatian fascists in the summer of 1941 . A reliable indication of the number of victims is not yet possible.
The monument by the artist Bogdan Bodganović from 1981 consists of a total of 15 four to five meter high steles, 13 of which are on Mount Garavice and two about one kilometer away (location: 44 ° 49 ′ 48.6 ″ N , 15 ° 50 ′ 6.8 ″ E ), at a location where a mass grave is located.
The monument is hardly maintained today and has been damaged by vandalism.
Historical background
Ljubomir Kvaternik announced in June 1941 as the new mayor of Bihać that he was striving to homogenize the city; all ethnic Serbs and Jews would have to leave the city. In mid-July 1941, on his orders, almost all Serbs and Jews from Bihać and the surrounding area who had stayed there were arrested and interned in Ceravci, a suburb of Bihać. First groups of victims were murdered at night and later in July and August 1941 during the day as well.
At the end of 1942, Bihać was liberated by partisans. The subsequent excavations on Garavice and the surrounding places Karadjordjevo Selo and Ceravci made the extent of the massacre visible.
Construction of the monument
As early as 1949, a small stone stele with a memorial plaque was installed at the site of the massacre. This has been almost completely destroyed by vandalism in recent years. The inscription on the plaque reads:
“The people of the country and the city of Bihać erected this monument as a permanent reminder of the 12,000 innocent Serbs who were brutally murdered at this point by the vile Ustaša between June 1941 and October 1941. Glory and eternal memory of these innocent victims. Garavice. July 27, 1949 "
From 1969 the municipality of Bihać planned to erect a memorial to commemorate the massacre. Ultimately, it was not until 1981 that a monument was created by the artist Bogdan Bogdanović. The memorial was officially opened on July 27, 1981, the 40th anniversary of the beginning of local resistance against the Axis powers . Bogdanović's memorial probably had three panels with inscriptions, one of which only bears the inscription “Memorial Park for the Victims of Fascism”. Two more panels contain more text. One of them is (see illustration):
"Life is stronger than death, justice is stronger than crime, love is stronger than hate."
A second plaque that was mounted on a stone has now been lost. Your text probably read:
"With the permanent memory of the twelve thousand innocent and brutally murdered Serbs by the Ustaša criminals."
Web links
- Garavice Memorial Park for the Victims of Fascism in Spomenik Database
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 44 ° 49 ′ 20 " N , 15 ° 50 ′ 24.3" E