Glavnjača prison
Glavnjača was the name of a prison for political prisoners in Belgrade . It was built in the second half of the 19th century and dissolved around 1953/1954.
Glavnjača was notorious for torturing and exterminating opponents of the regime from the principality - or the Kingdom of Serbia , the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , Serbia under German military administration and communist Yugoslavia .
Today the Faculty of Mathematics (Studentski trg 16) is located on the site of the Glavnjača prison .
In 1953 the report of a prisoner who was imprisoned there during communist Yugoslavia was published:
“The Belgrade Central Militia prison is located in the basement of the house at 21 Boleslaw Bierut Street. This house used to be a storage room for wood and coal. This speaks well for the condition of the building. The arrested person is first taken to the office in the courtyard of the building. In its right corner is a low brick house, on the left a building with small doors, the office and the guard. Then there are some buildings and behind them the courtyard with the notorious Glavnjaća [sic!] Prison.
Some of the inmates in this prison are political prisoners who have already been interrogated and await their judgment, the rest are criminal criminals who are subject to a different administration.
The prison cells are in two rows. They are separated by a narrow corridor, in the middle of which sits the overseer on duty. There are eight cells. The best are the ones facing the courtyard, because they get a little fresh air through a small window half a square meter in size. The air from the corridor and the toilets flows into the other cells. The cells are 24 square meters and a little over 2 meters high. Forty to forty-five prisoners are crammed into each cell, and there is no furniture at all. The floor is cemented. Some cells have wooden floorboards, which is considered a great asset. There is only one lamp in the cell. It glows so that it is almost dark.
[...]
For those who resist, there is a special single cell. It has no windows or light and is so big that a person can lie or stand in it. The prisoner's hands are tied behind the back and he is beaten continuously. I saw a person who was in solitary confinement for over three months. He was all blue and swollen, his hands were stiff, he couldn't move his fingers.
[...] The most terrible cells are the Chuchavaz. One of these cells is by the overseer on duty, the second by the toilets, and the third at the end of the corridor. Tschuchawaz is a narrow wooden box from 1.20 to 1.30 m high. [...] In this box a person can neither stand nor sit nor lie down. He has to crouch, leaning his head and knees against the front wall of the box and his back against the back wall of the box. Ranković's Gestapo bandits lock men and women in such boxes. [...] I saw a comrade who only lasted 7 days. [...] When he came out of the box he could not move, his arms and legs were terribly swollen, and he was completely shapeless. For three days he lay like a corpse, only occasionally grinding his teeth.
The number of those who come from Glavnjaća to another prison is very small, because only a few lucky ones come to court. "
Known prisoners
- Andrija Hebrang (1899–1949), Yugoslav politician (imprisoned 1929 and 1948–1949, murdered there)
- Vladko Maček (1879–1964), Croatian peasant leader and politician (imprisoned in 1933)
- Aleksandar Ranković (1909–1983), Yugoslav Communist Party official and head of the secret service
- Žarko Zrenjanin (1902–1942), Yugoslav partisan and Communist Party official (imprisoned in 1940)