Слобоштина 1942. и њени бунари – прилог о геноциду у НДХ и о данашњем затирању памћења у Хрватској
Sloboština of 1942 and its wells – a contribution regarding the genocide in NDH and the present-day obliteration of memory in Croatia

Summary/Abstract: The wells in Sloboština, just like the pits in Herzegovina, represent the most monstrous form of Ustashi persecution of a people, in this case Serbs, in the territory of the Independent State of Croatia during World War II (in the period of 1941–1942). In the five wells in Sloboština there were thrown 1096 victims (exclusively women and children) from Kozara, but also from the neighbouring Serbian villages in Western Slavonia, which amounted to 1368 victims on that day. Unlike other crimes, non-investigated or intentionally hushed up, the crime of genocide in Sloboština was thoroughly investigated, duly noted, but its potential in the collective memory in ex-Yugoslavia has not been exploited. The memorial complex in Sloboština had been razed to the ground during the secession of Croatia in December 1991, only for this execution site to be turned into an Eco-centre (funded by the European Union) in the first decades of the 21st century, as well as a “summer stage” for holding manifestations such as the “pumpkin festival”. As a result of advocating on the part of the association of anti-fascist Croats and the Serbian national council, the whole complex has recently been cleaned up, and there was also an initiative for a replica of the monument of mother with child to be made, which was the work of sculptor Nikola Kečanin. We hope that one day the said Eco-centre facility will assume the only viable purpose – to represent the Museum of victims of the wells in Sloboština, with ample photo documentation and archives, most thoroughly studied by Dane Pavlica, which have been published in this paper for the first time.

• Details
• Contents