The Krnjeuša massacre, sometimes referred to as the Krnjeuša pogrom (
Croatian: ''Pogrom u Krnjeuši''), was a massacre of Croat civilians committed by local Serb rebels led by
Mane Rokvić
Mane Rokvić ( sr-Cyrl, Мане Роквић) was a Serbian guerrilla commander during the Second World War. Rokvić briefly commanded of the Yugoslav Partisan 4th detachment of the ''Sloboda Battalion'' during the 1941 Drvar uprising, a spontane ...
on 9-10 August 1941, during the
Drvar uprising
The Drvar uprising ( sr, Устанак у Дрвару) was the World War II uprising of the Serb population of Bosnian Krajina (modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina). Italy supported it, both politically and in arms, in its struggle against the fas ...
.
The rebels were primarily
Chetniks
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
.
[Dizdar, Zdravko „Četnički zločini u Bosni i Hercegovini 1941-1945", Zagreb 2002.] The manner in which the massacre was committed suggests it was done in retaliation for earlier massacres committed by the Ustaša.
The Roman Catholic parish of Krnjeuša, established as Parish of Zelinovac in 1892, was a parish of the
Diocese of Banja Luka which encompassed 10 settlements (Krnjeuša, lastve, Vranovina, Risovac, Vođenica, Vrtoče, Bjelaj, Teočak, Prkose and Cimeše) in the area near to
Bosanski Petrovac
Bosanski Petrovac ( sr-cyrl, Босански Петровац) is a town and municipality located in the Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013 census, the municipality has a ...
numbering around 1,300 believers.
The massacre, which started on 9 August 1941, caused the total destruction of the parish. The church, the rectory and majority of houses in parish was burned and demolished. So far, the identity of 240 killed civilians is known including a 34-year-old parish priest, Krešimir Barišić, who was tortured and burned alive.
Among those killed were 72 women and 49 children under the age of 12. After the massacre the local Croats fled and the
communist authorities refused to allow exiles to return after the war ended in 1945.
See also
*
Trubar massacre
A massacre of Croat civilians was committed by local rebels on 27 July 1941 in village Trubar in Drvar municipality Independent State of Croatia (modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina). It was one of a number of massacres in the southwestern Bosnian K ...
*
Bosansko Grahovo massacre
The Bosansko Grahovo massacre was a massacre of Croat civilians was committed by local Serb rebels on 27 July 1941 in the village of Bosansko Grahovo.
Background
On 27 July 1941, a Yugoslav Partisan-led uprising began in the area of Dvar and Bo ...
*
Roman Catholic Diocese of Banja Luka
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Banja Luka (Serbo-Croatian: ''Banjalučka biskupija'', Latin: ''Dioecesis Bania Lucensisis'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in western Bosnia. The diocese is centred in the city of Ban ...
References
Sources
*Anto Orlovac: ''Hommage uništenom zavičaju'', članak iz Hrvatskog slova od 6. travnja 2007., str. 22.
*Ana Došen: ''Krnjeuša u srcu i sjećanju'', Matica hrvatska, ogranak Rijeka, Rijeka, 1994;
*Ana Došen: ''To je bilo onda'', Vlastita naklada, Zagreb, 2007;
*Josip Jurjević: ''Pogrom u Krnjeuši 9. i 10. kolovoza 1941., Vikarijat Banjalučke biskupije, Zagreb, 1999;
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pogrom in Krnjeusa
Krnjeuša
Massacres in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Krnjeuša
1941 murders in Europe
Massacres of Croats
Pogroms
Genocide of Muslims and Croats in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia