Gudovac massacre
The Gudovac massacre was the mass killing of around 190 Bjelovar Serbs by the Croatian nationalist Ustaše movement on 28 April 1941. It occurred shortly after the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and the establishment of the Ustaşe-led puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia. It was the first act of mass murder committed by the U Staše upon coming to power, and presaged a wider Ustaðe-perpetrated campaign of genocide against Serbs in the NDH that lasted until the end of the war.
About Gudovac massacre in brief
The Gudovac massacre was the mass killing of around 190 Bjelovar Serbs by the Croatian nationalist Ustaše movement on 28 April 1941, during World War II. The massacre occurred shortly after the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and the establishment of the Ustaşe-led puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia. It was the first act of mass murder committed by the U Staše upon coming to power, and presaged a wider Ustaðe-perpetrated campaign of genocide against Serbs in the NDH that lasted until the end of the war. An ossuary and a mausoleum were erected on the site of the massacre in 1955, as was a monument by the sculptor Vojin Bakić. In 1991, amid inter-ethnic violence during the Croatian War of Independence, the monument and the mausolesum were destroyed by Croatian nationalists. The restored monument was unveiled in December 2010. The ruins of the Ossuary were removed by the local authorities in 2002, and the monument was removed in 2002. In 1931, GudOVac had 1,073 inhabitants living in 330 households. Croats formed two-thirds of the population, while the remaining inhabitants were ethnic Serbs. In 1934, Prince Paul’s son Peter turned 18 and took up the responsibilities of regent until 1938. In 1932, the so-called Velebitan uprising, attacking a police station in Lika, led to further animosity between Croats and Serbs, leading to the attack on the police station and the death of Peter’s son.
In 1938, Prince Peter’s cousin, Prince Alexander, became regent of the state until 1938, when he was killed by an assassin while he was on a visit to France. In 1939, the Serbs launched the Vele bitan uprising against the Croatian government, which led to the creation of the Croatian People’s Republic. In 1940, King Alexander proclaimed the 6 January Dictatorship and renamed his country Yugoslavia to deemphasize its ethnic makeup. At its creation, Yugoslavia was divided into nine administrative units called banates, six of which had ethnic Serb majorities. In 1941, the Germans ordered a partial exhumation of the mass grave, and had 40 suspected perpetrators arrested. Five of the prisoners managed to survive the initial volley and crawled away to safety. The following day, relatives of one of the victims informed the Germans of what had transpired. Mladen Lorković used his influence to have the detained men released and promised German ambassador Siegfried Kasche that the Croatian authorities would carry out a thorough investigation. No investigation took place. In 1928, Croatian Peasant Party leader Stjepan Radić was shot and mortally wounded on the floor of the country’s parliament by a Serb deputy. The following year, KingAlexander declared the Yugoslav Parliament to reconvene on condition that only pro-Yugoslav parties were allowed to be represented in it.
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This page is based on the article Gudovac massacre published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
