massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

of Croat civilians was committed by local Serb rebels on 27 July 1941 in village Trubar in

Drvar Drvar (, ) is a town and the seat of the Municipality of Drvar in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the road between Bosansko Grahovo an ...

municipality

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

(modern-day

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

). It was one of a number of massacres in the southwestern Bosnian Krajina during the Drvar uprising and Eastern Lika.

Background

On 27 July 1941, a

Yugoslav Partisan The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

-led uprising began in the area of

and

Bosansko Grahovo Bosansko Grahovo ( sr-cyr, Босанско Грахово) is a town and the seat of the Municipality of Bosansko Grahovo in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in western ...

. It was a coordinated effort from both sides of the Una River in the territory of southeastern Lika and southwestern Bosanska. It succeeded in transferring key NDH territory under rebel control.

Incident

Parishioners of the Catholic parish in

went on a pilgrimage near

Knin Knin () is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka (Croatia), Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagreb and Split, Croatia, Split. ...

on 26 July 1941. The massacre occurred in village of Trubar, 18 km from Drvar, where local Serb rebels (either

Chetnik The Chetniks,, ; formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland; and informally colloquially the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist m ...

) stopped a train at Vaganj station, separating and killing the pilgrims who were returning from Knin on 27 July. Murdered pilgrims, among whom was a German Roman Catholic priest, Waldemar Maximilian Nestor, were thrown into the pit of Golubnjača. Shortly afterwards massacres occurred in surrounding villages. Some sources cite over 300 fatalities, yet many of the bodies that were thrown into deep caves, have yet to be fully exhumed. One of the witnesses of the massacre was a Partisan, Stevo Babić, who wrote that a group of rebels had executed train passengers at Golubnjača. According to Croatian scholar Blanka Matković, the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

were responsible for the massacre.

Exhumation

The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced in November 2015 that exhumations of bodies from the pit of Golubnjača were carried out and that these are the bodies of pilgrims killed in July 1941. Bodies were buried in priests' tomb in

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city in Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is the tr ...

Franjo Komarica Franjo Komarica (born 3 February 1946) is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of Banja Luka from 1989 to 2023. Early life One of eleven children, Komarica was born in Novakovići near Banja Luka, ...

, Bishop of Banja Luka, requested from the Office an investigation of the crime.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trubar massacre Drvar 1941 in Bosnia and Herzegovina July 1941 in Europe Massacres in 1941 Yugoslav Partisan war crimes in World War II Chetnik war crimes in World War II Massacres of Croats 1941 in Christianity 1941 murders in Europe Massacres in the Independent State of Croatia Terrorist incidents on railway systems in Europe Transport disasters in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Background

Incident

Exhumation

See also

References