Pogrom in Krnjeuša

The Pogrom in Krnjeuša of August 9th and 10th of 1941 was an organized attack in the territory of the Catholic parish of Krnjeuša in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, carried out by Chetniks against the local Croatian Catholics.

The parish lied in today's Bosanski Petrovac municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was then part of the Independent State of Croatia. The parish itself was part of the Diocese of Banja Luka.

The Chetnik attackers, then part of the force known as the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland were led by Mane Rokvić. In the course of the pogrom, the entire territory of the parish was set ablaze, which included 20 villages and settlements as well as the parish church and clergy's home. The parish was so thoroughly destroyed that it was never reestablished.

The exact number of victims of the attack was never officially confirmed. The Chetnik forces threw the bodies of the dead into karstic pits or the river Una, leaving few remaining traces. Two survivors of the attack later reached a preliminary number of approximately 240 dead. This estimate did not include victims from the Kulen Vakuf and Vrtoč areas. Also, the numbers do not include deceased Home Guard members.

The makeup of the survivors' estimate was:
*35 children under 7 years of age
*14 children from 8 to 12 years of age
*72 women
*119 others

Post-war

No one was ever held accountable for the crime in the post-war era in what was then communist Yugoslavia. Survivors were later forbidden from returning to their former properties. Some returned to find that their homes had been claimed by others in the meantime.

ee also

*Roman Catholic Diocese of Banja Luka

References

*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., ISBN: 953-6035-01-4
*Ana Došen: "To je bilo onda", Vlastita naklada, Zagreb, 2007., ISBN: 953-95354-0-9
*Josip Jurjević: "Pogrom u Krnjeuši 9. i 10. kolovoza 1941."', Vikarijat Banjalučke biskupije, Zagreb, 1999., ISBN: 953-97841-0-7