[ Home ] [ Library ] [ Index ] [ Maps ] [ Links ] [ Search ] [ Email ] A book by Lazar Lukajić:"Friars and Ustashas Are Slaughtering"Original title: "Fratri i ustaše kolju" Published in Belgrade, 2005 Translated by Petar Makara with permission from the author. Copy edited by Wanda Schindley, PhD. Testimony of Croatian woman,
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"The day after the [mass] slaughter [Ustashas perpetrated in the Bosnian Serb villages of Drakulić, Šargovac and Motike, on February 7, 1942], two Ustashas came to my house in Banja Luka. They [the Ustashas] would simply enter someone's house without asking. They considered themselves the elite of [Croatia's head of state; fuhrer] Pavelić's forces and one of the main pillars of the Independent State of Croatia. They came from Drakulić where they were pillaging. They are telling that there is no one alive in the Serbian houses there. All were slaughtered yesterday. Nothing valuable [nothing worth pillaging] and no good food remained. Anything that was of any value already had been taken away. Most of the goods were taken by Croat neighbors. The rest, mostly cattle, was taken by the armed forces [Ustashas themselves]. [The two Ustashas] were sad that they could not find anything of value for themselves.
"There were three girls in my house [at that moment]. Two were my daughters, and the third was Petra, a Serbian girl, daughter of Lenka Kuruzović from Drakulić. Her family was the only one that survived the slaughter. Petra ran to me [for protection]. Her mother and I were friends.
"When Ustashas entered, we all got scared--Petra the most. One of the Ustashas immediately started to talk:
"'And who are these three girls? Are these your children?'
"By his accent it was obvious that he was from Herzegovina [which has a large Croatian minority].
"'Yes, all three are mine. Two of them are twins and this one was born before.'
"With a sense of contentment, he [the Ustasha] continued his story.
"'Oh, how we killed off those of your Vlach dogs. [Vlachs is a term Ustashas sometimes used for Serbs. It is meant to be derogatory]. Up to here,' and he gestured with his hand up to his chin - 'Hey, in a house next to the road, there was a single woman with eleven children. Whose are all those children? When we came she started to cry and scream. She said that her husband is a [war] prisoner in Germany. Glorious [Velečasni is a title of appreciation for a Catholic priest] Filipović was with us. He is a Friar from that monastery of yours, Petrićevac. And we started [to slaughter them] one by one. For the Glorious One, it was a true delight. He was slaughtering with us. He most enjoyed slaughtering children. He always preferred children. He loves to slaughter girls as he could grab them by the hair and pull their head back. That way he can more easily slaughter them on their neck. We are just handing girls to him, and he is just slaughtering them. When all was finished, I look around and see that one girl is left. She is beautiful. Her hair is reaching to her waist. I am holding a small axe, and I am looking at her. As she saw that I did not swing [the axe], she kneeled and clutched my leg. She started to beg: 'Please, do not kill me! I'll convert to the Catholic faith.'
"'She is crying and begging. I am looking from above to her head. Glorious Filipović watches the same.
"'I am a priest. I will convert you.' [Friar Filipović said].
"'He grabbed the [two] thick [hair] braids and slaughtered her. We threw her atop the others.'
"'Then, at some other house, I notice another beautiful girl. She is crying. She begs that we do not harm her. She says that she is not from Drakulić and that she is only visiting her aunt. She is squealing like that and holds hands closed [in a prayer]. She is looking at each of us, and at me the most as I am holding an axe.
"'It is so sweet [such a pleasure] to us that such beautiful girl is crying and begging. I am telling her: 'Even if you are not from here, you are a Vlach. What would you want?''
"'I get behind her and plunge the axe in her head - boop! Right away, she falls, nose first into the snow.'
"At that moment, the Ustasha who was just quietly listening to his colleague addressed him: 'Do you remember when Stipe [Croatian name] came with that photographing device? I told him: 'Hey, wait, Stipe, so I can cut off that man's head! You can photograph me with that chopped off Serbian head. I then chopped off the man’s head and held it by the hair while Stipe is making the photograph. That is such a fine thing for memory [a keepsake; a souvenir]. Me and a chopped off Serbian head!'
Author (Mr Lukajić's) note, page 302: The Ustasha chopped off the head of Jovan Blaženović from Drakulić, a worker at the tobacco factory in Banja Luka. The Ustashas slaughtered him, his wife and their six children. The photograph with Jovan Blaženović's chopped off head and grinning Ustashas is kept in "Krajina Archive" in Banja Luka.
[The interviewer] Ostoja Ljubić told me that people from that district who saw the photograph recognized Jovan Blaženović.
The book has the following photograph on page 303 and also on the book cover:
CAPTION (page 303): The Ustasha murderers proudly pose with the cut off head of [Serb] Jovan Blaženović from Drakulić, a worker at the tobacco factory in Banja Luka [Serbian majority town in Bosnia]. The photograph was taken by Stipe Kraljević. The Ustashas in the front row are [Croat] Ante Pezić, [Bosnian Muslim] Meho Cerić, [Croat] Franjo Likavac and [Croat] Marko Kolaković.
Srpska-Mreza.com note: The same photograph appears also in a few other Western books. It appears in professor Edmond Paris' book "Genocide in Satellite Croatia: 1941-1945 " on page 227 and in the Time-Life book "Partisans and Guerrillas" by Ronald H. Bailey, on page 112. Mr. Bailey explains on page 87
Quotation:The real ruler [of W.W.II Croatia] was Ante Pavelich, a zealous Croatian nationalist and fanatical hater of Serbs... Pavelic lead a terrorist group called the Ustashi in a brutal campaign against Jews and Serbs in Croatia.(End quotation)"A good Ustashi," he told his men, "is he who can use his knife to cut a child from the womb of its mother." According to an Italian correspondent, Pavelich once put a wicker basket on his desk - filled with 40 pounds of eyes gourged from victims of the Ustashi.
Revealing how eager they were to please their Fuhrer Ante Pavelić, the Ustashas photographed themselves with their mutilated victims. Please, take a look at the Gallery of photographs we collected from Western literature.
Testimony of an Ustasha,
Marko Pletikosa
Page 304 of the book:
(End quote)[Ustasha] Marko Pletikosa stated during an investigation [of WWII crimes] after the war:
"During church ceremonies the priests would choose helpers from the attending congregation. Those would then carry icon lamp, candles, etc. Those helpers would be very proud of their new positions and, in the same way, others would hold them in high regard and respect them for that [role]. During religious service, I helped Glorious, Mr. Tomislav Filipovic, who was then an Ustasha satnik [high officer]. I was always stuck to him. I would show him [snow] paths through a village and would lead him to the Serbian houses during slaughters. He asked me to do that even though he knew Serbian houses and their Serbian owners full well, as he was a priest in Petrićevac [monestary]. He told me that I know that better and that I know the Serbian children in each house. He just loved that someone was following him. The Friar was very skillful and knowledgeable in how to slaughter. He did not want to use an axe or mallet as other Ustashas did. The axe and mallet were not next to the Crucifix [as Ustasha symbols] when Ustashas would give their oaths. [Next to the Crucifix] were a grenade, a pistol and a knife. The Glorious One used only a knife.
Photograph from page 22 of the book:
CAPTION: The Crucifix, knife, grenade, and pistol were the symbols in front of which Ustashas would give the oath [of loyalty to the Ustasha movement and Fuhrer Pavelić].
"The Glorious One loved to slaughter children the most. He truly enjoyed doing it. I knew that well, and I would always tell that to other Ustashas. The Ustashas would then catch children at Serbian houses and would bring them to the Glorious One, saying: 'Here you are, Glorious Sir!'
"While an Ustasha held the child so it did not wiggle (that would bother the Glorious One), the Glorious One would grab the head of the child with one hand, and he was holding a knife in the other one. It would be especially easy with the girls, who he would hold by the hair. Because of that ease [the long hair], his colleague the Glorious Friar Brekalo also preferred to slaughter girls. He slaughtered one girl quite slowly as a photographer was making a snapshot. He wanted the photograph to be as beautiful as possible - for keepsake. Friar Brekalo would later show those photographs and tell Ustashas to slaughter Serbian children in that fashion.
Photograph from page 113 of the book:
CAPTION: Miroslav Majstorović - [aka] Friar Tomislav Filipović, [nick name] Friar Satan (in the middle), the most monstrous priest in the history of the world.
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Other excerpts from the book:
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The truth will free us all.Feel free to download, copy and redistribute.First posted: December 01, 2007 |