The Massacre in Glina - The Church of Death

The massacre in Glina is remembered as one of the most horrific crimes of the Ustaše - the cold-blooded slaughter of civilians in a church.

Context

Only a month after the proclamation of the NDH (10 April 1941), the Ustaše began the systematic persecution of Serbs. Glina, a town in the Banija region with a large Serbian population, was one of the first sites of mass murder.

The first wave (11 May 1941)

Date: 11 May 1941 (a Sunday) Method:

• The Ustaše ordered all Serbs in Glina to "convert" to Catholicism
• They told them to come to the Orthodox Church of St Nicholas for a "ceremony"
• About 1,200 people (men, women, children) entered the church
• The Ustaše closed the doors and began to slaughter people with knives, mallets, axes
• It lasted several hours
• There were no survivors - all were killed

Testimony - a child who escaped

Miloš Bosanac, a 9-year-old child, hid in the sacristy: "I heard screams. People were begging for mercy. Women were shrieking. Children were crying. Then there came a terrible smell - blood. Through a hole I saw the Ustaše slaughtering people. Some tried to flee but they were locked in. When everyone was dead, the Ustaše set fire to the church. I managed to escape through a window in the sacristy."

The second wave (12 May 1941)

The next day, the Ustaše repeated the same tactic:

• They gathered Serbs from the surrounding villages
• They led them into the church
• They killed another 500-700 people

The burning

After the massacre:

• The Ustaše set fire to the church with the bodies inside
• The bodies that remained they threw into a mass grave
• Some were thrown into the Glina river

The organisers

• Viktor Tomić - an Ustaša officer, organised the massacre
• Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić - present during the massacre
• Local Ustaše - about 200 people took part in the killing

The reaction of the international public

News of the massacre reached:

• The Italian allies - they were shocked
• The German authorities - General Edmund Glaise von Horstenau (the German representative in the NDH) wrote in a report: "The Ustaše carried out a massacre in an Orthodox church. It is barbarism such as the Germans would never commit. The Croats are savage."
• The Vatican - the papal legate Ramiro Marcone was informed, but the Vatican did not officially condemn it

Exhumations

After the war (1945-1946):

• A mass grave with about 700 bodies was found
• Many remains were never found (burned in the church)
• About 300 victims were identified by name

Known victims

• Archpriest Bogdan Opačić - an Orthodox priest, one of the first to be killed
• Đuka Petrović - a teacher, 28 years old
• Milica Božić - a grandmother, 76 years old, with 4 grandchildren (all killed)
• The Čolović family - 9 members, three generations

Today

At the site of the church:

• A new Church of St Nicholas - rebuilt in 1992.
• A memorial plaque with the names of the victims
• An annual commemoration - 11 May
• An ossuary with the remains of the victims

Symbolism

The massacre in Glina symbolises:

• Sacrilege - murder in a church
• The beginning of the genocide - only a month after the NDH
• Systematic planning - it was not spontaneous, but organised
• Women and children - they spared no one

"To kill people in a church - that is sacrilege against all religions. This was not political - this was genocide." - Simon Wiesenthal