THE POGROM AGAINST THE SERBS IN JAJCE IN 1941

Abstract

The region of Jajce (in the period between the two world wars, the district of Jajce) was a place of meeting and life of different nations, cultures and religions for centuries. Since 1941, with the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC), Jajce has also become the seat of the large parish of Pliva and Rama, and during 1943 an informal partisan capital. During the war of 1941-1944 the most monstrous Ustasha crimes against the Serbian people took place in this area. These crimes in the city of Jajce, as a symbol of the victorious ideology of "brotherhood and unity", have not had the adequate scientific valorization until recently. Based on existing literature and archival material, primarily from the Historical Archives in Sarajevo (the National Commission for Determining the Crimes of the Occupiers and Their Helpers), as well as the Archives of Serbia (the Commissariat for Displaced People and Refugees), in this paper we will reconstruct the crimes against the Serbian people of Jajce and the surrounding area during 1941. The focus of our research is on the municipalities of Jajce and Jezero.