THE TESTIMONIALS AND STORIES ABOUT THE SUFFERING OF THE SERBS IN JANJ, 1941

Abstract

The Janj Plateau is named after the Janj River, which originates and flows along the length of the region, and it is located in the western part of Bosnia, deeply nestled in the Dinaric mountains. It is exclusively inhabited by the population of Serbian ethnic origin with a strong sense of Orthodox identity and a firm confession and practice of their Orthodox faith, shaped by the naturally canonical church order and the richness of the traditional Orthodox spiritual ethos. It is bordered in the north by the mixed Croatian and Muslim population (Sipovo, Jajce), and in the south by a Croatian population (Kupres, Livno). After the German occupation and the formation of the Independent State of Croatia, to which Janj was artificially annexed, the repression, persecution and killings of the population of Janj began at the same time, by the aforementioned nations with whom the Janj Plateau borders. In the first days of September, 1941, the German occupation forces, with the support of the Ustasha-Home Guard units, attacked the Janj plateau and on that occasion committed a crime against the innocent civilian population, burning them in stables, killing them on their doorsteps, and shooting them in refugeesʼ camps. Those who survived these disasters and horrors passed on the news of these unfortunate events to their descendants through oral stories. The testimonies of the closest descendants of the eyewitnesses to the suffering of the Serbs in Janj are the topic that this work will deal with. The work brings integral testimonies from which the reader can conclude that living testimony is the most fundamental historical fact, which certainly cries out for its written form in order to be a witness to the pure truth on that parallel track of oral and written tradition and in this way, difficult and burdensome times and events are rescued from oblivion forever.