Garavice

Garavice (Serbian Cyrillic: Гаравице) was an extermination location established by the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II in Yugoslavia near Bihać, in the Independent State of Croatia. Between 7,000 and 12,000 people, mostly Serbs and Jews were murdered at Garavice by the Ustasha in 1941.^[1]

Garavice
Ustaše extermination site
The Garavice Memorial Park to the Victims of Fascist Terror by Bogdan Bogdanović commemorates the Serbs, Jews and Roma massacred at Garavice
Location of Garavice in the Independent State of Croatia
Coordinates	44°49′27″N 15°50′27″E
Location	near Bihać, Independent State of Croatia
Operated by	Independent State of Croatia and Ustashas
Operational	July 1941 – September 1941
Inmates	primarily Serbs, Jews and Roma
Killed	7,000-12,000
Liberated by	Yugoslav Partisans

The killings in Garavice were part of a widespread genocide of Serbs, that included expulsions, forced religious conversions, and massacres of ethnic Serbs by the Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia. These atrocities were carried out by Croat quisling forces and Axis occupying forces during World War II.^[2][3][4][5]

Background

The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was founded on 10 April 1941 by the Axis powers (after the invasion of Yugoslavia), who installed the fascist Ustasha organization as the puppet government. The Independent State of Croatia consisted of most of modern-day Croatia and all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with some parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia.^[6] NDH was the only nation beside Germany to operate extermination camps during World War II.^{[7][better source needed]}

Some of the first decrees issued by the Poglavnik of the Independent State of Croatia, Ante Pavelić, reflected the NDH's adoption of the racist ideology of Nazi Germany towards Jews and Serbs.^[8]

Mass murders

Arrests of Serb and Jewish civilians in and around Bihać were ordered by Ljubomir Kvaternik, a county prefect, in June 1941. Arrestees were transported and executed at Garavice, near Bihać. In July 1941, the Ustashas murdered between 7,000-12,000 Serbs, Jews, and Roma in Garavice.^[9] The largest number of victims were Serbs. Corpses were thrown in mass graves at Garavice or tossed into the nearby Klokot and Una rivers.^[10][11] A large amount of blood contaminated the local water supply.^[12]

Memorial Park

In 1981, the Yugoslav government established a memorial park in Garavice, designed by renowned architect Bogdan Bogdanović and opened 39 years after the massacre. In 2011, the memorial park was declared a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[13] Since then, however, the park has reportedly been neglected by the Bosnian government, and is overgrown with weeds and bushes, and desecrated with Nazi and Ustasha graffiti.

See also

• Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia