4 - Honor, Shame, and Warrior Values: The Anthropology of Ustasha Violence

Summary

In June 1941, an official of the German legation in Belgrade received the following eyewitness report from a colleague. In a cover note, his colleague explained that the report exposed the “inquisitorial methods of torture that Croatian Serbs are exposed to and the methods that the Croatian Ustashas use for the final destruction of the Serbs.” Quoting the report “verbatim,” he continued:

Proko Pejnović from Martina (Našice District) hid from the Ustashas in a tree that was located on a rural property. From there he was able to observe how the Ustashas physically abused Đorđe Bogić, a handcuffed Serb priest from Našice. By coincidence the Ustashas came very close to Pejnović's hiding place so that he was able to carefully observe the bestial practices and the maltreatment the priest was exposed to.

The Ustashas tied the priest to a tree before they began their atrocities. They cut offthe priest's ears, his nose, and then his tongue. With relish and entirely senselessly, they pulled out his beard and the underlying skin. The poor, exhausted priest cried out of sheer pain. He was still a young man of thirty, healthy and well built. The whole time the priest was resolute and stood upright so that the Ustashas could give free reign to their crudeness. After gouging out his eyes the priest still did not stir so they cut open his stomach and chest so that Bogić collapsed. One could see his heart beating. One of the Ustashas yelled: “Cursed be your Serb mother whose heart is still beating.” After this sentence the Ustashas set the priest on fire and shortened his pain and suffering. His body remained until the 18th (approximately to 4 o’clock) at the same location. Subsequently, the gypsies from Našice came and buried the body in the village of Brezik.

In the same district, further in Gavrilovac (near Đurđenovac), the following people were killed on June 16: Predrag Mamuzić, elementary school teacher from Našice; Pero Kovačević, teacher from Njegoševac; and Rade Vukobratić, a retired gendarmerie officer from Brezik.