Serb National Council (SNV) with the Alliance of Anti-fascist Fighters and Anti-fascist of Croatia (SABA), the Anti-fascist League (AFL), the counties Vojnić, Topusko, Krnjak, and Vrginmost marked the 80th anniversary of the Partisan breakthrough of the siege at Biljeg, thanks to which Mount Petrova Gora became the first place of organised resistance to Fascism in Europe and a safe haven for refugees, persecuted men and women of Kordun, the injured, and their tireless doctors at the Partisan Hospital.

PHOTO:  Želimir Brala / Eugen Jakovčić

VIDEO: Martina Uzelac / Matija Kralj / Ivica Đorđević

That May of 1942, a humane battle was fought to save 10,000 people, women and children in exile, when 730 partisans in a heroic charge against the ten times stronger Ustasha and Italian enemies broke through the siege and established free territory on Mount Petrova Gora.

The commemoration of this important anti-fascist anniversary began at the site of the Central Partisan Hospital and Partisan Cemetery, within the former Petrova Gora Memorial Park, the first central partisan hospital in all of Yugoslavia, which operated from October 4, 1941 to May 25, 1945.

“This is an extremely important historical place in the modern history of Croatia and the struggle of the peoples of Croatia and Yugoslavia for freedom, in the circumstances of European Nazism, fascism, and local forces. There were at least five or six central hospitals that were established as part of the civil and medical authorities of the National Liberation Movement (NOB) in Croatia. The hospital should be, and it was a cultural monument of the first rank, but this is no longer the case. Dr. Marija Schlesinger, who died in this place from poisoning and sepsis, and was buried, at her own request, at the entrance to one of the dugouts where the sick and wounded were placed, was the person after whom an annual award was given in Croatia. One of the first decisions of the democratic Parliament of the Republic of Croatia in 1991 was to have that award abolished. With that began the oblivion of this place, as well as with the fact that this hospital was neglected, together with this whole complex, and also with the fact that after the war, after 1995, this hospital was further devastated, and its exhibits were stolen. What is more, the monument at the entrance to the cemetery of about 1000-1500 of those who died here, whom doctors could not help, the wounded, was damaged and devastated and has not been restored to this day,” said Milorad Pupovac, emphasizing that this place, as well as the entire complex, should be treated in accordance with the freedom-loving traditions of Croatia and Europe.

When asked by journalists to comments on today’s events on the occasion of the commemoration of the victims of Bleiburg at Mirogoj Cemetery and in Udbina, Pupovac said:

“Each victim deserves to be remembered and its place of suffering to be marked. Ideologies that are criminal are worthy of condemnation and contempt. The perpetrators of crimes are worthy of social and moral contempt. Those who do not want to make a distinction of this kind are not guided by the highest moral principles. In other words, in the preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia one finds the partisan movement and the decisions of the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH), and this partisan cemetery, next to which we are standing in this moment, within the Central Partisan Hospital on Mount Petrova Gora, is built into the decisions of ZAVNOH, in other words, in the preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia. The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the Ustasha cemetery and the Home Guard Cemetery at Mirogoj do not communicate in the way that our politics communicate today,” said Milorad Pupovac, answering questions from journalists.

There are 85 historical sites on Mount Petrova Gora, among which the Central Partisan Hospital and Partisan Cemetery stand out. This memorial area is given special value by various authentic buildings that are still preserved (dugouts, cemeteries, and hospitals), whose common feature is presented by once grandiose and nowadays devastated monument by Vojin Bakić, at the very top of Mount Petrova Gora called “Petrovac.”

Numerous anti-fascist delegations from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as representatives of local municipalities from Kordun and Banija, laid wreaths at the foot of the monument. Along with Zoran Pusić from the Anti-fascist League of the Republic of Croatia (AFL) and Miroslav Delić from the Alliance of Anti-fascist Fighters and Anti-fascists of the Republic of Croatia (SABA), Urša Raukar on behalf of the left-green coalition Možemo! (lit. We can!) also addressed the gathered crowd.

“We have gathered here today to pay our respects once again to the brave and unwavering fight against fascism and Nazism, Ustashism and Chetnikism, the dignified and honourable fight of the people of this region against evil, killing, massacres, and destruction of innocent people. We have also gathered to remember, once again, the first partisan hospitals in Yugoslavia and among the first ones in Europe. We have gathered to pay our respects to the partisan cemetery, the cemetery where those who laid down their lives for the freedom of all of us sleep eternally. We have gathered to preserve the memory, to learn from the honourable and great struggle and victory in World War II, and to preserve the civilizational values of anti-fascism. We have gathered here to call on the Ministry of Culture and the Government of the Republic of Croatia to protect this historical complex and to start genuine reconstruction of both the partisan hospital and Vojin Bakić’s monument. Today’s anti-fascism, contemporary anti-fascism, does not only have the task of keeping memory and historical facts, today’s anti-fascism also has the task of fighting for social solidarity, economic justice, and the inclusion of all those who are “different” – for the rights of national minorities, the rights of the LGBTQIAP+ community, the rights of workers, the rights of women, the rights of refugees,” said Raukar, a Member of the Croatian Parliament.

As part of the cultural and artistic programme, there were performances by the poet Mladen Blažević, Serb Cultural Society (SKD) Vojnić and Krnjak, choir Zborxop, as well as the Children Tamburitza Orchestra: Folklore Society (KUD) “Branislav Nušić” from Borovo.

 

PHOTO GALLERIES:

Central Partisan Hospital on Mount Petrova Gora, May 14, 2022

 

Mount Petrova Gora: 80th Anniversary of the Breakthrough of the Siege of Biljeg