May 1941 Sanski Most revolt

The May 1941 Sanski Most revolt happened near Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Axis-occupied Yugoslavia, when the Nazi-sponsored Ustaše regime of the Independent State of Croatia engaged in a campaign of oppression of the local Serbian population, which escalated into a peasant revolt, which in turn led to a massacre of Serbian civilians.

The revolt broke out on 6 May 1941 during Đurđevdan slava celebrated by the Serb people in Kijevo and Tramošnja (villages near Sanski Most, in the then-Sana and Luka parish). In Serbian sources, it is sometimes referred to as the "Đurđevdan uprising" (Ђурђевдански устанак) or as a "rebellion of Sana peasants" (Побуна санских сељака) This was the first Serb uprising against Ustaše authorities.

The celebration of Đurđevdan in Kijevo and Tramošnja was desecrated by Muslim Ustaše. This provoked the local Serbs to rise against the Ustaše and to chase them away from their villages. To suppress the uprising Ustaše requested German help. German infantry and artillery forces arrived on 7 May and 8 May, took 450 Serbs as hostages and attacked rebels joined by volunteers from the region, several hundred of them armed with firearms. On 8 May the uprising was suppressed. During this conflict several dozens Serb peasants were killed, while insurgents wounded 2-3 Germans and 2 Ustaše. In retaliation 27 Serbs civilians were executed on 9 May. Their bodies were hanged in the center of Sanski Most to intimidate local Serb population. Their bodies were first to be buried in the Memorial complex Šušnjar in 1973.

Background
The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany and Italy established in part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. The NDH consisted of most of modern day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with some parts of modern-day Serbia. The regime targeted Serbs, Jews, Muslims and Roma people, as part of a large-scale genocide campaign. In Sanski Most the NDH officials, including Viktor Gutić, publicly invited local Croats and Muslims to attack Serbs. On 23 April, Gutić ordered that all Serbs and Montenegrins then living in the Bosanska Krajina that had been born in Serbia or Montenegro were to leave the area within five days. This anti-Serb propaganda, promoted on local radio and press releases, was accepted by some local Croats and Muslims. Eugen Dido Kvaternik and Ante Pavelić misused Đurđevdan as an excuse to intimidate Serbs. In Serb tradition Đurđevdan is also known as the date of rebel (hayduk) gatherings. Although Kvaternik and Pavelić were not afraid of the eventual gatherings of Serb hayduks, they used it as symbolic date to attack notable Serbs in order to frighten the rest of them.

6 May
The terror of new Ustaše regime resulted with spontaneous resistance of the people which developed into armed uprising of population of villages south-east of Sanski Most. The direct cause of the outbreak of the uprising was armed conflict that happened in Kijevo on 6 May. The uprising broke out after Ustaše from Kijevo, most of them Muslims, burst in the houses of Serbs in Kijevo and Donja Tramošnja to harass Serbs who were celebrating Đurđevdan. The Ustaše burned several houses in Tramošnja and were prevented by the group of 20 villagers, some of them armed, to continue with burning of the houses.

This actions provoked a revolt of the local Serbs who rose against the Ustaše and drove them out, wounding between 2 and 6 of them. Most of the rebels were armed with cold weapons while only a couple of them had firearms. The attack on Ustaše was conducted by the detachment of volunteers who were joined by the former members of reserve military units and villagers from Sjenokosi hamlet. The insurgents managed to chase away Ustaše who escaped to Kijevo and Sanski Most and requested help from the German garrison in Prijedor.

7 May
In the morning of 7 May Ustaše authorities invited several notable Serbs to report to Ustaše camp and took them as hostages because the outburst of the uprising. They were imprisoned in the army barracks on the railway station and threatened with execution if a single German soldier or Ustaša is killed. According to some sources, a local forest ranger who was member of Ustaše, intentionally wounded himself and reported to Ustaše authorities in Sanski Most that he was attacked and wounded by Serb peasants.

The Germans responded to Ustaše requests for help by sending a reconnaissance patrol of 42 men (one platoon of the 1st Battalion of the 132nd Infantry Division stationed in Prijedor) which arrived on 7 May 1941 to support the Ustaše forces. Together with Ustaše and gendarmes, they chased insurgents. In the early morning of 7 May Ustaše killed three Serbian peasants in Sanski Most.

The initial success inspired villagers to decide to resist to the stronger group of Germans and Ustaše. When information that Serb peasants attacked Ustaše reached Serb population of the region, many Serbs from rural regions of Banja Luka, Prijedor and Sanski Most came to Tramošnja. A couple of hundred of them armed with various types of rifles, one machine-gun and one automatic gun. They were positioned toward neighboring villages Kijevo and Tomina. The villagers of Kijevo, Vidovići, Tramošnja, Kozica and neighboring places timely occupied the positions above Sjenokos and managed to resist to the attacking forces. The insurgents defended Tramošnja from the slopes of Kijevska Gora and used arms to prevent Ustaše to capture the village. On this occasion three German soldiers were wounded.

8 May
According to the orders of General Rudolf Sintzenich, the commander of the 436 Infantry Regiment of the 132nd Infantry Division (Pappenheim) boarded the 3rd battalion of the 436 Infantry Regiment on the train from Banja Luka to Sanski Most via Prijedor at 2 a.m.. This battalion was commanded by Captain Henigs. During the same night one company of 132 Pioneer Battalion came by bicycles to Sanski Most from Kostajnica. Together with one motorized battery they were all put under command of Captain Henigs.

On 8 May German platoon was joined by the strengthened battalion consisting of the motorized infantry from Bosanski Novi and a battery of two canons from the Artillery division garrisoned in Prijedor. Before using the artillery Germans first took 450 Serb hostages. Between 8 and 11 a.m. Germans fired 38 grenades from two cannons positioned in Čaplje village. The Germans recorded several dozens killed Serbian peasants in this artillery attack. After shelling Tramošnja and Kijevska Gora (mountain near Kijevo), the Germans moved toward Tomina, Podovi and Kozica villages.

The uprising was suppressed on 8 May. Germans and Ustaše burned all houses in the center of the rebellion which was at Sjenokose hamlet of Kijevo. Many peasants were captured, without weapons because they discarded it before. At the intervention of one Italian officer, all peasants from Tomina were released. The Germans insisted on bringing a group of about 30 hostages from Tomina and neighboring villages to Sanski Most, although they did not belong to the insurgents.

Aftermath


On 9 May Germans killed 27 Serb civilians in retaliation for their wounded soldiers. To intimidate local Serb population, the bodies of the executed people were hanged in the center of Sanski Most. According to Ahmed Biščević, local Jews and Serbs were forced to hang the bodies of the executed Serbs. Their bodies were left hanging for two days.

At the end of May 1941, Gutić held a speech and proclaimed “The roads will wish for the Serbs, but Serbs will be no more.” and announced additional measurements for complete extermination of local Serbs. The Đurđevdan uprising and the subsequent June 1941 uprising in eastern Herzegovina preceded the general uprising organized by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Until the end of July 1941 most of the Đurđevdan uprising leaders were hidden in the wooded area near Kmećani, mixed with local population and announcing staging of another uprising which soon began. Ustaše used Đurđevdan uprising as justification to additionally exacerbate terror of Serbs and Jews.

Following the collapse of the NDH in 1945 Gutić fled to Austria and Italy. In Venice he was recognized, arrested, and taken to a camp in Grottaglie. He was extradited to Yugoslavia in early 1946 and sentenced to death in Sarajevo. He was executed in Banja Luka on 20 February 1947.

Serbs civilians killed during this conflict were first to be buried in the Memorial complex Šušnjar built in 1971 and renewed in July 2003 when it was designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.