Đurđevdan uprising

The Đurđevdan uprising (Ђурђевдански устанак санских сељака or Побуна санских сељака) was an uprising against the Independent State of Croatia in its Sana and Luka parish (today Bosnia and Herzegovina), Axis occupied Yugoslavia. It broke out on 6 May 1941 during Đurđevdan slava celebrated by the Serb people in Kijevo and Tramošnja (villages near Sanski Most).

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.

Uprising
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. This provoked a massive revolt of the local Serbs who rose against the Ustaše and drove them out, wounding two of them. Rebels were armed with cold weapons with only a couple of pieces of firearms.

A German military unit (1st Battalion of the 132nd Infantry Division stationed in Prijedor) arrived on 7 May 1941 to support the Ustaše forces. With support of artillery they managed to suppress the uprising by dawn of 8 May. They captured 27 Serb civilians, shot them dead as retaliate action because rebels wounded two German soldiers. To intimidate local Serb population they hanged their bodies in the center of Sanski Most. According to Ahmed Biščević, local Jews and Serbs were forced to hang the bodies of the executed Serbs.

Aftermath
At the end of May 1945 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 subsequent Uprising in Herzegovina in June 1941 preceded the general uprising organized by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia since the beginning of the occupation and led by it since July 1941.

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.