#čapljina

Traditional costumes of Bosniak herders, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Illustrated in 1957. by Hela Volfart, Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb

Some trains from my bosnian tour. There were more freight trains than I expected. :)

Traditional costumes of the Bosniak population, Bosnia and Herzegovina Illustrations by Helena Volfart-Kojović.

1. Sarajevo, 19th century

2. Zenica, 19th century.

3. Mountain Bjelašnica, 19th century.

4. Visoko, 19th century.

5. Sarajevo, late 19th century (left) and early 20th century (right)

A chest for a Serbian girl's miraz from the village Prebilovci, Čapljina muncinpality, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Chest of Mitra (Spasoja) Suhić

Chest of Jovanka Joka Dragićević

At dawn, on August 4, Ustashe surrounded the vast terrain of the village. The population of the village slept in the hill that night, but at dawn the women and children returned to their homes, not expecting that they too would be the target of an attack. Ustashas gather women with children and lock them in the classroom of the village school. Previously, in front of the school, they killed old women who could not walk. Joka Ekmečić, Mara Bulut and Jela Ekmečić (with two little girls) escaped from the school. In the afternoon of the 4th and the morning of the 5th of August, the Ustasha in Prebilovci captured and brought the remaining women and children to school. This group was exposed to more horrible experiences, especially for the girls, while the captured men, after torture, were killed in the valley below the village. About 500 women, girls and children from Prebilovci alone were thrown into the pit alive. The next day, Ivan Jovanović Crni threw two bombs into the pit, scream were heard from the pit for another 7 days. On the site of Morin Otok near Bregava, 50 residents of Prebilovci were slaughtered who surrendered to the Ustasha, because of the knowledge that their entire families perished in the Šurmanac pit. August 11, they were forced out of their houses at dawn. All adult men from Klepac, Loznica, Gnjilišta, Počitelje, Čapljina, as well as the majority from Tasovčić, are tied to trucks and taken to the Bivolje brdo pit, where they are thrown alive.

Most of the pits were concreted in 1961, and next to them they erected monuments, on which it was written that victims of fascists were killed there in the summer of 1941, without mentioning the nationality of the victims, not even the villages they came from. Because of the false "brotherhood and unity", children were not allowed to be taken out of the pit for their remaining family members to bury them. The residents of Prebilovci, continued to live after the war, thanks to the strength and will of their fathers, who remarried, with widows from neighboring Serbian villages and had children with them, some even in their seventies, they did not give up or forgot victims. Since 1974, the relatives of the victims began to visit the pits in an organized manner, on the dates of their suffering, in convoys of cars. However, from 1947 to 1990, priests were not allowed to serve memorial services at the pits.

In a real, spontaneous and non-violent uprising, with extremely good organization and sacrifice, at the end of 1990 and at the beginning of 1991, all the pits in Herzegovina were opened: Golubinka and the pit in Benina's fence, both pits in Šurmanci, Bivolje brdo, Kukauša donja and gornja, Hadžibeg's well and Gradina, both pits in Hutovo, Jasoč, Poplat, Golubinka and Rudine, both in Prenje, Zvekaluša in Opličići. During that time, the foundations of the Memorial Church dedicated to the Martyrs of Prebilovci were built, with a crypt for the remains. The bones of about 4,000 Herzegovinian Serbs, who died in the Ustasha pogroms of 1941-1945, were exhumed. In addition to the skeletons and objects of the victims, evidence of torture was found: barbed wire, chains with padlocks, nails, etc.

Carrying out the remains from the pit his wife was thrown in, Trifko Ekmečić was told that they found a pregnant woman (his wife in late stages of pregnancy), he recognized the wedding ring and died on spot, his heart was not able to handle it.

In the last war Croatian army immediately after entering the village, burned Prebilovci. Only Draginja Medić, 64 years old, was left to "defend", one of the four girls who survived the massacre in 1941. She refused to leave Prebilovci, where she again mourned her mother and sisters. She was martyred, her grave is still unknown. The church with remains of the Herzegovian Serbs was blown up. It carried the crushed remains of the temple 50 meters away. To this day, it is not known what was really done with the relics of the new martyrs. Many graves were opened, and the bones of some of the deceased were taken somewhere, others were thrown out and scattered in front of the grave, and others were burned in the grave. During the burning, parts of the burnt skeleton and the brass handles of the coffin of the deceased were left behind. By this they died once again.