Summary

Srbac municipality lies on the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, surrounded by Derventa to the east, Gradiška to the west, Laktaši to the south-west and Prnjavor to the south east. On its northern side, it is bordered by the River Sava and the Republic of Croatia. It lies in the Republika Srpska entity, and its borders remain the same as those before the 1992-95 war, and its territory covers a total of 452.5 km².

Between 1966 and 1973, the most comprehensive nationwide survey of immovable monuments to the NOB to date was carried out under the auspices of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Monuments. However, it was not until 1981 that a summary of this survey list was published (Tihić, 1981). In total, 2,049 immovable properties were recorded on the territory of SR Bosnia & Herzegovina, with a total of 11 being recorded upon the territory of Srbac municipality in a survey conducted in December 1967, categorized as follows:

-        Memorial plaques – 4

-        Memorial busts – 0

-        Fountains, wells and cisterns – 0

-        Artistic monuments – 6

-        Identified individual graves, mass graves and ossuaries – 0

-        Cemeteries of Partisan fighters and Victims of Fascist Terror – 1

Although the construction of memorials and monuments continued long after this period (with a wave of monuments being created in the wake of the death of Josip Broz Tito, and continuing throughout the 1980s), no further Republic-level survey of monuments was undertaken before the secession of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Yugoslavia in 1992.

Prior to this survey, however, a number of internal documents created by SUBNOR hint to the progression of construction of monuments and memorials on the territory of Srbac municipality: In 1959, a report for (the then-)Srez Banja Luka states that 2 monuments existed on the territory of Srbac municipality by 1959, while 5 memorial plaques were created by 1955, with 0 being created in the period 1955-59 (SO SBNOR Banja Luka, 1959). In 1961, a Republic-wide report claimed that 1 Partisans’ cemetery existed on the territory of the municipality, which was ‘temporarily arranged’, with a wooden fence and wooden grave markers (GO SBNOR BiH, 1961). In 1967, a similar report claimed that an ossuary was being prepared for 25 fallen fighters ‘of Polish nationality’ (GO SUBNOR BiH, 1967).

Several articles published on the portal Glas Srpske in 2019 and 2020 suggested that a total of 24 monuments and memorials commemorating the People’s Liberation War were erected on the territory of Srbac municipality (see, for example, Jovičić 2019; Jovičić 2020), and that Srbac’s SUBNOR organization maintained records of these, while one article on Radio Srbac placed the number at 25 (Radio Srbac, 2020d).

Contact was made with Bogdan Davidović of Srbac’s SUBNOR organization in November 2021. The organization shared their records of all sites known on the territory of the municipality, with Davidović also accompanying Dalibor Miljević to map and photograph the sites. However, it is known that the list compiled by SUBNOR is not a comprehensive list of all monuments and memorials that existed on the territory of the municipality, as an insufficient number pre-date the December 1967 survey. In total, the documentation compiled by SUBNOR details 25 monuments and memorials, including the fountain in Vlaknica, which appears to have had no specific memorial purpose (see below, p.38).

A second document compiled by SUBNOR Srbac in August 2020 details a total of 27 monuments and memorials. This list omits the 1984 monument to fallen fighters in Kaoci and the fountain at the site of the narodni zbor in Vlaknica. It does, however, include a collective grave of Victims of Fascist Terror in the village of Nova Ves (1960) not included on any other lists. This grave contains the remains of 10 civilians of Czech nationality killed in an assault on the village by a group of Četniks on 22 August 1944. The grave is religious in nature, and appears to have been created by members of the local community in the local cemetery. The decision was therefore made to exclude it from this report. It should be noted, however, that the grave is well-maintained, with commemorative events being held on or around the anniversary of the attack each year.

A reference to one memorial plaque not mentioned in the present-day records of Srbac’s SUBNOR organization can be found in the report Analiza o obilježavanju istaknutih ličnosti i događaja iz Radničkog Pokreta i Revolucije u Bosni i Herzegovini, published by the Commission for History of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Bosnia & Herzegovina in April 1963. This mentions that a plaque to commemorate NH Danko Mitrov existed on the elementary school in (Donji) Srđevići at this time (p.13). On a visit to the site in June 2022, it was seen that this plaque no longer exists, and, furthermore, no definitive trace of its existence survives. This plaque may well have either been created in 1950, or, alternatively, replaced a monument created in 1950, as an article in the 27. Juli magazine of SBNOR Bosnia & Herzegovina, stated that a monument to Danko Mitrov was to be unveiled in Srđevići at this time (Jungić, 1950).

Furthermore, correspondence with Obrad Nikičević revealed that a plaque had previously existed on the wall of the elementary school in Povelič, with this later being replaced by the present-day monument. It would appear that this plaque dated to 1961. Likewise, no trace of this plaque remains today.

It is interesting to note that Patković & Plećaš (1975) only mention one site on the territory of the municipality: the Partisans’ cemetery, which at that time was stated to contain the remains of 55 fallen Partisan fighters and 22 Polish members of NOVJ units (p.43).

At present, Srbac municipality has no valid spatial plan that would potentially contain information on additional monuments and memorials on the territory of the municipality. However, in July 2014, a “List of monuments and memorials on the territory of Srbac municipality” was adopted (Službeni glasnik opštine Srbac 07/14) in accordance with the Republika Srpska’s 2012 Law on Monuments and Memorials to the Liberation Wars (Službeni glasnik Republike Srpske 28/12). An analysis of this list (Opština Srbac, 2014), which was not included in the decision, shows that its NOB-related contents are identical to those of the document provided by SUBNOR. However, it has been noted (Lawler, 2020) that such lists are often far from authoritative.

The recently published monograph Srbac: Monografski Zapisi (Šarić, 2020) mentions a number of memorial plaques and busts in passing, mainly in the section of the book profiling individual villages. However, the contents of this monograph are not exhaustive, and little attention is paid to the histories of these monuments to the People’s Liberation War.

Local news portal Radio Srbac also regularly publishes articles relating to commemorative events and restoration/cleaning of monuments. These have proven invaluable in studying the more recent history of the monuments and memorials on the territory of the municipality.

In total, during the course of research, 31 monuments and memorials to the People’s Liberation War were identified as existing or having existed on the territory of Srbac municipality, categorized as follows:

-        Memorial plaques – 8

-        Memorial busts – 3

-        Fountains – 1

-        Three-dimensional or sculptural monuments – 17

-        Identified individual graves, mass graves and ossuaries – 1

-        Cemeteries of Partisan fighters and Victims of Fascist Terror – 1

However, as implied above, it may well be the case that several more monuments and memorials – particularly memorial plaques – existed on the territory of the municipality, but have not been recorded in the sources consulted.

Map

Key

(precise coordinates can be obtained by contacting the author