STARA GRADISKA STARA GRADISKA
Vjekoslav Zugaj
The worst job was the exhumation of 900 corpses in 1946. We exhumated the bodies of some civilians from Zemun who had personal documents in their pockets so that they could be easily identified. There were also many Gypsies. It was said that they had plundered Topola after the population had left and before the arrival of Partisan formations. I did not check whether these stories were true. We also exhumated the bodies of a group of German soldiers with "Urlaubscheims" in their pockets. This exhumation was formally led by Dr. Premru, a professor of forensic medicine in Zagreb. After the exhumation of the German soldiers he was in an awkward position because he could not explain who had killed them. This dreadful job was carried out by political prisoners and approximately twenty priests. It was spring time and the weather was hot. The stink of rotting human bodies was unbearable. Some prisoners vomited and ran out of the trenches but the guards made them go back withom mercy. The corpses were connected with wire so that we had to untie them to be able to take them out of the trench. The only available tools were picks, shovels and several pliers for cuttina wire. It was absolutely impossible to predict who would be able to endure this trial. Some thin men endured this job better than other more athletic ones. In the evening, on our way to the prison, we all stank of corpses. We would take off our clothes in the courtyard and wash in cold water but we could not get rid of the terrible smell for days. People who came to take their dead, thought that we had killed them and that this was the reason why we were doing the exhumation. They would surely have lynched us if we had not been protected by the soldiers.

In their free time, the priests said their prayers and meditated. Some of them played cards and chess endlessly and there were some priests who read or studied foreign languages, particularly English and Italian. For some time it was impossible to get German text books. Immediately after the war, all educated prisoners had to study Russian taught by an Orthodox priest.

I studied the "Capital" by Marx for years without any additional literature. This book was never taken from me when I was searched, because it was thought that it was better for me to read that book than the breviary or the Bible. I found it useful to investigate Marx's theses against capitalism and a free economy which had been adopted by the Communists. An archbishop reproached me later and said that I was the only one who was still interested in these theories. According to him, what really mattered was that Communism was politically defeated in the Cold War. But I do not think that it has been defeated as long as millions of people in our world believe in the "Capital" as we, Christians, believe in the Bible. It should also be noted that these theories were studied by hundreds of thousands of secondary school pupils in Yugoslavia. As a result, today, some good Croatians, leading people in our social and economy life, are convinced Marxists and supporters of his economic theory. A prominent theologian also told me that he still felt "nostalgia for selfmanagement". It is, therefore, necessary to know this kind of literature because the church has to use appropriate scientific arguments when condemning a certain type of socialism.

I left the prison of Stara Gradiška after fifteen long years. My sentence was reduced because, in the meanwhile, a Serbian woman from Petrinja had given evidence on my behalf. I am sure that we could have lived in peace with the Serbs, if their politicians had only given us the right to live in freedom and equality and had they dreamed less of the restoration of Dušan's empire. It is stupid racism to believe that we are worse than other European nations. History proves that everybody has their dark side and reasons to be ashamed because of slaughters and massacres such as the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Napoleon behaved awfully in Spain, the Spanish in South America, the Germans in Poland and the British, apart from other killings, are responsible for the massacre of Croats near Bleiburg and on the Way of the Cross.

What can be said about the brutality of some nations over the poor of the Third World during their imperial eras. I have read that Clemenso offered the Serbs the frontier passing through Karlobag - Karlovac - Virovitica as a tribute to their contribution in the war. It would be very nice if he had assigned them large investments or loans and not foreign land by which he made us enemies for ever. Now they are hypocritically wondering why we are fighting.

The Death Penalty for Escape from Prison

The Franciscan Jozo Dugandžić, was given a long term prison sentence in Stara Gradiška and when he was released he collected the statements of former political prisoners wishing to publish them in an Anthology of the Association of Croatian Political Prisoners (64). He specifically stressed the significance of the statement of Martin Bradić,from Zagreb who told him everything about the circumstances under which six prisoners had been executed and buried. This tragic event took place in October 1946.

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