USTASHA BLOODY RAMPAGE ON LITTLE CHRISTMAS AT CHURCH IN DRAKSENIĆ

KOZARSKA DUBICA, JANUARY 14 /SRNA/ – On Little Christmas in 1942, Ustasha forces committed a horrific crime against local residents in the village of Draksenić, in the municipality of Kozarska Dubica, mostly women and children, whom they deceitfully rounded up and led into the church, an event described by the few survivors as a "bloody liturgy".

Refugees, those who survived, later spoke of the horror, saying that inside the church there was "blood up to the knees". The massacre in Draksenić was survived by Anka Pavković, her two-year-old daughter Radojka, and Mara Blagojević. "We entered the church. We were in the bell tower; no one wanted to go toward the altar. I noticed many Ustashas around the walls of the altar. I saw Savka Dračina sitting on a chair. I don't know whether her throat had already been cut or if she was placed there to watch the Ustashas slaughter people. She was sitting facing the crowd in the church," Mara Blagojević recounted. At the moment she turned around, she was struck in the ribs with a bayonet and fell to the ground, while the Ustashas continued to butcher the people. She said that her mother, Rosa Vlajnić, was killed on her lap. "I felt that I was still alive, so I moved to push the dead off myself. I heard women crying out, and I began to cry out as well. Then I calmed down and remained conscious. The wounds I sustained above and below my shoulder hurt terribly. However, fear overwhelmed me so much that I forgot the pain," Mara testified. Anka Pavković said that eight Ustashas armed with rifles entered her house and ordered them to come outside, claiming they had been summoned by the Ustasha commander. "We went outside and they drove us away. We arrived in front of the church. Three people had already been slaughtered there. At the entrance to the church, near the door, I saw several Ustashas on both sides. They surrounded us. As we approached, they began stabbing us with bayonets," Anka said. According to her account, she sustained about ten wounds to her neck, head, and arms. She added that the Ustashas also committed other atrocities, including rape. According to some sources, the Ustasha perpetrators brutally murdered about 207 people with knives, mallets, and blunt objects, mostly children, women, and the elderly. The church was then set on fire, along with the entire village, and the livestock was taken away.