SUFFERING OF MARTYRS IN THE PRIDVORCI PIT HAS NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN

TREBINJE, JUNE 24 /SRNA/ - A memorial service was held today at the pit in the village of Pridvorci near Trebinje for 13 Serbs who were thrown into the Pridvorci pit by local Ustashe in the night between 23 and 24 June 1941.

Three Serbs managed to escape from the execution site and warn the rest of the population, which prevented a larger-scale massacre of the Serb population of Trebinje and the surrounding area. Priest Milan Bužanin said that today they remember the Herzegovinian martyrs, all those who suffered in 1941 and 1942 in that area. "What was especially painful for us was not suffering at the hands of foreigners, but suffering at the hands of our own neighbors. But the Lord says in the Gospel that we should pray for our enemies and have love for them. By this, it will be known that we are truly His children, His disciples, and worthy followers," Bužanin said. A descendant of the victims, Željko Šakota, told reporters that his great-grandfather was killed in this pit, and that it is very important to preserve the culture of remembrance of this event. "Without truth, there is no life; everything that is bad is born from ignorance. The chapel, memorial, and burial site in Podgljivlje have been built, thanks to everyone who helped. We serve the liturgy at both sites," Šakota said. A resident of Pridvorci, Srbo Škero, said that he learned about the site of the suffering of the Pridvorci martyrs in 1991, when the late Bishop Atanasije marked the location, and that this terrible truth had been hidden from the public. At the initiative of descendants of the killed Serbs from Pridvorci, a memorial chapel was built in 2006 next to the Pridvorci pit. A memorial service for the victims was also held at the city cemetery in Podgljivlje. The mortal remains of seven Pridvorci Serb martyrs were laid to rest in a newly built tomb at the Trebinje cemetery in Podgljivlje in October 2022. Alongside the martyrs of Prebilovci and Lower Herzegovina, the Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church included in the Diptychs of Saints all other martyrs who suffered for their faith in Herzegovina during the Second World War, including the martyrs from the Pridvorci pit and the Jagodnjača pit. All of them, as the Holy Martyrs of Prebilovci and other Herzegovinian martyrs, are commemorated on August 6. Flowers were laid at the monument to the Pridvorci victims at the city cemetery by representatives of the Trebinje city administration and descendants of the victims.