ŠABAC BLOODY MARCH

BIJELJINA, SEPTEMBER 29 /SRNA/ - On September 30, 1941, the so-called Bloody March ended after German forces drove more than 5,000 residents of Šabac to the bridge over the Sava River, where some were killed and thrown into the river, while others were forced to run until exhaustion, with some of them later shot.

The surviving residents of Šabac were imprisoned in a camp. The article describes the march as part of a reprisal personally ordered by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, under which 100 Serbs were to be killed for every German killed, in an attempt to suppress the Serbian uprising. The Cer Chetnik Detachment, commanded by Dragoslav Račić, attacked German forces in Šabac on September 22, 1941. Fighting between the Chetniks and Germans intensified on September 23, with both sides suffering significant losses. Following the attack on Šabac and the German losses in clashes with the Chetniks, General Franz Bohme issued an order: "Round up all men in Šabac between the ages of 14 and 70 and transfer them to a concentration camp that the division will establish north of the Sava River." The 23-kilometer route was covered in four hours, meaning that almost the entire convoy, particularly those at the rear, was forced to run much of the way. German soldiers and Croats described in the article as German collaborators and guards accompanying the convoy traveled by trucks, horses and bicycles. Exhausted residents of Šabac who collapsed from fatigue or fell behind were killed along the route by those escorting the convoy. According to survivors' accounts, around 120 people were killed on the road from Mihajlovac to Jarak.