– Association of Ognjena Marija Livanjska –
Who is disturbed by the memory of the 405 victims from Čelebić and the surrounding villages?
The peace and joy still felt in the aftermath of Christmas and New Year’s holidays, along with the white winter idyll, were shaken by an unexpected darkness. A darkness in the form of black spray paint, with which someone saw fit to deface the plaque on the memorial that preserves the memory of 405 Orthodox Serbs from Čelebić and neighbouring villages, murdered by the Ustaše in 1941.
This plaque, shown in the attached photo, preserves the memory of people killed during the days around Ognjena Marija in 1941 — women, children, men, civilians — murdered in the Čelebić school or thrown into the Bikuša pit. The monument and plaque, which had already suffered damage during the war and post-war events, have been restored with great effort and love since 2013 as a debt to our ancestors. There were no objections from neighbours — in fact, there was even support.
We ask ourselves — WHY? What kind of mind could be disturbed by the memory of innocent victims?! At a place where the bones of over three hundred victims are buried (the remaining victims lie in the Bikuša pit above the village), someone saw fit to desecrate the memorial plaque with the very symbols worn by those who buried them there…
We believe that all people who believe in God and fear God are ashamed of such an act. We call on the police and other relevant authorities to investigate this attack, and on the local, county and other levels of government to condemn it in the strongest possible terms. The darkness of hatred that has manifested here has never brought good to anyone.
(Originally published January 17, 2021, translated from the Serbo-Croatian here)