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The Gacko massacre was the mass killing of 170-180 Serbs civilians by the Croatian fascist Ustaše movement on 4 June 1941, during World War II.
According to the 1931 census, the municipality of Gacko had a population of 15,233 of whom 5,724 were Muslims. Taking into account the nearby municipality of Nevesinje, the two regions' Serb population constituted 67%, Muslim 28% and Croat nearly 4%.
With the signing of the Treaties of Rome between Fascist Italy and the NDH, Ustaša units began their administrative takeover following Italy's withdrawal from zone III. Local upper-class Muslims were put in charge of Gacko. A group of Ustašas led by Herman "Krešo" Tongl arrived and began organizing a local command in Gacko. They attempted to win over the support of the Muslims by promising them among other things, the return of landholdings they lost during the agrarian reforms of the 1920s and the building of mosques in villages.
Historian Tomislav Dulić notes that Ustaše success in carrying out massacres often depended on them securing the support and trust of local Croats and Muslims, and that "Where such pacification succeeded, they were more or less free to initiate the destruction process." Tongl held a meeting with local Muslims where he presented a historical exposition and outlined the Ustaše's ideological views on the Muslim population. He finished the meeting by arguing that all Serbs had to be killed: "We cannot be satisfied and will not stop until the total extermination of the last Serb from our Independent State of Croatia. The last bullet for the last Serb."
On 4 June, Tongl came to Korita with a group of Ustašas and informed the prisoners that they would be sent to Germany for forced labour. Next, the prisoners who numbered about 170 were tied together in groups of two or three, loaded onto a lorry and driven to the Golubnjača limestone pit near Kobilja Glava for execution. A survivor testified to his ordeal:
On 7 June, one of the survivors was rescued from the pit by Serb peasants who lived in the vicinity but died two hours later from his injuries. Between 170 and 180 people perished in the massacre.
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