Submitted by Vjeran Pavlaković
Name

Monument to Jure Francetić

Type / form
Abstract sculptureMonument removalPlaque
Type / strategy
Open fascist rehabilitation
Country
Croatia
Year
2000.
Location The original monument was located near a parking lot in the center of Slunj, and since its removal various crosses and candles have been left there. I have photographed the original monument in 2004 before its removal, and have documented the commemoration of the monument in 2007, 2012, 2019, and 2020.
Description

Jure Francetić was an Ustasha commander of the infamous Black Legion (Crna legija) in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during the Second World War, as well as Commissioner for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Glorified by right-wing nationalists in Croatia because of Francetić's territorial conquests (his troops reached the Drina River, the imagined eastern border of a Greater Croatia), his troops committed numerous war crimes, particularly against Serbs and Jews. Francetić's plane was shot down in 1942 near Slunj, and died before the Partisans could exchange him for captured colleagues. He remains a popular figure among right-wing organizations in Croatia, and several units were named after Francetić during the wars of the 1990s. In 2000 the organization Hrvatski Domobran erected a monument to Francetić in Slunj, which was removed by the Croatian government in 2004 as the country was opening EU negotiations. However, unknown persons have continued to leave memorial traces on the spot of the former monument each year.

Initiated by:

Erected by Hrvatski Domobran in 2000, removed by the government of PM Ivo Sanader in 2004.

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