Ovaj mali spomenik u zagrebačkoj Dubravi podignut je u spomen 16 civila antifašista koje su Ustaše javno objesili 20. prosinca 1943.
Povijest
Nakon što su Sile osovine napale i okupirale Kraljevinu Jugoslaviju u travnju 1941., područje današnje Hrvatske i BiH ustrojeno je u marionetsku Nezavisnu Državu Hrvatsku (NDH) na čelu s hrvatskim nacionalistom Antom Pavelićem. Hrvatski ultranacionalisti Ustaše kao vojna struktura vlasti dobili su zadatak osigurati red u novostvorenoj državi. Kako je Pavelić namjeravao stvoriti etnički čistu državu Hrvata i njima odanih skupina, etnički Srbi, Židovi, Romi i komunisti te ostali disidenti izloženi su teškoj opresiji i nasilju. Uslijed toga mnogi od njih organizirali su se u pobunjeničke skupine pod vodstvom Titovog narodnooslobodilačkog pokreta. Kako bi obeshrabrili ljude da se pridruže pokretu otpora, Ustaše su redovito privodili istaknute članove mjesnih zajednica, uzimali ih za taoce i prijetili njihovim smaknućem kao odmazdom u slučaju napada na vojsku i infrastrukturu koje su izvršavali partizani.
Pod okriljem noći, 18. prosinca 1943, Marijan Badel, zapovjednik Turopoljsko-Posavske divizije organizirao je napad na nekoliko njemačkih skladišta municije u selu Sopnici sjeverno od Zagreba. Nakon što su razoružali vojnike koji su čuvali skladišta i evakuirali civilno stanovništvo iz sela, uništili su 8500 tona naoružanja i municije u 4 skladišta. Ustaše u Zagrebu su brzo odgovorili na napad smaknućima iz odmazde. Dva dana kasnije 20. prosinca, 18 talaca, koji su većinom bili lokalni intelektualci koje su držali u zatočeništvu, pod okriljem noći iz zatvorskih su ćelija ukrcani u kamione. Odvezli su ih na glavni trg zagrebačke Dubrave gdje su ih iskrcali i objesili na improvizirana drvena vješala s obje strane glavne ceste kao upozorenje lokalnom stanovništvu. Prilikom vješanja dva taoca uspjela su pobjeći i spasiti se. Jedan od njih bio je istaknuti zagrebački arhitekt Milovan Kovačević.
Spomenik
Neposredno nakon rata glavna prometnica kroz Dubravu preimenovana je u "Avenija prosinačkih žrtava", kako bi odali počast 16 žrtava tamo obješeni. Nadalje svih 16 pogubljenih proglašeni su Narodnim herojima. U kasnim 50-tima, općina Zagreb izradila je plan za podizanje spomenika kako bi se odala počast žrtvama. Zanimljivo, samu ideju o podizanju spomenika na tom mjestu iznio je sam kipar Dušan Džamonja, koji je i donirao spomenik gradu. Spomenik je otkriven za javnost 20. prosinca 1960, na dan obilježavanja. Središnja komemorativna skulptura izvorno je bila smještena na malom zemljanom humku usred parka. Visine oko 5 metara, stil Džamonjine betonske skulpture veoma je modernističke i apstraktne prirode, a čine ga izvijeni uzorci u obliku saća. Takav stil nikada prije nije korišten u ovoj mjeri pri izradi spomenika Narodnooslobodilačkom ratu. Bio je iskra koja je pokrenula izgradnju niza inovativnih apstraktnih spomenika diljem Jugoslavije, zbog čega se Džamonju smatra ocem apstraktnog dizajna u izgradnji spomenika posvećenih Drugom svjetskom ratu u tadašnjoj Jugoslaviji.
This small monument in the Dubrava neighborhood of Zagreb commemorates the 16 anti-fascist civilians who were publicly hung by Ustaše forces on December 20th, 1943
History
After Axis forces invaded and occupied the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April of 1941, the present day countries of Croatia and Bosnia were re-organized into an Axis puppet-state which was called the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), which was ruled by Croatian nationalist Ante Pavelić. The Ustaše, a Croatian ultra-nationalist group, were tasked to be the military arm of the NDH and to enforce order across the country. As Pavelić wished to create an ethnically pure nation of Croats and Croat-aligned group, ethnic-Serbs, Jews, Roma, communists and other dissidents were heavily oppressed and targeted with violence. As a result, many of these oppressed peoples now living in the NDH organized into rebel groups united with Josip Tito's Partisan armed resistance. In order to dissuade people in the NDH from joining these resistance movements, the Ustaše would routinely round up prominent members of local communities, holding them hostage and threatening to execute them in retaliation if any Axis soldiers or infrastructure was attacked by the Partisan rebels.
In the darkness of December 18th, 1943, Marijan Badel, commander of the Turopoljsko-Posavska Partisan Detachment, set out on a mission to attack several German ammunition depots in a village north of Zagreb called Sopnica. After disarming the depot's guards and evacuating the villagers, four warehouses filled with 8,500 tons of armaments and munitions were destroyed with explosives. The Ustaše in Zagreb were quick to respond to this attack with reprisal killings. Two days later on December 20th, 18 civilian hostages, who were mostly local intellectuals held captivity by the Ustaše in case of Partisan attacks, were taken under the cover of night from their prison cells and packed into Ustaše trucks. They were then driven to the main square of the Zagreb neighborhood of Dubrava, what was at that point on the far eastern outskirts of the city. The hostages were then unloaded and crudely hanged from wooden utility poles by their necks on either side of the main road through Dubrava as a warning to locals. During the Ustaše's process of attempting to hang the hostages, two escaped. One of the two who escaped was prominent Croatian architect Milovan Kovačević.
Monument
Directly after the war, the name of the main thoroughfare through Dubrava was renamed "December Victims Avenue", in honor of those 16 victims hanged along the street. Furthermore, all 16 men executed men were declared National Heroes by the Yugoslavian government. Then, in the late 1950s, plans were made by the municipality of Zagreb to create a spomenik complex to commemorate the memory of the memory of those 16 executed civilians at Dubrava. Interestingly, the idea for constructing a monument at this location was not that of the municipality of Zagreb, but by the sculptor himself, Dušan Džamonja. As such, the monument at Dubrava commemorating the 1943 execution was donated to the city by Džamonja. The completed monument was officially unveiled to the public on December 20th, 1960, a date commemorating 17 years since the executions. The central memorial sculpture was originally located on a small earthen mound in the middle of the park. Standing roughly 5m tall, the style of the concrete sculpture Džamonja created was of a highly modern and abstract nature, comprised of a distorted pattern of honeycomb-like shapes. Such an abstract style was something never before used to this degree in Yugoslav war memorial construction. It sparked a flurry of innovative abstract WWII monuments across Yugoslavia, thus resulting in many considering Džamonja as the father of abstract WWII monument design in Yugoslavia.
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