Execution site and mass grave in Jelenščak in Filipčeva Šuma
Jelenščak Samobor
Tragic events occurred for the Croatian people in Jelenščak, where the power line runs, at the foot of the Filipčeva forest. The green forest on one side of the slope and the beautiful vineyards (Pušina and Jelenščak) on the other side conveyed and still convey a sense of the gentleness and beauty of this part of the Samobor region. Spring meant the end of the war. Everyone was looking forward to peace and returning home. But instead of peace, upheaval came. Everything was turned upside down. People were worse off than during the war.
Fear and trembling reigned at the arrival of those who threw the cockade and put red pentagram stars on their hats. Everything became quiet. People hid in their houses. At night, only gunshots and explosions could be heard. On the deserted streets of Samobor, groups of people with their hands tied were taken out of the temporary prisons into the unknown. Trucks with prisoners moved along the old road towards Bregana. At the present power transformer in Sveta Helena, a truck turned sharply left onto the field road to Jelenščak, in the direction of Filipčeva Šuma. The place is a valley bordered on three sides by steep slopes. Any attempt to escape there is impossible.
Eyewitnesses report that prisoners were brought there by trucks from the Kerestinec camp. They even had to dig their own graves. There used to be a brick factory near the present Samobor sports center. A group of prisoners arrived there under armed escort. They distributed shovels to them. The commanders told them to dig pits for electricity poles. Among the living witnesses we mention Mr. M. from Vrhovčak, who claims that he saw a lot of scattered papers, pictures, documents and military brochures at the scene. In one of the brochures he picked up, he found information about a non-commissioned Home Guard officer from Osijek.
The victims were first tortured, beaten with a hammer, and then shot dead. An eyewitness who was burying the murdered people heard the following words from an UDBA agent: “I slaughtered a woman from Dugo Selo like a pig.” Mrs. A. R. from the settlement of Sveta Helena gave us valuable information about the burial place. In Tatjana Marinić Street, in the yard of a house under construction, 9 German soldiers were buried. They were buried by Franjo and Martin Kodrić and Franjo Planine, the vintner of Mr. Stanko Bučar. One German soldier was buried under an apple tree in the orchard of Mr. Marijan Šoštarić. He was buried by a farmer working for Mr. Šoštarić. Home Guardsman Filip Grdović from Goli Vrh rests in peace at the homestead of Mr. Vid Vrbančić in Sveta Helena. The Slovene Špilek buried him. On the plot Mr. Miroslav Penić, Zvonimir Ivezić was buried, a member of the Ustasha Militia, from Vukovar. The dead man was found by Mrs. Stanić and the Kodrić brothers buried him. The grave was regularly maintained by Kodrići and a witness, Mrs. A. R. until Mr. Penić built a house. According to witness A. R., at least two truckloads of soldiers were delivered at night to be shot dead. She heard the hum of the engines and the shots because she lived near the shooting site, and the next day she found fresh grave mounds.
Thus, the graves of Croatian veterans lie scattered everywhere, waiting for a dignified burial.
Source:
Stjepan Herceg, Samobor mali Bleiburg 1945., Samobor, 1996
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