Anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo

The anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo consisted of large-scale anti-Serb violence in Sarajevo on 28 and 29 June 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Encouraged by the Austro-Hungarian government, the violent demonstrations assumed the characteristics of a pogrom, which led to ethnic divisions that were unprecedented in the city's history. Two Serbs were killed on the first day of the demonstrations, and many others were attacked. Numerous houses, shops and institutions owned by Serbs were razed or pillaged.

Anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo

A crowd gathered around piles of destroyed Serb property in Sarajevo, 29 June 1914
Date	28–29 June 1914
Location	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary
Cause	Anti-Serb sentiment in the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Participants	Bosnian Muslim and Croat population in Sarajevo, encouraged by the Austrian authorities
Deaths	2 Serbs killed
Property damage	Numerous houses and buildings owned by Serbs
Inquiries	More than 100 Serbs arrested on suspicions of supporting the assassins of Franz Ferdinand^[1] 58 non-Serbs arrested^[2]

Background

In the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the 19-year-old Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip, anti-Serb sentiment ran high throughout Austria-Hungary and resulted in violence against Serbs.^[3] On the night of the assassination, countrywide anti-Serb riots and demonstrations were organised in other parts of Austria-Hungary took place, particularly on the territory of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.^[4][5] As Princip's co-conspirators were mostly ethnic Serbs and members of an organisation of Serbs, Croats and Muslims called Young Bosnia (Serbo-Croatian: Mlada Bosna), which was dedicated to South Slav union,^[6] the Austro-Hungarian government soon became convinced that the Kingdom of Serbia had been behind the assassination. Pogroms against ethnic Serbs were organised immediately after the assassination and lasted for days.^[7][8][9] They were organised and encouraged by Oskar Potiorek, the Austro-Hungarian governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina^[10][11][12] who had been responsible for the security of the Archduke and his wife on the day of the assassination.^[13] The first anti-Serb demonstrations, led by the followers of Josip Frank, were organized in early evening of 28 June in Zagreb. The following day, anti-Serb demonstrations in the city became more violent and could be characterised as a pogrom. The police and local authorities in the city did nothing to prevent the anti-Serb violence.^[14]

Riots

28 June 1914

 

Oskar Potiorek, the Austro-Hungarian governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, incited anti-Serb riots.

 

Josip Štadler agreed to eradicate "subversive elements of this land".

Anti-Serb demonstrations in Sarajevo began on 28 June 1914, a little later than those in Zagreb.^[14] Ivan Šarić, the assistant of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bosnia, Josip Štadler, scratched anti-Serb verse anthems in which he described Serbs as "vipers" and "ravening wolves".^[6] A mob of Croats and Bosnian Muslims first gathered at Štadler's palace, the Sacred Heart Cathedral.^[6] Then, at around 10 o'clock in the evening, a group of 200 people attacked and destroyed the Hotel Evropa, the largest hotel in Sarajevo, which was owned by the Serb merchant Gligorije Jeftanović.^[6] The crowds directed their anger principally at Serb shops, residences of prominent Serbs, Serbian Orthodox places of worship, schools, banks, the Serb cultural society Prosvjeta and the Srpska riječ newspaper offices.^[15] Many members of the Austro-Hungarian upper class participated in the violence, including many military officers.^[15] Two Serbs were killed.^[15] The bishop of Mostar-Duvno Alojzije Mišić was one of the very few Catholic priests to denounce the anti-Serb violence.^[6]

I was a witness when the mob destroyed the Serbian shops, one after the other. The police appeared only when the whole business was over and when the mob started to plunder a different place.... The scum of the streets broke into private flats, destroying everything they could lay their hands on and grabbing all the valuables.

— The demonstrations described by the correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung, ^[16]

Later that night, following the brief intervention of ten armed soldiers on horses, order was restored in the city. That night, an agreement was reached between the provincial government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was led by Oskar Potiorek, the city police and Štadler with his assistant Ivan Šarić to eradicate the "subversive elements of this land."^[14][17] The city government issued a proclamation and invited the population of Sarajevo to fulfill their holy duty and clean its city of the shame through eradication of the subversive elements. The proclamation was printed on the posters, which were distributed and displayed over the city during that night and the early morning of the following day. According to the statement of Josip Vancaš, who was one of the signatories of this proclamation, the author of its text was the government's commissioner for Sarajevo, who composed it based on the agreement with higher representatives of the government and Baron Collas.^[18]

29 June 1914

 

Josip Vancaš addressing a crowd in Sarajevo

On 29 June 1914, more aggressive demonstrations began at around 8 o'clock in the morning and quickly assumed the characteristics of a pogrom.^[14] Large groups of Muslims and Croats gathered on the streets of Sarajevo, shouted, sang and carried black-draped Austrian flags and pictures of the Austrian emperor and the late archduke. Local political leaders held speeches to these crowds. Josip Vancaš was one of those who gave a speech before violence had erupted.^[15] His exact role in the events is unknown, but some of the political leaders certainly played an important role in bringing crowds together and directing them against shops and houses belonging to Serbs.^[15] Political leaders disappeared after their speeches, and many fast-moving smaller groups of Croats and Muslims began attacking all property belonging to Sarajevo Serbs that they could reach.^[19] They first attacked one Serb school and then shops and other institutions and private houses owned by Serbs.^[14] A bank owned by a Serb was sacked while goods taken from shops and houses of Serbs were spread on the sidewalks and streets.^[2]

That evening, Potiorek declared a state of siege in Sarajevo and later in the rest of the province. Although the measures authorised law enforcement to deal with irregular activities they were not completely successful because mobs continued to attack Serbs and their property.^[20] Official reports stated that the Serb Orthodox Cathedral and Metropolitan seat in the city were spared by the intervention of Austro-Hungarian security forces. After the corpses of Franz Ferdinand and his wife were transported to Sarajevo's railway station, order in the city was restored. Further, the Austro-Hungarian government issued a decree, which established a special court for Sarajevo authorised to impose the death penalty for acts of murder and violence committed during the riots.^[21]

Gallery

•  

  Main street of Sarajevo
  (today's Marshal Tito street)

•  

  Baščaršija, near the Bezistan

•  

  Vandalized Serb school in Sarajevo

•  

  Destroyed garage of Hotel Evropa

Reactions

People of Sarajevo

A group of notable Sarajevo politicians, consisting of Jozo Sunarić, Šerif Arnautović and Danilo Dimović, represented the three religious communities of Sarajevo, visited Potiorek and demanded him to take measures to prevent attacks against Serbs.^[22] In reports that Potiorek submitted to Vienna on 29 and 30 June, he stated that Serb shops in Sarajevo were completely destroyed and that even upper-class women participated in acts of looting and robbery.^[23] Many residents of Sarajevo applauded to the crowd and watched the events from their windows, and authorities reported that demonstrators enjoyed widespread support by the non-Serb population of the city.^[15]

The writer Ivo Andrić referred to the violence as the "Sarajevo frenzy of hate".^[24]

South Slavic politicians in Austria-Hungary

 

Slovenian conservative politician Ivan Šusteršič called for violence against Serbs in the aftermath of the riots.

According to the author Christopher Bennett, relations between Croats and Serbs in the empire would have spun out of control without the intervention of the Hungarian authorities.^[25] The Slovenian conservative politician Ivan Šusteršič called for non-Serbs "to shatter the skull of that Serb in whom voracious megalomania lived".^[20]

Except from the weak far-right political forces, the other South Slavs in Austria-Hungary, particularly those in Dalmatia and Muslim religious leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, either refrained from participating in anti-Serb violence or condemned it, but some of them openly expressed solidarity with the Serb people, including the newspapers of the Party of Rights, the Croat-Serb Coalition, and the Catholic Bishops Alojzije Mišić and Anton Bonaventura Jeglič. Until early July, it became obvious that the only support for the government's anti-Serb position came from the state-supported reactionaries, and some kind of South Slav solidarity with Serbs existed though still in an undeveloped form.^[20]

However, the authors Bideleux and Jeffries stated that Croatian political leaders displayed fierce loyalty to Austria-Hungary and noted that Croatians, in general, became significantly more engaged in the Austro-Hungarian armed forces at the outbreak of World War I. They commented on the higher proportion of front-line fighters to that the total population.^[9]

Newspapers and diplomats

The Catholic and official press in Sarajevo inflamed riots by publishing hostile anti-Serb pamphlets and rumours that claimed that Serbs carried hidden bombs.^[14] Sarajevo newspapers reported that riots against ethnic Serb civilians, and their property resembled "the aftermath of Russian pogroms".^[26] On 29 June, a conservative newspaper from Vienna reported, "Sarajevo looks like the scene of a pogrom".^[27] According to some reports, the police in Sarajevo permitted the riots to occur.^[28] Some reports state that Austro-Hungarian authorities stood by while Sarajevo Serbs were killed and their property burned.^[19] The anti-Serb riots had an important effect on the position of the Russian Empire. A Russian newspaper reported that "the responsibility for the events is not on Serbia but on those who pushed Austria into Bosnia so Russia's moral obligation is to protect the Slavic people of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the German yoke".^[29] According to Milorad Ekmečić, one Russian report stated that more than 1,000 houses and shops were destroyed in Sarajevo.^[30]

The Italian consul in Sarajevo stated that the events had been financed by the Austro-Hungarian government. The German consul, described as being "anything but a friend of Serbs", reported that Sarajevo was experiencing its own St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.^[14]

Aftermath

Two Serbs, Pero Prijavić and Nikola Nožičić, died some days later as a result of the injuries that they had sustained after bring beaten.^[31] Fifty people were treated at Sarajevo hospitals as a result of the two-day rioting.^[31] A Croat, who was shot by a Serb defending his brothers' spice shop, also died. A Muslim committed suicide over rumours that a bomb had been found in his possession.^[31] Whole stocks of goods as well as monies from Serb shops and homes were gone from the plundering. The devastation left a profound impact on Serb-owned business and industry given the minority Sarajevo Serb population's prominence in those areas.^[32]

Incidents in other locations

Anti-Serb demonstrations and riots were organized not only in Sarajevo and Zagreb but also in many other larger Austro-Hungarian cities, including Đakovo, Petrinja and Slavonski Brod in modern-day Croatia, as well as in Čapljina, Livno, Bugojno, Travnik, Maglaj, Mostar, Zenica, Tuzla, Doboj, Vareš, Brčko and Bosanski Šamac in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[33] The Austro-Hungarian government's attempts to organise anti-Serb demonstrations in Dalmatia encountered the least success, as only a small number of people participated in anti-Serb protests in Split and Dubrovnik, but in Šibenik, a number of shops owned by Serbs were plundered.^[34][35][36]

 

Austro-Hungarian troops hanging Serbs in the Herzegovina region

Schutzkorps

Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned and extradited approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison; 460 Serbs were sentenced to death; and a predominantly-Muslim^[37][38][39] special militia, known as the Schutzkorps, was established and carried out the persecution of Serbs.^[40] Consequently, around 5,200 Serb families were expelled from Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[39] That was the first persecution of a substantial number of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina because of their ethnicity and was, as the Slovene author Velikonja described, an ominous harbinger of things to come.^[41]

References

1. Donia 2006, p. 127
2. Donia 2006, p. 128
3. Bennett 1995, p. 31.
4. Bennett 1995, p. 31

   ...high throughout the Habsburg Empire and in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina it boiled over into anti-Serb pogroms.

5. Reports Service: Southeast Europe series. American Universities Field Staff. 1964. p. 44. Retrieved 7 December 2013. ...the assassination was followed by officially encouraged anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo and elsewhere and a country-wide pogrom of Serbs throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.
6. West, Richard (15 November 2012). Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia. Faber & Faber. p. 1916. ISBN 978-0-571-28110-7. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
7. Kasim Prohić; Sulejman Balić (1976). Sarajevo. Tourist Association. p. 1898. Retrieved 7 December 2013. Immediately after the assassination of 28th June, 1914, veritable pogroms were organised against the Serbs on the...
8. Wes Johnson (2007). Balkan inferno: betrayal, war and intervention, 1990–2005. Enigma Books. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-929631-63-6. Retrieved 7 December 2013. Pogroms broke out in Zagreb, Sarajevo and elsewhere, which raged on for days...
9. Bideleux & Jeffries 2006, p. 188.
10. Dimitrije Djordjević; Richard B. Spence (1992). Scholar, patriot, mentor: historical essays in honor of Dimitrije Djordjević. East European Monographs. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-88033-217-0. Following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Croats and Muslims in Sarajevo joined forces in an anti-Serb pogrom.
11. Reports Service: Southeast Europe series. American Universities Field Staff. 1964. p. 44. Retrieved 7 December 2013. ... the assassination was followed by officially encouraged anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo ...
12. Novak, Viktor (1971). Istorijski časopis. p. 481. Retrieved 7 December 2013. Не само да Поћорек није спречио по- громе против Срба после сарајевског атентата већ их је и организовао и под- стицао.
13. King, G.; Woolmans, S. (2013). The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Murder that Changed the World. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-75958-9.
14. Mitrović 2007, p. 18
15. Donia 2006, p. 125
16. Dedijer 1966, p. 328.
17. Slavko Vukčević; Branislav Kovačević (1 January 1997). Mojkovačka operacija, 1915–1916: zbornik radova sa naučnog skupa. Institut za savremenu istoriju. p. 25. ISBN 9788674030707. Retrieved 7 December 2013. У демопстрацијама у Сарајеву, које су започеле још током ноћи 28. јуна 1914, на миг шефа земаљске управе за Босну и Херцеговину – Поћорека и надбискупа Штадлера разорене су три српске штампарије, демонтиран хотел...
18. Ćorović, Vladimir; Vojislav Maksimović (1996). Crna knjiga: patnje Srba Bosne i Hercegovine za vreme Svetskog Rata 1914–1918. Udruženje ratnih dobrovoljaca 1912 – 1918. godine, njihovih potomaka i poštova. Počete su jednim proglasom gradskog zastupstva sastavljena, prema izričnom priznanju jednog od potpisnika, gradskog podnačelnika Josifa Vancaša, od vladinog komesara za grad Sarajevo u sporazumu sa drugim višim funkcionerima vlade, među kojima je bio i šef presidijala baron Kolas. (Jugoslavija, br. 129, 1919.). Poziv je bio upućen sarajevskom građanstvu i plakatiran pred veče 28. i rano u jutru 29. juna. "I ako je poticaj za ovaj đavolski zločin", pisalo je tamo, "potekao iz inozemstva – po iskazu atentatora nedvoumno je, da je bomba iz Beograda, – ipak postoji temeljita sumnja, da i u ovoj zemlji ima prevratnih elemenata. Mi osuđujemo zločin i duboko smo nesretni, da je atentat izveden u Sarajevu, čije se stanovništvo uvijek pokazivalo vjerno kralju i dinastiji, pa ja pozivam pučanstvo, da takove elemente. koji se daju na ovakove zločine, iz svoje sredine istrijebi. Bit će sveta dužnost pučanstva, da tu sramotu opere".
19. Jannen 1996, p. 10
20. Mitrović 2007, p. 19
21. Donia 2006, p. 126
22. . City of Sarajevo website. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013. Ugledni grarlanski političari i zastupnici Bosanskog sabora, dr. Jozo Sunarić, Serif Arnautović i Danilo Dimović su odmah posjetili zemaljskog poglavara Oscara Potioreka i tražili intervenciju kako bi se neredi i napadi na Srbe spriječili.
23. Letopis Matice srpske. U Srpskoj narodnoj zadružnoj štampariji. 1995. p. 479. Retrieved 7 December 2013. „У извештајима које је поднео Бечу 29. и 30. јуна 1914, генерал Поћорек вели да су 'у Сарајеву српске радње потпуно разорене' и да је 'међу пљачкашким елементима било чак и дама из бољих сарајевских слојева'.
24. Daniela Gioseffi (1993). On Prejudice: A Global Perspective. Anchor Books. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-385-46938-8. Retrieved 2 September 2013. ...Andric describes the "Sarajevo frenzy of hate" that erupted among Muslims, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox believers following the assassination on June 28, 1914, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo...
25. Bennett 1995, p. 31

    Though these pogroms were clearly incited by Habsburg authorities, it eventually took Hungarian intervention to prevent relations between Croats and Serbs within the Empire getting totally out of hand.

26. Marius Turda; Paul Weindling (January 2007). "Blood and Homeland": Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900–1940. Central European University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-963-7326-81-3. ...resembled, according to a Sarajevo newspaper, "the aftermath of the Russian pogroms...
27. Jannen 1996, p. 10

    A conservative Vienna paper reported the next day that "Sarajevo looks like the scene of a pogrom."

28. James Wycliffe Headlam (1915). The History of Twelve Days, July 24th to August 4th, 1914: Being an Account of the Negotiations Preceding the Outbreak of War Based on the Official Publications. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 18. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
29. Bernadotte Everly Schmitt (1966). The coming of the war 1914. 1. Fertig. p. 442. ...crime rested really, not with Serbia, but with those who had pushed Austria on in Bosnia and against Serbia, and that "in the... and that the "pogroms" made desirable the liberation of the Serbs and the other Slav nationalities from the German yoke.
30. Ekmečić 1973, p. 165

    Према једном руском из- вјештају, само у Сарајеву било је уништено преко хиљаду кућа и радњи. [...] "Ријеч „демонстрација" овдје нема право значење, и ту филологија не стоји у складу са реалношћу историје; назив- „погром" је адекватнији."

31. Lyon 2015, p. 22.
32. Lyon 2015, pp. 21–22.
33. Andrej Mitrović (2007). Serbia's Great War, 1914–1918. Purdue University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-55753-477-4. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
34. Joseph Ward Swain (1933). Beginning the Twentieth Century: A History of the Generation that Made the War. W.W. Norton, Incorporated.
35. John Richard Schindler (1995). A hopeless struggle: the Austro-Hungarian army and total war, 1914–1918. McMaster University. p. 50. ISBN 9780612058668. Retrieved 2 September 2013. ...anti-Serbian demonstrations in Sarajevo, Zagreb and Ragusa.
36. Zadarska revija. Narodni list. 1964. p. 567. Retrieved 7 December 2013. Iskoristili su atentat da udare u Dubrovniku i Šibeniku na Srbe i na njihovu imovinu
37. Tomasevich 2001, p. 485

    The Bosnian wartime militia (Schutzkorps), which became known for its persecution of Serbs, was overwhelmingly Muslim.

38. John R. Schindler (2007). Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa'ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad. Zenith Imprint. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-61673-964-5.
39. Velikonja 2003, p. 141
40. Herbert Kröll (28 February 2008). Austrian-Greek encounters over the centuries: history, diplomacy, politics, arts, economics. Studienverlag. p. 55. ISBN 978-3-7065-4526-6. Retrieved 1 September 2013. ...arrested and interned some 5.500 prominent Serbs and sentenced to death some 460 persons, a new Schutzkorps, an auxiliary militia, widened the anti-Serb repression.
41. Velikonja 2003, p. 141

    For the first time in their history, a significant number of Bosnia Herzegovina's inhabitants were persecuted and liquidated for their national affiliation. It was an ominous harbinger of things to come.

Sources

• Bennett, Christopher (1995). Yugoslavia's Bloody Collapse: Causes, Course and Consequences. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85065-228-1.
• Dedijer, Vladimir (1966). The Road to Sarajevo. Simon and Schuster. ASIN B0007DMDI2.
• Donia, Robert J. (2006). Sarajevo: A Biography. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-11557-0.
• Ekmečić, Milorad (1973). Ratni ciljevi Srbije 1914. Srpska književna zadruga.
• Jannen, William (1996). Lions of July: Prelude to War, 1914. Presidio. ISBN 978-0-89141-569-5. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
• Mitrović, Andrej (2007). Serbia's Great War, 1914–1918. Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-477-4. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
• Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-7924-1. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
• Velikonja, Mitja (2003). Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Texas A&M University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-58544-226-3.
• Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (15 November 2006). The Balkans: A Post-Communist History. Routledge. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-203-96911-3.
• Lyon, James (2015). Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the Great War. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-47258-005-4.

Further reading

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aftermath of the Sarajevo assassination.

• Vladimir Dedijer (1966). "Pogroms against Serbs". The Road to Sarajevo. Simon and Schuster. pp. 328, 329. Retrieved 7 December 2013.