The Ustashas arrested and sent only JANKO RAUSAVLJEVIĆ and LAZO RAKIĆ to the camp in Slana. They were arrested by MARTIN RUDELC, server in Pag’s post office, from Brušan (near Gospić) on the 7th of August 1941 “without any reason” - as JOSIP FELICINOVIĆ stated in his “Personal memories”.
Janko Rausavljević was a controller of financial audit in Pag. He and Lazo Rakić were Orthodox Serbs. Obviously, that was their main “offence” and only reason why they got to the camp in Slana.
– I called honored district-prefect Frković in Gospić and told him that those two servants (Rausaljević i Rakić, author’s note) were quiet, decent men, married to Croatian women and that I guarantee for them with my own life - wrote down priest Josip Felicinović in his “Personal memories”.
They were really saved from the camp in Slana by Josip Felicinović as it was confirmed in writing by Janko Rausavljević, told us NIKOLA BISTRIČIĆ, president of Committee for nourishment of NOB SUBNOR tradition in Pag.
However, NIKOLA BISTRIČIĆ also told us all the Orthodox inhabitants of the island of Pag were forced to embrace Roman Catholic religion as their own right after the Ustashas gained control. Amongst them were Janko Rausavljević, Lazo Rakić, NIKOLA NOŽINIĆ (district judge in Pag during that time) and ČEŠLJAROVIĆ (chief of tax administration at that time). They were rechristened by Josip Felicinović, which he didn’t stated in his “Personal memories”, of course, out of understandable reasons - said Nikola Bistričić.
While speaking of “great district-prefect Frković in Gospić”, it is important to say this representative of Ustashian government got mentioned in statement made on the 22nd of March 1945 by TOMISLAV DOMINIS, member of the District Committee for War Criminals in Zadar, in relation to taking and killing people from Tribnje (Šibuljine) - near Starigrad under Velebit. Tomislav Dominis wrote the following:
– Already on the 23rd of April 1941, four villagers (DUŠAN MARINKOVIĆ, his son PILIP, ISE ŠTRBE and MILE LUKIĆ) were transported to Gospić according to the made order by JURICA FRKOVIĆ, who came that day from Gospia by car. First three were killed and thrown in the pit “Jadovno” at the beginning of the June 1941.
– Sixty eight persons were arrested and tortured (hunger, thirst and beating) for a few days in local church in Tribnje during the August of 1941. They were transported later to the island of Pag where they were killed.
Novalja before the beginning of the last war. Thirty inhabitants of Novalja were on the list which contained names of future captivates in Slana during 1941. They were arrested by ANTO KUNKER, a scout for Novalja district. Fortunately, imprisoned inhabitants of Novalja spent only one day in the prison and escaped a scythe of death in the camp Slana.
Except for Janko Rausaljević and Lazo Rakić who were arrested by the Ustashas on Pag, other inhabitants of Pag were also at constant threat of being arrested and transported to the camp in Slana. Mostly persons who were suspicious to the Ustashas or who had some information, and also for those who were communistically oriented or weren’t supportive of an Ustashian government. Therefore, they made lists with the names of those who were “suspicious”, but - thanks to the demolition of the camp in Slana or some other occasions - they didn’t achieve their intentions. Amongst the first Croats from Pag who were meant to be arrested was ANTE ZEMLJAR. Furthermore, the Ustashas meant to arrest family of VINKO RUŽIĆ, chief of Pag’s Solana (including his son OREN who was one of the organizations of NOP on the island of Pag). Facts regarding this intention were recorder by Josip Felcinović in his “Memories”. The reason for the arrestment was the allegation made by Ivan Devčić “Pivac”, chief of the camp in Slana, who said that they “were seemingly sabotaging Croatian country in Solana”. Josip Felcinović also stated out in his “Memories” that he informed family Ružić before the Ustashas came to arrest them, so they managed to hide in time. The Ustashas also meant to arrest wife of doctor TOMO DODOJA since she was Jewish. However, as Josip Felicinović said, he managed to reassure Ustashian authorities by saying their child was being raised by Benedictine nuns in Pag, which made them to cancel the arrest.
The remains of barracks in the center of former camp in Slana. The photograph was taken in June this year.
Ustashian authorities in Novalja not only made lists of those who they meant to send in the cap in Slana, but also did the arresting. Testimony of ANTE TOLJANIĆ, who was a parson in Novalja while camp in Slana existed, confirmed these happenings. He was living in Vrbnik in the time he gave his testimony on the 7th of January 1946 in front of the IVAN KUMBATOVIĆ, a delegate of District war crimes of Croatian Littoral Committee. He said the following regarding the arrest of Novaljac:
“I can say only this - leader of district Kunkera (Ante, author’s note) ordered to arrest thirty people in Novalja who he thought were communists or Yugoslavia-orientated and deserved to die in that camp (Slana, author’s note), and if I hadn’t defend them and made possible for them to be free the next day which all of them could testify.”
It is well known that the Ustashas were robbing their victims relentlessly. The first robbing was during the arrest. The Ustashas were firstly, of course, ravening for gold pieces, and afterwards for money and everything that had some value. During the imprisonment, the Ustashas were showing themselves not only as criminals but also as plane robbers. The second robbery would take place during the transportation and getting in hands of other criminals. In the end, during the registration, in other words, during the entrance in death, the internees were left without anything which had any material value.
However, the detainees managed to hide some valuable stuff or money, hoping to use them in some opportunity, but the opportunity to convert something valuable in to something that is much more needed was almost nonexistent.
What to do, for example, with the money in a situation when it loses its value, but to destroy it - just in order to prevent enemies of getting it.
– It was summer 1941 and the Ustashian camp was already in Slana. One night, I think it was in July, we pulled fishing net in lagoon Slana. BLAŽ MARIČEVIĆ and JOSIP MARIČEVIĆ, owner of the fishing net and the boat “Kumanovo” which we used for the fishing, were with me. We were in hurry to pull out the fishing net as quickly as possible, since Ustashian guards were randomly shooting from nearby hills in order to intimidate the detainees and stop them from escaping. when we pulled the fishing net out of the sea, we saw among fish a few packages of rolled 1000 bills of old Yugoslavian dinar. They were, as we understood it, thrown away by the detainees in order to prevent the Ustashas to lay their hands on it. The bills were in the sea for days for sure since they were decomposing - told ANTE FABIJANIĆ, named “Jurica”, born in 1919, who was an active part of NOB from 1943. Today he is a retired captain and a member of SUBNOR District Committee in Pag. He told us this story while we were on his boat on the 22nd of June 1985, going to Slana in order to perambulate the former Ustashian camp.