Španovica

The village of Španovica (pronounced Shpanovitza) was established in 1865 on the main road Pakrac to Požega, South of the Papuk mountain in western Slavonia, Croatia.

Inhabited mostly by immigrants from Gorski Kotar, the town got its name "Španovica" from the title of earl's superintendent - “Span”. According to the 1931 census, Spanovica was populated by 1,300 people (about 297 households), mostly Croatian.

On 5th and 6th of October 1942, Spanovica was attacked by Communist Partisan forces with the support of the Serb population of the surrounding villages. This attack was justified by the existence of an Ustashi camp in Spanovica, whose members mainly came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and had committed a number of exactions against the local Serb population.

Spanovica’s inhabitants were accused of being “state enemies”.

About 140 persons, including women, children and elderly lost their lives during these 2 days, the remaining population being expelled. The entire settlement was burnt to ashes during the period from 1942 to 1946, including the church and graveyard, all properties were confiscated and this marked the end of the specific cultural, linguistic and ethnical identity of this place.

Spanovica was renamed Novo Selo in 1948, a limited number of the houses were rebuilt and a Serb population settled. During the 50 following years, only bushes successfully rose on the ruins of what use to be a town, and the remaining people of Spanovica were forbidden to ever come to the town.

In 1991, with the declaration of independence of the Republic of Croatia from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a new conflict started opposing the Croatian Territorial Defense and Police Forces to the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) supported by Serbian Para-military forces. The region of Pakrac and Papuk Mountain were, once again, the location of harsh fights and violence. Controlled by “Serb” forces between the end of 1991 and mid-1995, and subsequently cleaned of its “Croat” population, the region of Western Slavonia (named as such by the UN forces sent to separate the belligerents) was liberated by the Croatian army in May 1995 Operation Flash ("Bljesak"). In August 1995, a second operation of the Croatian Army, named Operation Storm ("Oluja", ended with the liberation of the occupied regions of Krajina and Lika (towns of Knin, Gračac, Slunj, Glina, Petrinja). Almost all Serb populations of these areas, as well as the Serb guerrillas that had remained active in the Slavonian Mountains, fled to Serbia and the Serb controlled part of Bosnia Herzegovina.

The successive ethnic cleansings of 1991- 1995 were a replay of what had happened in the region during Second World War, Spanovica being an illustrative case of the hates and bloodsheds that had taken place in the Balkans during the 20th Century.While renamed symbolically Spanovica in December 1991, the town stayed empty until today.

Some Serb inhabitants, mainly elderly, who lived there after 1946-1947, have come back with the support of the International Community. The original Croat population was finally authorized to bring back to light the memory of Spanovica after 50 years, but the descendants of those slaughtered, killed or expelled, all those families deprived of their properties after the Second World War have not yet got back what once belonged to them despite the promises of the Croatian Government. For the time being, the graveyard of Spanovica is the only place where descendants are coming back. It is also the place where two monuments have been built. One is engraved with the names of 398 people from Spanovica who were killed or disappeared during and after the Second World War. More than 2/3 of them were civilians, and all of them were Croats. The second monument is a mass grave for 70 inhabitants of Spanovica, civilians found on the place of killing after the partisan’s attack on 5th and 6th of October 1942. The bodies of 41 men that were taken in to the forest and executed there were never found.

The town of Spanovica with all households, its local economy and “bourgeois” living style definitely died in 1942.