WHERE AND WHEN WAS PRIEST BOGDAN LALIĆ KILLED?

Abstract

In the literature so far, it has been stated that a Sarajevo priest, archpriest Bogdan Lalich was arrested on June 15, 1941, transported to a camp in Gospich, and then on July 12, 1941, killed on Velebit and thrown into Sharan’s pit. On the memorial plaque located above Sharan’s pit on Velebit, among the names of Serbian priests who were killed and thrown into that pit is the name of the expulsion Bogdan Lalich. However, with a comprehensive analysis of all currently available documents about his suffering, especially the statement of Smiljana Krshich of June 30, 1945 and the Decision on the Determination of the Crime of War Criminal Drago Jilek, of September 25, 1947, it can be stated with a great deal of certainty that the priest Bogdan Lalic was not taken to the camp in Gospich, nor was he killed on Velebit and thrown into the Sharan’s pit. From these two documents it is clear that archpriest Bogdan Lalich was arrested on June 23, 1941 by the ustashe police in Sarajevo and imprisoned, along with about 300 other Sarajevo Serbs arrested at the time, in the ustasha prison located in the building of the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Sarajevo. He remained in that prison until July 22 of that year, when he was taken to the hospital together with Professor Jovan Krshich, on the intervention of prison doctor Muhamed Kundurovich. They remained in the hospital until July 24, when the ustashe came for them again and took them to the prison in the seminary building. That same evening, Bogdan Lalich, Professor Krshich, Petko Dozich, brother of the Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo, and a certain Chengich from Visegrad, were taken by the ustashe in the direction of Ilijash, where they were killed at one of the ustasha execution sites.