Ogulin


Ogulin is a town in central Croatia, in Karlovac County. It has a population of 7,389 , and a total municipal population of 12,251. Ogulin is known for its historic stone castle, known as Kula, and the nearby mountain of Klek.

Toponymy

There are several proposed etymologies for the name of Ogulin. Firstly that the surrounding woods needed to be cleared for a better defence of the town, so Ogulin received its name because of the resulting bare area around it. There were a lot of lime-trees along the road from Ogulin towards Oštarije, and the people used to peel the bark, in order to get bass. It is suggested that Ogulin got its name from the verb to peel. Neither proposal is historically confirmed.

History

Ogulin's history dates back to the fifteenth century, when it struggled against the Ottoman Turks. The exact timing of the building of the Ogulin tower has not been established. However, a document issued by Bernardin Frankopan in his town of Modruš at around 1500 AD marked off the boundaries of new castle between Modruš and Vitunj, and this is, at the same time, the first historical mention of Ogulin. Ogulin is known for the legend of Đula who threw herself into the abyss of the River Dobra because of an unhappy love affair. In the sixteenth century, it became a military stronghold against the Ottomans.

Military Frontier

In the 16th century, Ogulin became a part of the Austrian Military Frontier, under the Ogulin Capitanate. Known captains include:
  1. Gašpar I Frankopan
  2. Hans Gall von Gallenstein
  3. Juraj IV Frankopan
  4. Jakob Gall von Gallenstein
  5. Hans Gall von Gallenstein
  6. Sigismund Kanischer/Kanižar
  7. Sigismund Gusić
  8. Hans Gall von Gallenstein
  9. Martin Gall von Gallenstein
  10. Thadialonich
  11. Vuk II Krsto Frankopan
  12. Gašpar II Frankopan
  13. Herbard X von Auersperg
  14. Petar IV Zrinski
  15. Ivan Antun Zrinski
  17. Johann Adam von Purgstall
  18. Petar de Bonazza
  19. Sigfried Seethal
  20. Petar Paval Bonaza
  21. Franjo Josip Benzoni
  22. Dillis
  23. Leopold Eugen von Scherzer
  24. Max. Gusić
  25. Anton Losy von Losenau
  26. Petzinger
  27. Barth. Pasee
  28. Casim. Mueller
  29. Georg Silly
  30. Peharnik von Hotkovich
  31. Mathias Rukavina von Bonyograd
  32. Scherz
  33. Karl von Lezzeny
  34. Johann Branovacski
  35. Ignaz Csivich von Rohr
  36. Mihajlo Ogrizović
  37. Anton Turina
  38. Georg. Rukavina von Vidovgrad
  39. Johann von Maina
  40. August von Turski
  41. Gen. Major
  42. Johann Schnekel von Trebersburg
For a brief time, between 1809 and 1813, Ogulin was a part of the Illyrian Provinces.
In August 1876, a savings bank opened in Ogulin. Its first year of investment resulted in 10,423 forint, with a minimum interest rate of 6%. The nearest savings banks were in Karlovac, Kraljevica, Senj and Bakar. The nearest commercial banks were in Zagreb. Credit unions existed in Karlovac and Jastrebarsko.

Civil Hungary

In the late 19th century, a Matica hrvatska branch opened in Ogulin, with 55 members in 1891.
Until 1918, Ogulin was part of the Austrian monarchy, in the Croatian Military Frontier. It was administered by the Oguliner Grenz-Infanterie-Regiment N°III before 1881.

WWII

During WWII, 2743 people were killed in the kotar of Ogulin, of which 1592 by Croats, 671 by Italians, 438 by Germans and 41 by Serbs.

1941

On 11 April 1941, the new NDH authorities made administrator of the kotar of Ogulin.
It was in Ogulin that Ante Pavelić gave his first speech on 13 April 1941 as he travelled to Zagreb. He was greeted by priest Ivan Mikan, who served in Ogulin from 1937 until his death in 1943, and wore a cylindrical hat for the occasion, believing the arrival of Pavelić would be solemn only to feel silly when it wasn't. Two or three hymns were sung and then Pavelić gave his speech, full of threats against the Serbs and praise for the Italians who brought him there.
In Ogulin and its environs, the early arrests in May mostly targeted JRZ members like Dragan Žagrović and Pero Piškur, as well as its sympathisers, including Joso Kušer, Laslo Havelić and Roko Kučinić. Arrests did not begin in earnest until May. Other prominent JRZ members in Ogulin at the time included Vlado Bosnić, Đuro Tatalović and Stevan Čurčić.
On 8 May 1941, an article titled "Order and work in Ogulin" was published in , describing the taking down of various signs put in place by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in place of which Croatian flags were placed. It described the process of "cleansing" Ogulin of Serbs loyal to the House of Karađorđević.
On 3 June, an Ustaša ralley with over 12,000 in attendance was held at Ogulin. Priest Mikan presided over the mass, followed by a speech from.
On 9 June, Lovro Sušić, by that time Minister of People's Economy, wrote to in Hrvatski narod, "We don't want a bloody cleansing," but "the Serbs must move".
On 30 June and 16 July, lists of Serbian and Jewish workers on the territory of the Ogulin kotar who had not achieved the right to a pension were made. From these lists, it is apparent that state workers of Serb ethnicity numbered 144 at the time, the largest portion of which worked in the railway industry, and the remainder in schools, the kotar court, the kotar itself, the općina, or the forestry service.
On 1 July, Pavelić founded the with its seat in Ogulin, by merging Ogulin with Slunj, Vrbovsko and Delnice.
In late June or early July, a Serbian Orthodox priest in Ogulin was arrested. In early July, he had not yet been sent away. As of a 15 July document, all he had been sent to a concentration camp.
A 2 July order was made for all Velike župe, including that of Modruš, to make room for 2500 Slovenes each, who were to occupy the homes of 2500 Serbs, to be deported to the GMS, prioritising businessmen and merchants. Ogulin itself was to accommodate 300 Slovenes. As of mid-July, there were not enough empty Serb homes to accommodate the exchange.
A new wave of arrests began in July. On 5 July, Dušan Ivošević was arrested and the court in Zagreb sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment for saying the murder of Josip Mravunac that preceded the Blagaj massacre was perpetrated by the Ustaše and not the Četnici, as had been formally announced to the public. On 8 July, he was placed in detention in Ogulin, and shortly after that 27 KPJ members, of which 25 were Croats, were arrested in Ogulin.
Around July 8, the Ogulin kotar began the process of deporting the families to the Sisak concentration camp on a list of 55 people marked for moving to make room for Slovene arrivals, from Jasenak, Josipdol, Munjava, Trojvrh and Vajin Vrh. The deportations were never carried out thanks to Pavelić interrupting the process, but thanks to the mass arrests scaring the Serbs off, none of the attempted arrests in this area succeeded, since none of the named could be found at their house. So great was the fear that women would flee at the sound of a suspicious car. So the kotarski predstojnik of Ogulin proposed to wait 8 to 10 days until the atmosphere was calmer. Pavelić himself stopped the process, so that deportations of Serbs from the NDH became rare after August 25, and they were entirely stopped on 22 September, thanks to the military implications for the Wehrmacht of the Drvar uprising.
On 30 July, many Serbs from Ogulin and the surrounding villages were arrested at the market in Ogulin, having come there to sell. Beginning with the next market on 6 August, the Serbs stopped coming out of fear that it would happen a third time, the first having been in May. The second uncle of Milka Bunjevac, a Vučinić with a prominent job at the railway station, was to be arrested that day, but he was warned by an Ustaša that he should flee "wherever he knows" because that night he would be arrested. Vučinić then boarded a train from Ogulin to Gomirje, arriving at his sister's house around midnight and then fleeing to the GMS two or three days later.
In August 1941, the Minister of Sport and Mountaineering of the NDH, Miško Zebić, named Oskar Vičević as the state povjerenik of the HPD "Klek", and designated as the chapter's advisory board: Mijo Hačko, Ivan Stipetić, Zvonko Pohorčić, Štefica Abramović, Pero Špehar, Mirko Kolić. The HPD "Klek" was renamed Hrvatsko planinarsko društvo u Ogulinu in March 1942.

1942

At 17:00 on 10 June, 3 Ogulin residents, Joso Jurašić, Ivan Oskoruš and Ivica Miškulin, were cutting wood on the Čokolka hill near Ogulin when they encountered 4 Partisans in civilian uniform but Partisan caps, who commanded them to raise their hands in the air, asking them if they were Ustaše. When they replied that they weren't, they told Jurašić to come with them because he had been an Ustaša earlier, letting the other two go.
On the 13th, Partisans confiscated 18 head of large and 22 of small livestock from a meadow in the immediate vicinity of Ogulin.
During the Battle of Tržić on 19–23 June 1942, the Domobran commander Ivan Stipac was wounded in the leg and captured by Partisans of the, who took him to Tobolić.
At 10:00 on 24 June, a group of 150 Italian soldiers armed with rifles and machine guns entered the forest on Kobiljak hill to cut firewood, but were attacked by Partisans. A battle ensued, in which 4 Italians and 5 of their donkeys were killed, 6 were wounded, 20 captured and 20 captured but released completely naked. One Partisan was killed and one captured and taken to Ogulin for questioning.
When the German and Italian Zones of Influence were revised on 24 June 1942, Ogulin fell in, administered civilly by Croatia but militarily by Italy.
On 2–3 July, the Italian garrison in Ogulin repelled a Partisan attack on Ogulin itself, following which the Partisans retreated to Klek.
On 14 September, Italian troops began taking away to Italy certain individuals in Ogulin with family members in the rebellion.
At 3:00 on the 17th, a group of about 250 Partisans attacked the village of Boršt, repelled by the Domobrani stationed in the village without losses.