“Women and children were hiding uphill in the house of Ugrenović family, where the Švabe village is. This happened on February 15, 1944. I was going out of the forest and looking at the houses down in the village from the hill…the Ustashas besieged the houses, accompanied by the Muslims from Orahova. They ran down the forest, trying to escape, when they started shooting from one hill to another, right across me. The branches were cracking, cannonballs flying. I hid in a pitch, under some bushes. There was still snow. And the Ustashas were going, jumping over me. One of them was saying – God damn, she hid here somewhere! The other one was saying – Look for her, she must be there! You could hear the children and women. They besieged the Ugrenović house, caught all the women and children…took them away….I was still lying there. I was peeking at the Ustashas and I saw them taking my sister Duša. They took her away…and I stayed there lying. It got quiet…I went there when the night came. I passed by the cemetery and approached that house. I saw dogs digging something out, Stojan Ružičić was buried there, but the grave was shallow. He was killed earlier, and the women buried him shallow. And Stojan looked as if he was alive! I was not afraid of seeing Stojan’s body! I approached the house. You could not hear a thing. And there used to be so much laughter, you could hear it from a mile away. Dead silence now. I came closer and saw a light. And I stood still. Should I stay or go. I was afraid. I was just looking over my shoulder if the Ustashas would get me behind my back. But I got the courage eventually! A small dog was barking. I heard cries in the house, woman’s voice. I put a stump under the window and climbed to see. I saw Gospava, wife of Mihajlo Galonja, and Ruža Obućina. I got into the house and asked where everyone where. And Gospava told me they took all of them away and killed down in Šiminaš. That was when they killed Stojka Milanović, Petra Batajić and her daughter, Persa Zmijanjac and her three children, Milja Trivić and her two children, all slaughtered and set on fire. And the smell of human flesh burning…that is awful! It was all done with the help of people from Orahova, they brought the Ustashas, cut throats and burnt everything down. Orahova produced nine hundred Ustasha”.

A Book of Memories, Donja Gradina 2019, 46.