politics
April 1, 2026
Let's Preserve the History of Pusta Reka and Bojnik
This year again, residents of Bojnik and Pusta Reka visited the Memorial Cemetery of those shot on February 17, 1942, and laid wreaths and flowers. It was the darkest day in the history of Bojnik and Pusta Reka. Bojnik was set on fire that day and its inhabitants were shot. More than 500 people were killed, mostly women, children, and the elderly. Only ten people survived this massacre, mostly children under 10 years old. This was a unique case of Bulgarian occupiers in Serbia applying collective punishment to civilians for threatening losses in the fight against the resistance movement - the Partisans. The settlement was burned to the ground, only Vaso Marjanović's mill was spared, perhaps because it offered them excellent protection from partisan small arms.
TL;DR
- Residents commemorated the victims of the 1942 massacre in Bojnik, where over 500 civilians were executed by Bulgarian occupiers.
- The massacre involved burning the settlement and executing inhabitants as collective punishment against the partisan resistance.
- Despite the tragedy, the event ignited further resistance, leading to the formation of new military brigades and strategic connections with Allied forces.
- A proposal has been made to establish a museum collection in Bojnik to preserve the history of the region and the events of the 19th and 20th centuries.
- The proposed museum aims to prevent the past from being forgotten, acknowledging that many historical details remain unrecorded.
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