Grgurevci


Grgurevci is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Sremska Mitrovica municipality, Syrmia District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 1,312 people.

Name

In Serbian, the village is known as Grgurevci, in Croatian as Grgurevci, and in Hungarian as Szentgergely. Its name derived from Serbian personal name "Grgur". The name of the village in Serbian is in the plural, and therefore it is grammatically correct to refer to it as "Grgurevci are" instead of "Grgurevci is". A hypothetical singular version of the name would be Grgurevac.

History

During World War II, the fascists executed the entire adult male population of this village. On June 6, 1942 the local Volksdeutche squads encircled the village forbidding any movements of the locals. At noon, all males of Serbian ethnicity were ordered to gather in front of the municipality house. Those who disobeyed were brought by force.
On this occasion local citizen Ranko Mišković-Dunja was severely beaten in retaliation for his two brothers being members of the resistance movement.
The group was taken on foot for a few hours to Orašje brick-clay quarry. A few boys were released for being children. Between 257 and 260 local male Serbs and a few Serb women were executed.
The testimonies mention local Germans who took part in the crime: Franja Nič, officer Reihner, Peter Weiner, Đura Herzeg, and Adam Tajbli. Weiner is also remembered for putting a clod of calx in the mouth of Svetislav Crnić after finding him still breathing among the executed bodies. After that he shot him with three hits and hit the body with his foot.

Historical population

Some of the prominent families in the village include: Ćurčić, Grabovački, Ivković, Jovešković, Lalović, Lođinović, Ostojić, Paunović, Pavlović, Perić, Petković, Popadić, Radosavljević, Ranitović, Ristić, Sanadrović, Simić, Stanković, Tejić, Udilović, Vasilić, Vesić, Vesković, Vozarević, Vuković, Zarin, etc.