Rakovac in the Second World War

Occupation

From April 1941 the whole of Srem, Rakovac included, was placed under the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). In September 1941 residents of Rakovac and workers of the stone quarry, organised in two small combat groups, took the partisan oath at the place now marked by the Kamenolom memorial.

The quarry as an arsenal

The quarry above Rakovac became a supply source for the Fruška Gora partisans:

• 13 May 1942: a partisan company stopped work at the quarry and took 8 rifles and 550 rounds of ammunition.
• 4 June 1942: they seized 225 kg of dynamite, thousands of detonators and an electric firing device.
• 10 July 1942: they blew up a bridge on the Rakovac–Beočin road and a power pylon that supplied the quarry and the Beočin cement factory.

The August offensive of 1942

At the end of August 1942 German, Croatian and Hungarian forces, around 17,000–18,000 men according to different accounts, surrounded Fruška Gora. About 410 partisans were inside the ring. During the breakout the staff of the Srem detachments was caught at Stručica in Rakovac. Commander Đorđe Marković Đilas, commissar Stanko Paunović Veljko and the courier Zencel Hunjadi, known as “Franja”, were killed there. The Stručica memorial marks the spot. Rakovac commemorates the offensive every year on 25 August.

1943

In 1943 a partisan printing press was discovered in Rakovac Monastery. The monastery was looted and its church and bell tower were blown up. The old village was burned and many of its people were killed. In total 91 civilians from Rakovac died during the occupation.

After the war the old village was not rebuilt. A new settlement, Novi Rakovac, grew further down the valley.