Cetinje massacre

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The Cetinje massacre was a massacre of 28 citizens of Cetinje in the German occupied territory of Montenegro (modern-day Montenegro) committed by the Communist-led Yugoslav Partisans on 13 and 14 November 1944. Since June 1941 hard-line elements of the Communist Party in Montenegro perceived the uprising against the Axis occupiers as the first stage of a communist revolution, struggling against their perceived class enemies. The communist terror had turned a substantial part of population in Montenegro against the Communist-led forces.

The Partisans managed to defeat the Chetniks to gain control over the German-occupied territory of Montenegro in November 1944. Thousands of people from Montenegro, including many from Cetinje, tried to escape and retreated toward Slovenia together with Chetniks commanded by Pavle Đurišić, himself the perpetrator of multiple massacres of local Muslims. The only civilians that stayed in Cetinje in November 1944 were people who believed they had no reason to fear or hide from anybody. On 13 November 1944 the Partisans entered Cetinje and shot without any trial 28 citizens of Cetinje. The Partisans killed 14 people on both 13 and 14 November. They were all summarily executed at "New Cemetery" of Cetinje in Humci. Many of them were notable citizens like Ilija Zorić, a historian and director of Cetinje Lyceum (Gymnasium), director of the school in Cetinje with his wife, professor of physics and chemistry and his wife. The killings were not acknowledged in official historiography during the rule of the Communist Party in Yugoslavia.