r of the country. On April 15, a German motorized division would occupy Sarajevo and capture the Yugoslav Supreme Military command in the town of Pale itself.
By April 1941 a complete surrender was signed. The short April war brought on a full dismemberment of the country. The town of Pale was incorporated into the Nazi Puppet state of Croatia.
The first of act of the newly installed puppet regime in the town of Pale was the demolition of the WWI Victim memorial as well the demolition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. All Serb enterprises were nationalized and taken over by Nazi sympathizers.
The former home to the cultural center was turned into the HQ of the local regiment of Ustashe, which would soon serve as prison and detention center. Mass deportations, executions of prominent Serbs were daily occurrences. During the summer of 1941 the first massacres occurred, the villages of Njemanici and Bjelogorica were completely destroyed and more than sixty people were murdered.
Faced with this kind of mistreatment the local populace started an armed revolt. The initial skirmishes took place in the early morning hours of August 1, 1941. The occupation forces tried to brutally suppress this revolt and during the month of August more than 75 prominent town folk were arrested and deported to death camps.
In the middle of November 1943 in a retaliatory expedition the Ustashe killed more than 100 inhabitants of the Village Rakovac. After 45 men out of that village reported to the Ustase administration for the issuance of new identification documents they were all arrested and in pairs of two chained to each other. They were transported to the Krivodole stream where they were murdered.
After they killed the men they went towards the village of Rakovac to kill the remaining women, children and the elderly. During this event they Ustashe displayed such bestiality that they came into open conflict with German troops at the nearby Alija
