Today, July 18th, we remember one of the saddest and most horrific stories from the dark days of Split – the death of Sonja Bučan, a young mother, music teacher, and anti-fascist, brutally hanged by Ustasha forces in the middle of the street. Sonja was only 23 years old when she was tortured and hanged by Ustasha executioners, leaving an indelible mark of pain in the collective memory of the city.
Sonja was a blonde with golden curls, a child who grew up in Split and later studied in Zagreb, where she graduated from the music conservatory. She became a music teacher and devoted herself to the partisan movement, tirelessly working in the anti-fascist women’s organization. Her courage and dedication to freedom could not be erased even in the darkest times.
However, evil had its plans. Sonja was arrested on the street, tortured in prison, and then hanged along with three other partisans on electric poles. Her body was covered with bloody marks of torture, and her face, though dead, bore a victorious smile – as if in her last moment she wanted to express all the goodness of her soul.
This crime was not just an act of savagery but a deliberate reprisal by the Ustasha regime, which promised to hang twenty citizens for every Ustasha killed. Behind it stood the moral and actual culprits – clerics and the regime that supported this terror.
Sonja’s story is a story of injustice, of evil that shook Split and left a scar that will not fade. Her death is a warning that evil must not be forgotten, it must be condemned, and we must fight for justice and freedom.
If this story stirs your emotions, angers or moves you, share your thoughts. Who knows, maybe your word will be the voice that reminds the world of Sonja and all those who gave their lives for freedom.
