The Surdulica massacre was the mass murder of Serbian men by Bulgarian occupational authorities in the southern Serbian town of Surdulica in 1916 and early 1917, during World War I. Members of the Serbian intelligentsia in the region, mostly functionaries, teachers, priests and former soldiers, were detained by Bulgarian forces—ostensibly so that they could be deported to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia—before being taken into the forests around Surdulica and killed. An estimated 2,000–4,000 Serbian men were executed by the Bulgarians in the town and its surroundings. Witnesses to the massacre were interviewed by American writer William A. Drayton in December 1918 and January 1919.
The remains of those killed in the massacre exhumed in 1926.
Corpses exhumed in Duboka Dolina
Remains of seven civilians shot in Vranje
Skeleton from Duboka Dolina
Surdulica is a town and municipality located in the Pčinja District of southern Serbia. As of 2011, the population of the town is around 10,000, while the municipality has 20,319 inhabitants.
Image: Centar Surdulice 2
Image: Vlasina lake
Image: Surdulica park
Image: Средиште Сурдулице Centre of Surdulica