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I'll do to you what Hitler did to us Jews!

Date & Time 2024-09-01
Location Grabarska, Croatia
Reported by Anonymous
Coordinates 45.144375521385, 15.765775690561
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 22 - 40
Group size 3
Countries of origin Syria
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 4
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, pushing people to the ground, insulting, water immersion, threatening with guns, forcing to undress, destruction of personal belongings, burning with cigarettes , forced into a fire
Police involved 2 Croatian police officers in civilian clothes. 2 Interventna Police (EPZ) with black ski masks, brass knuckles and steel-toed boots.

This testimony was written by the respondent himself with the guidance of a trained volunteer. 

My name is A. I am 31 years old and from Syria. My friends are also from Syria. One of them is 22, the one who went to Croatia today, and the second is almost 40 years old and is still here.

The first people who caught us at the bus station were 2 people dressed in civilian clothes, but when we went to the police station they wore the police uniform. At the police station, they handed us over to two masked men. When they took us to the police station, in my bag there were about 300 euros, my certificates, phone, a power bank, and many special items. They said ‘Don’t worry we’ll take you to Zagreb, relax and don’t worry.’ They took us to prison for a quarter of an hour. While we were waiting, my friend and I asked if we could smoke cigarettes. They answered, “Yes, no problem, smoke but give us back the lighters“. While we were smoking the door opened and two masked men came in, they started beating us and said “Why do you smoke? Give us the lighters. We don’t want you to smoke. You’re just dogs here.”

After these two they took us into the police car. We didn’t know where we were going. We were driven in the car for about an hour and they took us into the forest. The car stopped and they got off just 10 minutes later. At first, we were told we needed to get out one by one. They took me first, I got out of the car and they started beating me, each one of them took a stick and began to hit me on the head, on the back, on my feet and hands, until I passed out. When I woke up, my two friends were beside me screaming and begging them to stop.

Then they told us not to look, to stay on the ground, and started beating again. They went on for about an hour until there was blood on my back and the bodies of my comrades. And they said, “Go to the Middle East. We don’t want you. We are Jews. We don’t want Islam!”
I told him there was no difference between Jews, Islam, or Christians. The only difference is in treatment here. We are all brothers. He said, “You’re not coming here, for God’s sake. Do you like girls?” I told him yes, but that I didn’t come here for the girls. I came here to look for a job.

He started hitting me again with the stick. They broke almost 10 sticks on my body and that of my friends. Then they told us to take off all our clothes, we were in our underwear, and then they started beating us again. Then they sat down and rested a little, he lit some cigarettes and put them on my feet. He rested for five minutes, and then they came back and started beating us again, putting the cigarettes in our mouths “You’re all animals and should eat these cigarettes!”

One of my friends doesn’t understand English. This masked man said to him “After this beating, will you go back to Croatia?” My friend thought he asked him if he wanted to go back to his country and said “Yes, I want to, yes.” When he said yes, they told him to get up and spread his legs and started hitting him on the pubis with a stick and kicking him.

They told us that they wanted to kill us, and then they also beat my friend for about ten minutes during this time they beat all of us until one of them pointed the gun at my friend’s head/ temple saying “I’d kill you, don’t you dare come back to Croatia again.”

They told my friend “We don’t want him to come back here“, and he didn’t understand English so he kept saying “Yes, please!” the only words he knew. Then he was hit in the private parts with big boots while lying on the ground with open legs. He passed out and then they kept beating us.

In the beginning, they took our clothes, shoes, and everything important we had with us and burned them. When our other friend recovered, they put him on the fire that they had lit, and he was screaming in extreme pain, asking to be taken off the fire. They answered that animals must be burned on a fire, and they said “I’ll do to you what Hitler did to us Jews“.

It must have lasted about an hour and a half. Then they pulled us out one by one from the car and threw us into the river, one after another.

They told us to go to Bosnia and never come back here (to Croatia) or they will kill us. When they threw us into the river, one of our friends said “I can’t swim“. He replied, “Don’t worry, you will go to God in peace even if you can’t swim“. Then we swam to the other side and ran into the forest to escape their eyes.

Yesterday at the hospital, after the tests, they told us that I have fractured ribs, and the joints of the foot and hands need treatment. About 10 days rest. I shouldn’t sleep on my back.