80 years ago, the Bihor massacre took place on the eve of Christmas (Bozhiq), on 6 January 1943.
The dead:
- Men: 590 killed, 185 slaughtered
- Women: 340 killed, 285 slaughtered
- Children: 701 slaughtered, 705 burned alive
The wounded:
- Men: 359
- Women: 275
Young women and girls deported to camps: 251 victims.
Total:
Within two days, more than 4,628 Albanian inhabitants were killed and massacred. Hundreds more were taken prisoner (mostly women and young girls), while over 15,000 were forced to abandon their homes and flee to safer areas.
The Bihor region was a neutral zone between the demarcation line of Albania and Montenegro, supervised by Italian civil and military authorities.
References
Azizi, Ismet. “Masakra e Bihorit në Natën e Bozhiqëve të 43-tës.” Series of articles based on Albanian archival documents. Dardania Press, 2015–2016. https://dardaniapress.net/.
Kola, Paulin. The Search for Greater Albania. London: Hurst & Company, 2003. (Discusses Chetnik actions in Sandžak and Bihor region.)
Malcolm, Noel. Kosovo: A Short History. New York: New York University Press, 1998. (Context on WWII Chetnik violence against Albanians and Muslims.)
Tomasevich, Jozo. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975. (Standard scholarly work on Chetnik operations and massacres.)
Zoronjić, Predrag. “Masakra çetnike e Bihorit në dokumente shqiptare.” In Zločini nad Bošnjacima Sandžaka u XX vijeku. Sarajevo: Institut za istraživanje zločina, 2024.
Albanian archival commission report cited in Ismet Azizi, “Masakra e Bihorit në Natën e Bozhiqëve të 43-tës,” Dardania Press, 2015.
“Gjenocidi çetnik në krahinën e Bihorit,” Wikipedia (sq), accessed April 12, 2026, https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjenocidi_%C3%A7etnik_n%C3%AB_krahin%C3%ABn_e_Bihorit.
Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), 170–172. (Describes Pavle Đurišić’s operations in the Sandžak/Bihor area.)
Paulin Kola, The Search for Greater Albania (London: Hurst, 2003), 85–87.
