Mass grave at Ovcara

Site of a war crime committed by members of the JNA and Serbian paramilitary units on the night of 20–21 November 1991. On that cold night more than 200 patients and members of the hospital medical staff were killed.

Exhumation from the mass grave began in September 1996 and continued for 40 days. Two hundred bodies were recovered, victims aged between 16 and 72. Around 60 persons remain missing; their fate is nevertheless considered certain. The memorial at the mass‑grave site on Ovčara was designed by Slavomir Drinković. It was unveiled on 29 December 1998 and takes the form of a grey obelisk with a plaque bearing the inscription:

“In memory of 200 wounded Croatian defenders and civilians from Vukovar Hospital who were executed in the Great Serbian aggression against the Republic of Croatia.”

Two hundred shrubs, one for each victim, were planted at the mass‑grave site to mark the location and dimensions of the burial. A memorial plaque and a cross — on which thousands of rosaries have been left — stand before the grave.