The outstretched hand remembers the crime

Look at the sun over this hill, let the light remind you that there is darkness - it is written on the sides of the monument under Velji brdo in Podgorica, which was erected in memory of those "hanged one December morning in 1943, by the German occupier and local traitors" .

With a characteristic appearance, the monument is called "fork" by many, and it is located along the old road from Podgorica to Danilovgrad, which was recently reconstructed.

Several locals under Velji brdo say that in December 1943, people who were held prisoner by the Germans in the prison in Podgorica were hanged from the flags by the road.

"It is rumored that they were hanged, as a reprisal for the actions of the partisans," said one of the locals.

The names and surnames of the nine victims are written on the pedestal of the monument - Brković M. Stanko, Đurović I. Milovan, Miličković P. Boško, Miličković R. Stanoje, Perović O. Tomo, Sinanović Ć. Nikola, Šaranović Dimitrije Garo, Šaranović Milosav, Škuletić Niko.

The author is architect Milorad Mišo Vukotić, and the monument was unveiled on December 19, 1961.

As the architect Andrija Markuš, who is the author of two books on monuments, told "Vijesta", Vukotić came up with the extraordinary idea of ​​finding a place for a monument in a narrow space in an unusual way, and to unite everything symbolically.

"On the right side of the road going towards Spuž, where there were poles, that is, wooden telephone poles on which they were hung, where there was no space for a monument, he collected those poles in one place, and opposite them, on the other side of the road, built a monument from reinforced natural concrete. The monument is in the shape of a hand outstretched to the flags on the other side - indicating where the murder of innocent people took place. In this way, the space is visually connected without being disturbed by the street. In the symbolism, on one side, there is a new time, which is paid back to the other side with the monument. The long, cantilevered beam in the form of a hand gives maximum dynamics - mobility, strength and indestructibility," said Markuš.

He pointed out that "the strangeness of the monument is also in the fact that there is rarely, like here, frequent traffic through that whole, through that monument". "The presentation of the outstretched hand requires stylization, which was successfully executed except for a bit weaker in the final part - the part of the hand. Three fingers extended parallel and placed symmetrically do not sufficiently represent a hand, nor the direction to the other side of the street", says Markuš.

He said that in World War II, as a reprisal for partisan actions in 1943, the Germans committed a crime by the roadside, executing hostages from the prison in Podgorica by hanging.

"They were driven to the place of execution on open trucks. They hung them by the roadside on wooden poles - poles, which were used for the PTT - air line. On that occasion, they would put a noose around someone's neck while still on the cart, and at the same time move the cart forward to carry out the hanging, and a few meters away they would start the next hanging in the same way. For the Germans, it was a form of intimidation, that people were hanged on the side of the road, which was without any result. On the contrary, the desire for resistance and struggle grew," said Markuš.

Radio and general plans for Ulcinj and Budva

The author of the monument, architect Milorad Mišo Vukotić (1932-1978), graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade in 1957.

As stated in the literature, he possessed marvelous inspiration in all disciplines of arrangement and construction of space.

After professional training in the USA and London, he worked on the General Urban Plan of Ulcinj in 1964 and Budva in 1967, and was the leader of the "Southern Adriatic" project (1967-1970).

His project is the building of the former SDK in Podgorica, which was built posthumously in 1981, and which for a time represented the new seal of the then Titograd.