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On April 24, 1945, 43 Sinti and Roma men, women, and children were murdered in the Harastina Massacre. The group was made up 12 families who had fled from Germany and Austria. They were part of a traveling circus called Braca Winter which stopped in Kraj Donji on their way to Slovenia.

Following a performance for local children and Ustasha soldiers, the artists were arrested and transported to the local Ustasha base. The artists were then transported to a nearby abandoned barn in Hrastina where they were raped, tortured, and burned in the barn.

The massacre was one of the largest Ustasha crimes against the Roma in the Independent State of Croatia and perhaps the last mass crime against the Roma and Sinti in Europe during the Second World War.

The perpetuators of the crime were soldiers from the 1st Ustasha Defense Association (the "Luburićevci")under the under the command of Lieutenant Josip Kušan.