Catastrophes
The
greatest Rijeka catastrophes of the 20th Century
Rijeka
tales (Tales from Rijeka and its'
environs)
Monograph 'Palach'
People from the end of the
Century
THE
GREATEST RIJEKA CATASTROPHES OF THE 20TH CENTURY
 We
will cast an exciting look behind us. This is a story of Rijeka
and Susak during the moody 20th century and the misfortunes
that chased, separated and united these two cities. The
biggest misfortunes happened in the form of earthquakes, fires,
traffic accidents and wars, but also in the form of some other
phenomena and tragic accidents that caused human victims
or material damage on a large scale. Great fires, tragedies
of ship-builders, workers' strikes drowned in blood - all
of these characterised the beginning of the century. Then
came WWI, then D'Anunnzio's Bloody Christmas in 1920 and the complete
crash of Rijeka's industry during the world's economic crisis.
After WWII, the allies' (and the German) bombing of Rijeka, a
great exodus of Rijeka's Italians, all happened between 1945 - 1952. This
period also
marked the end of the first part of this stormy century.
Post-war reparation and fast reconstruction will take their
tribute every few years, in the form of workers' suffering,
different accidents, which will however be shadowed by the
black series of unbelievable tragedies during the 70s. Namely,
in 1971 a plane crashed at Rijeka Airport and 78 were killed.
Other misfortunes followed: the fire on the ship 'August Cesarec'
when 10 people were killed, the accident of the Dutch bus
near the city of Bakar in 1974 with 7 dead and 27 seriously
wounded, and finally the fire in the maternity hospital in
Susak hospital in 1925 that took the lives of 25 babies. Although
later on other great misfortunes occurred, most victims were
taken by the Homeland War for the Croatian Independence from
1991-1995. The book ends with the latest injustice that occurred
on 26th May, 1999 at the Rijeka stadium of Kantrida where
Rijeka's football team was unjustly deprived of the title
of Croatian Football Champion, awaited for 52 years.
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