On 16 March , Luburić convened a meeting of over 1,000 Ustaše political and military figures , and in the presence of senior German officials , issued a declaration denouncing Bolshevism , the Yalta Conference , and the new communist government in Belgrade . On 21 March , the Ustaše uncovered a plot to assassinate Luburić . His would-be assassin was a communist youth named Halid Nazečić , who was betrayed by one of his accomplices . Four Ustaše were subsequently killed in Partisan attacks within the city . On the night of 27 – 28 March , the Ustaše hanged fifty-five Sarajevans from trees and street lamps in Sarajevo 's Marindvor neighbourhood . Signs bearing the phrase , " Long live the '' Poglavnik '' ! " were placed around their necks . Their bodies were left to hang as an example to others . Those attempting to retrieve the bodies were fired upon . On 4 April , Luburić and his entourage left Sarajevo . About 350 Ustaše policemen and 400 Ustaše soldiers stayed behind to defend the city . Luburić 's reign of terror in Sarajevo claimed 323 lives , according to a post-war war crimes commission . Several hundred others were deported to concentration camps . The Partisans entered Sarajevo on 6 April and proclaimed its liberation . The city 's capture coincided with the fourth anniversary of the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia . The exhumumation of bodies from the backyard of Luburić 's villa , many of which belonged to children , was documented by a Soviet film crew . Another witness to the aftermath of Luburić 's crimes was the American journalist Landrum Bolling , who recalled seeing a roomful of bodies " stacked like cordwood on top of one another . " Many of the cadavers showed signs of torture and mutilation . Among the corpses was that of Halid Nazečić , whose head had been mutilated , eyes gouged out and genitals burned with boiling water
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Vjekoslav Luburić