The Axis-side of the story ... (Serbia's struggle)

[Balkaneros]

Just before the outbreak of the Second World war, the Serbian-led government of Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) had become more pro-Axis. Under young King Petar and his uncle Prince Regent Pavle, Yugoslavia moved steadily away from France and towards Germany after the death of King Aleksandar, who was assassinated by Croatian terrorists in 1934. As early as February 1936, in the moments of growing animosity between Serbia and Croatia, Adolf Hitler promised to support the Yugoslav government of the Prime Minister Milan Stojadinovic. In 1937, Milan Stojadinovic - who was a staunch Serb nationalist - had visited Mussolini in Italy. Some say that Mussolini aroused his enthusiasm for Fascism, and vice-versa thus Stojadinovic formed the squad of the "Green Shirts" for his party ('Yugoslav Radical Association', later 'Serbian Radical Party') and adopted the Aryan right-hand salute.

Milan Stojadinovic





Serbians rally behind Stojadinovic














Stojadinovic with Mussolini










Milan Stojadinovic arriving in Rome, after accepting an direct-invitation from Benito Mussolini

Milan Stojadinovic standing with Benito Mussolini
in Rome, in front of a large-audience






Milan Stojadinovic walking with Hermann Goring in Berlin

Throughout the interwar years, Yugoslavia had attempted to build diplomatic links to many non-Axis countries such as France and Czechoslovakia. After 1933, it developed close ties through the Balkan Entente with Greece and Romania. However, during the late 1930s it was Hitler's Germany that was Yugoslavia's closest economic partner. Following the German annexation of Austria in 1938, the Yugoslav government on one hand tried to maintain a position of independence, while being increasingly pressured to ally itself more closely with Germany. Thus, Yugoslavia joined the Axis on March 24th, 1941, when it signed the Tripartite Pact in Vienna - an act which sparked off demonstrations (in Belgrade) secretly organised by the British secret service. After the signing of the Pact, Dragisa Cvetkovic assured Hitler that Yugoslavia "would be ready to maintain its position of independence and cooperate with the German Reich."

Prince Pavle Karadjordjevic arriving in Berlin after accepting an official invitation from Adolf Hitler








Prince Pavle Karadjordjevic touring Berlin with Adolf Hitler

However, the Yugoslav Army soon overthrew the government of Prince Pavle and Dragisa Cvetkovic, and vowed to resist the Axis. It was an event which triggered the German invasion of April 1941. On March 26, 1941 two Yugoslav Army generals - Dusan Simovic and Bora Mirkovic - led a MI6-assisted putsch against the Cvetkovic's government. General Simovic was shortly after named as new Prime Minister. Hitler thought it was betrayal and decided to punish disloyal Yugoslavia. Germany and its allies (Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria) invaded the country on April 6-7th, 1941. On 6th of April, Goebbels read the Order of the Day to the German Army of the East, in the name of the Fuhrer: "Soldiers of the Southeast Front - Since early this morning the German people are at war with the Belgrade Government of intrigue. We shall only lay down arms when this band of ruffians has been definitely and most emphatically eliminated, and the last Briton has left this part of the European Continent. These misled people realize that they must thank Britain for this situation, they must thank England, the greatest warmonger of all time. The German people can enter into this new struggle with the inner satisfaction that its leaders have done everything to bring about a peaceful settlement. [...] At this point the criminal usurpers of the new Belgrade Government took the power of the State unto themselves, which is a result of being in the pay of Churchill and Britain. As in the case of Poland, this new Belgrade Government has mobilized decrepit and old people into their inner Cabinet. Under these circumstances I was forced immediately to recall the German national colony within Yugoslav territory. [...] In addition, Yugoslavia for weeks has planned a general mobilization of its army in great secrecy. This is the answer to my eight-year-long effort to bring about closer co-operation and friendship with the Yugoslav people, a task that I have pursued most fastidiously."
After little resistance, the Germans captured the Serbian capital by April 12th - after first subjecting it to a massive air raid. The royal Yugoslav army fell to pieces, and by April 14th, the King and the new government had fled to Athens.

The German invasion.

In April 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded and then disgracefully dismantled by Germany and it's allies. Province of Kosovo and Western Macedonia were put under Albanian control, Montenegro became an Italian protectorate, Hungary took control over some parts of Vojvodina (Northern Serbian province), Bulgaria took the rest of Macedonia and Ustashi Croatia annexed some Western Serbian provinces like Slavonia, West Srem, Kordun, Bania, Lika, etc.



On April 30th, 1941, the Germans formed a provisional Serbian government under the leadership of Milan Acimovic, a former Yugoslav Minister of the Interior. Near normality existed until the German conflict with the USSR. The subsequent terrorist actions of the communist gangs of "partisans" caused the Germans to worry that law and order would collapse in a critical strategic area. On August 29th, General Milan Nedic, a Serb WW1 vet and former Yugoslav Minister of War, was made President of a new Government of National Salvation. He tried to avoid this function but the Germans threatened that "their only alternative would be to bring in the Serbian opponents (i.e. Croats, Bulgarians, and Hungarians) to keep law and order". Good old General Nedic was well aware of the atrocities already committed by the Croat Ustashis and Bulgarians and was genuinely concerned that the Serbs might be exterminated. He asked for a force of 50,000 German soldiers to help him keep the peace, but he was forced to rely on units of Serb volunteers. Thus, Nedic assisted the formation of Serbian State Guard (SDS) and Serbian Volunteer Corps (SDK). Some say that recruiting advertisements for the SDS specified that "applicants must have no Jewish or gypsy blood."

Speaking of Jews, the government of General Nedic shortly afterwards organised the famous "Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition". The exhibition was opened on 22nd October 1941 in Belgrade and the central theme was the Jewish-Communist-Masonic plot for world domination. Besides the exhibits at the exhibition, a great amount of propaganda material was prepared: over 100 thousand various brochures, about 60 thousand posters, 100 thousand flyers, 108 thousand samples of 9 different types of envelopes, over 100 movie clips, four different postage stamps (left) etc. Organisers of Exhibition proudly announced: "This concept of exhibition will be unique not only in Serbia and the Balkans, not only in Europe, but in the world."


Nationalist newspapers such as "Obnova" ("Renewal") and "Nasa Borba" ("Our Struggle") praised this exhibit, explaining that the Jews were the ancient enemies of the Serbian people and that Serbs should not wait for the Germans to liberate them from the vicious influence of the Jews. A few months later, Serbian authorities issued postage stamps commemorating the opening of this very popular exhibit. These stamps, which juxtaposed Serbian national symbols portrayed Judaism as the source of the world evil.

As a result, in August 1942, Dr. Harald Turner (the chief of the German civil administration in Serbia) announced that Serbia was the only country in which the "Jewish question" was solved and that Belgrade was the "first city of a New Europe to be Judenfrei." Turner himself attributed this success to Serbian help. The fight against destructive Jewish influence had actually started six months before the German invasion when the government of Serbia issued legislation restricting Jewish participation in the economy and university enrolment.



As for the the Jews in the past, during four centuries Balkans have been ruled by the Ottoman Empire. In Serbia, Serb population suffered whilst Jewish communities had enjoyed all religious tolerance, internal autonomy, and equality before the Turkish occupational law. This ended with the breakup of the Turkish Empire and the renewal of the Serbian independnce. Soon after a Serbian rebellion against Turkish rule (1804), Jews were expelled from the interior of Serbia and prohibited from residing outside of Belgrade. In 1856 and 1861, Jews were further prohibited from travel for the purpose of trade and domicile.



Regarding relationship between Serbian governerment and Germany, it should be mention that General Milan Nedic officially visited Adolf Hitler on September 19th 1943. He told German Fuhrer that he should not regard Serbian people and renegade communist gangs as identical. He informed Hitler that thousands of Serb patriots are voluntarily fighting to protect their country from the Red terrorists and Hitler showed his understanding and credit.

Milan Nedic meeting with Adolf Hitler in 1943




Milan Nedic addressing the Serbian People










Milan Nedic meeting with young volunteer members of ZBOR




Serbia's fascist unite - ZBOR

Members of the Serbian Volunteers Corps - to be known as ZBOR



Members of ZBOR receiving blessings





Milan Nedic and a ZBOR member





ZBOR




Members of ZBOR

Serbian Volunteer Corps (ZBOR)




Notice the three-finger salute





Serbian ZBOR members. 

However, the fate of the General in the end was sad and tragic indeed. At the end of the war, Allied forces captured him and sent him back to Serbia into the hands of the Communists. General Nedic never betrayed his ideals. He was brutally murdered on February 4th by one of the Communist chiefs, Aleksandar "Leka" Rankovic, and was buried in unknown place. 

[Balkaneros]

Some more photos ...

[Balkaneros]

Kosta Musicki 

Konstantin "Kosta" Mušicki (April 7, 1897 in Slavonski Brod – July 17, 1946 in Belgrade) was a general of the Serbian Volunteer Corps during World War II.
 Mušicki finished gymnasium in Zagreb and served Austria-Hungary in the First World War. After the war he remained a soldier in the Royal Yugoslav Army.
 During the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, Mušicki remained with the Yugoslavian army and was taken prisoner by Croatian forces. However, he was soon released and sent to Belgrade where he came into contact with ZBOR leader Dimitrije Ljotić. He was later made commander of the newly formed Serbian Volunteer Corps set up by Milan Nedić's government. He served in this post for much of the war. His final act as commander of the corps was to make his troops part of the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (more commonly known as Chetniks). This was done near the war's end to save what was left of pre-World War II Kingdom of Yugoslavia after it became clear that the Anglo-American Alliance favoured the Communists to take over the country.

Kosta Musicki standing with Father Aleksa Todorovic




Kosta Musicki and Milan Nedic

[Novus Dis]

Why do I get the feeling that this is from Serbia's Secret War?

[Balkaneros]

Dec 27, 2013 23:32:13 GMT -5 Novus Dis said:

Why do I get the feeling that this is from Serbia's Secret War?

Never read the book, this is content I gathered from all over, so perhaps.

The pictures for the most part were challenging to find.

[Balkaneros]

"Ode Serbian people" ( ital. Ode alla nazione serba) is a poet poem by the Italian poet Gabrijelea D'Anunciija , written and dedicated to the Serbian people during its most difficult moments in the year 1915.



Tronco s’ebbe Lazaro il capo

nel piano di Còssovo, e perso

fu il regno, fu spenta la gloria.

Da Scòplia il Bulgaro nero

al piano di Còssovo sfanga

fiutando l’ontosa vittoria.

Tieni duro, Serbo! Odi il rugghio

di Vèlico che si rappicca

e possa rifà. Tieni duro!

Se pane non hai, odio mangia;

se vino non hai, odio bevi;

se odio sol hai, va sicuro.

Non erbe coglie nel monte

la Vila, non radiche pesta,

per le piaghe a te medicare.

Non a ferita combatti,

a morte sì, per l’altare

combatti e pel focolare.

Se caschi in ginocchio, ti levi;

se piombi riverso, e ti levi;

se prono, e ti levi a lottare.”

This is a old-Italian, so GOOGLE translate is so so on this;

Lazaro Trunk s'ebbe the head

in the plane of Kosovo, and lost

was the kingdom, the glory was turned off.

Scòplia from the Bulgarian Black

to the plane of Kosovo sfanga

sniffing the ontosa victory.

Hang in there, Serbian! Hate Roared

of sailing that rappicca

and can be rebuilt. Hold on!

If you do not have bread, I hate eating;

wine if you do not, I hate you drink;

if you hate sol, it should be safe.

Not herbs hits the mountain

Vila, not burls mache,

for the wounds to medicate yourself.

Not to fight wound,

yes to death, for the altar

battle and for the hearth.

If you fall on your knees, you get up;

if weights on his back, and you get up;

if prone, and you get up to fight.

Momčilo Đujić 

Momčilo R. Đujić (Serbian Cyrillic: Момчило P. Ђујић; 27 February 1907 – 11 September 1999) was a Dalmatian Serb Chetnik commander  who led a significant proportion of the Chetniks within the northern Dalmatia region of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. A Serbian Orthodox priest, he joined the Chetnik movement led by Kosta Pećanac after the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934. After the invasion of Yugoslavia, he defended local Serbs against the Ustaše and collaborated with the Axis powers against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout the remainder of the war as the commander of the Chetnik Dinara Division (Dinarska divizija, Динарска дивизија). He survived the war, surrendering to the British and eventually emigrating to the United States, avoiding several denied extradition attempts by the Yugoslav government, who accused him of being responsible for the deaths of 1,500 people. Settling in California, Đujić played an important role in Serbian émigré circles and founded the Ravna Gora Movement of Serbian Chetniks alongside other exiled Chetnik fighters. He later retired to San Marcos, where he wrote poems and jokes that were published in both the United States and Serbia. He was instrumental in perpetuating Chetnik ideas in the Yugoslav Wars and controversially appointed Vojislav Šešelj as a Chetnik vojvoda in 1989. In 1998, Đujić said that he regretted awarding the title to Šešelj. On 21 May 1998, Biljana Plavšić, President of the Republika Srpska at the time, awarded him the Order of the Star of Karađorđe (First Class). Đujić died at a hospice in San Diego in 1999, aged 92. 

On 10 April 1941 the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was proclaimed, which was divided into German and Italian zones of occupation and which between April and August had saw large incarcerations, massacres, forced emigration, and murder of Serbs. Weeks after the NDH's establishment, Đujić narrowly escaped capture by Croatian nationalist forces, and in the summer of 1941, organised a Chetnik detachment that seized the town of Drvar from the Ustaše. By that time, he and local Chetnik leader Stevo Rađenović contacted the Italians, in an effort to stop the mistreatment of Serbs, enable the return of Serb refugees, and to repeal a decree that enabled the confiscation of Serb property in the NDH. These requests were accepted by the Italians in the hopes that doing so would win the Chetniks over to collaboration. On 13 August, at a meeting in the village of Pađene, Đujić and other Serbian nationalists formed an agreement for collaboration with Italian forces. On 31 August, at a Drvar assembly, Đujić was given the task of stopping the Italian advance; immediately afterwards, however, he made an agreement with the Italians granting them free passage.

:::

Đujić says the Dinara Division was "under Draža's command, but we received news and supplies for our struggle from [Dimitrije] Ljotić and [Milan] Nedić. [...] Nedić's couriers reached me in Dinara and mine reached him in Belgrade. He sent me military uniforms for the guardists of the Dinara Chetnik Division; he sent me ten million dinars to obtain for the fighters whatever was needed and whatever could be obtained." By mid-April Đujić and his troops began collaborating with the Italians in anti-Partisan raids.

On 25 November 1944, the Yugoslav Partisans attacked the town of Knin, which was defended by 14,000 German troops, 4,500 of Đujić's Chetniks, and around 1,500 Ustaše. On 1 December, Đujić was wounded and sent an emissary to General Gustav Fehn of the German 264th Division in Knin with the following message:

The Chetnik Command with all of its armed forces has collaborated sincerely and loyally with the German Army in these area from September last year. Our common interest demanded this. This collaboration has continued to the present day. [...] The Chetnik Command wishes to share the destiny of the German Army in the future, too. [...] The Command requests that [the village of] Pađene be the base for supplying our units, until a further common agreement is reached.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mom%C4%8Dilo_%C4%90uji%C4%87

Pavle Đurišić 

Pavle Đurišić; 9 July 1909 – April 1945) was a Montenegrin Serb professional officer of the Royal Yugoslav Army who became a Chetnik commander (vojvoda) and led a significant proportion of the Chetniks of Montenegro during World War II. After distinguishing himself and emerging as one of the main commanders during the popular uprising against the Italians in Montenegro in July 1941, he then collaborated with them in actions against the Yugoslav Partisans.

After the capitulation of Italy, Đurišić was released by the Germans and began collaborating with them and the Serbian puppet government. In 1944, he created the Montenegrin Volunteer Corps with assistance from the Germans, Milan Nedić, and Dimitrije Ljotić. In late 1944, he was decorated with the Iron Cross 2nd Class by the German commander in Montenegro. He was killed by elements of the Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia near Banja Luka after he was captured in an apparent trap set by them and Sekula Drljević. Some of his troops were killed either in this battle or later attacks by the Partisans as they continued their withdrawal west. Others attempted to withdraw to Austria, were forced to surrender to the Partisans, and were killed in the Kočevski Rog area of southern Slovenia in May–June 1945. Đurišić was a very able Yugoslav Chetnik leader, and his fighting skills were respected by his allies and opponents alike.


::::


In early March 1942, Đurišić arranged one of the first collaboration agreements between the Italians and the Chetniks. This agreement was with the military governor and commander of Italian troops in Montenegro, General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli and related to the area of operations of the 19th Infantry Division Venezia. In May 1942, Đurišić attacked and defeated the last significant Partisan detachment in Montenegro.


In June 1942, as the Italians and Chetniks were fighting the Partisans, Mihailović arrived in Montenegro having been forced out of Serbia by the Germans. Mihailović was accompanied by his staff and a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) liaison officer, and after moving around for a while, he established his base at the village of Gornje Lipovo, a few miles from Đurišić's headquarters at Kolašin. Mihailović and his staff had few troops and relied on Đurišić for protection. Not long after Mihailović arrived in Montenegro, Đurišić told Mihailović's SOE liaison officer that he was available to act independently and in defiance of Mihailović. While Đurišić and the other Chetnik commanders in Montenegro nominally recognized Mihailović as their supreme commander, they rarely obeyed him.

Chetnik commander Pavle Đurišić making a speech to the Chetniks  - next to him is General Pirzio Biroli, Italian governor of Montenegro.

:::

On 24 July 1942, Blažo Đukanović, senior commander of all Chetnik forces in Montenegro,[28] signed a comprehensive agreement with General Biroli which officially organized and recognized three Chetnik "flying detachments" as Italian auxiliary troops for use against the Partisans. These detachments were supplied, armed and paid by the Italians, and included a total of 4,500 Chetniks, 1,500 of whom were under the command of Đurišić. The Chetniks thereby became an important part of the Italian occupation regime in Montenegro.[29] The pre-existing "Montenegrin Chetnik committee", which was led by the Brigadier General Đukanović and to which Đurišić was aligned,[30] was recognized by the Italians as the "Nationalist Committee of Montenegro". Its only political aims were to "crush communism and to safeguard law and order and the well being of the Montenegrin population". The committee was also obliged "to undertake everything that is in its power and authority to preserve order and discipline in the country and will counteract all possible actions that could be directed against the Italian authorities."[31] Arrangements were also to be made by mutual understanding for pay, rations, weaponry, and aid to the families of Chetniks.[29]


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavle_%C4%90uri%C5%A1i%C4%87


Mihajlovic was surrounded by British "liason officers" wherever he went, all sides (Chetniks, Germans, Italians, Nedic, Ljotic, Partizans) recognized this and questioned whether he was even acting independently. Ljotic, on many occasions named Mihajlovic responsible for the countless Serb deaths throughout, thus labeled him enemy of the state.