(photo credit: wikipedia)
My forthcoming book, Dark Shadows Hover, will be released on January 26 to coincide with events surrounding International Holocaust Remembrance Day, annually recognized on January 27. I'm honored thatAmsterdam Publishers in the Netherlands, which specializes in Holocaust memoir and some fiction, is the book's publisher. PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
This weekly series of blog posts will introduce the reader to some basic history before reading my book, a biographical fiction based on the young life of Moris Albahari, who at the age of twelve became a Yugoslav Partisan. Though it’s not critical to read the posts to enjoy the book, I trust you’ll find them interesting. If you’d like to receive subsequent blog posts leading up to book publication, and are not already on my email list, subscribe at jordanstevensher.com.
The Nazis, their Collaborators, and Tito’s Partisans in World War II Yugoslavia
Part 8: “Brotherhood and Unity”
Before the invasion by Nazi Germany into Yugoslavia, the country was divided by ethnic, religious, and political factions. Politicians, as some are wont to do, promoted their own preferences. For Yugoslavia that was either the monarchy, democracy, socialism, or fascism. The arrival of the Nazis, and the defeat of the royal army, meant that with Ustasha (refer to Part 3 of this blog series) control of parts of the country assured fascists as the dominant force.
The Communist Party organized a small force of resistance fighters simply known as the Partisans. Led by Josip Broz Tito (refer to Part 5), it’s important to tell more of their story than in previous blog posts.
Tito sensed that the time was ripe for launching a people’s movement to liberate Yugoslavia from the Axis Powers. This was his opportunity to establish the communist ideology of inclusivity and equality. As noted in an earlier blog post, the Soviet Union, a communist country and entrant into the war on the side of the Allies, set the pace for Yugoslavia’s communist party. As an irregular fighting force, the Partisans often made use of the guerrilla tactics and were highly successful in ambushing small units and capturing equipment. These tactics assisted the group in operating with minimal foreign support as the other Allied powers were primarily focused on their own war efforts until 1944.The one power that did provide consistent support was Great Britain that had several Special Occupation Executives (SOE) operatives in Yugoslavia during the war. By 1943 when the Axis began losing on several fronts, the Allies were able to more consistently aid the Partisans and thus sent them several shipments of heavy equipment including tanks. The Partisans were now able to attract a steady stream of recruits because of the harsh reprisal killings conducted by the Germans and Ustasha. This drove thousands to the Partisans’ side.
Yugoslav’s Partisans were the most successful of the non-regular militaries in all of Europe during World War II. The People’s Liberation army rose to 1,000,000. But make no mistake, they participated in massacres of civilians who were aligned with the Axis powers, just as the occupiers did to Partisan-sympathizers or those they claimed to be.
Still, they were at the center of defeating the Nazis in Yugoslavia. They fought bravely and with resolve. After the war, Yugoslavia morphed into a one-party socialist state and federation government by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia with six republics until Tito’s death in 1980. Within just over a decade, the country spiraled into ethnic conflict with Serbia spearheading an ethnic cleansing campaign against non-Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina that brought about genocides, and then a full-scale war.
Brotherhood and Unity was a slogan and guiding principle of the Communists of Yugoslavia during and after the Yugoslav People’s Liberation War. The slogan was a socialist doctrine that aimed to promote unity between the seven nations that made up Yugoslavia. It was also Tito’s official policy and emphasized a centralized federal system.
(Information attributed to multiple sources and to study.com)
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