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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-0RDER NOW 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 5: Josip Broz Tito
To understand the Partisan resistance, one must know its leader, Josip Broz Tito. Born in 1892 into a large peasant family in a village near Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, Broz became a locksmith and metal worker, and joined the Social Democratic Party until conscription into the Austro-Hungarian army in 1913. In the war against Serbia, he became a sergeant and was transferred to the Russian front. There, in 1915, he was seriously wounded and needed long-term hospitalization. After recovering, he was sent to a prisoner of war camp where he read up on Bolshevism. These ideas would anchor his subsequent participation in Russian workers protests, joining a Red Guard unit, and eventually returning to Croatia to join the communist party.
In 1920, with a new law banning communist activities, Broz moved to a small village to work as a mill mechanic, but also participated in the underground movement of the Communist Party. By 1927, he moved up the ranks and went to live in Zagreb, reviving the party, and gaining recognition from Moscow.
In 1928, Broz led street demonstrations against Belgrade (Serbia) authorities, resulting in the assassination of Croat deputies in the parliament. Police raided his apartment, found bombs that were linked to his involvement with an insurrectionist wing of the Soviet party, and he was then sentenced to five years in prison.
With King Alexander I assuming dictatorial control of Yugoslavia early into Broz’s prison sentence, other non-Serbs who ran counter to the king’s beliefs were jailed too, often for much longer time than Broz. When he was released in 1934, he was summoned by the exiled Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) to meet in Vienna. Broz was given greater power being appointed to the CPY Politburo. It was at this time that he adopted the pseudonym, Tito, which was done by others in the communist party to shield them from their true identities. For him, though, the name stuck—Josip Broz Tito.
By 1937, Joseph Stalin was purging the old guard of the CPY, likely in concert with Tito’s rise to power, and to gain his cooperation. He was becoming more aligned with a new generation of militants, and tasked with finding new leaders for the CPY. By 1940, Stalin had granted him the title of the first secretary general of the CPY, where he began planning rebellion against the existing government of Yugoslavia, and a Soviet-style federalist solution to the national internal conflicts that existed among the various ethnic groups.
Hitler’s invasion of Yugoslavia in April, 1941, opened up the opportunity for Tito’s newly-formed Partisan resistance fighters to be the only force to begin to combat the invaders. This also allowed the CPY to shape their message of “liberating the people from the fascists.”
The Serb Royalist, Chetniks, who saw themselves as the “true voice” of Yugoslavia, and who wished to establish themselves as the dominant power in Yugoslavia, found themselves at odds with the Partisans, and aligned with the Germans. As the U.S., Great Britain and their allies joined the fight against Germany, they were eventually convinced that Tito’s liberation movement was the true voice of the people.
Tito’s Partisans fought many bloody battles against the Nazis, Ustasha, Chetniks, and the Italians until they switched sides joining the allies in 1943. Tito’s army also joined the Soviet forces to defeat the Axis invaders in Serbia in 1944, and by the time Germany surrendered to the allies in May, 1945, the Communist Party was well-established in Yugoslavia. Tito took control of the government and didn’t relinquish it until his death in 1980.
Tito carved his country’s own path away from Stalinist-Soviet Union. This often caused friction, but after Stalin died in 1953, relations between the two countries changed. That didn’t necessarily mean the relationship was smooth, but the reader is encouraged to search for more
information if interested.
(information attributed to multiple sources and Britannica.com)
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