)photo credit: military wiki fandom)
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 6: The Chetniks
The Chetniks were originally Serbian guerrilla units fighting in World War I against the Turks, Germans, and Austro-Hungarians. In World War II, they were part of the defeated Yugoslav army that wished to return the king to the throne if the Germans were defeated. However, as the war progressed, their primary enemy became Tito’s Partisans, so they allied with Hitler. Their leader, Colonel Draza Mihailovic, a former officer in the army, and the exiled Royals, were viewed by the West as the legitimate voice of Yugoslavia for the first two years of the war. However, with the Chetniks fighting the Partisans for control of the country as part of the German effort, the Allies moved on from him to see Tito as a partner.
The Chetniks were a brutal force using terrorism against non-Serbs. This included Jews and Muslims. Burning down villages, rape, torture and heinous means to murder were the signature way they brought their fight to the Partisans. As an aside, the Chetniks moniker resurfaced during the Bosnian War in the early 1990s using similar tactics that also included death camps.
Before turning their attention to the Partisans, “Mihalovic's men in Serbia took part in the uprising against the Germans in July and August of 1941, and even cooperated with the Partisans under Tito. The uprising was suppressed by the Germans with unspeakable cruelty, causing many deaths and widespread destruction. This brought the Chetniks to three conclusions: (1) there was no point in waging a hopeless armed struggle against the Germans, a struggle that would threaten the very existence of the Serbian people; (2) the proper course was to organize and gain strength, so as to be ready for an Allied invasion of the Balkans; (3) the pro-Communist partisans were the most dangerous enemy of all, and it was the struggle with them that would decide Yugoslavia's fate after Germany was defeated.” (Yad Vashem)
By the end of 1941, the Chetniks reversed course and allied with Germany and Italy. Initially, some Jews fought with the Chetniks, but after this, many joined the Communist Partisans.
The Partisans defeated the Chetniks, so that by the end of World War II Mihailovic and his Chetniks fled, only to be captured with most of whom hung.
Underlying the Chetnik militias in both World War II and the Bosnian War in the 1990s was the notion of creating a “Greater Serbia.” This dated back to the “Battle of Kosovo” in 1389 when Serbia lost a war with the Ottoman Empire. It vowed, from that point, to create an ethnically pure state of Orthodox Christian Serbs. This aspiration was drawn up in strategic plans in both those wars, neither of which came to fruition. Tensions exist even today within Bosnia and the entity called Republika Srpska (RS), which was given to nationalist Serbs in the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. With the support of Serbia, Hungary, and Russia, the idea remains ever-present despite the RS being part of the Bosnian government. Calls for their separation, which run counter to Dayton, are routinely decried by their politicians.
(information attributed to multiple and Yad Vashem)
Comments