(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 ON AMAZON NOW.
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 10: The Partisan Hospital System
Tito was very cognizant that protecting and saving the wounded was not only the humane thing to do, but it also was a message to the masses that he cared about all of them, not to mention that it may have also been a recruiting tool. With battles raging on every front, hospitals had to be hidden. If not, the Axis had no qualms about destroying them, and killing the wounded and sick, as well as the Partisans protecting them. In fact, the Germans did root out some of them, and destroyed them, and everyone in them.
The topography was used to the advantage of the Partisans in building larger hospitals in the “free territory” which was not controlled by the enemy. However, even those had to have the ability to be broken down and moved should they be at-risk of incursion. Many medical units were smaller and more mobile, however. For example, a medical bunker for the less severely wounded would be a dugout in the earth, deep in a forest under the cover of tall evergreens, and hidden within thickets of bushes. Typically, these would have a small opening with a ladder leading down into the bunker. There were a few planks of wood used as beds, some modular shelving, a small fire to boil water in a pan for sterilization of medical equipment, tar papered around the inner walls to keep it dry, and a small hole at the top of the dugout for air.
Barns and houses were also used as part of the hospital system. There were doctors and nurses for the larger hospitals where the more severely injured would go. The smaller outposts might require surgeons if the patients couldn’t be moved. For example, operating tables might include the use of saddles, planks and rubber sheeting. Any material available was used to create some level of functionality.
The Nazis dedicated up to two hundred soldiers to be “hospital hunters.” They would torture local peasants, or captured Partisan soldiers to extract the whereabouts of hospitals. In one case, when a hospital of fifty patients in an underground bunker was discovered, the Germans killed each patient and the male medical staff, and raped and then murdered the nurses and their assistants.
Therefore, secrecy was of the utmost importance. There were special units of Partisans who were assigned to transport and protect the hospitals. Very few others knew of their locations. The “hospital hunters” sometimes disguised themselves as peasants in order to see if they could coerce any locals who might know of the placement of a hospital or medical bunker. Or, if they caught a special unit Partisan, they’d use torture to attempt to extract the information.
Principles for the organization of hospitals by Partisan doctor, Gojko Nikolis:
“1. A heavy concentration of casualties in one place must not be permitted. 2. Parallel with the use of the free territory for stationary hospitals, it is necessary to make all preparations for the moving to another territory. Large-scale enemy offensives soon place the forest hospitals in jeopardy, in spite of their inaccessibility. No place is inaccessible to the enemy. 3. For the purpose of ensuring the medical and military protection of the wounded the hospital system should be organized as follows: a. The selection and clearing center and surgical hospital should be located on or at least near a good communication line, if possible in a sheltered spot which is not visible from the air; b. After receiving surgical assistance, the wounded should be sent to the hospital wards for treatment. The wards should be located at a distance from the communication lines, in places which are not vulnerable to air raids or tanks; c. Reserve cabins should be placed deep in the forest, where the wounded will be concealed in case the enemy should penetrate along the communication line; d. Secret hideouts should be built near the reserve cabins in case the enemy should gain control of the communications and begin infiltration into the forests for the purpose of searching it.” (U.S. Army study)
The Partisan hospital system saved many thousands of lives. Over a million in Yugoslavia alone, died in the war, but the toll would have been much greater if not for this.
(Information attributed to multiple sources and to “Study of Yugoslav Guerrilla Forces of WWII to Inform Modern U.S. Army Strategy During A Near-Peer Military Conflict,” M. Tyler Colesar, MD Captain, Medical Corps, U.S. Army Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences)
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