Chetnik leader Draza Mihajlovic confers with his men.
Dragoljub Draza Mihajlovic (1893-1946), colonel in the Yugoslav army and leader of the Chetniks. Born in Ivanjica, Serbia, Mihajlovic fought in the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and World War I. By the time of the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, he had obtained the rank of colonel in the Yugoslav army.
After the Yugoslav surrender, Mihajlovic gathered around him a group of Serbian soldiers who were united in their loyalty to the royal house and organized them into a underground militia that became known as the Chetniks. In 1941 Mihajlovic was appointed minister of war by King Peter and the Yugoslav government-in-exile.
In July and August of that year, Mihajlovic and his men took part in the uprising against the Germans, during which he cooperated with the Yugoslav partisans under Josip Broz Tito. The uprising, however, was brutally suppressed by the Germans, leading Mihajlovic to rethink his position. He concluded that there was no point in fighting against the Germans, that his focus should be on the fate of Yugoslavia after the war, and that his true enemy was the communist partisan movement under Tito. As a result, Mihajlovic left off his struggle with the German invaders by the end of 1941 and gradually developed a collaborative relationship with the Italians and Germans against the partisans.
In response, the Allies switched their support to the partisans who were fighting the Germans and came to view the Chetniks as Nazi collaborators. After the occupation of Serbia by the partisans and the Soviet army, the Chetniks were hunted down. Mihajlovic went into hiding, but was captured and arrested on March 13, 1946. Found guilty of treason and collaboration, he was executed in Belgrade in 1946.
[Source: Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, English edition, S.v. "Chetniks."]
Online source US Holocaust Museum
Source 2: Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum download PDF HERE
Date: 1941 - 1945
Locale: [Serbia] Yugoslavia
Credit: USHMM, courtesy of Muzej Revolucije Narodnosti Jugoslavije
Copyright: Public Domain
16 Comments:
Good post, and good work overall. We need someone out there to counter the lies of "La Gorin". She clearly subscribes to the notion that if you repeat a lie long enough, and more importantly loudly enough, that even you yourself will be convinced eventually that it is "The Truth".
I think along with her attempts to "debunk" the facts about the help Albanians freely and willingly gave to the Jews within their borders during WWII, her attempts to "rehabilitate" Draza Mihailovic is one of the most abominable things she's done yet (and that's saying something). In all fairness, Mihailovic wasn't "pro-nazi", but he wasn't "pro-allies" either. He was a opportunist who would use any means necessary to achieve his goal-restoration of the Karageorgevic monarchy, and establishment of "Velika Srbija". If cooperating with the allies looked like the best way to accomplish it, he'd do it. If colaborating with the Nazis would get the job done eventually, he'd do it. To me, that's the worst kind of traitor.
Thank you, but I simply did use bio of Draza Mihajlovic from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum simple as that...
http://www.ushmm.org/
My Grandfather fought the Germans and the Ustashe in WW2. He told me about how he saved a child in a burning home from the Nazis. He told me how they killed, raped, and beheaded several Serbs along with the Ustashe. His legs were burned, he was shot across the chest, and had grenade fragments burried into his body. My grandfather was there and was a Chetnik. He wasn't a war criminal. Draza Mihailovic was an ally of the United States. He was a War hero. He helped save American paratroopers and was givin medals by Harry Truman, President of the United States. "Peshkatari" needs to learn history, not re-write it! The Chetniks hate the Communist party, which was encouraged by Tito.
You people dont know what you are talking about.
http://illyria.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=srbijaserbia&action=display&thread=11905
^ click on that link for the TRUTH! Shows how Chetniks with Nazis photos were doctered by the communists after the war, also shows pics of Partizans with Germans. And newspaper articles from the WW2 era.
I'm sorry but your article was too brief and one sided because of this on going debate of whether or not Draža Mihailović was a collaborator. The fact that you based your bio on just one website proves that it is not informative or unbiased. Now if this was intended as a personal opinion, then it would be different. Do more research next time and you would uncover about the 500 veterans, who were escorted out of occupied territory by Mihailović's men, picking in Washington D.C. during his trial. Also, let us not forget about the Communist Regime and how their information and documentation were even more one-sided than this article. Tito could've accused Mihailović for collaboration to attain power.
Chetniks hated the communist party? That's kinda funny actually considering that in Serbia proper in 1943 there were roughly 24000 'Serbian' partisans, yet a year later there were over 200,000. Could it be perhaps that the Fascists in Italy capitulated in 1943 and the Serbian chetniks had lost their fascist 'sponsor'? You can easily enough find pictures of Djurisic, Nedic et all with Nazis so why revise history?
Do yourself a favour and do a little research on 'Nacionalni Stroj,; on google. This is a neo-nazi Serbian movement that in WW2 under the leadership of Dimitrije Ljotic and Milan Nedic was responsiblity in dealing with the Jewish question in Serbian. This same movement in October of 2007 had triggered demonstrations by celebrating Himmler's birthday in Vojvodine.
http://www.birn.eu.com/en/106/10/5140/
Enjoy
Veli Joze
That's funny, assuming the cause of an event to be a random statistic. Could it be that Nedic, and others that you refer to fought against Draza, because those were the real collaborators? No, of course not. Logic is not something you partake in.
Harold Turner, a SS commander, was responsible for dealing with the Jewish Question in occupied Serbia. The Serbian Volunteer Corps, which was closer to regimental size for most of the war, was tasked with fighting Draza, and so it was German occupation forces that dealt with the Jewish Question.
Neonazi organisations exist in most nations of the world, as do extremist groups of some sort in every nation. It is nothing short of amusing that you would use a group of maybe a couple hundred neonazis in a nation of 10 million to demonise Draza, who fought against the same organisation. It also pales in comaparison to the crimes committed by the Ustasa, and you are attempting to compare a mole hill to Mount Everest here.
It is sad to see that people actually write garbage and post in all over the internet without knowing the truth. You are confusing Draza with Nedich. Nedich was a German collaborator. My grandfather fought directly under Mihailovic and told me stories as a child about all of the missions they carried out to sabatoge the Germans. If you want to know the real truth about Draza and how he was pegged a collaborator, read Allu Betrayed by David Martin. He tells the entire truth of what happened...as sick as it was to have such a thing done to a great man.
What part of :
Mihajlovic'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 conclusion 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.
The Chetniks' struggle with
the invaders came to a complete stop at the end of 1941, and gradually evolved into cooperation with the Italians and the Germans against Tito.
So your grandfather is Serbian traitor and should be treated like that.
SOURCE:
Shoah Resource Center, The International 2 School for Holocaust Studies
What a good site - impressed to say the least. I have just spent twenty years uncovering my grandfathers past and published the book In Search of the Displaced Persons - Draza was indeed the hero and will remain so - andy
http://www.pogledi.rs/galerija/bc1/2V.jpg
http://1389.org.rs/slike/poternica%20za%20Drazom.jpg
http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pq8HdJsHuPr38SnSZQs4IgYmuSuGSwvbCc3QupeDZiEpObdgg7BUvfpL7RWJU4xbAbYi_xRJMt3Y
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/5452/drazinoamerickoodlikova.jpg
Totally correct information about Draza Mihajlovic. Tito and his communist followers did a good job to ruin his reputation, but Tito was not able to kill all who knew Draza and carried the truth. He was an intellectual and loved Yougoslavia, ofcourse the Communist Party made him a monster ,that way they had a perfect excuse to kill him .Tito is the reason why Yugoslavia fell apart later , but brain washed idiots will neve except that.
Draza mihailovic was a hero of yogoslavia and he was a man worthy of full recognition by the state dept for what he did, he harbored and evacuatednearly 500 allied soldiers back to the allies
in his territory and refused to give them to the germans despite the threat of the destruction of serbian villages if he failed to comply, many of these threats were carried out. Josip broz tito even refused to let the american airmen who were sheltered by this man speak testimony at draza's trial, to even call it a trial os laughable in itself, all the stuff u hear about draza's collaboration with the axis powers was doctored by the cambridge 5, who were british communist spies that eventually allowed british support to b given to the communists in south easter europe
The assertion that the Chetniks lowered any resistance by the end of 1941 is without fact. (The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust is not without political and ethnic bias.) The Partisans were not even actively resisting until July 1941. (Like their French and other 'socialist' brethren, they supported the pact between Stalin and Hitler until the June 22 invasion by not opposing German invaders.)
The situation was complex. Fathers would send two sons off to fight - one to Chetniks and one to Partisans, while keeping one at home to cover all future political developments. The British Communists aided Tito and credited him with activity that was not even Partisan in areas where Partisans were not even organized.
As for their alleged collaboration, what do you call Stalin, Chamberlain, and Daladier who all signed deals? (FDR supported the deals, as well.)
They all signed deals with Hitler and there weren't even German soldiers in their lands killing their people. (Peshkatari needs to learn history before he pretends to be an authority. Mihajlovic offerred resistance where there was none. He served the country and the king.)
An excellent source for all to read is Empire on the Adriatic. It explains that the Chetniks were strong enough to wipe out the Italians, but wanted to avoid the next enemies of ruthless killers - Croatian Ustase and Germans. Those who cite the Holocaust Encyclopedia should look up Jasenovac and learn from reading and understanding, not believing Communist propaganda whether from Russia, Tito, or Britain.
hahahahaha...Julia, you ruffled some ustasa and militant muslim furs with these facts. De Gaul gave Mihilovic a Legion of Honor. Truman gave him a poshumous medal as well. Were they fools? hahahaha...a lot of anti-Serb, neo-Communist hatred out there. There are GERMAN ransom notes printed during the II WW offering ransom for Mihailovic, can be found easily on the net or in the archives.
please don't lie try to find me that German ransom note for ANY chetnik ... that is simply lie and fiction
as for The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust you should read it before you claim statement from it so here it is:
In combating the Communist-led partisans, the Germans and especially the Italians were able to count on some collaboration from Mihailovic's Cetniks, whose leaders, as it became clear that Germany would lose the war, sought to inflict damage on the Communists rather than the Axis.
During the late summer and autumn of 1941, German military and police units used this order as a pretext to shoot virtually all male Serb Jews (approximately 8,000 persons), approximately 2,000 actual and perceived communists, Serb nationalists and democratic politicians of the interwar era, and approximately 1,000 male Roma. The German Security Police rounded up Jewish women and children and incarcerated them in the Semlin detention camp in the autumn of 1941. In the winter of 1942, the Reich Central Office for Security sent a gas van -- a truck with a hermetically sealed compartment that served as a gas chamber -- to Belgrade. Between March and May 1942, German Security Police personnel killed around 6,280 persons, virtually all Jews and mostly women and children from Semlin camp. By the summer of 1942, virtually no Jews remained alive in Serbia, unless they had joined the Partisans or were in hiding.
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