No. 110

LETTER FROM OBRAD MIĆIĆ FROM TUZLA TO SS CAPTAIN REXEISEN ON APRIL 16, 1942, ABOUT THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE CHETNIKS AND THE LEGION OF MAJOR HADŽIEFENDIĆ WHICH THEN CARRIED OUT A GREAT MASSACRE OF THE SERBS. REQUEST FOR INTERVENTION.^[1]

III A 1 + 1 translate^[2]

Very resp.[ected] Mis.[ter] Haupturm führer^[3] –

Your card as well as Mr. Sturmführer’s^[4] visit made us very happy. We have always been grateful to you, as we are now. We know that you are a true friend to us, and that you have always thought of us. – As for the brothers, I know that you may have been just as happy, because you worked so hard for it. –

Thank God it was finally over. – Only now we have to ask you to take care of their existence there. – A modest existence, – I emphasize, because in this terrible cataclysm, which my people have experienced because of their corrupt gentlefolk, one should be satisfied when there is bread and a roof over one’s head and a secure life. –

They could get in touch with Zbor,^[5] with Mil. Mojić,^[6] to whom I have already written about it, as well as with the others.

I have suffered 1 nervous crisis these 4-5 days and if this continues, then it is better not to live than to watch helplessly what is being done.

You will see my reports. That in the 20^th century it is possible to come armed to a peaceful and unarmed village in the rear, to take people from their houses, under the pretext of being led to Tuzla, or to fight against the Chetniks, to line them up, mothers with children, fathers, etc. and kill them from the back with machine guns, when they don’t even suspect death – that is what Genghis Khan is said to have practised. – Only, there were no machine guns then. –

But I haven’t read [about such practice – Translator’s note] anywhere in modern history. Let it be known that it was in the N.D.H., and that it was carried out by anti-Com[munist] troops. “Legion of the peop.[le’s] uprising to fight Communism.”^[7] –

The Jesuit mind is ingenious and makes ingenious moves. (just like Jews) –

By the end of January of this year there were no more legionaries of Major Muham. Hadžiefendić.^[8] When negotiations took place in Belgr in January, Muslims were quite reserved here in Tuzla. – They were even very upset by the Catholicization of the Orth.[odox] in Brčko as well as over there.

When negotiations in Belgr.[ade] for eastern Bosnia took place in January and the Belgr.[ade] issue failed^[9], the Jesuits remembered the motto “divide et impera”. They found M. Hadžiefendić, 1 corrupt[ible] type, Hochstapler and great ambition, and the like to establish a militia^[10] of recr.[uited] from the Musl.[im] scum who were incited and given the freedom to loot, kill, rape and torch without punishment.

Before that, big propaganda had been developed through the press, radio and oral propaganda, about the Chetniks in eastern Bosnia having killed Musl.[ims]. The massacres began immediately as soon as this militia^[11] was founded. I have already sent reports about that through Mr. Sturmführer.

The tendency is clear, 1) although these Musl.[im] bandit leg.[ionaries] are destroying Serb villages – they will provoke reprisals from those in the forest – and so they will destroy each other; and after decimation, the Cathol.[ic] Church will humiliate them – 2) After such evil acts, every Muslim even the most honorable one will fear what will happen if Serbia comes, and must hold on to Zagreb, – even if that Zagreb Catholicise him tomorrow. The Jesuits are ingenious. –

But what has been done in the last 4-5 [days] already falls within the legends from the Hun invasion. Can the Germans tolerate that?!!

The matter went as follows: (data received in the gendarmerie station in Tuzla) The Hadžiefendić Legion from “Turski Tupkovići” continued its craft of killing, looting and burning in “Srpski Tupkovići” (2 neighboring villages, 1 Orth.[odox] and 1 M.[uslim]). –

When the village started to burn, someone reported to the Chetniks, who were nearby. – They attacked the Legion, about 50 legionnaires fell in the battle, the rest fled, – and the Chetniks occupied both villages, and they set fire to Turski Tupković in revenge. –

It is not known what happened to the population in the two villages, because both of these are held by the Chetniks. There are refugees from Turski Tupkovići, but not from Srpski Tupkovići^[12].

After that, those robbers, when they were beaten there, went first to J. Lug^[13] – and then to Rajinci-Mitrović and did what the report says.

Dear Mr. Reksajzen,^[14] – if this people can be freed from the strangulation and torture by these clerical forces, and put under 1 distinguished and just regime, as was expected here (I have no right to get into that) – but is there a possibility that at least these bandit “Turkish” hordes – stupid, fanatical, which are spiritually in the time of Suleiman the Great – will be disarmed, and the villains punished on merit. What a disgrace it is, when these same bandits, each of whom has a few small children on his conscience, walk down Tuz[la’s] promenade] (tonight, for example), in peasant rags, and their only mil.[itary] mark is a bayonet, – what is more, beside the German soldiers. Or will they go to the forest tomorrow, although there stands the proud soldier of the nation of the all.[-German] Reich. Better to say, behind his back they will put every living being they find under the Tartar knife.

Can such monstrosity be allowed. – The Jews^[15] and the Communists will be very pleased. –

These gangs are now present only in the Tuz.[la] region, as far as I know, but Mr. Hadžiefendić has received a patent in Zagreb to establish such volun.[teer] units in all districts of the Great County^[16] of Tuz.[la]. It seems to me, 100 Din.[ar] per diem and what they rob of course.

He would have the position of division commander. – Of 16-20 battalions, as is said. This means that the Ser.[bian] Orthodox mothers in the villages where the uprising did not take place should say goodbye to their children, as well as the fathers, – and that everyone should be waiting for the bullets from the mach.[ine] guns of Hadžiefendić’s Tatars, while their properties would be nationalized.

And in the event of a conflict on the Bosphorus, they will be another special religious-communist monster in the unfortunate Bosnian forests. – (So both a religious and a com.[munist] monster, and at the same time a Turkish monster. So not a two-headed, but a three-headed monster.)

Mr. Količ (SD), with whom my wife travels to Belgrade, will have these same reports, so she will submit them at the authorized office. –

And I appeal to you to do what you can to free the mothers of our nation from the murderers of children. –

With ever-great respect, and very warm greetings, always loyal and faithful to you

Obrad

I apologize for the ugly handwriting because it is 3 o’clock
in the morning. –

16. IV. 42.

^[1] АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 351-352, original in Serbian, handwritten in Latin alphabet; АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 347-350, copy translated into German.

^[2] Designation of the office (III A) dealing with the case, and the order to translate it.

^[3] Hauptsturmführer, SS captain. The letter was sent to SS Captain Rexeisen.

^[4] Sturmführer, rank in the formations of Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilungen, abbreviated: SA) one of lieutenant.

^[5] Pro-fascist political party led by Dimitrije Ljotić, the only political organization allowed to work in occupied Serbia; See: M. Stefanović, Zbor Dimitrija Ljotića 1934-1945, Beograd: Narodna knjiga, 1984; B. Petranović, Srbija u Drugom svetskom ratu 1939-1945, passim.

^[6] Milorad Mojić, Secretary General of Zbor.

^[7] “Volunteer Home Guard Legion” (Dobrovoljačka legija Narodnog ustanka) formed by the Tuzla merchant, pre-war reserve major Muhamed Hadžiefendić, with the task of fighting against the Chetniks. The Legion committed great crimes against the Serb population of eastern and northeastern Bosnia; E. Redžić, Muslimansko autonomaštvo i 13. SS divizija Autonomija Bosne i Hercegovina i Hitlerov Treći Rajh, Sarajevo: Svjetlost 1987, 49-50.

^[8] Muhamed Hadžiefendić.

^[9] See: A. Miletić, „O saradnji komandanta četničkih odreda istočne Bosne Jezdimira Dangića sa Nemcima”, in: Vojnoistorijski glasnik, 2, 1972, 135-145.

^[10] Milicija in Serbian. From the German word Miliz.

^[11] Same as previous.

^[12] The names indicate the ethnic structure of the populations in the two villages: Srpski (Serb) and Turski (Turkish, i.e. Muslim; the Serbs referred to the Muslims generally as ‘the Turks’, although most of these were not authentic Turks but the local populace which had been converted to Islam since the Ottoman invasion in the 15^th and 16^th centuries). – Subeditor’s note.

^[13] Jegin (Jeginov) Lug.

^[14] Rexeisen.

^[15] Židovi, the Croat word for Jews is used in the original.

^[16] The ‘great counties’ (just ’counties’ in this translation) or ‘grand governorates’ (Sg. in Croat: velika župa, in German: Groβgespanschaft) were the primary territorial subdivisions in the Independent State of Croatia. Districts were the secondary subdivisions. – Subeditor’s note.

Subeditor’s Note

This – English – edition of the book is a translation of the one in the Serbian language, published in 2022 under the title Ustaška zverstva: Zbornik dokumenata (1941–1942). As far as the corpus of the Dossier from the personal fonds of Slavko Odić is concerned – and it makes the essential body of this book – the translation team worked from its Serbian version given in the said book and not from the German original.

The Serbian edition, with the documents translated from German, was printed in the Cyrillic alphabet, which necessitated some explanations provided by the Editor, Dr. Milan Koljanin, with regard to the linguistic traits, orthography and punctuation resorted to by the translators from German into Serbian (Tatjana Janićijević, Akademija Oxford) and the Editor. Naturally enough, numerous clarifications referring to the Serbian edition do not apply on the English one in most of the aspects of translation work. Hence the need to write this Note.

To begin with, the translators basically opted for the varieties of the American English rather than British English.

Personal names in the officially processed documents are most often written in what is today considered inverse order: family name/surname first, followed by one’s first/Christian name, without a comma in between.

Originally, the documents (letters, reports, statements etc.) were written (typed) in bureaucratic style and with a page layout practised by German offices, so these traits have been retained herein, and so have the obvious spelling and/or typing errors (personal names, toponyms); the latter have been corrected in the footnotes. The parts of text/sentences which are underlined or written with spaces between letters as means of emphasis correspond to the German original and its Serbian/Croat counterpart. The same applies to whole words or lines written in capital letters.

Punctuation has been kept almost completely, except when the meaning demanded comma (usually related to the rules of word order in an English sentence). Some marks, such as hyphens, dashes or slashes may impress the Reader as outdated or misplaced. Earlier typewriters did not have buttons with parentheses, and the slash was used instead of them.

Dates are written with differing uses or omissions of period (full stop), whereby month is written in three ways: fully in letters (20 January), in Arabic numerals (e.g. 20.1.) or Roman numerals (e.g. 20.I.). In rare cases, the slash can be found in dates (e.g. 12./X. 1941), but not as a regular separator between their constituents. Years are occasionaly written without the first digit, e.g. 942 instead of 1942, which is a frequent occurrence in oral communication.

Abbreviations, other than official identification means for offices, titles or codenames (VB, MA, RSHA etc.), have been translated (e.g. ’etc.’). The translators chose to retain the Croat/Serbian abbreviation for the name of the wartime ’state’, that is, ’NDH’ is standing for Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Independent State of Croatia) instead of the less known English name (ISC). Some words were written in a shortened form for the reason of economy of expression, and the habit has been transferred to the translation, including the Editor’s intervention in the Serbian edition: Reg.[ister], Gend.[armerie], Gor[nja] Tuzla.

Footnotes in the English edition partially differ from those in the Serbian version. Some proved to be unnecessary (those that provided original names which were transliterated into the phonetical Cyrillic alphabet). New footnotes have been added by the Subeditor in order to explain/clarify the specific, locally used, words or phrases with which the Reader may not be familiar (such as slava, din, sokolski dom), or to indicate some nuances in the meaning (student, profesor). Here and there, the Reader will find notes in brackets inserted into the main body of the text by translators or the Editor where immediate understanding was needed.

Finally, it is noteworthy that the above-mentioned bureaucratic style of the presented documents mirrors the established conventions of communication in Central Europe and the Balkans of the first half of the 20th century, particularly in state and military affairs, yet also illustrates the specific ’hierarchy’ of various authorities on the occupied territories during World War Two, accentuating the relations between the German organs/institutions in power and the various offices subordinated to the administrative and military system of the Third Reich. As to the information, facts and accounts of events recorded in these documents, they are the subject of the history science and studies related thereto.

A. Č. P.