REPORT OF OBRAD MIĆIĆ TO THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ZBOR ORGANIZATION IN BELGRADE, ON THE SITUATION IN TUZLA AND EASTERN BOSNIA, IN WHICH HE REQUESTS INTERVENTION DUE TO THE CRIMES OF HADŽIEFENDIĆ’S LEGION.[1]
The following letter of 16. IV. 1942 has arrived from Eastern Bosnia, Tuzla, on the situation there.
Since July 1941, it seems to me that I have spent barrels of ink, writing whole novels, but not some fictional novels, yet descriptions of events, horrible events that are here before my eyes and that I had to experience. Sometimes it seems to me that I am a sleepwalker and that this is just a fabrication of my darkened spirit.
But, alas, it is unfortunately just an unimaginable reality and I write, and write again, and even just what I reported today seems to me that it should be enough to make the Germans see the serious reality, to see that by tolerating this situation alone, they only give impetus to Communism. Still, it seems that everything will remain the same.
Yet I continue to write: “Write, Mito,[2] about the fact that before the Almighty I remain a witness that no one will listen to you.” And I do it, and I write and I write, according to my conscience.
Since January, when I submitted a report to you in Belgrade on some issues of religion and economy, as well as on the political situation, a lot has changed in our country. Since my return, the Muslims have turned for 180°. Until then, they had behaved fairly correctly. There was violence in the villages, and in the cities the situation was taken advance of in the most zealous way, albeit within the limits of possibilities, in order for them to get rich at the expense of the Serbs. This is how the Muslims themselves behaved after the conversion of the inhabitants of Brčko to the Roman Catholic faith and were very upset, especially when a pogrom was launched against us in the period around Christmas – which was thwarted by the local German command by a proclamation that no religious persecution would be tolerated.
Then came the promises about Eastern Bosnia, which – as you know better, were thwarted by Politcom outside Serbia’s borders.
Sensing the danger, the Ustasha (Frankist[3], or better said Jesuit) regime – which considered the Muslims were unreliable – made one skillful chess move.
With great enthusiasm, propaganda was launched through the press, radio and orally through civil servants, and especially among the Muslims, about the alleged massacre of Muslims by Chetniks. According to this, over 100,000 Muslims were allegedly killed in Eastern Bosnia (Vlasenica, Srebrenica and in the direction of Sarajevo), all mosques were allegedly burned down and the Chetniks allegedly proclaimed the slogan that there was no space for both peoples.
They especially attacked Dangić: his hatred of Muslims was emphasized. He was also accused not only of tolerating the persecution of Muslims but also of organizing it. On the other hand, the Communists were praised for treating Muslims correctly, but the Chetniks were treated as enemies in the most horrible way.
The local Turkish[4] mob is lazy, indolent and fatalistic, but if it seems fanatical and if Din (the belief of the Prophet) is questioned, then it turns into an invincible horde. – And as soon as the propaganda reached its peak, they found the leader of the Muslim volunteer units, the so-called “Legion of the People’s Uprising for the Fight Against Communism”, in the person of Mohamed Hadžiefendić[5] (a Tivar[6] suits merchant and former Yugoslav reserve officer). All possible criminal individuals gathered there, and their commanders mostly came from the Zenica Prison.
Their very appearance is disgusting: – Dressed in rags, with Asian-style grimaces from which stupidity and religious fanaticism emanate. Many faces are mutilated by endemic lues – syphilis. These people were entrusted with weapons and sent to the villages with the conviction that they could not exist side by side with the Serbs. Up to 6,000 people have now been deployed. They have been formed in all districts in the County (Prefecture) of Tuzla.
They have one major (based in Tuzla or Zagreb) in the command of the chief of staff in Tuzla and two Muslim officers. This horde is commanded by people who are of exactly the same quality as the people who make up their units (idiots and robbers – mostly peasants). Officers cannot be seen in the combat sectors at all and there is neither discipline nor responsibility there.
The main task of this legion is to plunder, kill, beat and burn the villages in the rear. Any conflict with those who are armed is avoided, there is only gunfire, and then they go to peaceful villages to kill there. Their action started already in February and March, so they have done terrible things so far. Today, it is clear to me what was intended to be achieved. A respectable, serious Muslim, Časimbeg[7] Gradašević, told me indignantly: “There will be great evil if Belgrade (Serbs) comes, and I can’t wait for that.” When the danger for Eastern Bosnia became apparent, Zagreb managed to fanatize the Muslim scum and make them accomplices in the atrocities in order to create a joint Croat-Muslim combat front, which of course had to lead to them being comrades in destiny.
I have sent a report on the events of 8. II. 1942 in the villages around Tuzla: Kolimer, Potraj[8] and Gornja Požarnica.
The legionnaires were involved in the battle with the Chetniks from Mount Majevica. The failure of the Legionaries had to be paid for by the villages. Kolimer, as the nearest village, had to suffer the most. It was completely burned down, and whoever could save their life fled to the hills or other villages.
On 8. III. and 1. IV. the events were repeated. There is not a single living being in Kolimer now. Several other people live in Crljevina, Potraj[9] and Požarnica, but all their property has been taken away: food, clothes, cattle, tools and all the furniture. On two to three occasions, 70-80 people were deprived of their lives, regardless of age or gender.
When the Chetniks managed to expel the Communists from Mount Majevica in February, a group of Communists withdrew to Vlasenica. In order to cut off and capture this group, the Chetniks informed the Croatian command (that is, the Turkish komitadjis[10]) through the village headman of the Serb village of Dubnica about the exact time and direction when and where the Reds would pass. The Croatian-Turkish Legionnaires did not move a finger and allowed the Reds a free passage, as if it did not concern them at all.
Thus, the Communists, unhindered, with a force of about 200-300 armed men, peacefully penetrated to reach Dubnica. The village had to provide them with accommodation overnight, all the more so as the village was left almost completely without male population, given that almost all the men were driven to a concentration camp in autumn (in shirts and underpants – so that hardly any of them have remained alive).
And when the Reds marched the next morning, the brave Legionaries threw themselves on the village and, as a “punishment”, stabbed everyone they came across in the village. After that, the village was, of course, looted and set on fire.
What is stated here are just some examples from the immediate vicinity of the city of Tuzla. I will not report on atrocities for which I do not have a reliable confirmation.
One thing is certain, however, and that is that it cannot be understood whether we are in the 20th century in the year nineteen forty-two of the new era, or we are in the time of Timurlenk or Genghis Khan.
What I am reporting about is absolutely true. On Sunday, I saw a group of refugees from Jeginov Lug pass by. Escorted by gendarmes, half-naked, barefoot people are dragging themselves through the street in terrible pain. A sight I will not forget as long as I live. What more shall I have to see?
I haven’t been to my pharmacy at all since Sunday, because I was completely preoccupied with accommodating refugees. We hardly calmed down a bit when there occurred new mass murders in the village of Rojnice-Mitrovići. I raised the alarm in the town command[11] – first for Jeginov Lug and then for Mitrovići. The report was sent to Belgrade. I did the same for Sarajevo and Zagreb.
It happened this way: The village of Tupković consists of one Serbian and another Turkish part. The Turkish Legionaries invaded the Serbian part and began to kill, plunder and burn. When the Chetniks heard about this, they attacked (in agreement with the Reds, who were apparently the natives of the village) the Turkish part of the village and retaliated in the same way. The Turkish population, however, managed to escape for the most part. However, in retaliation, two peaceful Serb villages were destroyed in a cowardly and insidious manner.
I was with the deputy chief executive (the deputy chief executive – the head of the district was not appointed) and I asked him a question: “Tell me, my lord, do you believe in God?” (This gentleman’s name is Nedjelski,[12] and he goes to the church every day – despite his distinct Jewish physiognomy). When I told him about the atrocities, he pretended to be unacquainted, as if he knew nothing about it. He gave 100 kg of corn flour for 25 refugees. The initiated action of gathering contributions among the population will alleviate the fate of the poor. They are partly located in the village of Čaklovice,[13] may the Turkish hyenas not appear there. No one from the other villages remained except one man and three children.
I am enclosing a letter by the Serb peasants from Požarnica – in which they are asking for protection, because the danger is great.
And if now the Chetniks or the Reds, in retaliation for two Serbian villages, set fire to a Turkish village, then the last remaining villages around Tuzla would disappear from the face of the Earth.
These gangs of Turks must be disarmed inevitably and immediately, because there is an intention to form these in the entire district. You know what that would mean. That is why I beg you for support. These gangs have neither the will nor the courage to attack either the Reds or the Chetniks. Yet instead, they’ll wipe out another village every day. The very idea of it is horrible: There is a peaceful village. Families, father, mother, children live in their houses, they all do their hard work, just to survive. Suddenly, looting hordes invade and in ten minutes – they all become corpses. In their houses, the executioner’s assistants rob and devour and then burn the village in a fire.
And the questions are: who of the survivors can still believe in God and justice? Whither will despair and disappointment take them? Who will receive and possibly abuse them?
If there is God and humanity in people, if the strong, who preach about the New Europe, believe in truth and law, then they cannot allow this. Don’t you realize that with the formation of the Independent State of Croatia on Yugoslav territory, you suffered a spiritual defeat and that your enemy, Communism, stands there as a spiritual winner. If you had turned to your ideological relatives after the occupation of Yugoslavia, then peace would have been ensured, the economy intact and social conditions would have improved. That would be your victory. Jewish deceptions and lies about Germany would fall like a house of cards and our people would be spiritually liberated and better.
However, with the formation of the Independent State of Croatia, instead of order and peace, there have occurred anarchy and civil war, and then perhaps famine, misery and general catastrophe. And there was an immediate defeat, because this happened immediately after the occupation by German troops. And the Communists only needed to point the finger at these facts, and that is a heavy weapon in their hands when it is difficult to fight. In the end, in order to put a crown on this comedy, the torchbearers of this New World Order, the National Socialist ideology, are black clericals have turned up here. As their right hand there stand the turbans-wearing Turks who are still marching in the spirit of Suleiman the Magnificent’s time.
There are longing whispers, and even more dreams, of a separate German administration over Eastern Bosnia. The Serbs would be overjoyed, and especially the poor peasant, whose life is worse today than when he was a slave in the time of the Huns and Tatars. There was talk of 15. IV… The district chiefs in Tuzla and Doboj were recalled, even the mayors, and there was a belief that this was the beginning of something that was so longingly expected. Unfortunately none of that came true. Instead, the new Ustashas came and took the grammar school for their barracks. And hope was lost again.
It is an interesting and reassuring case that the Catholics from the vicinity of Tuzla (and especially from the north) behave extremely peacefully and correctly. At the beginning, they did not want to take rifles at all (all Muslims and Catholics are armed) – that is the people’s uprising, that legion!), but as the Muslims started their reign of terror, out of wise caution, they also acquired weapons. The only exception are the outbursts of individuals against the Serbs. For example, a group of 38 refugees from Jeginov Lug begged me to get them passes to the Catholic villages of Pasce,[14] Mosluke,[15] because they are safer there from the Turks than in Čaklovići. The inhabitants there belong to Maček’s party, and considering that there are a lot of workers in the industry there, it is possible that they are also red.
Or is it again a chapter of Catholic Jesuit politics: Divide et impera? Only let the Serbs and the Turks destroy each other; we will stand aside – we are not so numerous, and when they bleed well enough, then we will bring them the only blessed faith of the Holy Roman Church. I believe in this assumption, because when I complain to the Catholics of the killings, then indignation automatically starts against the atrocities of the Turks. And when I draw their attention to the fact that the Turks lived here in Yugoslavia and did not make any outbursts, because there were authorities who did not give any weapons to such suspicious individuals in their evil hands, they were obliged to answer me.
The game of the Black International[16] is clear.
If a war between Germany and Turkey breaks out, then this fanatical Turkish mob will become an Islamic-Communist, or to put it better, a religious-Communist monster of Bosnian hills and forests. And then the Germans will have to realize their mistake. I certainly do not want any new war, because I am convinced of the necessity of a quick liquidation of the Russian Bolshevism, considering that otherwise we will all disappear into the abyss, but because of these janissaries, a contrary secret desire erupts in me now and then.
They have to be taught a lesson once and for all. No one has restrained these beasts yet. At one time, Turkey caressed them as orthodox, Austro-Hungary pampered them, we will not even mention Yugoslavia at all (Spaho,[17] Spaho, Spaho!). And now they have become the “most beautiful flowers”[18] of Croatdom, who are killing, and if the political situation changes, they will take their newest protectors to the guillotine.
I see that I have preoccupied you too much with this letter of mine. It seems to me that I am sitting with you – in Zbor – and talking about our misery.
Comrades, I am pressuring you to do whatever you know, pray, beg in the name of infants and unborn children, for the Germans to disperse these looting gangs. Because, what the Turks are doing and what they will do, belongs in straightjacket or before a shooting squad.
From Tuzla to Zvornik, along the main road, there are no more Serb settlements. But Hadži Efendic[19] is organizing the whole district, he is to become the division commander. His bloodthirsty dogs are marching everywhere. Act fast, comrades, this is about human lives, which will either go to the afterworld or join the Reds. Read the appeal paper from Požarnica. I live in constant fear that someone from Požarnica or Čaklovici[20] will break into my house to tell me the worst of news.
It is pressing. It is extremely urgent. I hope for a positive answer.
It would not be enough just to disarm the Legion, for because the villages are full of weapons, the Germans must offer the possibility of Draconian reprisals in each case of looting, arson and murder. Only then can success be counted on. – In Sarajevo, the Germans disarmed the Ustashas and took hostages without any regard to religion.
[1] АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 365-369.
[2] This probably refers to the leader of Zbor, Dimitrije Ljotić.
[3] Frankovački in the original, i.e. referring to Frankists (frankovci), adherents of Josip Frank, Croatian nationalist movement that founded (1895) the Pure Party of Rights (Čista stranka prava). The Frankist programme identified the Serbs as the enemies of the Croatian nation and maintained campaigns against the Kingdom of Serbia and Yugoslavists. – Subeditor’s note.
[4] The adjective ‘Turkish’ is mostly used as an equivalent of ‘Muslim’. – Subeditor’s note.
[5] Muhamed Hadžiefendić.
[6] “Tivar” was the name of Varaždin-based factory that produced ready-to-wear suits. – Subeditor’s note.
[7] Ćazim beg.
[8] Potraš, Kolimer.
[9] Potraš.
[10] The name used in the Balkans for various bands of irregular troops. – Subeditor’s note.
[11] German local/town command (Ortskommandantur) in Tuzla.
[12] Felix Niedzielsky; Tko je tko u NDH, 294 (M. Pojić).
[13] Čaklovići.
[14] Pasci.
[15] Unidentified village.
[16] Roman Catholic Church.
[17] Mehmed Spaho, President of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization and minister in the governments of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
[18] “Najlepše cveće”.
[19] Muhamed Hadžiefendić.
[20] Čaklovići.