No. 150
THE LETTER “A NEW ORDER IN CROATIA” ABOUT THE POLICY OF ANNIHILATION OF THE SERBS THAT PROVOKED THE SERBIAN UPRISING, ABOUT THE CONFLICT BETWEEN CHETNIKS AND PARTISANS AND THE COOPERATION OF PARTISANS WITH THE USTASHAS FOR THE PURPOSE OF DESTROYING THE CHETNIKS AND ABOUT THEIR LOYALTY TO THE “NEW ORDER”.[1]
Source Dangić – Chetnik and Zbor[2]
III A for RSHA 1 + 3 (illegible)
With commentary by W.V. [3] for III 28. 4. 42.[4]
A NEW ORDER IN CROATIA
On April 10, 1941, with the fall of Yugoslavia, the state of Croatia was formed, one of the new members of the “New Order”. This new order, which was mostly brought by the Croatian emigrants from abroad, was in fact nothing more than a copy of the medieval inquisition. Filled with tribal and religious hatred, these new “leaders” began to incite peaceful Croatian citizens against Serbs, “invoking a thousand-year-old morality.” “Dark Byzantinism” was the cause of a human slaughter like no other in history. Thousands of innocent people were shot, burned and drowned in quick lime, just because they were of the Orthodox faith.
The leaders of the Ustashas pushed hundreds of loyal Croats – Catholics and Muslims – into the fight against the Serbs, explaining that the Serbs, being of the Orthodox faith, needed to disappear from the face of the “centuries-old Croatian soil”. Not a single Serb or German today needs to to be told of the atrocities of the Croats and Muslims committed from July 1941 to April this year, because they are well known, and the horror was reflected on the faces of those few thousands who were able to escape to Serbia.
This unbearable situation encouraged the Serbian patriots who managed to escape into the woods, to start an uncompromising fight against the Ustasha regime. From the Kupa to the Drina and south of the Sava, on this very large territory which belonged to Croatia and which is Serb in terms of population, a national uprising soon broke out, now strong now weak.
This unstoppable revolt was especially pronounced in the territory between the rivers Bosna and Drina. Here, individual groups, later detachments, troops and battalions, and eventually numerous formations of several tens of thousands of people, united in the forests. That is how an army was created, which should and must be reckoned with, and this army is fighting for one thing only: for the salvation of bare life and national existence and only against the Ustashas in order to prevent further bloodshed of the Serbian people.
During many battles, it was shown that the Croatian army would not fight, and in countless examples, it expressed its sympathy for the Chetnik- national fight against the Ustashas.
The Croatian state propaganda, considering that it is facing such a state of affairs, has tried, and still is trying, to present the struggle of the national Chetniks as a plundering-Communist one to the foreign, and especially German, people. Every day, Croatian newspapers, whenever it came to fights with Chetniks, wrote only about conflicts with “Chetnik-Communist gangs”. And through the press and radio, they wanted to give this gigantic fight an attribute that was misplaced. Ustasha propaganda showed to the Croats abroad the struggle for life and national existence as a struggle of Serbian bandits who plunder Muslim villages and kill Croats and Muslims.
While thousands of Serbs died in the most horrible torments in Croatia, Muslims were incited to further bloodshed, claiming that the Serbs wanted to annihilate the Muslims. Numerical data were even found in Croatian newspapers, and photographs of mutilated corpses could even be seen of allegedly killed Muslims and Croats. The fact was that these photographs were actually original images of the massacred Serbs.
This propaganda even went so far as to say that the Chetniks were killing the Germans and that the uprising directed against the Ustasha terror was directed against the German Reich. It is well known that it was on the 11th of January when the first report on the arrival of German units in Bosnia was issued, Major Jezdimir Dangić took all measures to prevent a conflict between the Chetniks and the Germans. The German army is aware of the fact that during the punitive expedition on January 14th, there was not a single conflict between the Chetniks and the Germans.
The Croats constantly claimed that the Chetniks were cooperating with the Communists. In reality, it was the Croats who led the Communist gangs. The Croats supported the Communists only to resist the Chetnik action.
The fact that there has always been an agreement between the Croats and the Communists stems from the fact that the Chetniks, until they found out who they were dealing with, the Communists, which was a very rare case, held their position together and constantly got into a difficult situation.
After the famous conference in Vlasenica, which was held on November 16 by the representatives of Chetniks and Communists,[5] that is, from that day onwards, and given that the Chetniks were waging an uncompromising fight against the Communists, the Supreme Headquarters of the Partisan units issued a leaflet stating, among other things: “… the desired agreement could not be reached at the conference. And why? Because Major Dangić will not do that.” As a reason for that, the leaflet states that Major Dangić is against the National Liberation Committee and demands from the Serbs to fight against the Muslims and Ustashas, and that they, i.e. the Partisans, want the people themselves through the National Liberation Committee to “fix it”, and that the Partisans are also for the cooperation of the “respectable” Serbs with Muslims and Croats. “We invite all respectable people under our flag, whether they are Serbs, Muslims or Croats, who are willing to fight against the occupier and against domestic traitors, whether they are called Nedić, Pećanac or Draža Mihajlović.”
It is clear that Dangić could not cooperate with such elements as the Partisans, for the simple reason that the Partisans preached on the one hand a conciliatory attitude towards the Muslims and Ustashas, and on the other hand because they roared against the leaders of the Serbian people and their occupier. The national Chetniks from Bosnia have noticed very well that their fight will become meaningless the moment they take up arms against the occupier. They were always careful not to give any reason for any conflict between them and the Germans. The Partisans wanted to take advantage of this moment, and they supported this by saying that the Chetnik leaders were “the fifth column” and “mercenaries” and that they were working in the interest of the Germans. From November 16 onwards, the Chetniks considered the Partisans, as well as the Ustashas, to be their enemies. This bad relationship between the Chetniks and the Communists was further aggravated by the murder of Major B. Todorović[6] by the Communists. Since that moment, there have been more and more killings of Chetnik commanders. The Communists killed the following men on Christmas: Slavko Marić, Vlado Kovačević, Vlado Mijajev, Milan Nićiforović, Branko Knežević, Milan Birčanin, Dušan Milosavljević and Dragoljub Bojić, with the explanation that these commanders were sent by the “treacherous” government in Belgrade. The extradition of Dr. Levi by the Bosnian Chetniks to the Serbian authorities literally infuriated the Communists. From that moment on, the Communists tried to kill as many Chetnik commanders as possible in order to avenge Dr. Levi[7] and other Partisans. The Ustashas were very helpful in that.
When the Ustashas launched a punitive expedition with the help of the so-called Black Legions in March, the Communists were the striking force of this expedition. The Communists, who were probably let in by the Italians on the Lim bridge by agreement, approached the Chetniks from behind. With the takeover of Srebrnik[8], Milići, Bratunac and Drinjac[9] by the Communists, the first article in the Ustasha program related to the liquidation of the Bosnian uprising was achieved. It must be noted that the Communist penetration happened just at the time when the Chetniks recorded great successes near Sokolac and Han Pjesak.[10]
The second article of the Ustasha program after breaking the rear was breaking the front lines. Here, too, the Communists served the Ustashas as weapons. As soon as they took up positions in the rear, the Communists issued orders for mobilization and orders for the front, so that from now on they would be subordinated to the Communist government. A large number of the officers, unit commanders and older Chetniks, who knew what “Communist government” meant, tried to stop the Communist action. All the others, unless they were lucky enough to escape to the Serbian territory, were killed in the most horrible ways. In those positions that the Communists could put under their control, an agreement was immediately reached with the Ustashas. Thus, at the position near Drinjača, according to the credible statements by the witnesses, among which were the statements of Lieutenant Radovan Bulatović, there were open talks between the Ustashas and the Partisans. It is certain that the commander of the Communist brigade who was in Drinjača joined the Ustashas with a large number of his men and fought the Chetniks together with them. The same commander, whose nickname was Španac[11], gave a speech during his defection to the Ustashas.
One woman, who fled from Vijogor,[12] reported that she recognized six Partisans whom she had previously fed among the Ustashas who set fire to her village.
From the original statement of Srećko Živković,[13] a farmer, which reads: “The Ustashas brought me, beaten and bloodied, to a house where the massacre continued. One Ustasha, who beat me with a revolver and who ridiculed me, said to me: You ugly freak, did you want to go to Serbia, to Nedić, damn you, you think we wouldn’t find you there. Just wait until we clear the country a little (he meant, from the Chetniks), then we will come over there and no child will stay in the cradle.
Another Ustasha also hit me and asked me if I was a Partisan. When I answered him that I was just a Serb, he said to me: You see there in the corner, he was also a Serb, but he is a better Serb than you, because he is a man, a Partisan,[14] and he fights together with us. When I looked there, I noticed an armed man in civilian clothes. It was really a Partisan.”[15]
It follows from the above statement that the Ustashas cooperated with the Communists and that they also sometimes used them to torture Serbs.
Breaking the rear created chaos at the front. The chaos also increased because the entire front was placed under the “control” of the Communists. As mentioned earlier, the Chetniks, who did not want to fight under the communist “control”, left their positions and retreated to the impassable hills. The Ustashas took advantage of their departure from the front to conquer many places in the interior of the so-called liberated eastern Bosnia together with the Communists. The arrival of the Ustashas was announced with the burning of many Serbian houses. The route taken by the Ustashas was clearly marked by the corpses of the killed men, women and children. The atrocity of the Ustasha-Communists cannot be described. The hundreds of corpses I came across along the way, the charred ruins of the Serbian houses, where you can see here and there a few people looking for something, are the best proof of the degree of millennial culture for which the Ustashas are fighting.
I saw a woman, about 35 years old, who was killed by the Ustashas. Her right ear was completely cut off. In the place where the left eye used to be, a trace of burning was clearly visible. There were seven stab wounds on the body, all of which were fatal. The stab under the neck, between the chest and above the hips, which can be clearly seen in the attached photos, can shed light on the psychological level of the Ustasha killers.
Directly on the bank of the Drina and at the place where the massacre that Srećko Živković[16] told us about took place, I was personally convinced that the found pool of blood came from ten people who had been killed. About 10 m away from the bank, in one hollow, I even found the remains of a corpse, of which only a few poor bones remained, a large pool of blood and a torn piece of frock; a little farther in a bush I saw a cradle and below it was the corpse of a child barely 5 months old. Some 15 m deeper I could photograph a dog that was just pulling the entrails of a corpse. The villagers invited me to come a few miles away, and there I could photograph four skulls in the water. On the bank itself, the remains of human corpses that dogs were dragging away and pieces of clothing could be seen.
A young man told me that more than 5 men and women were killed on this site, as well as a large number of children. When I asked where their bodies were, he said that he saw from the Serbian side how they were thrown into the Drina.
I photographed the atrocities of the Ustashas, and that is just a small picture of what the Ustashas did. I enclose the photos with the letter.
To illustrate these terrible events, I cite several statements whose original is with the competent services in Belgrade and Užice, from which it can be clearly seen with what bestiality the Ustashas acted against the Serbs.
Bulat Branko, a teacher, tells us:
… For seven hours I stood motionless in the water under the bridge so as not to give myself away. All that time, the Ustashas brought men, women and mostly children who could not escape from there to the half-destroyed bridge, slaughtered them and then threw them into the Drina. At dusk, I could see a body, which had not been completely executed, trying in vain to save itself in bloody water … I think that that night[17]
Young Jovan Nikolić, 17, tells the story:
… Our joint household had 23 members before the Ustashas came. My father was in a position somewhere, and I don’t know where he is. When the Ustashas penetrated from Kravica, they killed almost all my family members during the night. There were my grandfather, my aunt, her children as well as my mother and her children. All three houses in which we lived were set on fire by the Ustashas, and I was the only one who managed to escape from there. My mother and sisters were burned in the house because the Ustashas did not allow them to leave the house. And now, from the whole joint household, I am left alone and maybe my father whose whereabouts I don’t know. I don’t know where to go and I don’t know what I’m going to do now …
Milanović Uglješa, the son of a priest in Šabac, during the hear.[ing] on April 19, reported the following, among other things: I had 4 posters with me that read against Dangić and Račić.[18] They were labelled as cowards who betrayed the people. The poster further read “Germans will come to Bosnia to extinguish the freedom of the people. We have made an alliance with the Ustashas and we will help them to occupy [illegible] the whole of Bosnia, because we prefer the Ustashas to rule in Bosnia than the Germans.”[19] In their posters, signed by the Proletarian Brigade, the Ustashas are allies, and the disarmament of the Chetniks is demanded …
I know that at the time when the Ustashas were in Vlasenica, and the Partisans in Šehović,[20] there was a communication via courier. Although Šehovići[21] is 12 km away from Vlasenica and from there the road runs to Kladanj, the Ustashas did not go to Šehovići,[22] where the Partisans were, but they went around it. Also, during the entire period, neither side attacked the other, they only attacked the Chetniks, the Ustashas from the front and the Partisans from the back – in Bratunac, while the Partisans from the front and the Ustashas from behind in Vlastenica.[23]
I note that the commander of Vlasenica is a Muslim, a Partisan, who had his troops in Vlasenica. His troops left Vlasenica half an hour before the arrival of the Ustashas, while he stayed and gave a speech to the Ustashas. Also, one Partisan, Muja Satrović, joined the Ustashas together with 3-4 hundred Partisans-Turkish[24], and is fighting against the Chetniks.
I know that the Partisan transport with grains, in agreement with the Ustashas, went to Mt. Romanija through Han Pijesak, which is held by the Ustashas …”
In addition to the above statement, which can be completely trusted, because it is not the only one, there is also the statement of the Chetnik Borisav Miličević, a native of Olov,[25] who came to Serbia a few days ago, in which he states, among other things:
The Ustasha guard captured our Chetnik Miladin Mitrović and took him to Šlebov.[26] He was taken out to be shot four times, but thanks to the Commander of Šlebovo,[27] Francetić, he was released in order to inform the Chetniks that they should deliver weapons to the Chetniks. He came to Han Pijesak. Momčilović interrogated him first, and during the interrogation he stated that he had seen a Partisan come to the Ustashas who took him to Francetić. The Partisan handed Francetić a letter, and then returned. When the Ustashas interrogated me and photographed me with a belt with cartridges in a Chetnik uniform, I saw a Partisan courier coming and leaving again.
I also know that the Partisans receive ammunition from the Ustashas in Sarajevo.
The Partisans were the first to go to Bratunac and loot it, followed by the Ustashas. The Partisans, after looting, returned to Crni Vrh near Sarajevo, next to the Ustashas, without firing a single bullet at each other. I can swear on what has been said.
On the occasion of the above events, which are not only known in Bosnia and Serbia, but also in great Germany and Italy, we sincere patriots and supporters of the NEW ORDER in Europe ask ourselves, how much longer will the Germans tolerate the Ustasha regime? It is needless to prove to anyone that it was the Ustashas who have caused the Bosnian uprising because of the unprecedented massacre.
The Serbian people on the territory of the state of Croatia, even though they make up 65% of the population, would remain loyal if they found jobs and security there.
If the Croatian state continues with the old practice of bloodshed and murder, it will never be possible to suppress the uprising of the Serbian people.
We the Serbs are convinced of that and we are proud to know that we are the only nation in the Balkans that the idea of a New Europe[28]
We wonder if this is the new arrangement and the new order:
To kill over half a million innocent people in a bestial way.
To burn thousands and thousands of people alive in brickyards and in the unslaked lime.
To empty whole districts of their inhabitants, burn them and turn them to ashes. To leave thousands without their church.
To leave thousands without a school.
To confiscate the property of thousands turning them into proletarians. To carry out forced conversion.
To kill a nation’s priests and physicians, professors and other intelligentsia,
To exterminate an entire nation.
We rightly wonder if the Germans really believe that the Ustashas are the ones who should be the bearers of the New Order. If the Germans do believe that, then what the Ustashas are doing is perhaps that NEW ORDER, and then how can we the Serbs preserve our strength?
The Germans should not justify themselves by giving the Serbs the opportunity to live, for the grave of Serbdom lies right in those parts that now belong to the Croats.
We refer to the words of the great Führer, Adolf Hitler, under whose wise leadership a new Europe is emerging today: “The right of man treads the right of the state.” These words make the further existence of the state of Croatia impossible, because if anywhere, it is in Croatia that the right of man needs to tread the right of the state. In his book “Mein Kampf”, Hitler said great words: “The people, who succumb in the fight for their right to life and at the same time put their destiny at stake, and thus their existence, will by all means be put at risk in this world.”
The Serbian people, sticking to these words, entered the fight for their existence and will persevere in it. The Serbian people will not lay down their arms as long as the Ustasha terror lasts, and such a situation will in no way lead to calming down and normalization of relations, which the Serbs so sincerely want.
We the Serbs know that only from the moment our national demands are met, we will be able to conscientiously and constructively cooperate on the great Führer’s idea and on the realization of the New Order. The chivalrous attitude of the German Reich towards the Serbs on Serbian soil after the capitulation, won the whole of Serbia over to the idea of a new Europe, and the Serbs are convinced that the Germans will give the Serbs the possibility and opportunity to show the whole world in their homeland, which will be created as a great Serbia through their constructive participation in the building of a new Europe gain the right for their existence.
Attachment: 15 photos, statements by
Milićević Borisav from Olovo, Čupović Mihailo from Doboj,
Milanović Uglješa from Šabac.
[1] АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 489-493. See also Figs. 21 to 25.
[2] Handwritten note on the margin.
[3] W.V. unknown abbreviation.
[4] Both rows are handwritten notes.
[5] R. Čolaković, Zapisi iz oslobodilačkog rata, Book 2, 240-251.
[6] Boško Todorović; See: J. Tomašević, Četnici u Drugom svjetskom ratu 1941-1945, translated from English by N. Petrak, Zagreb: Globus, 1979, 148-149.
[7] Dr. Avram Levi Kurt, fighter of the Užice Partisan Detachment, then the Commissar of the Partisan hospital in Užice, shot in the camp at Banjica on April 17, 1942; J. Romano, Jevreji Jugoslavije 1941-1945, 427.
[8] Srebrenica.
[9] Drinjača.
[10] Han Pijesak.
[11] Španac means ‘Spaniard’. – Subeditor’s note.
[12] Viogor.
[13] See document number 124 in this book. The name should read: Srećko Živanović.
[14] In the statement by Srećko Živanović stands: Communist.
[15] This sentence does not exist in the statement of S. Živanović.
[16] Živanović
[17] End of sentence missing.
[18] Captain Dragoslav Račić, Commander of the (Mt.) Cer Chetnik Detachment, as of December 1941 Chetnik commander in eastern Bosnia; Zbornik NOR, Book XIV, Vol. 1, Beograd: Vojnoistorijski institut, 1981, 14, 174
[19] The Serbian text reads: “Nemci će doći u Bosnu kako bi ugasili slobodu naroda. Sklopili smo savez sa ustašama i pomagaćemo im u tome da zauzmu (nečitko) celu Bosnu, jer više volimo da u Bosni vladaju ustaše nego Nemci.” – Subeditor’s note.
[20] Šekovići.
[21] Same as previous.
[22] Same as previous.
[23] Vlasenica.
[24] The word ‘Turks’ habitually stands for ‘Muslims’. – Subeditor’s note.
[25] Olovo.
[26] Žljebovi.
[27] Same as previous.
[28] Unfinished sentence, yet in the Serbian text just one word missing. – Subeditor’s note.