No. 152

LETTER FROM MAJOR DANGIĆ TO THE COMMANDER OF THE CROATIAN ARMY IN ZVORNIK ON OCTOBER 30, 1941, IN WHICH HE POINTS OUT THAT THEY HAD ORGANIZED THE STRUGGLE BECAUSE OF THE UNPRECEDENTED CRIMES OF THE USTASHA STATE AGAINST THE SERBIAN PEOPLE AND CALLS ON HIM TO STAND UP AGAINST THE CRIMINALS.^[1]

Mountain Headquarters

Bosnian Chetnik Detachment

October 30, 1941

ZONE OF OPERATIONS.

TO THE COMMANDER OF THE CROATIAN ARMY

ZVORNIK.

Upon arrival at the Zvornik sector, I was informed about the detailed talks that my officers, the commanding officers of the Serbian Chetniks, had with you and your officers. I am convinced that some individuals and the public are misinforming you about our insurgent movement, that, what is more, various untruths about us are told, so I consider it my duty to inform you about certain things.

Our national tragedy came only due to mutual distrust and the desire to destroy everything that the Serbian people won after centuries of sanguinary struggles, not only for themselves and the Croats and Slovenes, but especially for the Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other areas.

In the last world war, for our common ideals of justice, freedom and equality, the small Serbian people gave about 1.200,000 lives both on the fronts and in the rear, and then the Croats, and especially the Bosnian šuckori,^[2] proved themselves to be truly bad brothers. Cemeteries in the ravines, mountains and Bosnian forests and around the internment camps are visible witnesses of what we suffered in the background from our bad brothers. However, in 1918 we turned our heads and accepted our slaughterers as brothers, naively believing that it would be understood and jointly transferred to the internal organization of our common state and for a lighter and better future for all of us.

As in many centuries before, we have been deceived for 23 years of our life together, especially after our tragic downfall, to which only and solely our bad brothers have contributed.

The Ustasha state outlawed about 3,000,000 Serbs and ru hed^[3] to deprive us of our leaders as soon as possible, and then destroy us. It is a crime unheard of in the history of mankind. Those who worshipped and prayed to God five times a day and those who knelt in churches and read countless litanies have proved to have nothing in common with God or Christ and Muhammad. Many hypocritical lams^[4] became the bloodiest wolves overnight, and the so-called yesterday’s brothers have proved to be the greatest destroyers of all that was Serbian. You responded to our love with hatred, to our brotherly respect you responded with crimes, unequalled even in the dark times of the ancient history and Middle Ages.

According to the official data, which were submitted to us by the Germans from Belgrade, by the end of August, 280,000 Serbs were killed, burned and destroyed on your territory. Not including later martyrous victims or officers, soldiers and citizens who were killed from the time of April 6 until our capitulation. You were exterminating us at every step and the new generations will talk about the atrocities, and chroniclers will write down the bloodiest and scariest data about it. From the confiscated archives, we have learned what else awaited us. From the captured telegraphic and telephone orders, we saw what would have happened to us, if we had cowardly laid down our weapons. There are more and more new documents because of which the entire Croatian people should be ashamed, not to mention the Muslims, whom we do not consider to be a people, but a fanatical mass, who would slaughter Catholics just as they did with us, because we are equally considered kauri^[5]-infidels. If we just wanted, they would serve us as a weapon in the extermination of Croats, as soon as tomorrow, but we will never do that.

The Serbian people are always fighting only for their own and other peoples’ freedom and for truth and justice. That is why no one will destroy us. In one single day, one Ustasha would slaughter as many Serbs as many did not die in the uprising during our entire fighting. Forests and mountains are our terrain, and so are the paths and hidden routes, our only salvation lies in an organized and systematic struggle, because we can no longer trust the others^[6] who today lead the unfortunate Croatian people under the slogan: all Serbs should be exterminated. Roads will want the Serbs^[7], and I believe they will, but the Serbs killed, not Serb insurgents and fighters, who only defend the bare lives of themselves and of their loved ones.

In the last war, I spent three and a half years in prison as a South Slavic nationalist. In my books, in which I wrote about it, I glorified our brotherly love and harmony, often keeping silent about everything that could cause new frictions between us. But the hope that everything would be better was in vain, you, whom we loved as brothers, whom we caressed and promoted, decorated and pushed forward in every way, became our bad brothers from the first days of the last war. The truth is bitter, too bitter for us, and the consequences of that disappointment will be inevitable.^[8]

About the horrible crimes against our people, books have already been written and sent to all sides. You should know that the Germans and Italians themselves are appalled by that, and many Communists in their countries are crying out for revenge. We are divided everywhere into freedom fighters for the most basic human rights, for man’s life under the sun, and the bloodthirsty and traitors. We know that very well, but you should have known that, too, you who are fighting against us and under whose command there are men you are leading to lose their lives, unaware of what they are fighting for.

While the spirit of Karađorđe is burning in each of our fighters, there are few among you who feel the spirit of Matija Gubec’s struggle, let alone follow him. You attacked the disarmed and frightened Serbian people, our innocent children, mothers and sisters, you set fire to our homes and destroyed our shrines. You who have been trumpeting about a thousand-year-old culture lately. Even if it did exist, one day of torture and extermination of the Serbian people is enough for future centuries and new generations to see you, in the history of mankind, as the greatest vandals and bloodthirsty people. Our pains are immeasurable, the sobs of small children, the cries of afflicted widows and orphans, cry out to heaven, and the desire for just revenge is strengthened thereby.

I will only describe to you what I saw with my own eyes and what my Chetniks and their leaders saw or photographed:

You were killing our helpless people in the cruellest ways. We found the unburied bodies of the Martyrs.^[9] Their legs and arms were broken, their eyes were plucked with knives, and nails were driven into their skulls. Many were skinned alive to the waist, shod in horseshoes, and sawed alive or had their hearts ripped out while they were alive. Boiling water was poured on them to peel their skin more easily, their beards and mustaches were pulled off, and their fingers were cut off to make these martyrs drink the blood from their wounds themselves. To many, the meat was cut into cubes, not to mention the countless raped women and girls, whose bodies they slit open with knives all across, cut their breasts and placed their hands with their fingers cut off under their bodies. In one village, we found two heads of Serbian women left in a pot and baked in an oven. They are exposed for the world to see and will be preserved, as well as countless photographs of all kinds of crimes, to serve as evidence of everything that the Serbian people have been through so far. Not to mention our countless homes that were set on fire with their occupants inside.

After all this, can we talk about believing those who still lead the Croatian people? So should we be naive now, as we have been throughout our life together in the unfortunate Yugoslavia, and believe that the culprits of the Serbian people are being punished? We cannot, gentlemen non-brothers [believe] those that lead and command you. We also had bitter experiences with the Croatian Army. One commander paid 50 Dinar to the Gypsies for every torched Serb house and every Serb he slaughtered behind his door in front of him. Hundreds of captured soldiers live with me as well as with their brothers. God is my witness that they also feel free and like people who were blind and then gained sight. If you want, I will also send you their names and letters that you can send to their families. Let it be known once and for all, that we do not slaughter prisoners as has been done with our noble people and civilian population, and as^[10] you and the Ustashas do with our dead and wounded comrades.

We realize that we no longer have a life together. The only way for you is to stand up and start to fight a holy battle against the criminals in your own milieu who issue orders to you to do so with the purpose to exterminate the Serbian people. You, until yesterday courteous well-bred, cultured officers of the Croatian people allied overnight with the nice^[11] company of Gypsies- Ustashas, with that new Aryan race.

In your newspaper, you called me the leader of a Communist and bandit gang. My past proves to you that I have never been a Communist, and the best proof that I am not the leader of a bandit gang is the fact that I am fighting with my brave Chetniks against bandits, criminals and bloodthirsty people. Time will tell its judgment about each of us, and I am convinced that I will never be ashamed of what I am fighting for, while many of you will not dare to come to light if you still survive your human and national shame.

It depends on you, the military officers and soldiers, whether you will start washing away the shame off the Croatian people in the last minute, if that can still be done. With this, you will never wash it, and neither will a thousand generations to come, nor the Jesuit and apostate class of Croats. A most colorful association took part in the massacres of the Serbian people, some in ornate priestly garments, Ustasha uniforms, fezzes and tattered Gypsy suits took part in the massacre of the Serbian people. The cross and the din^[12] have united, the worshippers of Christ and Muhammad and the infidels, to crush and destroy us. God, justice and Truth are on our side. We are fighting for the brightest ideals of humanity, so we will win.

Major, JEZIMIR^[13] S. DANGIĆ,

^[1] АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 501-503, original in Serbian, in Cyrillic alphabet; АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 495-500, copy translated to German. The translation to German bears the office code III C and the date of translation, May 1, 1942.

^[2] Schutzkorps [šuckori in Serbian spelling], protective corps. Austro-Hungarian paramilitary formations in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the First World War. See: D. Mastilović, „Austrougarska politika prema Srbima u Bosni i Hercegovini 1914. godine”, Leksikon Prvog svetskog rata u Srbiji, Beograd: Institut za savremenu istoriju, Društvo istoričara Srbije „Stojan Novaković”, 2015, 234-235.

^[3] A letter missing in the word (po urila), probably: požurila (rushed).

^[4] Lambs. In Serbian: jaganci instead of jaganjci.

^[5]Kaurin (Sg., kauri, Pl.) in the Serbian language comes from Turkish gâur, a derogatory word for a non-Muslim, or ‘infidel’. – Subeditor’s note.

^[6] Those. Error in Serbian: inima written instead of onima.

^[7] Paraphrased line from a Serbian epic poem about the revolt against the Ottomans. – Subeditor’s note.

^[8] Inevitable. Error in Serbian: neminovna written instead of neminovne.

^[9] Martyrs. Error in Serbian: Mičenika written instead of Mučenika.

^[10] The way. Error in Serbian: kao written instead of kako.

^[11] Here, as rather often, the adjective lep (‘nice’) is used ironically. – Subeditor’s note.

^[12] The Turkish word ‘dĭn’ means ‘faith’, ‘religion’, usually referring to Islam. – Subeditor’s note.

^[13] Jezdimir.

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.