No. 80

TRANSCRIPT OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE INSTRUCTIONS BY THE SUPREME COMMAND OF THE CHETNIK UNITS OF THE YUGOSLAV ARMY, TO MAJOR ĐORĐE LAŠIĆ AND CAPTAIN PAVLE ĐURIŠIĆ, DATED 20 DECEMBER 1941, ON THE OBJECTIVES OF THE STRUGGLE AND THE METHODS FOR CARRYING THEM OUT, TRANSLATED ON 15 APRIL 1942.^[1]

Transcript

of translation tracing the meaning.

Supreme Command of Chetnik detachments

in the Yugoslav Army

Reg. Doc. 370 of 20. XII. 1941

General Staff Major Mr. Djordon Laschider,^[2] Commander of the Chetniks in the Yugoslav Army in Montenegro, Captain Mr. Pavle Djurischityu^[3], Commander of the Chetnik division in the Lim area, give the following instructions:

Our country is still at war with its centuries-old enemies, Germany and Italy.

Outside our homeland, our beloved King and his Government are fighting in a diplomatic way for the freedom of our people, which, together with our great Allies, is participating in the battles in the Middle East.

Freedom is the greatest good of a nation and that is why we have an obligation to fight with superhuman efforts in the homeland. In the bright light of later history, it will turn out that we shall have expelled the enemy from our beloved homeland.

In this giant struggle, we are not alone, but along with America, England, Russia and all democratic countries, we have great allies. Our victory is certain.

Our army, which was betrayed by many dark elements and which suffered a great catastrophe as a result, has not been defeated. The war is not over yet and there are no winners or losers.

The Chetnik detachments of the Yugoslav Army still exist and with their victorious arms they are in a full combat against the humiliation inflicted on our people.

Our goals are:

1.) The struggle for the freedom of the whole people and His Majesty the King Peter II.

2.) Creation of a great Yugoslavia, and within it of Greater Serbia ethnically clean within the borders of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srem, Banat and Bačka.

3.) Combat on all territories occupied by Italy and Germany, such as Trieste, Gorizia, Istria, Goruška,^[4] one part of Bulgaria, Northern Albania with Skadar^[5].

4.) Cleansing the state of other nationally hostile elements.

5.) Determining the border between Serbia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, removing the Muslims from Sandžak and the Muslims and Croats from Bosnia.

6.) Punishing all Muslims and Ustashas who have committed the great destruction of our people in tragic days.

7.) Punishing all those who are to blame for this catastrophe.

8.) Settlement in these territories of our brothers from Montenegro. (Primarily poor families).

9.) Creation of one body which will then later lead the state in the interest of the people.

10.) The goals are great and all those who join the fight will receive all the acknowledgments.

To do everything and act so that the nationalist elements in Montenegro come to our ranks now, and not to wait and then be unprepared.

The Communists and Partisans cannot be cooperated with because they are against the Dynasty. Only those soldiers and fighters who are for the King and the Fatherland come into consideration.

Use of Chetnik detachments at the moment:

1.) They are partly operating in the valley of the Lim in the direction of Bijelo Polje – Sjenica with the task of clearing this territory of Muslim and Arnaut people. These forces would have to work closely with the divisions from Mts. Javor and Golija.

2.) One part of the forces is operating in the direction of Čakor-Metohija, and the task is to clear this territory of Arnauts and to surround those coming from the direction of Pešter-Sandžak. These forces must cooperate with the forces under No. 1 and the Mt. Kopaonik detachments.

3.) In part, they act on the territory of Nikšić in the direction of the south, so that they break out into the seaside near Dubrovnik and liberate the territories there. These forces must cooperate with Dangić’s left column, which will operate via Mostar.

4.) One part is acting towards the south with the goal at Skadar. Securing the routes toward Montenegro from the Arnaut incursion from Albania.

Treatment: of Arnauts, Muslims and Ustashas.

Treat them as they deserve, and leave them to the civil court for the acts they committed against our people. Treat Croats, who now live under the Italian state, according to their behavior at a given moment.

Organization: For the territory of Montenegro, the commander for all Chetnik units of the Yugoslav Army is Major General Đorđije Lašic. It is important that the headquarters always has operational reports. Propaganda and economic department. The name of this headquarters is: the Command of the Chetnik detachments of the Yugoslav[ian] Army Gorski No. 16.^[6] I am appointing First Class Captain, Mr. Pavle Đurišić, as the Commander of the Lim Chetnik Detachments in the area of the districts of Andrijevica, Berane, Bijelo Polje and Kolašin. All other commanders will be appointed by the Commander for Montenegro, i.e. the Commander of the Lim Detachments for his region.

In the entire work, the most important thing is the struggle for the people, that is, listen to what the people think and do accordingly. As for commandants and commanders, appoint the persons that the people themselves want. To rely fully on our nationalist political fighters, only in this way will this unity and our struggle succeed.

In this struggle, neither one’s own political circumstances nor personal politics will be the driving force. This struggle must have a pure nationalist character and aim at the freedom of our people.

Organization, measures against external influences, oral instruction.

Mr. Pavle Đurišić and the local circumstances.

The self-governing Pashiads^[7] remain as they were on March 27, 1941. If a person among them has been compromised or corrupted and branded as such by the people, he should be replaced.

Give names to individual battalions and divisions from memory. If this is not good, then by the name of the commandant. Form units under commandants and create strong connections between units in the field where they should operate.

Collect weapons and ammunition, warehouses and other bases that are suitable for storing food. Some parts of Montenegro have weapons and ammunition, and some are in short supply. The distribution of weapons within a short time is important.

For this, address Member of Parliament Rašković.

Communication: A radio connection has been established with the General Staff. According to Mr. Rašović’s report, he has an army radio station. The codes for working with the radio communication are with Captain Pavle Đurišić.

Until the connection is established by radio, the work shall be done with the codes and couriers available to the abovementioned captain.

It is known that there are deficient foodstuffs in Montenegro. Therefore, prepare the airfields so that relief is delivered to Montenegro as quickly and efficiently as possible by parachutes. The most suitable geographical place and coordinates should be given to the headquarters as soon as possible.

Men must be stationed at the airfield to take care of the lights when planes arrive.

It is important to provide a channel from the sea to inland, in the hope that help will come from the sea.

The connection with Dangić in Bosnia should be maintained via Gacko, Bileća, Foča and Gelanovica^[8].

Connection with Serbia’s detachments via the Lim Detachment.

Cooperation with the right, nationalist, national-political elements is planned, that is why you must do everything to get Montenegrins involved in this Holy War, to get involved for the future of our people.

You should have the role of people’s leaders, which belongs to you.

After getting acquainted with this proclamation, convene prominent people and other politically well-meaning people, who will have the task of helping our actions.

For accuracy

Peinigg

15. 4. 42.

^[1] АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 44-48. The instruction by General Draža Mihailović to Major Lašić and Captain Đurišić was published in: Zbornik dokumenata i podataka o Narodno-oslobodilačkom ratu naroda Jugoslavije, Book XIV, Vol. 1, Dokumenti četničkog pokreta Draže Mihailovića 1941-1942, Beograd: Vojnoistorijski institut, 1981, 93-100. See also: B. Petranović, Strategija Draže Mihailovića 1941-1945, Beograd: Centar za savremenu istoriju Jugoistočne Evrope, Otkrovenje, 2000, 143-144.

^[2] Đorđe Lašić.

^[3] Pavle Đurišić.

^[4] Koruška, i.e. Carinthia.

^[5] Shkodra/Shkodër in Albanian, Scutari in Italian. – Subeditor’s note.

^[6] In original: Komanda četničkih odreda Jugosl.[ovenske] vojske Gorski Br. 16. – Subeditor’s note.

^[7] In the published document: Governing and self-governing authorities (upravne i samoupravne vlasti).

^[8] Kalinovik.

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.