The Agony of Yugoslavia

by Milan Banic

14 January 2004

Greetings! I have translated this text (well, more like a book) several weeks ago and I want it to get a good exposure. So I'm thinking what better place than VNN! The book deals with the influence of English propaganda on the Yugoslav political circles before WWII and the demise that followed. It also mentions the obnoxious jews, the commies, the bombing of Belgrade and in the last two chapters it paints an extremely positive portrait of the German Army - something people don't get (truth) when they watch "History Channel." So read it over if you want to and either e-mail me when you come to a decision or just put it up on VNN. You could put it in several parts or as a whole on one page.... that's for you to decide. Thanks in advance! Sincerely, R_S =================================================== The Agony of Yugoslavia by Milan Banic -THE DAYS OF COLLAPSE, 1941- GERMANS IN BULGARIA! Bulgaria has signed the pact! The government of Gen. Filov allowed the German Army entrance into Bulgaria, and German troops, like avalanche, advanced from the Northern to Southern Bulgaria, striving to get to its border with Greece and Yugoslavia as soon as possible! When Belgrade got to know about these developments, its temperature went up. It was a common feeling that the hour of decision was here; that it has to be chosen between war and peace; that we have to decide to cooperate with Germany, with the Axis, or that we have to go to war against them. In that fateful hour, the English propaganda came to its apogee in Belgrade and in the whole of Yugoslavia. This propaganda attacked systematically and was well thought-out, from the beginning of the new European War. It was led by a perfectly organized headquarters, which of course had a big mercenary and voulanteer "army", so it didn't just stop itself at publishing and putting out anti-German pamphlets, fliers and brochures, bulletins and caricatures, but with its "direct action" it infiltrated our national life, penetrating into all parts of our society. For good honorarium, these headquarters for English thing suceeded in winning over the restaurant/cafe music scene, so that in the most visited Belgrade (and provincial) restaurants, over the months, the music they played was "Tipperary", adding to this well known Anglo-Army song, "Spremite se Chetnici," and "Oj Trubachu" and the rest of our well known war songs. Through the songs, during couple of months, was preached the Anglo-Yugoslavian war friendship. English propaganda gave most attention to the Serbian sector, mostly the one in Serbia. They primarily molded the Serbdom, while the montage of Sloveniandom and Croatdom was on an opposite plan. That wasn't unintelligent: And after the agreement on 26th of August, 1939, Serbia and the Serbdom remained the spine of Yugoslavia, the judging factor in its state and national life! It wasn't unintelligent that in all of the levels of Serbian society, the propaganda operated its appeal on the heroic past and tradition of Serbia, on the glory and prestige of the Serbian Army and Serbia. It was well received, especially after the primary accomplishments of Greek troops against the Italians in Albania. These Greek accomplishments had a fiery influence, by themselves, on the Serbian psyche inspired by its centuries-old heroic glory. On all the sides you could hear, not just from the mouths of uneducated folk but the educated as well: "What are we waiting for? Look, the Greeks are already celebrated (in battle success)! And, can there be war on Balkans without us being involved?" The English propaganda primarly focused its influence on Belgrade, on cities and small towns in inner Serbia, but it didn't forget the country-side: for many months their people would go through the Serbian villages, inducing the village people on war against Germany. But, the main attention by English propaganda was paid to our Army, or our Army officers: The English knew very good that from the time of Milivoj Blaznavac; the army plays a decisive role in all levels of the state and national life of Serbia. And when it comes to the branch of army, the English propaganda paid attention, most of all, to our air force, because air force is the most effective modern weapon, which decides not only in modern war but - the latest events showed that! - in the overturns of states as well. Who were the main helpers and allies of English propaganda in our country? Most of all, our "democracy." It is enough for someone to declare himself as a fan of democracy and liberalism, with that only he was an Anglofile, the kind helper of every Anglo action in our society. The people that had the leading role in that were those who took the most use from the chaos of liberal-democratic system.. or, masons, rotarians, and Jews. After them everything that followed can be summed up under the concept of parasitic burgeousie. That's where all of our "national" associations were, whose ledarship was nested by masons and rotarians. Some of the 'shepherds' of the Orthodox Church didn't want to be behind in that Anglophile zealousy, probably because they jelaously looked at the cooperation of Vatican with the Anglosaxon statesmen, firstly with the American President Roosevelt. * Striving to pull us into the war as soon as it could, the English propaganda stormed aggressively on our position of neutrality which our country, at least formally, took in 19 months of actual war. The difference of German propaganda was that it not only respected our neutrality, but it supported the strengthening of it. That was pretty much logical and natural, because Germany in this war didn't want anything else from us (just like from all the other middle-sized and small countries) but to stay on the side, and be loyal to the peace. Therefore in connection with that, while the English propaganda, for the will of its success, did everything to corrupt and undermine not just the morality of our society but whole of our national organism, the German propaganda wanted to consolidize it and make it more resistant. It was expected that our government would stand in defence of our neutrality and our national morality, which was driven into temptation by the aggression of English propaganda. This was expected because its success had to worry every wiser person who, over everything, had in his heart the national interest of Yugoslavia. English however, cannot be blamed because in their propaganda they fought for and exclusively had their interests in sight; but it was on us to cut off this English activity, because that is what supported our interests. However, our government totally failed in that aspect; It simply let English propaganda to freely operate, and we cannot be surprised that this failure of our government bore the ruinous fruit: [I] In the final moment, when Bulgaria joined the Axis and when it allowed the German troops through to the Greek border; in the hour when we were suppose to solve the question, whether or not Yugoslavia would be a peaceful ally of the Axis, or its war enemy, the English propaganda was a sovereign, unlimited ruler of public opinion in Belgrade and Serbia. [/I] * "Germans in Bulgaria! Nothing is left for us, but to go to war!" That was almost the general shout, the whole reasoning. Being against this psychosis meant throwing a bobsled on a rock! "Why do we have to go to war? Is war really the only exit out of this dead end?" - said couple of us who because of that were, unceremonially being looked up on as Germanophiles. - "Is there indeed any other exit?" - And how do we not have it there! What we must do is what we should have done long time ago. When France gave up its arms, in political detete, it must have been understood that Germany is the master of the situation on the whole European continent (excluding Soviet Russia). That's when we were suppose to ask for an agreement with Germany. And if that was missed, that must have been done at least when German troops entered Romania, because it was evident that Germany with that step joins the arrangement of relations in Balkans. It was a great mistake to allow Bulgaria to join the Axis before we did! But it's not late yet: And now, when the German troops are already on Bulgaro-Greek-Yugoslavian border, we can save the country and the people, if we sincerely and honestly receive the cooperation with Germany and the Axis, if we join the pact! - Romania joined the pact as well, and it still didn't avoid the spliting of its land and the huge territorial loss! - Romania just swam out of Anglophile waters, only then when it already played its turn! Its situation is a classical example, that if you are late in an international life, you pay dearly. But if Romania hadn't joined the pact, not only would it have lost one part of its territory, but it would have as well ceased to exist as an international factor. - Well; can we, according to that, avoid the partitioning of Yugoslavia, if we sign the pact now? - Why couldn't we? Didn't the Reich Leader, in reception in Berghof, offer Mr. Cvetkovic and Cincar-Markovic a guarantee that our borders wouldn't be touched, if we join the Axis in a peaceful and non-combatant cooperation? - But, can we believe Hitler? Who guarantees that he, when he wins the war, won't award Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria at our cost? - Yes, we can believe Adolf Hitler! He already showed that he is a friend to a friend, an associate to an associate, that he is more than loyal towards everyone that wants to be loyal to him. Of course, Adolf Hitler is an enemy to his enemy, who doesn't recognize any sentimental regards. And just because of that, especially if we are counting on Germany to win in this war, we must do everything, at least from now on, to prove to Germany and the Axis that we are willing to be their most loyal friends and associates. - But what will happen, if Germany doesn't win, but England does? - English victory is only possible after the complete collapse of Germany. And if Germany collapses, that is when the bolshevism is going to flood Europe, and at least whole of Eastern and Central Europe will be taken by it. And not Anglosaxons, but bolsheviks will regulate the international relations in this part of Europe. It would be apsurd to believe that Anglosaxons will, after the war with Germany, want to step into the new war with Soviet Union when it comes to borders of some Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia! After all, even if Anglosaxons, after this war, had the main word in new arrangement-organization of Europe, could any serious person believe that they would partition Yugoslavia, and then give one of its parts to Italy, another one to Germany, third one to Hungary, and fourth one to Bulgaria, just because Yugoslavia, finding itself on a hopeless path, was the last - after Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria - to join the peaceful cooperation with the forces of Axis?! But all of the reasons given were in vain. War, and war! - that was [I] caeterum censeo[/I], not only of the masses but of the intellectuals, politicians, university professors, engineers and priests. The war psyche, fed and spread by propaganda, took over souls ... * Sitting at night, was the small numbered company of the infamous "Germanophiles", at the bar. And the conversation started, unavoidably, about the situation that was caused by the entrance of German troops into Bulgaria. Joining us was one intellectual, one of those from Belgrade's 'higher' society, convincingly claiming that we must go to war. "What's with you and the war" - we are telling the intellectual - "Don't you see what we could risk with it?" -- I was in war, and I guess I know what war is! - You know the last war; but that war compared to modern war, is like comparing purgatory and the ninth circle of hell. The last war was fought, mostly, on fronts; and modern war knows no difference between the front and the rear. In modern war, small nations not just risk their country and independence, but sometimes, the whole national existence. -- But we aren't a small nation! We can draft an army of two million soldiers! - This reasoning would have been understandable before the breakdown of Poland and France; but from the lessons that these two got, and as well other countries, we must learn something. After all, don't be too enthusiastic with that number of 2 million soldiers because it would be a very dangerous illusion to believe that Croats especially, and beside them Slovenians and all the national minorities in Yugoslavia would enthusiastically enter a war against Germans. On contrary, it's very possible that in that war only the Serbdom could find itself on a battlefield against Germans, but not just against Germans, but with Italians, Hungarians and Bulgarians as well. Take into account that the war against the Axis in these circumstances wouldn't only most likely lead to the liquidation of Yugoslavia, but it would fall on the head of Serbdom as well. -- And nevertheless, Serbdom, lonely and abandoned, must go to war, to save, if nothing else, its national honor and dignity! - But what if, going to war doesn't save honor and dignity of Serbia, if instead of glory we reap shame. Don't you see what kind of chaos and disorganization rules here, now, in peace time? And can't you see the kind of chaos we'll be in when we step into the war? No! With this kind of organization of land, which we have, we can't go to war! And then, comes in another 'high' intellectual, "renowned economist", calls himself a leftist, a hardcore follower of materialism. The man comes closer to our table, didn't even sit down yet, calls out: "In this situation, there's nothing left to us but to in time of eight days enter the war!" - You enter the war only then when you have a good knowledge and sight of at least some kind of a defense. We don't have that. We are, from a strictly 'army viewpoint', already outmaneuvered; we are surrounded from all sides, we don't even have nowhere to retreat. --- And what is Thesalloniki? Don't we have a free path towards Thesalloniki? - First of all, retreating to Thesalloniki means to leave the land of 16 million of its people on the mercy of a foreign power. Secondly, you must take into account that the German troops are already on Yugoslavian-Bulgarian-Greek border and that they will, with their motorized divisions enter Thesalloniki before our army does, and the motorization of our army is minimal. --- Never mind that! The nations don't live only from victories! We were defeated in Kosovo, but after all that defeat was useful later for the national greatness. If nothing else, we must save the national morale, and in name of that we must go to war, because that is what demands our honor, our dignity! - Oh, you "leftists", the followers of historic materialism, through 20 years accussing every Nationalist of being a Reactionist, and worked to weaken the national consciousness and the national morale in this country. According to that, I guess it seems weird to you that exactly in this moment you call on the spiritual and in full word national, not international values, like the national honor and pride, national morale and dignity. After all, what will happen with the national honor and dignity, if our country fails, if our people die, if the Serbdom is crucified on the cross of all possible and impossible sufferings and tribulations, and with that not to achieve the glory, but to shame ourselves?! The academic discussion, after this, became a sight of personal insults.. * The state of people's spirits in Belgrade and Serbia worried me. And I went to one of the top government officials, one of the most responsible people for the fate of our land, and I told him: "It is true that I'm not in a position to possess all the elements of knowledge, when it comes to the fateful decision in this moment of our national life. But, I view this situation as "sina ire et studio;" I'm worried only about the fate of this land; I'm coming into contact with not just the members of all classes of our society but with the foreigners of different nationalities as well. According to that, I know enough of that which is needed when it comes to bringing out a historical decision... because of that, allow me to bring my opinion, what I noticed at least in the form of writing, in front of the Prince-Deputy." I was told: "Do you think that we aren't thinking about all of this? That we don't think of this day and night? It isn't necessary for you to try!" One thing I knew grew ripe in me: The immediate surrounding was closing around the Prince-Deputy in "tour d'ivoire;" this immediate surrounding, giving in to the natural inclinations of Prince-Deputy (aristocratic-cosmopolitan nature), is removing Prince Pavle further and further away from his people. The Prince-Deputy is alone! And his loneliness might have fatal consequences... SIGNING OF THE PACT In the middle of March, all the signs pointed that the leaders of our politics definitely decided to sign the pact of cooperation with the forces of Axis. Thank God! That means that healthy intellect and instinct prevailed! But the unavoidability of this act mobilized the souls taken by the alien propaganda, revolting the whole Belgrade society which, at that time, viewed servitude to alien interests the same as servitude to our interests. The blind with healthy eyes asked themselves: "Is that possible? Would Prince Pavle betray the Serbian interests and England, his second homeland?!" And indeed that so-called Prince's "betrayal" gave us proof that the signing of pact with the Axis was a categoric imperative, the only positive solution in harmony with the present and the future of Yugoslavia. It wasn't easy for the Prince to decide on this step: If anyone, in this country he was a sincere Anglophile. Oxford student, in close family connections with the English Royal family, he was a recepient of the medal of garter, and from the moment he started his function he led both interior and foreign policies of our country in the 'English waters.' For England, he turned the Yugoslavian politics by 180 degrees and changed the policies of his predecessor, Alexander the Uniter; he slowly liquidated Alexandrian Yugoslavia. Led with the English suggestions, he made Mr. Machek the central figure in the country. For the Machek's will, he took the rule from Mr. Milan Stojadinovic in the moment when this one was in the zenith of his power, and all this because Stojadinovic got closer to the Axis more than the English wanted it. For the English will, the Prince-Deputy signed the agreement of 26th August of 1939, which tore the country apart and by doing that he paralyzed it in all of its domains, just because the English thought that the agreement would satisfy the Croats, and with that enable Yugoslavia for war against Germany - in war, on which the English decided, right after the Germany occupied Czechoslovakia. From September of 1939, our headquarters prepared Yugoslavia for war on the side of England and France, against Germany. If it didn't prepare it, would billions and billions have been spent on the hectic arming and fortification on the borders of the forces of Axis and its allies? Because no one would think that the arming and the building of fortifications would be aimed against England and France, and not the Axis! From September of 1939 and later, Germany and Italy didn't even think of attacking Yugoslavia, because they had a lot work to do on the other side. But still, our headquarters worked to pull our country into the war, not even caring that Croatia has a place of a country inside a country; that the public life of this country found itself in distraction, morally and politically; that its financial and economic situation was bad! And if the dramatic, historic events didn't happen first in Norway, and thein in Belgium, Netherlands and France, Yugoslavia would have entered the war against Germany in Fall of 1940. But the lightning-fast and defeating German strikes in West, especially the breakdown and capitulation of France, astonished and smartened up, if not our headquarters, then at least the top leaders of our politics. They started to look around themselves and more and more to look the reality in the face. The English infirmity to affirm itself on the European continent; Italy joining war on the side of Germany; the efficiency of the German airial and submarine action in contrast with English in its waters; the open joining of Hungary and Romania with the Axis; and especially the entrance of German troops into Romania - all that caused Prince Pavle to requestion his earlier stand and to decide to untie the boat of Yugoslavia from the English ship. After that, Prince tried to navigate in the waters of clear neutrality, or to stay aside; he tried to find support even in Soviet Union, whom he hated from 'the bottom of his soul.' But the neutrality for the small countries and people in Europe died, in June of 1940! And the Soviet support was based on gesture, accounted only on the success of communist propaganda in wider national levels of Yugoslavia. And then, already in the "12th hour", the Prince decided to join the Axis, and started - even then, carefully and vigilantly - talks with the chancellories of the Axis. * The decision about the joining of Axis was already reached. Talks in that direction were already led. But the people of Yugoslavia weren't notified in time about the change of our political orientation; it wasn't thought that it was important for people to prepare themselves for this cange. In time of this war, not only totalitarian but democratic countries think that one of the most important tasks is to establish and preserve the unity, the fullest harmony, amongst the rules and the wide levels of people. In Yugoslavia, in this fateful time, the people were viewed as [I] quantite negligeable [/I]; the people are there to receive whatever it is given to them! Everything was hidden from people up until the last hour; some 'higher', political wiseness, the talks with the Axis were prolonged unnecessarily, even when the damage of this was evident, and at the same time the English propaganda was carelessly allowed to influence the people. The English money fell everywhere, bribing anything that allowed itself to be bribed; the whole teams of English emissaries were spread around Belgrade and in inner Serbia; the one who wasn't brought to reason by the English money, their empty words and promises, he was blocked, actually terrorized, by the Anglophilic public opinion. And when - as we said - everything became evident in the middle of March, that is that the Prince and the his government were definitely going to sign the pact with the Axis, that's when the open threats began arriving on their addresses. But those threats were ignored, just like the vulcanic uneasiness of people in Serbia, they were ignored thoughtlessly and leisurely. The blind self-confidence ruled amongst the highest government officials. "What we are doing, is the best we can do, and everybody will receive this, no matter how mad they are about it!" - that was the reasoning in our political spheres. But not long before the signing of the pact, it was clear that army, or army leaders, especially in certain sectors (headquarters, air force, a bigger number of active and retired generals) was not willing to receive the change of the foreign-political orientation. It's not weird! Under the high patronage, an Anglophilic 'colonel's league' was established, which with favorization soon became 'the general's league', and which established direct contacts with the English. That direct contact with English threatened that it would give birth to army's [I] pronunziamento [/I], if the pact was signed with the Axis. That's why, in the final hour, not long before the departure of Mr. Cvetkovic and Mr. Cinczar-Markovic for Vienna, there were rumors that there might be an assassination on that train. (The dedicated say that when these two signed the pact in Vienna, they looked as if they were signing their own death verdict.) [I] It looks as if the "Beli Dvor" ('White Palace' in Serbian - the Royal residence) and the government heard about the officers' conspiracy; [/I] and even then, nothing was undertaken; not even then was the colonel's or general's league chased off; not even then were the unreliable generals sent into retirement (the list about those who were supposed to be sent into retirement was made, but in such way that even those who were targeted got to know about it), nor were the officer-airmen who openly threatened Prince Pavle and all other "traitors" in Belgrade's restaurants and bars, placed under effective surveillance. The Ministry of Interior was almost non-existant; the command of Belgrade and the Government slept with the dream of the righteous ones; and the command of King's Guard, as well! * The Belgrade's press, not long before the signing of pact and after its signing, was totally soft and unconvincing when it comes to the defense and unavoidability of this act. The only serious and smart word when it comes to the pact was an article of Mr. Spalajkovic, announced in Politika of 25th March. But that article caused a storm of outcry in Belgrade's "intelligent" press. Belgrade's Radio gave expression to that outcry, by sabotaging the government, and the text of the Pact was announced as the death march played. THE COUP OF MARCH 27th On March 27th I got up at 6:30 in the morning. Bringing in the morning newspaper, "Politika" (Politics) and "Vreme" (Times), the maid informed me that during the night the Government was toppled, and that the young King took over the function of an executive. Is that possible? I'm going through the morning newspapers, but in them I see no trace of any change. In contrary, the newspapers bring the exchange of telegraph between Mr. Hitler and Prince Pavle. Not long after that, the streets became lively, and all of the houses were decorated in country's flags. Therefore, something really did happen! I'm in the street and I'm going around the "Ratnicki Dom" (Warrior's Home) where I lived, I'm in front of the theater and near the Statue.. I see the familiar people, and I'm getting to know that during last night, the coup indeed happened. In the streets, in the center of Belgrade, festive, holiday atmosphere: The shops are still closed, the masses of people filling up sidewalks. The periphery is coming to the center.. Youth especially. About 8 in the morning, the Belgrade dailies announced special editions, in which they're reporting the manifesto of the young King announcing that he has taken the King's rule into his hands, and that the composition of the government was entrusted to General Simovic. Not long after that, other editions of newspapers bring the announcement of General Simovic and report the composition of the new government. All of the government buildings are occupied by the Army which regulates all of the street traffic as well. The gendarmes and the police disappeared off the streets. The Army has everything in its hands; it has blocked the access to all of government buildings; the Army is patrolling and camping out in the streets, taking out not just the machine guns but tanks and artillery at more important intersections. That means that the Army has toppled the government. But which parts of Army? It's evident that it wasn't done by the initiative of 'sub-officers' and lower officers who can now be seen on the streets. I'm going around and asking about it everywhere, and finally finding out how things went: The coup happened during the night, committed by a group of conspirators, mostly of active officers using the air force and couple of other units in which the conspirators had the command. The conspiracy was masterminded by the Army "Revolutionary Committee," and the soul of that committee were the former commander of the Headquarters and the commander of Air Force General Simovic, his helper General Bora Mirkovic and major Knezevic (brother of professor Knezevic who after the coup became the minister of the Palace). Simovic, who is that "General Simovic" who was the leader of the coup? Oh yes! Why, that is that unscrupulous careerist - I remember that affair from 1938! - which slandered our best aviator officer, colonel Radovic, in front of Prince Pavle.. accusing him of being a Bolshevik agent.. and so through that and similar lower slander, he secured a predominant place in our Air Force. I remember the fact that this same Simovic was on the list of generals who after the signing of the pact, were to be sent into retirement; I also remember that his name was mentioned in connections with the "Colonel-General League." It comes to my mind that a day before the coup, the mentioned Army's Revolutionary Committee in an unbelievably brute voice threatened that the 16 "traitors" who signed the pact would lose their heads because they played with the minds and dignity of 16 million citizens of Yugoslavia. I remember what my friend told me yesterday, a fierce democrat, how he contacted the Belgrade's English ambassy, looking for it so they could advise him, if he could (after the signing of the pact), emigrate out of Yugoslavia and how they told him there that "certain events would take place which would make emigrating out of Yugoslavia unnecessary." And finally, I remember, that an evil-spirited, pan Wilder, a 20-year old agent of Czech masonry and Edward Benesh in Yugoslavia, a certain time ago "emigrated" not to save his own head/life but to plan some kind of conspiracy abroad, a conspiracy which had a goal of violently stopping the Yugoslavia's alliance with the forces of Axis. I recalled in my memory a role - just before the signing of pact with the Axis - the masons Budisavljevic and Konstantinovic played in Cvetkovic's government. And when I checked the composition of the new government, mainly its Serbian part, I understood clearly that "all the roads of the coup of 27th of March led to London." I had a chill in my heart because I clearly knew that this coup represents the beginning of the end, the soon-to-come end of Yugoslavia: it was clear to me that this government was a direct exponent of English interests, and that the orders for the new government were to pull Yugoslavia into war against the Axis, the fastest it could. And war - war is a [I] finis Jugoslaviae [/I]. And while the masses of youth, proleteriat, but the ordinant Belgrade's bums and punks as well, were in the streets chanting "Better war than pact!" ; and while these masses with the help of armed army personnel demolished the offices of German Communication/Transportation Bureau (Enit); while the mass insulted the associate of the German Army attache - it was clear to me, that behind these acts of uncounscious masses and those "who knew not what they were doing", stood a group of people who came to power by coup, so that they could consciouslly pull the land into the war on the side of England. * Coup of 27th of March was called by those who undertook it, a bloodless revolution. With vigor they assured that not one bullet was needed to topple Prince Pavle and the regime of Dragisha Cvetkovic. But is there anything suprising in this? The government of Mr. Cvetkovic left themselves alone, especially in Belgrade and Serbdom; they rejected everyone, undertaking their total "splendid isolation." Nothing, therefore more apposite could have been needed.. it didn't matter if an armed force, even unknown, could have arrested this lone group of people who themselves didn't think about some resistance, and for whom no one lifted a finger, in their defense. Those loyal to the new government assured everyone who wanted to listen to them that the coup of March 27th was only a second edition of coup undertaken on May 29th of 1903. But even though the masonry stood behind both of these coups, there's a great difference between them: Before anything, those who undertook the coup of May 29th had done it at the time when the country was not in any danger from foreign aggression; they, with their coup didn't bring it in any kind of danger. However, those who undertook the coup of March 27th of 1941, carried it out when Damoclov sword hung over the head of Yugoslavia and with their coup they caused the deadly knock down of that sword. And, another point is that the conspirators of 1903 didn't undertake a coup so they could take over the rule; Dimitrijevic "Apis" didn't even think about forming the government, let alone place himself as the ruler. The second 'edition' of our conspirators is that the second one (March 27th, 1941.) in contrast with first one, didn't show idealism and unselfishness, but through General Simovic and the "Revolutionary Committee," it grabbed all of the power and held that power in its hands leaving to the civil personnel in government to play the role of figures, that is to only represent the "will of the people." These representatives of the "national trust" and the "national unity" were just forced (with guns) to take those political positions: the police agents and the Army patrols pulled the representatives of our "democracy" out of bed, summoned them to the headquarters so that they could receive orders from General Simovic and his friends that they must take the positions in the Ministry. It's true that there really was no need for forcing them, nor threatening them, because to our "democrats", it was always important that they take power without even questioning what such an action could bring to our country and our people. (When it comes to politicians, it looks like that the only ones who knew about conspiracy were Petar Zivkovic, B. Jevtic and Dr. Budisavljevic; the conspiracy hadn't surprised, of course, the leaders of Belgrade's masons and Jews.) * And while the "forced" ministers were in the presidency of the government and while they took over, the masses were out on the streets, manifesting to liberty, young King, and especially Stalin and the Red Army. The bourgeois elements; patented hoora-patriots; the voulanteer cultivators of all possible worn-out and broken patriotic phases, and behind these stood not a trace of truthful and honest national feeling; all of the many national associations which with its corruption, the cult of formalism and sterility long time ago corrupted and benumbed our nationalism - all of them chanted to the young King. And while the fake patriots, the followers of fake democracy, the representatives of one parasitic bourgeoisie chanted to the boy, he was a prisoner of the one conspiring clique who didn't even know in what kind of trouble he was, and how he was soullessly used.. and then, the masses of proleteriat filled up the Kralj Milutin St., and from many thousands mouths roared the chant: "Long Live the Soviet Russia", "Long Live the Dictatorship of the Proleteriat." "Long Live the World Socialist Revolution." Beside our national flags, the Red flags could have been seen in the streets of Belgrade; and at the same time, Belgrade's masons hugged and kissed, congratulating each other on success... TEN DAYS OF DEMOCRATIC RULE After the coup, democracy ruled in Yugoslavia for only 10 days. It's true that it ruled only formally; it was placed under the general's booth, because General Simovic didn't let political representatives to freely meet and decide about the fate of the nation. But still that democratic government - we must confess - had a far greater authority than many governments before, especially because on the list of democracy there were still good names like the ones of Slobodan Jovanovic, Marko Dakovic, and Boza Marasovic. That government had enough of authority; it could have, in the goal of saving the land from war and disarray, attempted to influence the wider national circles, if only it had enough of political intelligence and insight, and especially political courage and true patriotism. "To rule means to forsee!" Nobody needed a high political intelligence to see that the war against Germany and other countries in the pact would bring us into chaos, it would bring the slaughter of Yugoslavia, infinite suffering of its citizens and most of all.. it would bring us to Golgotha, we could say, a vivisection of all Serbdom. Therefore, if this government with unrestricted authority, and in any case with a good deal of national trust (especially in Serbia), was led by true national and state interests, our vital interests, and not the interests of England, this government must have done everything to save the country from the war. But it did just the contrary: General Simovic declared that the coup of March 27th was caused by strictly interior motives and that his government wants peace and cooperation with all of the Yugoslavia's neighbors; the minister of foreign relations, Ninchic, gave the Axis representatives acredited in Belgrade the declaration that the new government recognizes the pact signed on March 25th. But those were just words, empty and lying words which had a purpose to put smoke into the eyes of our neighbors so they (the coup leaders) could gain more time for the country's preparation for war and to take the country into the war in the moment when the new government found it most favorable. Between the words and the actions, this government became one huge contradiction; the actions contradicted the words: Italy, over the representative Mr. Mameli, had heroic attempts to save the peace between the Axis and Yugoslavia in the last hour (April 1st - April 5th). But the government of "national trust" refused the conditions under which Mr. Mussolini was willing to play a lesser role when it comes to Mr. Hitler, even though those conditions didn't humiliate neither the dignity nor the life interests of Yugoslavia! It wouldn't agree to them not even in the tragic hour when the Hungarian prime minister count Teleki died.. even though his death showed what was heading our way! To the contrary of pact's spirit.. signed on March 25th, against all logical deductions from recognition of this pact, the government of Mr. Simovic continued with the biggest mobilization of our Army, calling to take to weapons, for only 10 days, several hundreds of thousands of Army regulars. (Simovic's government in that way, raised the number of mobilized to a million and a half soldiers). From the time it came to power and up until the start of hostilities, the Belgrade radio - and a radio is an instrument of the government's politics! - had every one of its programs begin and end with the playing of war songs, the first accords of "Trubacha s Drine" and "Srpske trube", implying the following entrance into war and elevating of the war psychosis. Just a day after it came to power, the Simovic's government allowed the masses of "Terazije" (-one of the biggest boulevards in Belgrade) to unpunishably and unobstructed insult the cars of the German representatives and to make loud ovations to English, American, Turkish and Greek representatives, chanting to the war against Germany and waving hundreds of English and American flags. The whole of Belgrade's media (especially "Osisani Jez") could, freely from obstruction of the Simic's foreign government, manifest "amlophilic" (- Anglo-american) feelings and tendencies, mocking the countries of Axis, insulting and slandering them. A couple days before the start of hostilities, the Simovic's government made a decision that all of the ministries must move out of Belgrade and take with them only the most important archival documents while the rest of them were to be set on fire. Belgrade's bridges on Sava and Danube Rivers were ready to be blasted a couple days before Yugoslavia entered the war. A couple days before the bombing of Belgrade, the last of government officials were given pay checks for "the state of mobilization and war," a big number of them got 2-3 paychecks in advance and even the journalists, members of Belgrade's section of "Journalist Association," got a loan out of the Association's safe of couple of thousands dinars. A couple days before the bombing government forbade the civilians to leave the capital, and to leave any cities for that matter, declaring in advance that Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana were open, undefended cities. All of these things are measures which show that the government of general Simovic was getting ready for the war. Only his government was so naive that it believed that the neighboring Axis countries wouldn't get to know of our preparations and that they would let us finish all of them so we could enter the war whenever we pleased or better yet whenever Simic's government pleased. The government of General Simovic thought one way, spoke another way and did things the third way; it operated by the lies, and as this is true of all democracies, but the lies were pushed down the throats not only the government, but unfortunately the whole of Yugoslavia. * The position of Mr. Machek gave Simic's government in the beginning a big worry on the day of coup. Mr. Machek agreed that the four of his ministers would join the government of conspirators, and that he himself would be a vice-president in that government. But right after that he took a position that was in Belgrade called "extortionist" because he placed some demands for which in turn he would come to Belgrade and take the duty of a vice-president. I'd go around and ask what the Machek's demands were, and I got to know that he wanted: 1) the young King and the Serbian part of Simovic's government to recognize and verify the agreement which he made with Knez Pavle on August 26, 1939; 2) that the Simic's government recognize the pact signed with the Axis on March 25th. "Well that means that Machek wants to prevent the war against Germany!" - said the astonished war hawks. And I would tell them: "If Machek succeeds in preventing the war, he will save Yugoslavia and indeed save the whole of Serbdom from catastrophy. I'm not a friend of Mr. Machek, but I have to admit that he would be one of the most important Yugoslavians ever if he succeeded in this!" And truly, if there were any sober-minded heads in Belgrade by that time, to them Mr. Machek looked like the last anchor of savior. After some time and the successful mediation of the famous Savica Kosanovic, the Simic's government agreed to the conditions of Mr. Machek. But that agreeing of theirs was just an act of hypocrisy, since they though that Mr. Machek must come to Belgrade and be made an accomplice in the unconscious works, which had war for its final goal. Tricked - or so it looks but it doesn't have to be! - cunning Machek comes to Belgrade! When he came big honors were given to him (Friday, April 4th in the morning); but not even 48 hours went by, or on Sunday morning, the war had started and Mr. Machek had to flee Belgrade together with the Simic's government. His olive-branch that he brought to Belgrade fell into the mud and blood of the war horrors which insued after he fled Belgrade. * Besides the direct war preparations, General Simic's government did other things as well: it arrested all of the "Germanophiles", or those who didn't want the war but a pact with the Axis; they placed Mr. Cvetkovic and other members of his government who didn't join Simic under house arrest; it sent Knez Pavle with his family to Greece, probably so that "Knez" in English surrounding could freely exchange thoughts with Milan Stojadinovic on the topic of "sictransit gloria mundi;" it let all the "background Chetniks" off the leash so they could brutishly put respect into the hearts and souls of our Germans and other minorities. And on top of all that, Simovic's government hurridly started talks with the Soviets to make sure Yugoslavia would get their help. The talks weren't over yet nor was it for sure that Yugoslavia would get an efficient Soviet help, but the government already launched its 'news' to the people that it's all done and that the Soviets together with us would march against Germany. A jubilation started. People openly said: "There won't be any war because Germans are afraid of us!" When I warned the people that the German force was never as ferocious as it was then, in the spring of 1941, and that Germans wouldn't be Germans if they were afraid of us, the hotheads would tell me: "Germans are afraid of us because they can't do nothing to us! If Russians join us, we will enter Germany just like you would "cut through the cheese!" And if we are alone on the battlefield, we'll run to our mountains where tanks and airplanes can't help and then blessing our Serbian heroism, in our hills we will achieve that of which our people are singing about: "Hey Hitler, hero on the battlefield, you'll leave your bones in Balkans." Listening to these manifestations of insane, megalomanic boasting, I couldn't help but say a famous saying in my head and out loud: "If God wants to ruin someone, he'll take his mind away!" * It's Saturday night and we are sitting to late hours. The main word has this reserve officer who already has his uniform on and who is ready to go to war tomorrow. A nice man, an idealist, but very naive. He knows "very well" the intentions of our supreme command, and he is talking and talking.. "In couple of days we will liquidate Italians in Albania, get a possession of the whole eastern Adriatic and Ioanian coasts, and all its ports will be made available to the English so they can supply us with weapons, ammunition and food. And if the operations against Italians aren't over, and if we are pressed by Germans from North, North-west and North-east, we will retreat deeper and deeper into the mountains." - That means that we will give Germans the richest part of the country, Panonia? -- No we won't give it to them, we will make it a huge lake out of it by letting Danube loose because we're going to bury the Djerdap passage. - This is physically impossible; this is, so to say, technically absurd. -- Why would it be impossible? We have already dug through 36 galeries which will on the given command pour the whole force into Danube... - The plan is fantastically grandiose. But even if it could be undertaken, which is highly unlikely, there still remains a question of whether the Germans would give us time and would they let something like that happen? -- Oh, there will be time! The hostilities won't start before Thursday or Friday, before 10-11 a.m. And that's how our sympathetic debator ended his resolutions, full of boldness and optimism, around 1 a.m. on Sunday (April 6th). At 3:30 a.m that same morning the German scout airplanes were already flying over Belgrade; at 5 in the morning, the leader of the Reich gave out the orders to his army to attack Yugoslavia; and even before 7 a.m. on that unforgettable Sunday, on April 6th, 1941, the German airplanes made their ferocious attack on Belgrade. THE BOMBING OF BELGRADE I had a weak sleep during the night of April 5th and 6th! It was as if I had instinctively felt that something big was coming, something historical, and tragic. I fell asleep at 3 a.m in the morning, and I was up already about 6:30. I looked for my weekly edition of "Politika" right away. I'm reading the introductory paragraph, a tirade about Yugoslavia's maturity and I'm thinking to myself, what kind of bloody irony is this.. writing about maturity when the immaturity not just of our King but of our people as well is literally stabbing us in the eyes. But I haven't even finished my thought about the immaturity when I heard an echo (somewhat before 7 a.m in the morning), firstly the creepy wailing of Belgrade's air raid sirene, and not long after that the shots of anti-aircraft artilerry and finally the detonations of exploading bombs. That means that the fatal was setting in: Yugoslavia has entered the war; Germans have attacked it before all of its preparations for war were finished. And then there wasn't so much time for thinking because the detonations of exploading bombs and the firing of anti-aircraft guns intensified fast. Get something on yourself and run to the basement! The people who lived at the five-story building were already there, building in which me and my wife have moved in 5 days ago previously living at the "Warrior's Home." Men and women, mostly in their nightly robe, in pajamas, in their winter and spring coats, in slippers and sandals - gathered in dark basement, trembling more from fear and horror than from cold. With small pauses, the first bombardment of Belgrade lasted for an hour and a half. When it was done we went out to take a look. Downhill, towards Dushanova Street, a huge crater is in the middle of the street; uphill (we live in Dositejeva St. 17), the National Theater is in flames. We run into our homes, go to the bathroom if we have to, and we're out on the street again. The fire in the back part of the theater is getting stronger and stronger and there's no one to put it out. It was as if the earth opened up and swallowed all of the organs of government: no police officers, no firemen, and no first-aid cars. (Significantly later, the firemen and the people from sanitations start arriving). Everyone lost their heads, there are no heroes now, everyone is looking just to save their own butts. Fires raging on all sides, destruction everywhere.. individuals are going through the rubble, mostly boys, out of curiosity, to see and to get some sense of what has happened and what is happening. What is really happening? Total chaos, absence of every rule, every hierarchy, every organization, can be seen not only in our close proximity but on all sides of Belgrade: On the faces of people you can read an overwhelming work of feroucious, unexpected bombardment. The mood is panicky. Belgrade was quickly abandoned by the King and the government, the headquarters and all of its Army. It was abandoned by its civil government as well. The people of Belgrade were left to themselves. The first hits of German Air Force destroyed power grid and the water-system so that Belgrade right from the early morning was without light and water. Our anti-aircraft defense - I'm thinking of active defense, anti-aircraft batteries and fighter airplanes - couldn't prevent the German Air Force from the systematic destruction, before everything, of our most important army objects in Belgrade. Under the destructive bombardment of German airplanes, the nerves of Belgrade's urban organism were destroyed, the most important citadels of government organization: at the same time with power grid and water-system, the Belgrade's train station with all its devices was demolished; the following buildings are turned into rubble.. Army Academy, The Ministry of Army, the Presidency of Government, The Ministry of Interior, the Command of Gendarmerie; the next buildings are ruined or heavily damaged: Agrarna Bank, Hotel "Serbian King", the Department of City Administration and so on. The hardest hit of all was already the "jewish quart"... Everybody is on the run. The Army obligatories with commands and without them are running toward the southern suburbs of the city; their houses either destroyed or they don't have good basements.. the people are running into the buildings that do have the basements to save their lives. The stories of chaos and horror are circling around the city; one bomb of bigger caliber fell on one of the shelters in Karadjordjev Park and in it killed, some say 150, others say 300 and and then the others say it was 700 people; Dorcol, ever since the first bombing is all in ruins; Bajlonov's market place and the surroundings as well. There's no time to check out all the rumors: no time to walk around Belgrade in a bigger radius because the air raid siren goes off at 9:30 a.m. and then again at 11 o'clock. The air raid siren doesn't stop anymore. The people have lost their orientation when it begins, and when it ends. No other choice but to stay in basement.. hold your breath when the bomb is falling somewhere near you, the detonation is shaking your house and you're waiting for whatever comes to you. The wave after wave of German airplanes cover Belgrade's sky and are bombing Belgrade. Our anti-aircraft batteries and our fighters are less heard. People are talking that our Army has shut down 24, and even 35 German airplanes; but according to the intensivity of the bombardment, I wouldn't say it's so! A girl comes to our shelter, wounded in the leg, trembling with all of her body, frightened out of her wits, she's stutters: "Mom, where's my momma?" We comfort her as much as we can. She tells us she lives in a neighboring street and that the bomb has destroyed their shelter, that her mother is probably buried in the rubble, and that she doesn't know how she got away and came to us. We are putting bandage that we have found in our improvised basement pharmacy over her leg . A couple of teens from our building have organized a guard service. When the air raid starts, they call, and even force all of the people into the basement; they say that the fire bombs wouldn't set on fire the roof of our building.. I guess that's why they've found some non-flammable overalls and some gas masks (the son of a security guard boasted to me that he removed 3 fire bombs from our roof!). In the basement we've all gathered around each other. We don't know who lives in our building and who is an outsider, all in all, there are more outsiders. One of them, a security guard of the building in our street goes around the nearby streets, comes back and talks. During the first air raid on that noon he found himself on the street under open sky. He never came back. But they did carry him into the basement fatally wounded: a piece of the bomb had hit him and he lost a leg. Come on people, get something that could help us carry him to the hospital after the bombardment! But wouldn't he die before because he lost so much blood? Yeah, he is dead! * From 3:15 to 4:30 p.m., a worst bombardment came through on that Sunday. In flocks of 20-30 airplanes, the Germans bombers covered the sky. The bombs are falling all over, making a sinister whistle sound, while our anti-aircraft batteries were almost unheard. The bombardment was horrific. The bombs were raining from the skies; detonation after detonation. Bombs of all calibers could be heard, fire bombs hissed! Not only the individual houses, but now the whole blocks were shaking out of their foundations, in many places they were destroyed or on fire. It looked like the Judgement Day came. In our basement all the conversations stopped. In the morning and early in the noon, there were conversations which mentioned that this air bombardment was a punishment for arrogance that Belgrade commanded to Germans in the last 10 years. It was mentioned in the morning and early in the noon that the punishment has caught up with Belgrade because of its spiritual corruption, that Belgrade has forgotten that God exists. And all kinds of other stuff was said. But now, in the afternoon, in the time of this great bombardment, in our basement you couldn't hear a voice nor a whisper. It's like the death had covered us. We're close to each other, men and women, old and young. The faces couldn't be seen because there was no light, but you couldn't hear a breath either. From the nearby explosions our building was shaking, the ground under our feet shook like the earth was beaten by the hits of earthquake. At one moment a bomb of big caliber exploded in the neighboring Jevremova St., destroying two buildings. Our basement shook so much that in one moment it was filled up with a cloud of dust, and in the five-story building above us, the air pressure has destroyed doors and windows with a thunderous crash of broken glass, wood and toppled walls. The screams of women and children filled up our basement thinking that our end has arrived. The panic in the basement was setting in. Somehow we overcame it, but for the short time. When this most horrible bombardment ended, we came out on the street, and only then were we taken by ghastliness: the nearby surroundings of our building were in rubbles or in flames. But not jost the nearby surroundings... * A creepy look of destroyed Belgrade, after this horrific bombardment on Sunday afternoon, had an almost a magic effect. It's like someone gave out a command, everybody started leaving the buildings and houses, basements and shelters. Out of Belgrade, the further you can get away from it, the better! In a moment our basement was emptied, our basement where we had plans to spend the night. I stayed alone, only me, my wife and our maid. The maid was overcome by a hysteric fear and she begged me that we too, get out of Belgrade. I just couldn't decide on it. Where do I go? But my wife insists as well; "Are we to stay in this tomb where not another soul is left?" The last of the people comes by and tells me: "We gotta get out of here too, Mister! I guess we're not going to stay here alone!" -- "Get out of here? But where?" - "Wherever! To the cemetery! I'm hearing that's where people are gathering. Or, we can get to the Avala Road, and go toward the Avala Mtn., and from then on whatever happens to us!" -- "That doesn't make any sense! Why would we go to the cemetery or the Avala Road? If we must leave Belgrade, then the best thing to do is to go to Zemun or Franztal since the Germans probably won't bomb these two." - "An outstanding idea! Let's go to Zemun right away!" -- "That isn't so easy! From Dositejev's Street to Zemun there's a good distance to be overcome and there is no transportation. Besides that, we have got to cross the Zemun's Bridge.. we have to wonder if it is still in one piece and whether or not it will be bombarded at the point of our crossing." - "It's risky, I must admit, but we cannot stay here any longer." -- "Ok, let's go to Zemun then." .. And so we did.. * Before we departed for Zemun I went to take a look at my apartment: the entrance door was wide open because the air pressure had knocked out the lock and all the screws; all of the windows and all of the doors in the aparment have been knocked out together with their frames, and the broken glass is all over the floor, beds, armchairs and tables; the wall between the bedroom and the cabinet has been cut in half. Saddened, I left the apartment and with that leaving the destruction untouched. To get to Zemun we're going through the Simina Street and the Street of Kneginja Ljubica, then we go to Petrova and Knez Mihaljova Streets, and finally over Karadzic and Carica Milica Streets to Brankova St. We are walking all over the glass and all kinds of trash.. it was almost up to our knees. Fires are everywhere, destruction on all sides. On the Brankova St., a corpse of an old man in the village clothing is resting in the middle of the street. In agony he is holding his stomach firmly, that's where he got hit I guess while his bloodless face is staring at the sky. I found him again in that position 2 days later. Only on the third day was the corpse removed off the street. The destruction around the Zemun's Bridge is ominous, but the bridge in itself has survived. I ask the soldier who is on guard at the bridge, "did the Germans bomb the bridge?".. he says they didn't. We are crossing the bridge hurridly and we are marching to Zemun. The dusk slowly sets in, and out of its nightly shadows, east of us, rises the panorama of Belgrade, otherwise so beautiful and pleasant to the eye, however this evening so unknown: the flames of that panorama are on all sides; the biggest fire is at the train station; all of Belgrade is covered by a great black cloud. The wind is blowing and its carrying the smoke to us, making it harder for us to see Zemun's road, Zemun's station and Zemun itself. Before we entered Zemun I glance over at Belgrade once again.. in the night it recalls into memory the vision of punished Sodom and Gomorrah... * We spent the night in Zemun's "Hotel Balkan." In the night Zemun's siren starts and the detonations can be heard and the houses are shaking, but the bombardment wasn't aimed at Zemun but at Belgrade. And indeed Zemun wasn't bombed neither on the 6th of April nor after that... HAVOC, LAWLESSNESS, UNCERTAINTY.. On Monday morning me and my wife decided to go to Belgrade again, to get the things we needed most because we had fled Belgrade empty-handed. While on our way we have seen great numbers of refugees leaving Belgrade. The horrors of bombing had done to them, in 24 hours, such demoralization that no social revolution could have achieved: there was little difference between the poor and the wealthy, because they were all just looking to save their lives, all of them dressed poorly almost equally carrying with them the nervously packed packets. There was no makeup on the faces and lips of Belgrade's ladies, the ungroomed hair, swollen undereyes, wearing sandals or any kind of footwear, old dresses and pajamas, and even men's pants and coats. In 24 hours all of the difference has been liquidated and erased in Belgrade's society. Entering my destroyed apartment, I had noticed that it was already burglarized. Luckily, the burglar was in a hurry since he took only the thngs of greatest necessity. Indeed "de gustibus non est disputandum".. he had taken some shoes and socks, a woman's spring coat, some playing cards and didn't forget to finish off all the wine he found in the storage-room. It's no wonder that the apartment I got from a friend who went to army ( allowed me to live in it) and in which I have lived in from the 2nd of April was burglarized. Who knows how many other apartments have been up to then and in the next few days burglarized in Belgrade! And what about the stores?! Wherever I went in Belgrade, in the week of 7th - 13th of April, nowhere did I come upon a store that wasn't burglarized. The criminals have totaled and finished the work of the bombs; using the bombardment, they have done their job consciously. So the damage caused by the looting almost equaled the damage caused by the bombs! But could it have happened any differently? From the fall of the first German bomb on Belgrade until its occupation by Germans - a full week - a total anarchy ruled in Belgrade. How wouldn't that anarchy be used by someone who has natural criminal tendencies, or someone whom poverty or even doctrine taught that it is not good to make any difference between one's own and someone else's property?! * Luckily, Monday afternoon we returned to Zemun. Luckily because that same day from 1:30 p.m to 5 p.m, Belgrade witnessed the bombardment for which witnesses say was most intense and most fatal for nerves and the casualties. In Zemun alone, the homes shook from their foundations and lots of windows shattered from the bombardment. In about 3 and a half hours, completely undisturbed by our fighters and anti-airplane artillery (since our air defense was mostly, already liquidated), the German Air Force ruled the Belgrade's sky, flying right over the buildings important from the army's viewpoint, and so to say chose its victims and finished the destructive work of previous day bringing its punishing expedition to the full, tragic finals. When I returned to Belgrade again on Tuesday morning, the "picture" of its destruction was already framed: I walked through the Belgrade for 4 hours in all possible directions, and my conclusion was that there is no part of Belgrade, not even a street that didn't bear signs of bombardment. At least one building in every street was leveled, and I won't mention the partial devastations. Belgrade, from Kalemegdan to the newly constructed Sveti Sava Church, from the Panchevo Bridge to "bara Venezia".. it looks like this part has suffered more than the newer southern part of the city; Dushan's Street two-way transversals on one side, Lomina and Sarajevo Streets, parts of Milosh's and Karadjordev's Streets on the other side, look like the suburban streets of Madrid which was besieged for months in the recent civil war; Dorcol (one of the Belgrade's districts) was one of the hardest hit, leveled buildings on all sides; "Kolarac" and "Gajger" blocks are burnt to the ground; Hotels "Moskva" (Moscow) and "Reunion" lost their roofs due to fire , (while the "Ruski Car" and Mazhestik miraculously survived); Terazije (the best known part of Belgrade) are gone; "Dardanel" was liquidated by fire; "Kazbek" - suffered the same fate; tram-car rails are out of places, turned over and some even facing upward due to the bomb impact; it was sad to see the tram-car that was destroyed near the "Srpski Kralj" (Serbian King), and the one heavily damaged in Knicaninova Street; every other street had a bomb crater either in the middle of the road or on the sidewalk; crater in the Street of Kneginja Persada and in front of the Voznesenska Church had almost volcanic dimensions; Agrar Bank and "Politika" (the newspaper building) were burned down; there are hundreds of buldings like those that I mentioned before - the whole blocks have been lost due to fire. The intersection of Dushanova's and Ljubicina Streets looks like the ruins of Pompey; the ruins of "Serbian King" are the most impressing; Bajlonova and Jovanova market places look like they've been through a cyclone; near the Francuska and Dushanova Streets, a four-story building has been leveled; on the corner of Drashkoviceva and Kosmajska St., the bomb had literally cut the tall palace in half, leaving radiators along the wall; new "Albania", the skyrise pride of Belgrade has been saved like in a miracle since the whole block around it, on both sides has been destroyed and burnt to the ground; right across the train station, the beautiful palace on the corner of plaza - next to the destroyed Hotel "Petrograd" - is so destroyed by the bomb that even what remains of it will have to be torn down; all in all, a never-ending site of buildings which will have to be leveled with the ground because they now present a danger to the pedestrians. * The destruction has been undertaken thoroughly. The suburbs of Belgrade are "wounded" in many places. And what's the human toll? Only God knows that! I don't believe the numbers I hear - when it comes to that, the truth will be known only later on! * In front of the Voznesenska Church, as I already mentioned, there's a huge crater. And on the branch of the tree beside the crater, there is a human arm hanging from it. It hung there at least 8 days. Finally, they took it down. * On the bottom of Toplichin Venac, right beside the sidewalk, there's a fresh grave, and on the grave there's a cross. Who was buried there? After couple of days I passed by it again, three corpses were taken from the grave and driven away in the coroner's car. Unbearable smell spread through the street.. so that passer-by's had to put handkerchiefs on their noses. Generally, the first days after the bombing all of Belgrade smelled badly. The burning smell had mixed with the smell of decomposing bodies under the ruins, and as well as on the streets. There were were animal corpses in decomposition as well; dogs, cats, even horses killed in the bombing. * A sad sight of a destroyed, old Palace: a bomb of bigger caliber broke off wing of the building, making it into a hill of ruins; at the top of the hill there's a big bronze crown which stood proudly on top of this wing of the Palace. Crown on the ruins! Oh the young King Petar, the conspirators cynicly played with you! More cynicly than Shakespier's Richard the III with his nephews! They have placed you on the throne before your time (came), so they could, only 10 days later, destroy your Kingdom and the Throne, and so that they could throw your crown on the pile of rubble! * I pass by an older woman who moans and sighs. She is not crying nor whimpering so I ask her: "What grief has overtaken you, madam?" She answers: "In Lomina Street, our house collapsed on top of the basement. My sons and I have managed to get out of the rubble, but where is my husband, where are my two daughters, the pupils of my eyes!" I managed to mumble off a few words of comfort, and then walked away to hide my sadness. * On the stairs of the house in Dositejeva Street, where I lived for five days prior to the bombardment, I encountered a Jew in his thirties, a look of a real gentleman, healthy and strong. We know each other from the basement where we spent 6th of April together. - "You're still here? Aren't you in the Army?" asks the Jew. -- "I don't know where I am suppose to be, I am one of those who has not been given commands for mobilization," I answer. - "Why would you need commands? That is not important now! An all-out mobilization has been called for, if you do not sign up for a military duty, you will be executed. Don't play with your life!" -- "There was no call for mobilization, at least up to now. And if it is to be enforced, it has to be proclaimed first. Aren't you our citizen?" - "Yes I am, but I haven't been given commands.." he says. -- "What the devil! So why are you then playing with your life? If there's an all-out mobilization that goes for me - a 50 year old - then you who could be my son must surely sign up for a military duty as well!" - "Well, it is!" said the Jew in confusion, as he turned his back to me. This case would have not been symptomatic had I not encountered another two well-known Jews in Zemun.. they as well asked me why I'm in the civilian clothing, and not in the army, when an all-out mobilization has been called for, and that I'm playing with my life for not answering the call to duty. Of course, I answered them by expressing surprise that two of them who are twice as young as I am, strangely excited about this war against Germans, and yet still are not spilling their "heroic" blood. I must admit that I do not belong in the ranks of the biggest judeophobes. In my life I have encountered some very nice Jews, and I don't think that we South Slavs are known for our racial fanaticism, at least not up until now. But from 1935 until now, I have not found one Jew that was not excited for the war against Germany. And when it comes to that excitement, a man would think that 17 million Jews all around the world would be able to make up an army of at least one million fanatical voulanteers. But look at that! There aren't even a thousand of their voulanteers! How can this be explained? It seems to me that the Jews are their own enemies: due to their actions, they will bring upon themselves one of the greatest catastrophes, but they should not blame anyone else for that! The saying "perditio ex te, Israel" is still around; but you have to be angry and desperate when you realize that the same saying could be used as "perditio ex te, Jugolavia!!" * According to the unwritten law of sloppiness and disregard, the Belgrade was decorated with flags on 27th of March - the day of the coup - and they were not taken down until 6th or 7th of April. With that in mind, Belgrade, decorated with flags had waited and lived through the intensive bombing. Even the government buildings were decorated with them on the 6th and 7th of April! After the bombing, the flags looking like torn rags, sad and forgotten, were hanging on the trees and branches, on the destroyed fences and roofs, peeked from the destroyed buildings, and ending up in the mud. Nobody paid any attention to them, nobody would at least take them down now! On one window, there is a piece of a torn and old-looking flag of ours. I took a look inside and I saw a blonde girl and beside her a broken weaving machine. Her sight is on the piece of flag hanging from the window. This blonde girl unusually reminded me of Ofelija. * Belgrade is deserted. The streets are dead. Only now and then you pass by a living soul, who timidly, like a shadow, walks through the street, avoiding the ruins and the shattered glass. I stop some of them and ask what they are doing in deserted Belgrade and how they are living. They answer: "We are in basements, day and night; there we sleep, and eat if there is anything available. The hardest thing is to find drinking water. Oh, if we could only get some water! They bring it from Sava and Danube Rivers, from fountains far away, unclean, and almost stinking. We still pay a dinar per liter." For those who have remained in Belgrade it is hard to find food. The first days after the bombing there were cases where a loaf of bread was 50 dinars, and one egg, 10-20 dinars! * Already on Tuesday, 8th of April, a civilian could get a transport from Zemun to Belgrade and the other way around. Expensively though! For a ride in a junk car people would pay about 200 dinars; as for a car that was freed from the military requisition, people paid 500 dinars and more. In Dositejeva St., I had come upon such a car. A rich "bourgeois" is filling it with all kinds of rugs, silverware and other valuable property, so he could save it and transport it to Zemun. I am standing by the car and looking. Two old women in their seventies come up to me and with tears in their eyes start pleading with me to borrow them this car for 15 minutes so they could get with it to the nearby Red Cross station to see their paralyzed father, a 90-year old. "Because of paralysis he cannot move nowhere from the armchair! We cannot leave him alone, we have gone through all this beside him; we fear that we might even die beside him if they start bombing again. Our house is almost totally destroyed. By God, help us, loan us your car for 15 minutes!" I try to convince them that the car is not mine and I point at the "bourgeois" who is continually putting all kinds of his belongings into it. And so they went over and talked to him, but without success, because he says that he cannot put all of his things on the sidewalk. If they pay good - he says - it isn't going to be hard to find a car. Animal! But why should I be surprised? Ever since 1918, this country is ruled by a principle that goes this way: "Everyone for himself, and God for all!" * These somber days, almost every passer-by in Belgrade carries some kind of an armband on his left arm. Mostly they are armbands with the symbols of Red Cross. So many Samaritans in Belgrade at that time, yet so little help from them! Manipulators! Many of them young and full of strength, and when you talk to them, they all say how they were on the front until yesterday, how they fought at some place and town, how they have done many heroic deeds, went through all kinds of suffering and hardship, and after an unbelievable "Odyssey" got to Belgrade. They are still not themselves because of all the anguish and misfortune. Oh, do people like to lie these days or what! * Belgrade has lived through a catastrophy. But, has the whole country lived through it as well? Nothing is known about it in Belgrade, at least the first 4 days from the beginning of bombing. Where has the usurpationist government of Gen. Simovic escaped? Where is the High Command? It is known that the government and the higher command is running - running and not looking back. One chauffeur, who has been to Uzice (Note: a city in western Serbia) and now returned to Belgrade said to me that in Uzice he witnessed a quarrel between the members of government in the middle of the street, that the ministers treated each other with vulgar names, and that they even threw each other out of the cars. Thursday, 10th of April, we have heard that the government officials and the High Command is somewhere in close proximity to Sarajevo. What happened to the country, what happened to the army? The German radio stations are announcing that the German motorized brigades have not only entered Veles, Skopje and Nish, not only have they taken Thessaloniki, but are on their way to Ohrid where they are setting up connections with the Italian Army which is fighting against the Greeks in Albania. Is that true? Thursday morning, one officer from the Zemun garrison confidentially confirms it is - thank God! - finally there is a connection between Zemun and our High Command. How? Didn't that connection already exist? - I ask myself. Friday, 11th of April, there are fliers all over Zemun.. the war report of our High Command. In that report they say that the enemy has not crossed our borders, that our troops have taken Rijeka and Zadar, that they are victorious in Albania - having taken not only Skadar and Ljesh but Drach as well; finally, that 40,000 enemy soldiers have been taken prisoner, mostly boys under the age of 20. But at the same time (Friday afternooon), the Zemun's civilians were not only forbidden from listening to news on radio, but it has been ordered that the radios must be overturned to the nearby police stations in Zemun. This said more than any of the optimistic reports that we have been hearing; it said that the situation on the front is bad for us. * On Friday, 11th of April, around 20 officers, reserve and active ones, who demobilized themselves appeared on the streets of Belgrade and Zemun in civilian clothes. I come across one, who I know and I ask him how things are on the front. He quiettly answers: "There is no front.. breakdown.. You wouldn't know who's drinking and who's paying. Between the certain commands, there are no connections - they are all doing as they please!" The next day, smaller columns of soldiers who demobilized themselves as well passed through Belgrade and Zemun. They're in civilian clothes now, but the exhaustion on their faces gives them away. When you ask them why they are in civilian clothes they answer that they didn't get any food or ammuntion for days, that they had no officers, that they are throwing their rifles away because of that and that they are going home. Descriptions are such that one could get chills running down his spine! The nights of Thursday and Friday (11 - 12th of April), there have been all kinds of our troops passing through Zemun.. they are moving from west and north-west to east, across the Sava River. What does that mean? Why are the troops being moved? Does it mean that our Army is retreating or that it wants to fight? Looks of anguish, anger and ill-will have overtaken these soldiers who are passing through Zemun towards the Zemun's Bridge. THE OCCUPATION OF BELGRADE Around 4 o'clock in the morning on April 12th, unusually loud explosions woke up and frigthened the population of Belgrade and Zemun. However, the explosions were not caused by the exploding bombs but by something else. That morning there were rumors that our army set on fire the storages of wheat and flour in Belgrade, and then after that it blew to smitherenes not only the Panchevo Bridge but the ones that ran across Sava River, the railroad bridge and the civilian bridge. From the Zemun's Danube port, you could see that the two middle arcs of Panchevo Bridge were toppled into Danube, while the Zemun's civilian bridge was so destroyed, you would get chills running down your spine when looking at it. Some time later, we were informed that the Zemun's civilian bridge, the masterpiece of modern architecture was blown into pieces even though many soldiers, as well as refugees were crossing at the moment. (The refugees used even the night time to leave Belgrade). Later on we checked and all of this was true, and not only that but that one ship was destroyed as well since it was right under the bridge at the time of explosion and that many people lost their lives there. Some say that that 20 to 30 people died in these incidents, others say that even more did. The demolition of Zemun's Bridge was undertaken with such carelessness when it comes to human lives, that you would think that our troops would defend Belgrade when Germans came and that the front line would be the Belgrade's coastline on Sava and Danube Rivers. An unpleasant prediction! Because that would mean that the battles would rage in which Belgrade would be destroyed and that Zemun, Panchevo and the other surroundings of Belgrade would be heavily damaged. That is why I guess, the frightened population of Zemun retreated into its homes, believing that the battle is inevitable since our army deserted Zemun almost to the last man. The uncertainty lasted almost for a whole day and it stopped only in the evening when the German troops enetered Zemun. I watched their entrance which started after 5 p.m: firstly, several motor-bikes sped through the Zemun's Main Street, and a bigger number of tanks followed them. The column headed for the civilian's bridge, and in short time it turned and came back. At the same time, and before, the German Aviation freely circled around Zemun and Belgrade undisturbed by our Aviation of which there was no trace nor voice. Not long after that, during the first hours of night, came the columns and columns of motorized vehicles of every kind: there were lighter and heavier tanks, armored cars, motor-bikes and motor-bikes with sidecars, "autocars" for the transportation of troops and ammunition.. all kinds of pioneer gadgets, the motorized and anti-aircraft artillery and all kinds of other vehicles. There seems to be no infantry! Everything is motorized, fast and mobile, you could call it a "flying column" which gets its speed and strength from the motor. This never-ending motorized column has overfilled the streets and squares of Zemun, had gotten around to all the Zemun's surroundings and had taken the "Bezanijski Airport". The occupation of Zemun had been perfected even before the night fell. But what happened with Belgrade? Why does not Belgrade and our army react to the this occupation of Zemun by Germans? Why is it that our artillery in Belgrade allows Germans to take Zemun freely and to take all accesses to Belgrade on Sava River? It was dead silent that night in Belgrade. Not one bullet was fired towards Zemun. This silence was explained the second day in the morning when we got to know that in the evening, Belgrade was occupied almost at the same time Zemun was. About this act of occupation of Belgrade on April 13th, we got to know the next facts: almost at the same time, around 5:30 p.m, three army columns got to Belgrade: one from the south, coming from Nish; another from North-east, coming from Timisoara; the third one from west and North-west, which came from Zagreb and Osijek, or Novi Sad. The one that came from Timisoara sent 9 of its soldiers in a boat to do a reconnaissance on Belgrade, when it stopped at Danube River. These 9 soldiers got off the boat and seeing that there was no resistance they went further and further into Belgrade towards downtown - they soon found out that this time, unlike in 1915, no one had the will to defend Belgrade. Not even firing a bullet, these German soldiers got to the German consulate (former Czechoslovakian consulate), along the way capturing several hundreds of our soldiers which goallessly roamed around Belgrade, and had finally put the swastika flag on the building. Only then did those 9 soldiers remember that there is too few of them to occupy the whole Belgrade so they asked for help from their command and had received it during the night. When April 13th dawned, Germans already had a strong control over Belgrade, transporting across numerous motorized units. * And so Belgrade fell without any resistance. There were no battles along the coastlines of Danube and Sava River. The Germans had taken Belgrade without spending even one bullet! Why were the bridges demolished then? When it comes to railroad bridge, that is understandable; they did not want Germans to use the railroad traffic; they wanted to disable it the best they could. But it is not understandable why the Zemun's civilian bridge was so radically destroyed.. it was only used by local populations. By destroying that bridge they did not make things harder for Germans but for the Belgrade's civilians and other people from the surroundings. Maybe they wanted to prove that they could destroy! After all we destroyed our country which was built for centuries, so why not destroy a couple of Belgrade's bridges?! Maybe what they wanted to tell us with this act was that Serbia did not want any communication with its northern parts, that Serbia wants to be left alone, just like she was before WWI?!!! CATASTROPHE AND DISGRACE In the beginning of March, one of my friends said to me: "After the capitulation of France and the military blunders of Italy, we represent the most powerful military force in Europe, after Germany and Soviet Union." And that is how it really looked then; even when it comes to the opinions of know-alls, as well as know-nothings of the European countries - our army was seen as one of the best armies in Europe. With this in mind, the Anglo-saxons did everything in their power to pull our army into the war against Germany. Our man-power is truly of "first-class." When it comes to heroism and endurance, fearlessness of death and ambition for heroic glory, our soldier is one of the best in Europe. The Serbian villager (farmer), especially represents a truly unique human material. His victories and struggles, his suffering and sacrificies in the wars of 1912-18 are truly admirable. However, that does not give us the right to behave megalomanically when it comes to other nations and their armies! Unfortunately, in the high command of our army, as well as in our society, there was a cult of megalomania when it comes to grading of our and foreign armies. For example, from WWI and later, in Serbia you could hear a sarcastic saying: "We have overcome and destroyed two empires, turkish and austrian!" You would be qualified as anti-patriotic, or defeatist, if you were to attempt to prove that the Serbdom did in fact play a role in the fall of these two empires, but that Turkey was firstly beaten by Austria and Poland and then later on by Russia, and that the Austro-hungarian military was given a deadly blow by the Russian Army in WWI during the period of 1914-17. Our high-ranking officers did not hesitate to show contempt and disrespect for Romanian, Greek and many other European Armies.. except for the French, and to a certain extent of German and Bulgarian. During this war they would talk from a "high point" about how Polish, Belgian and French armies were doing. (One of our military experts, after the capitulation of France, arrogantly criticized the French generals because they proclaimed Paris an "open city" since they had the will to preserve its historically important monuments, and that because of this they "sacrificed" the whole of France.) It was truly amazing to hear of the contempt and underestimation of Italian Army by our high-ranking military officials. Last winter when Italian Army had a series of blunders, firstly in Albania and then in North Africa, these officials proclaimed: "Who isn't born to be a soldier and a hero, he will never be a soldier nor a hero!" And they joyously waited for the hour when they would "throw Italians into the sea" and when they would "chase them to Venice." When it comes to German Army, they said that these were "born heroes" and that they can be thankful for their success in this war since they did not meet their match. If we enter the war, Germans will then see that a "hard walnut is a mysterious fruit!" - that was the reasoning of our military "geniuses" which were supported by the civilians - all those "pub strategists and heroes." In all his "pub heroism", with a pint or two of a strong drink, one of those 'civilian strategists' attempted to 'prove' to others that we had beaten German Army in 1915, as well as 1938! * On the basis of all this, one would expect that our army would put up a resistance to Germans unheard of before; you would believe that our army was truly prepared for that resistance on all sides, and that behind the words of our senior officers were deeds, as well as very serious, successful and constructive work on modern equipment, training and arming of our Army. It has to be said that the German command itself thought that when the hostilities start between them and our army, they would have some serious business to take care of and that they would have high casulaties as well. However, what happened? Our army did not put up an effective resistance in any of the sections of defense. In Southern Serbia, for example, we have had about 500,000 soldiers, and even that respectable force was literally ran over and disorganized in four days, even though in Southern Serbia we prepared for war one whole year. On our northern borders we put up fortifications in the last couple of months; all those fortifications were overrun in a couple of hours. The border with Italy was fortified for years, and still the Italian Army took Southern Slovenia and all of our sea coast, from Sushak to Ulcinj and Bar, occuping Lika (- one of the Dalmatian regions), Herzegovina and Montenegro. We entered the war on 6th of April in the morning, and on 17th of April at 9 o'clock in the evening, our army already capitulated since it was completely cut off from the sea-coast, and since it lost all of Serbia, Southern Serbia, all of Vojvodina and Srem, all of the Slovenian and Croatian lands, all of the Montenegro and Herzegovina, and a good part of Bosnia. Our army capitulated when there was nothing left for it to do, when it was surrounded on all sides, when it had nowhere to retreat and no ability to resist. On 14th of April in the evening, the German radio was already proclaiming to the world that the Yugoslavian Army, as an organized structure did not exist anymore and that there are only units who are fighting sporadically and who are disconnected with other units. According to that we were far worse off than Poland, Norway, Belgium and France since the German war effort in Yugoslavia lasted only 12 days and it cost them a minimal number of casualties - human lives as well as equipment losses. How was that possible? The next are mostly the reasons for our shameful catastrophe and the catastrophic disgrace: 1. Before all, not only did our senior military officials not know what modern war was, they did not believe that a war could be any different than those of 1912-1918. In its stupendous conservatism, in its spiritual inertia, these senior military officials blindly believed that in a modern war the infantry and only infantry decided the outcome of the war. When someone would tell them that even during the last war (during Mackenzen's campaining in Serbia in 1915) the superior equipment played a big role, they would shake their heads and still talk about the infantry-man as being the most important element of battle and victory. When they were warned that in this war, the decisive factors are aviation and motorization, they would wave their hands and say that aviation plays an important role in operations over industrial countries where many big cities are located and that motorization can only express itself in low-lands which are connected by modern, asphalted roadways. They stubbornly claimed that for the defense of our country, aviation and the motorized troops have completely a secondary meaning and that is why they were adjusting the entire training of our army for 22 years: through months and months, our soldiers were 'drowned' by them, their minds were castrated with "barrack discipline" and with the most primitive exercises with already old-fashioned rifles and machine guns, neglecting all other modern weapons (except for some artillery pieces). All up until the start of this war, the aircraft, tank, the anti-aircraft artillery and everything that stands for the modern military equipment only played a representative role in our army or the weapons that were only used for military parades and maneuvers which were attended by foreign officials. Only in the beginning of this war, the leaders of our military force started to pay more attention to aviation, but the tanks and anti-aircraft pieces were still mostly used in demonstrative purposes. With this kind of mentality of our leadership, should it surprise us that our army basically fell apart after the 14 days of being hit with the German iron maul - the maul which was not lifted by the hands of man but by the latest modern equipment, by the motor in air and on land. 2. Besides the technical stagnancy, the morale or non-morale of a big part of its command was deadly for our army. During the last wars which lasted from 1912-1918, the best officers of Serbian Army lost their lives and those who didn't were slowly removed from the ranks of an active army duty. And truly, a smart, intelligent officer who wasn't a slave of a stereotype and formalistics and who besides that had the character and patriotism, had to either leave the army or struggle in trying to fit in and finally allowing the flood of an all-out decadence to carry him off. Careerists, manipulators of the worst kind, the crawlers and flatterers, swindlers and profiteers, coruptionists and sluggards - that was the element that made it to the top of our military command, tripping one another and scrupulously removing anyone who wasn't like them. That is how it was from the Unification and from then on it got worse every day. That is how it was but you couldn't say anything about it because that would have been "crimen laesae majastatis." Everyone sung to army, how it was the center of national life and no one could say anything negative about army let alone to criticize the negative appearances in it. The Army was "noli me tangere"; it was given budgets without discussion or delay in the National Parliament. Whoever was brave enough to stand up against this, and especially point out the corruption and demoralization of a big part of our senior military officials, would be beaten (physically assaulted) like for example the people's representative in National Parliament, Milosh Rashovic in the spring of 1938. In our army, the "a priori" assumed the senior military officials, first and foremost the Headquarters and the Ministry of Army. These two leading military institutions were - with some honorable exceptions - were not only the centers of corruption, protectionism and nepotism, but were the creators of every action which aimed for demoralization, debauchery and deprivation of our whole public and political life. The Army, or the Headquarters, the Ministry of Army and the high officials in the King's Guard were able to instill their own will in all of the more important questions of civilian governance over the country, and in all important political questions; even to affect the country's organizational structure ( - Kingdom of Yugoslavia was divided into regions or "banovina" - singular, "banovine" - plural). The Army was all-powerful, and its power was fatal because its leadership was not intelligent nor moral enough. And only when our military force was tested - the gold is tested in the fire! - only then was it shown how non-existant were the morals, the heroic and the true intelligence in the top of our military. From 6th of April to now, whenever I talked to any soldier and under-officer, each and every one of them would lament how they did not get food and other things they were supposed to get; that they would often run out of ammunition; that they were not properly armed or clothed; that many units did not have any commanders; that there were no connections between field headquarters; that the regiment treasurers would run away with money and that the generals divided the money from military treasuries amongst themselves. (They say that this division of money happened in Nikshic - Montenegro - right before the General Simovic and company deserted the country.) 3. It would be one-sided to say that only our military leadership was demoralized. The demoralization engulfed and diseased the whole of our society from the top to bottom: our intelligentsia, our civil society as a whole, and the widest national layers, as well as our youth, our "hope." Explaining the causes of defeat and capitulation, Marshall Peten said this to the French people: "The spirit of pleasure has repressed the spirit of sacrifice." These classical words are especially true of our society in which pleasure is the only thing that is holy, in which everything that is holy to a normal society is stomped on, and in which because of that there is no cohesion nor solidarity. Modern army - those are armed people, the nation as a whole. How could have then our army been healthy and resistant when our society was mostly sick, when our society was in a state of decomposition, when it survived only because of the law of inertia, as long as there was no blow from the outside?! 4. Today, one army and one people fight truly heroically only when the national existence is on the gamble. How could have then our army and people went into battle in which they are not fighting for their, but for foreign interests? How could then our army fight, when it was lead by generals (Simovic and the company) who did not feel like fighting and defending their country but deserting it, after they executed the goals given to them by a foreign country who wanted to pull our land into war?! 5. When our national politics recognized that the Serbs and Croats are two nations, it in fact sanctionalized Pavelic's idea that the Croats should wait for the first opportunity and then - on the ruins of Yugoslavia - build their own independent country. That opportunity was provided when Yugoslavia entered the war. And instead of this war being an amalgamate between the Serbs and Croats - as various fools in civilian and military uniforms claimed for 22 years - it buried the army and the country: most Croats threw away the weapons they got, and the minority of them turned those weapons against Serbs, with that act bringing the army into total chaos. When all this is taken into consideration, it is only natural that a real catastrophe and disgrace happened to us on April 6th - 17th - catastrophe and disgrace which we won't be able to repair for centuries to come. * From Unification, or through these 22 years, the regular maintainance and advancement of military forces cost Yugoslavia and its people at least 55-60 billion dinars; from the beginning of current European War until April, at least 10 billion dinars were spent on armaments and the fortification of borders. Around 70 billion dinars were given by these people - mostly by the village people and the workers - for the sustainment and the development of its "national army" which was led by around 500 active and retired generals (Keep in mind that Austria-Hungary which had the population of over 50 million did not have 150 Generals). With those 70 billion spent into productive investments, Yugoslavia could have been turned into Eldorado, a "promised land." Instead of that, the country is still in economic and social backwardness and those 70 billion were spent on - to put it bluntly - so we could lose not only our freedom and independence but our honor as well. Spent so we could lose our heroic name and glory given to us by our fathers and forefathers who are in every aspect better than us! These 11 days, from 6th - 17th of April, not only has our democracy crashed; not only did the government of "national savior" prove that it was the government of "national destruction." In these 11 days, we were not beaten and defeated, we have simply disintegrated - the army has disintegrated, and the country has disintegrated! "THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA" Just before this war started, England was most active in trying to destroy the unity of Yugoslavia and was for its re-making into a dualistic country placing Croatia on the same level of equality with Serbia. As Germany felt this, it naturally did just the opposite: it strengthened Yugoslavia; it openly proclaimed that its for a unitaristic organization of the land (Mr. Hitler, in many statements said that the Third Reich was for a strong and united Yugoslavia); Germany did everything to strengthen the Belgrade's position and to find with Belgrade the common ground for tighter economic and political cooperation. Hadn't diplomatic Belgrade been brainwashed, Belgrade would have accepted the mentioned tendency of Third Reich since it was evident that this was in the interests of Belgrade, Serbdom, and indeed the whole of Yugoslavia. One ingenious Serbian statesman who understood that was Dr. Milan Stojadinovic. But when Dr. Stojadinovic started the talks with Germany and Italy and by doing that to save the unity of Yugoslavia, everybody was against him: in Parliament (in Budget Debate of 1938), Milan Stojadinovic was openly accused of being a traitor; and on Parliamentary elections at the end of 1938, there was a coalition of far rightists and far leftists formed against him which led a Crusade War against the only longsighted Serbian politician. Result: Milan Stojadinovic fell; the unity of Yugoslavia fell. Both toppled by the English. But the most actual helpers of the destruction of Yugoslav unity were the "political geniuses", the lying bastards of even bigger lying democracy and the most dishonest agreement. While all this happened, in Zagreb they were rolling on the floor, laughing because of the shorthsightedness of the Belgrade's "geniuses." The diplomatic Zagreb, pretending to be inferior and stupid said through laughing: "That is just ideal! Belgrade is carring the water for us; Belgrade is doing our job! Why would we have to worry!" * And then the war started. England wanted to push Yugoslavia (to be on its side) into war at any price; Germany wanted Yugoslavia to be the furthest from the war it could be. Zagreb, which was lead by a healthy instinct did not feel like going to war. That is why London said: "You have to go to war! We have destroyed the unity of Yugoslavia, we have made a state in a state just so you could enter the war!" Zagreb after some thinking comes back with an aswer: "It isn't even in the back of our minds to enter the war! In a war, we would not just lose everything we gained on 26th of August, 1939, but our people and land would be destroyed as well!" Belgrade had lost all healthy instinct of reasoning, so Berlin says to it: "Don't you see what London is cooking? If you enter the war, it will be an end of Yugoslavia, the Serbdom will especially be destroyed. If you stay out of the war, we guarantee the integrity of Yugoslavia, and we even offer you a coastline on Aegean Sea!" And Prince Pavle, toppling Dr. Stojadinovic earlier, realizes in the last hour that Stojadinovic's opinion was the one that would save the land. He continues Stojadinovic's work and signs the Pact with the Axis. Belgrade which had lost its mind qualifies the saving of Yugoslavia as treason, and topples Prince Pavle thereby destroying the Pact with the Axis! Zagreb then says to Belgrade: "We are not going to war! If you want to go to war, then go to war alone; we would rather leave Yugoslavia, then go to war!" Belgrade answers: "We are going to war even if we have to go alone! As for you, do as you please!" Dr. Machek seeing that things aren't good came to Belgrade to hold talks so he could save Croatia and Yugoslavia from the war and devastation. Dr. Ante Pavelic in exile however, reasoned differently: "If they decide to adopt the spirit of the Pact in the last hour in Belgrade, I am done! The movement that I am leading can only be supported by the Axis; if Belgrade accepts this Pact, the roots that give life to my activities will be cut off and I will be executed!" But the diplomatic Belgrade, and its "geniuses", its fake democracy and its demoralized "army" lost their healthy reasoning and are yelling: "Better war than Pact!" Belgrade committed suicide with this.. it gave Yugoslavia a death sentence and left Croatia out of Yugoslavia. Berlin impudently brought a decision to make an examplorary punishment of Belgrade; Mr. Adolf Hitler signed and executed the death sentence that Belgrade handed to itself; Dr. Ante Pavelic meanwhile was ecstatic because Belgrade, out of its own initiative, unexpectadly did Pavelic's work! From the fatal, suicidal craziness of political and apolitical Belgrade and its rabid "democracy" grew a free and indepndent Greater Croatia with borders on Drina River! - ( - Present-day natural 'border' between Serbia and Bosnia.) * The mistakes and illusions of Belgrade's power-holders (especially the power-holding usurpators from the era of Yugoslavian agony), the victories firstly of German weaponry as well as Italian weaponry, created an independent Croatia and built the foundation of a new constellation on Balkans. For now, however, it would be too early to talk about the definite systemazation of relations on this peninsula - that will come later, after the end of current European War. When the German (and Axis') spiritual and physical sword ensures the final emancipation of Europe from Anglo-saxon manipulation, the new era will come to rule this continent, which only partially - so to say, only with its "head" and not the "rear" includes the oceanic British Empire and the Euroasian Soviet Union. According to the already clearly stated will and crystallized presentation of the leader of new Europe, National-Socialist Germany, it will not be an era of trickery and murder but an era of a harmonic coopeartion of European people. A New Era would not be new if - instead of anarchy that ruled up until now - there would be no order based only on the positive rules of hierarchy: New Europe will be a working collective, which will be led by the people who - according to its creative strength, its organizational talent, its numerical, physical and spiritual superiority, according to its geopolitical position - deserves, and that is a German nation; a working collective where the main partners to Germans would be French and then Italians, and in which the rest of European people will take the position and perform the functions which they deserve according to their real value. The people of Balkans, especially the Balkan Slavs will have to take account of this. The Balkan relations up until now were characterized by the intense battles of national megalomanias which were lead, openly or masked by the rule of "mors tua, vita mea". Especially Balkan Slavs who for a very long time fell into, we could say, a frenzy of nationalistic cannibalism: Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats and partially Slovenians, would at times work to bring an end to existence of their neighbors, they would deny the right to the national name and territory to each other. The Axis' victory has brought and will bring an end to this unhealthy appearance. The victorious Axis - we hope and believe in its victory - will rightfully divide the territories of certain Balkan people and by that remove the cause of future upheavals and battles.. it will create a precondition for the positive development of up until now, backward Balkan - for the cultural, agricultural, social and political development! Under the aegis of the supervisory collective, the Third Reich, the Balkan people will get their chance to compete with each other - not with empty words, not with sterile fight, not with inflated egoes, but with a constructive work - and the participation on the construction of a new European and Balkan order, on the construction of one new, truly human and worthy of a human symbiosis. Will it hurt us if we are already thinking about it; if we are, and especially we the Balkan Slavs start preparing for it and be prepared? The cooperation between us in Balkans has not died and has not been buried as it seems at this moment. Unfortuantely, there was no true and honest cooperation between us. It is yet to be born! And it will be born, not out of German defeat but out of German victory in this war: if Germany is defeated, the whole of Balkans will be turned into a wild arena of brother-killing wars, truly cannibalistic settling of scores which Europe has not yet seen nor lived through. The one who cannot see this, the one who cannot predict it, is phenomenally shortsighted.. for this man it is destined to drive his head into the wall until his head explodes! Yes, coopeartion between us is yet to be born! But, it is way better for us to consciously participate in its birth than for this cooperation to be forced upon us! BELGRADE AFTER OCCUPATION From the evening of April 12th, Belgrade is under the regime of occupation. This occcupied Belgrade is bent on healing the wounds inflicted on it during the bombing of 6th and 7th of April. The wounds are deep and massive so it will take lots of time and effort for these wounds to heal. When it comes to the regeneration of Belgrade, there must be no place for optimism and frivolity because through a certain period of time (not a short period of time), Belgrade won't be the capital of 16 million people; it won't even have the diplomatic meaning it had in the last century. * The struggle for water and electric power is the first concern of a damaged and heavily tested Belgrade. Water and electricity are the main elements of life and even if one can be satisfied with daylight, he cannot be satisfied without water. That is why all of the long-forgotten wells have come into use and as well, water gotten from Sava and Danube Rivers. During the first days of bombing, those who remained in Belgrade could only get their water from the mentioned rivers. Slowly, under the leadership of Germans, the Belgrade's water-system has been repaired and so at the end of April a part of the city could get the water from it, if not directly into their homes. The electrical system has been repaired to a certain extent as well so the people can use the electric power (mostly when it comes to street-lights), but it is in limited supply because the city is under the martial law. * With the lack of safe and clean water, the population of Belgrade has been at first drinking wine and rakija (- a traditional Serbian alcoholic drink). "Give me some wine or rakija, so my soul can recover !" - that was the general demand during the first days after the bombing. At the end of April I visited some friends to see if all the members of the family are alive and healthy. The woman of the house, an older lady, serves me a "soft" sljivovica (- sljivovica is a type of rakija made from plums - in fact rakija is most often made from plums), she insists that I drink more and says: "I don't drink anything else but rakija! Rakija, in these days is my best friend and consolent. Without it, I would go crazy from anguish and pain: My home is leveled to the ground; I have found sanctuary in the home of my distant cousin; my husband and my sons are somewhere in Bosnia, I don't know if they are imprisoned or what happened to them. If there was no rakija I would despair. This way I drink a pint or two and forget about myself and my misfortune." * Another reason why wine and rakija are consumed is because of typhus epidemic. Without water and sewage system during the first days after bombing, Belgrade had fallen into uncleanness and it stunk from all the corpses in decomposition. The battle against the threatening epidemics represents another big problem in destroyed Belgrade: there has been a mass vaccinization of the population against typhus; the boiling of the drinking water was a holy rule during those days; every home had to make an outside bathroom since it couldn't use the ones inside because of the sewage system that needed to be repaired. * Thanks to the stockpiles and reserves, the food is in good supplies these days. How will it be in the future? That depends on work invested especially by the Serbian villages in the production of food. * The ruins caused by the bombing are slowly being removed from Belgrade's boulevards and streets; parts of houses are destroyed as well as the whole buildings which are in danger of falling down; the teams of firemen and their helpers, under the control of Germans are finishing the job of the bombs, and clearing through the rubble; the unexploded bombs are carefully isolated and removed; lots of shattered glass and other destroyed material is removed from the streets, yards and the houses themselves; the dead that are found under the ruins are being buried; the tram-car lines are being repaired. (Two lines are working already at the end of April - the "6" at Aleksandrova St., and the "1" which runs from Kalemegdan to Slavia). The reconstruction of Belgrade which is aided by the new local government and private owners is progressing. Belgrade is becoming cleaner and more organized but it will take decades before everything destroyed is rebuilt. * Slowly, the "communal life" has been regenerated as well. The effectiveness of the municipality government and the communal officials had been totally gone during the days of bombing. Now, that too is coming back into its place, so the municipality government - in cooperation with German officials - has been leading the efforts to rebuild Belgrade. There is an important initiative which has come to its climax with the establishment of "Socio-economic Service." This communal institution represents the good-will service of the whole citizenry, especially the youth, with the goal to soften and remove the hard social and economic disorder caused by the bombing. Their goal is big: they have to provide the roofs under the heads of Belgradans, as well as bread and work; they have to protect the populace from epidemics and all the other unexpected disasters. Will the organizational ability of the Belgrade's youth affirm itself in that job? There already is a "Municipality Newspaper", the only source of news which Belgrade has for a moment. That is why the "Municipality Newspaper" has taken a function of regular daily newspapers: besides the communal news - the various reports and regulations of our and German authorities, they also inform people about the main events in the world and are literally flying off the shelfs as soon as they appear - not enough of them can be printed to satisfy the appetites of Belgradans. However, there probably will be other daily newspapers emerging during the first half of May. * Jews in occupied Belgrade have gotten a new status which I must admit is not very favorable but not unexpected either: there has been a registration of Jews who live within the city limits of Belgrade; they all have to report to a certain meeting-point once every week; under the penalty of punishment they must wear a yellow armband on their left arms with the words "Jude" and "Jevrejin" (- "Jew" in Serbian) inscripted on it, and with the star of david in the middle; it is forbidden for Jews to supply themselves with goods from the local markets before 10:30 a.m.; it is also forbidden for them to ride in tram-cars; they have been forcibly used for the clearing and cleaning of the city's streets. * One of the most precious and rarest commodities of daily use are the cigarettes. For a smoker in occupied Belgrade, it is very hard to find cigarettes. Just today, as I am writing this (4th of May), I have paid 27 dinars for a pack of "Drava" cigarettes (20 cigarettes in the pack) and the normal price of those cigarettes was 5 dinars. If this lasts, I have no other choice but to quit smoking. * The columns of Serbian prisoners are among the saddest sights in the occupied Belgrade. They pass through Belgrade so that they could be transferred to the nearest or furthest prison camps. Their appearance is miserable; worn-out and unshaved faces, shabby clothes and shoes, tired and lifeless movements, depression and apathy on their visages - in one word, destroyed, beaten and demoralized army, heaps and heaps of them who have lost all hope. These columns carry with them the symbol of Yugoslavia's collapse: the soldiers of Croatian nationality are behind the Croatian flag; the prisoners of our German and Hungarian minorities under the swastika flag or Hungarian tri-color; the Slovak prisoners carry the Slovakian flag in front of them; only the Serb prisoners have not put up their flag. It is depressing to see all this. This is where the madness of our politicians has brought this land and people! * The Belgrade's refugees are returning in bigger numbers. The first days during the bombing and after it, the people had gone into exile and now it is time to return. The Belgradans are coming back. The Serbs from other parts of the country are coming back while Croatians and Slovenians are leaving the city. A real migration of people: on one and the other side of Sava River, beside the ruined civilian bridge, lots of people are waiting. At first they crossed the river in the boats of most primitive construction. Professional and "ad hoc" boatmen are making good money: 5 dinars a person in one direction. But after two days, the German soldiers have brought an end to this boat transport so the people are now transported in small ships which are operating between Zemun's port and "shtek" on Belgrade's side of Sava River, right beside the destroyed bridge. "Vojvoda Misich" and "Avala" operate between Zemun and Belgrade; and there is another small ship which operates between both sides of Sava River. Even those who have had serious intentions to leave the country are returning to Belgrade. They wanted to go somewhere off to America or Canada so that they could "parade" as heroes there, as the victims who are looking for the hospitality of the "great American democracy." The people wanted to "walk through" the Americas just like many walked through "Jewropes" after the albanian Golgotha (- refers to the retreat of Serbian Army and civilians during WWI - tens of thousands lost their lives in the mountains of Albania due to winter conditions and exploitive nature of albanian population), but the Simic's Government disappointed them when it comes to that: they had struggled to get to Montenegro, to Nikshich and look what happened? - turns out there was only enough room for the members of government and their families, as well as the members of fatal "revolutionary committee". All the other aspirants and candidates for immigration had lost the transport means over the sea. So the "children", saddened and daunted are now returning to Belgrade. They are returning and are making connections with German authorities in their cleverness... Belgrade is becoming lively again. During the first days after the bombing people worried just about saving their lives and the lives of their family members. Now, they're interested about a "wider circle" or relatives: everybody is asking for the fate of more distant relatives, and their friends. Curiosity is general, and whenever something big happens that's how it is. One of the first shops to open are pubs and bars. In them and all those "national kitchens", the life is booming. I took a peek into one of those small "pubs" and I couldn't believe that the German occupators and the occupied Serbs befriended each other over a mug of beer: the people are almost fraternizing with each other, drinking to the Fuhrer and the Greater Germany! The food shops and milk shops are being open even though their working hours are limited due to the limited availability of the items they are selling. The streets are more lively and busier. The smiling youth has filled them up, worriless and happy just like nothing catastrophic didn't happen to them and their country in the last month or so. The women are out too, especially younger ones are on the streets as well. However, they are not ragged anymore and without make-up: the young ladies have again appeared on the "marketplace" of love, fixating on the appealing men. * What is Belgrade feeling and thinking right after the bombing and occupation? The people have generally smartened up: without hesitation they condemn the 27th of March and General Simovic, loudly proclaiming that the end had come to the lying power-holders, to protectionism and nepotism, to pillaging and corruption. The reaction of "gentlemen" about this national catastrophy is a little different: I ask one of my friends what he thinks of this misfortune which happened to us. He answers: "We got what we deserved!" On that same question, another one answers: "In every evil there is good! This cataclysm has cleaned up the land and air of the piling trash which would have surely suffocated us!" (-referring to the corrupt politicians) The third one says: "In our time we had judged the Czechs and Hagha since they sacrificed the liberty without a fight. Well now we have given them a full satisfaction. It is truly sad that in the last hour, we did not have one Hagha to save us from war!" I had encountered one of my frineds who on April 5th was a defender of war and the biggest optimist when it comes to the outcome of our clash with Germans. But, before I got to ask him what he thinks about all this, he calls out: "Didn't I tell you where this adventure would end? Do you remember!" Oh, I remember, of course I rember - your stupidity! One lady says to me: "How could the Germans suprise us like this? I did not expect this from them. I wouldn't have done that." I almost froze when I saw one of those Anglophiles on the street after occupation - with a swastika in his shirt pocket... * The biggest fear of Belgradans under occupation are small-numbered criminal types who during the night fire on German patrols, attack the individual German soldiers and officers. The revolt in the citizenry because of this is great. The ordinary citizenry does not understand why these misdeeds which are qualified as craziness are happening. However, this is not something the fanatics are doing but the mercenaries: for good money, English money, there always will be those cynical criminals who will do everything to ruin good cultural relations between the occupiers and the occupied. The sabotage is needed so they could deepen the rift between Germans and Serbs - the rift which might be paid by the blood, corpses and tears of one innocent people. The common citizenry of Serbia and Belgrade does not need this sabotage, but English do. English are looking only after their own interests and they aren't picky about which way it should be done. But what can we say about our degenerates who exiled in foreign countries are playing with the hundreds of lives of their fellow countrymen?! HERALDS OF THE NEW ERA Lots of German troops come through occupied Belgrade. That is an army in constant movement. Some units come from the south heading north and the others are doing the opposite; there are replacements for those stationed in eastern and western parts of our country. Only the higher commands and headquarters are enjoying more peace and are not moving while the troops are replaced every couple of days. What characterizes this army that we see before us every day? Most of all, it is its youth. The command is young, and the soldiers are even younger. The youth represents the main part of the modern German Army. Only now and then do you see a collection of experienced soldiers but those do not belong to the Army in full meaning but belong to some other service in the rear, rather than the battlefield. There is a huge difference between German and our army! When it comes to Germans, the youth carries all the heavy load of the war operations, victories and efforts on its back. Our army is based on older, mature men. Very often in the ranks of our army during this war you could see men that were very old. Many of them are leaving their best years and are not fit anyomore but they still have to go through all kinds of stress and excitements. Even though the German Army is young, there still is a big effort not to exhaust soldiers, and that soldiers spend the minimal energy. That's why the German soldier does not march the great distances but is transported; they don't march great distances and they don't carry nothing on themselves. A vehicle transports everything, even his rifle, ammunition and every other military and life needs of soldier. Our soldier however, who is much older and according to that less enduring when it comes to German soldier, is loaded like a horse, carrying on himself everything that is needed and not needed, and overloaded like that he was many times forced to march tens of kilometers daily. The cleanliness and tidiness of the German soldier is amazing; there are no long-bearded and ragged faces and heads; you cannot see a soldier who doesn't have clean shoes and uniforms. Well-mannered is the look of every German soldier; well-mannered is his behavior! Almost every soldier carries a photo camera with him -- that is an integral part of his personal equipment just like the shaving machine, the comb and the toothbrush. The German soldier is inseparable from the books and newspapers: wherever he stops, he reads or writes. His corresponding is carried by the mail cars - his contact with his family and homeland is alive and uninterrupted, wherever he might be, on the front, rear, or in the hospital. The discipline in this army is ideal. Not only during line-up but out of it as well. But it is not a "stick discipline", a result of careless and crude treatment of younger by the older. The relations between the officers and the soldiers are friendly and familiar; in that army however, the soldier and the officer treat each other with mutual respect, with respect of his own and of someone else's personality. Rare diligence characterizes the army which in 10 days overran our country as a victor. This diligence is not forced but comes naturally, something that is immanent to the member of this big nation. The German soldier knows how to rest and enjoy himself when it comes to resting and enjoying one's self; but when it comes to work, he really works, he doesn't screw around and does his job with some inner pleasure for it and his duty. This diligence and discipline, this constructiveness and the creative diligence can be noticed at the first sight of any German soldier, and of any German soldier you come into contact with generally. This presents a contrast when it comes to our man and our soldier! Motorized is this army which uses the last "letter" of technology in its battle actions. However motor, in the skies and on the land, demands a constant care and attention, control and very often repairs. That's why it shouldn't suprise us that when we look at German soldiers who didn't even come off their vehicles, but are already looking at them and cleaning them and without prorogation fixing any defect that these have. * I'm crossing Sava River in a boat. And when I got to Belgrade I noticed a whole regiment of tanks in the water, and around them are soldiers in bathing suits. They are washing their tanks, taking down every piece of mud and at the same time they are bathing. Sparkling in the sun are the huge machines, but sparkling are the strong and healthy bodies of young soldiers as well! * Right beside the Parliament, on the grass, there's a wreckage of a smaller car. Thrashed is this wreckage and everything that could have been taken off from it and carried away has been taken off. For several days the wreckage lied there as the passer-bys would sadly look at it. On the fourth day, this wreckage was taken away to this small dead-end, which undisturbed by the street traffic was a sight where two German soldiers competed in strenous work