Milan Nedić (Serbian Cyrillic Милан Недић) (September 2, 1877 – February 4, 1946) was a Serbian general and politician, he was the chief of the general staff of the Yugoslav Army, minister of war in the Royal Yugoslav Government and the prime minister of a Nazi-backed Serbian puppet government during World War II.
After the war, Yugoslav communist authorities imprisoned him, during which he allegedly committed suicide in 1946. This claim has been recently brought into question, with testimony of Miodrag Mladenović, a former officer in Yugoslavian OZNA.
Early life
Nedić was born in Grocka close to Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia. He finished the gymnasium in Kragujevac and entered the lower level of the Military Academy in 1895. In 1904 he completed the upper level of the Academy, then the General Staff Preparatory, and was commissioned in the Army.
He was promoted to the rank of major in 1910. He served during the Balkan Wars and received a number of decorations and medals for bravery. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1913.
During World War I, in 1915 he was promoted to colonel and served in the general staff as the youngest colonel in the Serbian Army. During the retreat of the Serbian Army and Government through Albania in November 1915 through January 1916, under Austrian and German pressure, his troops provided cover. He was appointed the Ordnance Officer to King Peter I of Serbia in 1916 who retreated together with his people and his Army. In September 1918, he commanded the Infantry Brigade of the Timok Division when they made a breakthrough at Thessaloniki Front along with British, Greek and French allies.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
After the war, he continued as the commander of the Infantry Brigade, before he was made the staff commander of the 4th and 3rd Army Oblast as well as the commander of the Drava Division Oblast. He was made division general in 1923 and finally army general in 1930. Between 1934 and 1935, he commanded the General Staff of the Yugoslav Royal Army.
In 1939 he was made the Minister of Army and Navy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but because of his disapproval of a potential participation in the war alongside Adolf Hitler's Germany, Nedić was dismissed on 6 November 1940 by regent Paul. This was most likely out of unease with Nazi Germany's ally, Fascist Italy which at the time harboured the Croatian extreme nationalist Ustashe leader Ante Pavelić in exile in Rome, and because of the rhetoric of some Italian fascists in the past such as the late Gabriele D'Annunzio, who were violently opposed to a Yugoslav state.
Serbia
The Wehrmacht commander Heinrich Danckelmann decided to entrust Nedić with the administration of German-occupied Serbia in order to pacify Serb resistance. Not long ago, Nedić had lost his only son and pregnant daughter in law in a munition explosion in Smederevo, in which several thousands died. He accepted the post of the prime minister in the government called the Government of National Salvation, on August 29, 1941.
On September 1, 1941, Nedić made a speech on Radio Belgrade where he declared the intent of his administration to "save the core of the Serbian people" occupied and surrounded by Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, the Independent State of Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Bosnian Muslims. Of these occupiers, the Ustashe-led regime of Croatia and Nazi-led Germany committed the most numerous and most horrendous atrocities on Serbs, some numbers indicating an estimated 700,000 Serbs were killed by the Ustashe. By accepting the occupation of Germany in the area of Sumadija, Drina Valley, Pomoravlje and Banat. He also spoke against organizing resistance to the occupying forces due to German Laws in which 50 Serbs were murdered for 1 wounded German soldier, and 100 for a killed soldier. In addition, at minimum 300,000 Serbs were forcefully taken to German camps. His state's actions were good intentioned for Serbs, but the opposite was the case for minority or opposition groups. His state's propaganda funded by Germany promoted anti-Semitism, anti-communism, which particularly linked these up with anti-masonry as a means of swaying Serbs to see these groups as their enemies along with the Germans.
The Serbian government under Nedić accepted many refugees mostly of Serbian descent. However aside from accepting Serb and other refugees, Nedic's state was a disaster for the Serb people. The German occupiers held no respect for his authority or Serbs and during the war, over 300,000 people died in Serbia of war-related causes in German reprisals, that demanded as above mentioned 100 killed Serbs for one killed German soldier, like Kragujevac massacre. In August 1942, the German occupiers proclaimed Serbia Judenfrei. Nedić also collaborated with the Chetniks as a way of defending "Endangered Serbianisation".
On October 4, 1944, with the successes of the Yugoslav Partisans and their onslaught onto Belgrade, Nedić's government was disbanded and on October 6, Nedić fled from Belgrade to Kitzbühel, Austria (then annexed to Germany) where he was protected. On January 1, 1946, the British forces handed him over to the Yugoslav Communist forces.
He was incarcerated in Belgrade on charge of treason. On February 5, the newspapers reported that Milan Nedić committed suicide by jumping out of a window while the guards weren't looking.
But, recently, Miodrag Mladenović, a former officer with of the Yugoslavian OZNA, claimed that on February 4, 1946, he received an order to pick up a dead body at Zmaj Jovina street, where the prison was located at the time. When he arrived there, the body was already wrapped in a blanket and rigor mortis had already set in. According to the orders given to him, he took the body to the cemetery where it was buried in an unusually deep grave. He never attempted to see the face of the person that he carried, but the day after, he read in news that Milan Nedić had committed suicide by jumping through the prison window at Zmaj Jovina street.
Legacy
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts named Nedić as one of the 100 most significant Serbs. The minor Serbian Liberal Party is working for his rehabilitation, altogether sparking a lot of controversy in Serbia.
Nedić's portrait was included among those of Serbian prime ministers in the building of the Government of Serbia. In 2008 minister of interior Deputy PM Ivica Dačić removed the portrait after neo-Nazi marches were announced in the country.
lördag 24 december 2011
Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Cohen, a physician who researched sources never before available to
the West, weaves a rich tapestry covering the last 200 years of Balkan
history while emphasizing the role the Serbs played in World War II. He
gives us a detailed picture of Yugoslav society and politics, with
numerous ethnic groups exercising Machiavelli's dictum: "The end
justifies the means." They manipulate power, quarrel and debate, and,
more often than not, murder over the fate of their ethnic societies.
This book is not cheerful. With few exceptions, Cohen finds the Serbs
propelled by anything but the ideals of tolerance and democratic values.
Detailing Serbian anti-Semitism before the war and quoting from
collaborationist papers that said, "the Serbs should not wait for the
Germans to begin the extermination of the Jews," he reveals how the
Serbian propaganda machine attempted to promote the idea that Serbs,
along with the Jews, were the victims of the Nazis. Thus, he shows that
the ethnic cleansing the Serbs are engaging in today has deep roots in
Serbian culture. Offering a wealth of new information, this impressive,
scholarly book is highly recommended for all history collections. [To
conduct his research, Cohen made four trips to the Balkans from 1992 to
1995, where he oversaw a team of native speakers who translated the
relevant documents for him.?Ed.]?John Xanthopoulos, Florida Atlantic
Univ., Boca Rato.
-?John Xanthopoulos, Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
-?John Xanthopoulos, Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“Cohen''s book is even more compelling and timely, however, for
the chilling parallels linking Serbian fascists of the 1940s with those
of the 1990s—not to mention those individuals who participated in the
war crimes of both eras. With CNN and other media providing greater
access to the ongoing genocide in Bosnia today, one hopes that Dr.
Cohen''s book will not require a sequel fifty years from now."--Stephen
W. Walker, Director, American Committee to Save Bosnia, former State
Department official (resigned August 1993 to protest U.S. policy toward
Bosnia)
(Stephen W. Walker, Director, American Committee to Save Bosnia, former State Dep )
About the Author
Philip J. Cohen, a medical doctor, has done extensive research on
history and politics in the Balkans. He is widely published in
scholarly journals and books."Dr. Cohen's book is of unique value
because it serves two vital purposes: to document the often
misunderstood and misrepresented history of Serbian nationalism and
Serbian collaboration with the Nazis and to expose some of the myths
used by Serbian extremists today in the former Yugoslavia to justify a
new round of genocide and ethnic cleansing.' As a result, it will make
the task of revisionists and war criminals all the more difficult.
Serbia under German occupation
Serbia under German occupation refers to an administrative area in occupied Yugoslavia established by Nazi Germany following the invasion and dismantling of Yugoslavia in April of 1941. The territory was placed under the authority of the German Military Administration in Serbia (German: Militärverwaltung in Serbien; Serbian: Vojna uprava u Srbiji, Војна управа у Србији), which set up Serbian Quisling civil governments: initially the short-lived Commissary Government (Komesarska vlada, Комесарска влада) under Milan Aćimović and subsequently the Government of National Salvation (Vlada Nacionalnog Spasa, Влада Националног Спаса) under Milan Nedić, which remained in power until 1944. The territory included most of present-day Central Serbia, the northern part of Kosovo (around Kosovska Mitrovica), and Banat, which was an autonomous region governed by its German minority.
In some sources, the territory is known as "Nedić's Serbia". Despite the ambitions of the Nedić government to establish an independent state, the area remained subordinated to the German military authorities until the end of its existence.
History
In April 1941, Germany and its allies invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was then carved up, the territory that was not annexed by Germany or given to the surrounding Axis neighbors, including the new Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia in the west, Italian-occupied territories in the south, Hungarian-occupied territories in the north-west, and Bulgarian-occupied territories in the south-east, became part of a German-created puppet state, governed by a Serbian collaborationist administration. The former Yugoslav King, the teenage Peter II headed the Pro-Allied Royal Yugoslav Government-In-Exile).
On 30 April, a pro-German Serbian administration was formed under Milan Aćimović. During the summer of 1941, two resistance factions were formed: Serb royalist Chetniks, and communist and unionist Partisans. They began small-scale operations and diversions against local loyalist forces and German military. The uprising became a serious concern for the Germans as most of their forces were deployed to Russia; only three divisions of which were in the country.[citation needed] On 13 August, 546 Serbs, including many of the country's most prominent and influential leaders, issued an appeal to the Serbian nation which called for loyalty to the Nazis and condemned the Partisan resistance as unpatriotic. Two weeks after the appeal, seventy-five prominent Serbs convened a meeting in Belgrade where it was decided to form a Government of National Salvation under Serbian General Milan Nedić to replace the existing Serbian administration. On 29 August, the German authorities installed General Nedić and his government in power. Real power resided with the German occupiers rather than under Nedić's government.
The Germans were short of police and military forces in Serbia, and as a result came to rely on armed Serbian formations to maintain order. By October, 1941, Serbian forces under German supervision had become increasingly effective against the resistance.[12] They were armed and equipped by the Germans. Serbian collaborationist forces supported by the Serbian government included the Serbian State Guards, the Serbian Volunteer Corps (whose members were largely members of the Yugoslav National Movement "Zbor" (Jugoslovenski narodni pokret "Zbor") or ZBOR party of Dimitrije Ljotić), and the rogue Chetnik faction of Kosta Pećanac. Some of these formations wore the uniform of the Royal Yugoslav Army as well as helmets and uniforms purchased from Italy, while others from Germany. These forces were involved, either directly or indirectly, in the mass killings of Jews, Roma and those Serbs who sided with any anti-German resistance or were suspects of being a member of such. According to one single source (Jasminka Udovički, James Ridgeway; Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia, 1997), these forces were also responsible for the killings of many Croats and Muslims, but this data is not confirmed by other sources. According to other source, the Croats who took refuge in Nedić's Serbia were not discriminated against. After the war, the Serbian involvement in many of these events and the issue of Serbian collaboration were subject to historical revisionism.
“The apparatus of the German occupying forces in Serbia was supposed to maintain order and peace in this region and to exploit its industrial and other riches, necessary for the Germany war economy. But, however well organized, it could have not realized its plans successfully if the old apparatus of state power, the organs of state administration, the gendarmes, and the Police had not been at its service.”
Several concentration camps were formed in Serbia and at the 1942 Anti-Freemason Exhibition in Belgrade the city was pronounced to be free of Jews (Judenfrei). On 1 April 1942, a Serbian Gestapo was formed. It is estimated that approximately 80,000 people were killed from 1941 to 1944 in the German-run concentration camps in Nedić's Serbia. Serbia was proclaimed one of the Judenfrei (free of Jews) countries in Europe.
In 1941, Harold Turner (1941–1942), Walter Uppenkamp (1942), Egon Bönner (1942–1943), and Franz Neuhausen (1943–1944) were the German military governors. Böhme was given emergency powers to govern the territory since July 1941 and served as a defacto governor of the region even before the administration was solidified in August. Böhme was relieved of the position later in 1941. Staatsrat (privy councillor) Harold Turner and SS Untersturmfuhrer Fritz Stracke handled most of the affairs of the administration while Nedić served as a nominal local leader and as a symbol of legitimization of the German presence there. The regime was unsuccessful in detracting Serbs from rebelling against the occupiers of Yugoslavia and had little support amongst Serbs. This was due to acts of extreme violence and ethnic persecution of Serbs by the German occupiers and Ustashe extreme nationalists in Croatia, most Serbs associated with opposition forces who fought against both the German occupation forces and the Ustashe regime of Croatia. The regime attempted to reduce the large Serbian resistance against the German military occupation of Yugoslavia, but continued atrocities by German occupation authorities.
Internal affairs
The internal affairs of Serbia were affected by Nazi racial laws. These were introduced in all occupied territories with immediate effects on Jews and Roma people, as well as causing the imprisonment of those opposed to Nazism. The region of Banat was ruled by its local minority German population. Despite domination by the German occupiers across the military administration, it maintained its own currency, the Serbian dinar which replaced the Yugoslav dinar which existed until 1945, when the Germans and the collaboratists were defeated and replaced by the Yugoslav communist state, which scrapped the Serbian dinar and other currencies of the Independent State of Croatia and Montenegro in 1945.
The administration's first Serbian government leader was Milan Aćimović. In late August Aćimović stepped down and was replaced by Milan Nedić, who hoped that his collaboration would save what was left of Serbia and avoid total destruction by Nazi reprisals, he personally kept in contact with Yugoslavia's exiled King Peter, assuring the King that he was not another Pavelić (the Croatian Ustashe leader), and Nedić's defenders claimed he was like Philippe Pétain of Vichy France (who was claimed to have defended the French people while accepting the occupation), and denied that he was leading a weak Quisling regime. The Serbian collaborationist government failed to win the favour of Serbs, who largely associated with the two key opposition groups, the Serb nationalist Chetniks and the communist Yugoslav Partisans.
The real power rested with the administration's Military Commanders, who controlled both the German armed forces and Serb collaborationist forces in the administration. In 1941, the administration's Military Commander, Franz Böhme, responded to Serb attacks on German forces by ordering reprisal attacks in which 100 Serbs would be killed for each German killed and 50 Serbs killed for each wounded German. The first set of reprisals were the massacres in Kragujevac and in Kraljevo by the Wehrmacht. These proved to be counterproductive to the German forces in the aftermath, as it ruined any possibility of gaining any substantial numbers of Serbs to support the collaborationist regime of Nedić. Additionally, it was discovered that in Kraljevo, a Serbian workforce group which was building airplanes for the Axis forces had been among the victims. The massacres caused Nedić to urge that the arbitrary shooting of Serbs be stopped, Böhme agreed and ordered a halt to the executions until further notice. Approximately 14,500 Serbian Jews - 90 percent of Serbia's Jewish population of 16,000 - were murdered in World War II.
By late 1941, with each attack by Chetniks and Partisans, brought more reprisal massacres being committed by the German armed forces against Serbs. The largest Chetnik opposition group led by Colonel Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović decided that it was in the best interests of Serbs to temporarily shut down operations against the Germans until the possibility of decisively beating the German armed forces looked possible. Mihailović justified this by saying "When it is all over and, with God's help, I was preserved to continue the struggle, I resolved that I would never again bring such misery on the country unless it could result in total liberation". Mihailović then reluctantly decided to allow some Chetniks to join Nedic's regime to launch attacks against Tito's Partisans.
Mihailović saw as the main threat to Chetniks and, in his view, Serbs, as the Partisans who refused to back down fighting, which would almost certainly result in more German reprisal massacres of Serbs. With arms provided by the Germans, those Chetniks who joined Nedic's collaborationist armed forces, so they could pursue their civil war against the partisans without fear of attack by the Germans, whom they intended to later turn against. This resulted in an increase of recruits to the regime's armed forces. One of Mihailović's closest personal friends and collaborators, Pavle Đurišić, simultaneously held a command for Nedić, and in 1943 tried to exterminate the Muslims, Croats, and pro-Partisans of the Sandžak region. The massacres he carried out were compared to the Croatian Ustashe and Muslim massacres of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia in 1941.
In some sources, the territory is known as "Nedić's Serbia". Despite the ambitions of the Nedić government to establish an independent state, the area remained subordinated to the German military authorities until the end of its existence.
History
In April 1941, Germany and its allies invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was then carved up, the territory that was not annexed by Germany or given to the surrounding Axis neighbors, including the new Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia in the west, Italian-occupied territories in the south, Hungarian-occupied territories in the north-west, and Bulgarian-occupied territories in the south-east, became part of a German-created puppet state, governed by a Serbian collaborationist administration. The former Yugoslav King, the teenage Peter II headed the Pro-Allied Royal Yugoslav Government-In-Exile).
On 30 April, a pro-German Serbian administration was formed under Milan Aćimović. During the summer of 1941, two resistance factions were formed: Serb royalist Chetniks, and communist and unionist Partisans. They began small-scale operations and diversions against local loyalist forces and German military. The uprising became a serious concern for the Germans as most of their forces were deployed to Russia; only three divisions of which were in the country.[citation needed] On 13 August, 546 Serbs, including many of the country's most prominent and influential leaders, issued an appeal to the Serbian nation which called for loyalty to the Nazis and condemned the Partisan resistance as unpatriotic. Two weeks after the appeal, seventy-five prominent Serbs convened a meeting in Belgrade where it was decided to form a Government of National Salvation under Serbian General Milan Nedić to replace the existing Serbian administration. On 29 August, the German authorities installed General Nedić and his government in power. Real power resided with the German occupiers rather than under Nedić's government.
The Germans were short of police and military forces in Serbia, and as a result came to rely on armed Serbian formations to maintain order. By October, 1941, Serbian forces under German supervision had become increasingly effective against the resistance.[12] They were armed and equipped by the Germans. Serbian collaborationist forces supported by the Serbian government included the Serbian State Guards, the Serbian Volunteer Corps (whose members were largely members of the Yugoslav National Movement "Zbor" (Jugoslovenski narodni pokret "Zbor") or ZBOR party of Dimitrije Ljotić), and the rogue Chetnik faction of Kosta Pećanac. Some of these formations wore the uniform of the Royal Yugoslav Army as well as helmets and uniforms purchased from Italy, while others from Germany. These forces were involved, either directly or indirectly, in the mass killings of Jews, Roma and those Serbs who sided with any anti-German resistance or were suspects of being a member of such. According to one single source (Jasminka Udovički, James Ridgeway; Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia, 1997), these forces were also responsible for the killings of many Croats and Muslims, but this data is not confirmed by other sources. According to other source, the Croats who took refuge in Nedić's Serbia were not discriminated against. After the war, the Serbian involvement in many of these events and the issue of Serbian collaboration were subject to historical revisionism.
“The apparatus of the German occupying forces in Serbia was supposed to maintain order and peace in this region and to exploit its industrial and other riches, necessary for the Germany war economy. But, however well organized, it could have not realized its plans successfully if the old apparatus of state power, the organs of state administration, the gendarmes, and the Police had not been at its service.”
Several concentration camps were formed in Serbia and at the 1942 Anti-Freemason Exhibition in Belgrade the city was pronounced to be free of Jews (Judenfrei). On 1 April 1942, a Serbian Gestapo was formed. It is estimated that approximately 80,000 people were killed from 1941 to 1944 in the German-run concentration camps in Nedić's Serbia. Serbia was proclaimed one of the Judenfrei (free of Jews) countries in Europe.
In 1941, Harold Turner (1941–1942), Walter Uppenkamp (1942), Egon Bönner (1942–1943), and Franz Neuhausen (1943–1944) were the German military governors. Böhme was given emergency powers to govern the territory since July 1941 and served as a defacto governor of the region even before the administration was solidified in August. Böhme was relieved of the position later in 1941. Staatsrat (privy councillor) Harold Turner and SS Untersturmfuhrer Fritz Stracke handled most of the affairs of the administration while Nedić served as a nominal local leader and as a symbol of legitimization of the German presence there. The regime was unsuccessful in detracting Serbs from rebelling against the occupiers of Yugoslavia and had little support amongst Serbs. This was due to acts of extreme violence and ethnic persecution of Serbs by the German occupiers and Ustashe extreme nationalists in Croatia, most Serbs associated with opposition forces who fought against both the German occupation forces and the Ustashe regime of Croatia. The regime attempted to reduce the large Serbian resistance against the German military occupation of Yugoslavia, but continued atrocities by German occupation authorities.
Internal affairs
The internal affairs of Serbia were affected by Nazi racial laws. These were introduced in all occupied territories with immediate effects on Jews and Roma people, as well as causing the imprisonment of those opposed to Nazism. The region of Banat was ruled by its local minority German population. Despite domination by the German occupiers across the military administration, it maintained its own currency, the Serbian dinar which replaced the Yugoslav dinar which existed until 1945, when the Germans and the collaboratists were defeated and replaced by the Yugoslav communist state, which scrapped the Serbian dinar and other currencies of the Independent State of Croatia and Montenegro in 1945.
The administration's first Serbian government leader was Milan Aćimović. In late August Aćimović stepped down and was replaced by Milan Nedić, who hoped that his collaboration would save what was left of Serbia and avoid total destruction by Nazi reprisals, he personally kept in contact with Yugoslavia's exiled King Peter, assuring the King that he was not another Pavelić (the Croatian Ustashe leader), and Nedić's defenders claimed he was like Philippe Pétain of Vichy France (who was claimed to have defended the French people while accepting the occupation), and denied that he was leading a weak Quisling regime. The Serbian collaborationist government failed to win the favour of Serbs, who largely associated with the two key opposition groups, the Serb nationalist Chetniks and the communist Yugoslav Partisans.
The real power rested with the administration's Military Commanders, who controlled both the German armed forces and Serb collaborationist forces in the administration. In 1941, the administration's Military Commander, Franz Böhme, responded to Serb attacks on German forces by ordering reprisal attacks in which 100 Serbs would be killed for each German killed and 50 Serbs killed for each wounded German. The first set of reprisals were the massacres in Kragujevac and in Kraljevo by the Wehrmacht. These proved to be counterproductive to the German forces in the aftermath, as it ruined any possibility of gaining any substantial numbers of Serbs to support the collaborationist regime of Nedić. Additionally, it was discovered that in Kraljevo, a Serbian workforce group which was building airplanes for the Axis forces had been among the victims. The massacres caused Nedić to urge that the arbitrary shooting of Serbs be stopped, Böhme agreed and ordered a halt to the executions until further notice. Approximately 14,500 Serbian Jews - 90 percent of Serbia's Jewish population of 16,000 - were murdered in World War II.
By late 1941, with each attack by Chetniks and Partisans, brought more reprisal massacres being committed by the German armed forces against Serbs. The largest Chetnik opposition group led by Colonel Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović decided that it was in the best interests of Serbs to temporarily shut down operations against the Germans until the possibility of decisively beating the German armed forces looked possible. Mihailović justified this by saying "When it is all over and, with God's help, I was preserved to continue the struggle, I resolved that I would never again bring such misery on the country unless it could result in total liberation". Mihailović then reluctantly decided to allow some Chetniks to join Nedic's regime to launch attacks against Tito's Partisans.
Mihailović saw as the main threat to Chetniks and, in his view, Serbs, as the Partisans who refused to back down fighting, which would almost certainly result in more German reprisal massacres of Serbs. With arms provided by the Germans, those Chetniks who joined Nedic's collaborationist armed forces, so they could pursue their civil war against the partisans without fear of attack by the Germans, whom they intended to later turn against. This resulted in an increase of recruits to the regime's armed forces. One of Mihailović's closest personal friends and collaborators, Pavle Đurišić, simultaneously held a command for Nedić, and in 1943 tried to exterminate the Muslims, Croats, and pro-Partisans of the Sandžak region. The massacres he carried out were compared to the Croatian Ustashe and Muslim massacres of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia in 1941.
Serbian Volunteer Corps - (World War II)
The Serbian Volunteer Corps or SDK (Serbian: Srpski dobrovoljački korpus, Српски добровољачки корпус; German: Serbisches Freiwilligenkorps), also known as Ljotićevci after their ideological leader Dimitrije Ljotić, was a collaborationist anti-Partisan military formation in Nedić's Serbia during World War II. In July 1941, a full scale rebellion by the communist Yugoslav Partisans and the royalist Chetniks erupted in Serbia. The Germans pressured Milan Nedić's collaborationist government to deal with the uprisings under the threat of letting the armed forces of Croatia, Hungary, and Bulgaria occupy the country and maintain peace and order in it.
Formation
On 15 September 1941 Nedić proposed that the government should be dismissed and allow Serbia's neighbours to police it but minister Mihailo Olćan proposed that government should call Serbian people to form anti-communist units. The next day 234 members of ZBOR, Ljotić's and Olćan's pre-war party enlisted as the first volunteers. On 17 September the Serbian Volunteer Command was formed under the command of Colonel Konstantin Mušicki, a Serbian officer. The command consisted of 12 companies, each 120-150 men strong. Many volunteers came from the student ZBOR organization and others were refugees from Croatia. The men wore olive green uniforms or, in the case of officers, the uniform of the former Yugoslav armed forces, with the Cross of St. George on the right breast. Ranks or grade designations were for all practical purposes those of the former Royal Yugoslav Army. Weapons were mixed; besides German arms which were eventually supplied, foreign rifles and machine guns, especially those seized as war booty from the defeated Yugoslav forces were used. Mortars and light artillery were also on hand in varying quantities. The command also had an educational department whose task was to educate fighters ideologically. The head of the educational section was journalist Ratko Parežanin. It also had an intelligence section which had centres all over Serbia. The spiritual needs of the corps were maintained by protojerej Aleksa Todorović.
Uniform
Serbian Volunteer Corps troops received Yugoslav or Italian uniforms on which they wore black cloth collar patches, rank badges on the shoulder straps, and a metal corps badge on the right breast. Their helmets were Italian.
Active duty
The volunteers saw their first action on 17 September 1941 in Dražanj village near Grocka, clearing the area of communists with four Partisans and two SDK members killed. In November before an offensive in the Republic of Užice Milan Nedić ordered that the SDK, Serbian State Guard and Kosta Pećanac's Chetniks should be put under joint command. On 22 November a joint military formation called the Šumadija Corps was formed under the command of Konstantin Mušicki. The Corps was put under the command of the German 113th Division with which they fought between 25 and 29 November after the majority of Partisan troops had escaped to the Italian zone. After defeating Partisan troops, the Germans turned to fighting Draža Mihailović's Chetniks. Konstantin Mušicki informed Mihailović of the German plans and Mihailović managed to evade capture. Due to this Mušicki was arrested on 9 December in Čačak and replaced by Brigadier Ilija Kukić. Nedić intervened to secure Mušicki's release and he was back in command as soon as those Germans that were familiar with the case had left Belgrade at the end of 1942.
By 15 February 1942, the Corps had a strength of 172 officers and 3,513 men, which was very close to the planned strength for the five battalions. During 1942 SDK clashed with Partisans in southern Serbia. Although they inflicted considerable losses on the Partisans they didn't manage to crush them completely in southern Serbia. In Western Serbia, SDK with gendarmerie, Germans and Chetniks attacked the Kosmaj, Valjevo and Suvobor Partisan battalions who had returned from Bosnia. They managed to defeat all except Valjevo which escaped through enemy lines. At the end of 1942 there were 12 companies in 5 battalions and Germans granted them formal recognition on 1 January 1943, by officially changing its designation to the Serbian Volunteer Corps. In 1943 SDK clashed with the Partisans near Požarevac, Kruševac, Aranđelovac and in Mačva. They also clashed with Draža Mihailović's Chetniks. On 28 September Chetniks killed Dušan Marković, commander of the 4th volunteer battalion with 20 of his volunteers and soon after Miloš Vojnović Lautner, commander of the 3rd volunteer battalion. On 15 May the Wehrmacht captured 4000 Chetniks under Major Pavle Đurišić in Montenegro. Đurišić was to be sent to Strij camp in Poland but managed to escape and was in Belgrade in November that year. Đurišić was soon captured by the Gestapo but under guarantees of Nedić and Ljotić was released under condition that he put his troops under SDK command. Đurišić accepted the offer, formed three SDK regiments and became Mušicki's second in command.
The Partisans had meanwhile grown to an army of considerable strength, and by the summer of 1943 were once again active throughout Serbia. This renewed activity greatly worried the responsible German commanders, since the strength of the occupation forces had declined considerably during the relatively peaceful months of 1942. Nedić was also aware of this problem, and went to see Adolf Hitler at Obersalzberg in the hope of finding a solution. The meeting was on 15 September 1943, and Nedić managed to secure an agreement for the reinforcement of the SDK by five additional battalions, with a further five to follow as circumstances permitted. These measures were immediately carried out, and by 20 October each of the five independent battalions had become a regiment with a strength of two battalions. The reorganization was based on the SDK’s "exemplary conduct in battle against the Communist Partisans"[citation needed]. Training for the five new battalions took place at the respective regimental garrison locations: SDK 1st Regiment in Valjevo, 2nd Regiment in Kragujevac, 3rd in Šabac, 4th in Smederevo, and 5th in Kruševac. Corps headquarters stayed in Belgrade.
The SDK fought the Partisans throughout the spring (attacking 2nd and 5th Partisan Divisions in western Serbia) and summer of 1944 (in Toplice and Jablanice) in a number of large operations. On June 21 Milan Nedić ordered the formation of the Iron Regiment in Leskovac but during its formation most troops escaped to the Chetniks. By 21 August 1944 the five-regiment SDK had reached a strength of 9,886 officers and men, and from its inception to September 1944 had suffered 700 killed and 1,800 wounded in action.
Retreat and demise
In September the Partisans with Red Army support began their final offensive in Serbia. The major battle was on 9 September when the Partisans totally defeated joint SDK and Chetnik forces. After this defeat, the Chetniks decided to cross the Drina river and continue their struggle in Bosnia. Under these circumstances the SDK supreme command decided to withdraw to Slovenia where Dimitrije Ljotić's idea was to form a joint front of nationalist, anti-communist forces.
The withdrawal began on 8 October during the final joint Partisan and Red Army assault on Belgrade when the 1st volunteer regiment under Major Ilija Mićašević and 4th volunteer regiment under Major Vojislav Dimitrijević crossed the Sava river. The 3rd regiment under Major Jovan Dobrosavljević delayed crossing the Sava as they were fighting the Partisans in Šabac and met up with the others later in Ruma. The 2nd Regiment under Major Marisav Petrović crossed the Sava near Obrenovac. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 5th Regiment were still on the ground. When they reached Niš they learned that the Red Army had taken Aleksinac and their way to Belgrade was blocked. The commander of 5th Regiment was forced to change the withdrawal plan and moved across the Raška mountains with the Wehrmacht towards Bosnia. The 1st Battalion of 5th Regiment under Captain Vasa Ogrizović held Zaječar but as soon as the Russians crossed the Danube they moved to Belgrade and crossed the Sava and they became a temporary part of the 4th Regiment. Most troops met each other at Sremska Mitrovica where they awaited trains for transfer to Slovenia.
Meanwhile, major changes in Berlin had an impact on many non-German volunteers fighting with German forces. There was a branch-of-service redistribution by ethnic group, and the Serbian volunteers now found themselves under the authority of the Waffen-SS. The order effecting the transfer was dated 9 November, but not formally recognized until 27 November. At this time the SDK composition on paper was a corps staff, five regiments each with three battalions, a signal company, a mountain supply detachment and German liaison staff. It is important to point out at this time that the SDK's relationship with the Waffen-SS was official, but not on the ground. The troops never wore SS uniforms, and it is doubtful whether the relationship ever went beyond the simple exchange of a limited amount of paperwork. The SDK's situation was quite similar to that of the XV.
Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps, which was also absorbed into the Waffen-SS at about the same time. As they reached Slovenia the SDK troops concentrated in the area around Ilirska Bistrica and Postojna with command being set up in Ilirska Bistrica. As soon as he arrived in Slovenia Dimitrije Ljotić got in touch with pro-Nazi Slovenian Domobranci commander Leon Rupnik and Bishop of Ljubljana Gregorij Rožman and agreed on mutual help and co-operation. SDK established volunteer schools in Ilirska Bistrica, one for officer training and one ideological. The school for officers was directed by Ljotić himself. During the settling in period, the 3,000 able-bodied survivors of the SDK were augmented by released Serbian POWs, Chetniks, and members of the Serbian State Guard who had been evacuated to Istria. These new additions brought the unit's strength to approximately 8,000. Lika Chetnik Corps and Slovenian Chetniks called Plava Garda ('Blue Guard') were also present in Slovenia and they also joined the Nationalist front. Nationalist formations in Slovenia numbered about 40,000 armed men in total.
The part of 5th Regiment that withdrew reached Bosnia in mid-November and began to move towards Slovenia. It was during the move north that an event befell the SDK which was to cripple the unit's leadership capability in the coming months. 30 to 40 officers were seized in Zagreb by the Croatian Ustaše and executed. The Ustaše considered them dangerous enemies of the Croatian State, and this was the Ustaše response to the German failure to obtain permission prior to transporting these Serbs through their country. Any Serb who supported the 'Greater Serbia' concept, as did Ljotić and his followers, was by definition an enemy of Pavelić's Croatia.
SDK's first major action in Slovenia was to take the Partisan-held Kras village of Col on 18 December 1944. From 19 December to the end of the month a major encircle-and-destroy operation was mounted from the garrison towns of Gorizia, Idrija, Postojna and Sežana aiming to eliminate the Partisan stronghold in the Trnovska Mountains. Nearly 5,000 men were used, including 500 from the SDK's 1st Regiment in Postojna, the 10th SS-Police Regiment, Italian R.S.I. troops, and Slovenian Domobranci (pro-Nazi Slovenian militia).
The next campaign participated in by the SDK was against Josip Broz Tito's 9th Corps during the first few days of March 1945 and codenamed Ruebezahl. Two combat groups were formed to strike against Partisan concentrations near Lokve. The first group was called 'Zuschneid', and comprised three SS-Police battalions, elements of the 1st Slovenian Domobranci Assault Regiment, two SDK battalions and one Caucasian battalion, with a total force of around 5,000 men. The second group, 'Koestermann', consisted of two battalions of the German 730th Infantry Regiment (710th Inf. Div.), a police company and some engineers, with a total of 2,500 men. The attacking forces pushed forward from a south and west direction, and this time the operation was more successful. The Partisans suffered moderate losses, and the concentration was broken up and dispersed to the northeast.
However, the Partisans quickly regrouped, so the Germans were forced to conduct a supplementary operation (19 March-7 April), which proved to be the final operation against Tito's 9th Corps. Four combat groups were organized along the perimeter of the area now occupied by the Partisans, with the task of bringing the 9th Corps to battle by gradually advancing in unison toward the centre, and thereby reducing the size of the area under their control. This was the standard German method of cleansing a Partisan-controlled area, that never significantly changed during the course of the war. To the west, along a line Idrija-Rijeka-Grahovo-Podbrdo, Combat Group Blank was assembled with major elements of the 10th and 15th SS-Police Regiments, II./1. SDK Rgt, II./4. SDK Rgt, 21st SS-Police Reconnaissance Co., SS-Police Company 'Schmidt' and an artillery battery from the LXXXXVII Army Corps. This force was later joined on 4 April by the 2nd and 3rd SDK Regiments, and 1,500 men from the Chetnik 502 Lika Corps. The second group, under Police Major Dr Dippelhofer, consisted of the Ljubljana SS NCO School, Slovenian Domobranci, Chetniks and a 1,200-man Russian ROA unit. This group was deployed to the southeast along the line Idrija-Škofja Loka. The northern assault group, 4,500 men from the 13th, 17th and 28th SS-Police Regiments formed up along the road between Podbrdo and Škofja Loka, while a special assault force from the 14th Ukrainian SS Division was concentrated along the north-eastern side of the perimeter.
The area encircled was mountainous, thickly forested, and still deep in winter snow. Once off the few roads that encircle the area, the attacking forces were faced with extremely difficult terrain that limited their progress to a few kilometres each day, inhibited contact with neighbouring units, and greatly restricted the ability to rapidly bring up fresh supplies and heavy weapons. Very soon gaps developed in the line of advance, through which the main body of 9th Corps escaped. Although a number of minor skirmishes were fought, and casualties suffered on both sides, the overall result of the operation was disappointing.
On 27 March, General Damjanović replaced General Mušicki as commander of the Serbian Volunteer Corps and the SDK became a component of Draža Mihailović’s Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, the formal name for the Chetnik forces, although the Corps was still assigned to the HSSuPF Trieste under SS-Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik. Whether this change affected the SDK’s relationship to the Waffen-SS is unknown, but doubtful. Shortly thereafter, Hermann Neubacher, Hitler’s special political representative for the Balkans, paid a visit to Ljotić in Trieste to discuss German fears about what would happen when the SDK and Chetnik forces in Istria came into contact with British and American units who were expected to move in that direction from Italy. Ljotić reassured Neubacher of the SDK’s loyalty.
Meanwhile, Tito’s 4th Army was advancing north along the coastal road from Novi Vinodolski, Croatia to liberate Istria, Trieste and all of central and western Slovenia. German Army Group E immediately issued orders to the LXXXXVII Army Corps to build a perimeter around the port city of Rijeka, to try to block the 4th Army's westward advance. In early April the 237th Infantry Division was rushed to the area, and within a few days defensive positions were established in a 21-kilometre arc to the east and north of the city. The 4th Army began its attack on Rijeka around 20 April with the Partisan 13th, 19th and 43rd Divisions. Although the outnumbered German 237th Infantry Division offered stiff resistance and held its positions, General Kuebler ordered the 188th Reserve Mountain Division to launch an immediate attack on Partisan concentrations in the vicinity of Grobnik Airfield, 16 kilometres north east of Rijeka. To support this attack, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th SDK Regiments were moved up from the Postojna area. However the regiments of the Serbian Volunteer Corps arrived too late and never made contact with the 188th Mountain Division. The attack on the airfield was unsuccessful, and by 23 April it was clear to General Kuebler that his Corps was threatened with total encirclement. Kuebler's appreciation of the situation was entirely correct, as on 22 April the general staff of Tito's 4th Army ordered a flanking movement to bypass the city. While the LXXXXVII Corps continued to be pressed by three divisions, the Partisan 20th Division was brought up from Ogulin along with one additional brigade, three tank battalions and two artillery battalions. This force moved to the north, around the German defensive perimeter, and advanced on Trieste via Ilirska Bistrica with the intention of linking up with the Partisan 9th Corps which was pushing south on Trieste.
As the battle for Rijeka moved toward its inevitable conclusion, SDK Regiments 2, 3, and 4 were sent to Ljubljana and transferred to the authority of SS-Obergruppenführer Erwin Rösener, HSSuPF for Carinthia, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group E's rear area. Rösener's task was to open up and keep open the road and rail routes in northern Slovenia to facilitate the Army Group's withdrawal from Croatia north into Austria. SDK Regiments 1 and 5 remained assigned to Globočnik, who had meanwhile transferred his headquarters from Trieste to Udine, across the Isonzo River in Italy. The SDK was therefore split into two groups, one in central Slovenia under Rösener and moving toward the Austrian border, while the other was in the extreme western part of Slovenia under Globočnik moving toward Italy.
Surrender and afterwards
At about this time, 22 April, Neubacher paid his final visit to Ljotić. A total collapse of German forces in the Balkans and in Italy was recognized as being only a matter of weeks if not days away, and Neubacher wanted to know Ljotić's plans for withdrawing and surrendering the SDK. The next day, during the hours of darkness, Ljotić accidentally drove his car into a hole that had been blown in a bridge by Allied fighter-bombers. His neck was broken and he died shortly thereafter.
On 29 April, as Tito's forces were closing on the Trieste area, General Damjanović issued orders to the 1st and 5th Regiments to cross into Italy, where on 5 May in the town of Palmanova (50 km northwest of Trieste) between 2,400 and 2,800 SDK men surrendered to the British.
The men belonging to the other three regiments experienced a less agreeable fate. They moved north from the Ljubljana area into Austria and surrendered to the British at Unterbergen on the Drava River on 12 May 1945. 20 days later these 2,418 men were turned over to Tito's Partisans. Some were executed almost immediately in Kočevski Rog, while the others were carted off along with 10,000 Slovenian Domobranci to the infamous camp at Šentvid, near Ljubljana. Subsequently, after a period of brutalization, these too were executed.
The group that surrendered in Italy was eventually transported to a camp at Münster, Germany, where they were released in July, 1947. These men made their way to various countries around the world, including the United States. General Mušicki was arrested by the Allied authorities, returned to Yugoslavia, and executed in 1946 as a result of sentences passed at the same war crimes trial that pronounced the death sentence on Draža Mihailović and a number of others.
Formation
On 15 September 1941 Nedić proposed that the government should be dismissed and allow Serbia's neighbours to police it but minister Mihailo Olćan proposed that government should call Serbian people to form anti-communist units. The next day 234 members of ZBOR, Ljotić's and Olćan's pre-war party enlisted as the first volunteers. On 17 September the Serbian Volunteer Command was formed under the command of Colonel Konstantin Mušicki, a Serbian officer. The command consisted of 12 companies, each 120-150 men strong. Many volunteers came from the student ZBOR organization and others were refugees from Croatia. The men wore olive green uniforms or, in the case of officers, the uniform of the former Yugoslav armed forces, with the Cross of St. George on the right breast. Ranks or grade designations were for all practical purposes those of the former Royal Yugoslav Army. Weapons were mixed; besides German arms which were eventually supplied, foreign rifles and machine guns, especially those seized as war booty from the defeated Yugoslav forces were used. Mortars and light artillery were also on hand in varying quantities. The command also had an educational department whose task was to educate fighters ideologically. The head of the educational section was journalist Ratko Parežanin. It also had an intelligence section which had centres all over Serbia. The spiritual needs of the corps were maintained by protojerej Aleksa Todorović.
Uniform
Serbian Volunteer Corps troops received Yugoslav or Italian uniforms on which they wore black cloth collar patches, rank badges on the shoulder straps, and a metal corps badge on the right breast. Their helmets were Italian.
Active duty
The volunteers saw their first action on 17 September 1941 in Dražanj village near Grocka, clearing the area of communists with four Partisans and two SDK members killed. In November before an offensive in the Republic of Užice Milan Nedić ordered that the SDK, Serbian State Guard and Kosta Pećanac's Chetniks should be put under joint command. On 22 November a joint military formation called the Šumadija Corps was formed under the command of Konstantin Mušicki. The Corps was put under the command of the German 113th Division with which they fought between 25 and 29 November after the majority of Partisan troops had escaped to the Italian zone. After defeating Partisan troops, the Germans turned to fighting Draža Mihailović's Chetniks. Konstantin Mušicki informed Mihailović of the German plans and Mihailović managed to evade capture. Due to this Mušicki was arrested on 9 December in Čačak and replaced by Brigadier Ilija Kukić. Nedić intervened to secure Mušicki's release and he was back in command as soon as those Germans that were familiar with the case had left Belgrade at the end of 1942.
By 15 February 1942, the Corps had a strength of 172 officers and 3,513 men, which was very close to the planned strength for the five battalions. During 1942 SDK clashed with Partisans in southern Serbia. Although they inflicted considerable losses on the Partisans they didn't manage to crush them completely in southern Serbia. In Western Serbia, SDK with gendarmerie, Germans and Chetniks attacked the Kosmaj, Valjevo and Suvobor Partisan battalions who had returned from Bosnia. They managed to defeat all except Valjevo which escaped through enemy lines. At the end of 1942 there were 12 companies in 5 battalions and Germans granted them formal recognition on 1 January 1943, by officially changing its designation to the Serbian Volunteer Corps. In 1943 SDK clashed with the Partisans near Požarevac, Kruševac, Aranđelovac and in Mačva. They also clashed with Draža Mihailović's Chetniks. On 28 September Chetniks killed Dušan Marković, commander of the 4th volunteer battalion with 20 of his volunteers and soon after Miloš Vojnović Lautner, commander of the 3rd volunteer battalion. On 15 May the Wehrmacht captured 4000 Chetniks under Major Pavle Đurišić in Montenegro. Đurišić was to be sent to Strij camp in Poland but managed to escape and was in Belgrade in November that year. Đurišić was soon captured by the Gestapo but under guarantees of Nedić and Ljotić was released under condition that he put his troops under SDK command. Đurišić accepted the offer, formed three SDK regiments and became Mušicki's second in command.
The Partisans had meanwhile grown to an army of considerable strength, and by the summer of 1943 were once again active throughout Serbia. This renewed activity greatly worried the responsible German commanders, since the strength of the occupation forces had declined considerably during the relatively peaceful months of 1942. Nedić was also aware of this problem, and went to see Adolf Hitler at Obersalzberg in the hope of finding a solution. The meeting was on 15 September 1943, and Nedić managed to secure an agreement for the reinforcement of the SDK by five additional battalions, with a further five to follow as circumstances permitted. These measures were immediately carried out, and by 20 October each of the five independent battalions had become a regiment with a strength of two battalions. The reorganization was based on the SDK’s "exemplary conduct in battle against the Communist Partisans"[citation needed]. Training for the five new battalions took place at the respective regimental garrison locations: SDK 1st Regiment in Valjevo, 2nd Regiment in Kragujevac, 3rd in Šabac, 4th in Smederevo, and 5th in Kruševac. Corps headquarters stayed in Belgrade.
The SDK fought the Partisans throughout the spring (attacking 2nd and 5th Partisan Divisions in western Serbia) and summer of 1944 (in Toplice and Jablanice) in a number of large operations. On June 21 Milan Nedić ordered the formation of the Iron Regiment in Leskovac but during its formation most troops escaped to the Chetniks. By 21 August 1944 the five-regiment SDK had reached a strength of 9,886 officers and men, and from its inception to September 1944 had suffered 700 killed and 1,800 wounded in action.
Retreat and demise
In September the Partisans with Red Army support began their final offensive in Serbia. The major battle was on 9 September when the Partisans totally defeated joint SDK and Chetnik forces. After this defeat, the Chetniks decided to cross the Drina river and continue their struggle in Bosnia. Under these circumstances the SDK supreme command decided to withdraw to Slovenia where Dimitrije Ljotić's idea was to form a joint front of nationalist, anti-communist forces.
The withdrawal began on 8 October during the final joint Partisan and Red Army assault on Belgrade when the 1st volunteer regiment under Major Ilija Mićašević and 4th volunteer regiment under Major Vojislav Dimitrijević crossed the Sava river. The 3rd regiment under Major Jovan Dobrosavljević delayed crossing the Sava as they were fighting the Partisans in Šabac and met up with the others later in Ruma. The 2nd Regiment under Major Marisav Petrović crossed the Sava near Obrenovac. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 5th Regiment were still on the ground. When they reached Niš they learned that the Red Army had taken Aleksinac and their way to Belgrade was blocked. The commander of 5th Regiment was forced to change the withdrawal plan and moved across the Raška mountains with the Wehrmacht towards Bosnia. The 1st Battalion of 5th Regiment under Captain Vasa Ogrizović held Zaječar but as soon as the Russians crossed the Danube they moved to Belgrade and crossed the Sava and they became a temporary part of the 4th Regiment. Most troops met each other at Sremska Mitrovica where they awaited trains for transfer to Slovenia.
Meanwhile, major changes in Berlin had an impact on many non-German volunteers fighting with German forces. There was a branch-of-service redistribution by ethnic group, and the Serbian volunteers now found themselves under the authority of the Waffen-SS. The order effecting the transfer was dated 9 November, but not formally recognized until 27 November. At this time the SDK composition on paper was a corps staff, five regiments each with three battalions, a signal company, a mountain supply detachment and German liaison staff. It is important to point out at this time that the SDK's relationship with the Waffen-SS was official, but not on the ground. The troops never wore SS uniforms, and it is doubtful whether the relationship ever went beyond the simple exchange of a limited amount of paperwork. The SDK's situation was quite similar to that of the XV.
Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps, which was also absorbed into the Waffen-SS at about the same time. As they reached Slovenia the SDK troops concentrated in the area around Ilirska Bistrica and Postojna with command being set up in Ilirska Bistrica. As soon as he arrived in Slovenia Dimitrije Ljotić got in touch with pro-Nazi Slovenian Domobranci commander Leon Rupnik and Bishop of Ljubljana Gregorij Rožman and agreed on mutual help and co-operation. SDK established volunteer schools in Ilirska Bistrica, one for officer training and one ideological. The school for officers was directed by Ljotić himself. During the settling in period, the 3,000 able-bodied survivors of the SDK were augmented by released Serbian POWs, Chetniks, and members of the Serbian State Guard who had been evacuated to Istria. These new additions brought the unit's strength to approximately 8,000. Lika Chetnik Corps and Slovenian Chetniks called Plava Garda ('Blue Guard') were also present in Slovenia and they also joined the Nationalist front. Nationalist formations in Slovenia numbered about 40,000 armed men in total.
The part of 5th Regiment that withdrew reached Bosnia in mid-November and began to move towards Slovenia. It was during the move north that an event befell the SDK which was to cripple the unit's leadership capability in the coming months. 30 to 40 officers were seized in Zagreb by the Croatian Ustaše and executed. The Ustaše considered them dangerous enemies of the Croatian State, and this was the Ustaše response to the German failure to obtain permission prior to transporting these Serbs through their country. Any Serb who supported the 'Greater Serbia' concept, as did Ljotić and his followers, was by definition an enemy of Pavelić's Croatia.
SDK's first major action in Slovenia was to take the Partisan-held Kras village of Col on 18 December 1944. From 19 December to the end of the month a major encircle-and-destroy operation was mounted from the garrison towns of Gorizia, Idrija, Postojna and Sežana aiming to eliminate the Partisan stronghold in the Trnovska Mountains. Nearly 5,000 men were used, including 500 from the SDK's 1st Regiment in Postojna, the 10th SS-Police Regiment, Italian R.S.I. troops, and Slovenian Domobranci (pro-Nazi Slovenian militia).
The next campaign participated in by the SDK was against Josip Broz Tito's 9th Corps during the first few days of March 1945 and codenamed Ruebezahl. Two combat groups were formed to strike against Partisan concentrations near Lokve. The first group was called 'Zuschneid', and comprised three SS-Police battalions, elements of the 1st Slovenian Domobranci Assault Regiment, two SDK battalions and one Caucasian battalion, with a total force of around 5,000 men. The second group, 'Koestermann', consisted of two battalions of the German 730th Infantry Regiment (710th Inf. Div.), a police company and some engineers, with a total of 2,500 men. The attacking forces pushed forward from a south and west direction, and this time the operation was more successful. The Partisans suffered moderate losses, and the concentration was broken up and dispersed to the northeast.
However, the Partisans quickly regrouped, so the Germans were forced to conduct a supplementary operation (19 March-7 April), which proved to be the final operation against Tito's 9th Corps. Four combat groups were organized along the perimeter of the area now occupied by the Partisans, with the task of bringing the 9th Corps to battle by gradually advancing in unison toward the centre, and thereby reducing the size of the area under their control. This was the standard German method of cleansing a Partisan-controlled area, that never significantly changed during the course of the war. To the west, along a line Idrija-Rijeka-Grahovo-Podbrdo, Combat Group Blank was assembled with major elements of the 10th and 15th SS-Police Regiments, II./1. SDK Rgt, II./4. SDK Rgt, 21st SS-Police Reconnaissance Co., SS-Police Company 'Schmidt' and an artillery battery from the LXXXXVII Army Corps. This force was later joined on 4 April by the 2nd and 3rd SDK Regiments, and 1,500 men from the Chetnik 502 Lika Corps. The second group, under Police Major Dr Dippelhofer, consisted of the Ljubljana SS NCO School, Slovenian Domobranci, Chetniks and a 1,200-man Russian ROA unit. This group was deployed to the southeast along the line Idrija-Škofja Loka. The northern assault group, 4,500 men from the 13th, 17th and 28th SS-Police Regiments formed up along the road between Podbrdo and Škofja Loka, while a special assault force from the 14th Ukrainian SS Division was concentrated along the north-eastern side of the perimeter.
The area encircled was mountainous, thickly forested, and still deep in winter snow. Once off the few roads that encircle the area, the attacking forces were faced with extremely difficult terrain that limited their progress to a few kilometres each day, inhibited contact with neighbouring units, and greatly restricted the ability to rapidly bring up fresh supplies and heavy weapons. Very soon gaps developed in the line of advance, through which the main body of 9th Corps escaped. Although a number of minor skirmishes were fought, and casualties suffered on both sides, the overall result of the operation was disappointing.
On 27 March, General Damjanović replaced General Mušicki as commander of the Serbian Volunteer Corps and the SDK became a component of Draža Mihailović’s Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, the formal name for the Chetnik forces, although the Corps was still assigned to the HSSuPF Trieste under SS-Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik. Whether this change affected the SDK’s relationship to the Waffen-SS is unknown, but doubtful. Shortly thereafter, Hermann Neubacher, Hitler’s special political representative for the Balkans, paid a visit to Ljotić in Trieste to discuss German fears about what would happen when the SDK and Chetnik forces in Istria came into contact with British and American units who were expected to move in that direction from Italy. Ljotić reassured Neubacher of the SDK’s loyalty.
Meanwhile, Tito’s 4th Army was advancing north along the coastal road from Novi Vinodolski, Croatia to liberate Istria, Trieste and all of central and western Slovenia. German Army Group E immediately issued orders to the LXXXXVII Army Corps to build a perimeter around the port city of Rijeka, to try to block the 4th Army's westward advance. In early April the 237th Infantry Division was rushed to the area, and within a few days defensive positions were established in a 21-kilometre arc to the east and north of the city. The 4th Army began its attack on Rijeka around 20 April with the Partisan 13th, 19th and 43rd Divisions. Although the outnumbered German 237th Infantry Division offered stiff resistance and held its positions, General Kuebler ordered the 188th Reserve Mountain Division to launch an immediate attack on Partisan concentrations in the vicinity of Grobnik Airfield, 16 kilometres north east of Rijeka. To support this attack, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th SDK Regiments were moved up from the Postojna area. However the regiments of the Serbian Volunteer Corps arrived too late and never made contact with the 188th Mountain Division. The attack on the airfield was unsuccessful, and by 23 April it was clear to General Kuebler that his Corps was threatened with total encirclement. Kuebler's appreciation of the situation was entirely correct, as on 22 April the general staff of Tito's 4th Army ordered a flanking movement to bypass the city. While the LXXXXVII Corps continued to be pressed by three divisions, the Partisan 20th Division was brought up from Ogulin along with one additional brigade, three tank battalions and two artillery battalions. This force moved to the north, around the German defensive perimeter, and advanced on Trieste via Ilirska Bistrica with the intention of linking up with the Partisan 9th Corps which was pushing south on Trieste.
As the battle for Rijeka moved toward its inevitable conclusion, SDK Regiments 2, 3, and 4 were sent to Ljubljana and transferred to the authority of SS-Obergruppenführer Erwin Rösener, HSSuPF for Carinthia, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group E's rear area. Rösener's task was to open up and keep open the road and rail routes in northern Slovenia to facilitate the Army Group's withdrawal from Croatia north into Austria. SDK Regiments 1 and 5 remained assigned to Globočnik, who had meanwhile transferred his headquarters from Trieste to Udine, across the Isonzo River in Italy. The SDK was therefore split into two groups, one in central Slovenia under Rösener and moving toward the Austrian border, while the other was in the extreme western part of Slovenia under Globočnik moving toward Italy.
Surrender and afterwards
At about this time, 22 April, Neubacher paid his final visit to Ljotić. A total collapse of German forces in the Balkans and in Italy was recognized as being only a matter of weeks if not days away, and Neubacher wanted to know Ljotić's plans for withdrawing and surrendering the SDK. The next day, during the hours of darkness, Ljotić accidentally drove his car into a hole that had been blown in a bridge by Allied fighter-bombers. His neck was broken and he died shortly thereafter.
On 29 April, as Tito's forces were closing on the Trieste area, General Damjanović issued orders to the 1st and 5th Regiments to cross into Italy, where on 5 May in the town of Palmanova (50 km northwest of Trieste) between 2,400 and 2,800 SDK men surrendered to the British.
The men belonging to the other three regiments experienced a less agreeable fate. They moved north from the Ljubljana area into Austria and surrendered to the British at Unterbergen on the Drava River on 12 May 1945. 20 days later these 2,418 men were turned over to Tito's Partisans. Some were executed almost immediately in Kočevski Rog, while the others were carted off along with 10,000 Slovenian Domobranci to the infamous camp at Šentvid, near Ljubljana. Subsequently, after a period of brutalization, these too were executed.
The group that surrendered in Italy was eventually transported to a camp at Münster, Germany, where they were released in July, 1947. These men made their way to various countries around the world, including the United States. General Mušicki was arrested by the Allied authorities, returned to Yugoslavia, and executed in 1946 as a result of sentences passed at the same war crimes trial that pronounced the death sentence on Draža Mihailović and a number of others.
Dimitrije Ljotić, Nazi German collaborationist during World War II
Dimitrije Ljotić (Serbian Cyrillic: Димитрије Љотић; August 12, 1891, Belgrade - April 23, 1945, Ajdovščina) was a Serbian politician and Nazi German collaborationist during World War II.
Although born in Belgrade he spent most of his life in Smederevo. His ancestors came to Serbia from the village of Blace in what is today Greek Macedonia during the first half of 19th century. His father Vladimir Ljotić had a notable political and diplomatic career during which he was a consul in Thessaloniki, mayor of Smederevo and a Member of Parliament in the Serbian Parliament. Dimitrije started his education in Smederevo, before going on to graduate at the age of 16 from the Serbian lycée in Thesaloniki, and concluding his education by graduating at the University of Belgrade's Law School.
During the Balkan wars he volunteered for military medical service. In 1913 he stayed in Paris where he remained until the beginning of World War I; soon after he returned to Serbia and enlisted in the Serbian Army. After the Great War he served as commander of a railway station in Bakar, Croatia where he broke a railway strike arresting 36 workers. This event proved crucial in his life and career since it determined his choice to become a politician rather than a clergyman. In Bakar he met his wife Ivka, with whom he moved back to Smederevo in 1920 and started practicing law. In Smederevo he joined the People's Radical Party soon becoming president of the Youth branch. In 1931 King Alexander I proclaimed him Minister of Justice in the government of Petar Živković, in which capacity he would make a new draft Constitution and present it to the King. He proposed voters should vote in free and secret elections whilst candidates would be nominated by non-governmental organizations. The King refused his proposal and Ljotić resigned from office.
After the resignation he worked on gathering people who shared his vision and beliefs. On January 6, 1935, Dimitrije Ljotić was elected president of the newly formed party ZBOR which some compared to fascist movements in other countries. In the same year his party won 0.86% of the vote, and continued receiving similar election ratings until the beginning of the World War II. After Yugoslavia had been attacked by Axis he volunteered to the Army and as a reserve officer went to Bjeljina, where he was greeted by news of capitulation and consequently went back to Smederevo.
He soon joined negotiations with the German occupation forces to form a civil government in occupied Serbia, the so-called Commissar administration, but refused to join in the government. After the demise of the Commisar administration, a new civil government was formed headed by Milan Nedić, a man Ljotić nominated personally. Ljotić declined once more to join the government, but two ZBOR members did not share his choice. One of the two, Mihailo Olćan, proposed the formation of the Serbian Volunteer Corps which would engage in fighting against the partisans, having Dimitrije Ljotić as their ideological leader.
As the end of the war was approaching Ljotić, together with most of Serbian anti-communist forces, sought refuge in Slovenia; there he was scheming, with Slovenian collaborators, for the restoration of the Yugoslav monarchy.
His driver Ratko Živadinović had very bad vision. During the night they had been stopped by a Slovenian road patrol and forewarned that road was severely damaged; a few minutes later they fell from a broken bridge into a river. Both Ljotić and his driver died at the scene. Dimitrije Ljotić was buried in Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia.
Although born in Belgrade he spent most of his life in Smederevo. His ancestors came to Serbia from the village of Blace in what is today Greek Macedonia during the first half of 19th century. His father Vladimir Ljotić had a notable political and diplomatic career during which he was a consul in Thessaloniki, mayor of Smederevo and a Member of Parliament in the Serbian Parliament. Dimitrije started his education in Smederevo, before going on to graduate at the age of 16 from the Serbian lycée in Thesaloniki, and concluding his education by graduating at the University of Belgrade's Law School.
During the Balkan wars he volunteered for military medical service. In 1913 he stayed in Paris where he remained until the beginning of World War I; soon after he returned to Serbia and enlisted in the Serbian Army. After the Great War he served as commander of a railway station in Bakar, Croatia where he broke a railway strike arresting 36 workers. This event proved crucial in his life and career since it determined his choice to become a politician rather than a clergyman. In Bakar he met his wife Ivka, with whom he moved back to Smederevo in 1920 and started practicing law. In Smederevo he joined the People's Radical Party soon becoming president of the Youth branch. In 1931 King Alexander I proclaimed him Minister of Justice in the government of Petar Živković, in which capacity he would make a new draft Constitution and present it to the King. He proposed voters should vote in free and secret elections whilst candidates would be nominated by non-governmental organizations. The King refused his proposal and Ljotić resigned from office.
After the resignation he worked on gathering people who shared his vision and beliefs. On January 6, 1935, Dimitrije Ljotić was elected president of the newly formed party ZBOR which some compared to fascist movements in other countries. In the same year his party won 0.86% of the vote, and continued receiving similar election ratings until the beginning of the World War II. After Yugoslavia had been attacked by Axis he volunteered to the Army and as a reserve officer went to Bjeljina, where he was greeted by news of capitulation and consequently went back to Smederevo.
He soon joined negotiations with the German occupation forces to form a civil government in occupied Serbia, the so-called Commissar administration, but refused to join in the government. After the demise of the Commisar administration, a new civil government was formed headed by Milan Nedić, a man Ljotić nominated personally. Ljotić declined once more to join the government, but two ZBOR members did not share his choice. One of the two, Mihailo Olćan, proposed the formation of the Serbian Volunteer Corps which would engage in fighting against the partisans, having Dimitrije Ljotić as their ideological leader.
As the end of the war was approaching Ljotić, together with most of Serbian anti-communist forces, sought refuge in Slovenia; there he was scheming, with Slovenian collaborators, for the restoration of the Yugoslav monarchy.
His driver Ratko Živadinović had very bad vision. During the night they had been stopped by a Slovenian road patrol and forewarned that road was severely damaged; a few minutes later they fell from a broken bridge into a river. Both Ljotić and his driver died at the scene. Dimitrije Ljotić was buried in Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia.
Serbian SS (SDK/Serbisches Freiwilligenkorps)
Formed on 15 September 1941, by Dimitrije Ljotić from Chetniks and his
Zbor Movement activists. It had twelve 120-150 strong detachments. In
January 1943, it become Serbian Volunteer Corps (Srpski Dobrovoljacki
Korpus - SDK) with five 500 man battalions - four volunteer and one
Chetnik Assault battalion and from 4 January 1943 it also had armored
car battalion, cavalry squadron and 6 aircraft - strength is around
3,000 men. Formation was fully equipped by Germans who where impressed
by its performance.
Armored car battalion (bornih kola) had some 20 different vehicles - some ex-YU which Germans considered obsolete, few French Renault tanks, Czech and maximum of three German half-tracks in very bad shape. Out of six aircraft, two were Breguet-XIX and one Fieseler Storch. Flights (when aircraft were in flight condition) were allowed only with German supervision.
In 1944 five 1200-man regiments with 500-man artillery battalion, under German tactical command but reporting to General Nedić. On 21 June another regiment was formed - 2nd Iron Regiment (2. gvozdeni puk), total strength has risen to around 9,000 men.
Strength of the Volunteer Corps in August 1944 according to Bundesarchiv, RH 19 XI/31 Militaerbefehlshaber Suedost Ia, Gegenueberstellung der Feindstaerken und der eigenen einsatzfaehigen Kraefte im serbischen Raum (21.8.1944): 9.886 men.
On 8 October 1944 leaves Belgrade, moving to Syrmia and finally retreating to Slovenia. In November 1944 the Waffen-SS took over the job of supplying the SVC, and on paper naming it the Serbian SS Volunteer Corps. But the SVC never had German uniforms, only Yugoslav or Italian, and never donned SS patches or runes.
Armored car battalion (bornih kola) had some 20 different vehicles - some ex-YU which Germans considered obsolete, few French Renault tanks, Czech and maximum of three German half-tracks in very bad shape. Out of six aircraft, two were Breguet-XIX and one Fieseler Storch. Flights (when aircraft were in flight condition) were allowed only with German supervision.
In 1944 five 1200-man regiments with 500-man artillery battalion, under German tactical command but reporting to General Nedić. On 21 June another regiment was formed - 2nd Iron Regiment (2. gvozdeni puk), total strength has risen to around 9,000 men.
Strength of the Volunteer Corps in August 1944 according to Bundesarchiv, RH 19 XI/31 Militaerbefehlshaber Suedost Ia, Gegenueberstellung der Feindstaerken und der eigenen einsatzfaehigen Kraefte im serbischen Raum (21.8.1944): 9.886 men.
On 8 October 1944 leaves Belgrade, moving to Syrmia and finally retreating to Slovenia. In November 1944 the Waffen-SS took over the job of supplying the SVC, and on paper naming it the Serbian SS Volunteer Corps. But the SVC never had German uniforms, only Yugoslav or Italian, and never donned SS patches or runes.
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