http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=652
Balkanalysis
Belgrade '41: Hitler's Invasion of Serbia, 65 Years Later
Date: Thursday, April 06 @ 04:00:00 EST
Topic: Other Balkans Articles
By Carl Savich and Christopher Deliso
It is a dark chapter in Europe's history, yet one that is rarely
discussed: the Nazi invasion of Serbia in 1941.
Today, it is now 65 years since Hitler began the bombing of Belgrade.
This event and some nagging conclusions that can be drawn from it are
marked here with a short text illustrated by several rare photos.
But don't expect the mass media to cover it: Serbia's support of the
Allies against the Germans in both World Wars, and the appalling fate
of millions of its citizens at the hands of the Nazis and their local
collaborators, matter little to the architects in today's brave new
world of selective forgetting by the powers-that-be.
Reading this summary of the tragedy of Belgrade in 1941 brings to mind
two related things: one, the recent anniversary of NATO's bombing of
Belgrade, commemorated less than two weeks ago; and the fact that, as
pointed out (
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=651
) on Tuesday, American and the EU are now succeeding where even Hitler
could not.
........................
Thursday, April 6, 2006 marks the 65th anniversary of the bombing of
Belgrade and the German invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece.
Adolf Hitler called the invasion, occupation and dismemberment of
Yugoslavia "Operation Punishment" or "Operation 25." The invasion and
occupation of Greece was dubbed "Operation Marita." Both were seen as
essential to the fulfillment of Germany's plan for complete
territorial hegemony over Continental Europe.
PHOTO: Stuka dive bombers on their way to bomb Belgrade, April 6, 1941
(photo: www.svetskirat.net) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/stuka1941.jpg
When the Yugoslav government signaled it would support the Axis,
several days before the bombing, a popular revolt sprang up among the
citizens, who had no intention of going along with the Fascists. The
government was overturned. Shocked by this display of insolence,
Hitler planned to destroy Belgrade as a punishment for the Serbian
refusal to join the Nazi New Order in Europe.
On April 6, in what modern artisans of war would call a "shock and
awe" bombardment, waves of Luftwaffe bombers and Stukas bombed the
Serbian capital, killing an estimated 5,000 to 17,000 Serbian
civilians in four days of bombing. Belgrade, a beautiful and ancient
center of culture and history, was reduced to rubble.
Hitler made use of air bases in Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria and Romania
in order to bomb Yugoslavia and Greece. He was determined to destroy
Yugoslavia, and especially Serbia, who had triumphantly driven the
Germans out of the Balkans in the end of the previous world war.
PHOTO: The Royal Palace in Belgrade destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing,
1941 (photo: www.kosovo.com) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Royalpalace1941.jpg
But not only that. Hitler sought to destroy the Serbian people as a
nation. He was enraged that they, as well as the Greeks, would stand
up to his imperial ambitions. Pursuant to this objective, he
manipulated other ethnic groups existing within Yugoslavia, in an
attempt to sever the country and use their latent animosities to
eliminate the Serbian minorities there. Thus the Fuhrer detached
Kosovo from Serbia creating, for the first time in history, a
neo-Fascist Greater Albania. Hitler also created a Greater Croatia
that included Bosnia-Hercegovina, under a regime (the Ustashe) that
rivaled the Nazi one for its barbaric cruelty, as witnessed in death
camps such as Jasenovac (
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/007.shtml ), where hundreds of
thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and "others" were exterminated.
This was Hitler's policy; as strong participants in society, and
perceived impediments to the colonial aspirations of the Third Reich,
both Serbs and Jews were the victims of a planned and systematic
genocide. As for the Roma, they were just disdained as human refuse,
which the world would be better off without. The Nazi regime wanted to
make Serbia Juden frei, or Jew-free. The Nazis even went so far as to
claim that Serbia was the only country that was Juden frei. Yet this
was not true. Nevertheless, it did show the utter hatred and contempt
Nazi Germany had for Serbia and for the Serbian people. This was due
to the fact that Serbia refused to join the New Order in Europe, the
European union of Nazi states under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.
The German occupation of Serbia was brutal. Serbian civilians were
executed at random due to activities of the resistance movement.
Serbian civilians were hanged from lampposts in Belgrade as an example
of Nazi terror. Jews were rounded up and deported.
However, the Nazi bombing and invasion energized the population,
resulting in one of the largest anti-Nazi resistance movements in Europe.
This resistance played a vital role in the outcome of the war, both in
Serbia and further afield. Hitler was forced to postpone Operation
Barbarossa, the code name for the invasion of Russia, to put down the
Serbs. This gave the Soviets enough time to prepare and altered the
course of the war for the Allies.
PHOTO: Nazi terror: A Serbian civilian hanged on a lamppost in 1941
(Photo: www.svetskirat.net) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Naziterror1941.jpg
Enraged, Hitler ordered an almost genocidal crackdown on the Serbs who
stood in the way of his dreams of world conquest. One of the most
wanton acts of cruelty committed by the Germans is known today as the
Kragujevac Massacre (http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/046.shtml
), in which thousands of Serbian civilians were killed to fulfill the
Nazi directive that 100 Serbs would be shot for every German soldier
killed by the resistance. As with the bombing of Belgrade itself, this
has been conveniently forgotten today.
Forgotten Facts, Distorted Facts
Also forgotten is the long and lonely quest of now deceased American
airman, Richard L. Felman, whose plane was shot down over Serbia by
the Germans in World War II. Felman was Jewish and appealed to the
conscience of his nation to recognize the heroic acts of Serbian
resistance fighters, in their successful rescue of he and some 512 of
his fellow American soldiers (
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/038.shtml ) also shot down by
the Nazis.
Nevertheless, Felman was forced to publish his memoir himself, as even
in 1964 the topic was radioactive. Despite numerous attempts to get a
congressional bill passed that would honor the Serb resistance for
their part in the rescue, Felman was not successful. The uncomfortable
fact that his rescuer was Serb General Draza Mihailovic was
politically incorrect, opposed by both the then-Communist Yugoslav
government and the myriad ethnic lobbies (Croat, Albanian and Bosnian
Muslim) who hated both Tito and Mihailovic and who had fought on the
Nazi side as well.
PHOTO: German armored column on the Danube River outside of Belgrade
in April, 1941 (photo: www.svetskirat.net) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Nazicolumn1941.jpg
What kept the old soldier motivated to tell the world his story were
memories like this one ( http://www.dojgov.net/kosovo_watch02.htm ):
"...one experience which is forever seared in my memory is the time a
village with 200 women and children was burned to the ground by the
Germans because the Serbs would not tell them where they were hiding
us. To this day, I can smell the terrible stench of their burning
flesh. One does not forget such things."
Disconcerting Developments
Today, allegedly genocidal Serbia remains the most multi-ethnic
country in the former Yugoslavia. It also hosts the largest refugee
population in Europe. Yet these facts are conveniently forgotten by
Western governments and media, eager to prolong the policy of Serb
demonization at all costs.
PHOTO: A German officer of the Gross Deutschland Division finishing
off Serbian civilians executed at random in Pancevo, April 22, 1941
(photo: Der Spiegel) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Pancevoexecution1941.jpg
In "liberated" Kosovo, on the other hand, the Western-sanctioned
policy of ethnic cleansing continues apace. While Hitler tried to
expel or kill all of the Jews of Kosovo with the help of his Albanian
proxies, he was not entirely successful. Yet following their
reactivation, this time under NATO tutelage in 1999, the Jews of
Kosovo were eliminated ( http://www.tenc.net/interviews/ceda.htm ),
forced to Israel, forever. Adolf must be applauding from the grave.
The same goes for the Serbs, 200,000 of whom have been exiled, with
the rest soon to follow ( http://antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=8793 ).
As for the Roma, held in the same high regard by the modern UNMIK
occupiers as they were by the Nazis, they remain externally displaced
or were consigned to refugee camps of high toxicity (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4080048.stm ), such as the
lead-contaminated camp run by KFOR in northern Kosovo. While the
Western leaders who put them there knew about the severe health risks
for years, plans to relocate Europe's perennially unwanted population
only began a few months ago (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4493256.stm ). This policy
represented, essentially, an enforced death sentence.
An Afterthought
Today, exactly 65 years since the Nazi onslaught descended on
Belgrade, we can take a moment to consider the impact that the
collective forgetting of that atrocity of war has had for the
toleration of another. Could the most recent reprising, NATO's 1999
bombing of Belgrade – performed with the eager participation of the
Germans, happy to get their hands bloody for the first time since
World War II – have happened, had Western media audiences been
presented with a fuller picture of its 1941 predecessor, and of
shocking stories like Kragujevac, Jasenovac and the suppression of
American veteran Richard Felman's personal account?
These questions are bound to remain unanswered. We can only hope that,
for the sake of the future and a "preventative peace," greater efforts
be made to present a fuller and more comprehensive depiction of the
facts than the mainstream media would dare attempt.
PHOTO: Relics of the war for human rights: Belgrade building
devastated by NATO's 1999 bombing, March 2006 (photo: Christopher
Deliso) - http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Belgradebombedbuilding.jpg
All content copyright Balkanalysis.com 2001-2006, Christopher Deliso
or other contributors.
Balkanalysis
Belgrade '41: Hitler's Invasion of Serbia, 65 Years Later
Date: Thursday, April 06 @ 04:00:00 EST
Topic: Other Balkans Articles
By Carl Savich and Christopher Deliso
It is a dark chapter in Europe's history, yet one that is rarely
discussed: the Nazi invasion of Serbia in 1941.
Today, it is now 65 years since Hitler began the bombing of Belgrade.
This event and some nagging conclusions that can be drawn from it are
marked here with a short text illustrated by several rare photos.
But don't expect the mass media to cover it: Serbia's support of the
Allies against the Germans in both World Wars, and the appalling fate
of millions of its citizens at the hands of the Nazis and their local
collaborators, matter little to the architects in today's brave new
world of selective forgetting by the powers-that-be.
Reading this summary of the tragedy of Belgrade in 1941 brings to mind
two related things: one, the recent anniversary of NATO's bombing of
Belgrade, commemorated less than two weeks ago; and the fact that, as
pointed out (
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=651
) on Tuesday, American and the EU are now succeeding where even Hitler
could not.
........................
Thursday, April 6, 2006 marks the 65th anniversary of the bombing of
Belgrade and the German invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece.
Adolf Hitler called the invasion, occupation and dismemberment of
Yugoslavia "Operation Punishment" or "Operation 25." The invasion and
occupation of Greece was dubbed "Operation Marita." Both were seen as
essential to the fulfillment of Germany's plan for complete
territorial hegemony over Continental Europe.
PHOTO: Stuka dive bombers on their way to bomb Belgrade, April 6, 1941
(photo: www.svetskirat.net) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/stuka1941.jpg
When the Yugoslav government signaled it would support the Axis,
several days before the bombing, a popular revolt sprang up among the
citizens, who had no intention of going along with the Fascists. The
government was overturned. Shocked by this display of insolence,
Hitler planned to destroy Belgrade as a punishment for the Serbian
refusal to join the Nazi New Order in Europe.
On April 6, in what modern artisans of war would call a "shock and
awe" bombardment, waves of Luftwaffe bombers and Stukas bombed the
Serbian capital, killing an estimated 5,000 to 17,000 Serbian
civilians in four days of bombing. Belgrade, a beautiful and ancient
center of culture and history, was reduced to rubble.
Hitler made use of air bases in Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria and Romania
in order to bomb Yugoslavia and Greece. He was determined to destroy
Yugoslavia, and especially Serbia, who had triumphantly driven the
Germans out of the Balkans in the end of the previous world war.
PHOTO: The Royal Palace in Belgrade destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing,
1941 (photo: www.kosovo.com) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Royalpalace1941.jpg
But not only that. Hitler sought to destroy the Serbian people as a
nation. He was enraged that they, as well as the Greeks, would stand
up to his imperial ambitions. Pursuant to this objective, he
manipulated other ethnic groups existing within Yugoslavia, in an
attempt to sever the country and use their latent animosities to
eliminate the Serbian minorities there. Thus the Fuhrer detached
Kosovo from Serbia creating, for the first time in history, a
neo-Fascist Greater Albania. Hitler also created a Greater Croatia
that included Bosnia-Hercegovina, under a regime (the Ustashe) that
rivaled the Nazi one for its barbaric cruelty, as witnessed in death
camps such as Jasenovac (
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/007.shtml ), where hundreds of
thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and "others" were exterminated.
This was Hitler's policy; as strong participants in society, and
perceived impediments to the colonial aspirations of the Third Reich,
both Serbs and Jews were the victims of a planned and systematic
genocide. As for the Roma, they were just disdained as human refuse,
which the world would be better off without. The Nazi regime wanted to
make Serbia Juden frei, or Jew-free. The Nazis even went so far as to
claim that Serbia was the only country that was Juden frei. Yet this
was not true. Nevertheless, it did show the utter hatred and contempt
Nazi Germany had for Serbia and for the Serbian people. This was due
to the fact that Serbia refused to join the New Order in Europe, the
European union of Nazi states under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.
The German occupation of Serbia was brutal. Serbian civilians were
executed at random due to activities of the resistance movement.
Serbian civilians were hanged from lampposts in Belgrade as an example
of Nazi terror. Jews were rounded up and deported.
However, the Nazi bombing and invasion energized the population,
resulting in one of the largest anti-Nazi resistance movements in Europe.
This resistance played a vital role in the outcome of the war, both in
Serbia and further afield. Hitler was forced to postpone Operation
Barbarossa, the code name for the invasion of Russia, to put down the
Serbs. This gave the Soviets enough time to prepare and altered the
course of the war for the Allies.
PHOTO: Nazi terror: A Serbian civilian hanged on a lamppost in 1941
(Photo: www.svetskirat.net) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Naziterror1941.jpg
Enraged, Hitler ordered an almost genocidal crackdown on the Serbs who
stood in the way of his dreams of world conquest. One of the most
wanton acts of cruelty committed by the Germans is known today as the
Kragujevac Massacre (http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/046.shtml
), in which thousands of Serbian civilians were killed to fulfill the
Nazi directive that 100 Serbs would be shot for every German soldier
killed by the resistance. As with the bombing of Belgrade itself, this
has been conveniently forgotten today.
Forgotten Facts, Distorted Facts
Also forgotten is the long and lonely quest of now deceased American
airman, Richard L. Felman, whose plane was shot down over Serbia by
the Germans in World War II. Felman was Jewish and appealed to the
conscience of his nation to recognize the heroic acts of Serbian
resistance fighters, in their successful rescue of he and some 512 of
his fellow American soldiers (
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/038.shtml ) also shot down by
the Nazis.
Nevertheless, Felman was forced to publish his memoir himself, as even
in 1964 the topic was radioactive. Despite numerous attempts to get a
congressional bill passed that would honor the Serb resistance for
their part in the rescue, Felman was not successful. The uncomfortable
fact that his rescuer was Serb General Draza Mihailovic was
politically incorrect, opposed by both the then-Communist Yugoslav
government and the myriad ethnic lobbies (Croat, Albanian and Bosnian
Muslim) who hated both Tito and Mihailovic and who had fought on the
Nazi side as well.
PHOTO: German armored column on the Danube River outside of Belgrade
in April, 1941 (photo: www.svetskirat.net) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Nazicolumn1941.jpg
What kept the old soldier motivated to tell the world his story were
memories like this one ( http://www.dojgov.net/kosovo_watch02.htm ):
"...one experience which is forever seared in my memory is the time a
village with 200 women and children was burned to the ground by the
Germans because the Serbs would not tell them where they were hiding
us. To this day, I can smell the terrible stench of their burning
flesh. One does not forget such things."
Disconcerting Developments
Today, allegedly genocidal Serbia remains the most multi-ethnic
country in the former Yugoslavia. It also hosts the largest refugee
population in Europe. Yet these facts are conveniently forgotten by
Western governments and media, eager to prolong the policy of Serb
demonization at all costs.
PHOTO: A German officer of the Gross Deutschland Division finishing
off Serbian civilians executed at random in Pancevo, April 22, 1941
(photo: Der Spiegel) -
http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Pancevoexecution1941.jpg
In "liberated" Kosovo, on the other hand, the Western-sanctioned
policy of ethnic cleansing continues apace. While Hitler tried to
expel or kill all of the Jews of Kosovo with the help of his Albanian
proxies, he was not entirely successful. Yet following their
reactivation, this time under NATO tutelage in 1999, the Jews of
Kosovo were eliminated ( http://www.tenc.net/interviews/ceda.htm ),
forced to Israel, forever. Adolf must be applauding from the grave.
The same goes for the Serbs, 200,000 of whom have been exiled, with
the rest soon to follow ( http://antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=8793 ).
As for the Roma, held in the same high regard by the modern UNMIK
occupiers as they were by the Nazis, they remain externally displaced
or were consigned to refugee camps of high toxicity (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4080048.stm ), such as the
lead-contaminated camp run by KFOR in northern Kosovo. While the
Western leaders who put them there knew about the severe health risks
for years, plans to relocate Europe's perennially unwanted population
only began a few months ago (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4493256.stm ). This policy
represented, essentially, an enforced death sentence.
An Afterthought
Today, exactly 65 years since the Nazi onslaught descended on
Belgrade, we can take a moment to consider the impact that the
collective forgetting of that atrocity of war has had for the
toleration of another. Could the most recent reprising, NATO's 1999
bombing of Belgrade – performed with the eager participation of the
Germans, happy to get their hands bloody for the first time since
World War II – have happened, had Western media audiences been
presented with a fuller picture of its 1941 predecessor, and of
shocking stories like Kragujevac, Jasenovac and the suppression of
American veteran Richard Felman's personal account?
These questions are bound to remain unanswered. We can only hope that,
for the sake of the future and a "preventative peace," greater efforts
be made to present a fuller and more comprehensive depiction of the
facts than the mainstream media would dare attempt.
PHOTO: Relics of the war for human rights: Belgrade building
devastated by NATO's 1999 bombing, March 2006 (photo: Christopher
Deliso) - http://www.balkanalysis.com/photos/Belgradebombedbuilding.jpg
All content copyright Balkanalysis.com 2001-2006, Christopher Deliso
or other contributors.