NAZI Attrocities in Yugoslavia (1941-45)

Figure 1.--The Germans at Kragujevac rounded up about 5,000 people. A secondary school was also included in the reprisal. All the pupils were boys. The teachers stayed with their students even though the Germans had the quota. All were executed. Here German troops march the boys from the school to the execution grounfs.

The NAZIs aided by their Axis allies invaded Yugoslavia after the Yugoslaves overthrew a Prince Paul's government brringing the country in to the Axis. The invasion was one more in a series of successful Blitzkrieg opertions (April 6, 1941). Within 12 days the NAZIs were in control of the country which was divided among Germany and its akkies. The NAZIs committed a range of attrocities in Yugoslavia, beginning with the terror bombing of Belgrade. Many of the NAZI attrocities were associated with the NAZI racial program. They were directed at Jews, but not only at Jews. Other attrocities were aimed a supressing the guerilla campaign that developed after the NAZI invasion.

NAZI Invasion (April 6, 1941)

The NAZIs aided by their Axis allies invaded Yugoslavia after the Yugoslaves overthrew a Prince Paul's government brringing the country in to the Axis. The invasion was one more in a series of successful Blitzkrieg opertions (April 6, 1941). Within 12 days the NAZIs were in control of the country which was divided among Germany and its akkies. German Führer Adolf Hitler was by 1941 intent on his invasion of the Soviet Union. He thought he had the Balkans sorted out to provide a secure southern front. He had to be concerned with the vital Ploesti oil fields in Romania. Hitler forced the Yugoslav governent to adhere to the Axis. A popular revolt occured in Belgrade against joining the NAZI-dominated Axis. The revolt led by students overthrew the regency under Prince Paul. They installed the youthful King Michael and rejected the treaty that Prince Paul had signed with the NAZIs. Hitler was enraged with the coup. He decided to punish and cow the Serbs by desrtoying Belgrade by a Luftwaffe terror bombing. Wehrmact and Luftwaffe military units had already been positioned in the Reich and and allied states (Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria) for such an intervention, although the target was believed to be Greece. Hitler called the invasion, occupation and dismemberment of Yugoslavia “Operation Punishment” or “Operation 25.” Belgrade was subjected to Luftwaffe terror bombing for rejecting the alliance with the NAZIs. Unlike World War I, militart resistance in Yugodlavia quickly collapsed and in some areas the NAZIs were treated as liberators. Mussolini's actions at complicated Hitler's plans in the Balkans. The attack on Yugoslavia provided the excuse for attacking Greece as well. The quick collaose of the Yugoslave Army allowed the NAZIs to concentrate in Greece. The Wehrmact called the invasion and occupation of Greece “Operation Marita. Unlike Yugoslavia, the Wehrmacht had to fight in Greece, primarily because Churchill had rushed troops from Egypt to support his Greek Ally. Even so, Greece fell within only a few weeks. Hitler followed his Balkan victories with a successful, but costly parachute assault on Crete.

Terror Bombing of Belgrade

The NAZIs committed a range of attrocities in Yugoslavia, beginning with the terror bombing of Belgrade. Hitler was, however, not deterred from the tactic. A group of junior Yugoslav officers staged a coup when King Paul caved into Hitler's demands to join the Tripartite Pact. Personally offronted that a country he had courted as an ally had rejected him, Hitler ordered the terror bombing of Belgrade. He calling it "Operation Punishment". [Fest, p. 711.] The Luftwaffe on April 6-10, 1941 flew more than 500 sorties against undefended Belgrade killing more than 17,500 people. Again the tactic work. A resourceful SS officer with six men after the bombing managed to seize the city ahead of the Wehrmacht time table. It was an important factor in the stunning defeat of Greek and British forces in thenext few weeks. [Heaton]

Yugoslav Holocaust

Many of the NAZI attrocities were associated with the NAZI racial program. They were directed at Jews, but not only at Jews. Yugoslavia was an ehnic killing field during World War II. The Croatians who had been disatisfied with Serb dominance of the Yugoslav Goverment formed the Ushachi and joined the Germans and began killing Serbs and Moslems in Bosnia. Serb guerrillas called Chetnicks began killing Croats in response, as well as Jews and Moslems. In many cases it was not a matter of rounding Jews up and turning them over to the Germans. The Croats and many Serbs (both Chetniks and collaborationists) were willing to kill Jews themselves. Only with Titos partisans could Jews seek refuge, but this was only the able-bodied who succeeded in finding a partisan group. Few Jewish children survived in Yugoslavia.

Reprisals

Other attrocities were aimed a supressing the guerilla campaign that developed after the NAZI invasion. The Fascist occupiers, especially the NAZIs, instituted terrible reprisals on the civilian population for resistance attacks. The Wehrmacht sometimes killed up to 100 civilians for every Wehrmacht soldier killed. The targets included men, women, and children. A Serbiabn reader from Kragujeva tells us about an incident in her town where some German soldiers were killed and wounded by a resistance attack. The German commander applied the standard German formula: 1 wounded German solders = 50 Serbian people executed and 1 dead German Solder = 100 Serbian people executed. The Germans at Kragujevac rounded up about 5,000 people. A secondary school was also included in the reprisal. All the pupils were boys. The teachers stayed with their students even though the Germans had the quota. All were executed. Our reader tells us that her grandfather escaped this because he was sick and kept at home that day. Two cousins were teachers at the school and they were executed with their pupils. Many incidents kike this punctuated the terrible guerrila campaign in the Balkans. This was a factor in the unwilingness of the Chetniks to launch attacks on the Germans. It did not stop the Partisans. At the time of the NAZI invasion, opposition was concentrated in the cities where people were more politically concious. People in rural areas tended to be more apathetic. The viciousness of the NAZI reprisals tended to generate wide-spread opposition to the occupiers. The Partisans managed to achieve widespread support, despite the fact that relatively few Yugoslavs were Communists.

Sources

Fest, Joachim C. Hitler (Vintage Books: New York, 1974), 844p.

Heaton, Colin D. "Taking Belgrade," World War II (January 1998), pp. 30-36.





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Created: 7:04 PM 4/30/2007
Last updated: 7:04 PM 4/30/2007