Evening star., 1941-05-12
Serb Tragedy

censorship the outer world gets occa-
sional glimpses of what may become
the grimmeSt struggle of the war in
the rugged hills and valleys of Serbia.
There, primitive peasantry are Wag-
ing guerrilla warfare against the Ger
mans as their ancestors did for gen.
erations against the Turks. The core
of this resistance are the ChetnikS-
trained irregulars vowed to fight until
death, but their ranks have been
swelled by multitudes of disbanded
regular soldiers who took their rifles
and cartridges with them when orga-
nized resistance collapsed. Already
report has it that the German occu-
pying forces are badly haraSsed and
have suffered heavy losses.
The Germans, however, have their
specialists for dealing with guerrillas,
and they are now going into action
with a program of unmitigated ruth
leSsneSS. These are the S. S. or
Elite Guards. Though occasionally
used with the Reichswehr, as recently
in the Greek campaign, the S. S. are
the private army of the Nazi party
and are designed primarily for
party purposes. Carefully chosen
and trained, these young fanatics
obey eagerly and without question
any order of their superiors. And
the word has gone forth that the
Serbs, as irreconcilabIe enemies Of the
Reich, are to be thoroughly broken.
So, throughout the Serbian hills,
German regular troops are being re-
placed by the S. s., accompanied by
numerous Gestapo or secret police
for "mopping up" operations among
the civilians, while the Elite Guards
hunt down the armed guerrillas in
the forests and mountains. In order
that no foreign eye may see what is
going on, the entire diplomatic corps
has been ordered to be out Of the
country before the end Of May, while,
Of course, no foreign journalists are
given permission to travel within the
prohibited area. This was just what
happened In Poland after the Ger
man conquest early in the war, and
for precisely the same reasons.
1t is interesting to observe that
last-ditch resistance seems to be con-
fined mainly to the original Serbian
provinces and to adjacent parts Of
Bosnia. The Croats have seemingly
accepted the German occupation, and
some have even welcomed it. The
German and Magyar minorities in
the districts north of the Danube
are naturally overjoyed at the end
of what, to them, was an alien rule.
The large Mohammedan element in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, though
Slav in blood, have separate con-
sciouSneSs which leads them to fatal
istic resignation to the change. In
Macedonia, considerable proportion
Of the inhabitants felt themselves
more Bulgar than Serb, and have
presumably not regretted what has
happened.
All this shows that Yugoslavia was
not a unified nation. The cement
which held it together was the fierce
patriotism of the Serbs, whose energy
and fighting ability expanded their
originally small country into the
leading Balkan state. This the Serbs
themselves knew well, and throughout
Yugoslavia's short history they gov
erned the country as the ruling stock.
Perhaps there was no real alternative
to so stern policy, at least during
the new country's formative period.
But it necessarily offended the other
elements and was thus latent ele-
nent Of weakness.
Now the Yugoslav state has been
shattered by the hammer blows of
war, and the embattled Serbs are
once more called upon to prove their
mettle. as in Turkish days. The test
Is much graver, for Nazi Germany Is
a far more efficient foe than the
slipshod Ottomans, and the true
Serbs Of Serbia number less than
100000. A sympathetic world can
only hope that history will repeat
itself.