Comic Book Heroes: The American Crusader Joins the Chetniks

Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas reaffirmed their status as comic book heroes in the U.S. during World War II with their appearance in Thrilling Comics, #35, in May, 1943. They were featured in the comic story “The American Crusader Joins the Chetniks”. The eight page script and the letters were by Richard E. Hughes, the pencils and inks by Max Plaisted, who also had created the American Crusader character. The cover, featuring the character Doc Strange, was by Jack Binder, who did the inks and pencils. Thrilling Comics were published by Standard Comics in eighty issues from February, 1940 to April, 1951 by publisher Ned L. Pines in New York. The Better and Nedor comics groups were also published by Pines.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

The American Crusader was a combination of Superman and Captain America. He had superhuman strength, was impervious to bullets, and he could fly. He is a mild-mannered professor by day who transforms into a superhero to defend democracy and freedom. He was known as “The Defender of Democracy”. He meets Draza Mihailovich on page five, an image of Mihailovich which is based on the Time magazine cover from 1942. The publisher and editor of Thrilling Comics, Ned Pines,  also published Real Life Comics, which had featured Draza Mihailovich on the cover in 1942. These comic books are from the Golden Age and are highly valued. The American Crusader was also a major comic book character of the time who was later revived. The Aerican Crusader appeared in these titles in the Golden Age of Comic Books: 1) Thrilling Comics #19-35, 37-39, 41, and, 2) America’s Best Comics #6, July, 1943, featuring the American Eagle, Doc Strange, The Black Terror, Nemesis of Crime, PyroMan, and the American Crusader.

The American Crusader was a Golden Age comic book superhero who debuted in Thrilling Comics #19, published by Better Publications, in 1941. The character was revived in the Modern Age in Femforce #59, by AC Comics, and in Tom Strong #11, by Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse.

His alter ego or secret identity is Professor Archibald “Archie” Masters, an astronomy professor at Grand University in the eastern U.S. The bespectacled character is similar to that of Clark Kent and Superman. He was working with an atom smasher during an experiment and was exposed to radiation by accident that did not result in radiation sickness and death but gave him superhuman powers. The American Crusader can fly, has superhuman strength, has invulnerability to bullets, and is capable of electromagnetic pulse generation. His costume consisted of a blue cape, blue shorts, a red uniform and red tights, a black mask that covered his eyes and head, a yellow belt, and black boots. He had a five-pointed star within a circle with a red center on his forehead and on his chest. He became a crime fighter as the American Crusader, the Defender of Democracy. His secretary was Jane Peters. Mickey Martin was his teenaged sidekick.

The first page of the story shows the American Crusader shielding Serbian civilians from a German firing squad with a poster with the face of the American Crusader reading “Buy war stamps”. His origins are explained: “Exposed to the rays of a giant atom-smasher, professor Archibald Masters develops superhuman strength! As the American Crusader he becomes the defender of democracy!”

The story starts with Archie Masters going to an abandoned villa or chateau in France where he sets up his headquarters “to carry on his campaign against the Nazis”. He overhears in a British radio news report that the Nazi Gestapo chief Ernst von Kleest, known as “the hangman of the Balkans”, had been assassinated in Yugoslavia in the fictional town of Slaslo. He surmizes that “there will be terrible reprisals” in the town. He transforms into the American Crusader and he flies to Slaslo where he reassumes his identity as Archie Masters, under the assumed name of Professor Brown. He is beaten up by German storm-troopers when he arrives. He manages to overpower them but Nazi troops soon spot him and pursue him, suspecting him as the assassin of Kleest. They shoot at him but he is saved by a woman who hides him in her house.

Her name is Vilma Razek, the “sister of Captain Peter Razek, fighting with the Chetnik guerilla army!” She tells him: “I seek out men of bravery and guide them to the Chetnik army!” She asks him: “Will you join?” He declares: “I’d like to join the Chetnik army!” She leads him to a hidden passageway where he is led to the Chetnik hideout. He tells her that his name is Professor Brown, an American stranded in Europe because of the war.

Peter Razek welcomes him as a new Chetnik member. One Chetnik guerrilla tells him: “Come, I dress you like a Chetnik!” Razek sends Vilma to the village of Drabnov, “there to meet two other Serbs and make plans for us to seize the nearby Nazi arsenal!” At Gestapo headquarters, the German commander announces that because the assassin has not been found, he has ordered retaliatory measures as collective punishment against the Serbian civilian population: “We will show these Yugoslav pigs! We retaliate by wiping out a complete village.” The village to be destroyed is the fictional Drabnov. Archie is at the Chetnik stronghold when he learns that the Germans plan to burn the village, kill all the men, and deport the women and children. Razek declares: “Vilma’s there! I must see General Mihailovich!” Draza Mihailovich is shown, who tells Razek: “Certainly, Captain Razek, lead a regiment of Chetniks to the rescue of Drabnov!” Archie thinks to himself: “Ah–Draja Mihailovich—the great Serb patriot who still defies Hitler!” Masters and the Chetnik guerrillas traverse the precipice of a mountain. One of the Chetnik guerrillas shouts: “Hurry, Chetniks, to save the innocent people of Drabnov!” Archie pretends to fall off the steep cliff to his death.

Instead, he transforms into the American Crusader. As the guerrillas head to the village, the American Crusader is able to fly there quickly: “But up from the depths of the Serbian chasm hurtles a familiar form!” At the town, German troops line up Serbian civilians against a wall to be shot while women and children are rounded up to be deported in trucks. A German officer reads the order from Adolf Hitler before the executions begin. The American Crusader attacks the machine-gun crew and turns the gun on the German troops. The Chetniks guerrillas then attack: “Suddenly, Peter’s Chetnik army strikes the Nazis in the rear.” A German soldier radios a request for a panzer regiment. The Chetniks consider a retreat but the American Crusader tells them that he will meet the German tanks.

The American Crusader picks up one of the German tanks and turns it over,  smashing it on the ground, blocking the pass. At the other end, he starts an avalanche. Trapped, the German tank brigade will be forced to surrender to the Chetnik guerrillas.

As he departs, the American Crusader tells the Chetnik troops: “Good bye, and keep up the good work! Remember, the Yanks are coming!” Peter and Vilma conclude that Professor Brown was actually the American Crusader. Peter tells Vilma: “We’ll never surrender now for the Yanks are coming!”

A red, white, and blue label on the lower right corner of the comic book cover reads: “Buy war bonds and stamps for victory!” An important aspect usually missed is the material or tangible contributions that Draza Mihailovich and the Chetniks made to the Allied victory during World War II, especially in the United States. His image and likeness was used to sell war bonds and stamps not only through this comic book, but countless others. “The Chetniks” radio play starring Orson Welles and Vincent Price was produced in 1942 by the U.S. Treasury Department to promote the sale of war bonds and stamps. FDR acknowledged that the guerrilla war conducted by Draza Mihailovich benefited the U.S. in his radio speech of December 9, 1941 to the American nation: “On the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the Germans in, let us say Serbia or Norway, helps us.” From a legal point of view, Draza Mihailovich and the Chetniks made a major monetary or material contribution to the Allied and U.S. war effort because a name or image can be licensed and is a marketable asset or commodity. In other words, Draza Mihailovich and the Chetniks made contributions that were tangible and quantitative that contributed to the final Allied victory.

Comments Off

Media Literacy 101: Kosovo and Libya

The media never merely report the news. They manipulate and distort the news. They want to tell you what and how to think. Pursuant to this role, they routinely rewrite history. A striking instance of media rewriting of history is in the reporting on Kosovo. In the AP article “US Prosecutor to Probe Kosovo Organ Trafficking”, it is reported that the alleged atrocity occurred “during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia” in 1999.

Everyone remembers that war as one to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing, that it was “a humanitarian intervention”. But here it is now characterized and defined as a war of independence. So we have history being rewritten. This is in an Associated Press article by AP reporter Nebi Qena.

Moreover, a standard brainwashing paragraph must appear in every news account from Kosovo. The new brainwashing paragraph is: Kosovo is recognized by such and such number of countries including the US. Is this something out of George Orwell’s 1984 (1949)? It is much more subtle and sophisticated than anything in 1984.

The media is not merely changing the wording or engaging in semantics. InLibya, a humanitarian no-fly zone ostensibly to protect civilians becomes a military overthrow of a legal and legitimate government, a regime change. In Yugoslaviain 1999, a humanitarian intervention to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing becomes a war of independence. This is not just changing the wording. This is a total and complete rewriting of history. Like in psychology, in journalism there are no accidents or mistakes. These accidents are systematic, planned, and organized. The media are not incompetent. They are well-paid, well-organized, and knowledgeable.

The way this systemic pattern of spin or manipulation evades analysis is because the assumption is that in Western democracies, there is a “free press”, there is a neutral, independent, unbiased media. Propaganda and state-run and state-controlled media, however, have always been a hallmark of Western journalism. In 1984, George Orwell wrote a satire and parody of the British Ministry of Information (MOI) in 1948 based on his experiences as a broadcaster working for the BBC during World War II. The Ministry of Information became the Ministry of Truth in 1984. Most people think he was writing about the future or about the USSR but he was writing about British propaganda and the British government’s control of the media during World War II. To be sure Orwell was satirizing the Soviet system, but what most miss is that he was also satirizing British or Western media. British propaganda is similar to American or Western propaganda in general.

On December 12, 2010, a report by Dick Marty to the Council of Europe was released to the media that accused Hacim Thaci of being the leader of a group that harvested the organs from Serbian prisoners during the Albanian secessionist war in 1999. The report made headlines across the world but was suppressed and censored in the United States. The report received scant if any attention in the U.S. But if the media role in the U.S. and the West is to report on vital and major news, why was this major story suppressed and ignored? This presented a vital humanitarian issue. Serbian civilians were abducted, held captive, and then murdered for their organs, which were harvested and sent to customers in Istanbul, Turkey. This is a bombshell. This is a major story. But it was suppressed in the U.S. Why?

The media in the U.S. reports what the U.S. government tells it to report, or allows it to report. This is especially true with regard to foreign policy issues. In foreign policy matters, the U.S. media only reports what the U.S. government tells it to report. With regard to Kosovo, any news reporting is meticulously controlled and filtered by the U.S. government. The media did not report on the organ harvesting story because the U.S. government did not want them to. The U.S. media, and so-called Western media in general, is not very different from state-controlled or state-run media that the U.S. government always rails against. The U.S. State Department tells the media what to report and when and how often. It is as simple as that. Even bombshells and major news stories that shatter our perceptions and assumptions are reported only if the U.S. government wants them to be covered. And the Kosovo organ harvesting story was one the U.S. government wanted suppressed and not given any media coverage. That is the end of the story.

The biggest fallacy is that the media are incompetent and that they make mistakes and cannot understand the news. The opposite is true. One need only analyze the US and Western media coverage of Kosovo. It is easy to notice that a brainwashing paragraph occurs in every news account from Kosovo. Such and such number of countries have recognized Kosovo. That is hardly an accident or factual mistake or incompetence. And, moreover, the whole conceptual framework of the 1999 Kosovo conflict is changed. Now it is merely a war of independence, a secessionist conflict. Far from being accidental, the media goal here is to control how and what you think.

Libya is about “regime change”, overthrowing the government of a sovereign country. The issue here is international law and sovereignty. Britain, France, and the US are violating international law and the sovereignty of a UN member state. These are acts of war. Libya is not about humanitarianism or human rights. Libya is about overthrowing a legal government and installing a new one by force, by military means, by war. That is called “regime change” in the US foreign policy lexicon.

The US and Western media, however, will not reveal that Libya is not about “humanitarian intervention” but about “regime change”. Why are Britain, France, and the US violating international law and Libyan sovereignty?

There is a cost or price. One casualty is the US economy. Another casualty is societal, the dehumanization and desensitization of the American people, who become mindless, amoral, robotic autobots watching the mass murder of civilians as video game entertainment. The media will not show what is happening. There is a self-imposed censorship. We are basically choosing to delude ourselves and brainwash ourselves. No one is forcing us. We acquiesce. We agree to be self-deluded and brainwashed. Assassinating foreign leaders becomes a form of entertainment. Overthrowing legal governments becomes a sport.

Muammar Gaddafi has been the legitimate and legal leader of Libya for 41 years, since 1969. Gaddafi overthrew and abolished a monarchy in 1969 and established a secular republic. The new Libyan rebel regime, by contrast, seeks to establish an Islamic state under Sharia law. Many of the Libyan rebel leaders are linked to Al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic terrorist groups. Why overthrow him now, in 2011? Why do “regime change” now? Did Gaddafi not guarantee certain rights for his people only now? Or did the US and NATO see an opportunity for regime change now?

Every government has the inherent right to prevent its overthrow and to punish treason. The Libyan conflict is about overthrowing Gaddafi because the US wants a more pliant and servile regime. NATO and US bombing has killed more Libyan civilians than Gaddafi did. This is classic US “regime change”. It is the overthrow of a legal and legitimate government based on a bogus humanitarian rationale.

In media reporting on the Serbian majority area of Kosovska Mitrovica, the media avoid the obvious term Serbian “majority”. They have to come up with rather awkward and tortured terminology such as “Serb-populated” and “Serb-dominated” northern Kosovo. Why not just use the more obvious and more natural terms here? Why not say that northern Kosovo is a Serbian “majority” region or district?

In the “free world”, the media and the press are all corporate actors. In other words, they are businesses. The objective is not to be objective and balanced and factual, but to make money. They look to a profit margin. The bottom line is: The media is in it to make money. They report the “news” in a way that ensures that they maximize their profits. It makes perfect business sense.

Who controls the media? There are many news agencies and services in the world. But the “Big Four” news agencies—United Press International, Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse—provide over 90 per cent of foreign news printed by the world’s newspapers. AFP is French and based in Paris. Reuters is British and based in London. AP and UPI are American and based in New York. What is remarkable is that each has areas that they cover that correspond to spheres of influence, regions that were former imperial or colonial spheres of domination. AFP is dominant throughout French speaking Africain former colonial possessions. Likewise, British Reuters is dominant in the English-speaking Commonwealth countries, countries which were colonies of Great Britain. US agencies AP and UPI dominate in Latin America and in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, former US colonies and occupied areas of Asia under US control in the post World War II period.

What are some of the ways in which news agencies control the news? Embeds are editorial sentences or paragraphs that appear in every news account during a conflict. Embeds are brainwashing editorials that tell the reader how they must think about an issue. Embeds are a technique of mind-control, thought-control, government-control of public perception, a subtle form of persuasion or spin. Embed “messages” appeared gratuitously, consistently, systematically, and uniformly in all news accounts during the Kosovo conflict and after. Embeds are the government watching over your shoulder to see that you are thinking the correct thoughts, that you think like everyone else does or should in the Western democracies, the “free world”.

Who is the hidden persuader behind the embeds? Embeds are created by governments: In the Kosovo scenario, the US government, the British and French governments, and the other NATO governments. But how do they get in the media?

News is a business. A news agency is an organization that gathers and disseminates information or news for clients, subscribers, news networks, banks, governments, newspapers, and magazines. There are hundreds of news agencies in the world, but over 90% of all the news is by the Big Four. This is why there is no diversity of views in the news, why there is no marketplace of ideas, no debate. There is monopolistic control of the media.

The governments, economic and financial institutions, media outlets, political institutions of the three countries where the agencies are based, are intertwined and overlap in a symbiotic relationship. All are members of NATO. All are members of the same international economic, political, military, social organizations, groups, and alliances. For all practical purposes, their interests are the same.

Moreover, AFP is essentially government-run and government-controlled media, state-run media. The French government subsidizes AFP and representatives of the French government make policy decisions in the agency. AFP functions exactly like TASS, the former Soviet news agency, both being state-run media. The only difference is that very few people who read AFP realize this fact. AFP is part of the “free world” or the “West” so the automatic assumption is that it is independent.

Similarly, US media can function as state-run or government-controlled media. During the Kosovo conflict in 1999, for example, Pentagon psyop specialists routinely worked on the staffs of major news outlets, such as CNN. The AP and Reuters are publicly owned corporate conglomerates with a monopoly on information dissemination. AP and Reuters are part of the capitalist or globalist economy and “free” market system, they are corporate actors in the marketplace themselves. There is a conflict of interest. This is, however, never revealed.

AP and Reuters thus have an economic or financial stake in the information being disseminated. They will always spin doctor or manipulate the news to advance their own economic or financial interests. How is this done?

AFP, AP, and Reuters invariably manipulate information to benefit their respective parent governments. This fact is essential in understanding the media role in Kosovo, Bosnia, Krajina, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now in Libya, and potentially new conflicts in the future. Their subsidiary role is to maintain and foster information favorable to capitalist or globalist corporate interests, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), “humanitarian” and “human rights” front groups for the respective governments, the Open Society Institutes of George Soros, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and other Western corporate conglomerates, organizations, and groups. But the primary role of the news agencies, AFP, Reuters, AP, UPI, is to support and foster the foreign policies and interventionist agendas of their respective governments. For all intents and purposes, the Western news media are government-run and government-controlled. The interests of the media and their governments are the same, the relationship is a symbiotic one, where each benefits from the other.

The Big Four are a monopoly. This explains why the news is uniform, monolithic, consistent, presenting a single propaganda or Party line not much different than Soviet-style media. The four major news agencies are market actors, part of the economic, financial, and political framework of globalist or capitalist free market systems. They have an interest and stake in the market. They cannot be unbiased and neutral actors. This would amount to economic suicide and bankruptcy. This is why news reports contain embeds, planting, oversimplification techniques, and inclusion/exclusion techniques of condensation/abridgement. This is why there is systematic and planned bias, advocacy journalism, and handout journalism. The news agencies are businesses, corporate actors that have a stake in the market and symbiotic relationships with their respective governments.

Comments Off

Bosnian Muslim Complicity in Genocide: The Origins of the Conflict in Srebrenica

The genocide committed against the Serbian populations of Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia, united during World War II into the Independent State of Croatia, or the NDH, is undisputed and irrefutable. Yet it has been covered-up and suppressed in the U.S.and in the West. Even though censored, the genocide is thoroughly documented and established.

The Bosnian Muslim role and complicity in the Holocaust and their role in the genocide committed in Bosnia during World War II against Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies has likewise been covered up. Not only is there Bosnian Muslim complicity in the genocide against the Serbian population in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia. The Bosnian Muslims also played a role in the Holocaust.

Bosnian Muslims were integral members of the Ustasha leadership. Bosnian Muslim Dzafer-beg Kulenovic (1891-1956) was the Vice President of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) between 1941 and 1945, being one of the highest ranking Muslims in the NDH. He had also been the President of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, Jugoslovenska Muslimanska Organizacija (JMO), since 1939. The JMO was the largest and most popular Bosnian Muslim political party in Yugoslavia. It represented the mainstream. It was not a fringe or peripheral group. Kulenovic thus represented the Bosnian Muslim mainstream population.

SS Brigadefuehrer Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, right, the commander of the Bosnian Muslim Nazi Waffen SS Division Handzar, is welcomed into Bosnia in 1944 by Dzafer-beg Kulenovic, left, the Bosnian Muslim Vice President of the NDH, Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska, and the former President of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, the largest Bosnian Muslim political party before the war.

Kulenovic was born in Rajinovci in northwest Bosnia, north of Kulen Vakuf, south of Orasac, on February 17, 1891.

He served as president of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, the largest Bosnian Muslim political party at the time, following the death of Mehmed Spaho in 1939. He was, in other words, the political leader of the Bosnian Muslim population. He had also been a minister in the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before World War II.

NDH Vice President Dzafer-beg Kulenovic, left, meeting President or Ustasha Poglavnik Ante Pavelic, right.

He became the Vice-President of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on November 7, 1941, succeeding his older brother Osman-beg Kulenovic from Bihac in this position, who had been the Vice President of the NDH from April to November, 1941. He would remain in this position until the end of the war in April, 1945.

Dzafer-beg Kulenovic personally welcomed SS Brigadefuehrer Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig into Bosnia in his capacity as the Bosnian Muslim Vice President of the Independent State of Croatia, the NDH. He was photographed meeting Sauberzweig on his arrival in Bosnia in early 1944. Sauberzweig was the commander of the Bosnian Muslim Nazi Waffen SS Division Handschar or Handzar, the 13th Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS. The Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division was formed in part by Heinrich Himmler to create autonomy or a separate statelet for Bosnian Muslims. For this reason, Ante Pavelic was antagonistic to the formation of the division. Kulenovic, on the other hand, supported the division. He thus sponsored and supported the formation and deployment of the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division Handzar in Bosnia. He sanctioned Bosnian Muslim membership in the Nazi Waffen SS.

The arrival of the Handzar Nazi SS Division in Bosnia was “heralded by the Muslim population, who had been promised a great deal by the German high command.” Himmler had attempted to create de facto autonomy for the Bosnian Muslim faction in the NDH. This was perceived as the first step in Bosnian Muslim “self-determination”, autonomy, and independence, the achievement of Bosnian Muslim statehood and the emergence of a Bosnian Muslim state. Not surprisingly, Bosnian Muslim nationalism created division and discord in the leadership ranks of the NDH.

Osman Kulenovic, fourth from left, shown with Ante Pavelic and Mile Budak, was the Vice President of the NDH from April to November, 1941.

Bosnian Muslim political, military, and religious leaders were integral parts of the NDH leadership and government. In addition to Dzafer-beg Kulenovic, the Foreign Minister of the NDH was also a Bosnian Muslim, Mehmed Alajbegovic. The Bosnian Muslims were in the NDH Ustasha Domobrans, the regular army, and security and police forces. There were 11 Bosnian Muslim political leaders who served in the NDH Ustasha Parliament or Sabor in Zagreb. Bosnian Muslim leader Adem-aga Mesic (1861-1945), was an NDH Doglavnik, or deputy leader in the NDH regime. After the war, the Communist Yugoslav government tried and convicted him for war crimes.

Osman Kulenovic (1889-1947) was born on December 15, 1889 in Rajinovci, Bosnia. After he was replaced by his brother as Vice President, he remained in the NDH regime in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until, May, 1943, when he retired. He surrendered to British forces in May, 1945, who turned him over to the Yugoslav Communist regime. He was tried for war crimes and convicted by the Yugoslav Communist government and sentenced to death. He was executed on June 7, 1947 in Zagreb.

NDH Vice President Osman Kulenovic, fourth from left, meeting with Ante Pavelic, third from left.

Holocaust historian Yeshayahu A. Jelinek wrote in “Bosnia-Herzegovina at War: Relations Between Moslems and Non-Moslems” from Holocaust and Genocide Studies (Volume 5,  Issue 3,  1990, pp. 275-292) that Bosnian Muslims were complicit in the genocide committed against Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies: “Moslems participated in the bloodbath which the Ustasha initiated against the proscribed minorities.“

Bosnian Muslim Ustasha Doglavnik or Deputy Adem-aga Mesic, left, meeting NDH Poglavnik Ante Pavelic.

Dzafer-beg Kulenovic had personally ordered that the Serbian Orthodox Church at Brcko be destroyed, the cemetery dug up, and the bones of the Orthodox Serbs be dispersed.

He was wanted for war crimes inYugoslavia after the war. After the fall of the NDH, Kulenovic fled to Syria to escape war crimes charges. In 1950, the Bosnian Muslim émigré community in Chicago published a speech he wrote for the Muslim Congress following World War II in Lahore, Pakistan. It was a twenty-two page pamphlet entitled “A Message of Croat Moslems to Their Religious Brethren in the World”. Croatian Ustasha émigrés in Argentine who fled war crimes prosecution inYugoslavia after World War II also published his writings. He lived in Syria as a wanted fugitive for war crimes until his death on October 3, 1956 in Damascus.  According to a January 9, 1968 U.S. State Department report on Krunoslav Draganovic, the U.S. intelligence asset who aided the U.S. in allowing suspected war crimes fugitives to escape prosecution, in August, 1951, Draganovic went to Beirut, Lebanon on orders of Ante Pavelic in order to convince Dzafer Kulenovic to accept the post of President of the Ustasha Government-in-Exile, which was established in Buenos Aires on April 10, 1951, the tenth anniversary of the formation of the Independent State of Croatia.

Bosnian Muslim troops in the Bosnian Muslim Nazi Waffen SS Division Handzar. On his right lapel SS insignia can be seen: A Nazi swastika and a hand holding a handzar, an Arabic Muslim and Ottoman Turkish dagger.

His son Nahid Kulenovic (1929–1969)  remained active in post-war Ustasha political organizations, working with the Croatian Liberation Movement. He was killed by the Yugoslav Secret Police, UDBA, in Munich, West Germany in July, 1969.

His grandson Dzafer Kulenovic was a member of the Governing Board of the Democratic Action Party (SDA) in Sarajevo from 2001 to 2009, the ultranationalist Islamic political party formed by Alija Izetbegovic in 1990. He has also been the Vice President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks from 2002 to 2009, the largest Bosnian Muslim organization in the United States. He was also the President of the Islamic Cultural Center in Northbrook, Illinois from 2004 to 2009.

In Blood and Vengeance (1998) , Chuck Sudetic revealed that Srebrenica commander Naser Oric’s “grandfather had been a member of the Ustase during World War II.” Oric, the Bosnian Muslim military commander of Srebrenica, launched attacks from Srebrenica that massacred Bosnian Serb civilians and tortured and summarily executed Bosnian Serb POWs. What Western media reports about Srebrenica omit is the Ustasha roots to the conflict. During World War II and the Holocaust, Bosnian Muslim Ustasha forces committed genocide against the Bosnian Serb population. The erroneous perception exists that the Ustasha were Roman Catholic Croats. That is incorrect. In Bosnia, the Ustasha were largely Bosnian Muslims who murdered Bosnian Serbs in a systematic and organized genocide. This is what Naser Oric’s grandfather did in World War II and during the Holocaust. This is what Oric sought to duplicate in 1992-1995. This goes a long way in explaining the animosity in the Srebrenica region of Bosnia. The U.S. and Western media, however, present Srebrenica as sui generis, totally and completely censoring and covering up the Ustasha history of the area. Covered-up is the fact that Bosnian Muslims created two Nazi Waffen SS Divisions during World War II that operated in eastern Bosnia, that is, in the Serbian majority areas of Bosnia. Any analysis of the conflict in Srebrenica must begin with World War II.

Bosnian Muslim complicity in the genocide committed against Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies during World War II has been suppressed and covered-up in the U.S. and in the West. This has allowed Bosnian Muslim leaders and their apologists and sponsors to erroneously portray themselves as victims. Bosnian Muslim complicity in genocide has thereby been covered-up. Bosnian Muslim leaders have thus been able to deny and escape responsibility for genocide.

Comments Off

Treasury Star Parade Radio Play “The Chetniks” (1942) by Violet Atkins

In 1942, the Treasury Star Parade broadcast a 15 minute radio play written by Violet Atkins and starring Orson Welles and Vincent Price which recounted the activities of the Yugoslav guerrilla resistance movement led by General Draza Mihailovich. The Treasury Star Parade was a syndicated radio program sponsored by the U.S. Treasury Department and broadcast by 833 radio stations across the U.S. The goal of the program was to promote the sale of war bonds and stamps.

The radio play is a taut, melodramatic, and emotionally-charged dramatization of the events in German-occupied Yugoslavia. Atkins based the incidents in the play on news accounts which had appeared in 1942 in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, and other media outlets. The play reflects the popular perception of Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas in theU.S. in 1942.

The Chetniks are shown as a resistance group based in the mountains of Yugoslavia. They take the Chetnik oath which means that they are pledged to give up their lives in the resistance struggle. They must sacrifice their homes and families.

Dushan, the main character in the play, is a Chetnik resistance leader. Atkins adds the personal story of Dushan and Jovana who met at the fair and pledged to each other to marry when they became adults. They had grown up in Yugoslavia, a country formed out of World War I. This was the only country they had known and were committed to preserve it at any cost.

Dushan and Jovana marry and move to Belgrade where Dushan opens a store. On Palm Sunday, April 6, 1941, German forces bomb Belgrade, an open city. Dushan and Jovana are in church when it is bombed and Jovana is killed.

Dushan joins the Chetnik guerrilla resistance movement under Draza Mihailovich. Mihailovich is successful in his guerrilla war against German occupation troops. The German authorities offer a reward of ten million dinars for the arrest of Mihailovich. The Chetnik guerrillas remain defiant and continue the struggle against the Axis occupation troops. Dushan exclaims: “If a people desire freedom, weapons will grow in their hands!”

“The Chetniks” is a well-written wartime drama that is overwrought and emotionally overcharged. The high intensity and emotional appeal are effective. The radio play is a drama and as a dramatic work it succeeds well. This is not meant to present facts but to appeal to emotions. The play relies on the popular perceptions of the Chetniks in 1942 as presented in the U.S. and Allied media.

Violet Atkins had written scripts for not only the Treasury Star Parade but for other radio programs such as the Camel Caravan, the Camel Hour in the 1940s and for television in the 1950s, writing scripts for You Are There, Waterfront, and Code 3. Atkins also wrote “V for Victory”, “The Murder of Lidice”, “The Bell of Tarchova”, “Education for Victory”, and “All God’s Children” for the Treasury Star Parade radio series.

As a wartime drama, the play succeeds, in the way that Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas, and Undercover (Underground Guerrillas) succeed. The play works in the context of its times, a wartime drama meant to reinforce opposition and resistance to the Axis powers. Historians may debate its accuracy or objectivity, but as a dramatic work, it is successful and effective.

“The Chetniks” (1942) by Violet Atkins

Announcer: The Treasury Star Parade, produced under the personal direction of William A. Bacher with Vincent Price as our master of ceremonies, David Broekman and the Treasury orchestra and chorus and starring Mr. Orson Welles in Violet Atkins’ story of unconquered Yugoslavia, The Chetniks. (Chetnik song: “Chetniks the bugles are blowing from peaks of cold, dark mountains.”)

Narrator (Vincent Price): The Chetniks. In their gloomy forest back in the hills of Yugoslavia a group of men stand in a half circle around their leader. On the edge of the circle the lookout stands, alert, his gun poised. In the dim half light beneath the great trees, these fierce men take a vow that will consecrate them forever to one service. Listen to their grim oath as their leader Dushan speaks.

Dushan (Orson Welles): You will repeat after me: “For the glory of Yugoslavia (repeat) and for the greater freedom of the world (repeat). Take your step forward. Speak your names.

Narrator: See their faces lifted to Dushan. All different but all molded and merged into the same hard fierce distinction of their new destiny to free Yugoslavia. That boy with the newly healed scar down his cheek. (I, Ivan Mirkovich) The middle aged man with the sensitive scholar’s face. (I, Martin Vodjornik) The young woman with the grave, tragic eyes. (I, Sonja Godnik) That thin face of the born soldier rigid with purpose. (I, Boris Stampac) The square-jawed peasant with the grizzled hair. (I, Sava Sokolovich)

Dushan: Swear to fight for the freedom of Yugoslavia until the enemy is driven from our country (repeat) and God lives again in Yugoslavia (repeat).

Narrator: They raise their hands solemnly. Dedicating their lives to that pledge. They’re all dressed as peasants. Many in ragged, patched clothes. Some are barefoot. And each carries on in the only possessions left to him in the world, his gun. his cartridge belt, his knife, and the vial of poison sewed in the lapel of his coat. So he may never be taken alive.

Dushan: One for all and all for one until death (repeat).

Narrator: Until death.

Dushan: You are now each of you a member of the Chetniks. There is no life for you now but implacable war on the Nazis. Subornitz. Strike each name off the list. When you join the Chetniks you are considered nameless, dead.

(Song: “We pledge our lives to victory.”)

Narrator: Nameless … dead. Do you know what that means, men and women of America? These men and women are only grim shadows now.  Without names, without identities. Everything has been taken from them. Home, children, love, church, everything but hate. The flaming relentless purpose that only death can obliterate. The utter annihilation of every Nazi who set foot on beloved Yugoslavian soil. Look at them now as they stand grim, quiet, almost defaced in the dusk. Waiting for Dushan to speak. He stands with his chin sunk on his chest and then suddenly his lips move. As if he speaks to himself.

Dushan: Yes, Chetniks, I, too am nameless. But once, I too had a name. I had a home. A wife. Jovana … Jovana … Jovana was part of me. We were children together. We loved as children loved. But we knew we were meant for each other. Even before that day at the fair.

(Flashback. Children shout: Dushan is king. Hail to Dushan. Dushan is King of the fair. Dushan, please, Dushan.)

Dushan: Give me your hand, Jovana.

Jovana: Here, Dushan.

Dushan: Stand beside me, Jovana. Repeat after me. I hereby (repeat) give my hand and my heart to Dushan (repeat) and pledge my life and my love and my future years to my beloved land Yugoslavia (repeat).

Voices: We are witnesses. My sister Jovana and Dushan are pledged.

Dushan: So was my love for Jovana and my love for my land interwoven as spruce trees, roots joined by the ties of sweet living. Herding the sheep, learning our lessons together. Growing with free Yugoslavia. We were the free generation fed on the history of the old and the new Yugoslavia. 500 years of unceasing war against slavery and 25 years of freedom as dear as our blood. And I was 20, Jovana was 18. We were betrothed. All of our village celebrated our day of betrothal. Girls in gay costumes. The fiddlers playing the feast.

(Flashback)

Dushan: Happy, Jovana?

Jovana: Happy. There is no word for what I feel now, Dushan. It is the most beautiful day of my life.

Dushan: You make the day beautiful, Jovana. And I love you.

Jovana: Oh, Dushan! I will love you as long as I live. Dushan?

Dushan: Yes, my dearest?

Jovana: Sometimes I am afraid. It is too perfect to last.

Dushan: It will last, my Jovana. We’ll grow old together. Have children, huh.

Voices: You’re blushing, Jovana. Oh, What has he said, Jovana”?

Jovana: Dushan, Dushan.

Dushan: Jovana and I were married. We went to Belgrad. One year we were given of peace while the world rocked about us. I was only a little shopkeeper in Belgrad, Adolf Hitler. But I was happy. I laughed. I loved. I sang in church on Sundays. We had been married one year. A short time. 12 months to last me all the rest of my life. You who have never known what home and family are, Hitler. You could not know what it meant to see the whiteness of linen around the throat. The gentle face. The young sweetness of her eyes. Jovana was only 19. She was to bear a child. We sat in church on Palm Sunday and sang the hymns together.

(Flashback.)

Jovana: One month more, Dushan, and after that the Christening. Dushan, you do not think the war will come to Yugoslavia?

Dushan: No. (To himself.) No, I told her, curling her fingers in mine beneath the Bible. I lied. But God forgives such lies at such times. Men must make it easy for women when they are about to bear children. War will not come to Belgrad, Jovana. It is an open city. They will not bomb it.

Jovana: Why should war come to little people like us, Dushan, who have done nothing, but grow to be 19?

Dushan: And fall in love and marry and have sons and …

Jovana: Dushan, I want sons, more than daughters, because they will look like you. (Dushan laughs.) And I love you, Dushan.

Dushan: Peace on earth, goodwill to men. Palm Sunday. Peace in Belgrad. When is the best time to bomb an open city, gentle fuehrer? Why on Sunday? Palm Sunday in Belgrad. Or Easter Sunday in Sarajevo. Sunday, when tired men rest and walk slowly to church with their families, to pray, sit in familiar pews, and watch the light come from stained-glass windows. Palm Sunday. Bloody Sunday. When the Nazi planes came to Belgrad.

Voices: (Gasps) Nazi planes!

Jovana: A church …

Dushan: Don’t be frightened, Jovana. They will not bomb a church.

Jovana: Dushan, Dushan!

Dushan: Jovana!

Dushan: They will not bomb a church. Even after all we heard I believed that. We captured two pilots and heard all your plans, Adolf Hitler.

German pilot: All hospitals, schools to be razed to the ground. Churches demolished. Bomb everything. Machine-gun whatever moves on the ground. Show no mercy. Belgrade must be destroyed!

Dushan: And you destroyed it. You damn murderer, Hitler! You killed my wife. You destroyed my son yet unborn. And hundreds of thousands born only to die by your bombs. You divided Yugoslavia, carved her in pieces. Half of Slovenia you took, the other half you gave to Mussolini. Dalmatia to Italy. South Serbia to Bulgaria. The Yugoslav Batchka to Hungary. But it was only the land that you carved. Only the plains and the valleys lopped from Yugoslavia’s body. The mountains and rivers remained for us soldiers to fight from. 200,000 free men live now in the mountains … in Draza Mihailovich’s ‘island of freedom’.

(Chetnik song: “The voice of Draza thunders out, Fight on all Chetniks.”)

Dushan: This is our army. Draza Mihailovich’s army that mocks your Gestapo. laughs at your cannon, and defies all your planes. Until you have wiped out this army, there will be a half million Nazis killed here on Yugoslav soil. To fight an army of shadows, shadows. Without names. The Chetniks of free Yugoslavia who will one day destroy you.

German announcer: Achtung! Commandant for Auschnig killed in Shabac.

Voices: The Chetniks!

German announcer: Achtung! A whole German garrison wiped out at Kraljevo.

Voices: Mihailovich’s Chetniks!

Dushan: Yes, Mihailovich’s Chetniks, Adolf Hilter. The men of no names. They are a name to conjure with now.

German announcer: Ten million dinars for the capture of Draja Mihailovich.

Dushan: Ten million dinars. A fortune. But no one will take it. There are no Quislings. No traitors left now in Yugoslavia. We could have had a shameful peace too, but at the price of surrender … But all Yugoslavia said …

Voices: No! No! No!

Dushan: No! A strong word to fill the hearts of free men. As a cannon ball fills the heart of the cannon. One word as narrow and sharp as the bayonet point at the throat of the bully. We have no more to lose, Adolf Hitler. We will give you no peace until every German who dishonored our women, every Nazi who slaughtered our elders and captured our children, is dust with the ashes of our farms and our homes and our loved ones. If a people desire freedom, weapons will grow in their hands!

Narrator: Yes, men and women of America. Weapons did grow in their hands. The weapons of nobility and courage and unbelievable fortitude. Freedom is each man’s precious inalienable heritage, to be preserved only with the constant payment of sacrifice. We are asked to make those payments now. But they will be lighter if each of us answers our war bond quota call. It calls for at least ten percent of your total income invested in war savings bonds and stamps. At least ten percent more if you can. Remember every dollar you invest in war savings bonds you are investing in the future security of America. This is your country, keep it yours.

Comments Off

Draza Mihailovich: Private Lives, 1942

(Click on image to enlarge)

Draza Mihailovich appeared in three installments of the syndicated Sunday comic series Private Lives by Edwin Cox in 1942. Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas would appear in at least eight American comic books during World War II. He was on the cover of Real Heroes Comics and Real Life Comics. In 1942, he began appearing in the Sunday comics section of American newspapers as well.

The panel cartoon “Private Lives” was syndicated from 1938 to 1948. It typically appeared in the Sunday comics section of American newspapers. The series consisted of a single, large panel with accompanying smaller boxes that featured people in the news, celebrities, military and political figures of World War II, and famous people throughout history such as Henry Ford, Rita Hayworth, FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, and Benito Mussolini. The comics were in color. It was written by Edwin Cox from November, 1938 to May, 1943. Cox was replaced by Paul Ford who was the writer up to the time the strip ended in December, 1948. It was distributed by Publishers Syndicate.

The title for the series was: “Private Lives by Edwin Cox. Candid Cartoons of the World’s Celebrities. The Unconventional News of the News-names.”

“Bliss” was the artist for the entire run of the feature. His first name is not known. He signed and dated each strip with the day and month.

Draza Mihailovich appeared in the February 1, May 24, and September 13, 1942 strips of the series Private Lives by Edwin Cox.

The Sunday, February 1, 1942 strip of Private Lives was syndicated in the Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky.

Draza Mihailovich was featured in the main panel in his first appearance in the series: “Tenting Tonight: One reason the invisible Serbian army keeps on fighting the Nazis is their intense devotion to their heroic leader Col. Draja Mihailovich. One reason Mihailovich has such a hold on his men is his habit of singing folk songs to them around their mountain camp fires. He has one of the finest voices in Serbia.” Draza Mihailovich is shown playing a mandolin bent on his right knee before a group of seven Chetniks gathered beside a tree in the mountains of Yugoslavia. Draza is shown wearing a military uniform, a cap, and specially embroidered pants. The Chetnik guerrillas are shown wearing uniforms, caps, rifles, and cartridge belts. Draza is singing around a camp fire.

In the May 24, 1942 strip, Draza Mihailovich is again featured in the large, main panel. “Nazi-Dodger No. 1: It drives the Nazis wild, but Jugoslavia’s guerilla bands, the Chetniks, simply won’t surrender — and their leader, General Draja Mihailovich has the audacity to visit German-occupied Belgrade in disguise whenever he feels like it.” Draza Mihailovich is shown in disguise smoking a cigarette in an open market in Belgrade wearing civilian clothes, a vest, and a cap, while three helmeted German soldiers and an officer stand behind him. The buildings that line the street are shown in the background.

Draza Mihailovich appeared for the third and final time in the September 13, 1942 strp: “Eagle’s Oath: No crowded capitol witnessed the ceremony last Christmas when Jugoslavia’s heroic guerilla leader, General Draja Mihaiovich became Minister of War. He took his oath in a mountain hideout, before his ragged Chetnik fighters, over a short-wave radio that carried his voice to young King Peter in London.” Draja Mihailovich is shown holding a microphone while raising his right hand as he is sworn in as the Minister of War of the Yugoslav-Government-In-Exile. Six Chetnik guerrillas in brown uniforms stand around him. One guerrilla is at a short-wave radio. They are in a wooden structure that reveals the Yugoslav mountains behind them in the distance. Draza Mihailovich was called “The Eagle of Yugoslavia”, as was the case with his Time magazine cover story of May 25, 1942.

In 1942 and 1943, Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas appeared in American comic books, newspaper comic strips, magazines, novels, radio broadcasts, and in movies. Their exploits and the perception of those exploits galvanized an American nation that had mobilized for war.

Comments Off

Ossama Bin Laden Role in Bosnia: “Guidebook” for Al-Qaeda

Bosnian Muslim Army troops of the Al-Qaeda linked El Mujahedeen Unit parade in downtown Zenica in central Bosnia in 1995, carrying the black flag of Islamic jihad.

Ossama Bin Laden played a key role in the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war. Alija Izetbegovic not only issued him a Bosnian passport through the Bosnian Embassy in Vienna in 1993, but met with him at least on one occasion in Sarajevo in November, 1994. Bin Laden came to Bosnia at least two times. Bin Laden organized the recruitment of Arab-Afghan mujadeheen “volunteers” for Bosnia. He also used Islamic front organizations and charities to funnel money to the Bosnian Muslim regime and army.

More importantly, according to many prominent anti-terror experts, Bosnia was the “guidebook” for Al-Qaeda. Bosnia was where Al-Qaeda was forged in the fires of Islamic jihad.

In Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror (NY: Free Press, 2004), Richard A. Clarke, who was the anti-terror czar in the George W. Bush Administration, a security and counter-terrorism advisor to three U.S. Presidents, wrote:

“What we saw unfold in Bosnia was a guidebook to the Bin Laden network, though we didn’t recognize it as such at the time. Beginning in 1992, Arabs who had been former Afghan mujahedeen began to arrive. With them came the arrangers, the money men, logisticians, and ‘charities.’ They arranged front companies and banking networks. As they had done in Afghanistan, the Arabs created their own brigade, allegedly part of the Bosnian army but operating on its own. The muj, as they came to be known, were fierce fighters against the better-armed Serbs. They engaged in ghastly torture, murder, and mutilation that seemed excessive even by Balkan standards.”

The funding and recruitment of the mujahedeen to Bosnia was organized by Bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network:

“Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic decided to take aid where he could… Better yet, al Qaeda sent men, trained, tough fighters. European and U.S. intelligence services began to trace the funding and support of the muj to bin Laden in Sudan, and to facilities that had already been established by the muj in Western Europe itself.”

The Afghan-Arab mujahedeen force in Bosnia was engaged in an “al Qaeda jihad”:

“Although Western intelligence agencies never labeled the muj activity in Bosnia an al Qaeda jihad, it is now clear that is exactly what it was.”

Clarke noted that “[m]any of the names that we first encountered in Bosnia showed up later in other roles, working for al Qaeda.” These included:

1) Abu al-Makki, who was seen in the December, 2001 video standing next to bin Laden “as al Qaeda’s leader extolled the September 11 attacks”;

2) Abu al-Haili, who was arrested in Morocco in 2002 for planning to attack U.S. ships;

3) Ali al-Shamrani, who was arrested by Saudi police for attacking the U.S. military aid mission in 1995;

 4) Khalil Deek, arrested in 1999 for planning attacks against U.S. installations in Jordan;

5) Fateh Kamel, part of the Millennium Plot cell in Canada;

6) Khalid Almihdhar, 9/11 hijacker fought in Bosnia; and,

7) Nawaf Alhazmi, 9/11 hijacker fought in the Bosnian civil war.

Bosnian Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic, lower right, meeting with Al-Qaeda linked Arab-Afghan mujahedeen in Bosnia.

One of the hijackers of the second attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, possessed a Bosnian passport

Senior Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was granted Bosnian citizenship in November, 1995. He is allegedly the mastermind and planner of the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the U.S.

Mohammed was born in Kuwait to a family from the Baluchi region of Pakistan. He went to Bosnia in September, 1995. He went in the guise of a Muslim “humanitarian aid worker” for an Islamic charity front organization called Egyptian Relief, a front for the radical Muslim Brotherhood of Cairo.

The Bosnian government also issued a passport to Mahrez Amduni, a senior aide to Ossama Bin Laden, in 1997. In an Agence France Presse news report from September 24, 1999, “Bin Laden Was Granted Bosnian Passport”, it was reported:

“Earlier this week the Bosnian government confirmed it had granted citizenship and passport to a Tunisian-born senior aide of bin-Laden in 1997. The government said citizenship was given to Mahrez Amduni, known in Sarajevo as Mehrez Amdouni.”

The same report noted that the Bosnian government destroyed all the documents and files relating to Ossama Bin Laden:

“’The Bosnian embassy in Vienna granted a passport to bin Laden in 1993,’ Dani magazine said, quoting anonymous sources, emphasizing that files and traces linked to his case have recently been destroyed by the government. …

“‘High Muslim officials of the Bosnian foreign ministry agreed that it was the top priority. It was even more important than investigating a person responsible for granting a passport to the most wanted terrorist in the world,’ Dani reported.”

Marko Attila Hoare conceded that “Osama bin Lade himself … plays very much an off-stage role” in Bosnia “although he apparently hoped to use the mujahedeen presence in Bosnia to create a base for operations against the US and its allies in Europe.” Ossama Bin Laden was part of “How Bosnia Armed”, by violating the UN arms embargo against Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia.

Renate Flottau, an award-winning German journalist, reported seeing Ossama Bin Laden meeting with Bosnian Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic in 1994. Born in Munich, she began her career working for newspapers and magazines in Germany. She worked in television as well in 1976.

In the 1980s she settled in Belgrade with her husband Heiko Flottau. She worked initially for the German television network Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF, Second German Television) and then became the Balkan correspondent for Der Spiegel in 1986. Flottau was one of the few Western journalists to meet Osama Bin Laden in Sarajevo when Bin Laden met with Izetbegovic.

Flottau was waiting to interview Izetbegovic in his office when she met Ossama Bin Lade in Sarajevo in November, 1994. Bin Laden gave her his business card and informed her that he was planning to bring Afghan-Arab mujahedeen fighters to Bosnia. He was given VIP treatment and rushed in to meet with Izetbegovic.

Bin Laden spoke to Flottau for ten minutes in fluent English. Moreover, he told her that he had a Bosnian passport issued by the Izetbegovic government. Staff for Izetbegovic told her that Bin Laden is “here every day”. Flottau maintained that she again saw Bin Laden meeting at Izetbegovic’s office one week later. In addition, she witnessed Bin Laden in the company of senior members of Izetbegovic’s ultranationalist Muslim party, the SDA, Stranka Demokratske Akcije, Party of Democratic Action. She recognized members of the Bosnian Muslim secret police in an meeting that she later characterized as “incredibly bizarre”. Bosnian Muslim Sejfudin Tokic, who was the speaker of the upper house of the Bosnian parliament, confirmed these meetings between Ossama Bin Laden and Alija Izetbegovic. There is also purportedly a photograph of the meeting.

Flottau’s account was corroborated by veteran British London Times journalist Eve-Ann Prentice on February 6, 2006 when she testified under oath at the ICTY. Prentice stated that she witnessed Ossama Bin Laden “being escorted” into the office of Alija Izetbegovic in November, 1994. Ossama Bin Laden “was shown straight through to Mr. Izetbegovic’s office.”

Bosnian Muslim Army members of the Al-Qaeda linked El Mujahedeen Unit in downtown Zenica wearing green headbands with Arabic script to signify Islamic jihad, 1995.

Ossama Bin Laden was able to effectively finance and organize Al Qaeda and mujahedeen recruits for the Bosnian Muslim Army.  In the Los Angeles Times article “Terrorists Use Bosnia as Base and Sanctuary” from October 7, 2001, the report noted that there was a connection between Al-Qaeda and Ossama Bin Laden and the El Mujahedeen Battalion in the Bosnian Muslim Army:

“Bin Laden financed small convoys of recruits from the Arab world through his businesses in Sudan.”

Ossama Bin Laden relied on his experiences in Bosnia in the creation, development, and expansion of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Bin Laden also relied on his Bosnian experience in planning and organizing the 9/11 attacks.

Comments Off

Draza Mihailovich: Comic Book Hero

(Click on image to enlarge)

The Chetnik guerrilla resistance movement led by Draza Mihailovich reached superhuman dimensions in the U.S. during World War II. Indeed, his exploits became the stuff of legend, rivaling the superheroes in comic books. Draza Mihailovich himself became a comic book hero and the Chetnik guerrillas assumed the status of superheroes.

Before television and mass market paperbacks, comic books were a dominant, mainstream form of entertainment in the U.S. The period from the late 1930s to the late 1940s became the Golden Age of Comics, a period when comic books proliferated the market. In the early 1940s, there were 125 different regular comic books published in the U.S. with sales of 25 million copies per month with a total yearly revenue of $30 million. The superhero archetype was developed during the 1930s with the appearance of Superman in June, 1938 in Action Comics #1 and Captain Marvel in the 1940s.

The first major appearance of Draza Mihailovich in an American comic book was in the September, 1942 issue of Real Heroes Comics, the cover story “The Chief of the ‘Chetniks’: Draja Mihailovich”, issue #6, published by Parents’ Magazine Press, a division of the Parents’ Magazine Institute in New York. The comic book was about real-life people: “Real Heroes Comics … Not about impossible supermen, but about real-life heroes and heroines who have made and are making history!” Draza Mihailovich, “Chief of the Chetniks”, was across from New York Yankees icon “Iron Man” Lou Gehrig on the cover. The comic book series featured stories on Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eddie Rickenbacker, Molly Pitcher, “PT Boat Hero” John D. Bulkeley, and Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion.

The “V for Victory” symbol—three dots and a dash—was on the cover. A “v” in Morse Code is three dots and a dash. The V for Victory Campaign during World War II was a symbol of resistance to the Nazis and was tied into the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony—G-G-G-Fflat.

Real Heroes Comics was published every other month from 1941 to 1946 in 16 issues from September, 1941 to October, 1946. George J. Hecht was the Publisher and President. The Managing Editor was G. G. Telfer while the Art Editor was Ralph O. Ellsworth. George H. Gallup, the director of the Institute of Public Opinion, David S. Muzzey, Professor of History at Columbia University, and Hendrik Van Loon, the author of “The Story of Mankind”, were Senior Advisory Editors.

Parents’ Magazine Institute published comic books from 1941 to 1950. Some of the comic books they published were Calling All Kids, Calling All Boys, Calling All Girls, True Comics, Jack Armstrong, Polly Pigtails, Steve Saunders Special Agent, Tex Granger, and Real Heroes Comics.

In the essay “What Kind of Man is a Hero?”, publisher George J. Hecht emphasized that a hero possessed inherent human qualities that set him apart from others: “Does war make heroes? On first thought you say, ‘Yes, of course, war makes heroes.’ … But on the other hand, the uniform does not make the man. He has to have the stuff inside him, before he puts on that uniform. … Most of the ‘Chetniks’ … in Mihailovich’s growing army of guerilla fighters who refuse to submit to Hitler’s rule in Yugoslavia, escaped and joined him with neither uniform nor guns. Some of the Greek patriots who cast their lot in with him came ragged and penniless. But they have armed themselves with guns, tanks, cannon and small arms by repeated successful attacks on Nazi troop trains and supply trucks. It took ‘guts’ to do that.”

Many heroic acts go unreported and unseen: “Some of the greatest unsung heroes of all are those who remain on their farms or pretend to work in the Nazi-occupied factories in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and other invaded countries, so that they can watch what goes on and sabotage the most vital points.”

In “Chief of the ‘Chetniks’”, a large figure of Draza Mihailovich is drawn based on his 1937 photograph that became widely reproduced during the war with the description: “General Draja Mihailovich leader of the Yugoslavian guerilla army, known as the ‘Chetniks.’ The ‘Chetniks’ now numbering over 150,000, are pledged to die rather than surrender to Hitler.” Draza’s early career was recounted during World War I: “In World War 1 Lieut. Mihailovich was seriously wounded and decorated for bravery.” Later Mihailovich joined the Yugoslav Army General Staff and was made a professor of strategy at the Belgrade military academy. His criticisms of Yugoslav defense strategy got him in trouble with the Yugoslav military authorities. Mihailovich, however, remained defiant: “Better to die than live a slave.”

After the German invasion and occupation in 1941, Mihailovich vowed to resist: “I shall never surrender! … Not I! I shall resist my country’s enemy until death.” He formed a guerrilla army in the mountains. Spies revealed German troop movements and weapons shipments. Chetnik guerrillas “blew up the bridge and derailed the Axis troop train.” The Nazis retaliated by shooting Yugoslav hostages and by shelling and bombing more than 40 villages. “But the guerilla army grew to more than 100,000—both men and women!” The German occupation forces decreed: “For every Nazi killed, we shall butcher 100 ‘Chetniks!’” “Pitched battles raged all over Yugoslavia” as Chetnik guerrillas attacked Italian and German forces and “cut telephone cables” and “fired fuel stores”. Trains were derailed and depots were burned. The guerrillas even published their own “underground” newspaper.

The resistance grew. People exclaimed: “While Draja Mihailovich lives, Yugoslavia is still free!” As news of Mihailovich’s exploits spread, “hope was reborn in enslaved Europe.” The guerrillas then blew up the Belgrade power station. The Nazis vowed: “Death to all who aid the ‘Chetniks!’” Mihailovich refused to relent and continued sabotage operations, blowing up bridges. He freed German prisoners. He also forced the Germans to release their prisoners. The Germans placed a reward of “200,000 dinars ($1,000,000) for the capture of this outlaw Mihailovich!” He established “one island of resistance.”

Mihailovich remains a beacon of resistance to the Nazis: “Meantime the invisible guerilla army grows like a snowball. Now it is over 150,000. The Nazis have to keep four army divisions in Yugoslavia besides their Gestapo and the Italian army of occupation. The ‘Chetniks’ may well be the army of liberation for all Europe.” Mihailovich is made Minister of War and in the final scene from “somewhere in the woods” transmits over the short-wave radio: “I pledge myself to execute the sacred duties of my office unto death or until my country is free of the invader!”

Draza Mihailovich next appeared on the cover of the November, 1942 issue of Real Life Comics. The publisher and editor of Real Life Comics, Ned L. Pines, was a major publisher of comic books during the Golden Age of Comics. The comic book Real Life Comics was published by Nedor Publishing at 10 East 40th Street in New York City. It was a comic book series that ran from September, 1941 to September, 1952 for 59 issues. The covers were created by Alex Schomburg, one of the major comic book artists of the 1930s and 1940s. Pines also published Thrilling Comics, Startling Comics, Standard Comics, Better Comics, and Exciting Comics. Pines also owned Hugo Gernsback’s Wonder Stories science fiction magazine in 1936 and published it under the title Thrilling Wonder Stories. He established the Popular Library paperback series in 1942. The comic book series Real Life Comics was published every other month and cost ten cents. The comic book featured real persons such as Leonardo Da Vinci, helicopter developer Igor Sikorsky, “Flying Tiger” Brigadier General Claire L. Chennault, and Draza Mihailovich.

Draza Mihailovich was featured in issue No. 8 from November, 1942, Volume 3, No. 2. Mihailovich was also on the cover drawn by artist Alex Schomburg. Mihailovich was in section 4 entitled “Draja Mihailovitch: The Jugoslav Hero.” The title of the story was “Draja Mihailovitch: The Yugoslav MacArthur”, comparing him to U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. The story was introduced as follows: “Drawing upon a background of military education and diplomatic skill, the commanding officer of the Chetniks has held the hordes of Hitler and Mussolini at bay.” The issue also contained comics featuring Miguel Cervantes, 2nd Lieut. Alexander R. Nininger, Jr., Johnny Appleseed, the British Black Phantoms Commandos, and Benito Juarez.

The comic recounted Draza Mihailovich’s service in World War I, his diplomatic assignment in Czechoslovakia in 1936 as the military attache, his imprisonment by Milan Nedich, and his emergence as a resistance leader in 1941. “For over a year he has defied Hitler and his armies–and kept Yugoslavia unconquered.” He launched a resistance movement that was unprecedented: “Yugoslavia … is the only conquered country in Europe that will not bow down to Hitler!”

The story opens with his swearing in as Minister of War: “I, Draja Mihailovitch, promise to carry out the duties of my office until death—or until my country is freed of the invader!” Then he is shown at 15, joining in World War I “to fight for Balkan independence”. He is wounded three times. After the war he advocates guerrilla tactics: “Modern war can’t be fought with old-fashioned tactics! Guerilla warfare is the only answer” As a colonel he becomes the youngest officer on the General Staff. He is court-martialed and imprisoned by Milan Nedich for his criticisms of Yugoslav defenses.

The Germans bomb and invade Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, Palm Sunday: “The Nazis bombed Belgrade for eight hours and killed 20,000 persons!” The Yugoslav slogan was: “Rather war than a shameful pact! Rather death than slavery!” After the surrender of Yugoslavia, Mihailovich maintained: “I’m staying–to organize a guerilla army to fight the Nazis!” He created an army in the mountains to “fight for freedom”.

The comic focuses on his guerrilla activities against the German occupation forces, blowing up railroad bridges, attacking German troop columns, derailing trains, engaging in sabotage, and organizing a massive popular resistance movement. The guerrillas were fighting in “our own style”. The Germans retaliated by executing 50 civilians. They placed a reward of a million dollars for his capture, dead or alive. Mihailovich created his own small air force. They tied down 18 German divisions. The Germans stated that they have lost 50,000 men and need seven new divisions from Germany. Bulgarian troops attack the Chetniks but are defeated. Moreover, the Nazis have taken 16,000 Yugoslav civilians as hostages and have arrested their relatives. Mihailovich, however, refuses to surrender: “Freedom does not come easy!” In the concluding scene, Mihailovich is shown defiant and victorious: “Outwitting Hitler at every step, inspiring his people, and setting an example to the rest of the world, the great General Draja Mihailovitch, commander-in-chief of the Yugoslav Army and Minister of War–fights on!”

Draza Mihailovich and the Chetniks also appeared in: 1) Military Comics, Stories of the Army and Navy, #14, December, 1942, Quality Comics; 3. “Mission to Yugoslavia”, The Blue Tracer, by Fred Guardineer, script, pencils, inks; 8. “The Chumps and the Chetniks”, Shot and Shell, by Klaus Nordling, script, pencils, inks; 2) Master Comics, Captain Marvel Jr., #36, February, 1943, Fawcett Comics; 1. “Liberty for the Chetniks”, artwork by Emmanuel Mac Raboy, pencils, inks; 3) Thrilling Comics, American Crusader, #35, May, 1943, Standard Comics, Nedor Group; 2. “The American Crusader Joins the Chetniks”; 4) Kid Komics, Red Hawk, #3, Fall Issue, September, 1943, Timely Comics; 10. “The Origin of Red Hawk”, featuring Jan Valor; artwork by George Klein, pencils; Cover by Alex Schomburg, pencils, inks; 5) Black Cat Comics, #1, June-July, 1946, Harvey Comics; 3. “The Story of the Fighting Chetniks”, attributed to Arthur Cazeneuve; and, 6) Prize Comics, #20, March, 1942, “The Chetniks”, Ted O’Neil of the R.A.F., pages 20-25, Prize. Draza Mihailovich was also featured in the Sunday newspaper comics, appearing in the syndicated Private Lives series by Edwin Cox in the February, May, and September 13, 1942 strips.

During World War II, Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas caught the American public imagination like few others before and since and became ingrained in American popular culture. They became icons and superheroes whose exploits became the stuff of legend and myth as they themselves became heroes in comic books.

Comments Off

The Chetniks on the Air: Broadcasts on American Radio

Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas created an unprecedented sensation and frenzy in the U.S. in 1942 and 1943. This is reflected in their appearance in all phases of American media. They were featured on magazine covers, newspapers, eight comic books, five major novels, and a major Hollywood movie. It was not long before they were featured on American radio.

The U.S. Treasury Department, the Radio Section of the War Savings Staff, made a radio recording, program 101, Treasury Star Parade, “The Chetniks”, starring Orson Welles and Vincent Price with David Broekman and His Orchestra and Chorus. The script was written by Violet Atkins. The record was made by the Allied Record Manufacturing Company of Hollywood, California. It was produced by William A. Bacher, the first producer of the show, who was a writer and radio producer whose credits included Maxwell House’s Showboat and Campbell’s Hollywood Hotel series produced in 1942 and 1943.

Created by the U.S. Treasury Department to stimulate sales of war bonds and stamps, Treasury Star Parade was produced in New York and Hollywood and syndicated to radio stations across the U.S. The U.S. Treasury Department sponsored the radio series in 1942 and 1943. The program recruited major writers for radio such as Arch Oboler, Neal Hopkins, Violet Atkins, and others to write “patriotic” scripts based on the scenario “if Hitler won the war, America will have to expect…”

The radio series featured major American actors from Broadway and Hollywood such as Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Lynn Fontanne, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Hull, John Garfield, Fredric March, Alfred Lunt, Vincent Price, and Orson Welles. Eleanor Roosevelt even appeared on the radio show. Actress Jane Froman was a frequent contributor to the show. These actors and many others donated their time in producing 15-minute performances to support the war effort. Musicians such as Bing Crosby, Kay Kyser, Bob Crosby, Harry James, Rudy Vallee, Xavier Cugat, Fred Waring, and Ted Lewis, were also on the show.

Treasury Star Parade was broadcast three times a week. The radio program was syndicated to more than 800 radio stations in the U.S. The 15 minute episodes sought to “personalize” the war, to bring it home and into the living rooms of average Americans, by producing melodramatic and highly emotionally-charged dramatizations of the war. The objective was to shock and galvanize average Americans and to draw listeners out of their secure shells and comfort zones. The scripts were meant to make Americans experience and feel viscerally the trauma, anxiety, fear, and psychological terror of war. Average American citizens were to experience the war via the radio to simulate what U.S. troops underwent in combat. The U.S. Treasury Department also sponsored the Treasury Salute radio program to stimulate the sale of war bonds and stamps, to buy “more than before”. Treasury Salute featured biographies of members of the U.S. military forces and dramatized real events. In the 1950s, the radio program became known as Guest Star.

In Treasury Star Parade Program 101, “The Chetniks”, broadcast in 1942, Vincent Price was the narrator while Orson Welles played Dushan, a Yugoslav who recounts the German bombing and invasion of Belgrade on Palm Sunday on April 6, 1941. He describes the Chetniks and guerrilla leader Draza Mihailovich on whose head the Nazis placed a reward of 10 million dinars. Dushan’s wife Jovana is killed in the bombing. He recounts how the Serbian Orthodox had endured 500 years of “slavery” under the Ottoman Turks. Dushan joins the Chetnik guerrillas under Draza Mihailovich. They are determined and steadfast in their resistance to Nazi occupation.

The original seal of the U.S. Treasury Department, used until 1968.

“The Chetniks” is a “story of unconquered Yugoslavia”. Dushan is a leader of Chetnik guerrillas. Their “destiny” is “to free Yugoslavia”. In the opening scene of the radio drama, Chetniks are sworn in and take the oath or pledge. Their goal is to free Yugoslavia of the Nazi occupation troops “and God lives again in Yugoslavia”. When you join the Chetniks you are regarded as dead, striking your name from the list. Chetniks carry a gun, a cartridge belt, a knife, and a vial of poison in case of capture.

Jovana is Dushan’s wife. At a fair, in a flashback, a pledge by Jovana and Dushan is made to each other and to the land of Yugoslavia. Dushan as a child herded sheep. They both grew up as Yugoslavs after the creation of the new country following World War I.

Dushan recounts that “we were the free generation” that was “growing with free Yugoslavia” that was “fed on the history of the old and the new Yugoslavia” with “500 years of unceasing war against slavery … and 25 years of freedom as dear as our blood.” On his marriage day, Dushan went to Belgrade where he was a shopkeeper. His wife Jovana, 19, pregnant, was killed during the German bombing of April 6, 1941. She had asked: “Why should war come to little people like us?” The German bombing was on “Palm Sunday when the Nazi planes came to Belgrade.” Welles pronounces the name of the city as “Belgrad”. He and others join “Draza Mihailovich’s ‘island of freedom’”. He says that “200,000 free men live now in the mountains”. He states that “this is our army, Draza Mihailovich’s army”, an “army of shadows”, “yes, Mihailovich’s Chetniks”.

Dushan recounted the Belgrade coup and the rejection of the pact with Nazi Germany by the Yugoslav people. The Yugoslav people said “no, no, no” to Adolf Hitler. Dushan emphasized the determination of Yugoslavs to continue the resistance to Nazi occupation: “If a people desire freedom, weapons will grow in their hands.”

After the radio play concludes with a fervent and emotional crescendo, Vincent Price then makes a call for war bonds and stamps. “This is your country—keep it yours.” He suggests that each person donate 10% of their income to buy bonds and stamps and 10% more if they can afford to.

The show was not without controversy, however, because the government was involved in radio programs that were meant to sell a particular agenda. The government could be seen as manipulating public opinion and engaging in persuasion techniques. The program had the approval of the Office of War Information (OWI). The program presented World War II as a just war fought by a democratic nation of citizen-soldiers who were free and equal. This was misleading. The members of the U.S. armed forces were conscripted. The Army was divided based on race. The U.S. policy towards the Japanese was racist. Thousands of Japanese-American citizens were rounded up and placed in internment camps. The show emphasized “American values” of fair play and support for the underdog.

Many criticized the show for being “jingoistic” and relying on “propaganda” techniques. But Treasury Star Parade was no different than the other major dramatic productions of World War II, such as Casablanca (1942) and Mrs. Miniver (1942) in terms of style or technique. Philip G. and Julius J. Epstein’s screenplay for Casablanca relies on emotion and “patriotism” and “nationalism” to an equal if not greater degree than does “The Chetniks”. The screenplay for Mrs. Miniver by James Hilton, George Froeschel, Claudine West, and Arthur Wimperis, based on the character created by Jan Struther, is almost identical to “The Chetniks” radio play by Violet Atkins. A central scene in Mrs. Miniver is the destruction of a church by Nazi bombers. Similarly, in “The Chetniks”, Dushan and Jovana witness the bombing of a Serbian Orthodox church in Belgrade. Neither Casablanca nor Mrs. Miniver is an objective, unbiased analysis and examination of all sides to the conflict. Instead, a single, biased perspective or viewpoint is proffered. Mrs. Miniver won six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Casablanca won three Academy Awards including Best Picture. “The Chetniks” radio play has to be seen in this wider context as a reflection of a drama set during a global war, World War II.

A second radio play on Draza Mihailovich and the Chetniks was produced by Radio Reader’s Digest. On September 27, 1942, a half hour segment entitled “Fight of the Chetniks/The Lost Gold Piece” was broadcast on the radio series Radio Reader’s Digest starring Vincent Price, Joseph Schildkraut, and Henry Hull. Radio Reader’s Digest was on CBS on Sundays, 9:00-9:30 pm, sponsored by Campbell Soup. The host was Conrad Nagel until December 10, 1944 when he was replaced by Quinton Reynolds. The announcer was Ernest Chappell. Robert Nolan was the director. The orchestra was under Lynn Murray until December 3, 1944 when replaced by N. Van Cleef. The Chicago Tribune listed the show in the September 27, 1942 issue: “Henry Hull and Vincent Price in a drama of activities of the guerrilla Chetniks in the near east.”

The radio program was based on an article in the June, 1942 issue of Reader’s Digest. The article was entitled “The Fight of the Chetniks” by Major Erwin Christian Lessner (1898-1959), reprinted from Free World. Lessner had been a decorated Austrian officer in World War I, a major who had received nine decorations for valor. He had fled to the U.S. after the Nazi takeover. Lessner recounted the Chetnik guerrilla movement led by Draza Mihailovich:”The most elusive foe the Nazis face is Draza Mihailovitch, who … today is famous as leader of a crafty and dauntless army of 100,000 Chetniki. … Their skill and bravery have aroused the admiration of the world.” He recounted how the Nazis offered a reward of “50,000,000 dinars—about $1,000,000” for the capture of Draza Mihailovich. Lessner recounted Chetnik guerrilla attacks on Shabac and Uzice in Serbia and assaults on Dubrovnik and Kotor in Dalmatia in 1941. He noted that the Chetniks control “almost 20,000 square miles of their country”. He described Draza Mihailovich as a proponent of guerrilla warfare who sought to wage an “invisible war” against the Nazi occupation troops. He concluded: “The Chetniks are in a position to serve the United Nations cause out of all proportion to their numbers.” At the time of writing, Lessner reported that Draza Mihailovich and his forces were attacking Sarajevo. Finally, he stated that “organized resistance continues throughout Serbia and none of the incredibly cruel reprisals visited by the Germans upon the innocent Serb population has affected the fighting ardor of the redoubtable Chetniks.”

Reader’s Digest represented grassroots America. Their appearance in that publication was indicative of the fact that Draza Mihailovich and the Chetniks had achieved widespread popularity among the general American public. They then were on the air, on American radio, broadcast into the living rooms of America.

Lessner, Erwin Christian. “The Fight of the Chetniks”. Reader’s Digest, June, 1942, Vol. 40, No. 242, pp. 37-40.
MacDonald, Fred. Government Propaganda in Commercial Radio: The Case of Treasury Star Parade, 1942-1943. The Journal of Popular Culture, Volume 12, Issue 2, pp. 285–304, Fall, 1978.
Smith, Kathleen E. R. God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War. University Press of Kentucky, 2003.

Comments Off

The Albanian Muslim Battalion in the Handzar Nazi SS Division: Kosovo Albanian Muslims in the Nazi SS

Waffen SS troops in the Albanian Battalion of the Handzar Division, wearing SS-issued Albanian skullcaps, Bosnia, 1944.

SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler formed a Kosovo Albanian Muslim Nazi SS Division during World War II, the Skanderbeg SS Division, 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian), in 1944. He planned to form a second Kosovo Albanian Muslim SS Division but was not able to because the war ended before he could do so. The history of the Skanderbeg division has been documented and analyzed. What has rarely been analyzed, however, is the role of the Kosovo Albanian Muslim members in the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division Handzar or Handschar. This is an untold story of World War II.

Kosovo Albanian Muslims had their own battalion in the Handzar Division, I Battalion of Regiment 28, I/28. The Albanian recruits were from Kosovo and the Sandzak or Rashka region of Serbia, initially in Battalion I/2, later I/28. The battalion had an imam and was modeled on the Austro-Hungarian Albanian Muslim Legion of 1916-1918. SS-Unterscharfuehrer Rudi Sommerer was an NCO in the Albanian Battalion which had at least 300 Albanian Muslim members. Sommerer was from Company 6, I Battalion, Waffen-Gebirgs-Jaeger-Regiment 28, of the 13th Waffen SS Handzar Division. SS-Sturmmann Nazir Hodic was an Albanian Muslim squad commander with I Battalion. Another Albanian Muslim member of Handzar was Ajdin Mahmutovic, who was 17 years old when he was recruited for the SS.

Rudi Sommerer, left, and Albanian Muslim Nazir Hodic as members of the Albanian Battalion in the Handzar SS Division, both wearing the SS Albanerfez or skullcap.

Albanian Muslims were recruited for the Bosnian Muslim Handzar Division because not enough Bosnian Muslim recruits were conscripted. By July, 1943, there were 15,000 members in the division. In order to increase the size of the division, SS-Standartenfuehrer Herbert von Obwurzer, who oversaw the initial formation of the division, began recruiting Albanian Muslims from Kosovo and the Sandzak or Rashka region of Serbia. In 1943, Kosovo was part of a Nazi and fascist Greater Albania, “independent” from Serbia. In the fall of 1943 the SS sought to recruit Albanian Muslims from this Greater Albanian state. The SS recruiting campaign in Albania was opposed, however, by Austrian-born Plenipotentiary in Albania Hermann Neubacher, a special emissary of the Foreign Office whose specialty was economic affairs. Because the Albanian Muslims would serve in a foreign country, Croatia, Neubacher maintained that the SS recruiting “jeopardized Albanian sovereignty.”

Neubacher explained his refusal and the status of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija:

“When I took over my Albania mission, there were applicants in Kosovo for the Muslim Waffen SS Division, Handschar, that was set up in Bosnia. With [Obergruppenfuehrer und General der Polizei und Waffen-SS Ernst] Kaltenbrunner’s support, I managed to get Himmler to stop recruitment for the division because it did not accord with our policy of neutrality. But the Reichsführer SS, who had heard much of the famous elite regiments of Bosnia and Hercegovina in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, finally achieved his aim. He got authorization from Hitler in 1944 to set up a Waffen SS Mountain Division called Skanderbeg for the local partisan war within the country’s borders. It suffered very heavy casualties in a badly led advance into partisan territory at an early stage of training. I was not at all happy with the setting up of this division, but the Albanian Government did not mind because it hoped that it would serve as the core for a well-trained national army and police force. The division had its headquarters in Prizren. I prevented its deployment in the area of Kosovska Mitrovica that remained with Serbia because I was afraid it would commit excesses against the Serb population. …

“After the fall of Yugoslavia in July 1941, the Kosovo and Metohia region … joined the Italian Kingdom of Albania set up in 1939. The Albanians lost no time in driving as many Serbs out of the country as they could. Those who were expelled were often forced by local potentates to pay a fee in gold to be permitted to leave the country. They were simply following the example set by the German Reich with its emigration tax. … I recommended urgently that the Albanian Government put an end to the expulsion of the Serbs.”

Neubacher also sent a telegram to the Auswartiges Amt or the Foreign Office on January 31, 1944. The German Foreign Office for Southeastern Europe similarly was opposed to the recruiting of Albanian citizens outside of Albania. Gottlob Berger, the head of the SS Main Office, assured them in a February 5, 1944 letter, “Einsatz der Albanen der muselmanischen Division” (“The use of the Albanians of the Muslim Division”), to Legationsrat SS-Stubaf. Reichel that the Albanian troops would be used temporarily in Croatia and that “when the division returned to Croatia, additional volunteers would be recruited, and the Albanians would be returned to their homeland, where they would form the cadre for an Albanian division.” The division Berger planned was the Skanderbeg SS Division made up primarily of Kosovo Albanian Muslims. The Albanian recruits were put into an Albanian Battalion of the Handzar Division, initially Battalion I, I/2, later redesignated as Battalion I of Regiment 28, I/28.

The Albanian Muslims were issued gray skullcaps made by the SS Main Office. The cap is known as a plis in the Gheg dialect or as a qeleshe. The traditional Albanian caps made from woolen felt are white but the SS created gray caps to match the darker uniforms. The Albanian Muslim recruits received military training at the Strans training camp near the Neuhammer training camp in lower Silesia where the Bosnian Muslims received their training. Albanian Muslim recruit Ajdin Mahmutovic of company 2 of Regiment 28 recalled: “I found the physical training to be quite easy.” SS-Ostuf. Carl Rachor wrote in a September 14, 1943 letter that “the enlisted men, particularly the Albanians, shall become outstanding soldiers.”

Heinrich Himmler visited the division on two occasions: Novermber 21, 1943, and January 11-12, 1944. Himmler inspected the units of Handzar on his second visit. The Albanian Battalion, I/28, conducted a special field exercise or maneuver for Himmler that demonstrated “the attack of a reinforced battalion from the assembly area.” The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, also visited the division twice during the training period in Neuhammer. The Mufti was accompanied by Muslim officials from Albania and Bosnia during these highly publicized visits. Husseini had himself been an artillery officer in the Ottoman Turkish Army during World War I which had fought on the German side. Husseini arrived in Europe in 1941 through Albania after passing through Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey. The Mufti retained contacts with Muslim religious and political leaders in Albania. When Husseini came to Sarajevo in 1943 to promote the Handzar Division, Muslim leaders from Albania came to meet him.

SS-Uscha. Rudolf Sommerer, an NCO of the Albanian Battalion in the Bosnian Muslim Handzar SS Division.

The Albanian Battalion participated in the offensives of the Handzar division in northeast Bosnia in the spring of 1944. The units of the Handzar division arrived in the Srem-Slavonia area of Croatia in 93 freight trains from Neuhammer, Germany in lower Silesia in February, 1944. Neuhammer had been a German Army training base since the late 19th century. It functioned as a prison camp in World War I and II. After the war, it became a part of Poland, under the name Swietoszow in the administrative district of Gmina Osiecznica. It was a training base during World War II as well. It was where the Handzar Division underwent training. The equipment base for the division was set up at Zemun. The headquarters for the division was in Vinkovci. The Albanian Battalion, I/28. was headquartered in Zupanje. The division was subordinated to the Second Panzer Army of Army Group F. Second Panzer Army was commanded by Lothar Rendulic while Army Group F was commanded by Field Marshal Maximilian Freiherr von Weichs. There was parallel authority betwen the Waffen SS and the Wehrmacht. Himmler required permission before the army could issue orders to the division. Himmler wanted the division to operate in the sector between the Sava, Spreca, Drina, and Bosna rivers. This was an important agricultural region. To the north were Volksdeutsche or ethnic German areas. The Handzar Division was sent largely into Bosnian Serb Orthodox regions of Croatia and northeastern Bosnia.

Walter Schaumuller, right, the commander of company 5 in Regiment 28, the Albanian Battalion, wearing the Albanian skullcap, with Erich Braun, during Operation Easter Egg, south of Mitrovici, Bosnia, April 12, 1944.

Before offensive operations began, on March 7, the Muslim holiday of Mevlud was celebrated by the members of the Handzar division. Mevlud, or “mawlid(u) (n-)nabiyyi(i)” in Qur’anic Arabic, meaning literally “the birth of the Prophet” in Arabic, “mawlid an-nabi”, is the Islamic religious observance of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, celebrated in Rabi’ al-awwal, the third month of the Islamic calendar. The Bosnian Muslim and Albanian Muslim observance is based on the Turkish Sunni Muslim custom. Charity and food is distributed, and stories about the life of Mohammed are told and poetry is recited. Mosques and homes are decorated and there are street processions. Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, the commander of the division, ordered that the imams and commanders in the units organize large-scale celebrations of the Mevlud holiday. Lectures were held along with religious ceremonies and special rations were given to the men. Each regiment of the Handzar division had an imam. The imam for Regiment 28 was Bosnian Muslim Husejin Dzozo, later replaced by Ahmed Skaka.

From December 1, 1943 to June 6, 1944, Regiment 28 was commanded by SS Ostubaf. Hellmuth Raithel, who would later command the second Bosnian Muslim SS Division “Kama”. SS-Hstuf. Walter Bormann commanded the Albanian Battalion, Battalion I of the 28th Regiment from August 1, 1943 to April 13, 1944. SS-Ostuf. Heinz Driesner replaced him on April 13, 1944 and remained the commander until June 10, 1944 when he was killed in action.

The first offensive operation for the division was Unternehmen Save or Operation Sava. Before the operation could occur, however, the Bosut region had to be cleared of Communist Partisan guerrillas. The Bosut was heavily wooded forest which was ideal for guerrilla activity.

Unternehmen Wegweiser or Operation Signpost began with an assault by the diviion along with Wehrmacht and police units against a Communist Partisan brigade and elements of a second brigade in the Bosut. The Handzar division consisted of approximately 20,000 men while the Partisans had up to 2,500 men in the region led by Sava Stefanovic. The Partisan guerrillas were greatly outnumbered and outgunned. Handzar possessed heavy artillery, containing an artillery regiment.

The Albanian Battalion was part of Regiment 28, which attacked on March 10, dividing into four spearheads, taking Strasinci, Soljani, Vrbanja, and Domuskela. By March 12, the operation was finished and the crossing of the Sava into Bosnia could begin. Before the division crossed into Bosnia, Sauberzweig read a message appealing to the Albanian Muslims that one of the goals was “the liberation of Muslim Albania” creating a Greater Albania:

“As we cross this river we commemorate the great historic task that the leader of the new Europe, Adolf Hitler, has set for us—to liberate the long-suffering Bosnian homeland and through this to form the bridge for the liberation of Muslim Albania. To our Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, who seeks the dawn of a just and free Europe—Sieg Heil!”

The Albanian Battalion crossed the Sava at Brcko. NCO Rudolf Sommerer of company 6 in Battalion I in Regiment 28 recalled: “Our company crossed the Sava at dawn. We were the first unit in our sector to cross, and made enemy contact immediately.” Regiment 28 took Pukis and Celic and Koraj.

The Handzar division set up headquarters in Brcko where the division was “heralded by the Muslim population”. To celebrate the success of the offensive, a Mevlud ceremony was held at the Brcko mosque on March 20 attended by prominent Bosnian Muslim leaders.

The next offensive for Handzar was Operation Easter Egg or Unternehmen Osterei which began on April 12. Regiment 27 captured Janja, Donja Trnova, and the Ugljevik mines. Regiment 28 captured Mackovac and Priboj. The Albanian Battalion, I/28, “suffered considerable casualties in the fighting” in battles to take the strategic Majevica heights. SS-Sturmmann Nazir Hodic, an Albanian Muslim in the division, was involved in the assault on Majevica. SS-Uscha. Rudi Sommerer described the assault:

“My Albanian squad leader, Nazir Hodic, took five of his men and stormed a Partisan position in the hills. They overran the knoll, killing several of the enemy without incurring any friendly losses.”

The division continued advancing, taking Bukvik, Srebrenik, and Gradacac. The Albanian Battalion, I/28, however, was detached and transported by train to Pristina in Kosovo. There it would be the core of a new Nazi SS Division which Heinrich Himmler had ordered formed on April 17. The Kosovo Albanian Muslim Nazi SS Division would be called the 21. Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS “Skanderbeg” (albanische Nr. 1).

SS-Brigadefuehrer Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, the commander of the Handzar SS Division, wearing the SS Albanerfez or skullcap of the Albanian Battalion, I/28, Bosnia, 1944.

Madeleine Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton were not the first to sponsor a Greater Muslim Bosnia and a Greater Muslim Kosovo. Heinrich Himmler exploited this policy before them. To be sure, there was a “mutuality of interest” in doing so. Support for a Greater Bosnia and a Greater Albania advanced U.S. geopolitical, military, and economic interests that were beneficial to both parties. Similarly, the Bosnian Muslims provided manpower, the warm bodies, for Himmler’s Waffen SS. What was the tradeoff? The Bosnian Muslims would achieve “autonomy”, their own statelet, sponsored by Heinrich Himmler. Of course, it was done at the expense of the Bosnian Serbs. Northeastern Bosnia was a majority Serbian region of Bosnia. This was where the Handzar Division chiefly engaged in combat, to take control of Serbian cities, towns, and villages. This was the objective of the Handzar division. The goal was to take over a Serbian majority region of Bosnia. Of course, the concepts of “majority” and “minority” had absolutely no meaning or relevance whatsoever in Islam or Nazism. The only question or issue was power and control. The tradeoff was similar with regard to the creation of a Greater Albania. If Albanian Muslims supported the Third Reich and provided Himmler with manpower for the Waffen SS, he, in turn, would support the creation of a Greater Albania, which would include Kosovo and Metohija and western Macedonia.

Based on the 1931 Yugoslav census, Bosnian Orthodox Serbs were the largest ethnic group in Bosnia with a plurality population of 40.92%, while Bosnian Sunni Muslims were 36.64% and Bosnian Eoman Catholic Croats were 22.44%. After the genocide committed against the Bosnian Orthodox Serbs by Croat Roman Catholics and Bosnian Sunni Muslims, the Bosnian Orthodox Serb population would be decimated and they would lose their plurality. While all three groups suffered losses in a three-way civil war, the Bosnian Serb population was the only one targeted for genocide.

Bibliography

Bender, Roger James, and Hugh Page Taylor. Uniforms, Organization and History of the Waffen-SS. Mountain View, CA: Bender Publishing, 1969
Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, Inc., 1961.
Lepre, George. Himmler’s Bosnian Division: The Waffen-SS Handschar Division 1943-1945. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 1997.
Michaelis, Rolf. Die Gebirgs Divisionen der Waffen SS. (The Mountain Divisions of the Waffen SS). Erlangen, Germany: Michaelis Verlag, 1994.
Neubacher, Hermann. Sonderauftrag Sudost 1940-1945: Bericht eines Fliegenden Diplomaten. (Special Mission Southeast 1940-1945: Report of a Flying Diplomat). Berlin: Musterschmidt, 1957.

.

No Comments »

The Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division: Heinrich Himmler and the Formation of the Handzar SS Division

SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler, second from left, inspects the reconnaissance battalion of the Bosnian Muslim Handzar SS Division with Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, the commander of the division, and adjutant Gotz Berens von Rautenfeld in Neuhammer, Germany on November 21, 1943.

SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler was instrumental in the formation of the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division “Handzar” or “Handschar” during World War II. In 1944, a second Bosnian Muslim SS Division was formed, “Kama”. Himmler, “the architect of genocide”, and “the architect of the Holocaust”, was determined to create an all-Muslim Nazi SS division. Although nominally a “Croatian” or “Croat” formation, Himmler always wanted and envisioned a Muslim division made up of Bosnian Muslims, or “Bosniaks”. The division was even referred to as an “Ustasha” division. But, in fact, Himmler always intended the Handzar Division to be a Bosnian Muslim SS Division under German and Bosnian Muslim military and political control.

In a letter to SS Gruppenfuehrer Artur Phleps, Himmler wrote:

“I am sticking to my intention of forming SS Bosniak Division of Moslems, who for the most part are not fighting on our side today, but are standing aside or even fighting against us. As Bosniaks, they would surely be loyal soldiers on our side.

I have notified the Foreign Office personally.

Heil Hitler!

[signed] H. Himmler”

Himmler told Phleps that he had “received report on your talk with Emmissary [Siegfried] Kasche and Foreign Minister [Mladen] Lorkovic. General [Edmund] Glaise-Hostenau was with me yesterday. The suggestions that Emissary Kasche made there do not correspond with my intentions.” What were Himmler’s intentions? Himmler was determined to form an all-Muslim Bosnian Muslim SS division. Lorkovic had proposed that Croatian “Ustasha” troops be used for the SS division. Himmler was clear and adamant in his objectives. He did not want Croatian Roman Catholic or “Ustasha” troops for his new SS division. In his letter to Phleps, Himmler stated that he would accept Croatian troops only for the police:

“I am very happy to accept 6000 Ustascha volunteers for the formation of police battalions and for training as regular policemen. Returned to Croatia after one year.”

Himmler sought to form an all-Muslim Nazi SS division because he saw Islam as a religion that was suitable for soldiers. The fanaticism and self-sacrifice of Islam could be utilized by the Waffen SS, much like the U.S. would use the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Himmler stated to Joseph Goebbels:

“I have nothing against Islam because it educates the men in this division for me and promises them heaven if they fight and are killed in action. A very practical and attractive religion for soldiers.”

Himmler had welcomed Muslim troops into the SS in the Soviet Union, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. He had also put Palestinian Arab Haj Amin el Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, in charge of recruiting Muslims for the SS. But foremost, Himmler was influenced by the service of Bosnian Muslims in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I. The Bosnian Muslims had fought loyally and fanatically for the German side in World War I. Himmler wanted to revive the German cooperation and solidarity with Bosnian Muslims.

A still from German newsreel footage showing Bosnian Muslim troops in the Handzar SS Division on parade in Neuhammer, Germany, 1943.

Himmler sent a telegram on March 3, 1943 to General Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau, the German Commanding General in Croatia, explaining his intentions:

“Telegram of 2/25/1943 received with thanks. Your personal observations are very valuable to me. I am making immediate contact with the Reich Foreign Minister for the purpose of carrying out my intention of an SS division purely of Moslem Bosniaks. I hope thereby to make an ethnic group that today is standing aside because of the conditions in the Croatian state and has a great tradition and loyalty to the Reich militarily valuable to us. The use of the title ‘Ustascha’ for this division is definitely not possible. I am looking forward very much to a conference with Foreign Minister Lorkovic. I’ll advise you later as soon as I have discussed these matters with the Reich Foreign Minister on his return.

[signed] H. Himmler”

Himmler authorized “that the sum of up to 2,000,000 Reichsmarks be made available” for the formation of the division. Himmler expected “the complete establishment of the division with a strength of about 26,000 men by 8/1/1943.”

Himmler encountered sabotage of the division, however, by the Ante Pavelic Ustasha regime in Croatia. Pavelic saw the formation of a German Nazi SS Division on the territory of the NDH, which included Bosnia-Hercegovina, as an infringement on the sovereignty of Croatia. Pavelic wanted the division to consist of Croatian Roman Catholic troops as well along with Croatian national insignia.

In a July, 1943 letter to SS Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor of Police Konstantin Kammerhofer, who was the Deputy of the Reichsfuehrer SS in Croatia, Himmler described the sabotage and obstructionism he encountered from the Croatian government in the formation of the division:

“I am absolutely dissatisfied with the support of the establishment of the Croatian SS Volunteer Division ordered by the Fuehrer.”

Himmler objected to reports of “wild recruiting” with conscripts being seized and “hauled out of bed and placed in barracks of the Croatian Army.” Instead, Himmler wanted the recruits to report to the Waffen SS. He also suspected that many of the recruitment “offices belong to concealed Communistic or Chetniki bands.”

Himmler had also received reports that the Croat regime had sent recruits for the division to the Jasenovac and Nova Gradiska concentration camps:

“I also charge you to examine the inmates of the Croatian concentration camps in Novogradisca and Jasenovac. I have received definite and very clear reports that in these areas as well, young men were not only taken to Croatian barracks, but simply because of the fact that they reported to us, were taken to the concentration camps. It is obvious that these actions could have been carried out only by enemies of the Croatian state. Here too, you are to use all your powers to intervene. I want a complete report from you that the inmates of the two concentration camps have been checked by our organization. Likewise I want a report that the guilty enemies of the Croatian state have been held responsible in the strictest way. It is best to take them to the concentration camps. In many cases the death penalty will be appropriate.”

Himmler also complained that he had not received a list of volunteers as he had requested:

“I have not yet received the list of the volunteers as ordered by the ministry of the armed forces on 5/15/1943. I cannot help but suspect that this order of the Croatian state and thus of the Poglavnik has been sabotaged by enemies of the Croatian state.”

Himmler also requested: “I expect that in the troop units of the Croatian Army, which consist predominantly of Moslems, we can set up recruitment evenings for the members of the replacement center, to be followed by immediate turning over and marching away of the volunteers who have reported. I must make this demand because my trust in the loyal carrying out of the terms agreed on has disappeared very strongly.” In other words, Himmler was going to take Bosnian Muslims in the Croatian NDH Army and transfer them to the Waffen SS.

Finally, Himmler wanted Kammerhofer to implement his instructions in the NDH: “I commission you to inform the German Ambassador, the German General in Agram, as well as the appropriate Croatian national agencies of these orders of mine.”

The 13th Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS Handzar was formed in 1943 and saw combat in eastern Bosnia in 1944. Himmler had to compromise with the Pavelic NDH regime to allow token Croatian Roman Catholic troops in the division. The division was also referred to as a “Croatian” formation although Himmler referred to it as a “Bosniak” or Bosnian Muslim formation. The troops also had to wear an arm shield with the checkerboard insignia of the NDH regime. Nevertheless, the Handzar Division was, in essence, a Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division as Heinrich Himmler originally intended.

No Comments »