The Final Solution to the Jewish Question in Croatia and Bosnia

The Interior Minister of the Independent State of Croatia, Andrija Artukovic, proclaimed on February 24, 1942 in a speech before the Crroatian Parliament or Sabor that Croatia had solved the Jewish question. If true, this would mark a milestone or landmark in the Holocaust. This would make Croatia the first state to solve the Jewish question. Croatia was, thus, the first country to be “Judenfrei”, Jew free. This was a landmark moment in the Holocaust but is a fact suppressed and covered-up in historical accounts of the Holocaust.

Andrija Artukovic made his speech before the Hrvatski drzavni sabor or parliament on February 24, 1942. The speech was published in the Croatian newspaper Narodne Novine on February 26, 1942 under the title “Jews as the ‘Insatiable Parasites’”.

In this speech, Artukovic announced that the Jewish question had been solved in the Independent State of Croatia, the NDH, which consisted of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina:

“Immediately after the founding of Yugoslavia, all the enemies of the Croatian people – the Jews, the Communists, and the Freemasons – united with those of the so-called ‘Piedmont of the Balkans’ in order to destroy the Croatian people and suppress all national aspirations.

In the life of Yugoslavia, it was the Jews – who worked for and prepared the world for revolution – alongside their two most important international allies – the Communists and the Freemasons, who especially distinguished themselves. These three national groups have attempted with all their might to destroy everything Croatian they could find.

They tried to win our intelligentsia to their side and isolate it from the Croat people, either through subterfuge – that is, flattering them with titles, lucrative positions among them – or by force. They tried through different organizations and offices to estrange the Croatian youth from the religion of their fathers and from the family hearth, and to get the workers into so-called ‘unions’ which fought on a class basis, to estrange them from their own people and turn them against one another.

First, it was the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and, later, the United Labour Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia, that tried to mislead the Croatian worker and set him against his own people. They tried to impoverish and humiliate the peasant, in a state of financial dependence and beggary, in political chaos and cultural darkness, in order to be able, at any given moment, to trade him away, to barter on his sentiments like he was a bale on the exchange.

All this was done by the Jews, one of the most dangerous international syndicates, in order to achieve the goals of World Jewry, readying the world for the revolution by which the Jews will gain full mastery over all material possessions of the world and all the power in the world, when other nations will serve as a means to their dirty profits and their insatiable greed and ravenous thirst for control.

International Jewry was aided in this fight by two other international syndicates: the Communists, who preached the gospel of their proletarian state, and the Freemasons, who preached the gospel of their fraudulent ‘enlightened spirit,’ their ‘love for their fellow man.’

The Jews were to achieve these aims relying as much on their own international affiliations as that possessed by the Communists: because Communism is the child of Jewry and one of the principle levers by which the Jews aim to take control of the world. The Communists wanted to destroy the leadership of individual nations and take power in the name of the workers. But these workers were, of course – had to be – led by the Jews, which is exactly how it was.

Through various organizations, the Judeo-Communists tried to bring about the disintegration of the Croatian national body, to kill the aspirations of its youth, the love for family and the homeland, to stir up hatred between the classes and to enslave the peasantry in such a way that the peasant loses all self-awareness, the knowledge of what it is to be Croatian.

The Croatian people, having re-established the Independent State of Croatia, could do nothing else but to clean off the poisonous and insatiable parasites – Jews, Communists and Freemasons – from their national and state body.

They have strangled the Croatian people and retarded all sectors of their national life, destroying and poisoning not only family life, their beliefs, their morals, their culture and their youth, but also that vital national spirit, Croatian self-expression, Croatian self-consciousness. The Independent State of Croatia, led by the Ustase, finding itself in a state of siege and self-defense against these insatiable and poisonous parasites, has indeed settled the so-called Jewish Question through resolute and sound actions.”

Ante Pavelic, the NDH Poglavnik, meeting with Adolf Hitler, center, on September 18, 1944. Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel is on the right, the head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces).

Like Ante Pavelic, Artukovic was born in Bosnia-Hercegovina, in Klobuk near Ljubuski. He had studied at a Franciscan monastery at Siroki Brijeg in Herzegovina. He had been one of the key leaders of the Ustasha Movement during the pre-war period and became the Interior Minister of the NDH after the state was proclaimed on April 10, 1941.

What made the solution to the Jewish question unique was that the Croatian government and the Croatian leaders were themselves organizing, planning, and executing the program of genocide against not only Jews, but Serbs and Gypsies, or Roma. Unlike other countries in German-occupied Europe, in Croatia it was the Croats and Bosnian Muslims themselves who were committing the genocide.

The genocide against the Jews in Croatia and Bosnia began at once. The Jews were first stripped of their citizenship in Croatia and Bosnia on April 30, 1941. The Croatian government subsequently passed laws that prevented Jews from traveling or moving and they were deprived of their residency.

All Jews in Croatia and Bosnia were forced to wear a yellow shield or armband on May 23, 1941. The armband consisted of a Star of David and the letter “Z”, for the Croatian and Bosnian word for “Jew”, “Zidov”. There were also armbands that had a Star of David over the word “Zidov”.

Jews, Serbs, and Roma were rounded up and arrested immediately after the NDH was proclaimed on April 10, 1941. Mass arrests followed in the wake of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa, to which the NDH was to provide troops. Croatian and Bosnian Muslim troops were integrated in the Axis forces which invaded the Soviet Union, participating in the 1942-1943 landmark battle at Stalingrad. The NDH regarded the USSR as a ”Judeo-Bolshevik” state, a country controlled and dominated by Jews. The invasion, thus, had connotations to the Crusades as Roman Catholics sought to destroy the two enemies of Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Judaism. The Bosnian Muslims were regarded as allies in this struggle.

Croatian Jews are deported to concentration camps in 1942 by railway cars.

The elimination of the Jews from Croatia and Bosnia began on June 26, 1941, when the Poglavnik Ante Pavelic promulgated a decree that assigned collective responsibility to the Jews for any and all opposition and resistance to the establishment of the NDH regime. More importantly, Pavelic ordered that all Jews be rounded up, arrested, and interned in concentration camps. These concentration camps, such as Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska, were set up and run by Croats themselves. The Croats themselves murdered the Jews of Croatia and Bosnia. This was unique in the Holocaust. In other puppet and proxy states in Europe, it was the Germans who set up and ran the concentration camps. It was the Germans who murdered the Jews. Croatia and Bosnia were unique, however, in that it was the Croats and Bosnian Muslims themselves who murdered the Jews. Not only Jews, but Serbs and Roma were murdered by the Croats and Bosnian Muslims as well. This is a salient and striking feature of the genocide committed in Croatia and Bosnia during the Holocaust which is suppressed and censored.

Not only were the Croats and Bosnian Muslims organizing and carrying out the genocide against Jews, Serbs, and Roma in the NDH. The Croats contacted the German government and demanded that they take the Jews of the NDH and resettle them in the East. This was also unprecedented and unique in that the Croatian government was even more determined and committed to kill the Jews in the NDH than even the Germans were. This is a remarkable and extraordinary fact suppressed in mainstream accounts of the Holocaust.

Andrija Artukovic, the Interior Minister of the NDH, and Ante Pavelic, the Poglavnik, meet with the Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler to coordinate policy on the solution to the Jewish question in Croatia and Bosnia.

The Croatian government made two requests that Germany deport the Croatian Jews to eastern Europe, in October, 1941 and May, 1942. SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler made an official visit to the NDH to personally supervise the deportation of the Jews of Croatia and Bosnia. The Croats and Bosnian Muslims were the most willing of executioners.

The NDH regime sought to convince the people of Croatia and Bosnia that the elimination and mass murders of the Jews were justified and excused because of their alleged outrages against the people of Croatia and Bosnia. Croatia and Bosnia were oppressed by the Jews. The way the NDH regime sought to persuade the people was by setting up exhibitions. One such exhibition was the “Jews” or “Zidovi” exhibition which opened in Zagreb on May 1, 1942. The exhibition next traveled to Osijek in northeastern Croatia. The exhibition then moved to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Entitled “Zidovi” or “Jews”, the Sarajevo exhibition poster read in Croatian and Bosnian: “6. – 20. Rujna 1942. Ferhadija Ul. Broj 11. (Bivsa Bogoslovija). Ulaznica Kn. 10. – Za skupine Kn. 5 po osobi.” The Sarajevo run was from September 6 to 20, 1942. Due to the popularity of the exhibition, it was extended for an additional week. 22,000 Sarajevans came to the exhibit. Admission was 10 Kuna. For groups, the admission was 5 Kuna apiece. The exhibit was on Ferhadija Street, No.11 (formerly Bogoslovija).

The cover in Croatian and Bosnian reads: “Zidovi. Izlozba o razvoju zidovstva inhijovog rusilackog rada u Hrvatskoj prije 10.IV.1941. Rjesenje Zidovskog pitanja u N.D.H.” (“Jews. The Exhibition on the Evolution of Judaism and its Destructive Work in Croatia Prior to 10 April 1941. The Solution of the Jewish Question in the NDH.”)

The exhibition poster showed a naked, muscular Croatian Aryan warrior, representing Croatia and the Croatian people, brandishing a sword entangled by a large snake with Stars of David on its scales, representing Jews and Judaism. He has a shield with the red and white checkerboard national symbol of Croatia with the letter “U” in the center, for the Ustasha regime. The snake has its fangs bared and its red tongue extended as it lunges at its prey. The snake represents world Jewry. Symbolically, he attempts to cut off the head of the snake.

The exhibit sought to demonstrate how Jews were responsible for the oppression and abuses of the Croatian and Bosnian Muslim people. Jews were presented as introducing the slave trade in the Americas, and were shown to be responsible for prostitution, usury, and economic exploitation. The exhibits noted that Jews had been expelled in 1502, 1515, and 1662. The exhibits attempted to show a historical pattern and paradigm. The Jews of today are the same as the Jews of the past. Their objectives and methods are the same. Therefore, the people of Croatia and Bosnia must see the necessity of their elimination and internment in prisons and concentration camps. It was a matter of preserving the nation and of freeing the people from oppression and exploitation. This is what the “Zidovi” exhibition sought to achieve.

The Croats did everything in their power to solve the Jewish question in Croatia and Bosnia. If not every Jew,  Serb,  or Roma was killed in the NDH, it was not due to a lack of effort on the part of the Croat leadership. The synagogues in Zagreb and in Sarajevo were demolished by Croats and Bosnian Muslims themselves. Over 12,000 Jews were killed in the Jasenovac concetration camp. In all, an estimated 30,000 Jews would be murdered. In Croatia and Bosnia, the Croats and Bosnian Muslims themselves solved the Jewish question. They achieved the Final Solution.

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Black Propaganda, Yugoslavia, 1941-1943

Propaganda has always been a part of war. During World War I, the British government established a propaganda agency at Wellington House under Charles Masterman. It was initially focused on the U.S., its activities geared to drawing the U.S. into the war on the side of Great Britain. The British government also created two other propaganda agencies, the Neutral Press Committee under George Herbert Mair, which supplied news and information to neutral nations concerning the war, and the Foreign Office News Department, which issued official pronouncements on British foreign policy. In addition, there was the War Propaganda Bureau which produced publications for use in allied and neutral countries. The other propaganda outlets were the War Office Directorate of Military Operations, department MI7, and the Admiralty, which circulated reports and propaganda to the press in military zones. These departments and agencies overlapped, lacking any centralized control or supervision. In 1916, the propaganda agencies were centralized under the Foreign Office. These agencies and departments were united in February, 1917 into the Department of Information, which became the Ministry of Information in March, 1918.

Propaganda was perceived as “the fourth arm” of the war effort. Propaganda was regarded as “political warfare”. The aim of all propaganda is to weaken or destroy the morale of the enemy, to diminish or to destroy the will of the enemy to wage war. Conversely, the goal of propaganda targeted at allies is to increase and strengthen the morale of allied or friendly nations or forces and to strengthen their will to wage war and to maintain their resistance. Propaganda relies essentially on deception.

In the U.S., the government propaganda department was The Committee on Public Information, also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (CPI) through Executive Order 2594 on April 13, 1917. The committee was made up of the chairman, journalist George Creel, Robert Lansing, Josephus Daniels, and Newton D. Baker. The committee set up bureaus and departments and offices in foreign countries to disseminate propaganda. It functioned until August 21, 1919.

With the emergence of World War II, the Ministry of Information (MOI) was the propaganda arm of the British government. There was, however, no centralized authority. There were overlapping and competing department s and bureaus handling propaganda for the British government. After September, 1941, several agencies were merged into and controlled by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE). The PWE was put in control of “black propaganda”, known as covert or secret propaganda, where the source was not revealed. Black propaganda relied on deception and deceit, using all means necessary to achieve its aims. White propaganda, also known as overt or open propaganda, by contrast, sought to avoid contradictory claims and presented straightforward facts. The MOI controlled white propaganda for the domestic front and to allied and neutral countries. The PWE controlled both black and white propaganda to enemy and enemy-occupied states. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) set up stations in Jerusalem to broadcast black propaganda to the German-occupied countries in the Balkans, Yugoslavia and Greece, as well as to countries allied with Germany, such as Bulgaria and Romania.

In “The Fourth Arm”, History Today, September, 2012, Vol. 62, Issue 9, and in Substitute for Power: British Propaganda to the Balkans, 1939-1944, Ashgate, 2012, Ioannis D. Stefanidis analyzed the British black propaganda broadcasts to Yugoslavia during World War II “to undermine Nazi domination of the Balkans via the airwaves.”

The British government set up a series of clandestine radio stations known as Research Units or RUs. These stations were set up in Milton Bryan, Bedfordshire, in May, 1940, north of London, consisting of 48 radio stations. Research Units also were set up in Jerusalem by the SOE. Three distinct types of RUs emerged. There were the “freedom stations” or “opposition stations” which were anti-Nazi stations aimed at allied and friendly nations. The second type was set up in occupied countries where they were meant to represent opposition or resistance groups in that country. A third type was a “counterfeit” or phony radio station. They impersonated and mimicked the Nazi regime and their collaborators in the occupied countries. Their goals were to destroy enemy morale in the occupied countries, raise allied morale, and encourage resistance and opposition to the enemy. Unlike white propaganda, black propaganda knew no bounds or limitations. All was permitted to these stations. They could distort, manipulate, deceive, and lie. The BBC, by contrast, was more restricted and limited. The RUs were not.  Whatever it took was accepted. They used short-wave radio broadcasts which were more difficult to track down but which limited their audience. In 1942, Aspidistra, or medium-range radios were used.

After the U.S. entry in the war following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, the PWE and SOE coordinated their black propaganda efforts with the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI), the U.S. propaganda agency, and the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services.

For German-occupied Yugoslavia, “freedom” or “opposition stations” were created near the Woburn Abbey, fifty miles outside of London. These were the Serbian Y.2 or Sumadija station, the Croatian Y.1 or Zrinski station, the Slovenian Y.3 or Triglav station, and Y.4 or the “For Old Justice” station. These were all based in Woburn in the UK. The stations were moderate, centrist, and nationalist in their positions. They encouraged opposition and resistance to the Nazis but sought to discourage “premature uprisings”.  Ultimately, their objectives were to achieve “strategic deception”. They were supposed to represent “native opinion” and were to advance the self-interests of the occupied nations, while, in reality, they emanated from Britain and advanced British foreign policy goals and objectives.

The Karageorge Research Unit was set up in Jerusalem to support the resistance movement led by General Draza Mihailovich. The station broadcast in 1942 and 1943 in open support of Mihailovich and his resistance movement.

The Sumadija RU based in Woburn was set up three and a half months after the Axis invasion, occupation, and dismemberment of Yugoslavia which began on April 6, 1941. The origin of the station as a British propaganda outlet was hidden as was the fact that it was created to advance British national interests. The station was under the auspices of British historian Robert Seton-Watson under SO1. The station was subsequently put under the jurisdiction of the PWE under Francis W. Neate. The broadcasts at the station were conducted by a Serbian student who was part of the Yugoslavian government-in-exile based in London. The Sumadija RU was targeted to an audience of “young and progressive Serbs” and to “informed and reasonable political opinion” which supported Draza Mihailovich and the Yugoslav government-in-exile. The propaganda line of the Sumadija RU mirrored the MOI position on Yugoslavia relying on overt or white propaganda. The goals were to encourage resistance and opposition in German-occupied Serbia, to strengthen morale and will, to emphasize the excesses and depredations of the German occupation, and to condemn collaboration with the enemy.

Most significantly, the Sumadija RU was ambivalent and ambiguous about the Karageorgevich monarchy. Would it be restored? What would happen to the monarchy? Based on broadcasts of the station, it voiced the view that the role of the monarchy would decrease “in proportion to the Russian success”. This meant that the future existence and maintenance of the Karageorgevich monarchy would depend on whether the Soviet Union occupied Yugoslavia or not. The station espoused the post-war policy that “a free and united Serbia” would emerge as part of a unified, democratic, and centralized Yugoslavia. The station also maintained the policy of South Slav unity by emphasizing in broadcasts that the genocidal Ustasha regime in Croatia and Bosnia did not represent the majority of the Croatian people. The NDH regime was a puppet government established by Germany and Italy. The broadcasts emphasized that there was no popular support for the Ustasha in Croatia.

The station encouraged the members of the General Milan Nedic regime to join “the free Serbs” under General Draza Mihailovich. Sumadija had a restrained view of Milan Nedic. He was described in broadcasts as “a man of standing” who had “allowed himself to become the tool of the enemies of his people”. The station distinguished him from Ustasha Poglavnik Ante Pavelic, an acknowledged and fanatical, hardcore fascist who it referred to as “a criminal and regicide”. Ante Pavelic was one of the staunchest supporters of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. During the war, Pavelic organized the genocide in the NDH against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Pavelic ran his own concentration and death camp system and it was he himself who conducted the genocide in the NDH. By contrast, Nedic was anti-fast and anti-Nazi. He assumed his role in German-occupied Serbia in order to assuage and counter the occupation policies in the country. Because of its attacks against Nedic, however, there were Serbian members of the Yugoslav-government-in-exile who wanted the station suspended.

The Sumadija RU cautioned against reckless attacks against the Axis occupation forces in order to prevent mass execution of civilian hostages and punitive reprisals against Serbian civilians. This was the position of the Yugoslav government-in-exile and of resistance leader Draza Mihailovich. The station emphasized “passive resistance” instead, such as measures to disrupt the economy and civil administration such as hoarding and black marketeering and acts of civil disobedience. The station was to promote and support the Mihailovich movement. Mihailovich, however, was not to have a say in how and what the station broadcast. The station espoused two objectives: 1) to maintain opposition and resistance to the German occupation by tying down and disrupting German troop movements; and 2) to keep the loss of civilian deaths to a minimum.

In 1942, a Soviet radio station, “Radio Free Yugoslavia”, attacked Mihailovich as a “collaborator”. Sumadija dismissed these Soviet allegations as “the fruit of enemy propaganda”. The station espoused unity under the command of Draza Mihailovich. Sumadija clearly paralleled the official overt propaganda line at that time.

Once British support for Mihailovich waned, however, and he was dropped in favor of the Communist Partisan movement led by Josip Broz Tito, the station switched its policy and called for a “united fighting front”. As British government support for Mihailovich decreased, the station was “held in reserve”, reflecting the government position. Increasingly, the station began distancing itself from Mihailovich and the Yugoslav government-in-exile. The stance became far more neutral and ambiguous by early 1943. Like the BBC, the Sumadija RU was no longer supporting Draza Mihailovich. It no longer represented the Yugoslav-government-in-exile. Both Mihailovich and the Yugoslav exile government attacked the station as being non-supportive, hostile, and antagonistic. Once the British government abandoned support for Draza Mihailovich in late 1943, the Sumadija RU was suspended and ceased to function.

How effective was black propaganda in Yugoslavia? What results did the Sumadija RU achieve? British black propaganda in Yugoslavia mirrored the vagaries, vicissitudes, and exigencies of the wartime policies of the British government. Both Draza Mihailovich and the Yugoslav government-in-exile ultimately rejected and renounced it. The result was that the legal and legitimate government of Yugoslavia was usurped by a Communist and Stalinist guerrilla movement that seized power by means of force and established a dictatorship regime. The Partisan Communist guerrillas were put in power in Belgrade only after the Soviet Red Army took the city on October 20, 1944. The end result was a usurpation of the legitimate government by force of arms. Moreover, by abandoning the guerrilla resistance movement led by Draza Mihailovich, allowed for the emergence of a Communist and Soviet-backed regime in Yugoslavia. The results were ultimately self-defeating and counter-productive.

Bibliography

Balfour, Michael. Propaganda in War, 1939-1945: Organisation, Policies and Publics in Britain and Germany. Routledge, 1979.

Cruickshank, Charles Greig. The Fourth Arm: Psychological Warfare, 1938-1945. Davis-Poynter, 1977.

Garnett, David. The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive, 1939-1945. St. Ermin’s Press, 2002.

Sanders, M. L. “Wellington House and British Propaganda During the First World War”, The Historical Journal, March, 1975, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 18, Issue 1, pp. 119–146.

Sanders, M. L., and Philip M. Taylor. British Propaganda During the First World War, 1914-18. Macmillan, 1982.

Stefanidis, Ioannis D. “The Fourth Arm”, History Today, September, 2012, Vol. 62, Issue 9, pp. 28-34.

—Substitute for Power: British Propaganda to the Balkans, 1939-1944, Ashgate, 2012.

Stenton, Michael. Radio London and Resistance in Occupied Europe: British Political Warfare, 1939-1943. Oxford University Press, 2000.

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Hollywood vs. History: Fact or Fiction? Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas (1943)

Hollywood has always tackled the historical film, from biographies of Abraham Lincoln to Sergeant Alvin C. York to John F. Kennedy. Hollywood has featured historical war movies on World War II such as Guadalcanal Diary (1943), The Longest Day (1962), The Battle of the Bulge (1965), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), and Flags of Our Fathers (2006).

Films on the Balkans, and on Yugoslavia, in particular, however, were rare. This was because Eastern Europe was regarded as peripheral and secondary. An exception was Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas released in 1943 by 20th Century Fox. This movie sought to portray the guerrilla resistance movement led by Draza Mihailovich in German-occupied Yugoslavia.

“Thrill! …to the drama of the great guerrilla leader, Draja Mihailovitch, who fights so a nation may live! Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas.” 3 days. Palmetto. Monday Tuesday Wednesday.” Palmetto Theatre. The Sunday Spartanburg Herald-Journal, May  9, 1943, page 17, Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Did Hollywood get it right? Was the movie historically and factually accurate? Was it fact or fiction? How valuable is the movie as history as opposed to entertainment?

The movie gets the main facts right. The film starts off with the German bombing of Belgrade on April 6, 1941 and the subsequent Axis occupation and dismemberment of Yugoslavia. Draza Mihailovich is depicted as a former Yugoslav Army officer, a Colonel, who takes command of a guerrilla army that launches a resistance against the German military occupation.

1943 20th Century Fox 8″ x 10″ black and white press photograph for the movie Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas starring Anna Sten as Ljubitca Mihailovitch and Philip Dorn as Draja Mihailovitch.

In the film, Draza is married to Ljubitca and has a daughter and a son, Mirko and Nada. Their assumed names are George and Anna Radek. In real life, his wife was named Jelica Lazarevic whom he married in 1920. They had four children, Branko, Ljubivoje, who died as an infant, Vojislav, and Gordana. Vojislav was a member of the Chetnik guerrillas who was killed in action in 1945. Gordana was a pediatric radiologist. Both Gordana and Branko lived in Belgrade, Branko until 1995. His children were older during the war than depicted in the film. Mihailovich’s wife, son Branko, and daughter Gordana were imprisoned by the Germans during the war. Gordana and Branko joined the Partisan guerrillas. In 2005, Gordana accepted the Legion of Merit Award that U.S. President Harry S. Truman had awarded to Mihailovich in 1948 on the recommendation of Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Dwight D. Eisenhower. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had given permission for the presentation of the award. The award was personally presented by U.S. airmen Clare Musgrove, Robert Wilson, George Vujnovich, Charles Davis, and Arthur “Jibby” Jibilian.

Lt. Aleksa Petrovic, Maj. Danilov, and Capt. Sava as Mihailovich’s officers are an accurate reflection of his staff. The Chetnik guerrillas were made up of officers and troops from Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia.

The movie does not touch on the conflict between the Chetniks and the Partisans. The Partisans had been defeated in Serbia by the end of 1941 and had retreated to Bosnia where they regrouped. Nevertheless, they remained rivals and competitors to the Chetnik guerrilla movement and would, in fact, wage a civil war against them. Also not covered is the genocide committed against the Serbian populations in Croatia and Bosnia. The mass murders and ethnic cleansing committed against the Serbs by Croats and Bosnian Muslims were known in the American and Allied press but were not salient. The movie purposely sought to focus on only Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrilla movement he led.

Serge Krizman was a technical adviser on the film. Krizman was born in what would become Yugoslavia. Paul Le Pere was the dialogue director. Yugoslav Major Milivoj Mishovic was a military adviser on the film. Both Krizman and Mishovic were members of the embassy of the Yugoslav government-in-exile based in London. Mishovic was the Assistant Military Attaché of the embassy. Krizman was an art director. The dialogue and the military uniforms and costumes worn were accurate. The movie also featured “Das Horst Wessel-Lied”, the “Horst Wessel Song”, and actual Chetnik songs.

The dialogue from the screenplay by Jack Andrews and Edward E. Paramore, Jr., which was not used in the actual movie, shows that they had knowledge of the history of Serbia and Montenegro:

“Draja: And they can’t destroy us, either. Others have tried. We lived under a foreign yoke for five hundred years, but we fought, and in the end we won.”

The historical background for the conflict was known by the screenwriters. The 500 years of Ottoman Turkish occupation were noted. The tradition and history of resistance and defiance were incorporated in the script.

The opening combat scene where they capture an Italian supply column is based on fact. This scene is based on news accounts published in 1942 in U.S. magazines and newspapers. These news accounts created a sensation in the United States. For instance, the scene where Italian officers are traded for tins of gasoline is based on a news story. This account appeared in the Reader’s Digest. The account was in Erwin Christian Lessner’s “The Fight of the Chetniks”. Reader’s Digest, June, 1942, Vol. 40, No. 242, pp. 37-40, which had originally appeared in the Free World publication. He described Chetnik guerrilla attacks in Kotor in Dalmatia in 1941. The action in the film was, thus, based on the available news accounts in 1941 and 1942 which appeared in the American and Western press.

The screenplay was written by Jack Andrews and Edward E. Paramore, Jr., based on the original story by Andrews. The movie was well-written, in the style of an adventure film, such as a Western. The facts were derived from events in Draza Mihailovich’s military career based on newspaper accounts. The setting was the Adriatic coastal town of Kotor in Montenegro. Mihailovich was based in the mountainous region of Ravna Gora in central Serbia. The movie was shot in southern California. Montenegro is a much better match for the terrain and landscape of California than central Serbia. The producers sought to simulate and replicate the Balkan terrain as realistically as possible. The setting and terrain were convincing in the film.

Liberty Theatre. “Today! Guns can not kill them … Invaders can not conquer them! … The story of Gen. Draja Mihailovitch’s Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas. With Philip Dorn, Anna Sten. AND … A Feast of Laughter With the Man Who Came to Dinner! Monty Woolley, Ida Lupino in ‘Life Begins at Eight-Thirty’.” The Spokesman-Review, April 28, 1943, Spokane, Washington.

Gestapo Colonel Wilhelm Brockner, played by Martin Kosleck, initially suggested that the way to defeat the Serbian insurgency was by hanging 50 to 100 Serbian civilians for every German soldier who was killed. This is based on historical fact. This was the order in 1941 against insurgents in Serbia issued by the German command. For every German soldier wounded, 50 Serbs would be killed. For every German soldier killed, one hundred Serbs would be killed.

The film is inaccurate in depicting this reprisal order as emanating from the Gestapo. In fact, the order was a military one, carried out by the Wehrmacht, the German Army. The executions at Kraljevo and Kragujevac were carried out by German Army troops, not by the Gestapo, the SS, or German police units. The Chetnik and Partisan guerrillas were killing and wounding German occupation troops. The German army responded by executing civilian hostages in retaliation and to terrorize the population. Former Austrian General Franz Boehme was sent to Serbia as an emergency or crisis manager to quell the insurgency by whatever means necessary.

Draza Mihailovich was 49 in 1942. Philip Dorn was 41 that year. In physical appearance, his resemblance to Draza Mihailovich was good. Mihailovich was photographed as clean-shaven in 1941 and only had a full beard later in the war. The physical match was thus good. Mihailovich did, however, wear glasses. He captures Mihailovich’s personality and temperament very effectively. Mihailovich was by temperament mild and stoic, compassionate and with forbearance. Dorn reflects these traits well and accurately in the film. Mihailovich had a sense of humor which is also reflected in the film and also a military man’s sense of honor and decorum. These qualities were presented accurately in the movie. Moreover, Mihailovich was religious and a traditionalist with moderate views. Josip Broz Tito, on the other hand, was a Communist, Stalinist, an atheist, and a nihilist. He was brutal and uncompromising, a dedicated Communist and Stalinist ideologue. He was married in the Soviet Union. He had a series of mistresses. His temperament was domineering and dictatorial.

The confusion over the rival resistance movements was illustrated in an ad for the movie which appeared in the Kingsport Times, October 24, 1943, in Kingsport, Tennessee. This is a glaring example of cognitive dissonance. In an ad for the film on Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas, the Communist Partisan guerrillas are erroneously described. Erwin Rommel was assigned to German-occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. Rommel was well-known in the U.S. and the West because of the spectacular military victories of the Afrika Korps. Factually, Rommel was put in command of Army Group B in 1943. After the surrender of Italy on September 8, 1943, Rommel launched an offensive against the Yugoslav Partisan forces and was able to retake Susak and advance 40 miles east to Ogulin. This was a major defeat for the Communist Partisans in Yugoslavia and gave Rommel his first important military victory in that theater. The Partisans were able, however, to turn this disastrous military defeat into a propaganda victory and to inflate their own self-importance and standing.

Kingsport Times, October 24, 1943, page 12, Kingsport, Tennessee. Strand Theatre. “The Daring Band of Yugoslav Guerrillas That Hitler Ordered Rommel To Stop! From the mountain retreats of Gen. Broz Tito’s courageous band of Guerrilla fighters comes one of the action-packed thrillers of this war .. See why Rommel will never succeed in smashing them … See how they wage war against the Nazi conquerors and why they will never quit fighting until every German soldier is driven from Yugoslavia! Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas with Philip Dorn, Anna Sten, John Shepperd, Virginia Gilmore, Martin Kosleck, and many others. Two action-packed days.” Mon. Tue.”

Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas showed that Nazism and Germany were not monolithic. The movie points out the conflict among the civil and military branches of the German government and occupation administration. The movie exposes the conflict between the Gestapo and the Wehrmacht, two different branches of the German military occupation. Casablanca, for instance, does not do this, where every German is regarded as a Nazi who espouses the views of National Socialism.

The Daily Argus, Mount Vernon, New York, Saturday, April 17, 1943. “Buy war stamps & bonds at RKO.” RKO Proctor’s Theatre. The movie, as “Chetnicks: The Fighting Guerillas”, was shown during a bond rally as a double feature with The Meanest Man in the World starring Jack Benny, Priscilla Lane, and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. The bonus added feature was Walt Disney’s cartoon short Der Fuehrer’s Face.

In Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas, conflicts between the different branches of the German occupation administration are exposed. Most viewers of the film are not going to know that the German occupation regime did not speak with the same voice or always act in unanimity. This reflects the actual state of affairs in German-occupied Yugoslavia. Indeed, in all German-occupied countries, Adolf Hitler encouraged a rivalry and a competition of the different branches of the administration, the military, civil, police, intelligence, and economic.

There was a conflict between the SS and the Wehrmacht in the military occupation of Serbia. SS Gruppenfuehrer Harald Turner, who was the chief of the German Military Administration of Serbia, came into conflict with German Army commanders over the military occupation of Serbia. The Wehrmacht opposed many of Turner’s occupation policies in Serbia and sought to have him replaced. The SS was much more ideologically driven and its members were more committed to National Socialism. Moreover, there was conflict and friction between the Wehrmacht and the SS over the role of the Higher SS and Police Leaders who were part of the occupation regime in Serbia. There was thus conflict between different branches of the German occupation force and between civilian and military branches. The movie accurately shows this conflict.

The character of Gestapo officer Wilhelm Brockner in a black military outfit is stereotypical and not accurate historically. This is because American audiences had come to expect the presence of the Gestapo everywhere although in Yugoslavia the police units went under different names, such as the Higher SS and Police Leader. In Serbia, Hermann Behrends was the HSSPF for Serbia and Montenegro, Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer, HSSPF, HSS-PF, HSSuPF from April, 1942 when he replaced August Meyszner. Paul Bader was the Military Commander in Serbia. Harald Turner was the head of the military administration. The Gestapo was the German Secret State Police. But there were other branches of the police, such as Regular uniform police (Orpo), Criminal police (Kripo), State Security police (SiPo), and SS Security Service (SD). In Serbia, there were the Gestapo, Kripo, and the SD, all under the command of Wilhelm Fuchs, who later appointed Meyszner as the HSSPF in 1942.

Serbia was under the control of the head of the military administration, Harald Turner, until November, 1942, the HSSPF August Meyszner, and the economic chief, the plenipotentiary for economic affairs, who was Hans Neuhausen. In addition, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs had control of Serbian affairs. Four distinct German occupation authorities, overlapping, competing, and exclusive, held sway in Serbia. These branches often came into conflict. Meyszner did come into conflict with the military commander in Serbia and with special envoy Hermann Neubacher. This conflict resulted in his replacement in 1944 by Behrends.

The ultimate question with regard to this movie has to do with events subsequent to the making and release of the film. Draza Mihailovich was accused of “collaboration” with the Axis occupation forces, with the Germans and Italians. He was equated with Ante Pavelic and was branded a “fascist” and “nationalist” and a “war criminal”. Who made these charges and allegations? It was his rivals and enemies, the Communist Partisan guerrilla movement which sought to discredit and destroy the Chetnik guerrilla movement which stood in the way of the Communist seizure of power in Yugoslavia, which was their ultimate objective.

The issue is ultimately one of credibility. Do you believe the negative accounts the Communist dictatorship presented or do you believe the positive evidence? Which account or “narrative” is accurate and true?

“‘Chetnik’. A Scene from the 20th Century-Fox Production. Made in U.S.A.” 1943 press photo featuring Philip Dorn as Draja Mihailovitch. The Baltimore Sun. A black and white 8″ x 10″ publicity or promotional photograph for the 20th Century-Fox film Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas starring Philip Dorn and Anna Sten.

On March 29, 1948, U.S. President Harry S. Truman awarded General Dragoljub Draza Mihailovich, commander of the Yugoslav Royal Army, the Legion of Merit award on the recommendation of Allied Supreme Commander in Europe Dwight D. Eisenhower. In the citation, Mihailovich is commended as a key American ally: “General Mihailovich and his forces, although lacking adequate supplies, and fighting under extreme hardships, contributed materially to the allied cause, and were instrumental in obtaining a final Allied Victory.” The award was kept secret until 1966. In 2005, the U.S. State Department allowed rescued U.S. airmen to present the award to Mihailovich’s daughter Gordana.

The question is a simple one: Do you give more credibility to Give ‘Em Hell Harry Truman and Ike or to self-serving claims and allegations by a Communist and Stalinist dictatorship regime? Moreover, how much credibility do these Stalinist and Communist accusers have when they have themselves cynically admitted that they collaborated with the Nazis in order to destroy the Yugoslav government-in-exile and to seize power?

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Nikola Tesla in Golden Age Comics: Real Heroes, #16, “Prophet of Science” (1946)

Nikola Tesla was featured in the Golden Age comic book series Real Heroes Comics, #16, published in the United States in October, 1946. The Nikola Tesla comic story consisted of six pages. Real Heroes Comics were published by Parent’s Magazine Press in New York . Draza Mihailovich had appeared in the September, 1942 issue of Real Heroes Comics, issue #6.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

The comic book story on Nikola Tesla was entitled “Prophet of Science”, Real Heroes Comics, #6, October, 1946. “Real Heroes. True Stories in Comics. Thrilling stories about real people. Oct. No. 16. Tops in Quality and Quantity. Parents’ Magazine Press.” 10 cents. Real Heroes Comics, 1941 series, were published from September, 1941 to 1946 by the Parents’ Magazine Press, Inc., in New York.

The story begins with an inset image of Nikola Tesla. His significance and role in the development of modern technology is recounted: “Nikola Tesla is the forgotten genius, who revolutionized the science of electricity and made fantastic predictions which time proved true.” The birth year of Nikola Tesla is incorrectly given as 1857. He was born in 1856. He was born in the town of Smiljan, outside of Gospic, which was then a part of Austria-Hungary. The town is incorrectly given as “Smilgan” in the story. Croatia was then a part of Austria-Hungary. The first scene shows a water pump for a new fire engine. The pump does not work. Nikola Tesla, pictured as a youth, volunteers to fix the water pump. Tesla jumps into the water and fixes the clogged water pump.

In a scene from later in his life, his father warns him that he is exerting too much effort on his studies. He was so committed to his studies that he became ill. His diligent study paid off. He was enrolled in the major European universities of that time such as the University of Technology in Graz, Austria, and the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. He created controvery immediately by challenging the accepted scientific dogmas and orthodoxies. Tesla advocated alternating current over direct direct: “But professor, if alternating current were used…”

He was dismissed by his professors: “Mister Tesla, please forget that foolish idea. Direct current is the only method.” He then moved to Paris, where he worked for the Continental Edison Company. In 1884, he met Charles Batchelor, a former employee and associate of Thomas Edison. His name is misspelled as “Batchellor” in the story. Tesla tells Batchelor: “My experiments with the rotating magnetic field prove that my motor will work.” Batchelor replies: “I think you’re a brilliant scientist, Tesla. You must go to America and work with Edison.” Tesla is shown on the dock awaiting to sail to the United States. Tesla exclaims that he has been robbed of his money and baggage. In the next scene he is shown arriving in the United States. As he is getting off the ship, he thinks to himself: “I’ve only got four pennies. I must get work.”

Walking from the pier, Tesla volunteers to help fix a broken-down machine. He fixes the machine in several hours for which he is paid twenty dollars. In New York, Tesla begins working for Thomas Edison after a letter of introduction from Charles Batchelor: “Through a letter from Batchellor to Edison, Tesla was soon working for the American inventor.” Edison tells Tesla, who is shown holding a wrench in Edison’s company: “We’re having a hard time repairing the motor of the liner ‘Oregon.’ See what you can do with it.” In the next scene, Tesla is shown walking home after repairing the motor of the ‘Oregon”, docked in the harbor. “In the year Tesla worked for Edison, he designed twenty-four dynamos and automatic controls. But Edison would not accept his theories on alternating current. In 1885 Tesla left Edison, unable to find work…” Tesla is shown digging a ditch in order to earn enough money to survive.

The story glosses over the controversy between Tesla and Edison over the “War of the Currents”. Edison adamantly rejected alternating current in favor of direct current in which he had invested his capital and his scientific reputaion. Edison’s theories on direct current were discredited while direct current itself was shown to be nonviable and unpractical as a source of energy for long distances and at high voltages.

Tesla set up his own company in 1888 in New York, the Tesla Electric Company, after Alfred K. Brown of Western Union invested in it: “Then he met A. K. Brown, who recognized his genius and helped finance his work. In April, 1887 …” Tesla is shown beaming in front of his new company as workers put up the company name sign. He exclaims: “At last, my own laboratory. Now I’ll have a chance to build and experiment.”

His breakthrough came in 1888 when he demonstrated his system of alternating current in a lecture: “Tesla persisted in his experiments and finally in May, 1888, at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in New York …” Tesla is shown demonstrating his AC induction motor before a packed-house: “…And so you see how a wire can carry a thousand times more energy with alternating current than with direct current.”

George Westinghouse is then shown making a proposal to Tesla to develop his alternating current system: “I’ll give you a million dollars and a royalty of one dollar per horsepower for your patents.” This contract would make Tesla one of the wealthiest inventors in the world. Tesla agreed to the terms of the offer: “I accept, Mister Westinghouse.” Westinghouse’s financial backers, however, forced Westinghouse to rescind the royalty agreement. Westinghouse informed Tesla: “The bankers won’t help me start a new company unless our royalty agreement is cancelled.” Tesla agreed to the abrogation of the royalty agreement: “That’s all right, as long as I have enough money to continue with experiments.”

One of the milestones in Tesla’s career is described next: “Tesla worked hard and devised a method of harnessing power from Niagara Falls. Later he designed the Niagara Power Plant.”

In the next scene, the destruction of his laboratory by fire on March 13, 1895 is described. Tesla is shown outside his company as fire fighters seek to extinguish the flames which have engulfed the building. Tesla shouts in anguish: “All my experiments, all my records! They’ll be burned!”

After the construction of a new laboratory, Tesla focused his attention on other experiments. One of his major discovers was cosmic rays. Tesla stated: “I believe there are particles of matter bombarding the earth.” This theory was later proven to be accurate: “Thus Tesla discovered the cosmic ray thirty years before its existence was known to the world.” He was able to transmit power without wires: “He experimented further with electricity and in 1890…” Tesla is shown lighting a light bulb without wires. One observer exclaims: “Unbelievable! Light without wires!” Another exclaims: “Amazing!”

Tesla’s pioneering development of radio is recounted: “He worked on the fundamentals of radio and in 1891 …” Tesla is shown demonstrating remote control before a group of spectators. He is able to power a small red boat model in a small pool by remote control: “And so he foreshadowed wireless remote control and electronics.”

In the next scene, the Wardenclyffe project is described, Tesla’s unsuccessful attempt to provide free wireless power for the entire planet: “But a major disappointment came.” Tesla is shown in front of the tower. He tells a backer of the project: “Wireless power will circle the globe when we get this built.” He is told: “I’m sorry, Tesla, but it can’t be finished. We have no more funds to give you.” J. P. Morgan was the principal sponsor of the Wardenclyffe tower project initially investing $150,000. Morgan refused to invest further in the project. As a result, the Wardenclyffe tower was shut down and demolished in 1917.

The closing section focused on Tesla’s final years in New York: “In spite of many set-backs, Tesla achieved fame in the scientific world, and in 1936 …” A group is gathered to award the Edison Medal, which was awarded to Tesla in 1916. Tesla’s chair is shown to be empty. One of the men explains: “Receiving the Edison Medal is a great event in any man’s life, but when is Tesla coming?” The other responds: “I think I know where he may be.”

They are able to locate Tesla in Bryant Park, in Manhattan in New York City. Tesla is seated on a park bench feeding white pigeons that have landed on his shoulders. The comic story ends here.

The story concludes with an assessment and evaluation of Tesla’s role and contributions to the development of modern science: “Some of Tesla’s early predictions which have been perfected included radar and television. But many scientists are still skeptical about other of his later ideas like … sending messages to planets … controlling moisture on deserts by means of electrical impulses … creating a death beam that could destroy 10,000 planes at once.” In the final panel, an image of Tesla is shown. His death on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86, is noted.

The story concludes with the observation that Tesla was able to perservere and to become a pioneer in the development of the modern technological age: “In spite of the hardships that plagued his life, Nikola Tesla continued his scientific investigations which were so far ahead of his time.”

The Nikola Tesla comic book story series “Prophet of Science” from Real Heroes Comics, #16, October, 1946, was reprinted in the 1948 Daisy BB Gun Handbook, Daisy Handbook, #2, March, 1948, in black and white. The comic story begins on page 53.

The Daisy Handbook was a pocket-sized collection of black and white reprints of several comic features from comic books such as True Comics, Real Heores Comics, and other comic books, as well as containing color ads for its own products, air rifles or BB guns. The cover description was as follows: “Daisy Handbook, No. 2. Featuring Captain Marvel, Robotman, Red Ryder, Da Vinci, 2-Gun Percy, Rudolph Diesel, Boy Commandos, Ibis. The American Boy’s Fun and Fact Digest.” The price for the handbook was 10 cents.

There were two issues of the handbook published, in 1946 and 1948. The 1948 handbook was advertised as follows: “Daisy announces an entirely new 128 page, pocket size handbook including a brand new 4-color Daisy catalog.” The Daisy Handbook was published by the Daisy Manufacturing Company, 387 Union Street, Department 8, Plymouth, Michigan, USA. The company manufactured primarily BB guns or air rifles. The company, founded in 1882 as the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company, was the oldest and largest manufacturer of pellet and air-powered guns, ammunition, and accessories. The major product of the company was the Red Ryder BB gun which was introduced in 1938 and of which 9 million were sold. The company also manufactured air rifles, pistols, carbon dioxide or CO2 pistols, slingshots, and branded apparel.

Nikola Tesla would also appear in the 1946 comic book True Comics, #50, July, 1946, George Westinghouse, the 1949 comic book Top Secrets, #9, May-June, Top Secrets of Nature. Nikola Tesla: Discoverer of Alternating Current, published by Street and Smith in New York, the 1974 comic book The Science Fair Story of Electronics: Man’s Discovery That Changed The World, Science Fair Quiz, and The Science Fair Story of Electronics: The Discovery That Changed the World, #68-6028, September, 1981, both by Radio Shack.

Fifty years after Nikola Tesla’s first appearance in Golden Age comics, he would become a dominant and recurring subject of comic books and graphic novels. Nikola Tesla would appear in the following comics books: DC Comics’ Barnum, May, 2003, Justice League of America, JLA: Age of Wonder, 2003 by DC Comics, Marvel Comics’ S.H.I.E.L.D, #5, February, 2011, Chapter Five: The Forgotten Machines of Nikola Tesla,  DC Comics’ Jonah Hex, #22, October, 2007, The Wizards of Electricity, The Current War, the Finnish comic book Agent X9, #1, January, 2012, by Egmont Serieforlaget, Atomic Robo, October, 2007, The Will To Power, by Red 5 Comics, Ltd., Marvel Comics’ 2099 Unlimited, #3, January, 1994, Kid Current, Online, and The Night Man, #1, October, 1993, C: The Sorcerer, by Malibu.

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Draza Mihailovich in Film and TV: On the Set of the TV Series Ravna Gora

Ravna Gora is a Serbian television series produced by Radio Televizija Srbija (RTS) and Contrast Studios which will debut on November 2, 2013 on Serbian television. The series began filming on July 24, 2012 on location in Mokra Gora in western Serbia. The series will be a trilogy entitled “1941-1945″. The first part, Ravna Gora, will consist of 15 episodes each an hour in length. It is a historical dramatization of the events that occurred in Yugoslavia during World War II when the country was invaded, occupied, and dismembered by the Axis. The series focuses on the rival guerrilla movements led by Draza Mihailovich and Josip Broz Tito. This television drama breaks new ground and is unique in that it seeks to present a balanced, objective, and factually accurate depiction of those events. Stripped are the Communist propaganda and ideological falsifications, distortions, and manipulations.

On the set: Bosnian Serb actor Nebojsa Glogovac, left, as Draza Mihailovich on the set of the Serbian television series Ravna Gora, 2012. On right, Nenad Jezdic as Yugoslav Major Stankovic. Behind them is Djordje Ercevic with a group of Yugoslav soldiers.

The series is written and directed by Rados Bajic. Nebojsa Glogovac stars as General Dragoljub Draza Mihailovich, the leader of the Ravna Gora Movement, one of the most important guerrilla resistance movements of World War II. Petre Arsovski plays Dusan Simovic. Momir Bradic plays Slobodan Jovanovic. Lazar Ristovski is General Borivoje Mirkovic. Mirko Babic is Obrad Taralic. Olga Odanovic is Zivana Taralic. Marko Bacovic is Svetolik Taralic. Radoslav Milenkovic is Stanoje Taralic. Nenad Okanovic plays Milisav Janjic. Radko Polic plays Potpukovnik Rudolf Ukmar. Ljiljana Stjepanovic plays Vidosava Janjic-Vida. Dragan Bjelogrlic, who had played Milan in Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, Lepa sela lepo gore (1996), portrays Josip Broz Tito. The cinematography is by Predrag Jocic.

Draza Mihailovich is portrayed by Bosnian Serb actor Nebojsa Glogovac, who was born in Trebinje in southeastern Hercegovina, a city in the Republika Srpska (RS). A veteran TV and film actor, he played Crni in the 2012 Serbian TV series Vojna akademija, Oficir Prvoslav Gajin in the 2004 Lift TV series, and Zlatko Gavrilovic in the 1998-2001 TV series Porodicno blago. He starred in the 2006 film The Optimists, Optimisti, the 1998 film Savior, Spasitelj, with Dennis Quaid and Nastassja Kinski, and The Trap, Klopka in 2007, Serbia’s official submission in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008). Savior was produced by Oliver Stone and written by Robert Orr and distributed by Lions Gate Films with a budget of $10 million. The plot centered around an American mercenary, Joshua Rose, played by Dennis Quaid, who escorts a Serbian woman and her child to a United Nations safe zone during the Bosnian War. His objective in portraying Draza Mihailovich in Ravna Gora was to present him in a realistic way, based on the real man, as reflected by the historical facts, documents, and accounts of people who knew him. He wanted to dispel the negative Communist propaganda image which was largely manufactured and fabricated by the Partisan Communist dictatorship regime. He wanted to present the real man behind the image.

In an interview given to Blic, September 6, 2012, Glogovac stated that he sought to depict the real person: “Draza Mihailovich was a gentle, loving, interesting, extremely knowledgeable, courageous and highly respected man. He is nothing like the villain he is portrayed as.”

The image of Draza Mihailovich was a falsified and distorted image created by Communist propagandists and hacks. He wants to change how people perceive and understand Draza Mihailovich. The picture that emerges is one based on the facts and the eyewitness accounts and testimonies, not the faked and forged accounts by the Communist dictatorship.

Glogovac told Blic: “Most of what we knew and were taught is largely propaganda by the victor.” Draza Mihailovich was betrayed and abandoned by the Allies who switched their support to the Communist and Stalinist Josip Broz Tito. As the winners of the civil war, the Communists seized power and established a Communist dictatorship sponsored by Joseph Stalin. The Communist regime created and manufactured its own falsified history of who Draza Mihailovich was and what he stood for and what he achieved.

The story is about presenting the truth. It favors neither side but seeks to present a balanced, unbiased, and factual history of the events in Yugoslavia during World War II. The objective is to gain a greater understanding of the two guerrilla resistance movements that turned brother against brother. The majority of the Chetniks and Partisans were Serbs. The conflict was thus one of Serb versus Serb. For him, the film “provides an opportunity to apologize, forgive and reconcile with each other” so that everyone can move on.

Director Rados Bajic, left, above, with a camera crew on the set of the Ravna Gora series at the Sarganska osmica railway in Mokra Gora. Below, shooting a scene at the railway station with actors portraying Yugoslav soldiers in 1941.

He noted that Partisan veterans of the National Liberation War Veterans Association have protested the series even though they have not seen it. He sees it as them protecting their pensions, privileges, perks, and status acquired during the Communist regime. He sees this as understandable but emphasized that the truth needed to be told.

Rados Bajic was the director, writer, and star of the Serbian TV series Selo gori, a baba se ceslja, The Village Burns, The Grandmother Combs Her Hair, which ran from 2007 to 2011. He played the character Radasin in 87 episodes during the five season run of the series on Radio Televizija Srbija (RTS). He wrote and starred in the 1982 TV movie Led, the 1987 film Na putu za Katangu, playing the character Jova, and the 1995 Yugoslav film Treca sreca playing the role of Sekula/Dragoljub.

The series begins with the events of April, 1941 as Nazi Germany and the other Axis coalition partners attack and destroy Yugoslavia. King Peter II flees to London. This is the first part of the trilogy “1941-1945″. The first part will cover the period from April to July, 1941. The reconstructed narrow gauge Sargan Eight, Sarganska osmica, railway line in Mokra Gora was used to film the early scenes. The railway line is shaped like the number 8, running to the city of Visegrad in Republika Srpska, Bosnia-Hercegovina, with a planned extension to Kremna and Uzice. The line ran from Belgrade to Sarajevo until 1974 when it was closed down. The railway line was rebuilt from 1999 to 2003 by the Serbian Ministry of Tourism and the Serbian State Railway with the help of director Emir Kusturica, who constructed a nearby town called Drvengrad.

Djordje Zivadinovic as Yugoslav King Peter II Karageorgevich on the set of the Serbian television series Ravna Gora, filmed in the underground bunker complex beneath Mali Zvornik.

The series began filming in Mali Zvornik in the summer of 2012. The initial scenes featuring Irfan Mensur as Vlatko Macek and Macedonian actor Petar Arsovski as Dusan Simovic were filmed in the bunker. The film relies on 200 actors who will appear in authentic costumes of the period. Djordje Zivadinovic plays King Peter II Karageorgevic who assumes power after the overthrow of the Regency under Prince Paul. Slobodan Jovanovic, Black Chetniks leader Kosta Pecanac, Partisan Commissar Slobodan Penezic Krcun, Partisan Zivorad Zikica “Spanac” Jovanovic, Milan Nedic, Koca Popovic, Sreten Zujovic, Alexander Rankovic, Aca Misic, Dimitrije Ljotic, Svetozar Vukmanovic-Tempo, Ivan Ribar, and Chetnik Major Miodrag Palosevic will also be portrayed in the series. The filming locations will include Belgrade, Kragujevac, Rudnik, Zemun, and Srem.

Mali Zvornik is on the border with the Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia-Hercegovina, southwest of Belgrade, on the Drina River, across from its sister city, meaning “small bell”. The city was established in 1955 in conjunction with the construction of a hydroelectric station on the Drina River. The initial scenes of the series were shot in the underground complex where King Peter II met with his advisers and ministers in April, 1941 as the crisis with Nazi Germany erupted. The secret underground bunker was constructed in 1931 for Yugoslav King Alexander I. The bunker, shaped like a cross, consists of 78 rooms and hallways that can accommodate 3,000 to 5,000 people in a space of 2 kilometers. There is a chapel, an altar, and a fountain. The bunker was never completed due to World War II. The bunker was the last place where King Peter II stayed before fleeing to London in April, 1941.

The first scene filmed was of the last meeting of the Yugoslav Government in April, 1941 held at the command bunker where King Peter II listens to Yugoslav Prime Minister General Dusan Simovic, played by Peter Bian, and Vice President Slobodan Jovanovic, played by Momir Bradic. Vlatko Macek and General Bora Mirkovic had left the meeting. King Peter II was 17 years old at the time of the German invasion. Actor Djordje Zivadinovic is 22 years old.

The scenes with Nebojsa Glogovac as Draza Mihailovich were filmed next as the Ravna Gora guerrilla resistance movement emerges in Serbia. Draza Mihailovich created a sensation in the United States and in Great Britain and electrified nations seeking a symbol of resistance and defiance.

Rados Bajic, left, the director and writer of the television series Ravna Gora on the set during filming.

Director and writer Rados Bajic has stated that the series seeks to achieve a reconciliation and deeper understanding of the tragic civil war that erupted between Serbs during World War II pitting the Chetniks against the Partisans, both groups made up principally of Serbs. In an interview in Vecernje Novosti, June 30, 2012, Bajic stated: “We have suffered as a people. We need to open our eyes, take off the cataracts and see clearly. … We have not learned the lessons of this great tragedy.”

Bajic sees the resolution of this conflict as necessary if Serbia as a nation and Serbs as a people are to go on: “[T]he fratricidal war between the Serbs once and for all has to stop. Chetniks and Partisans finally have to lay down their arms. With all due respect to our grandfathers and fathers, regardless of which side they were on, we owe it to our children. We have to get out of the trenches and the decades of deception.” He stated that he wanted to correct the injustice that was done to Draza Mihailovich: “I am very excited to be the first to talk about the great national injustice that was done to the patriotic movement of the Serbian people, led by Draza Mihailovich.” The Communists wrote the history of that conflict which was falsified: “We have been listening for 70 years to just one, counterfeit version of the war that the winners served us.”

The Great Powers decided the Mihailovich-Tito conflict and created the tragedy. The Great Powers continue to wreak havoc and misery on Serbia. He sees the resolution of this issue as leading to a better understanding of the impact that outside powers have had in creating the Serbian tragedy. Why do Kosovo Albanians get uncritical support from the international community for whatever they do? “Even when destroying and desecrating our sanctuaries and churches.” Why was the genocide of the Serbian population of Krajina not even reported? “We watched after the ‘Storm’ as 250,000 Serbs arrived on tractors in Serbia. And it was never a genocide? I do not understand!”

The theme for the series was proposed to Bajic in December, 2009 by Aleksandar Tijanic. It took four months for Bajic to decide to undertake the project.

This series will be a defining event in that Draza Mihailovich will be presented as he really was for the first time since World War II. More than a television series, this project will be a milestone in Serbian history, reflecting a sea change in how the past is perceived and understood.

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Wartime Radio: Private versus Government Media

Review: “The Chetniks” (1942), Treasury Star Parade Radio Play Starring Orson Welles and Vincent Price

Treasury Department War Savings Staff Radio Recording, Program 101, Treasury Star Parade “The Chetniks” Starring Orson Welles and Vincent Price and David Broekman and his Orchestra and Chorus, 1942. G-1897-P-1 (matrix). ”E.T. announcements included.” William A. Bacher, director and producer. 1 pressed radio transcription sound disc: analog, 33 1/3 rpm, mono; 16 in. Recorded on one side only. ”This program for sustaining use only.” Manufactured by the Allied Record Manufacturing Company, Hollywood, California.

“The Chetniks”

“The Chetniks” radio play was a poignant and powerful dramatization of the resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia led by Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas. The play starred Mercury Theatre veteran Orson Welles, then at the height of his fame after the success of Citizen Kane (1941), and actor Vincent Price, who had starred in The Return of the Invisible Man (1940), the sequel to the 1933 James Whale classic The Invisible Man. The play was written by Violet Atkins for the Treasury Star Parade radio program in 1942. Vincent Price is the narrator, presenting the background to the events depicted in the play. Orson Welles plays Dushan, an ordinary Yugoslav who is swept up into the war after the German bombing and invasion of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. His wife Jovana is killed in the attack. Dushan then joins the Chetnik guerrillas led by Draza Mihailovich. Violet Atkin’s radio play is effective in focusing attention on the Chetnik resistance movement. The Chetnik guerrillas are relentless and undaunted.

Orson Welles played the character of Dushan in an emotionally overwrought fashion that was suitable for radio. He delivered the lines in a faux Slavic or Serbian accent that was similar to his accent in playing the Russian character Gregory Arkadin in the 1955 film Mr. Arkadin. Welles played the role in an overstated and over-the-top style that relied on histrionics and on emotion or sentiment. His performance was effective and worked well in the context of a melodramatic radio play. The play was a perfect fit with the Treasury Star Parade format and formula. All the shows in the radio series were similarly overdramatized, patriotic, and emotion-laden. These shows were meant to move and to stimulate listeners. As a dramatic production for radio during wartime, “The Chetniks” is highly effective and succeeds. Vincent Price as the narrator and the supporting cast are also effective in maintaining the urgency and passion of the story. Price makes a heart-felt and passionate appeal at the end of the show to urge American citizens to buy war bonds and stamps in support of the war effort. The background music provided by David Broekman and His Orchestra and Chorus create urgency and foreboding and match perfectly the tone of the play and the performances.

Private versus Government Media

After the war, the Treasury Star Parade radio program and other programs sponsored by the U.S. government like it were criticized as government-sponsored media. They were dismissed as government propaganda. This criticism is facile and illusory, however, because it is based on faulty premises and assumptions. The first erroneous assumption made is that only the government seeks to persuade or promote an agenda. Ipso facto, any government sponsored program is propaganda or manipulation. This ignores the fact that non-governmental actors also persuade and manipulate. In wartime, the distinction between the government and private sector is also largely nominal and illusory. The boundary between the two becomes gray and indistinct. For all intents and purposes, there is no clear-cut dividing line between the two. The central concepts are persuasion and control.

Media manipulation is central in a democracy. The critics of wartime radio assume it is only the government that engages in propaganda. This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding and ignorance of how persuasion works in a democracy such as the U.S. The statement attributed to newspaper magnate and media czar William Randolph Hearst is crucial: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” This is what American public relations pioneer Edward Bernays said about media manipulation in a democracy in his seminal 1928 book Propaganda: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.” Thus, even in peacetime, there is an “invisible government” that controls and manipulates society.

Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. He also studied the theories of Ivan Pavlov and conditioned reflexes. He developed his PR techniques and theories also based on the work of Walter Lippmann. He worked with Lippmann on the Committee on Public Information during World War I, the U.S. propaganda office. He also wrote this in Propaganda (1928) as well: “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.” Governments, in other words, are not the only entities engaged in propaganda.

Edward Bernays, the “father of U.S. public relations”, also wrote that “the public mind” is constantly subjected to manipulation in a democracy in Propaganda (1928): “In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons … who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.”

Not only was Bernays the father of U.S. PR techniques and mechanisms, but he was also very influential in the development of so-called Nazi propaganda. This is what Bernays wrote in his autobiography Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel (1965) about the influence his writings had: “[Joseph] Goebbels … was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me.”

In both peacetime and in wartime, we are persuaded and manipulated. The lines blur, however, between the private and government sectors in wartime.

Orson Welles

Orson Welles’ career in radio is legendary. Between 1936 and 1941 alone, he appeared in over a hundred radio drama productions as a writer, actor and director. He created the Mercury Theatre on the Air with John Houseman which dramatized major works such as Heart of Darkness, Dracula, A Tale of Two Cities, and Hamlet. Welles was Lamont Cranston as The Shadow in 1937 and 1938. He is most famous for his dramatization of H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds on October 30, 1938 which caused a nation-wide panic in the U.S. In the 1950s he starred in a BBC radio series, The Lives of Harry Lime, based on The Third Man (1949). Orson Welles was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

In 1962, he made The Trial in Zagreb, Yugoslavia based on Franz Kafka’s novel. While making the movie, he established a relationship with Croatian actress Oja Kodar. Welles continued to work in Communist Yugoslavia, where he filmed The Deep from 1966 to 1969.

Orson Welles as a Chetnik Senator on a 1969 Yugoslav movie poster for the film Bitka na Neretvi, The Battle of Neretva, directed and co-written by Veljko Bulajic, Bosna Film, Kinema Sarajevo.

In an ironic twist, Welles would again play a Chetnik guerrilla, but this time as a villain in a negative portrayal, in a Yugoslav Communist government propaganda epic in 1969. He played a Chetnik Senator in Tito’s Communist propaganda epic film The Battle of Neretva, or Bitka na Neretvi (1969). Yul Brynner, portrayed a Communist Partisan leader in the film. This movie had a massive budget that was personally approved by Yugoslav Communist dictator Josip Broz Tito. The film budget was estimated at $71,015,000. It took 16 months to complete the star-studded propaganda film. It was the first of the Yugoslav World War II Communist film productions that were sponsored by the Yugoslav Government. Funds were provided by fifty-eight Yugoslav state companies. This Communist propaganda epic is the most expensive Yugoslav movie ever made and at the time of its production was the most expensive film ever made in Eastern Europe outside of the Soviet Union. 175 minutes in length, the movie was released on October 7, 1969. It was overdubbed in 1971 for an international audience.

This movie was a total falsification and fabrication of history. Operation Weiss was launched by the German occupation troops against both the Chetnik guerrillas under Draza Mihailovich and the Communist Partisans under Josip Broz Tito. The German objective was to clear out the guerrillas in anticipation of an Allied landing on the Adriatic Coast. Ironically, it was following this offensive in March, 1943 that Tito and the Communist Partisans collaborated with the Nazis in Bosnia. In order to concentrate his forces on destroying Mihailovich’s Chetniks, Tito negotiated a deal with German commanders to collaborate against the Chetniks. Adolf Hitler, however, would not approve the deal. Moreover, the Partisans nearly escaped being totally wiped out by German forces. This defeat was turned into a military victory by Communist Partisan propaganda. Typically, Communist propagandists could transform white into black, defeat into victory, collaboration into resistance.

Welles continued to work with Croatian filmmaker Oja Kodar, who made the 1993 Croatian film Vrijeme Za… (A Time For…). Welles also worked closely with Serbian-American film director Peter Bogdanovich (Targets, The Last Picture Show, What’s Up Doc?) who wrote two books on his film career, The Cinema of Orson Welles (1962) and This is Orson Welles (1992). Welles also played J.P. Morgan in the biopic Tajna Nikole Tesle, The Secret of Nikola Tesla (1980) with Oja Kodar, who played Catherine Johnson. The movie was made in Zagreb, Yugoslavia by the Kinematografi production company.

Orson Welles created a critical and popular sensation with his first feature film, Citizen Kane (1941), which was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and is universally regarded as the greatest motion picture ever made. Welles won an Academy Award with Herman Mankiewicz for Best Writing (Original Screenplay). His major films included The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) for RKO, The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Macbeth (1948), The Third Man (1949), Othello (1952), Mr. Arkadin (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), The Trial (1962), Chimes At Midnight (1965), A Man For All Seasons (1966), and The Voyage of the Damned (1976).

Vincent Price

Vincent Price, like Welles, had a long and extensive career on the radio. He appeared in the radio programs Bob and Ray, Lux Radio Theater, Hollywood Star Playhouse, Philip Morris Playhouse, Screen Guild Theater, and Suspense. He was also Simon Templar in the detective radio series, The Saint, from 1944 to 1951 on NBC Radio. In 1973, he was the host of the BBC radio series The Price of Fear. He made audio recordings for Caedmon which such as Poetry of Shelley which included “Adonais”, “Ode to the West Wind”, and “Ozymandias” and recordings of Edgar Allan Poe short stories, including “The Gold Bug”, Ligeia”, “Morella”, “Berniece”, and “The Imp of the Perverse”. His major movies included The Invisible Man Returns (1940), The Song of Bernadette (1943), The House of Wax (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), The Fly (1958), The Return of the Fly (1959), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Edward Scissorhands (1990).

Violet Atkins

Violet Atkins Klein wrote for radio, television, and for films. She began her career in New York but moved to Los Angeles in the late 1940s. She wrote for radio in the 1940s, writing scripts for Camel Caravan (“Afternoon Wedding”, “Sunday Morning in Our Town”) and The Camel Hour (“I Saw a Parade Today”, “Tonight… “), and for television in the 1950s, writing scripts for the TV shows Code 3, Waterfront, and You Are There. For the Treasury Star Parade radio series, she wrote “All God’s Children”, “Balcony Empire”, “The Bell of Tarchova”, “Education for Victory”, “I Saw the Lights Go Out in Europe”, “I Speak for the Women of America”, “Lyudmila Pavlichenko Leaves a Letter to the Future”, “The Murder of Lidice”, “No Victory without Sacrifice”, “Shostakovich”, “Sound of an American”, “There’s a Nation”, and “V for Victory”.

 Treasury Star Parade

Broadcast on 833 radio stations across the U.S. in 1942 and 1943, the Treasury Star Parade radio series was highly successful and was critically acclaimed. The purpose of the show was to promote the sale of war bonds and stamps.

Before the advent of television in the 1950s, radio was one of the dominant forms of media in the United States. Almost 80% of all American homes had at least one radio in the 1940s. Along with newspapers and newsreels, radio was how Americans followed the news. Radio was much more instantaneous, direct, and personal. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became known for his fireside chats over the radio. The radio was in the 1940s what television would become in the 1950s and subsequently thereafter in American society and culture.

The U.S. Treasury Department sponsored and produced the Treasury Star Parade program, which was recorded in Hollywood and New York and syndicated to radio stations nationwide. The program debuted on April 11, 1942. William A. Bacher was the producer. Larry Elliot and Paul Douglas were the announcers.

Media accounts of the program showed that it was an immediate and smash hit. In the New York Times article “759 Stations, And Going Strong; Stars on ‘Parade,’ by Transcription, for The Treasury”, April 5, 1942, Edward Jenks explained that the show was produced to urge and to motivate Americans to “Buy a Share in America”:

“In Treasury Star Parade, newest series of transcribed programs under Treasury Department sponsorship, director William Murray and producer William A. Bacher are offering listeners entertainment by some of the best talent of the country and through it are giving new meaning and urgency to the slogan ‘Buy a Share in America’.”

In “The ‘Parade’ Goes On;  Being a Salute to the Treasury’s Fifteen-Minute Recorded and Star-Studded Shows, Now Heard on 833 Stations”, the New York Times, November 22, 1942, John K. Hutchens noted that the radio series was meant to sell war bonds and stamps:

“The more you listen to and think about them the more you are inclined to believe that the Treasury Star Parade shows are, in their way, just about the best of all those domestic wartime programs whose task it is to awaken, convince, entertain — and, not incidentally, to sell war bonds and stamps.”

In “War Bond Sales Goal Looms; Early Results Under Treasury’s Voluntary Plan Appear to End Compulsory Proposals” in the New York Times, June 21, 1942, Section Review of the Week Editorials, Page E6, John MacCormac reported that 800 out of 868 stations were then running the show:

“Almost 60 per cent of the radio stations throughout the country have installed payroll savings plans and some 800 stations out of 868 are now broadcasting the “Treasury Star Parade” series of programs three times weekly. Newspapers have carried front page editorials, photographs.”

In “Wanted: Script Writers — This Week’s New Shows — Other Items From Radio Row”, New York Times, June 14, 1942, the announcement was made that script writers for the series were sought:

“The Treasury Star Parade, whose fifteen-minute recorded shows have been among the better war programs, advises that it is facing a shortage of scripts — this despite the generosity of sundry well-known authors who have contributed their services . . . . Scheduled for Treasury Star Parade release this week are Norman Rosten’s ‘Ballad of Bataan,’ starring Alfred Lunt, and ‘I Saw the Lights Go Out in Europe’.”

The show was so popular that over 90% of American radio stations carried the program. In “One Thing and Another”, New York Times, August 9, 1942, it was reported that 828 stations were carrying the series at that time:

“Charles Gilchrist, chief of the radio section of the War Savings Staff, of Washington, was in town last week and reported that 828 out of a possible 868 stations were now carrying the Treasury Star Parade, a figure which has all the earmarks of a record.”

Even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt made recordings for the Treasury Star Parade program to promote her book This Is America. She appeared on the April 29, 1943 program, #169, “This Is America”. She introduced dramatizations from the book, which she co-authored with Frances Cook MacGregor, featuring Fredric March.

Not only were actors and playwrights recruited for the war effort, but songwriters and composers were as well. In God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War, Kathleen E.R. Smith detailed how the government sought to sponsor songwriters to write songs that would support the war effort and boost morale. Such songs as “Goodbye, Mama. I’m Off to Yokohama,” “There Are No Wings on a Foxhole,” and “The Sun Will Soon be Setting on the Land of the Rising Sun” were written to support the war effort. She found that this effort was unnecessary because morale remained high during the war.

She examined how the U.S. government sponsored radio shows such as Treasury Star Parade to support the war effort:

“Prior to February 1,1943, the OWI sent complete pre-recorded programs to radio stations for broadcast once or twice a week; shows included Treasury Star Parade , by the Treasury Department; Victory Front, Victory Volunteers, and This Is Our Enemy, by the OWI; and Voice of the Army, by the US Army. Other distributed programs, based on ‘timely and topical’ war information, appeared only once. With the exception of Treasury Star Parade, the OWI discontinued after February 1 all of its pre-recorded shows. … From Feb 1 1943 the OWI sponsored a new program Uncle Sam.”

Government Propaganda

The Radio Star Parade program was criticized after the war, however, because of U.S. government involvement in producing and sponsoring the radio program. In Television and the Red Menace: The Video Road to Viet Nam (2nd ed., Praeger, 2005), J. Fred MacDonald analyzed the radio show in the chapter “The Emergence of Politicized Television”, arguing that the program was “propaganda” meant to sell the war to Americans:

“Government propagandists also used commercial radio to convince listeners that the United States was right in fighting World War II. The sting of Pearl Harbor did not ensure a lengthy popular commitment to wage a two front war. The patriotism evidenced on regular network programming was also insufficient to ensure acceptance of the protracted war. Instead, the federal government became a producer of propagandistic shows whose intent was to keep domestic morale committed to the national war policies.”

Treasury Star Parade was not unique. There were dozens of programs tasked with the same mission and objective. Music for Millions was another radio show produced by the U.S. Treasury Department which featured well-known musicians and vocalists to help raise funds for war bonds. The Army Hour was another which featured music and drama programs that were intended to stir the emotions of American listeners. Soldiers with Wings featured music, comedy, guest celebrities, a GI audience, and a positive image of the Army Air Corps sponsored by the Mutual network which was broadcast from military bases and installations. Glenn Miller had a similar radio program which he hosted entitled I Sustain the Wings which ran from 1943 to 1944 under his direction featuring music and dramatizations that promoted enlistment into the U.S. armed forces.

Treasury Star Parade was regarded, however, as the most flagrant government-sponsored radio program of the war:

“The most flamboyant of government propaganda pieces, however, was Treasury Star Parade. This program consisted of more than 300 quarter-hour shows produced for the Treasury Department and heard in 1942 and 1943 on more than 90 percent of American radio stations. In the hyperbolic rhetoric of propaganda, this show sold War Bonds and American involvement in World War II. The programs were recorded in Hollywood and distrib­uted free to all stations willing to air them—whenever and as often as the recipient station desired.

“This was radio in the service of government. Treasury Star Parade manipulated traditional social values, appealed for domestic unity, painted the enemy as demonic and the Allies as noble. It also intimidated listeners into buying War Bonds and supporting the war—all within a format that was well produced and highly entertaining. Typically, in one dramatic vignette, “The Second Battle of Brooklyn,” listeners were told that they, the noble common people, were indispensable, because this was a “little guys’ war.” As one character explained it, “Hitler ain’t fightin’ kings and queens, no more. We’re the only ones who can win it… the little people, all dressed up in our haloes and gas masks.”

These criticisms are largely disingenuous and off the mark. In wartime, the role of the government is to mobilize the population and to gain their support. Morale is crucial. Obtaining funding for the war is vital. To expect otherwise is illogical and irrational and not conducive to winning the war.

The methods and techniques of the program were criticized in particular:

“Treasury Star Parade was wartime government propaganda. Deep-voiced announcers projected the horrors of Nazi-occupied Chicago, and they spoke of the savagery of the Jap­anese attack upon Hong Kong. Nazis were associated with arrogance, the enslavement of women and children, and the barbarization of European culture. The Japanese were mentioned in racially disparaging terms that depicted them as monkey-like and subhuman. Consider the words spoken by Fredric March in a program called A Lesson in Japanese:

“Have you ever watched a well-trained monkey at a zoo? Have you seen how carefully he imitates his trainer? The monkey goes through so many human movements so well that he actually seems to be human. But under his fur, he’s still a savage little beast. Now, consider the imitative little Japanese who for seventy-five years has built himself up into some­thing so closely resembling a civilized human being that he actually be­lieves he is just that.

“These were emotional times. In many ways the Second World War threat­ened the American republic. But the war had begun in 1939 without the United States. For two years, while the official policy in Wash­ington was neutrality, the brutal Nazis and Japanese had slaughtered British, French, Chinese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, and other peoples. Yet, until the Americans joined the battle, commercial radio reported, but did not dramatize, the inhumanity of the German and Japanese conquests. Thus, rather than an accurate picture of Axis militarism that transcended government policy and public opinion to report the truth, accuracy seemingly had to wait until the United States entered the war. Then, it was rhetorically distorted, charged with emotion, and turned into propaganda supportive of the new government policy.”

In a time of war, however, which is an emergency or crisis period, the preservation of the country is paramount. The President and the Congress could sponsor and enact legislation which could control the media or greatly curtail its role. Under Article 606 of the Communications Act of 1934, moreover, the U.S. President had the power to confiscate all broadcasting facilities in time of national crisis. In wartime then, the media was not independent but existed so long as it furthered national or government objectives and goals. The distinction between government and private media, thus, drastically changes in time of war.

The Treasury Star Parade. Edited by William A. Bacher. New York: Farrar, 1942. “27 radio plays by Stephen Vincent Benet, Thomas Wolfe, Paul Gallico, Thomas Mann, John Latouche, Arch Oboler, Norman Rosten, Violet Atkins, and other distinguished authors as produced and directed by William A. Bacher with an Introduction by Henry Morgenthau, Jr. History is a Branding Iron!”

False Dichotomy

This whole analysis and critique of wartime radio in the U.S. during World War II, however, is based on faulty or questionable assumptions. He assumes that merely because the U.S.  government sponsored the radio program, it constitutes propaganda and control of the airwaves. But what he neglects is the fact that private broadcasts could, and in most cases were, much more racist, jingoistic, and propagandistic than so-called government-sponsored programs. This is the key point in understanding this issue. He makes a faulty assumption and creates a false dichotomy.

The assumption is that you can make a distinction during wartime between government and private sector persuasion. World War II was a total war. In Europe and in the United States. In total war, the lines between the private and the government sector blur. As embedded journalists have shown during the Iraq War of 2003, there is no distinction made between private and government sectors in wartime. The distinction is illusory. Everyone is 100% behind the war effort.  Everyone is a soldier. In wartime, the distinctions, if there are any, are far less meaningful. To not realize this is to oversimplify the issue to the point of absurdity.

Moreover, critics neglect the dangers of self-censorship and advocacy media or journalism. As we witnessed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war and the Kosovo War in 1999, the private or commercial media can, in many instances, be a much greater danger than government media. Like Hearst, the private or commercial media has an economic or financial interest to “manufacture” a war in the manner of Hearst in the run up to the 1898 Spanish-American War. Private media can be jingoistic and militantly aggressive to a point that exceeds government media. The private media need not be as concerned with international laws and covenants or diplomacy based on the relations between nations. For the private journalists, the sky is the limit. They can manufacture and fabricate events and engage in persuasion and manipulation that is a greater threat than so-called government-run media. The only criterion would be financial gain. And in such run amok cases as in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, is there a meaningful distinction between government and private media at all?

Embedded journalists did not emerge for the first time in 2003 in the Iraq War. The concept originated during World War II. Robert Livingston Denig, Sr., a decorated Marine Corps veteran, organized the Division of Public Relations during World War II. Denig is credited with introducing the concept of embedding combat correspondents or reporters into the American armed forces to cover the war. For his work as director of the Division of Public Relations, he was awarded the Legion of Merit.

During World War II, U.S. news reporting was controlled by the govenment. The Office of War Information (OWI) screened all news reports on the war and could suppress material that was deemed a danger to “domestic unity”. On January 15, 1942,  the  “Code of Wartime Practices for the American Press” was released which explicitly defined how news on the war was to be reported. An Office of Censorship was also created by the government. The government relied on self-censorship and the voluntary acceptance of the code requirements. Every major news service in the U.S. adopted the regulations. The 1,600 members of the press who were accredited by the military also accepted the code.

Novelist John Steinbeck, who was a reporter during the war, recalled how all correspondents became part of the war effort and manipulated the facts: “We were all a part of the War Effort. … [T]he truth about anything was automatically secret …  By this I don’t mean that the correspondents were liars … [I]t is in the things not mentioned that the untruth lies.” Control and conformity were achieved through government regulations and through voluntary, self-imposed restraints. All media in the U.S. was thus government controlled. There was no private media to speak of. The dichotomy between a private and government media thus is a spurious and dubious one.

In a speech in 1950 at the FBI National Academy, Niles Trammell, chairman of the board of NBC, explained the symbiotic relationship between commercial broadcasting and the war effort of the government:

“Radio in the United States shouldered arms and, together with the Amer­ican people and American industry, geared itself for total war. Throughout the long years until victory was won, it carried the responsibility of broadcasting for the United States government. The story of its contribu­tion is too large ever to be recorded in its entirety. Every wartime effort found its support in radio …. in every area of the war effort … Amer­ican radio proved itself a mighty weapon in the nation’s service….”

Conclusion

“The Chetniks” is a poignant and at times overwrought presentation that dramatizes the Yugoslav Chetnik resistance during World War II in concise and succinct terms. The radio play is not unlike the American World War II films Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, or Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas, all produced in 1942.

The program demonstrated that Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas were allies of the United States, the UK, and the USSR during World War II. The program highlighted the chimerical nature between commercial and government media. In wartime, there is no meaningful distinction between government and private media. Whatever distinction exists is negligible. Both work together in a symbiotic relationship to achieve a result, military victory in the conflict.

Bibliography

Bacher, William A., ed.  The Treasury Star Parade.  New York: Farrar, 1942.

Horten, Gerd. Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda during World War II. University of California Press, 2002.

Lessner, Erwin Christian. “The Fight of the Chetniks.” Reader’s Digest, June, 1942, Vol. 40, No. 242, pp. 37-40.

— “Fight of the Chetniks-The Lost Gold Piece”, Radio Reader’s Digest, Episode 3, September 27, 1942.

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.

MacDonald, J. Fred. Television and the Red Menace: The Video Road to Viet Nam. 2nd ed. Chapter: “The Emergence of Politicized Television”. Praeger, 1985.

Smith, Kathleen E.R. God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War. Lexington, KYKentucky, 2003.

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Nikola Tesla in Film and TV

Nikola Tesla had a major impact on the development of the modern technological age. His influence and legacy remain pervasive and enduring. His life and inventions have been the subject of movies and of television series. He has also been the subject of plays such as “Tesla, An Evening with Genius“ written by J. Michael Newlight and Frank Tabbita and ‘The Dangers of Electric Lighting” by Ben Clawson. Nikola Tesla has appeared as a historical figure and as a fictionalized character.

Two new movies have been planned to chronicle his life and impact. One is Tesla, Ruler of the World by Serbian screenwriter Vladimir Rajcic and Oscar-winning Croatian producer Branko Lustig, who won Oscars for Schindler’s List and Gladiator. Christian Bale is slated to play Nikola Tesla. Rade Serbedzija and Lolita Davidovich are also part of the cast. This movie was announced in February, 2011. The movie is in the pre-production stage.

Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla as portrayed by Miro Besic in a scene from the trailer for the film Fragments from Olympus: A Vision of Nikola Tesla (2013).

A second movie featuring Nikola Tesla is Fragments from Olympus: The Vision of Nikola Tesla (2013), starring Miro Besic as Nikola Tesla, Leo Rossi as Henry, and Sean Young as Dorothy Skerrit and directed by Joseph Sikorski. In this fictionalized account set during World War II, the FBI seeks to seize the papers on the particle beam research experiments conducted by Nikola Tesla to develop a “death ray”. The production company is Colossal Molehill Productions. The screenplay is by Joseph Sikorski and Michael Calomino which is based on declassified U.S. documents and the life of Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla makes this statement from the screenplay: “Let the future tell the truth. The present is theirs. The future is mine.”

Nikola Tesla has been portrayed in both films and in TV during the last 40 years. He has been portrayed by actors ranging from Yugoslavian-born Rade Serbedzija to musician David Bowie and comedy actor John C. Reilly.

David Bowie played Nikola Tesla in the 2006 film The Prestige directed by Christopher Nolan which starred Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine. Hugh Jackman, as magician Robert Angier, goes to see Nikola Tesla at his Colorado Springs laboratory, which is shown encircled by a high-voltage electric fence.

Serbian actor Petar Bozovic played Nikola Tesla in the 1980 Yugoslavian film Tajna Nikole Tesle, The Secret of Nikola Tesla, which co-starred Orson Welles as J. P. Morgan, Strother Martin as George Westinghouse, Dennis Patrick as Thomas Edison, and Oja Kodar as Catherine Johnson. The film documents his life and career from the time of his arrival in the U.S. up to the construction of the Wardenclyffe Tower which was financed by J. P. Morgan. This film was directed by Krsto Papic and was produced by Zagreb Film.

Jon Barker played Nikola Tesla in the play “The Dangers of Electric Lighting“ by Ben Clawson as featured in the November 5, 2011 New York Times with James Glossman as Thomas Edison: “Edison and Tesla Spat in ‘The Dangers of Electric Lighting’. A War of Currents and Rival Geniuses. Ben Clawson’s “The Dangers of Electric Lighting” details the marketing battle between Thomas Edison and his former employee Nikola Tesla.”

Jon Barker is on the right as Nikola Tesla with James Glossman as rival Thomas Alva Edison.

Ukrainian-born actor Dmitry Chepovetsky, right, played Nikola Tesla in the Canadian TV series Murdoch Mysteries which debuted in 2008. The series is set in Toronto during the 1890s.

John C. Reilly played Nikola Tesla in the Drunk History TV series created by Derek Waters which debuted in 2007. He was featured in Volume 6 in Season 2 in 2010. “On January 7th Duncan Trussell drank a six pack of beer … then a half a bottle of absinthe … and then he discussed an historical event …” Crispin Glover was Thomas Edison. Craig Anstett was Mark Twain. Jeremy Konner was the director. “Tesla was the electric Jesus.”

David de Vries appeared in the 2009 film Megahertz (MHz) by Anam Cara Productions as Nikola Tesla. Royce Mann played Nikola Tesla as a youth, the Young Tesla. The film features Jordan Graye as disc jockey Brigh Montgomery who meets Nikola Tesla in the afterlife. The film examines the emergence of radio and how it impacted both of their lives. The movie was directed by Lee Pepper. The screenplay was written by Jordan Graye with Eddy Von Mueller. Knight Berman, Jr. composed the score for the film, A Score for Tesla: Music from the film Megahertz. The movie was shot in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rade Serbedzija played Nikola Tesla in a 10 part Yugoslavian mini-series from 1977 entitled Nikola Tesla produced by Televizija Zagreb. The series was directed by Eduard Galic and written by Ivica Ivanec. Ljuba Tadic played J. P. Morgan, Petar Bozovic played Sava Kosanovic, while Thomas Alva Edison was played by Boris Buzancic.

Tygh Runyan was Nikola Tesla in the 2008 film My Inventions directed by Robert Holbrook. The 2008 Nikola Tesla biopic My Inventions is a short and succint portrayal of Nikola Tesla as a youth and in old age.

John Burnside was the Elder Nikola Tesla in the 2008 film short My Inentions written and directed by Robert Holbrook.

Laurence Cantor, right, was Nikola Tesla in the 2008 black and white film short Tesla & the Bellboy directed by Timothy Ziegler. Tesla & the Bellboy is a short film on Nikola Tesla during his final years in his New York City apartment. He is confronted with “The Bill” in his hotel room. He shows the bellboy the death ray that he has developed.

Gary Marzolf played Nikola Tesla in the 2009 film Tesla the Accumulator directed by Emil Novak. A trailer for Tesla the Accumulator (2009) was released. This fantasy film is a mix of the real life of Nikola Tesla and American gothic horror. It is based on The Accumulator, a comic by Queen City Bookstore owner Emil Novak. The film was made in Buffalo, New York.

In Tesla: Tripping the Light Electric (2000), Nikola Tesla was played by Gregory Wagrowski in a film short directed by Lance Acord.

Finnish actor Tuomas Hiltunen played Nikola Tesla in the 2005 film short The Visionary*- (*Tesla} written and directed by Joel Shapiro for TriColor Films.

Swiss-born actor Gian Franco Tordi, above, played Nikola Tesla in the whimsical 2009 sci-fi fantasy film short Tesla the Superman written and directed by Robert Terry produced by Rings of Saturn Entertainment. The plot centers around the construction of the Wardenclyffe Tower and the fire that destroyed his laboratory. The plot conflates the two events which were two distinct events separated by several years. Mark Twain is played by Michael Wise. Nikola Tesla is quoted: “There’s a significant difference between Superman and myself, and only one: Superman doesn’t exist. … The future belongs to me.” According to the script, Nikola Tesla was the model for the “mad scientist” who seeks to destroy Metropolis with an energy canon in the 1941 Superman cartoon film short directed by Max Fleischer. The focus was on the Death Ray or Death-Beam that Nikola Tesla was supposed to have invented. After his death, the FBI seized his documents concerned that they may fall into enemy hands.

Serbian actor Svetozar Cvetkovic portrayed Nikola Tesla  in a 1993 Yugoslav TV movie produced by Radiotelevizija Beograd (RTB) directed by Slavoljub Stefanovic-Ravasi entitled Tesla.

Miodrag Miki Krstovic, above, portrayed Nikola Tesla in the 2001 Yugoslav TV movie Tesla ili prilagodjavanje andjela produced by Radiotelevizija Beograd (RTB). The entire film consists of a dialogue in the form of an interview between Nikola Tesla and a reporter named John Smith, played by Boris Komnenic, in front of a screen and in exterior scenes. The director was Slobodan Z. Jovanovic. The writer was Stevan Pesic. The last segment features a reenactment of scenes from Nikola Tesla’s youth.

Stacy Keach was Nikola Tesla in the TV biopic Tesla: Master of Lightning directed by Robert Uth in 2000 produced by New Voyage Communications.

Nikola Tesla has even been portrayed as a vampire. Canadian actor Jonathon Young played Nikola Tesla as a vampire in the Canadian TV series Sanctuary which premiered in 2008 in Canada, the US, and the UK.

As more and more movies and TV series feature Nikola Tesla, a more accurate and objective evaluation and assessment of his role in the development of the modern technological age will emerge.

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Draza Mihailovich in Film and TV: The Last Act

In 1981, The Last Act, Poslednji cin, a four part Yugoslav television mini-series was produced by Radiotelevizija Beograd (RTB). The TV series was a historical dramatization of the apprehension of Draza Mihailovich by OZNA agents in 1946. The series was featured on Yugoslav television by RTB and was rebroadcast by Radiotelevizija Srbije (RTS) in 2005, marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The series starred Milan Puzic as General Draza Mihailovich, Zoran Rankic as Nikola Kalabic, Dragan Nikolic as Major Ljuba Popovic, and Milan Bogunovic as Pukovnik Slobodan Penezic Krcun. Danilo Lazovic played Potpukovnik Lazic, Mirko Bulovic played Vasiljevic, an aide to Draza Mihailovich, Miodrag Krstovic was Dane, and Djordje Jovanovic was Majstorovic. The TV series also featured Rastislav Jovic as Kotarac, Tanasije Uzunovic as Japan, Mihajlo Viktorovic as Jovan Markovic, and Dusan Vojnovic as Milovan Jankovic. The series was directed by Sava Mrmak. Sinisa Pavic wrote the screenplay based on the book by Milovan Pejanovic entitled Velika igra sa Dražom Mihailovicem, The Great Game with Draza Mihailovich, under the pseudonym Ljuba Popovic, published in 1971 in Belgrade by Grafika Bgd. The original music for the series was composed by Vartkes Baronijan.

The first episode begins in May, 1945 as Chetnik guerrillas under General Draza Mihailovich are battling Yugoslav Communist troops in the Zelengora area of Bosnia in the Sutjeska region. On May 12-13, 1945, the mountain was the scene of a battle between Chetniks and Communist Partisans under Josip Broz Tito. Chetnik guerrillas are shown riding on horseback to a house in the forest as explosions and gun fire can be heard in the distance. A Chetnik commander enters the house with his men. A radio operator tells them: Hitler has killed himself. The Germans have capitulated. The war is over.

Milan Puzic as Draza Mihailovich in the 1981 Yugoslav TV mini-series The Last Act, Poslednji cin.

The title credits are shown with black and white photographs of Draza Mihailovich and King Peter II. The photograph of Peter II is torn asunder.

A Chetnik commander enters a house where Draza Mihailovich is seated at a table looking over a map with Nikola Kalabic. No retreat is left to the Chetnik forces.  He asks Mihailovich which way to retreat, through Croatia, Montenegro, Italy, or Austria. Mihailovich tells him that the situation on the front is not clear yet. Kalabic says that there is no longer a front. Draza tells them that Ante Pavelic has not given approval for a retreat across Croatia. He tells them that they have to focus on Serbia.

Milan Puzic as Draza Mihailovich and Zoran Rankic as Nikola Kalabic in The Last Act.

A communist radio message is heard celebrating the victory over fascism. The speaker equates the Ustasha with the Chetniks as opponents of the new Communist regime. Mihailovich’s message is then broadcast. Draza tells Kalabic that the war is not won yet. He has to be ready when a crisis emerges to regain control of Serbia. Kalabic then crosses himself and pledges his loyalty to Draza and departs. Draza also departs on horseback amid exploding shells.

The scene then shifts to Belgrade, October, 1945. The OZNA office of Ljuba Popovic is shown. A prostitute is interrogated who has an intercepted letter from the Chetnik commander in Valjevo.

The OZNA commander explains to his agents the goals of OZNA: First, to combat Chetnik infiltration into Serbia and to prevent terror. Second, to apprehend Draza Mihailovich alive, so that he can admit his crimes in front of a microphone, to be covered by newspapers, radio, and before cameras.

Using the intercepted letter, OZNA is able to locate the contact in Belgrade for the Chetniks. Ljuba Popovic and another OZNA agent go to his residence and arrest him. Brought to OZNA headquarters, he is forced to write a letter to entrap the Chetniks.

Ljuba Popovic is sent as an undercover agent to infiltrate the Chetniks. He poses as a refugee of the new Communist regime, a down-on-his-luck lawyer. He is able to infiltrate the Chetniks who think he is the contact from Belgrade. He tells them that he has foreign contacts and can get them into Belgrade. He tells them that he wants to meet Draza Mihailovich. A Chetnik soldier tells him that Draza is far away and it is hard to get to him. But Kalabic is near. And Kalabic wants to meet with Popovic.

Before meeting with Kalabic, Popovic is briefed on Kalabic at OZNA headquarters. Kalabic is dangerous. Popovic has to be armed at all times and supported by other agents. He is told to tell the Chetniks that an intervention is planned on their behalf. Popovic meets with Kalabic. They agree that Popovic will take him to Belgrade. OZNA has the house staked out, however, and arrest Kalabic shortly after his arrival in an American jeep.

In episode three, Kalabic is shown in a Belgrade prison in January, 1946. Kalabic agrees to help OZNA capture Mihailovich. Based on the official Communist account of events, Kalabic allegedly came in the autumn of 1945 to Valjevo. OZNA infiltrated his ranks by placing an undercover agent among his Chetnik troops. One OZNA agent was disguised as an American, who seeks to get them to escape from the country. Kalabic falls for it and goes to Belgrade. Kalabic is subsequently arrested. Kalabic is promised immunity if he will betray Mihailovich whom OZNA wants alive to discredit the Ravna Gora movement. Kalabic agrees to the OZNA plan.

In episode four, Kalabic is shown training OZNA agents disguised as Chetniks. He works with OZNA to train 12 oznasi to infiltrate the Chetnik ranks and capture Draza Mihailovich.

He goes with the OZNA agents and gains the confidence of the Chetnik guards. Because of his reputation, Kalabic is welcomed openly by the Chetniks. Draza Mihailovich greets him warmly with open arms: “It is you, cika Pera. You have not forgotten me, Nikola”. Draza does not doubt his sincerity and genuineness. The OZNA agents are not detected. They gain the trust of Draza and the other Chetniks.

Kalabic convinces them that the time is right to move into Serbia. He tells them that events now favor the Chetniks. Draza is convinced and orders the men to move out. While in the forest, the OZNA agents open fire on the Chetniks and overwhelm them. Draza is captured.

Like Klopka za generala (1971), the central element of the plot revolves around the alleged betrayal of Draza Mihailovich by Nikola Kalabic. The earlier film was more a generic “spy thriller” while the TV mini-series seeks to be a more factually detailed historical dramatization of the events. The events are based on OZNA accounts.

Milan Puzic gives a more sympathetic and convincing portrayal. In Klopka za generala, Rade Markovic gave a stiff, uncomfortable performance. Markovic appeared frozen in shock and trauma with an unchanging expression of bewilderment and confusion on his face. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights for the entire movie. He was crude, shallow, cunning, and calculating. Puzic, however, shows Mihailovich as committed and dedicated to the cause. He is genuine in his convictions. He is more of a tragic figure, abandoned by all. But his motives are never questioned. He wanted what he thought was in the best interests of the people of Yugoslavia and of Serbia.

Screenwriter Sinica Pavic stated that he wanted to present a more balanced and sympathetic portrait. He stated that he wrote the story based on the accounts available “but I let time prove who is right.” In a July 27, 2012 interview on Press Online, he explained that he sought to present Draza Mihailovich as a victim in the World War II powerplay without making any moral, political, or legal judgments: “That is the destiny of one man in that time. Draza is presented in that time as a loser of history and it is not by accident that the sympathy of the viewers was on his side. The question now is what did he seek, want, and begin in that time, but that history did not allow to him.” He noted that the dialogue was realistic and believable: “Everything I put in his mouth, after 20-30 years, seemed like something that had meaning and a reason in relation to the point where he stood historically. Until then, in any work of art, he had not had the opportunity to say all this as in the The Last Act.” He described the role of Draza Mihailovich as “brilliantly played by Milan Puzic.” His view was that we should be open to all viewpoints and that history should judge: “We have a habit of pre-judging something, and I think we should let all flowers bloom.”

This mini-series presents the official Communist version of events. OZNA even released three photographs of Kalabic while under arrest. These photographs, however, have been challenged as forgeries. They have been challenged as faked and staged. Letters that Kalabic allegedly wrote while under OZNA arrest also have been debunked as forgeries. The official Communist version of events thus has not been disproved although it has been attacked and disputed. The series dramatizes the official Communist or Partisan narrative of the events that led to the apprehension of Draza Mihailovich. While the details have varied over time, the general outline remains the same in the Communist narrative of events, dramatized in this TV mini-series and in the earlier 1971 movie Klopka za generala.

This TV series is better written than the 1971 movie Klopka za generala. The dialogue is much more realistic and believable. Gone are the depictions of the Chetniks as uncontrollable rapists and mass murderers. They are not cardboard, stereotypical, one dimensional characters. Puzic even looks more like Mihailovich. Pavic shows that Mihailovich was a dedicated leader who had real and long-term motives and goals. They were not about seizing power. There are even memorable lines. In one scene where he is in a discussion with Vasiljevic, an aide, he is asked: “Do you think about Serbia?” Draza replies: “I always think about Serbia, Vasiljevic, but I don’t know if Serbia thinks about me.” He discusses how events have turned against him and his resistance movement. He says how it was logical for the Americans to make a landing in the Balkans, in Yugoslavia, not in Italy or North Africa. An Allied landing in Yugoslavia never occurred, undermining the rationale behind Mihailovich’s strategy and dooming the Chetnik resistance movement. It was logical that the Communists should be defeated. His assessment of the situation was accurate. His strategy with regard to the British and the Germans was correct. He discussed the crisis in Trieste where the Communist Yugoslavian regime shot down American planes. “Trieste will be another Danzig” he tells him. He tells Vasiljevic that “time is on my side”. He concludes: “I am suspicious. I must wait. … I am waiting.”

Kalabic is the heavy or the fall guy in this series. It is his treachery and betrayal that are the focus of censure. He is portrayed as a braggart, deluded about his self-importance, a loud mouth, vain-glorious, and incompetent. He is a person with little conviction or beliefs. He is a buffoon, crude, brutish, boorish, and primitive. Was this portrayal accurate? OSS liaison officer, U.S. Colonel Albert B. Seitz, who met Kalabic in Stragari, in Serbia, in November, 1943, described Kalabic in his 1953 account Mihailovic: Hoax or Hero?, published by Leigh House, Columbus, Ohio: “Nikola was one of the most interesting people in whole Yugoslavia. … He looked like an imposing gentleman and soldier. His heroism soon became legendary.” Seitz was even photographed giving a Colt pistol to Kalabic in the presence of British SOE Captain Duane T. “Bill” Hudson. In Seitz’s judgment, Draza Mihailovich was a “hero” and a “martyr” who was betrayed by the Allies as described in the book: “The sensational expose of the Tito hoax and the betrayal of a hero by the Allies. OSS wartime chief of mission in Jugoslavia bares the astounding story of a nation betrayed.” Mihailovich is described as “the greatest guerrilla of them all” who was “damned by fate, the cynicism of Allied politicians and the false propaganda of the Russians, to die a martyr’s death.” The U.S. characterization and portrayal was the opposite of that proffered by the Yugoslav Communist regime. Here was cognitive dissonance.

The story is one of betrayal. Kalabic is the Judas Iscariot to Draza Mihailovich’s Jesus Christ, Brutus to Julius Caesar. It is Kalabic who is the object of opprobrium and castigation. In the end, Draza tells the prosecutor, without Kalabic’s cowardly betrayal, I would never have been caught. Draza places all blame on Kalabic. The prosecutor tells him that Kalabic was a surveyor before the war. The conflict elevated him to undue importance.

Draza Mihailovich is portrayed as the loser or victim in the story. As a result, victor’s justice is meted out to him. He lost, so he must pay the price. But he is not judged. He is like a character in a Greek tragedy. Betrayed and forsaken by all, his fate is sealed and he must only play his destined part until the end. The prosecutor tells him in the final scene that both his son and daughter had joined the Partisans in 1944. No one was behind him anymore. All had forsaken him. Even Peter II had broadcast over the radio in 1944 that all resistance groups in occupied Yugoslavia had to follow Josip Broz Tito. Peter was ordered to abandon Draza because of Winston Churchill’s switch of support to Tito. The US and the USSR followed. Draza became a pariah and was abandoned by the Allies. His fate was sealed then. The only task left to him was to write his last will and testament. The Partisans only put the nail in the coffin. This is a point the movie makes effectively. Events transpired to Draza’s detriment. But he always did what he believed to be correct and which was true to his character and ideals and objectives. Historical forces are bigger than any one individual. The pressure of history can crush any man or woman. History is fickle and cruel.

History does not end here, however, for Draza Mihailovich. A new mini-series is planned for 2013 written and directed by Rados Bajic starring Nebojsa Glogovac as Draza Mihailoich in a more objective, even-handed, and balanced treatment entitled Ravna Gora. The series will be produced by Radio Televizija Srbije (RTS) and Contrast Studios. The Last Act, Poslednji cin, is not the last act of Draza Mihailovich. There are many more acts to follow.

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Draza Mihailovich in Film: A Trap for the General (1971)

In 1971, the movie Klopka za generala, A Trap for the General, was released in Yugoslavia directed by Miomir “Miki” Stamenkovic starring Rade Markovic, Ljuba Tadic, and Bekim Fehmiu. The screenplay was by Dragan Markovic and Luka Pavlovic. The film was produced by the Sarajevo-based company Bosna Film of Yugoslavia and featured a cast made up of Serbian, Bosnian Muslim, and Albanian Muslim actors. The film was released in Serbian in color. The film was also released internationally, as Der Doktor stellt eine Falle, The Doctor Sets a Trap, in East Germany, and as Pulapka na generala in Poland.

Serbian actor Rade Markovic played the General, a character based on General Draza Mihailovich. Ljuba Tadic was Ras, cetnicki vojvoda, the Chetnik commander modeled on Nikola Kalabic. Bekim Fehmiu was the Doctor, obavestajac OZNE, an agent of the Communist Yugoslav intelligence service, OZNA. Jelena Jovanovic-Zigon was Vera, a schoolteacher, the companion of Ras. Voja Miric, played Pjer, or Pierre, an undercover agent of OZNA. Tomanija Djuricko played the doctor’s mother. Viktor Starcic played the doctor’s father. Zoran Rankic was an OZNA operative. Dragomir Felba was Vidoje, vodenicar, the man who ran the water mill. Sima Janicijevic was the Minister, an advisor to the General. Svjetlana Knezevic played Lela, the doctor’s companion. Abdurrahman Shala was Perun, a Chetnik commander. Zaim Muzaferija played Jovan, a Chetnik soldier. Husein Cokic was Zivotic. Alenka Rancic played the mother. Ljiljana Sljapic was Vidoje’s daugther. The other actors were Ljubo Skiljevic, Dusan Janicijevic, Jovan Rancic, and Rastislav Jovic.

The original music for the film was composed by Vojislav Kostic. The cinematography was by Ognjen Milicevic. The film editor was Katarina Stojanovic.

Rade Markovic as the General, General Draza Mihailovich, in the Yugoslavian film Klopka za generala, A Trap for the General (1971).

The movie was released during the height of the Communist era in Yugoslavia when the Tito dictatorship released state-funded, high-budget movies glorifying the Partisans and Communist Yugoslavia. This is one of the hardcore Communist propaganda films of the Titoist era, made at the height of the Tito dictatorship. This movie is crucial in analyzing and deconstructing the way the image of Draza Mihailovich was manufactured and constructed in Communist Yugoslavia and in the Communist bloc.

1971 theatrical poster for the Yugoslav film Klopka za generala, A Trap for the General.

The movie is a largely fictionalized account of the apprehension of Draza Mihailovich in 1946 by agents of OZNA, the Yugoslav Communist intelligence agency. The movie shows how the tropes and negative stereotypes about Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas were manufactured and perpetuated by the Yugoslav Communist government. The characterizations were based on deceptions and falsehoods. The central theme of the movie revolves around the allegation that Nikola Kalabic, Ras, betrayed the General, General Draza Mihailovich. This has been challenged and disputed. Recent evidence and testimony has been offered based on eyewitness accounts that Kalabic was killed by OZNA agents two months before the apprehension of Draza Mihailovich.

The goal of the Communist government and the filmmakers was to, moreover, emphasize the brutality, criminality, and, above all, lack of belief or commitment of the Chetnik leaders. The Chetniks do not believe in the movement themselves. So why should you? The Chetniks do not respect each other. So why should you? The Chetniks turn on each other. They are not true believers in themselves or their cause. Maintaining the narrative that Kalabic betrayed Mihailovich, thus, was crucial in Communist government efforts to destroy the morale and the resistance of those who opposed the Communist dictatorship and its criminality. The ends justified the means. Resistance is futile because there is nothing to believe in. The only alternative is Communism. That was also why it was important to apprehend Draza Mihailovich alive and to put him through a sham Stalinist and Communist show trial. Only by discrediting the movement and its leaders could the Communist dictatorship hope to eliminate opposition and resistance.

Ljuba Tadic as Chetnik leader Ras, Nikola Kalabic, one of General Draza Mihailovich’s key commanders, in the Yugoslavian film A Trap for the General (1971).

A negative image of the Chetnik movement must be manufactured. Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas must be shown to be brutal and opportunistic. Invariably, they are rapists and cutthroats who have no respect for themselves or others. How could anyone support them?

The General, General Draza Mihailovich, as portrayed by Serbian actor Rade Markovic in A Trap for the General (1971).

The movie opens with a mustachioed man wearing a cap with a star on the front attacking a woman. We see close-ups of their faces. He tears her blouse open and begins to kiss her neck. On the screen appear the opening credits: ”Rade Markovic i Ljuba Tadic u filmu Klopka za generala”, “A Trap for the General”.

Then the scene shifts to a room with the General, modeled on Draza Mihailovich, played by Rade Markovic, Ras, and other Chetnik leaders. Draza is in uniform, bearded, and wearing glasses. He begins with a speech to the assembled company. The movie does not mention Draza Mihailovich by name but uses the term “the General” to refer to him.

“Gentlemen, you know the situation we find ourselves in,” he tells them. “The Germans have retreated. We have lost the conflict militarily. But all is not finished. If God permits, a conflict will break out between Russia and America. The Reds hold power in Yugoslavia now.” He tells them what their first objective should be. “Our friends outside Yugoslavia are disorganized but they can help us in two ways. First, they can give us material help and act as a diversion.”

1971 Polish movie poster for the Yugoslav film Klopka za generala, Pulapka na generala in Polish.

The General tells them: “We have to create uncertainty in the people.” They need to create a diversion. They need to kill those associated with the current regime in power, by killing officers, by sabotage. “We have to destroy quicker than they can build.”

Ras, played by Ljuba Tadic, wearing a large black shubara with the double-headed white eagle crest of royalist Yugoslavia, asks him if they should flee Yugoslavia. The General tells him that doing so would mean that they surrender. Ras tells him that they have to return to Serbia. Ras then leaves.

The General then discusses Schwartz who is in Austria. He tells them that the Schwartz group has already infiltrated Yugoslavia. The General tells them that he is our striking fist against the Communist regime.

After the others leave, the General talks with an elderly person seated against the wall drinking liquor with a cat on his knee. The General refers to him as “Minister”. He tells the General: “If you listened to me in time you would have fared better. This way you have lost your army and the war. Not even the Greater Reich can help you now. You have this comical illusion that you can achieve something. How? We have killed. We have butchered this people. We have terrorized it. Now you want it to help you?” He tells the General that all his plans are “zabluda”, a delusion.

Janko tells him that the army is near. They then disperse.

The dialogue is not very believable or even probable or plausible. It sounds more like a Communist Party declaration or decree more than it does movie dialogue. There is not even an attempt made to be realistic or historically accurate or to try to delve into Draza Mihailovich’s motives and objectives. Instead, it is as if we are hearing a speech from the head of the Yugoslav Communist Party. They reuse the same tropes over again.

Nikola Kalabic, known as “Ras-Ras”, ”cika Pera”, ”Perun”, and ”Enrih”, was the commander of the Gorska kraljeva garda, the royalist Mountain Guard. The Ras character is based on him. Did he betray Draza Mihailovich? This is how the Yugoslav Communist Party line had it. But this has never been definitely or conclusively shown. Nevertheless, it remained ingrained as part of the Communist Party orthodoxy and a shibboleth of the Tito era. In 2011, a Serbian court found that Kalabic was killed by OZNA agents of the Yugoslav Communist government on January 19, 1946, two months before Mihailovich was apprehended by Communist agents. The Valjevo General Court found that Nikola Kalabic was killed by OZNA agents in an ambush in a cave in a canyon of the Gradac river near Valjevo. The hideout had been discovered and surrounded by OZNA agents. Kalabic was killed in the ensuing attempted breakout and shootout. The court based its conclusion on the testimony of Mijailo Danilovic, a retired priest from Gornji Milanovac. Danilovic was told by two survivors of the shootout who escaped and joined the Kopaonik Chetnik Detachment, of which Danilovic was a part. Danilovic’s account corroborated the eyewitness acccounts. The circumstances of Kalabic’s death had earlier been explained the same way by Kalabic’s companions Boza Bozanovic, Veljko Kostovic, and Radomir Petrovic Kent, who were eyewitnesses. Moreover, the Communist government seized the property of Kalabic’s family after the war, persecuted them, and deprived them of their civil rights in Yugoslavia.

The next scene is in an office at OZNA where an agent points to a map of Bosnia. He tells other agents that OZNA has received information that the Chetniks are on the terrain of Bosnia, hiding in the mountains. The Yugoslav army has not been able to surround and to capture the General, General Draza Mihailovich. Over half a year had passed and Mihailovich had still not been apprehended. This is not a job for the army he tells them: “We have to accomplish this task.” He is asked: What is your thinking on this question? How can we do this when the army or military has been unable to do this so far.

The OZNA officer makes the key point: We need the General, General Draza Mihailovic, alive. Not killed by the army, but captured alive. So he can openly (“javno”) admit in a court of law the crimes and atrocities committed by the Chetniks during the war in collaboration with the occupier.

When we catch the head, the body will be “liquidated” consisting of 20,000 Chetniks who are still hiding in Serbia and Bosnia. We need to find the type of person able to accomplish this task. “I think I may have that type of person” he is told by another agent.

OZNA was the Department of National Security, Odjeljenje za zaštitu naroda, the security agency of Yugoslavia that existed between 1944 and 1946. It was founded as a security agency on May 13, 1944 by Aleksandar Rankovic. In March, 1946, OZNA was divided into military and civilian arms, the Administrative Directorate for Security of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), KOS, Kontra-Obaveštajna Služba, and the Administrative State Security Directorate, UDBA, Uprava državne bezbednosti, formed on March 13, 1946.

The film then cuts to a scene of Vera in the hospital. She was the one who was raped in the opening scene. She tells the doctor about the rape attack. She tells him her attacker wore on his cap a star. He was short, dark. She tells him: I will always remember his eyes. I will remember him until I die. The doctor is shown in the operating room with music over the scene. He then is shown talking to Vera and showing her photographs of himself with other soldiers. He tells her about his days as a Condor. The Condors were a special unit during the war deployed on foreign assignments outside of Yugoslavia.

The film then cuts to a statue of Christ on the cross, a panning shot down the statue to a scene of Serbian civilians dancing the kolo in a field outside a village as an accordionist plays.

Ras rides in on horseback with other Chetnik guerrillas. They are armed and he is wearing a black shubara with royalist Yugoslav insignia on the front consisting of a double-headed white eagle crest. The dancing and music abruptly stop. He is welcomed. He tells them: Is this a Serbian slava? Come on. Enjoy yourselves. Ras crosses himself and sits down to eat. Ras asks the host about one of the young men dancing the kolo. He asks who his father is. He is told: The son is not guilty. Ras confronts him: Come here. You dance. You are joyous, young man. Where is your father? Is he with us? Who pays him? Ras is accused by the youth of being in the pay of the “Shvabe”, the Germans. Ras knocks him down as an armed gunman shoots him. Ras then shoots and kills the host who condemns him for killing the people. Another Chetnik announces: “The army!” They then all flee.

Ras goes to the house of Vera, a schoolteacher. She tells him about the doctor she has met, a Red, and tells him that he wants to establish contact with him. Ras refuses.

The Schwartz group is shown crossing a bridge as they seek to infiltrate Yugoslavia from Austria. They are ambushed by Yugoslav troops who lie in wait for them. They are killed while two are taken prisoner.

Perun and his group of Chetniks attack a Yugoslav building with a large picture of Tito on the wall. These are supporters of the Yugoslav Communist government. One of the Chetniks sexually attacks one of the female workers. Outside the building, the Chetniks have killed several people who lie dead on the grounds. On the wall of the building are a large Communist star and the words in Cyrillic Serbian: Smrt fashizmu, sloboda narodu. Death to fascism. Freedom to the people. This was the Yugoslav Communist motto during the war.

In the room, flags hang with the hammer and sickle along with a Yugoslav flag with the red Communist star in the center. In the middle, there is a photo of Tito. The words ” narodna vlast”, “people’s government”, is written on the wall.  Another Chetnik, the one who attacked Vera, sexually attacks the woman and takes her away.

Ras arrives and asks Perun: “Why?” He answers: Because they would not listen to them. Ras tells Perun that the people do not support us. They argue. Ras states that he can make it without the General but that the General cannot make it without him.

Vera welcomes the doctor and they ride a buggy led by a single horse. Perun meets the doctor. The doctor crosses himself, breaks bread and eats it at a table with Perun. Perun takes him to a house to take care of a wounded Chetnik. Perun asks the doctor to execute a boy who had not joined the Chetniks. The doctor shoots and kills the boy.

The doctor, who is conscious-stricken after the cold-blooded murder, is told by an OZNA agent that he sometimes must perform heroic actions and sometimes actions that are tragic. The doctor says that an agent cannot be heroic or a hero. The doctor is told that OZNA has lost track of the General, General Mihailovich. Until we catch him they will terrorize the people. Ras will lead us to the General.

The General and his men cross the bridge that Schwartz crossed earlier. Yugoslav agents train their guns on them but have orders not to shoot them. The Communist dictatorship of Yugoslavia wants to catch the General alive so that he can be used to discredit both himself and the Chetnik resistance movement.

The doctor meets with his father and mother along with Lela his companion.

The doctor and Pierre meet with Perun and Felix in a house. Pierre, an undercover OZNA operative posing as a foreign agent, seeks contact with the General. Perun and Felix agree to kill them. They drink. There is a shootout.  Perun and Felix are killed.

Vera recognizes her attacker who sexually attacked and raped her at the beginning of the film. He wore the star on his cap to incriminate the Communist regime. He is one of Ras’s Chetniks. Ras then kills him.

Driving in an American jeep with the top up, the doctor meets with Ras on a mountain pass. They go to a house where Pierre soon arrives. They kill Ras’s companion, his guard. OZNA now has captured Ras. Ras is told: “We want the General.” The doctor tells Ras: You have killed and burned in the name of the King and of Serbdom (Srpstvo) but in fact had betrayed Serbia. The proposal to Ras is to betray the General. This is how he can save himself. Ras then is shown training and rehearsing OZNA agents to pass as Chetnik fighters.

With three American jeeps, Ras, along with the doctor, goes to Janko and tells him to take them to the General.

Ras runs away and kills Vera. He then returns to the group.

They then travel to the General’s hideout in the mountains. “The General’s waiting for you” Ras is told by one of the Chetnik soldiers. The General tells Jovan to shoot him if anything happens. The General suspects a betrayal. Ras and the doctor are led to the General’s hideout in a cave. Ras tells the General: I can take you to a safe place. The General voices concerns about being betrayed.

Ras, played by Ljuba Tadic, left, confers with the General, Rade Markovic, in a scene from A Trap for the General (1971).

The General confronts Ras: He says Ras is the betrayer. He asks: How much were you paid? The doctor begins laughing and confides to the General that he exposed the betrayer. Ras is shot and killed after the General orders his men to shoot him.

The doctor, a Communist OZNA agent, played by Bekim Fehmiu, left, with the General, played by Rade Markovic, in a scene from A Trap for the General (1971).

The General believes an unknown doctor over Ras, a close confidant. How believable is this? The doctor tells the General: I killed Felix. He betrayed Vilija, Perun, and Schwartz. Felix was with the Reds from the start. He befriends the General and tells him he will lead him to safety.

As they are traversing the woods, the doctor shoots and kills the Chetnik who is leading the group which leads to a shootout and battle between OZNA agents and the Chetniks. The General orders a Chetnik, Jovan, to shoot him to prevent his capture. The doctor, however, confronts the Chetnik who hesitates and is then killed. The Chetniks are killed and taken prisoner and the General is captured.

The doctor is asked: Are you wounded?

He replies that he will sleep it off. The film ends with this scene.

The film moves at a TV movie pace. The musical scoring is also at a TV movie pace with a crescendo or swell in the music just before the commercial break. The movie was made at a time when World War II and espionage films were in vogue. Communist countries such as Yugoslavia discovered the value of film in propagating the Communist values, ideology, and the manufactured history of the regimes. Films glorified the leader and exalted the past. They became ways to control the masses, to dictate in a subtle way what everyone needed to think. Not surprisingly, the Yugoslav Communist regime invested vast sums in the production of such movies. These movies were not only meant for domestic consumption, but were also exported internationally, especially in the Communist or Soviet bloc. Movies became another way in which to manipulate and indoctrinate the population.

Two of the General’s closest aides, Perun and Jovan, were played respectively by Yugoslav Albanian Muslim actor Abdurrahman Shala and Bosnian Muslim actor Zaim Muzaferija.

The General was played by Serbian actor Rade Markovic who was a prominent Yugoslav actor during the Communist period. He appeared in over a 100 theater roles, was in 77 Yugoslav and international film productions, and acted in over 60 dramas and series made by TV Belgrade. He was married to Olivera Markovic, who appeared in the 1946 Soviet-Yugoslav co-production, In the Mountains of Yugoslavia, which also featured a negative portrayal of Draza Mihailovich, played by Croatian actor Vjekoslav Afric. He was also in Valter brani Sarajevo (Walter Defends Sarajevo)  (1972), The Battle of Sutjeska (1973), and Tito i ja (Tito and Me) (1992).

Ljuba Tadic appeared in A Bloody Tale, or Krvava Bajka (1969), The Battle of Sutjeska (1973), and The Battle of Kosovo (1989). He began his film career in the early 1950s, making his first film appearance in 1953, and was also a prominent Yugoslav actor during the Communist period.

Bekim Fehmiu was a Yugoslavian actor who was an ethnic Albanian born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, who grew up in Prizren in Kosovo. He represented the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural ethos of Communist Yugoslavia. He was popular in Yugoslavia and also achieved some international recognition with appearances in foreign films. He was married to Serbian actress Branka Petric. He was found dead on June 15, 2010 in his apartment in Belgrade. His death was ruled a suicide from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound.

Draza Mihailovich was captured by OZNA agents on March 13, 1946 in Drazevina near Visegrad in eastern Bosnia. He was put through a sham Communist show trial and executed on July 17, 1946 in Belgrade. When the movie was released in 1971, it marked 25 years since Mihailovich’s death. This was the height of the Josip Broz Tito Communist dictatorship in Yugoslavia and the cult of personality that he had established. In 1974, Tito would make himself President for Life. He died on May 4, 1980 at the age of 87.

In 1991 and 1992, the Cummunist Yugoslav system disintegrated as Yugoslavia collapsed. Josip Broz Tito and “Titoism” are discredited today. They went much the way of Marxism-Leninism, Communism, and bratstvo i jedinstvo. Josip Broz Tito and his legacy are in the garbage heap of history. They are failed experiments that showed the futility of Communist social engineering. Through lies, deception, intimidation, propaganda, murder, and force, Josip Broz sought to create a new vision in history by means of lies and murder. The verdict of history has been harsh. That is a verdict that cannot be appealed.

Klopka za generala is a failed attempt to falsify history and to create a national foundation based on a delusional house of cards. Ironically, the only reason this movie has any interest for anyone today is because of its falsified portrayal of Draza Mihailovich. The movie shows that lies and deceptions are like lines written in the sand. They cannot withstand the scrutiny of time. In the final analysis, history renders its own verdict and judgment.

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Nikola Tesla in Golden Age Comics: Top Secrets, #9, “Discoverer of Alternating Current” (1949)

Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest inventors and scientists of all time. He is referred to as “the man who invented the modern world”. In The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century, Robert Lomas argued that Nikola Tesla was the most important of the inventors who made modern life possible. His discovery of alternating current revolutionized American industry and society. The Tesla AC polyphase system is still how the U.S. and the world are powered. Tesla  also discovered the fluorescent bulb, neon lights, patented the automobile speedometer, the automobile ignition system, and developed the groundwork that made radar, radio, robotics, the electron microscope, and the microwave oven possible.

In 1949, Nikola Tesla appeared in a Golden Age comic book, Top Secrets, in the May-June issue, #9, published by Street and Smith. In this issue appeared a comic story on Nikola Tesla’s discovery of alternating current, one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. The cover art was by Bob Powell who did both the pencils and the inks.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

The story was entitled “Nikola Tesla: Discoverer of Alternating Current” in the “Top Secrets of Nature” series, consisting of 12 pages drawn and signed by Mike Arnes, who did both the pencils and inks.

The Top Secrets comic book was published bi-monthly. Issue #9 consisted of 52 pages. The editor was William J. deGrouchy. The publisher was Street and Smith in New York. The format was Standard Golden Age U.S. size; full color; newsprint interior; glossy cover; and, saddle-stitched.

Street and Smith’s Top Secrets comic book series began in 1947 and ran for 10 issues, from November, 1947 to July-August, 1949. Street and Smith Publications, Inc. was a major New York City publisher of magazines, paperback books, sporting yearbooks, and comic books. They published the seminal science fiction magazine Astounding Stories, which was purchased from Clayton Magazines, from 1933 to 1961. Mademoiselle (1935-1959; 1959-2001 by Condé Nast) and Detective Story Magazine (1915-1949) were also successful magazines published by Street and Smith. Street and Smith was founded in 1855 by Francis Scott Street and Francis Shubael Smith in New York. The company was acquired by Condé Nast in 1959, which continued to use the Street and Smith imprint on his sports magazines. The company published 24 comic book titles, including Sport Comics, Super-Magician Comics, Bill Barnes Comics, and Trail Blazers. The most successful Street and Smith comic book series were The Shadow (1940-1948), Doc Savage (1940-1943), and The Avenger (1939-1942). They stopped publishing comic books in 1949.

On the title page, Nikola Tesla is pictured next to an alternating current induction motor and the Niagara Falls.

“The thousands of high-powered, electrically driven factories throughout the world, producing an abundance of machines, clothing, tools, weapons, etc., beyond the wildest dreams of man fifty years ago… Radio, television, radar and one hundred and one other things that are in normal usage today, but in grandfather’s day weren’t considered at all possible—All these are due to one man’s discovery of one of nature’s top secrets!!”

The account begins in 1862 in the town of Gospic, then in Austria-Hungary. Tesla was born in Smiljan on July 10, 1856. A water pump is displayed in the town of Gospic by firemen. The pump, however, does not work. The gathered townspeople leave in disappointment. Nikola Tesla, the son of the Serbian Orthodox priest in the town, volunteers to fix it. He jumps into the river as spectators watch in dismay.

Nikola Tesla tells the firemen to start pumping. He dives in to fix the pump. He locates the hose on the river bottom. “Just as I saw it in my mind! There’s a kink in the hose!” He is able to get the pump to run again. Asked how he was able to fix the pump, he tells them: “I saw it in my mind.” His parents are told that he has “an extra vision! .. He will be a great man someday!”

Nikola Tesla is shown in a school classroom solving a mathematical problem. His teacher cannot believe that he can solve the problem. She suspects him of cheating. He tells her: “You can give me any problem and I see the whole process of work in my mind .. with the answer!” She gives him more problems which he is able to solve. She is finally convinced that he can solve any problem that she gives him. The other students in the class insult him. After school, Tesla confronts his classmates to apologize about the statements they had made against him. They refuse and a fight ensues.

Tesla is able to defeat them. He shuns sports in order to pursue a career as an engineer. He tells his mother Georgina-Djuka: “I’d rather read .. There are so many books and so much to learn.” His mother tells his father Milutin that Tesla does not want to pursue a career as a priest. He tells his parents: “It’s a force in me that’s strong and urgent. … I’ve got to study engineering.”

Tesla then devoted himself to study after his family relented. He then becomes ill. His parents plead with him to give up his goal to become an engineer. He refuses to do so. His father tells him that he has to give up that goal. Tesla’s condition then worsens. His father finally relents and allows him to retun to school to continue his studies.

Buoyed by his father’s approval, Tesla recovered and was able to continue his studies. He tells his mother: “I have so much to do, mother… I have plans in my head.. Things, I think, that no other man has thought of… ways to make life for millions easier and freer by making nature work for them! I will go to America someday and harness the power of the great Niagara Falls… I will bring light power from it… I will invent a light that burns as bright as fire but is as cold as ice… And I will be able to let people talk to each other from thousands of miles away through the air! I couldn’t give these things up and live, mother! …. I see them all so clear… I just need time and study to work them out!”

Tesla returned to the institute, the Polytechnical Institute in Graz, Austria, where a professor, Jacob Poeschl, demonstrated a machine from Paris, the Gramme Dynamo, which if turned mechanically it generated electricity but if supplied with electricity it worked as a motor producing mechanical energy. He notices a problem with sparking. He is told that because it relies on direct current a commutator is needed to change or reverse the direction of the current. Tesla suggests that the commutator be discarded and that alternating current be used instead. His professor tells him that it is impossible: “You speak of the impossible.. If alternating current could be controlled, not only would sparking be eliminated but a limitless source of electrical power unleashed that would change the world!… But it is impossible. No man, not even you with your fantastic imagination can accomplish he impossible!” Tesla replies: “Because it is not accomplished yet does not mean it’s impossible…. I know it can be done…. I’ll find out how!”

Tesla spent months attempting to devise a system to replace the direct current system of electricity generation with alternating current. He told his friend Anthony Szigeti: “It is not impossible… I see it in my mind, the machine working… It is all there except for one detail.” Szigeti tells him to relax and to forget about the problem, to focus on the beauty of the sunset. Tesla quotes him Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s lines from the tragedy Faust (1808), First Part, Scene II: “The glow retreats, done is the day of toil; It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring…” Tesla then suddenly stops and stands still in concentration. Szigeti asks him if something is wrong. Tesla remains concentrated on the problem. He sees the solution: “I turn the switch… and it reverses…. No sparks… No noise… It works!… Just as I knew it would work!” Szigeti remains flabbergasted and seeks to escort him home. Tesla exclaims: “I’ve found the secret of alternating current… a rotating magnetic field… I can do it using two circuits out of step with each other… It is so simple!” Szigeti asks him if it will work. Tesla tells him: “Certain!… Every detail…. Each wire in each circuit is as clear in my mind as though the completed machine were before us this instant… It will work!”

Tesla moved to Budapest in 1880 to work under Tivadar Puskas in the National Telephone Company, a telegraph company. He continued to design motors, dynamos, and transformers in an alternating current system. He informed Puskas of his designs and inventions and sought funding to construct them. Puskas told him: “If your machine will do what you say, Tesla, you’ve done a big thing.” He informs Tesla that financing cannot be provided in Hungary to develop his plans and designs. Tesla then informs Puskas that he will go to Paris where a branch of the Edison Company had been set up. Puskas tells Tesla that he will write a letter of introduction for Tesla but that it is up to Tesla to convince them of the viability of the alternating current system. Tesla exclaimed: “I’ll sell the Edison Company the idea for letting me build it even if I have to give them all the rights!” Tesla then thanked Puskas and departed for Paris.

Tesla moved to Paris in 1882 where he worked for the Continental Edison Company on building and improving direct current dynamos. Tesla thinks to himself: “If the boss would only let me explain my alternating current plan to him, he’d save time and money…” Tesla was able to devise improvements to the direct current dynamos. He suggested to his supervisor that his alternating current designs be considered: “If you’ll give me a chance, I can show you things that make this pale by comparison!” His AC designs, however, were always rejected with disgust: “For the last time, I’m not interested in your crazy plan for building alternating current dynamos!…” Tesla is shown being thrown out of the office of his supervisor. Tesla suggest that he at least consider his plans for improving the direct current motors.

Tesla was sent by the Continental Edison Company to Strasbourg to repair a new direct current lighting system which had been installed at the German Railway company in February, 1883. Strasbourg had been ceded by France to Germany in 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War. The system had been damaged on a trial run. The government approved the job after the repairs, but Tesla never received the amount he was promised for the work. On June 10, 1883, Tesla, who was fluent in German, demonstrated the newly completed alternating current induction motor to the mayor of Strasbourg and potential investors. They examined the motor but did not comprehend the value of the invention.

Tesla is able to envision the AC system in his mind: “In my mind, I worked everything out to the millionth of an inch—the plan in my mind is more accurate than a blueprint!”

The mayor tells Tesla: “If it does, we are seeing the greatest advance in science since Faraday discovered how to produce electricity by induction!” Tesla responds: “It will work… I know it…. Watch!” Tesla turns on the switch.

“It works!” Tesla successfully demonstrates the alternating current induction motor. The mayor exclaimed: “There, gentlemen… You’ve seen it with your own eyes—The greatest electrical discovery of all time..!” The investors all reject the new system: “I can’t see why the Edison Company wouldn’t take it if it is so great…” Tesla, however remains confident: “Someday, somewhere I will convince the world that my machine is right!”

When he returns to Paris, Tesla finds that the promised bonus is not forthcoming. He quits the company. An administrator at the Edison Continental Company tells him that he should go to America and work with Thomas Edison: “Listen, Nikola — Why don’t you go to the States and work with Thomas Edison?.. Perhaps, after you’ve proved yourself, he’ll give you a chance to demonstrate your alternating-current motor..” Tesla replies: “America!.. Yes… Why not?.. I must go someday… Perhaps it is meant for me to go now!!”

Tesla departs for the United States, arriving on June 6, 1884 in New York City: “And so, selling his books to pay his passage, Nikola Tesla boarded a boat with four cents in his pocket but a secret of nature in his mind worth billions of dollars!” Tesla declares: “I must have time to work and think… There are so many new and greater inventions in my mind that will make man’s life on this earth easier and fuller!” Several weeks after his arrival in the U.S., Tesla, with a letter of recommendation from inventor Charles W. Batchelor, is introduced to Thomas Edison: “The two great geniuses of electricity—one, world famous, the other, struggling for recognition—meet for the first time!” Tesla tells Edison: “I’m honored, Mr. Edison… I hope you will give me the chance to demonstrate my ideas which will revolutionize the electrical field!” Edison replies: “You will have a chance to work… Ideas will come later, when you have proven yourself, Mr. Tesla.” Tesla makes his case for AC: “But when you hear of my alternating current machine that works, I know you will give me a chance to give it to the world…” Edison, however, rejects alternating current out of hand: “Alternating current!.. Never.. Even if you have a machine that works, it is far to dangerous… The Edison Company would have nothing to do with it… I.. We believe in direct current and nothing else!” Tesla replies: “Very well, Mr. Edison—I will work on whatever you say.. But someday, you will see… Yes and even endorse alternating current.” Tesla worked for the Edison, becoming an employee of Edison Machine Works, designing 24 types of DC dynamos but “always hoping for the chance of proving his alternating current theories…” Edison, however, continued to reject AC: For the last time, Tesla… No… I’m not interested in alternating current!” Tesla replied: “And I, Mr. Edison.. Am … not interested in working for a man who won’t accept anybody’s ideas but his own!” Tesla quit and became a laborer, digging ditches: “Thus began the blackest period in Nikola Tesla’s life… Unable to find work, penniless, he was forced to accept a laboring job… while in his head remained the fabulous idea.”

Tesla discussed his plans for alternating current with the foreman of the ACME Construction Company where he worked. The foreman told Tesla that he knew someone who may be interested in developing and financing alternating current. Tesla was introduced to A. K. Brown of the Western Union Telegraph Company who was convinced that alternating current could be successfully developed. Brown agreed to provide financing for Tesla’s “experimental machines” to develop AC systems. Tesla obtained patents for his AC motors and system. W. A. Anthony of Cornell University attests that AC is as efficient as DC. Tesla gave his first lecture and public demonstration of his AC motors and AC system of electrical power generation. The response was positive and supportive: “Amazing!!” “It makes electricity man’s greatest servant!” “Revolutionary! It means a new era…” Tesla thanked his enthusiastic supporters. They responded: “You’re the greatest electrical genius of our time!!” “Tonight saw the death of direct current!”

The alternating current motor and system were not the only discoveries that Tesla would make in his lifetime. He would be a pioneer of radio, television, and neon illumination. He would design giant dynamos that would harness the energy of Niagara Falls in 1895 with the construction of the hydroelectric power plant based on alternating current. In 1893, his AC current and neon lights would illuminate the Chicago World’s Fair and mark his final and decisive triumph over Edison’s direct current system. Tesla would continue to make scientific and technological breakthroughs and discoveries during his lifetime: “But Nikola Tesla’s great triumph was not the end, but the beginning … He rushed back to his laboratory to work upon the other ‘impossible’ visions that cluttered his mind and from which came today’s radio and television, the neon and flu[o]rescent lights, the giant dams and dynamos that have brought light to the remotest parts of the world… To this man, who had vision and genius beyond that of almost any other man, the world owes a great debt. He made the world a better place to live in by giving his life to the discovery of nature[‘]s top secrets.”

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