War Heroes: Mihailovich the Unconquered

In July, 1942, half a year after the entry of the U.S. into World War II, a comic book quarterly was published entitled War Heroes which sought to present the stories of those individuals who exemplified the Allied will and determination to win the war. War Heroes was a quarterly comic book series published from July-September, 1942 to October-December, 1944 in ten issues. The magazine was published by the Dell Publishing Company, 149 Madison Avenue, in New York.The price for a single issue was ten cents. The first issue had profiled General Douglas MacArthur who appeared on the cover.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Arthur Japy Hepburn, U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General Robert L. Denig, and British Royal Air Force Commodore Arthur Leonard Fiddament wrote the Foreward to the first issue in the series. In the Foreward of War Heroes,, #1, July-September, 1942, the goals and objectives of the magazine were explained:

“Down through the ages, in the march of civilization against those who would despoil, there have been men — plain men — who have done the extraordinary in their sacrifices for freedom and democracy.

This War now enveloping the whole world is no exception. Tremendous responsibilities, great calls for service, and the ordinary calls of duty have been taken in stride by thousands of men. Some have achieved results beyond measure. Some have given their lives in service. All have been noble eamples for the youth of all nations.

This collection of stories of some of these modern War Heroes is by no means exhaustive — it is representative of service which has won undying gratitude of their nations and all the forces of righteousness in the world. Their achievements will be written into the record of this vast conflict. Their names will grow in brightness and in appreciation of all peoples, the free —fighting to remain free, and the enslaved — determined to become free.

These are men whose works will inspire others to do their everyday tasks and small duties with devotion, high honor, and a spirit of loyal sacrifice.”

(Click on image to enlarge.)

The Forward was signed by Rear Admiral Arthur Japy Hepburn, U.S. Navy, Brigadier General Robert L. Denig, U.S.M.C., and A.L. Fiddament, Air Commodore, R.A.F. Admiral Hepburn had been the Director of Naval Intelligence, the U.S. representative to the Geneva Arms Control Conferences in 1932 and 1933, and was Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Fleet. Hepburn was appointed Chairman of the General Board of the Navy in 1942, a position he held during the war. Robert Livingston Denig, Sr., was a decorated Marine Corps veteran who organized the Division of Public Relations during World War II. Denig is credited with introducing the concept of embedding combat correspondents 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. His awards included the Army Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy Cross in World War I, the Purple Heart Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Cuban Pacification Medal, World War I Victory Medal, Expeditionary Medal, Second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal, French Legion of Honor, French Croix de Guerre with Palm and Bronze Star, French Fourragere, American Defense Service Medal with Base clasp, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. Arthur Fiddament had been a member of the RAF delegation that met in Washington, DC, in 1941. In 1944, he would become the British Vice Air Marshal.

In the second issue of the Dell comic book magazine series War Heroes, #2, October-December, 1942, a four page comic story called “Mihailovich the Unconquered” was featured on Yugoslavian resistance leader General Draza Mihailovich which presented a brief look at the life and career of Draza Mihailovich. The cover featured Lt. Commander Lewis S. Parks, U.S.N., General Joseph W. Stilwell, and Brigadier General James “Jimmy” H. Doolittle. The subtitle of the magazine appeared on the cover under the title: “War Heroes: Thrilling heroic facts from the files of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force.”

The comic story on Draza Mihailovich opened with a scene in the mountains of German-occupied Yugoslavia as Chetnik guerrillas prepare to ambush Axis troops. An inset image of Draza Mihailovich is shown with a description and introduction to the story:  “Amid the crags and peaks of the Serbian mountains, a heroic band of patriots fight on against Nazi aggression ….. An ‘island’ in the mountains! Yes, that is what the stronghold of General Draja Mihailovich actually is. An ‘island of freedom’. Surrounded by a sea of tyranny and oppression … The brave Yugoslav defenders of this last sanctuary of liberty in the Balkans, have been putting up a magnificent and, unending battle against the cruel relentless forces of the Axis.” Four Chetnik guerrillas are shown at a machine gun emplacement in the mountains.

The life and career of Draza Mihailovich, “the leader of the valiant Serbian guerilla army”, is recounted. He was a colonel of the Yugoslavian general staff who was promoted to the rank of general by the Yugoslav government-in-exile. He was born in 1893 in Serbia, was orphaned when young, and then was adopted by an uncle, “a famous colonel in the Serbian Army”. Mihailovich in military uniform is shown, then as a child and youth practicing to be a soldier. “Love for a military life seemed to be born in young Draja ….”

He then entered the Serbian military academy in 1910 and fought in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, “receiving a decoration for personal bravery”. Following the assassination of the Austrian Grand Duke in Sarajevo in Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1914 war broke out in Europe. Mihailovich was a second lieutenant in command of a machine-gun company. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1916. He distinguished himself in battle against Bulgarian forces during the Great War, World War I. He was wounded on several occasions but returned to the front lines and into combat. In 1918, with the war won, he was decorated with the Karageorge Star with Swords for distinguished military service. In 1919, he was again promoted to captain second class, in charge of the guard.

In 1921, he entered the Army War College and became a member of the Yugoslav General Staff three years later. He served on the General Staff as a major until 1934. He was appointed the chief of staff of the Drava Division in 1937 and was commander of the 39^th Infantry Regiment in Celje in 1938. He was a popular and respected commander but rejected the “useless and outmoded defenses” which the Yugoslav military command had in place. Instead, as chief of fortifications, he advocated a small, mobile guerrilla force. For his opposition he was assigned to a post on the “Adriatic coast line”. When the Axis invaded Yugoslavia and bombed Belgrade in 1941, he was stationed in Hercegovina and could not execute his military plans because the command was in disarray. A Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber with a swastika marking is shown attacking the city of Belgrade which lies in ruins and in flames.

The Axis forces routed the Yugoslav Army commanded by General Dusan Simovich and began “a campaign of horror, mopping up stricken and helpless Yugoslavia …..” Draza Mihailovich refused to be conquered and launched an unprecedented guerrilla war against the Axis occupation. “Mihailovich didn’t stop to ask questions or permission but assembling his small command, he bade them retreat eastward into the mountain fastness of Sumadija” where Serbian guerrillas had fought against Ottoman Turkish troops for centuries during the occupation of the country.

Instead of confronting the German troops head-on, which would be futile and disastrous, Mihailovich retreated to the mountains where he set up a headquarters and command nexus.  Here his staff was augmented by volunteers and former Yugoslav soldiers who had brought their weapons and equipment with them. A Chetnik guerrilla wearing a red coat and a blue cap is shown with a rifle slung across his back as he watches Chetnik guerrillas advance into the mountains.  The German occupation authorities sent German divisions to “dislodge the embattled Serbs who refused to admit defeat…” The guerrillas were, nevertheless, able to withstand German attacks and to launch their own counterattacks against German troops, inflicting heavy casualties.  German troops are shown scurrying and fleeing after a guerrilla attack amid explosions. The Germans sent aircraft to bomb and to strafe the guerrillas but were unsuccessful because the guerrilla gunners were able to shoot the planes down. A Stuka dive bomber is shown attacking guerrilla positions in the mountains.

The guerrilla attacks wreaked havoc among Axis occupation troops and enabled the Chetniks to seize much-needed weapons and supplies.

In the final scene, Draza Mihailovich, “the eagle of the Balkans”, is shown on a mountain crag with an aide surveying the landscape through binoculars. He is able to tie down much-needed German troops for the Eastern Front. He remains a symbol of resistance. He continues his defiance. He is able to maintain an “island of freedom” in occupied Europe.

The story presents accurately the image of Draza Mihailovich as he was perceived in the U.S. and in the West in 1942. There are, however, three typos or flubs. The word “Turts” should be “Turks”. The word “stead” should be “steady”. The word “hoard” should be “horde”.  The plot mirrors the news accounts which were causing a sensation in the U.S. and the West at the time. The factual background is presented well. The comic book depiction or evocation of Draza Mihailovich is fairly accurate, relying on the 1937 photograph that was extensively reproduced during the war, but slightly changing his expression and appearance. Overall, the story succeeds in conveying the popular perception of Draza Mihailovich then presented in the American media.

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World War II Overrun Nations Stamps: First Day of Issue Covers

On October 26, 1943, the U.S. issued a stamp to honor Yugoslavia in the Overrun Nations series of thirteen postage stamps. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had been a stamp collector who had participated in the choice of subjects for stamps and their designs. He requested in 1942 that the U.S. Postmaster General Frank C. Walker contemplate the issuance of a series of stamps to honor the European nations which had been overrun or occupied by the Axis.

Yugoslavia had been invaded, occupied, and dismembered by Nazi Germany and the other Axis countries on April 6, 1941. A guerrilla resistance movement emerged under Draza Mihailovich who conducted a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation. Yugoslavia was an ally of the U.S., Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R. during World War II. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had acknowledged the value of the Yugoslav resistance movement as early as 1941 in the context of American national interests. As a result, in 1943 Roosevelt sponsored the issuance of a U.S. postage stampt to honor and to commemorate Yugoslavia and the resistance movement in what was known as the “Overrun Nations” or “Occupied Nations” series of stamps.

FDR’s message to the overrun or occupied nations of Europe such as Yugoslavia was that the U.S. was a committed ally: “It might tell those suffering victims in Europe that we are struggling for their own regeneration.” In the border surrounding each national flag, Roosevelt suggested depicting the Phoenix, which is an ancient symbol of rebirth. The other side of each flag pictured a kneeling woman “breaking the shackles of oppression.” In 1943, stamps were issued for the following European countries overrun and occupied by the Axis powers: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, Austria, and Denmark. A U.S. postage stamp for Korea was issued in 1944. A sheetlet was also produced using this design. All of the stamps were of 5-cent denomination, 84/100 by 1 44/100 inches in dimension, arranged horizontally, and issued in sheets of 50 stamps each. 14,999,646 were issued of the Yugoslavia stamp. The Overrun Nations Stamps were designed, engraved, and printed by the American Bank Note Company of New York, NY. The first stamp issued was for Poland on June 22, 1943 while the last stamp issued was for Korea on November 2, 1944. In 1943, the U.S. postage rates were as follows: Domestic Letter Rate: 3¢ per oz.; Postcard Rate: 1¢; Air Mail Rate: 6¢ per oz.

A first day of issue cover is a stamped envelope or post card that was available at the post office where the stamp was first issued and which contained a cancellation stamp. The cancellation was usually specifically designed for the issue and had the words “First Day of Issue” stamped on the envelope or stamp. There were also official ceremonies to commemorate the first day of issue of a postage stamp.

First Day of Issue Covers (FDC) are highly sought after by stamp collectors. The major component of the First Day Covers are the cachets. Cachets are the artwork or graphics that are added to the envelope to tie-in or complement  the stamp subject. The cachets were designed and created by commercial artists and firms that specialized in the production of graphics for the postal service.  Cachets are sought after by collectors.

A First Day of Issue envelope or cover (FDC) from October  26, 1943, 9 AM, Washington, D.C., was issued in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Overrun Nations series of stamps, John Walter Scott Catalogue #917. This one on Yugoslavia with the cachet by Smartcraft designed by Ludwig W. Staehle has an image of Draza Mihailovich based on the May 25, 1942 Time magazine cover by Vuk Vuchinich (1901–1974). The quote on the left, bottom, reads: “‘We will not give up!’ Gen. Draja Mihailovich.” (Click on image to enlarge.)

October 26, 1943 First Day of Issue cover in the Occupied Nations Series featured a photograph of Gen. Draza Mihajlovich and a man and a woman meeting on a street in a Yugoslavian town. On the right lower side is an image of two Chetnik guerrillas with rifles on a mountain crag overlooking a strategic point. The following description appears on the lower left corner: “Yugoslavia: Homeland of the ‘Chetnicks’ and other liberty loving groups.” The cachet is by Art Craft whose logo appears on the bottom left of the envelope. The cover was released in conjunction with the issuance of the 5 cent Yugoslavia stamp by the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, D.C.

A third First Day of Issue envelope or cover from October 26, 1943 for the U.S. Postal Service stamp on Yugoslavia featured Draza Mihailovich as the theme. The cachet or cover graphics are by Day Lowry for Aristocrat featuring a white eagle carrying the coat of arms of Yugoslavia past a flag of Yugoslavia with the following quote by Draza Mihailovich on the lower left corner: “‘Until the final Allied victory and until the unconditional surrender of the Axis we shall continue our fight.’ General Dragoljub Mihailovich.”

“Yugoslavia Fights For Liberation.” The cachet is by Ludwig W. Staehle for Cachet Craft. A map of Yugoslavia is depicted with the capital Belgrade in red and a Yugoslavian red, white, and blue flag in the background. An eagle is shown on a crag above the letter “V” in red under chains and a red Nazi swastika.

The October 26, 1943 First Day of Issue cover presented a cachet drawn by Dorothy W. Knapp for Fleetwood with the statement: “Salute to Yugoslavia: A valiant spirit is unconquerable.”

A First Day of Issue cover from October 26, 1943 featured the red, white, and blue flag of Yugoslavia under the title “Yugoslavia” above the coat of arms. The central subjects of the stamps, all surface printed, reproduce in natural colors the national flags of the thirteen countries with the name of the country appearing underneath. Rays of light emanate out from behind the central subjects to the outer frames. The main frames of the stamps, all steel engraved, are printed in purple and portray on the left the Phoenix, a mythological bird symbolizing the rebirth and the renewal of life. On the right, an image is shown that balances the left side image of a kneeling female figure depicting the breaking of the shackles or iron chains of oppression and enforced servitude. Both figures stand on pedestals which contain oval-shaped panels with dark ground wherein the numeral “5″ is shown in white. The pedestals rest on a panel, in which is displayed the word “Cents” in a white-faced Roman font. In the back of the wording the panel is of a darker shade which gradually fades out at each end. At the top of the stamps are the words “United States Postage” in white-faced Gothic font, which is within a ruled panel with ornamental scroll ends.

The First Day of Issue cover featured a cachet by House of Farnum with a coat of arms of Yugoslavia in red with the statement: “Yugoslavia: The United States honors the over-run countries of Europe. First Day Cover.” There were no new Regular Issue stamps, no new Special Delivery stamps, and no new Air Mail stamps issued in 1943 in the U.S. Three commemorative stamps were issued in 1943: The 2¢ Allied Nations United for Victory stamp, The 1¢ Four Freedoms Issue stamp, and the twelve Overrun Nations “Flag” stamps. A 5¢ denomination, which was the foreign rate for first class postage in 1943, was selected so the stamps could be used on overseas mail.

October 26, 1943 First Day of Issue cover: A U.S. and a Yugoslavian flag are intertwined above the statement: “United States of America honoring the oppressed nation Yugoslavia”. The cachet is by Grimsland. The Michael A. Mellone Catalogue listing is #8.

The First Day Issue Cover featured the title “Occupied Nations: Honoring Yugoslavia” with the statement: “Yugoslavia, its territory center of dispute and war from days of Christ down, has been no freer of trouble since its statehood was launched around the peace table of World War I. Of Slavic forbears, its constituent peoples have kindred origin and leanings. And during its statehood, while groups within have ever been at each others’ throats, when the enemy of peace was outside its border, the wranglers have invariably rallied to the common cause. And now, the common enemy the Axis powers, and the country ‘conquered,’ its people give the least evidence of being subjugated of any of the over-run countries. Never has there been a period when arms were laid down by all Yugoslav factions! Certainly Yugoslavs make poor slaves, to the yokes of Hitler and Mussolini!”

“U.S. Honors the Occupied Nations in Europe.” The cachet is by Ludwig W. Staehle in New York, N.Y. The flag of Yugoslavia is on the bottom right. There are twelve countries and flags in all. In 1944, a stamp would be issued for Korea, which was occupied by Japan.

“Honoring the ‘Overrun’ Nations of Europe now occupied by the Axis Powers. They shall be free!” A 1943 sheetlet in the Overrun Nations Series featuring Yugoslavia was designed by the artist and cachetmaker Ludwig W. Staehle and published by Frederick H. Dietz. The sheet has the designation: National Poster Stamp Society Certificate No. 161. The sheet is listed as Design A2 on page 77 of The Cachet Catalog of Staehle & Knapp by M. Douglas Parks, Ogllala, Nebraska, 1981. The approximate sheet size is 3.6in x 4.95mm.

The “Overrun Nations” First Day of Issue cover was drawn by Dorothy W. Knapp for Fleetwood, featuring U.S. Postage Stamps #909 to #920 in the John Walter Scott Catalogue for the 12 European nations occupied by the Axis: “Salute to the overrun nations: Freedom will prevail.” A country stamp for Korea was issued in 1944, #921 in the Scott Catalogue. This sheet was issued on December 7, 1943, the second anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. From 1894 to 1943, all U.S. postage stamps had been produced by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). The BEP, however, did not have the production facilities needed to do the multi-color printing on the national stamps. Instead, the task was assigned to the American Bank Note Company. In place of the usual plate number on each pane, the name of the country was printed, so that the covers in the series display a complete set of “plate blocks ” of the stamps in the set.

“They will rise and be free again!” The 1943 poster stamp series was drawn by Ludwig W. Staehle and published by Frederick H. Dietz: “A Set of 12 Different Poster Stamps, in 5 Colors, Honoring the 12 ‘Overrun’ Nations of Europe, now Occupied by the Axis Powers, with Year of Occupation. A Series of 12 5c Mulitcolored postage Stamps Will be issued by the U.S. Government, Starting with Poland on June 22, 1943, And, the Other Countries on Various other Dates, in their fight for Liberation.” Approved by The National Poster Stamp Society, Chicago, Ill., Certificate No. 162.

“Free Yugoslavia”: October 26, 1943 FDC with the cachet artwork hand-drawn and hand-painted by Mae Weigand. A man in chains is shown with the flag of Yugoslavia in the background.

“Free Yugoslavia”: October 26, 1943 FDC hand-drawn and hand-painted by Mae Weigand. A flag of Yugoslavia is shown with the double-headed white eagle symbol of Serbia.

The Flag of Yugoslavia Stamp, Scott Catalogue #917, U.S. Postal Service 5¢ Stamps issued on October 26, 1943, in Washington, D.C. One of the thirteen in the Overrun Countries Series that honored the 12 European countries and Korea, which were overrun and occupied by the Axis powers during World War II. The inclusion of Austria was controversial, however, because of the 1938 Anschluss or union with Germany. Popular support for a union with Germany was strong even before the March 11, 1938 coup. A referendum on union had been planned and after the annexation by Germany a plebiscite was held that affirmed public support for the union. Austria was Adolf Hitler’s birthplace and support for his regime remained strong there throughout the war.

The stamps emphasized the post-war period when the occupied countries would re-emerge as independent and united once again. On the left was a Phoenix symbolizing national regeneration while on the right was the symbol of a captive breaking their chains. In the center was the national flag under “United States Postage”. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, a part of the U.S. Treasury Department, contracted with the American Bank Note Company of New York, N.Y., to have the stamps printed because they possessed special multi-color printing equipment. All the nations represented by the stamps were regarded as allies of the United States during the war.

The issuance of the “Overrun Nations” series of stamps by the United States government in 1943 and 1944 exemplified the support, commitment, and solidarity for the European and Asian countries overrun and occupied by the Axis powers during World War II.

Bibliography

Baur, Brian C. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Stamps of the United States 1933-1945. Sidney, OH: Linn’s Stamp News, 1993.

Baur, Brian C.  Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Stamp Collecting President. Sidney, OH: Linn’s Stamp News, 1999.

Johl, Max G. United States Commemorative Stamps of the 20th Century. NY: H.L. Lindquist, 1947.

Kloetzel, James E. “Proofs of Overrun Countries Stamps in National Postal Museum Archive.” Scott Stamp Monthly, 27: 12 (December, 2009), pp. 12-14.

Lawrence, Ken. “U.S. Stamps that Went to War: The Overrun Countries of 1943 and 1944 .” American Philatelist, 112: 1 ( January, 1998), pp. 48-74.

Stiles, Kent B. “U.S. Series Honors Allies.” New York Times, May 16, 1943.

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Comic Book Heroes: The American Crusader Joins the Chetniks

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

(Click on image to enlarge.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Media Literacy 101: Kosovo and Libya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NDH Poglavnik or fuehrer Ante Pavelic wearing a Bosnian Muslim fez, the Ottoman Turkish fez which was the natioanl attire of the Bosnian Muslims or “Bosniaks”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The Chetniks” (1942) by Violet Atkins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Narrator: Until death.

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

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

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

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

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

Dushan: Give me your hand, Jovana.

Jovana: Here, Dushan.

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

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

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

(Flashback)

Dushan: Happy, Jovana?

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

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

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

Dushan: Yes, my dearest?

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

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

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

Jovana: Dushan, Dushan.

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

(Flashback.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Voices: (Gasps) Nazi planes!

Jovana: A church …

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

Jovana: Dushan, Dushan!

Dushan: Jovana!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Voices: The Chetniks!

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

Voices: Mihailovich’s Chetniks!

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

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

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

Voices: No! No! No!

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

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

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Draza Mihailovich: Private Lives, 1942

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Draza Mihailovich: Comic Book Hero

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Chetniks on the Air: Broadcasts on American Radio

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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