Page 40 - Stradanje i humanizam

The shots fired by Princip, cause of war, war and the destiny of Valjevo
When Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand on St. Vitus Day 1914, little did he or any of his
comrades from Mlada Bosna suspect these shots would somehow determine the destiny of Valjevo and
its hospital. The great powers rapidly conducted the last preparations for war, the interests had already
connected into alliances between the states and a favourable moment was awaited. In such an
arrangement of powers, the beginning of war depended on the one best prepared for war – Germany.
Numerous data indicate that preparations of assassins were known about but that no serious action was
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taken to prevent the assassination. War was inevitable and had Princip and his comrades been
prevented in their intent, the reason for it would have soon been found in some other event.
What is it that connects this act with the later role of Valjevo are the reasons for assassination. The
Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as all the Serbs in Austro-Hungarian monarchy feared resolution of
the Slavic and, in particular, the Serb issue in this country. Among other national problems that besieged
the monarchy, this one was the hardest. It was no secret that the state would be reorganized after the
expected demise of Franz Joseph, and that the Croats would have an upper hand in the newly-formed
state that would include also Bosnia and Herzegovina. Remembering numerous protracted pogroms of
their compatriots in Zagreb and other cities in Croatia, the fears of Serbs were justified. Horrendous
crimes perpetrated against the Serbs during the First and the Second World Wars, establishment of first
concentration camps in Europe for civilian population and, later when entire families and inhabitants of
many villages were thrown into the pits, proved the fears of Young Bosnians to be warranted.
Numerous concentration camps with Jasenovac in the first place, confirmed the continuity of criminal
intentions towards Serbs also later. For many years were the Austro-Hungarian authorities getting
ready to crush the young Serbian state that the heads of all the Serbs in the monarchy were turned
towards. Many times had the army leadership urged for a preventive war against Serbia, saved only by
the reliable support of Russia and the unpreparedness of Germany for a larger-scale war.
The carefully hidden military plans did not plan, as the Serbian army authorities expected, the attack
of the main Austro-Hungarian forces across the Danube and the Sava. This indeed was the best
direction of attack. Fearing uprising of the Serbian and partly Muslim population in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, the Austro-Hungarian plans provided for the attack of the main, the biggest forces to be
launched across the rivers Drina and Sаva in one part. This would prevent incursion of the Serbian army
into Bosnia and Herzegovina, a potential insurrection and a possible dissolution of the Austro-
Hungarian monarchy. The shots fired by Gavrilo Princip confirmed the belief of army strategists that
this population cannot be trusted and solidified the decision on the direction of attack on Serbia. And so
Valjevo found itself in the direction of movement of the main Austro-Hungarian powers and became the
epicenter of war quite unexpectedly so for the Serbian authorities.
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Princip's shots quite reliably marked the beginning of a bloody hunt and persecution of the Serbs
that were prepared for a long time and temporarily postponed time and again. Long years of hatred
towards the Serbs that were most incited by the Zagreb daily ”Croatia“ and Sarajevo ”Croatian Diary“,
the latter property of Sarajevo Archdiocese, assumed its darkest form. Following the assassination, the
Serbs became exposed to open persecution – physical destruction, hangings, shootings and
imprisonment in concentration camps. These camps were established across Austria-Hungary for
civilian population and represented the first concentration camps on the territory of Europe. The calls to
once and for all deal with the Serbs, to ”exterminate snakes with blows to their head“ and, of course, for
Cyrillic script to be abolished forever, became an everyday event . The first big persecution of Serbs in
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Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srem and Banat started immediately after St. Vitus Day. There was a
permanent or a reception camp in each bigger town and the prisoners were exposed to violence, disease,
starvation and the cold. The renowned Austrian professor of law and a statesman Josef Redlich wrote in
his diary on 22 November 1914 that only ”10,000 Serbs had been murdered in Srem only, and no one
knows how many were murdered in Bosnia and Herzegovina“. The Serbs were tortured to death in
numerous concentration camps. They were often murdered for their farms. It sufficed for the murderers
to say that they had attempted to run away to justify the murder. However, no one ever asked them for
the reason nor did they answer to anyone most often.
The fiercest violence on Serbs outside Serbia and partly those in Serbia (when the war broke out)
was perpetrated by the so called Schutzcorps that were paramilitary formations comprised of
volunteers – Muslims and Croats. They were formed back in 1908, but started their crimes after the
Sarajevo assassination. They murdered 83 children and hanged 85 adults in the village of Bogojevići
near Trebinje only. The scale of murders and persecutions was such that the emperor Franz Joseph, at
the request of the Austro-Hungarian Government, asked –with substantial delay in November 1914 –
the army authorities to stop all future unfounded arrests of Serbs. Regretfully, this did not happen.
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Fleeing persecution, Serbian and the population inclined to Serbs started fleeing from persecution
into Serbia. There were often individuals or the whole families fleeing for their life or to avoid
incarceration which often ended in death. Numerous reports speak of refugees who, with no
possessions at all, crossed the rivers Drina and Sava and took the roads from Ljubovija, Loznica and
Šabac or walked along the railroad from Obrenovac to Valjevo. The local authorities sought to provide
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for them as much as possible and organized distribution of food, clothes, footwear and to direct them
inland. The military authorities freed refugees from the provisional confiscation of their carts for army
and from recruitment. Тhis enormous number of refugees in Valjevo, could not be ascertained due to
breakout of the war. The fact that 27,000 persons were registered in the surroundings of Užice exists
but, taking into account the size of the territory refugees were arriving from relative to the zone towards
Valjevo, this number must have been many times higher. The Ministry of Finance of Kingdom of Serbia
informed Nikola Pašić of this problem in February 1915 “We had expellees from Bosnia and Srem –
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