Page 52 - Stradanje i humanizam

medical staff in an ever increasing agony did not go numb, turning into selfishness and fear, but burst
forth in the brightest of lights. Solidarity and humaneness soared over the daily misery and became the
supreme value of every man. Medical staff, nurses, doctors, ordinary people – there was hardly anyone
not ready to give their life to safe that of another. Or to give him hope at the least. In the days that brought
even more hardship, this flame of generosity and commitment never died – the fallen were replaced by
others. The sole aim was to help and save.
Countless sheds around Valjevo, built by refugees, constantly got new inhabitants. Provision of
food had almost totally stopped for all the warehouses were empty. And still, last bits of food were
divided. The city expanded all the time, it was entered in long, uninterrupted columns. The people
stopped, remained or continued on after resting in those same columns or in crowded trains. After the
decision to continue the war, made by the Supreme Command and the Government, Valjevo and its
hospitals were evacuated. The newly arrived wounded were no longer admitted into hospitals but
referred to the evacuation train. The agitated and frightened population prepared their, mostly younger,
family members and sent them off inland. Moving the services and the High Command itself was
difficult due to a large number of people moving in the same direction, and the army and the Equipage,
which were retreating. In addition to those on the roads, there were two, three parallel columns of
wretched people in wagons, but they were all forced to stop at the bridges and on the slopes. The army
was stopping everyone, and eventually blocked the inflow of refugees until the Equipage and the other
units crossed the bridge, leaving the people in despair. They stood still, some on the wagons, some on
foot, with children in their arms, and with cattle that many people brought with them. In his last diary
entries Dimitrije Tucović wrote:
“The hardest thing was watching the vast columns of people and refugees fleeing [...] the Equipage
stopping the trains with people so that it would be able to escape. The army bypassing them, and them
waiting in the night on the road and by roads, in woods and ravines, moaning and suffering. Dead
children lying by the road; abandoned and thrown away by their mothers who did not know what to do
with them; they froze to death, and remained lying in the mud. Others wandering in the crowd, wailing
for their mothers, who were lost. All this poured into images that even the hardest heart could not bear.
And the women's voices: “You are leaving, and we are left behind“ – made one lose the will to live.“
The columns of refugees blocked on the roads or on the bridges, were caught up with by the Austro-
Hungarian forces, which also blocked their return to their homes, which were mostly burnt. They were
an obstacle impeding the passage of their units. And there where they wanted to return, there was no
food. The vast Austro-Hungarian army was largely supplied by looting, and mostly by confiscating
livestock. The above mentioned Czech Vancura makes a reference to this as well: “What was a dirt road
became right away bottomless pits of mud, it was freezing cold, and at times the wind blew streams of
rain in one's eyes. In such weather, there was an infinite number of families fleeing, most of them with a
prolific number of children. Women were barefoot or in poor peasant shoes, each in front of her wagon,
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pulling oxen, and if there was a senior member in the family, they followed behind the wagon, driving
the livestock [...] Both these people and their teams of oxen had not eaten for a long time, and had to
keep going, with such great efforts. Half-naked children pressed close to each other on the wagons,
shivering from cold and hunger, crying constantly. In an effort to warm up or maybe get something from
our soldiers, they would come down from the wagon on their own and search the ground, barefoot in the
mud [...] We have already given away all the bread, and we can constantly hear cries of those little
people “please, give us some bread.“ No one will ever be able to count all those sad children victims,
many of whom died on the terrible road, fleeing Bosnia and Srem, seeking safety in vain, together with
the people between the Drina and the Sava rivers. The overwhelming numbers relating to population
loss by districts in 1916 relative to 1910 do not take into account natural population growth and those
who have fled to Serbia.
In great haste, only a couple of hours before the enemy forces would have entered Valjevo, under
random barrage fire, the last of the wounded and the sick were evacuated, and only those deadly
wounded and sick, several doctors and nurses, and a small number of unburied corpses remained.
Valjevo District Hospital was evacuated to Čačak, and subsequently to Niš, from where the hospital
staff, together with the Russian mission from Valjevo, were moved to Zaječar. The sick and the
wounded were left in the Niš hospital, so that later only the medical team with the equipment returned to
Valjevo. The Drina permanent military hospital was evacuated to Kruševac, and it was accommodated
in the male and female grammar school buildings and in the “Car Lazar“ and “Takovo“ taverns. When
doctor Sodermaier visited the hospital in Kruševac on 9 January 1915, he found doctors Milan Stajić
and Ljuba Stojanović had come down with typhus. At that time, at the hospital, there were 141 sick and
124 wounded soldiers, without any beds and with only 15 mattresses. There was sufficient linen, and
the pharmacy was well stocked, but it they did not have sufficient bandage materials. In addition to the
above mentioned doctors from Valjevo, Svetislav and Natalija Nikolajević were also still in this
hospital and later returned with the hospital staff to Valjevo. The Serb prisoners, Jovan Popović and
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Gavrilo Barak, were also there, as well as three medics, two of which Austro-Hungarians. The sick
and wounded from the Drina military hospital, as well as the wounded from the District Hospital, did
not return to Valjevo with the medical teams. They were taken care of by the doctors in Niš and
Kruševac.
The enemy forces in Valjevo were received and handed over the hospital only with the severely
wounded and sick soldiers who were not strong enough to be evacuated, doctor Milovan Bašević,
doctor Avram Vinaver, the Russian doctor Soshinska, and several paramedics. The lack of doctors was a
major problem in the Austro-Hungarian army as well, and both the warring sides sought to protect their
medical staff from being captured and avoided any exposure to danger. The medical staff that was left
with the hospital or imprisoned still received their monthly pay by the Serbian authorities, equally as all
other doctors and paramedics in the service.
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