Page 66 - Stradanje i humanizam

pital, which in the beginning provided everything they needed. The staff was very organized and proce-
eded to treat the soldiers and citizens who came for help. The SWH hospitals throughout Serbia always
allocated a portion of their staff and medicines for the needs of civilians. From the book by Mabel
Stobart, who led the mission in Kragujevac and had a pharmacy for the civilian population, it can be
seen that people sometimes traversed “50, 60 and even 70 miles“ (80-112 km) to come to the hospital
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and get medicines in order to save their loved ones. The same thing happened in Valjevo. Even though
the epidemic was almost overcome, the disease was still present. One of the members of the mission,
Bessie Sutherland, came down with typhus and died in Valjevo on 26 September 1915.The war and
epidemic ravaged the area between the Drina and Sava rivers. Considering the differences in population
censuses in the Valjevo district for 1910 and 1916, a population loss of 40,000 is evident, and for the
Drina region it is even higher. If one takes into account natural population growth which is not shown, as
well as the number of people who were in the military units or who fled with them, the resulting numbers
do not change much. It is believed that the number of the Serbian soldiers who died in the Valjevo
hospital was about 3,500, in addition to about 4,000 civilians and around 2,000 Austro-Hungarian
soldiers. No one took into account a large number of refugee casualties from the Drina region, Bosnia,
and Srem who, unfortunately, were not spared from the storm, hunger, exhaustion and disease. Many of
them left their lives in marked and unmarked graves by the road. In addition, this number does not
include a large number of those who died from the consequences of war and disease in the Valjevo
villages, where 90% of the population had lived. Many families and in the town itself had been
completely extinct, and after the war their deaths were not recorded by anyone. The Austro-Hungarian
district doctor in Valjevo, Julijus Roksandić, in his detailed report on the health situation, stated that at
the Valjevo cemeteries there were 45,000 corpses buried. Taking into account all that is known about
this period, that is not far from the exact number. In the new offensive of the Austro-Hungarian forces,
together with German forces, the weakened Serbian army, without a half of their best soldiers, who had
lost their lives or who had been injured during the previous year due to the effects of war or disease,
could not repeat its great successes. It was forced to retreat towards Albania, together with a part of the
people and medical staff. Immediately before the retreat, the Serbian Government had liberated the
contracted foreign personnel from all the obligations, paid their salary for one month in advance and all
the travel expenses for them to return to their countries. Many of them did not want to leave the Serbian
people in the most difficult times, and went with them into the Albanian Golgotha. Among them there
was a large number of the mission members, but also doctors Conseil and Hirsfeld with his wife Hanna.
In the Valjevo auxiliary hospital there remained slightly over 400 seriously wounded soldiers with
doctors Aleksa Stojković and Isak Beraha. After the new organization, the Austro-Hungarian
authorities continued work in the Valjevo hospitals.
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Remarks
1 М. Перишић, Сарајевски атентат. Повратак документима, Андрићград–Вишеград, 2014.
2 Cyrillic script was forbidden in Croatian primary and secondary schools in October 1914, and totally banned, except
for clerical needs, in early January 191500
3 В. Ћоровић, Црна књига, Патње Срба БиХ за време Светског рата, Београд – Сарајево 1920, стр. 166. In the
period 27 December 1915 – 5 July 1917, 45,791 persons, almost 50% of whom women and children passed through the
camp in Doboj that was an open space with several wooden sheds earleir built for the sick horses. As the German consul in
Sarajevo informed, only in spring 1916 some 8,000 Serbs – mostly women, children and elderly – died in this camp.
4
Inter-Municipal Historical Archives of Valjevo (MIAV), Fund of the Municipality of the City of Valjevo, 159/6-
83,161/133; В. Ћоровић, 162
5
А. Митровић, Србија у Првом светском рату, Београд 1984, стр.128.
6
В. Штрандман, Балканске успомене, Београд, 2009, стр. 333. On the very eve of the war, Serbia had mone to pay its
dues for 20 days only, as stated by Nikola Pašić asking Russia and France for a loan ammounting to FF 100,000,000. Thanks
to a huge Russian financial and other assistance, and its acting as a guarantor of some loans, the Serbian Government was
able to service its regular and new financial debts.
7
Denik Františka Vančury, www.velikavalna.info/osudy/vancura_frantisek.php. (приступљено 15. августа 2015.)
The Higher Command liberated 40 of 120 prisoners sentenced to death. The remaining 80 were shot; А. ван Тинховен,
Страхоте рата у Србији, Београд, 2005, стр. 17. The bodies of the murdered were also seen by doctor Tienhoven who
took part in the work of the Committee for Identification of Crimes. He mentions 16 persons tied by ropes and shot and
further afield "60 tо 70 children cadavers burnt in a school".
8 Military Archives, Fond of the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia, 3А, к.124/1/1
9 On the battlefield, the first aid was provided by the nurses and then the casualties arrived to field hospitals that had
surgeons, through the nearby dressing points. Having received aid, the wounded were transported to hospitals. During the
Battle of Cer, the biggest Serbian hospital was near the church in the village of Krivaja, and a smaller one in Tekeriš. The
Austro'Hungarian hospital was located in the old brick factory in the village of Milline on Mt. Cer.
10
А. Недок, Српски војни санитет у Првом светском рату, Београд, 2014. стр. 50.
11 According to the records of Army Minister Stefanović, there were 595 doctors and 233 medical staff, Already as of 31
October 1914
12
France, Italy, Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Switzerland, Тurkey, Argentina, Chile, Great Britain and USA, in
addition to Russian and Greece, responded to the appeal of the Serbian Red Cross.
13
As they mostly spoke French among themselves, a wrong impression was gained that it was a French mission.
14
She saved many lives on the battlefield and gave hers at Gučevo on 2 October 1914
15 For a very brief time, in late August and early September, the imprisoned Czech from Prague Heinrih Pruska helped in
the hospital as an assistant in the maternity ward.
16 As his delivery happened immediately after the arrival of doctor Tienhoven and as he handled them, the
misinformation spread that he also bought them.
17
М. Радојчић, Бабићи из Ваљева, Гласник МИАВ, бр. 40. Ваљево, 2010, стр. 31. On retreat from Valjevo before the
Battle of Kolubara, she was appointed manager of the hospital in Pirot.
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