Dobroslav Jevđević

Dobroslav Jevđević (1895–1962) was a Bosnian Serb politician and Chetnik leader. He was a politician in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia serving on the Organisation of Yugoslav Nationalists party and later as a parliamentary candidate of the Yugoslav National Party. When the Second World War broke out he became a leader of Chetniks in Herzegovina and collaborated with the Italians in actions against the Yugoslav Partisans under the awareness and condonation of supreme Chetnik commander Draža Mihailović. His forces were later merged with other collaborationist forces and put under the command of Odilo Globocnik. He died in Rome in October 1962.

Early life

Jevđević was born in Prača near Rogatica in 1895. Jevđević was a member of Young Bosnia and a friend of Gavrilo Princip.^[1] In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Jevđević served as a member of the right-wing Organisation of Yugoslav Nationalists and became a parliamentary candidate of the opposition Yugoslav National Party.^[2] He approved of the creation of the Banovina of Croatia and advocated a large Serb counterpart that would include most of Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[2]

World War II

On October 20, 1941, Jevđević met with Angelo de Matteis, head of the information division of the Italian 6th Army Corps, and Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin and formed an agreement on collaboration.^[3] Draža Mihailović was aware of the collaborationist arrangements entered by Jevđević and Trifunović-Birčanin and condoned them.^[3]

In an internal report of June 1942, Jevđević claimed that the Proletarian brigades of the Partisans contained many "Jews, Gypsies and Muslims." In July 1942, Jevđević issued a proclamation to the ‘Serbs of eastern Bosnia and Hercegovina’ claiming that:

Tito, the supreme military chief of the Partisans, is a Croat from Zagreb. Pijade, the supreme political chief of the Partisans, is a Jew. Four fifths of all armed Partisans were supplied to them by Pavelić’s Croatian Army. Two thirds of their officers are former Croatian officers. The financing of their movement is carried out by the powerful Croatian capitalists of Zagreb, Split, Sarajevo and Dubrovnik. Fifty percent of the Ustashas responsible for the massacres of Serbs are now in their ranks.

Jevđević charged the Yugoslav Partisans with having "destroyed Serb churches and established mosques, synagogues and Catholic temples."^[4]

In August 1942, Mario Roatta, commander of the 2nd Italian Army in Yugoslavia, after transferring several divisions in North Africa for the Allied invasion, contacted Jevđević and legalized 3,000 of his Chetniks and gave them authorization to operate in eastern Herzegovina.^[3] By the end of 1942, Chetnik-Italian collaboration was routine.^[3]

In autumn of 1942, despite having a strong hostility to the Muslims, Jevđević took a radically different approach from other Chetnik leaders and favoured collaborating with them against the Ustaša and the Partisans and forming Muslim Chetnik units.^[5] He urged the Italian military to occupy all of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to end Ustasa rule and claimed the support of 80 percent of the population, that is the Serbs and Muslims.^[5] At the same time he requested from the Germans that Bosnia and Herzegovina be granted autonomy until the end of the war citing that Muslims were "tested friends of the Germans both in the earlier and in the present era".^[5] Through these means Jevđević appropriated both the Muslims and Bosnian autonomism for his alliance with the occupying Axis powers.^[5] Nothing developed from these requests.^[5]

Since September 1942 the Chetniks tried to persuade the Italians in undertaking "a large operation" against the Partisans in areas of western Bosnia - knowing that unaided they were unable of defeating them. Trifunović-Birčanin met with General Roatta on September 10 and 21 and urged him to undertake a large operation "as soon as possible" in order to rid the Partisans from the Prozor-Livno area and offered 7,500 Chetniks as aid on the condition they be given the necessary arms and supplies. He was successful in obtaining some arms and promises of action.^[6] In early October 1942, Jevđević and Petar Baćović with 3,000 Herzegovinian and southeast-Bosnian Chetniks participated in an Italian-launched operation called "Alfa".^[6] In the operation the town of Prozor and some smaller towns were captured. The Chetnik forces, acting on their own, burned these villages and massacred the civilian Muslim and Croatian population.^[6] Their behavior angered the Croatian quisling government, and the Italians had to order the Chetniks to withdraw. Some were discharged altogether while others were sent later to northern Dalmatia to aid Momčilo Đujić's forces.^[6]

After the death of Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin in February 1943, Jevđević, along with Momčilo Đujić, Petar Baćović, and Radovan Ivanišević vowed to the Italians to carry on Trifunović-Birčanin's policies of closely collaborating with them against the Yugoslav Partisans.^[7]

Around March 25, 1943, Jevđević, through Italians and the Italians themselves, requested 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen for assistance in defending Nevesinje. The Germans declined stating that the division was tired and needed rested and that they were reserved for other tasks.^[8]

In December 1944, Jevđević's Chetnik forces joined Momčilo Đujić's Chetniks, Dimitrije Ljotić's Volunteers, and Milan Nedić's Serbian Shock Corps in forming a single unit that was under the command of Odilo Globocnik of the Higher SS and Police Leader in the Adriatic Littoral.^[9]

Death

Jevđević died in Rome in October 1962.

References

1. ^ Hoare, Marko Attila (2007). The History of Bosnia: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day. Saqi. p. 88. ISBN 0863569536. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Hitler's new disorder : the Second World War in Yugoslavia, Columbia University Press, New York, 2007, page 46
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Ramet, Sabrina P.; The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918-2004, p. 148; Indiana University Press, 2006; ISBN 0-253-34656-8
4. ^ Hoare, Marko Attila (2006). Genocide and Resistance in Hitler's Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks. Oxford University Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 0197263801. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d e} Hoare, Marko Attila (2006). Genocide and Resistance in Hitler's Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks. Oxford University Press. p. 308. ISBN 0197263801. 
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: The Chetniks. Stanford University Press. pp. 232–233. ISBN 0804708576. 
7. ^ Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: The Chetniks. Stanford University Press. p. 218. ISBN 0804708576. 
8. ^ Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: The Chetniks. Stanford University Press. p. 248. ISBN 0804708576. 
9. ^ Cohen, Philip J., Riesman, David; Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History Texas, p. 46; A&M University Press, 1996 ISBN 0890967601

Persondata
Name	Jevdevic, Dobroslav
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1895
Place of birth
Date of death	1962
Place of death