Terror in the Balkans (123 page)

819–831; Schmider,
Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–1944
, 253–254; Christian

Hartmann, “Verbrecherischer Krieg—verbrecherische Wehrmacht? Überlegun-

gen zur Struktur des deutschen Ostheeres 1941–1944,”
Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitge-

schichte
52 (2004): 24–30; Ben Shepherd,
War in the Wild East: The German Army
and Soviet Partisans
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 240–242;

Peter Lieb,
Konventioneller Krieg oder NS-Weltanschauungskrieg? Krieg führung

und Partisanenbekämpfung in Frankreich 1943/44
(Munich: Oldenbourg, 2006),

567–573. See also Introduction.

68. MFB4/72333, 15365/8, 522–524. Tagesmeldung vom 10/14/-10/15/41, pp. 2–3.

69. MFB4/72334, 15365/9, 188. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 11/11/41. Betr.: Meldungen über

Erschießungen, Festnahmen und Sühnemaßnahmen.

70. Ibid.

71. Manoschek,
“Serbien ist judenfrei”: Militarische Besatzungspolitik und Judenver-

nichtung in Serbien 1941/42,
77; Schmider,
Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–

1944
, 71–72.

72. MFB4/72333, 15365/8, 522–524. Tagesmeldung vom 10/14/-10/15/41, p. 1.

73. Ibid.

74. MFB4/72333, 15365/8, 481–488. 342. Inf.-Div. Ic, 10/17/41. Betr.: Feindnachrichten,

p. 2.

75. MFB4/72332, 15365/7, 1028–1029. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 9/27/41. Tagesmeldung, 9/27–

9/28/; MFB4/72332, 15365/7, 705. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 10/10/41.

76. MFB4/72334, 15365/9, 179–180. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 11/12/41. Betr.: Einsatzwert der Truppe, pp. 1–2.

77. MFB4/72332, 15365/7, 1025. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 9/28/41. Betr.: Panzer-Einsatz Sabac;

MFB4/72334, 15365/9, 115–116. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia (offen), 11/16/41. Betr.: Erfahrungs-

bericht der I/Pz. Rgt. 202.

78. MFB4/72332, 15365/7, 1046–1047. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 9/27/41, Anlage 2. Kampfan-

weisung; MFB4/72332, 15365/7, 952. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 9/30/41. Betr.: Tagesziel für

Notes to Pages 133–138
305

9/30/41; MFB4/72333, 15365/8, 572. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 10/14/41. Befehl für die Div.;

MFB4/72333, 15365/8, 566–571. Der Gerichtsherr und Kommandeur der 342. Inf.-

Div., 10/14/41. Betr.: Freischärler und ähnlichen Verbrechen; MFB4/72332, 15365/7,

891. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia (offen), 10/2/41.

79. BA ZStL, B 162 / 29141. Amtsgericht Bremen, 4/7/71. Vernehmung, Oberstleutnant

Bernd P., p. 3; idem., 10. Kommissariat, Andernach, 12/16/71. Vernehmung, Gun-

ther S.

80. MFB4/72332, 15365/7, 905–907. 342. Inf.-Div. Ib, 10/2/41. Wirtschaftliche Ausnüt-

zung des Gebietes in Save-Drina Bogen, p. 2.

81. Ibid., p. 1.

82. MFB4/72333, 15365/8, 481–488, 342. Inf.-Div. Ic, 10/17/41. Betr.: Feindnachrichten,

p. 4.

83. MFB4/72332, 15365/7, 1028–1029. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 9/27/41. Tagesmeldung 9//27–

9/28, p. 1; MFB4/72332, 969–70. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 9/30/41. Tagesmeldung 9/29/-

9/30/41, p. 1; MFB4 72332, 825. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 10/5/41. Befehl für den 10/6/41.

84. MFB4/72333, 15365/8, 481–488. 342. Inf.-Div. Ic, 10/17/41. Betr.: Feindnachrichten,

p. 4.

85. Ibid.

86. MFB4/72334, 15365/9, 148–158. 342. Inf.-Div. Kommandeur, 11/14/41.

87. Ibid.

88. Imperial War Museum (IWM), Nuremberg Hostage Trial (NHT), Document 907

(translation). Plenipotentiary Commanding General in Serbia, 10/25/41; Schmider,

Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–1944
, 73–74.

89. MFB4/72335, 15365/11, 756–757. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia / op. Nr. 951/41 geh. vom 12/14/41.

Anlage 2. Befriedung.

90. MFB4/72335, 15365/11, 729–730. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 12/15/41. Betr.: Unternehmen

Mihailovic´.

91. MFB4/72335, 15365/11, 855. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 12/9/41. Verluste und Beute während

Unternehmen Mihailovic´, 12/5/-12/7/41.

92. MFB4/72335, 15365/11, 550–551. Panzerjägerabteilung 342. Ia, 12/22/41. Betr.:

Fernspruch Nr. 32 vom 12/17/41. Erfahrungsbericht über Unternehmen Užice und

Mihailovic´, p. 2.

93. MFB4/72335, 15365/11, 523–524. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia Nr. 927/41 geh. vom 11/27/41. Anweisung für die Zusammenarbeit zwischen militärischen Führer und Betriebsführer.

94. MFB4/72335, 15365/11, 496. 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 12/30/41. Betr.: Überfall auf Lt. Friedrich 2/699. Friedrich is a pseudonym.

95. RW 40/14. Befehlshaber Serbien. Kriegstagebuch, 12/11/41.

96. See AppendixA.

97. See Appendix A.

98. See AppendixA.

99. See Appendix A.

100. Borowski served on the eastern front between August 1914 and January 1915, spent

seven months in Germany with his regiment’s replacement section after being

wounded, then served with the German military administration in Warsaw between

306
Notes to Pages 138–140

September 1915 and January 1917, and on the western front between February and

November 1918. His location during 1917 is unclear from the sources that could be

accessed for this study. See Appendix A.

101. See Appendix A.

102. See AppendixA.

103. From the sources that could be accessed for this study it is not entirely clear whether Hinghofer was stationed in the East between July and November 1918, or whether he

was transferred to the Italian front or elsewhere.

104. Wolfram Dornik, “Die Besatzung der Ukraine 1918 durch österreichisch-ungarische

Truppen,” 179–180.

105. Von Hagen,
War in a European Borderland: Occupations and Occupation Plans in Galicia and Ukraine, 1914–1918
, 89; Dornik, “Die Besatzung der Ukraine 1918 durch österreichisch-ungarische Truppen,” 179–180. On the Austrian occupation of the Ukraine,

see also Tamara Scheer,
Zwischen Front und Heimat: Österreich-Ungarns Militärver-

waltungen im Ersten Weltkrieg
(Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2007), 49–54.

106. Von Hagen,
War in a European Borderland: Occupations and Occupation Plans in

Galicia and Ukraine, 1914–1918
, 96–98.

107. RH7, fi le on Paul Hoffmann. Der Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Ukraine, 9/13/43.

108. See Appendix A.

109. Walter Manoschek and Hans Safrian, “717./117. Inf.-Div.: Eine Infanterie-Division auf dem Balkan,” in
Vernichtungskrieg: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht, 1941 bis 1944
, ed. Hannes Heer and Klaus Naumann (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1995),” 362–363; Hermann Frank Meyer,
Von Wien nach Kalavryta: Die blutige Spur der 117. Jäger-Division

durch Serbien und Griechenland
(Mannheim: Peleus, 2002), 44–49; Germann, “‘Österreichische’ Soldaten in Ost- und Südosteuropa 1941—1945: Deutsche Krieger—Nation-

alsozialistische Verbrecher—Österreichische Opfer?,” 145–149. Grisly but necessary

distinctions need making between the 717th’s conduct on these occasions, and that of

the 342d, if the exceptional nature of the 342d’s brutality is to be properly understood.

At Kragujevac, the third battalion of the 749th Infantry Regiment (717th Infantry Divi-

sion) and the fi rst battalion of the 724th Infantry Regiment (704th Infantry Division) shot twenty-three hundred civilians in reprisal for ten dead and twenty-six wounded Wehrmacht soldiers. This reprisal was in line with General Boehme’s 1:100 and 1:50 ratios.

Some of the killings at Kraljevo were not in response to particular attacks in which

Wehrmacht soldiers had been killed or wounded. On October 15, soldiers of the 717th

shot three hundred civilians simply because they had been fi red upon from houses in

the town. On October 16 the town commandant (not directly subordinate to the 717th)

ordered that the
families
of hostages, as well as hostages themselves, be killed and their homes destroyed.

However, at the close of the operation, the 717th recorded losing fi fty dead and ninety-two wounded to enemy action during its course. Both the “grand total” of enemy dead the

division recorded (5,037) as well as of reprisal victims specifi cally (forty-three hundred), were actually far lower than the ninety-six hundred hostages who would have been shot

had Boehme’s reprisal ratios been followed. The shortfall was almost certainly due not to

“restraint,” but to lack of suffi cient victims. Dreadful as this conduct clearly was, however,
Notes to Pages 141–145
307

it remained within the boundaries set by Boehme. Manoschek,
“Serbien ist judenfrei”:
Militarische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941/42,
chap. 4.

110. RH7, fi les on Walter Hinghofer, Paul Hoffmann and Erich Stahl; MSg 109, fi le on

Heinrich Borowski.

111. Germann, “‘Österreichische’ Soldaten in Ost- und Südosteuropa 1941–1945: Deutsche

Krieger—Nationalsozialistische Verbrecher—Österreichische Opfer?,” 129–133.

112. The 342d’s divisional fi les are not suffi ciently detailed to enable a meaningful comparison of the different levels of brutality, in terms of numbers of “insurgents”

reported killed, displayed by each of the division’s three subordinate regiments.

113. Manoschek,
“Serbien ist judenfrei”: Militarische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941/42
48–49.

114. Ibid., 161.

115. Theo J. Schulte makes a similar point regarding offi cers in German-occupied

Russia. Theo J. Schulte, The
German Army and Nazi Policies in Occupied Russia

(Oxford: Berg,
1989), 290.

116. RW 40/12. Der Bevollm. Kdr. General in Serbien (Bfh. Serbien-Kdo. Stab), 10/29/41.

10–Tagesmeldung, p. 1.

117. NARA T-175/234. Der Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD Amt IV, 10/21/41, pp.

1, 5–7.

118. On the course of Operation Užice, see Schmider,
Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien
1941–1944
, 78–80.

119. IWM, NHT Document 1051 (translation). 342. Inf.-Div. Ia, 11/24/41. Divisional

Order for the Annihilation of the Enemy in the area of Užice.

120. Matteo J. Milazzo,
The Chetni Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance
(Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 31.

121. Jozo Tomasevich,
War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks
(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1975), 145; Tim Judah,
The Serbs: History,

Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 118; Schmider,
Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–1944
, 74–75.

122. Tomasevich,
War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks,
145; Schmider,
Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–1944
, 102.

123. Djilas,
Wartime: With Tito and the Partisans
, 94.

124. Manoschek,
“Serbien ist judenfrei”: Militarische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941/42,
117–122, 126–131.

125. On plans for “Great Serbia,” see Tomasevich,
War and Revolution in Yugoslavia,
1941–1945: The Chetniks,
167–175; Marko Attila Hoare,
Genocide and Resistance in
Hitler’s Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks 1941–1943
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 144.

126. Melissa K. Bokovoy,
Peasants and Communists: Politics and Ideology in the Yugoslav
Countryside, 1941–1953
(Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998), 9–10; Swain,
Tito: A Biography
, 38.

127. Mark Wheeler, “Pariahs to Partisans to Power: The Communist Party of Yugosla-

via,” in
Resistance and Revolution in Mediterranean Europe 1939–1948,
ed. Tony

Judt (London: Routledge, 1989), 134–135.

308
Notes to Pages 145–149

128. Milazzo,
The Chetni Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance
, 40–41; Schmider,
Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–1944
, 82.

129. Milazzo,
The Chetni Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance
, 36–38.

130. Ibid., 36.

131. Ibid., 41; Tomasevich,
War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks
, 155; Wheeler, “Pariahs to Partisans to Power: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia,” 136. On contact between Mihailovicánd the Axis during autumn 1941, see also

Tomasevich,
War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks
, 148–150.

132. Schmider,
Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–1944
, 102–103.

133. Ibid., 80.

134. Ibid., 78, 80.

135. Swain,
Tito: A Biography,
40.

136. Schmider,
Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–1944
, 103.

137. Ibid., 81–83. Bader’s actual title was
Kommandierende General und Befehlshaber in
Serbien
, as distinct from Danckelmann’s
Befehlshaber in Serbien
. The title refl ects the fact that Bader, unlike Danckelmann, also retained command of the “seven-hundred-number” occupation divisions under LXV Corps, as well as holding theatre

command over the 342d and 113th Infantry Divisions. However, as Bader’s new title

translates into English as the unwieldy “Commanding General and Commander in

Serbia,” this work instead refers to him as “Commander in Serbia.”

138. Swain,
Tito: A Biography,
40.

7. sta nding di v ided

1. On the Partisan movement in 1942, see Milovan Djilas,
Wartime: With Tito and the
Partisans
(London: Martin Secker and Warburg, 1977), 101–212; Richard West,
Tito
and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia
(London: Sinclair Stevenson, 1996), chaps. 6, 7; Marko Attila Hoare,
Genocide and Resistance in Hitler’s Bosnia: The Partisans and

the Chetniks 1941–1943
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), chaps. 3–5; Geoffrey Swain,
Tito: A Biography
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2011), 41–55.