WWII in Yugoslavia
As history has proven, war is inevitable and as it has been said numerous times before, history repeats itself. This is especially true when discussing war. War for the United States usually begins at a set time and date and eventually ends years later. Yugoslavia seems to have a slightly different history regarding war, being that on Yugoslavia’s terms, conflict was common after World War I because of the incredible amounts of diversity. This diversity was eventually separated during the Second World War when partitions took place after the Germans captured Belgrade in April of 1941. World War II was the cause of many hardships for people internationally, but one of the war’s most harrowing effects was the impact it had on the religious people and their families.
Yugoslavia was split most importantly through the diversity of religions. Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro were primarily comprised of Orthodox Christians; however, there were considerable amounts of Albanian Muslim, Hungarian, and German minorities. Slovenia and Croatia mostly contained Catholics. Many people do not understand that the holocaust of Jews was not the only genocide being practiced by these German officers, but others have had first hand experience as to how the practices against groups in Yugoslavia were so similar to that of the Jews. Matthew Gnezda, a Slovenian living throughout the war stated in an interview:
My Uncle John, who was a priest, was sent to a concentration camp as the Germans were opposed to any religious clergy practicing their religion. There seems to be always such an emphasis on the extermination of the Jews in Europe while we seem to think that other religions and religious people went untouched by the Nazis. I can assure you that was not the case, the persecution and purging of all religion and religious was a practice widely carried out throughout Europe.
Adolf Hitler, the infamous Nazi leader of World War II, believed Germany should “ethnically cleanse” any country they controlled, of these religious people. Hitler also wanted to be the sole government leader and with this tried to persuade his captured countries to join his side. Hitler strongly pressured Yugoslavia to join the Axis powers, after Yugoslavia surrendered to them in April of 1941. The Yugoslav government was both willing and prepared to create a compromise with Hitler, but the protests by its people stated otherwise. There were many public demonstrations against the Nazis; however, with German enforcements in the country, these protests were squelched quickly. When the Germans entered many Yugoslavs were impressed by the sheer numbers of soldiers and equipment they had brought.
The German Army began drafting Yugoslavian men for the war. Many were opposed to this and were killed for resisting Hitler’s orders. Matthew Gnezda’s oldest brother, Frank, was one of these young men killed because he did not agree with the Nazi’s penchant for destruction. Matthew Gnezda later spoke about his personal draft into the German Army: “I was 17 years old when war broke out. I too, was drafted by the German Army. I spent months training under the Germans before I too left them.” Mr. Gnezda later shared that after escaping the German Army; he hid for months and then joined the White Army. On this event he stated, “The war never ended; the enemy just changed uniforms.” Many men found themselves in similar situations. Their entire lives were changed because of this war and few were able to live through it and share their stories today.
Family life was an extremely important component of the lives of everyone in Yugoslavia during and even before the war. After the war, family life changed, however. Most families lived with their extended families consisting of two to four generations on a large farm. This helped lessen the workload. Every family, even primary families, was large compared to those of today’s society and especially those in America. Many families after the war dropped in size, particularly because the amount of lives that were lost.
Matthew Gnezda stated that he grew up with nine brothers and sisters, a number which was tremendously common for the time period. He too lived on a farm consisting of about seventy acres and also mentioned that he, as well as most children of that time, helped on the farm as much as was needed. These families were destroyed. When asked about family life and the war, Mr. Gnezda stated, “Towns, cities, buildings can all be rebuilt, but families and human tragedies are seldom remedied.”
Families were torn apart and many men drafted into the German Army never saw their loved ones again. One reason for this was that their families were sent to concentration camps. Another common occurrence was that drafted soldiers died in the war. Either way, many people were greatly affected and their lives changed dramatically after World War II. If they were lucky, people of Yugoslavia fled and escaped the country and moved elsewhere. Many people moved to South America. Matthew Gnezda notes that he currently has family in Argentina, because they moved there to escape the tragedies back home during wartime. However, it is difficult for him to speak to them because they speak fluently in Spanish and speak little English. It is extremely expensive to make long-distance phone calls; however with recent technology, they have been able to contact each other through emails on the internet. These advances in technology have been incredibly helpful not only to Americans today, but to anyone needing to contact people who live far away.
In 1942, the Office of Strategic Services was created in attempt to receive secretive information during World War II. The Office of Strategic Services was a forerunner of the 
Central Intelligence Agency, more commonly known as the CIA. This agency was created to collect and analyze strategic information and often times recruited men to aide them in their research. Fortunately, Matthew Gnezda was one of these men recruited by the Office of Strategic Services. When his service ended in 1949 for the White Army because he became wounded, he was still serving for the United States in this OSS agency. Therefore, he felt his service truly had not ended.
The Second World War was responsible for the devastation of many families. Its consequences reached world-wide, sending immigrants to far-away places to escape the troubles in their homelands. Family life in general changed; what had once been a thriving population dwindled dramatically, and consequently so did the size of the families that lived together. The number of casualties in soldiers, forced or volunteered, also accounted for this drastic change in family size. Religious men and others who stood up for a cause other than those which Hitler supported were also taken, tortured, and killed, in the same circumstances as the Jews in the Holocaust. Anyone who resisted Hitler during World War II perished, but their dreams and causes for which they fought pulse strong still today.
Works Cited
Browning, Christopher R. “Genocide in Yugoslavia during the Holocaust.” United States Holocaust Museum. 25 April 2006. http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosta/Geopolitics/Risto.Mostarski/Genocide_in_YU.text
“Family Life.” 28 April 2006. < http://www.cp-pc.ca/english/yugoslavia/family.html>
“Office of Strategic Services.” Wikipedia. 28 April 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services
Personal Interview of Matthew Gnezda. 26 April 2006.
“World War II and its Effects.” History of Serbia. 25 April 2006. < http://www.serbia- info.com/enc/history/worldwar.html>
Ziemke, Earl F. “World War II.” 25 April 2006. http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/WWII.html
By: Andrea Gnezda