Serbia in World War One 1914–1918, is a magnificent example of courage, warrior skills, love and dignity of the overall population, irrespective of gender, age, religion or nationality. It is at the same time a tragic example of enormous military and civilian losses in the merciless fight for freedom and victory of their beloved country of Serbia.
In the factographic and very touching book published by the Committee for Erection of the Monument to Fallen Jewish Warriors – MEMORIAL TO FALLEN SERBIAN JEWS IN THE BALKAN WARS AND THE WORLD WAR ONE 1912-1918, pub-
lished by Publishing House of M. Karić, Belgrade, 1927, the Introduction states as follows:
„ (… ) Jews had, ever since leaving their original country, continually been good citizens in all countries where they lived throughout history. They always valued highly the aspiration for justice and patriotism of the nations with whom they lived, and they always highly valued the love extended them and never failed to respond with love (…) That is how it is and has been in the country of Serbs, where Jews in every respect (as stated by their famous compatriot and historian Flavius Josephus) worked in peace and order to contribute to the national benefit and struggling, during times of war, shoulder to shoulder, lovingly and courageously next to their brothers Serbs”.
On the occasion of one hundred years of the beginning of World War One, the Jewish Historical Museum is staging this exhibition simply titled SERBIAN JEWS IN WORLD WAR ONE and dedicating it to all Serbian Jews, men and women, as warriors or health care workers, in all wars for liberation of Serbia in the period 1912–1918.
The Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade can be said to be a small museum. However, this kind of qualification may be questionable in the context of the fact that this is the only Jewish museum in Serbia which, in terms of its content, is an institution of a highly complex organisation. The Museum consists of two components – museum collections, some of which are unique in our country and cannot be seen in other museums or archives. Although our „small” Museum has rich and diversified archives and photo-documentation testifying to the Jewish history and culture, both in Serbia and in the whole of former-Yugoslavia, this material is related mostly to three historical periods: the period between the two world wars, the period of the World War Two and the Holocaust, and the period after 1945, when the Yugoslav state as a whole was finally liberated and saved from German occupiers, the Croatian Ustasha and other Nazi allies. Regretfully, the Jewish community was not saved. The renewal of the Jewish community in Yugoslavia was, mildly stated, was only partial and at a minimum level.
The Holocaust – the atrocious genocide against the Jews, had been accompanied by both plunder and destruction of all forms of tangible heritage. After the founding of our Jewish Historical Museum (65 years ago), the archive documents, photographs, ritual objects, religious books, and other artefacts began to arrive, including diversified and by some magic preserved specific features and documents of a whole universe, our world, which had disappeared. Thus, among other things, there was a box with archive material related to the Serbian Jews in the Balkan Wars and the World War One, 1912 – 1918. It consisted of 35 photographs, originals and copies with, for instance, a unanimous (original) photograph of the Serbian-Jewish heroine Neti Munk carrying on her back a sick man from the time of the terrible epidemic of typhoid during World War One. There are also a number of newspaper articles from the daily „Politika“ from the post-war period, about the war. An original “evacuation diary” from 1916 has been preserved by the Calvary officer Moša Mevorah who, apart from taking part in the war, was an excellent drawing artist. The Museum collections also feature a soldier’s blanket which travelled through Albania and protected from cold its owner, Gavriel Navonović, a Sephardic Jew from Priština. And that is all. That is sufficient.
It has been one hundred years since the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy, which subsequently changed its position, and later on also Bulgaria and Turkey), initiated an offensive war which, until World War Two, was adequately named the Great War. Before the Great War began, Serbia had gone through two Balkan Liberation Wars in the period 1912-1913 (against Turkey and Bulgaria) and was victorious in both. After certain political games and looking for an appropriate occasion, Austria-Hungary attacked the already exhausted Serbia. There was no way that Serbia could have avoided the Great War, and at the same time not lose itself. And that was not an option. The courage and honour of all our predecessors would not have allowed that.
Jews of that time called themselves „Serbs of Moses’ religion“. They took part in all the wars in the period from 1912 to 1918 when the Great War finally ended, and our country lost more than a million and a half of its people. Jews and Serbs, men and women, were exceptionally honourable and courageous warriors, and dedicated doctors and nurses. They all fought in their own way.
That is how the Serbs and Serbs of Moses’ religion were victorious in the Great War. This whole period marked by wars of 1912–1918 was both a tragic and a glorious part of the turbulent history of our country, Serbia.
Preserving the memory of our predecessors, their honour and courage, we proudly staged this exhibition. In an article published in the daily “Politika” dating back to 1933, the journalist writes: „In the liberation wars that Serbia fought all of our Serbia’s Jews always took part. In everything equal to other citizens, they were always among the first to also honour their obligations. When there was need to go to war, our Jews did so (… ) and they did not lag behind others in any respect. Many of them gave their lives for the prospects of the country that they lived in.“
Vojislava Radovanović