Authored by Petrit Latifi

Serbian propaganda claims that Austro-Hungarian troops committed “barbaric crimes” against defenseless Serbian civilians. However, what they fail to mention is that Serbian civilians fought alongside the Serbian army and attacked Austro-Hungarian troops. This meant that irregular units were excluded from the Hague Conventions on Land Warfare. In the book “Gemeinsame Geschichte? Ein Jahrhundert serbischer und österreichischer Mythen” we read:

“As late as August, the Serbian government was still complaining internationally about the war crimes committed by Austro-Hungarian troops. Vienna considered itself free of any blame, as the civilians killed had participated in the fighting in an unjustified manner. In a decree of July 25, 1914, in anticipation of such difficulties, irregular units were summarily excluded from the Hague Conventions on Land Warfare.”

“Serbian soldiers naturally behaved bravely, honestly and correctly”

According to Belgrade newspaper “Politika”, Serb soldiers supposedly behaved “bravely, honestly and correctly”. They failed however to mention the despicable, appalling atrocities which Serbian troops had committed since 1912 against defenseless Albanians for 2 years. Serbian atrocities against Albanians continued through out the whole war of 1914-1918.

Serbian armed civilians fired at the Austro-Hungarian troops from behind

“The first massacre of the World War in the Balkans occurred on August 17, 1914, in Šabac (Schabatz). The small Serbian town had been captured by the Austro-Hungarian army after heavy fighting on August 12, 1914. Serbian troops were nearby, and on August 24, Šabac had to be evacuated again.

There was looting and accusations that the residents had behaved in a hostile, treacherous, and treacherous manner toward the military, which is why, on August 13, probably 200 civilians were arrested as hostages and locked in the church. On August 17, at least 80 civilians were executed. The case became a political issue because Serbia took up the events and accused its enemy of a massacre, to which Austria-Hungary countered that the residents had shot at the troops from behind”¹

References

Gemeinsame Geschichte? Ein Jahrhundert serbischer und österreichischer Mythen, by Wolfgang Pensold, Silvia Nadjivan, Eva Tamara Asboth, 2015.

1. Balkan 1914-1945 Raum und Kleiner Krieg als militärhistorische Kategorien in der Wahrnehmung deutscher Streitkräfte By Harald Potempa · 2021 ↩︎