Authored by Petrit Latifi

In 1912 and 1913, Serbian atrocities were reported by the consuls of Skopje and Monastir. However these were fully ignored by the Serbian government of the time. In the book “Kill the Huns – Tötet die Hunnen! Geheimdienste, Propaganda und Subversion hinter den Kulissen des Ersten Weltkrieges” by Helmut Roewer 2014 we can read.

“Back to Serbia and its political perpetrators. What the beautiful appearance of the South Slavs really looked like could be studied in the territories annexed by Serbia in 1912/13. The Slav brothers who were supposedly brought home were subjected to terror. The new rule defied description.

It was exercised by local Serbian gang leaders who had no problem sealing off villages they did not like, shooting the male residents in single file, burning houses, and chasing fleeing women and children to kill. For example, the British vice-consuls on the ground in Skopje and Monastir reported it in detail, and there is little reason to distrust these reports.

It sounds more like a cruel confirmation when the British chargé d’affaires in Belgrade subsequently informed the Foreign Office in London of the opposite and did not forget to point out that reports of Serbian atrocities were nothing more than anti-Serbian propaganda. You only see what you want to see. Serbia was also an important factor in British calculations; it sealed off the Central League powers in the Balkans from the south.”

Reference

Kill the Huns – Tötet die Hunnen! Geheimdienste, Propaganda und Subversion hinter den Kulissen des Ersten Weltkrieges By Helmut Roewer, 2014.