Authored by Petrit Latifi

Through out World War I, Serbian atrocities against Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war was reported. In the book “Kriegsgefangenschaft in Österreich-Ungarn 1914-1918 Historiographien” we read:

“For example, a Serbian officer held as a prisoner of war by the Austro-Hungarians had confirmed the mass killing of Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war by the Serbian side—referring to a more or less standard procedure in this regard. The killing of prisoners of war thus presented itself as a virtually constitutive factor in Serbian warfare.

Reports of Serbian attacks on Austro-Hungarian prisoners were also compiled on the Italian side. These confirmed, among other things, that German and Hungarian soldiers in particular were treated particularly badly and that arbitrary killings were not isolated cases.

Also “immediately shot” were those prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian Army who were found to have been in Šabac when dozens of civilians were killed there on the orders of the Austro-Hungarian military personnel concerned. An act of revenge similar to that practiced on the Western Front, for example, in response to the sinking of the Lusitania, albeit against randomly selected prisoners of war.”

Serbian atrocities against prisoners during the “Serbian Retreat” of 1915

“How horrible it was to be at the mercy of a few peasant louts who could rob you, strip you, and beat you to death whenever they wanted,” noted a Czech soldier who had been taken prisoner by Serbians during the “Great Retreat” of the Serbian army at the end of 1915.

In doing so, he again relativized the rumored better treatment of Slavic Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in Serbian hands. Excesses of Serbian hatred of Austria-Hungary, which erupted in the form of mistreatment of the prisoners, were observed, however, by those Italian officers who took the captured Austro-Hungarian soldiers into their custody in view of the “Great Retreat” of the Serbian army: All valuables were stolen from the surviving prisoners of war, including the food issued by the Italian side”.

“Not satisfied with this, the Serbian recruits and non-commissioned officers began selling the still-undressed bodies of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers to the Albanians. The prisoners, who cautiously protested, received one last beating before being taken over by the Italian soldiers.”

Serbian soldiers

Reference

Kriegsgefangenschaft in Österreich-Ungarn 1914-1918 Historiographien, Kontext, Themen By Heiko Brendel, Dagmar Hájková, Martin Klečacký, Henriett Kovacs, Hannes Leidinger, Loránd L. Mádly, Gordana Ilić Marković, Marco Mondini, Danilo Šarenac, Natalja Surzikova, Oswald Überegger, 2022.