A fascinating history. I look forward to the next installment. I went to school in Steubenville OH in the 40' and 50's with many Serbs whose parents had fled Yugoslavia. Medichs, Boichs; dozens of Serbs. They worked in the steel mills, many starting their own businesses. Intelligent, warm. talent people. I am shocked at my own Catholic Church having been involved with the Nazis.
Jared Israel has done great research on this area. Avro Manhattan also wrote much about the Vatican's role. The Vatican is (still) a gargantuan player wrt geopolitics. Obviously none of this makes Catholics evil--but all should study the transgressions of their most (or least) pious religious figureheads. There was a great website that now only seems to be in wayback machine, srpska-mreza dot com, and he theorized that Tito was chosen by the US over Mihailovich because Tito would 'play ball' with the other powers (Vatican and US), and not make any big 'to do' regarding war crimes that took place during WW2. When the US designated Tito as the leader of Yugoslavia, western media entirely stabbed Mihailovich in the back and actually said that he was a nazi collaborator (you can easily find articles saying this). It has no foundation in fact. The Nazis had a huge bounty on his head. In 1948, Truman (sort of quietly) awarded Mihailovich the Legion of Merit b/c he actually helped save 500 US airmen--including Jews. It's all a fascinating story (written about in 'The Forgotten 500').
I remembered when NATO began its bombing campaign against Serbia I remarked to my colleagues in my Political Science Department that these were acts of aggression by what was supposed to be only a mutual defense alliance. But with the current conflict in Ukraine it appears that NATO is anything but a mutual defense pact.
I'm 67, Jewish South African and never had a clue about this. I even went to lessons to learn for my Bar Mitzvah where they supposedly taught us about Jewish history. I had some Yugoslav friends who I found easy to be with. Coincidence?
A fascinating history. I look forward to the next installment. I went to school in Steubenville OH in the 40' and 50's with many Serbs whose parents had fled Yugoslavia. Medichs, Boichs; dozens of Serbs. They worked in the steel mills, many starting their own businesses. Intelligent, warm. talent people. I am shocked at my own Catholic Church having been involved with the Nazis.
Jared Israel has done great research on this area. Avro Manhattan also wrote much about the Vatican's role. The Vatican is (still) a gargantuan player wrt geopolitics. Obviously none of this makes Catholics evil--but all should study the transgressions of their most (or least) pious religious figureheads. There was a great website that now only seems to be in wayback machine, srpska-mreza dot com, and he theorized that Tito was chosen by the US over Mihailovich because Tito would 'play ball' with the other powers (Vatican and US), and not make any big 'to do' regarding war crimes that took place during WW2. When the US designated Tito as the leader of Yugoslavia, western media entirely stabbed Mihailovich in the back and actually said that he was a nazi collaborator (you can easily find articles saying this). It has no foundation in fact. The Nazis had a huge bounty on his head. In 1948, Truman (sort of quietly) awarded Mihailovich the Legion of Merit b/c he actually helped save 500 US airmen--including Jews. It's all a fascinating story (written about in 'The Forgotten 500').
I remembered when NATO began its bombing campaign against Serbia I remarked to my colleagues in my Political Science Department that these were acts of aggression by what was supposed to be only a mutual defense alliance. But with the current conflict in Ukraine it appears that NATO is anything but a mutual defense pact.
I'm 67, Jewish South African and never had a clue about this. I even went to lessons to learn for my Bar Mitzvah where they supposedly taught us about Jewish history. I had some Yugoslav friends who I found easy to be with. Coincidence?