Serbia under Nazi occupation

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Yugoslavian coins of 1938.

Obverse of a coin of occupied Serbia.

Compare the eagle on the pre-war Yugoslavian coins to the one on the occupation coins.

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Here you see the flag of occupied Serbia.

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Serbia, 10 dinara, 1943.

In 1943 a 10 dinara coin was issued.

The double-headed eagle was shown with its wings apart, compared to the eagle on the lower denominations.

This was both the final coin and also the highest denomination of the series.

No more occupation coins were issued after 1943.

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Tito, leader of the Partisans.

By the summer of 1942, is estimated that around 400,000 Serbs had been expelled or had fled from others parts of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, particularly Croatia, and were living in the occupied territory. The Serbian government under Nedić accepted many refugees, mostly of Serbian descent.

While in the beginning both Partisans and the Chetniks engaged in resistance, the Partisans became the main resistance force, after Chetniks started to collaborate with the Axis forces in 1942. Nedić also secretly diverted money and arms from his government to the Chetniks. By 1943, the Allies had decided to support Tito and his communist partisans, rather than the Chetniks, as the most effective resistance against the Nazis.

On 8 September 1943 the Italians concluded an armistice with the Allies, leaving 17 divisions stranded in Yugoslavia. All divisional commanders refused to join the Germans. Two Italian infantry divisions joined the Montenegrin Partisans as complete units, while another joined the Albanian Partisans. Other units surrendered to the Germans to face imprisonment in Germany or summary execution. Others surrendered themselves, arms, ammunition and equipment to Croatian forces or to the Partisans, simply disintegrated, or reached Italy on foot via Trieste or by ship across the Adriatic. The Italian Governorship of Dalmatia was disestablished and the country's possessions were subsequently divided between Germany, which established its Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, and the Independent State of Croatia, which established the new district of Sidraga-Ravni Kotari. The former Italian kingdoms of Albania and of Montenegro were placed under German occupation.

On 16 June 1944, the Tito-Šubašić agreement between the Partisans and the Yugoslavian Government in exile of King Peter II was signed on the island of Vis, in an attempt to form a new Yugoslav government which would include both the communists and the royalists. It called for a merger of the Partisan Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia and the Government in exile. The agreement also called on all Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs to join the Partisans, who were recognised by the Royal Government as Yugoslavia's regular army. Mihajlović and many Chetniks refused to answer the call.

In August 1944 King Michael I of Romania staged a coup, Romania quit the war, and the Romanian army was placed under the command of the Red Army. Romanian forces, fighting against Germany, participated in the Prague Offensive. Bulgaria quit the war as well and on 10 September declared war on Germany and its remaining allies.

On 12 September 1944 King Peter broadcast a message from London, calling upon all Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to "join the National Liberation Army under the leadership of Marshal Tito". The message had a devastating effect on the morale of the Chetniks. Many of them switched sides to the Partisans. Also in 1944, the Macedonian and Serbian commands made contact in southern Serbia and formed a joint command, which consequently placed the Macedonian Partisans under the direct command of Marshal Josip Broz Tito. The Slovene Partisans also merged with Tito's forces in 1944.

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END OF THE WAR AND THE OCCUPATION

On October 4, 1944, with the successes of the Yugoslav Partisans and their onslaught on Belgrade, Nedić's government was disbanded, and on October 6, Nedić fled from Belgrade to Kitzbühel, Austria (then annexed to Germany) where he took refuge with the occupying British. Dimitrije Ljotić, leader of the Zbor movement, died in a car accident in Slovenia in April 1945, while Milan Aćimović was killed by Yugoslav Partisans during the Battle of Zelengora.

On 8 March 1945, a coalition Yugoslav government was formed in Belgrade with Tito as Premier and Ivan Šubašić as Foreign Minister. Tito later turned Yugoslavia into a communist state.

On January 1, 1946, the British forces handed Nedić over to the Yugoslav Partisans. He was incarcerated in Belgrade on a charge of treason. On February 5, the newspapers reported that he had committed suicide by jumping out of a window while the guards were not looking. It has subsequently been suggested that he was murdered in custody, though this has never been proven.

Mihailović, the Chetnik leader, was also captured by the communists. He was tried and convicted of high treason and war crimes by the authorities of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and executed by firing squad in Belgrade on 17 July 1946, aged 53.

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Given the circumstances in Serbia and Yugoslavia, it is not surprising that their Jewish citizens suffered a horrific fate.

You can read about it here: The Holocaust in Serbia.

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See also:  Yugoslavia: Two Kings on Coins.