My WWII family history

Let's start with my grandad.

My grandad was born in 1939 so he was very little when the war in Yugoslavia started in April 1941 by Nazi bombing of Belgrade.
He's a 76 year old now and he says he only remembers the late years of the war. When the war began his house was burned by Croatian Ustashas because his father (my grand-grandad) was a partisan. My grandpa along with his mother and 6 brothers and sisters which all of them were young was forced to run away from nazis most time of the war. His father was killed in 1943 and they never found out by who or where his grave might be. His older sister died at the age of 9 from typhus in 1943 too. My grandpa was in Croatian nazi deathcamp with his brother and sister but all three of them managed to get out when their mother bribed the deathcamp guards. One of my grandpas cousins was just 12 years old when he was killed in action while fighting the nazis. All of his family were partisans and a lot of them held a big rank and were the organisers of the Yugoslav uprising. A lot of them were killed in action, shot by nazis or masacred by Croatian Ustashas or Serbian Chetniks which both were nazi collaborators and puppets. That's a story of my grandpas family.

Now the grandmas side.

She was born in 1948 so she didn't see the horors of the war. Her father was just 16 years old when he was forced to watch Croatian Ustashas decapitating his father in 1941. He later joined the partisans in 1942 at the age of 17. I still treasure his Medal for bravery and Order of Merits for the people. His cousin Nikola Severović who was killed by the enemy aviation in front of his eyes in 1943 was one of the 1386 People's heroes of Yugoslavia. People's hero of Yugoslavia is a medal equivalent to the Medal of Honor of the US army.

I hope my family story will show you how cruel the war in Yugoslavia was and how big role the Yugoslav partisans played in WWII. Not to mention all the women and children that fought the nazis along with men.
Let us never forget all the victims of this cruel war and especially the civil ones.

 

from what I've read, a lot of forces and factors involved there before, during, and after the war...fighting against each other, then against the Germans, then against both the Germans and each other... etc....as we see in other wars, many groups trying to gain power.....and some of it gets out of hand....some out of control bandits, rebels, do what they want....revenge, power, greed, etc all stirred in the pot of human nature to create the hell and horror that will never end

 

Yes. There were always some kind of conflicts in the Balkan peninsula.

I didn't read that book, but there were a lot of stories I heared about Yugoslav partisans helping Ally pilots. They filmed a few movies about it in Yugoslavia.

 

Is your signature the medal your are mentioning? That would indeed be a great tribute.

 

Yes it is friend. Here you can see what he did in war: http://www.deseti-korpus.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=255:severovi-nikola-&catid=49:narodni-heroji&Itemid=139

I will translate the most important parts.

He was born in 1911 in the village Belanovo near Ludbreg, Croatia. After the capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia he helped the partisan movement and he was jailed in 1942 by Ustashas. After 3 months he was released and he directly joined the Kalnik partisan regiment. In the first combat he showed a great courage and endurance, so he was respected among other fighters. In the may of 1943 he became the commander of the 3rd Kalnik batallion. He lead the partisans in a mission of destroying a German Nazi armored train where he killed 14 enemies. After that he was successful in destroying 4 more German trains. He liberated a lot of villages from the Nazis. After the battle at Veliki Poganac (village where my grand-grandfather was born) his batallion was resting at the village of Ludbreški Ivanec. They were attacked on the 13th July 1943 by Nazi aviation. He was killed by explosion of the bomb dropped from a plane. He was proclaimed a People's hero of Yugoslavia on 27th December 1953.

One more interesting thing that my grand-grandfather told about Severović's death and it is not mentioned on this link is that at the beginning of the air attack he was shaving himself in some house and when he heared the aviation he got out of the house and yelled to take cover. The bomb dropped near him and the shrapnel hit him right in the head in front of my grand-grandfathers eyes.

 

Guys please stick to the topic. If you want to start a Tito or a partisan thread go ahead, but this is not the place to start a discussion about those subjects.

 

Yeah sorry, I completely got carried away lol

 

some1 please do....super interesting reading here

 

I suppose I could start a topic about Tito and the partisans soon.

 

Skipper, would it be possible to split off the relevant posts and make a new topic. As bronk said, it is interesting reading.

 

Yeah that would be nice. I will make a topic as I said if it's not possible.

 

Wish granted I have split the thread and opened a Tito and Yougoslavian Partisan thread in the Eastern Europe section. Enjoy.

 

Thanks Skipper!

 

My grandfather was in Yugoslav partisans in 5th brigade of Vojvodina, he was wounded two times, and got medal for bravery.This is the book about Brigade and their operations,and also his photo from the war.

 

It is nice that you have a photo of your grandfather during the war.

 

If you have any stories of his PLS post them. There's a personal element that often gets left out of histories and with so many of the WWII vets gone anything that captures this is of great worth. As the saying goes "knowledge not shared is lost".

 

Yes. How about introducing yourself and telling us more here: http://www.ww2f.com/forum/27-%E2%98%86%E2%98%86-new-recruits-%E2%98%86%E2%98%86/

 

Jest,ja sam srećna jer je imam i još par fotografija

 

There are great stories from the war time, and as a kid I listened about them many times. Dont know what would you like me to write.