NDH Zemun

by Dr Eisvogel on 24 Nov 2006 20:35

August 7th 1941

INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA

MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
Number: 20787 Pr. M.U.P. 1941
Subject: The situation in the district of Zemun

From the district authority in Zemun, I received under number 39 Pr. 41 the following report:
«It is my honour to deliver in the above mentioned subject the following report:
Political situation in the area of the district and town of Zemun is more than difficult, which especially must experience the organs of government of NDH.
District of Zemun numbers 17 municipalities, of which 8 is under the occupational and customs area.
Office-work of the undersigned in these 8 municipalities is very difficult, so this situation is used by the Serbs and by the Germans, especially if it concerns their interests,
so they find hundred reasons to disrupt the legal activity of the government.
By a written order of the High Prefect [Veliki župan] Mr Dr Ellicker the undersigned went to these 8 municipalities of the occupational area in order to take the oath and
institute the newly organized municipal administration by the prefect into the service.
A proposal for setting the municipal administrations was forwarded on the High Prefect's order by the head of the district of Stara Pazova Mr Adam Rometsch, because in
the time of the proposal the district authority in Zemun has not yet worked as an NDH authority, and these proposals were made by Mr. Rometsch in an agreement with
Kulturbund from specific localities, in some places considering also the Slovaks and the Croats.
Since with these appointments the old commissioners of the municipalities, installed by the German army who frequently misused the private property of others by
confiscating it for their own use and made other illegalities, were removed, the same ones afraid of the accountability made a complaint to «dem Stadt- und
Landkommissar» in Zemun, so he sent a letter to the undersigned in which he scolds over my involvement and orders me to recall all the measures and to re-establish the
former situation, because the persons were appointed without his consent, and that such an administration is in an opposition with the agreement from June 4th 1941
between NDH and Militärbefehlshaber von Serbien.
I sent this case to the Mr High Prefect for him to arrange this question with the German military authorities.
The inhabitants of the district are in the absolute majority Serbs, so I especially emphasize that in the occupied 8 municipalities the Serbs and the Germans live in a great
friendship and that they constantly agitate against Croatia, Croats and Slovaks. The Germans spread in these municipalities the following false news from the Serb sources:
1. That Ljotić agreed with Dr Maček and that new Yugoslavia will be created under the protectorate of Serbia
2. That Dr Maček is in Berlin and that there he requested the protectorate of Germany over Croatia, that NDH has fallen and that Syrmium and Banat will be a German
statelet;
3. that the volunteers for Russia deserted on their way to Russia, because they don't want to fight for NDH against the Russians

These and similar news are carried by the Serb emissaries who still move freely in Zemun and the surroundings due to the unbearable and impossible conditions.
Against the carriers of the German ethnicity I can't undertake anything, because my hands are tied.
The town of Zemun is a hatch of the communists and the chetniks, who fled in front of the cleansing of the communists in Serbia undertaken by the German army.
I have to turn the attention to the very important point of this report and that is the question of the public security and order in the town of Zemun itself.
The policemen in Zemun are composed only from the local Germans, members of Kulturbund and there are around 128 of them. Half of them are known from earlier as the
delinquents or as they are called here –the «poulterers». The same ones do their service in the black uniforms with a «Hackenkreuz» and they obtained the uniforms by re-
painting and re-tailoring the uniforms of the old Yugoslav army, and the same case is with the boots they wear.
Their chief is certain Tjeiss (sic!), a locksmith by occupation, while the director of the Police is SS-Untersturmführer Mr Marquart, a lieutenant of the German army.
As the town of Zemun is completely opened towards Belgrade and everybody can easily move between Belgrade and Zemun and vice versa, it is understandable that with a
police like that it is not possible to guarantee for public order and security, but that it is needed a well organized police, which according to the current needs should consist
of 150 policemen and 30 detectives with the needed administrative apparatus, the prefect of the police being a lawyer.
About July 15th of this year Independent State of Croatia sent the gentlemen delegates to overtake the state administration in the area of the town of Zemun and
surroundings in accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of NDH of July 5th 1941 Number 3522.
About their work a protocol has been made, that is a statement about the overtake of the state administration.
In the relation with the Ministry of Interior the following protocol was made:
«On the territory of the Zemun and the surroundings the following administrative authorities are present:
Town Authority Zemun, District Authority Zemun (with 8 of the 17 administrative municipalities), District Authority Stara Pazova (with 10 of the 12 administrative
municipalities), the municipal authority in Indjija, which belongs to the District Authority Ruma.
The administration in that area is done according to the laws in force in NDH, and the heads of these authorities are the officials which have taken the prescribed official
oath of loyalty to NDH.
The police service on the territory of town of Zemun is performed by the state police. The office of the prefect is temporarily held by the head of the district with the current
town police officers.
On the rest of the area of Zemun and the surroundings the police service is performed by the gendarmerie of NDH.
The border police service has been temporarily overrtaken by the district prefect in Zemun with his current officers».
The commission protocolled that and left, and the undersigned was left with the care and struggle to overtake the prefecture of the town police without the procedure and
time being arranged by the commission.
Now, the fierce struggle of the local Germans has begun, because they fear that they will loose post and a good pay of 2,800.- dinars monthly and other privileges, as I could
notice in some restaurants where they eat and drink for free, as well as other small corruptions.
On the other hand, the prefecture of the town police should be overtaken and the undersigned should fought that lieutenant Marquart doesn't stay and that the chief is
somebody who want let it [to the Germans]. The Germans demand that the chief should be a German military officer and a Croat his deputy. They also claimed that
«Niederschrift» is distorted and that the agreement was different.
All these Germans hate the Croats and are prone to the Serbs and moreover they even protect them.
The undersigned has so many work in the district, because he is entirely alone, that he is unable to struggle to take over the control over the town police, and with the
regards to the above mentioned, he can't overtake the responsability with these people for the public order and safety of the town of Zemun.
I enforce that with the following facts:
In the town of Zemun there are about 1000 German soldiers and officers, of which only about 100 could be used for the defense of Zemun, while all the others are the
military clerks.
According to the most reliable source the German military authorities dressed 80 local Germans [Volksdeutsche] in the German military uniforms and sent the same people
into Serbia with the order not to speak one word of Croatian.
From Serbia a lot of army has been withdrawn, so the Serbs use that and make daily attacks and murders against the German army, and the measures of the mass death
punishments convince the Serbs about their [German] scarcity, so they [the Serbs] are so daring.

It is a reason for a serious fear, that one day the Serbs, communists and chetniks will break from Belgrade to Zemun and kill both the Germans and the Croats and destroy
Zemun with explosive – which is widely talked about in Belgrade – because the current security and preventive measures are minimal and not enough.
The German army feels the same danger, so they demanded that 30 of our gendarmes patrol around Zemun daily, armed to the teeth and with the bombs on their belts,
because of the fear of the communist ambushes. This is not yet fulfiled, but it is a question still being resolved.

For Zemun, as a border town, NDH and the surroundings it would be the only salvation if one battalion would be sent for the border protection, and that diplomacy requests
that the German army still stuck here and the offices are moved to Belgrade, meaning Serbia, and that our army overtakes the guarding of the borders of NDH.
It is of the urgent need, that the prefect of the town police, a lawyer, is sent here who would await a good moment to overtake the police in Zemun and that there are in the
state of preparedness the policemen and the detectives for an urgent mission in Zemun, as soon as it is requested by a message sent via the special courier.
This one [prefect] would have a duty, to daily sit behind the neck of the Stadt- und Landkommissar and the chief of police, a German and slowly conquer the terrain. It
would be the best, when it would be arranged diplomatically that they [the batch of policemen] are sent all together regarding the current difficult above described situation.

I notice, that the prefecture of the town police as such didn't even exist as well as the border police commissariat, so it should be arranged by an executive order. Until now,
it was the XVII quarter of the City of Belgrade Administration.
In the district authority office we lack the personnel, so I beg to force already appointed district deputy prefect, Mr Hauška, from Djakovo to start with his duty as well as to
appoint Mr Rudolf Radić the secretary of this authority who is urgently needed not only to this authority, but to all the NDH delegations as an interpreter and a translator of
the German language who is excellent in typewriting and who entered in all the affairs of this authority and who executes them consciously and timely and works in the
authority as of July 6th this year. The same is indigenous to Zemun, knows the situation and is well informed on various circumstances needed to the authorities and serves
them excellently. The proposal is put under the number 36 Pr from July 19th of this year.
The population of the district and the town of Zemun suffers heavily under the heavy customs duties of the unnatural Serbian customs border in Stara Pazova and Bečmen,
so the life in Zemun and the surroundings has become very expensive and besides there is a lack of the necessary goods such as the salt, sugar, fat, meat, soap, bread,
matches, cigarettes etc.
Smuggling is massively developed, so even bread is smuggled to Belgrade, the consequence of which is that the citizens of Zemun lack bread. The meat is absent from the
market for 8 days already, due to the maximized prices.

As all the occupational area is governed according to the German decrees and the policemen Germans are biased and corrupt this situation will not improve until the whole
administration is overtaken by the officials and the clerks of NDH, who will apply the laws of NDH.
I warn about the capriciousness of the German officers at the permits control in Stara Pazova who know to expel out the whole trains of passengers, because they don't have
their permits from Belgrade, but from the administrative and military authorities from Zemun confirmed by Ortskommandatur, because the same [German officers] respect
only some permits of the yellow-brown colour. The same happens to the travellers from Zagreb, so the same are exposed to the great inconveniences and often they must
return to Zagreb without their jobs accomplished.
The post office still doesn't work, so we are entirely cut from the world. Now, the wires near the border of the occupation area are even cut, by the order of the German
command, so the undersigned can't speak telephonically with 9 municipalities which he could until 3 days ago.
The struggle over the opening of the post office still continues under the leadership of the higher counsellor Mr Biondić from Zagreb.,
Many factories, the property of the Serbs move to Belgrade on the trucks and under the protection of the German army, so here also nothing can be accomplished by the
mediation.
It is the impression that the Serb side must have paid in gold just to make life more difficult for the Croats, and the great and close friendship between the notable
functionaries of the German army and the administration with the distinguished and powerful Serb families has been noticed.
Common house visits, revelries and orgies organized in the Balkan style with the presence of the many corrupt girls are observed daily by the undersigned and his trustees.
From all the exposed, it can be seen how unbearable situation is here in the occupational area which belongs under NDH, so it is asked to take urgent mediation in the
introduction of the NDH authority in Zemun and the surroundings and that the unnatural customs border is moved on the natural border – the rivers of Danube and Sava in
order for the easternmost part of our state to reinvigorate and work for the happiness and well being of NDH which is given to the title for knowledge.»

Source: Aleksandar Vojinović: NDH u Beogradu, Zagreb, 1995, pp. 52-60

Based on a document from Diplomatical Archive in Belgrade (DA), MVP NDH,
box 15, file F-1

Disclaimer: English language is not my mother tongue and I am not accustomed with the English terminology equivalents regarding the organization of NDH, so my
intention is just to provide an insight into the situation in the Zemun area in summer of 1941, not pretending that my translation is authoritative and I apologize for possible
mistranslations.
Dr Eisvogel
Member

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