ROLE OF BOSNIAKS IN SAVING SERBS IN SREBRENICA

Every mention of Srebrenica arouses emotional memories of July of 1995, when over 8,000 mostly Bosniak Muslims and boys were killed in the genocide of Srebrenica, as was indisputably established by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). These crimes, which were committed by the Army and Police of Republika srpska and “paramilitary formations” subordinated to them impulsively overshadow the past and memory of Srebrenica greats, particularly its humanists of outstanding dignity. In this text we will discuss some examples of human solidarity during the Second World War whose sacrificial endeavors saved thousands of human lives, particularly people of Serbian ethnic origin.

Little was known about saving Serbs in Srebrenica during the Second World War and even less was talked about, due to perfidious political motives with immeasurable repercussions. This topic was recently courageously broached only by some of our renowned historians, including the respectable historian Senija Milišić, PhD, who, in one of her academic analyses entitled  Primjeri tolerancije, pomoći, pokušaja zaštite progonjenih (Examples of tolerance, aid, attempts to protect the persecuted) says: “One should not forget the fact that in early April of 1942 Srebrenica was conquered by „Black legion“ led by Jure Francetić. Ustasha terror reached climax in the summer of 1942, and the order to slaughter Serbs from this area was given by first lieutenant Kurelac. About 3,500 Serbs from Srebrenica district were brought – men, women and children, they were imprisoned in shacks and pits for their burial were ready; however, thanks to their Muslim neighbors it did not happen.”

It is a fact that in the beginning of the war chetniks committed serious crimes in Srebrenica and around Srebrenica, until ustashas established their rule in this area. This fact was also little known and discussed. According to Vladimir Dedijer, about 1,000 people were killed. Recently, a couple of historians have used first-class archival materials to relevantly write about it. “Chetniks' rule lasted until the arrival of ustasha “Black legion” on St. George's Day, i.e. until 5 May 1942, when their mass killing of Bosniaks in the area of Srebrenica ceased “ (Amir Kliko). One of the reasons for unscrupulous concealing of these crimes is collaboration between chetniks and partisans. Who, then, how and why saved Serbs in Srebrenica from ustashas’ terror? – is a reasonable question.

According to testimony of Jusuf Klančević, one ustasha officer revealed to Nazif Klančević, the son of Alija-ef. Klančević, that first lieutenant Kurelec was preparing the liquidation of all the imprisoned Serbs, about 3,500 of them, whom the ustasha authorities had arrested and detained in Srebrenica. Nazif Klančević immediately reported the news to his father Alija, who gathered and encouraged the most respectable people of Srebrenica to intervene with ustasha authorities, both in Srebrenica and in Tuzla. Among others, he asked Hakija Siručić, Avdo Siručić, Suljo Mehmedović and Sulejman-bey Hafizbegović. Upon their intervention, the order arrived from Tuzla that all the detained Serbs should urgently be released. In this way, ustashas' massacre over Serbs in Srebrenica was prevented.

It was not an isolated case, not only in Srebrenica, of anti-Fascist orientation of religious officials and secular elite, as well as the community they led, both then and today. It is a reflection of authentic Bosniak spirituality and centuries-long Bosnian tradition. Thus, besides the name of mufti Šefket-ef. Kurt from Tuzla one should not forget the name of Srebrenica imam Alija-ef. Klančević, who will be justly described by some people as Bosnian Oskar Schindler. “Oskar Schindler is known throughout the world, historian Senija Milišić wrote, but very little is known about people who saved 3,500 people in Srebrenica from massacre. And the injustice is even greater because the name of Alija Klančević is not mentioned anywhere in documents...” (Jasmin Agić). Unfortunately, Serbs have not nourished the memory of Alija-ef. Klančević, no street has been named after him, no memorial site has been built in Srebrenica, nor has he been ordained as the State of Israel awarded the honorific title “Righteous among the Nations” to Oskar Schindler in 1963.

As a physician in Srebrenica, Asim Ćemerlić used his influence and reputation to save about seventeen Serbs from deportation and certain death. Thereafter, in August 1941, chetniks of Jezdimir Dangić, a former gendarmerie major in Tuzla, conquered Srebrenica and immediately began to persecute Bosniaks. Relying upon his position and authority, and as the man who saved many Serbs, dr. Ćemerlić addressed chetnik's heads and headquarter asking them to leave Bosniaks alone, but all in vain ˮ (E. Kuka, H. Memišević). Instead of recognition and gratitude, his liquidation was planned for Orthodox Christmas, in early January 1942, by the very same Serbs whose lives he had saved with his pleas. He survived thanks to the wife of chetnik commander Dangić, whose seriously ill child doctor Ćemerlić had saved.

It is with sadness that Jusuf Klančević, a grandson of Alija-ef. Klančević, who now lives in Sarajevo, speaks about the plight of the Klančević family in Srebrenica genocide: “Many of my close relatives were killed. My mother's brother-in-law and his two sons, my mother's brother and his son, then, on my father's side, many Đozićs were killed. (…) Today, no member of the Klančević family lives in Srebrenica.” The example of the Klančević family is not isolated. Nedžad Avdić was 17 when, in the night of 14/15 July 1995 he survived shooting at the Brana crvenog mulja near Petkovci. The book Ja, haški svjedok (I, a witness in the Hague) one can read touching words by Nurija Muratović from Potočari, the hamlet of Pale. While in this night Serbian soldiers were tying his and his two sons with wire, in front of the school in Petkovci before they took them to be shot, Nurija desperately cried toward his neighbor Momčilo: “I looked after you and your mother Stana [during the war]. And you are killing these innocent people! Shame on you! Shame on you!” Nurija and his two sons, Nazif and Nurif, barefoot and half-naked, were exhumated from a secondary mass grave in the village of Liplje on 31 December 2009.

Some of the priority life questions are those as to how to face the past and how to raise new generations, since their future depends on it. Memory is essential to the extent to which we learn from it and to which it helps us to be better and more responsible people. Therefore, it is necessary to nourish the culture of memory, particularly through education systems. It is time to begin teaching pupils at schools about Alija-ef. Klančević from Srebrenica as of Bosnian Oskar Schindler. It is time for Alija-ef. Klančević, dr. Asim Ćemerlić, Nurija Muratović and other ignored and forgotten anti-Fascists to get the deserved social attention and worthy memorial sites. Since, without memory, we are not and will not be accomplished people.

References:

• Avdić, Nedžad, Unkić-Avdić, Amela (2000), Ja, haški svjedok, Srebrenica/Gradačac.

• Bandžović, Safet (2010), Bošnjaci i antifašizam: Ratni realizam i odjek rezolucija građanske hrabrosti (1941), Sarajevo.

• Gazi Husrev-bey Library (GHB), Archives of the Islamic Community (AIZ), Collection of imams, (ZI), ZI-3-284/1943, ZI-2-232/1929.

• Kliko, Amir, “Zločini četnika i srbijanskih nedićevaca nad Bošnjacima srebreničkog kraja tokom Drugog svjetskog rata”, Monumenta srebrenica, no. 10, Tuzla-Srebrenica, 2021, 177-244.

• Kuka, Ermin, Memišević, Hamza, “Zločini nad Bošnjacima u Srebrenici u toku Drugog svjetskog rata 1941-1945. godineˮ, Munumenta Srebrenica, no. 10, Tuzla-Srebrenica, 2021, 245-257.

• Milišić, Senija, “Kako su Bošnjaci spašavali Srbe od klanjaˮ, weekly Stav, no. 258, (Sarajevo), 17.2.2020.

• Milišić, Senija, “Primjeri tolerancije, pomoći, pokušaji zaštite progonjenih (O jednom malo poznatom dokumentu)”, Građa Arhiva Bosne i Hercegovine, no. 6-7, Sarajevo, 2014-2015.

• Filipović, Sulejman, “Svijetli primjeri rodoljublja naših vjerskih službenika u period NOB-a i socijalističkoj izgradnji naše zemljeˮ, Glasnik Vrhovnog islamskog starješinstva u FNRJ, no. 1 Sarajevo, 1950.