Torture and mass killings:

Killing and Raping - In the Name Freedom

As World War II drew to a close a new phase of horror was only just beginning for villages in Eastern Europe.  In Yugoslavia, for instance, the Partisans (Yugoslavian resistance fighters) stormed into communities and began to systematically torture and kill millions with no ties to Nazi atrocities, simply because they were of German descent.  This “guilt by association” was used to falsely justify retaliatory actions that eliminated and dehumanized an entire culture.  I urge readers to ask themselves whether the ends ever really justify the means after reading the chilling testimonial of one of those residents:

“I was only 15 when my mother showed up at my school to take me home.  Everything was happening so fast and my mother was so scared.  She took me back to our village, but by the time we got there the Yugoslavian Partisans had already started looting the homes – and raping.  

So many girls were raped and killed.  A young girl who lived down the street from me was also raped and the family was so devastated they all hung themselves….

This went on for days, the looting - and raping.  At any time of the day or night you could look down the street and see buildings on fire and people running from gun shots. No one was safe, especially the young girls.  To protect ourselves, my cousin and I hid behind the stove in our neighbor’s house during the day and then in the fields at night.

But the adults were also victims.  All the older men had to work for the partisans.  If they wanted something done the partisans would walk down the street and order them out into the street and march them off.  We never knew where they were going - or if we’d see them again.  One day my grandfather came home and gathered the children together.  He sat down in front of us with a pale face, his hands trembling, and said in a crackling voice “Children, this is true what you will hear.  We were ordered to dig a hole big enough for an entire village.”  The next day, when we heard rounds of shots and blood-curdling screams for what seemed to last forever, we discovered what he’d meant.  By evening there was no one was left in the next village over.  The partisans had killed everyone and shoved them into that hole.”

Read more details about this little know phase of World War II in Ann Morrison’s prior articles.

Ann Morrison has made it her mission to uncover history’s lost, but not forgotten, stories via documentary films. Learn more at www.annsfilms.com.