detail from: KRK Art dizajn

SERBIA IN THE EYES OF OTHERS

Dr Sci. SIMO JELAČA

RUDOLF ARCHIBALD REISS - LISTEN TO THE SERBIANS

(Swiss by birth, Serbian by designation)

Dr. Rudolf Archibald Reiss was not a Serb by birth, but by determination. He spent most of his life in Serbia, and despite the inconveniences he went through, he persisted in his affection for Serbs. He left us his testament "Listen Serbs".

Dr. Rudolph Archibald Rice was born in 1875 in Hochberg, Germany. He graduated from university in Switzerland and received his doctorate at the age of 22. He acquired Swiss citizenship in 1906, when he was promoted to full professor at the university. He came to Serbia in 1914, at the invitation of the Serbian government, as a neutral observer to investigate Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian crimes and lies against Serbian civilians at the beginning of the First World War. At that time, these countries, with the help of the Vatican, spread false news about Serbs, presenting them as savages, robbers and murderers. Dr. Rice conducted an investigation, interrogations, examinations of the wounded and prisoners and corpses and came to the opposite conclusions. Serbs fought honorably, respecting all humanitarian rights. They treated the prisoners humanitarianly and with dignity, with full respect for international conventions. Thanks to Reiss's honorable work and righteousness, the world is aware of the crimes of those who portrayed their victims as criminals. Archibald Rice, a distinguished professor of criminology, published his documented reports in many European newspapers, which allowed the real truth to be known.

He writes in his book "Listen Serbs":

"Your people are brave and their courage often reaches the level of heroism. I can rightly say that because I watched your soldiers, and they were nothing but the people themselves, in almost all the battles of the great war of liberation. I also saw the retreat across Albania, when many villagers and townspeople competed in heroism with the soldiers, soldiers who arrived in Corfu only as human shadows and many of whom are on eternal guard in the depths of the sea.

I also saw your wounded in mobile hospitals and on operating tables. Rarely would a moan, not even a sob, escape their mouths, and often, especially at the beginning of the war, they were not even put to sleep due to the lack of narcotics.

Your people are patriotic. I don't know of any nation where legendary national heroes live as much in the soul of the people as you do. And you also have that magnificent gift that the memory of those heroes can inspire you so much that your own life no longer means anything to you. This is because of the character of those legendary heroes.

Your people are hospitable. One cannot come to the village without encountering a warm welcome. National holidays still preserve the former beautiful custom of hospitality. The first piece of Christmas cake is saved for the intended recipient.

Your people are democratic, and truly democratic, not in the way of politicians. Among your people a man is valued for what he is, not for what his suit and title have made of him. Money, of course, like everywhere else, inspires him with respect and leaves an impression, but that impression is not so great as to make him renounce his own dignity. Your people know compassion and are sometimes like that in moments when one does not expect to find that beautiful human trait in them. How many times in the course of the war did I see how they brought captured enemy soldiers exhausted by hunger, and instead of abusing these people, who burned their houses and massacred their women and children, your soldiers would take pity on their fate and give them the last piece of bread out of pocket. Your people are proud, but not arrogant. That pride is not a flaw, but a virtue. It is necessary for every truly good person because it prevents him from succumbing to evil influences or temptations. That pride is simply respect for one's own personality.

Finally, you are a bright people, one of the brightest I have seen in my life. You understand quickly and correctly. With your intelligence and the natural riches of the soil, you should have one of the main roles in Europe.''

Heart taken out

Dr. Archibald Reiss lived modestly in the villa of Good Will, until his death and was buried with state and church honors at the Topčider cemetery in Belgrade on August 10, 1929. In his written will, he wished that his body be opened, his heart removed, put in a jug and taken to Kaymakchalan, where he will be placed next to the church without burial. He wrote: "I loved the Serbian land and I cherish the thought that my heart will rest and disappear on the proudest peak of the Serbian lands, near the comrades I watched die." His wish was granted and his heart was taken to Kaymakchalan, where it rested in a special urn until the Bulgarians tore down the monument and destroyed the urn.

FAREWELL SERMON OF A GERMAN EVANGELISTIC PASTOR

Friedrich Griesendorf, the court priest, whom the German Emperor William II sent to Wilson to receive the 14 points of his program on the self-determination of the people, was a very educated man. He died in 1958. As the pastor of the church in Ebensburg near Osnabrik, before retiring, he gave a sermon to his parishioners in his village, where in 1945 there were thousands of Serbian prisoners of war.

"Our homeland lost the war. The English, the Americans and the Russians won. Maybe they had better material, more army, better military leaders. But it is in fact a distinctly material nature. They won that victory. However, there are people here among us who, of all the winners, won a much more beautiful, second victory. Victory of the soul, victory of the heart, victory of peace and Christian love. That people are Serbs. We only knew them before, some a little, some not so much. But we knew very well what we were doing in their homeland. We killed hundreds of Serbs, who were defending the country, for one of our killed soldiers, who otherwise represented the power of the occupier-thugs. Well, not only did we do that, but we watched with favor as the Serbs were being shot at from all sides: the Croats (Ustasha), the Italians, the Arnauts, the Bulgarians and the Hungarians. And we knew that here among us are 5,000 Serbs who once represented the elite of society in their country, but now they look like living skeletons, emaciated and emaciated from hunger. We knew that among the Serbs there is a belief that "he who does not take revenge does not commit himself", and we were really afraid of the revenge of those Serbian martyrs. We were afraid that after the capitulation of our country, they would do to us what we did to them. We vividly imagined that drama and already in our imaginations we watched our children sailing down the sewers or baking them in the city bakery. We imagined killing people, robbing, raping, demolishing and destroying our homes. However, how was it?

When the prison wires broke and 5,000 living Serbian skeletons were free, those skeletons caressed our children, gave them candy, and talked calmly with us. The Serbs therefore caressed the children of those who blackened their Motherland. Only now do we understand why our great poet Goethe studied the Serbian language. Now we just understand why Bismarck's last words on his deathbed were - Serbia!

That victory is greater and more sublime than any material victory! Such a victory, it seems to me, could only have been won and won by the Serbs, nurtured by their Svetosava spirit and heroic songs, which our Goethe loved so much. This victory will live in the souls of Germans for centuries. I wanted to dedicate my last priest's sermon to that victory and to the Serbs who won it.

(Original: Parohijski Glasnik, organ of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Dusseldorf, No. 5 / 1980, St. 7).

BE AS HUMANE AS SERBIA WAS IN 1885

During the war against Bulgaria in 1884/85. in fierce clashes, more and more soldiers died every day. But unlike Serbia, which takes care of its wounded, Bulgaria did not have an organized military medical service, and their wounded were left to fend for themselves, and remained at the place of injury. That is why Europe was gathering aid and convoys with medical supplies were getting ready to leave for Bulgaria. And between the European convoys and Bulgaria, the front with the Serbian army got in the way.

Then something happens that has not been recorded in the history of warfare either until then or later: At the request of the doctors of the Austrian Red Cross, the Government of Serbia authorized the military command to end the war for one day, open the front line and let the medical transport from Vienna pass through to Sofia. And not only that - Serbia joined the appeal from Europe, opening its military warehouses, adding medicines, blankets, beds and everything necessary to open a hospital in Bulgaria. Thus, Serbia provides its aid and supplies to an enemy country with which it is in a state of war.

For this precedent in the world history of warfare, the International Red Cross in Geneva awarded a special recognition to the Red Cross of Serbia, and in the hall of the building of the International Red Cross in Geneva there is a board that reads: "Be as humane as Serbia was humane in 1885".

SERBIAN VIRTUES - IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW?

1. In the territory of today's Serbia, eighteen Roman emperors were born in the 3rd and 4th centuries. This represents a fifth of all the rulers of the Roman Empire.

2. A Serb was the patriarch of Constantinople. It was installed by Mehmed II at the request of his stepmother Mara Branković.

3. Vampire is the only Serbian word accepted by the whole world.

4. Serbs also lived in the land of the pharaohs.

5. The Serbian watchmaking industry is older than Switzerland. 600 years ago, Serbs had their own clock.

6. The Serb Sava Vladislavić was considered one of the most important figures of Russia of his time. And he demarcated China and Russia.

7. The most famous saint in the Balkans, St. Petka was Serbian.

8. One of the four official languages in the Ottoman Empire was our language.

9. Only Serbia and Belgium participated in shaping the new Europe with representatives of the great powers.

10. In Serbia, there is a religious building that has been converted into a mosque 10 times. The old cathedral church in the center of Čačak)

11. The first satellite transmission of a video signal in 1963, between Europe and North America, was the image of the White Angel from the Mileševe Monastery.

12. The greatest German poet Goethe loved and appreciated Serbian folk poetry so much that he learned the Serbian language fluently.

13. According to statistics, we are the most hospitable nation on the planet.

14. The Serbs were the first to start counting years, from 5508 BC.

Ottawa, March 2013

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