Gavrilo Princip,
the man who foreboded freedom

The WWI Allies - UK, France, Russia, Belgium, USA, Italy, Greece,
Romania… Canada and Kingdom of Serbia – on the same side of
history. The right one.

Sarajevo, Bosnia, 28 June 1914. Some 400 years under Turkish Ottoman
and almost 40 under Austro-Hungarian occupation. People of some
dozen different nationalities sharing the same dream of freedom. Gavrilo
among them. Shooting at the Austria's Crown Prince. For many
of his fellow countrymen he is a freedom fighter. A “terrorist” some
may say? Let’s put a question mark here. However, these shots did announce
the beginning of warfare… Memento mori.
Belgrade, Serbia, 28 July 1914. Just one month later. First artillery
shells in WWI began to fall on the city's Danube and Sava river banks
and neighbourhoods under the hot, burning summer sun. For Serbia
this is the end of a one month long diplomatic prelude that started
with Gavrilo’s shots, followed by a written ultimatum delivered to
Serbia. Austro-Hungary, a 52-million people empire gave a 48-hour
ultimatum to a 5-million nation. Nowhere to hide. The declaration of
war was sent by a telegraph message. An urgent one. At that time
“blitzkrieg” was not invented yet, but a punitive military campaign in
the Balkans was imminent. Waltzerkrieg? Sounded easy. To easy…
You’ve probably never heard of Dušan Đonović. A sixteen year old
Serbian Army volunteer born in Crmnica shot in Belgrade by gunfire
from an Austrian Danube Flotilla vessel that very first day of war. The
first victim of WWI. He died like 1.250.000 other Serbs. Death toll: 28%
of population total, both soldiers and civilians. Maybe you’ve heard of
George Lawrence Price? Born in Falmouth, Nova Scotia, age twenty
six. Served with “A” Company of the 28th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary
Force in Belgium. Fatally shot by a German sniper at 10:58
a.m. on November 11, 1918. He died just 2 minutes before the armistice
ceasefire that ended the war, coming into effect at 11 a.m. The last
victim of WWI. He died like 61,000 fellow Canadians. Like 17 million
people in Europe and around the world.
In between, we fought. For one year on our soil. On our frontiers.
Mostly alone. The first allied victory took place in Serbia, in the mountains
of Cer. Then the second one in Kolubara. Almost like the battle of
Vimy Ridge. This success drew worldwide attention to Serbia and won
the Serbs sympathy of both neutral and Allied countries, as it marked
their first victory over the Central Powers. The next year we had our
share of defeats. Belgrade, the capital, was the last stand for more than
2,600 Serbian Army soldiers who defended Belgrade, aware of the fact
that their names had already been erased from the list of the living by
the Serbian Army HQ. Left behind as an ultimate sacrifice. Not to be
forgotten. Ask any kid in Serbia today for this episode of war - they
know it! Once again we survived barely enough to align in trenches
of the so-called Salonica Front in Greece. No different from Passchendaele
and the Canadians. For those three years of war in exile we lost a
country – but saved the state and the statehood. Population was left to
occupiers – but we saved the nation. We never lost faith. And the currency
– the dinar – kept his gold based value through the war! Finally,
along with the allies, 1918 we were free.
And what was Gavrilo doing at that time? He was imprisoned in
the dungeon of the fortress in Theresienstadt (Terezin in today Czech
Republic) that was used during the WWII as a Nazi concentration
camp for more than 150,000 civilians. Majority of them were sent to
death to other extermination camps, while some 33,000 people died
there from starvation or disease. They shared the fate of Gavrilo, who
officially died from tuberculosis, with his arm and shoulder amputated.
Gavrilo, an underage self-proclaimed freedom fighter, never got to
see the Armistice in 1918 and the liberation he gave his life for. He died
six months earlier and was secretly buried, so that his body is never to
be found. This leaves no empathy, nostalgia or second thought about
the Austro-Hungarian institutions’ operational mode. Why did it all
happen? Simply because he refused to switch from being the Turkish
Ottoman to Kaiserlich und Königlich colonial subject and from Middle-
East model of apartheid to a Mitteleuropa one.
Why did I title this essay – Gavrilo Principal, the man who foreboded
freedom? Take a look at the photo below. The inscription on the
plate in Serbian says: “On this historic place Gavrilo Princip foreboded
freedom”. It is a marble plate put after WWI at the very place
where the Crown Prince Ferdinand was shot. And who is this “gentleman”
looking at the plate delivered to him on his very birthday, 20
April 1941, as a birthday present, with an expression of accomplished
revenge? Just brought from the City of Sarajevo as a must, in the first
days of the Nazi occupation during their campaign against the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia and Greece, the plate was “a symbol of German
humiliation in WWI”, according to Hitler.
The theory of Gavrilo Princip being a terrorist would make Adolf
Hitler a crusader! Some really thought so. Luckily, there are not in this
world any more.
Bosnia, 28 June 1914. Gavrilo Princip had a pistol. Just one. He himself
was a trigger. The stage was setup long ago and the bloodshed began.
For the colonial empires of the time, their era was about to finish.
Game over. The Serbs fought against a couple of those empires. To survive.
For the right to exist. We fought bravely. Like others. We fought
to see another day. And to see – their backs. Been there. Done that. Still
standing. Proudly. With no lessons to give to anybody. Especially not
to history. Just for the record.
So, Gavrilo Princip, a “terrorist”, same may say? Negationism. A
simple question mark will really do. Otherwise, it means simply condemning
him. Without a court. Without a fair trial. For the second
time. One hundred years later. Post mortem. Allied countries included.
Serbia and Canada fought on the same side of history. For the right
cause. The aftermath of the WWI led Canada to full independence and
Serbia to full self-confidence in the international arena of that time.
Serbia, along with others, paid a high price in human lives during
WWI. Never to recover, as some say. Collective memory of the WWI
became the corner stone of our respective nations identity.
History made Serbia and Canada allies in both world wars. Modern
world and globalisation made us neighbours. Let's make the future
seal this partnership.