Dragoljub Draža Mihailović was born in Ivanjica, in western Serbia, on April 27th, 1893. Of all the buildings from that era, in modern day Ivanjica only one still exists – the church in which Draža was baptized.
Our research starts at this church.
After the death of his parents, Draža and his sisters were adopted by their uncle in Belgrade.
In Belgrade, Draža completed grammar school with excellent grades. It was the Third Male Grammar School in the center of the capital city. That building still exists today.
He also graduated from the Military Academy College and became a professor of Strategy and tactics at the Military Academy in Belgrade.
Draža specialised in diplomacy and intelligence whilst in France. On the eve of the Second World War he was the leading expert on guerrilla warfare in the Yugoslav Army. At that time, guerrilla warfare was considered localized and limited, and guerrilla formations were only company sized. But according to Draža’s theory, guerrilla formations could be large and are engaged in total war. He was soon to put this theory into practice.
On April 6th, 1941, the Axis powers attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and all resistance was crushed after 12 days. Mihailović, then a Colonel, started rebuilding an Army. In the summer 1941 he had 100 Chetnik units which were engaged in fighting the Germans.
Press all over the free world began writing about him; he was depicted in comics and even became the hero of a Hollywood movie (“Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas”, 1943)
However, the Communists used the chaos of war to try and storm to power. So, Mihailović was forced to fight a civil war as well as to fight against the Axis powers. The Communists were led by Josip Broz Tito.
Aleksandar Ajzenberg, a a Jewish survivor, testifies how Mihailović saved Jews from the Nazis.
The film “General Draža Mihailović“ shows clips from dozens of sites where crucial events took place.
The sites were filmed during different seasons.
This is the first movie that throws some light on how General Mihailović was captured in March 1946.
Also, the film demystifies the trial of General Mihailović in summer of that year. The original transcripts, which are still not easily accessible to researchers, as well as audio and video recordings from the trial, are used in the film.
https://vimeo.com/222254678
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