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Draft:Strahinja Janjić

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Strahinja Janjić
Serbian Cyrillic: Страхиња Јањић
Born(1906-04-13)April 13, 1906
Klenje, Bogatić
DiedNovember 1966(1966-11-00) (aged 60)
Hamilton, Ontario
NationalitySerb
OccupationArmy Officer

Strahinja Janjić (Serbian Cyrillic: Страхиња Јањић; April 13th 1906 - November 1966) was a Serbian officer in the Royal Yugoslav Army and a German agent in the Yugoslav government. He is notable for being a commander of Serbian Gestapo during World War II.

Early life and military career

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Strahinja Janjić was born on April 13th, 1906 in the village of Klenje to Serbian parents, He attended a military academy in Belgrade and finished his education on October 1st, 1925. He was an infantry officer and was promoted to a lieutenant in 1929 but his military career was cut very short in June 1932 when he was kicked out due to bad behavior such as embezzlement and abuse of power.[1]

According to a Gestapo document, one such incident in 1932 is that Strahinja Janjić witnessed and exposed a homosexual affair among the top officers in the Yugoslav military probably involving Petar Živković, who is known to be homosexual. It has lead Strahinja Janjić to his retirement from the military.[2]

Interwar activities

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His behavior since retiring from the military did not change as indicated by the fact that he was reported to the police 20 times as his personal life was messy, despite this he joined various political parties such as JRZ and ZBOR. Janjić was a Nazi sympathizer and a Germanophile,[3] because of that, at some point Janjić became a German agent in the government of Dragisa Cvetković.[4]

World War II

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Upon the outbreak of war in Yugoslavia Janjić escaped from Belgrade and began collaborating with Germans to suppress the Uprising in Serbia. His primary target were Yugoslav Partisans and he gathered around 100 volunteers in Kragujevac with an intention to suppress the partisan uprising in that region. He helped German forces in the Kragujevac massacre and was appointed a mayor of Kragujevac.[5] Janjić donated a large sum of money to the Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition in Belgrade and he maintained order in the city in brutal ways by beating and torturing the local population as well as committing rape and stealing, because of that he was arrested by SDK officers at the start of December 1941 but shortly after freed by the Germans and was appointed as a mayor of Leskovac in early 1942. He stayed in that position for 3 months before getting replaced because of corruption.[6][7]

Strahinja Janjić

He got in conflict with the president of the Government of National Salvation Milan Nedić and was sent to the Banjica concentration camp from 18th May to 6th June 1942 when Germans intervened once again to save him, because of that he strictly worked with Gestapo and tried forming a Serbian SS division, he successfully gathered some volunteers (mostly former criminals) and with them he formed the 1st Belgrade Special Combat detachment (later known as Serbian Gestapo).[8][9] Prior to it's formation Janjić had a meeting with August Meyszner and presented himself as someone capable of forming SS divisions and someone who can bring order to Serbia.[10]

Janjić's formation engaged in fights with Partisans, Chetniks, Serbian State Guard and Serbian Volunteer Corps and was constantly using violence to cause fear among the locals. They also performed other tasks such as gathering enemy intelligence and information, spying and raiding. There were many war crimes committed by Janjić and his followers which are documented such as beating, bullying, looting and murdering civilians. He forced Croats and Slovenes to convert to Orthodoxy, all that combined with the fact that Janjić wasn't performing tasks Germans gave him lead to him getting replaced by Svetozar Nećak in April 1943. [11]

By the end of the war Janjić moved to Germany where he worked for the intelligence agency of Third Reich, his name is listed among 167 Yugoslavs who lived in Berlin at the time, although it is to be noted that Janjć treated other Yugoslavs in Germany badly. [12]

Later life and death

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After the war Janjić escaped to Hamilton, Canada while avoiding other political migrants to live by himself under the name Dan Savić, he acquired a significant fortune in the real estate business. He was an owner of a retirement home with about 50 people. He died some time in November 1966 and was buried in the Woodland Cemetery, his cause of death is unknown. [13]

Family

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Janjić was married and had a son named Nikola. [14]

References

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  1. ^ Страхиња Јањић и Српски Гестапо, p. 262-263
  2. ^ Gestapo u Jugoslaviji, p. 165
  3. ^ Страхиња Јањић и Српски Гестапо p. 263
  4. ^ Borković 1979, p. 198
  5. ^ Gestapo u Jugoslaviji, p. 169
  6. ^ Gestapo u Jugoslaviji, p. 169
  7. ^ Страхиња Јањић и Српски Гестапо, p. 266-267
  8. ^ Borković 1979, p. 198
  9. ^ Gestapo U Jugoslaviji, p. 170
  10. ^ Страхиња Јањић и Српски Гестапо, p. 270
  11. ^ Страхиња Јањић и Српски Гестапо, p. 272-280
  12. ^ Страхиња Јањић и Српски Гестапо, p. 281-282
  13. ^ Страхиња Јањић и Српски Гестапо, p. 283
  14. ^ Страхиња Јањић и Српски Гестапо
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Strahinja Janjić on Find a grave

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