HITLER ORDERED BRUTAL REPRISALS

BIJELJINA, SEPTEMBER 15 /SRNA/ - Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler ordered on September 16, 1941 that the uprising in Serbia be crushed by all means and that the insurgents be deterred by an extremely brutal measure under which 100 Serb civilians were to be shot for every German soldier killed and 50 for every German soldier wounded.

As a result of that order, at least 10,000 hostages were executed in Serbia in the autumn of 1941.

"Your task is to comb through the country where, in 1914, German blood flowed in streams as a result of the treachery of Serb men and women. You are the avengers of those dead. A terrifying example must be set throughout Serbia that will strike the entire population," General Franz Böhme ordered ahead of the bloody October of 1941.

Serbia and the Serbs were the greatest victims of the events of the Second World War in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

The Serbs were subjected to genocide in the Ustasha-run Independent State of Croatia, while Serbia was the only country in Europe where the most repressive Nazi methods were used to suppress the resistance movement.