НАША ПАТРИОТСКА ДУЖНОСТ – “Our Patriotic Duty” – Full transcript of the antisemitic speech by Serbian Minister of the Interior ТАНАСИЈЕ ДИНИЋ – Tanasije Dinić (served as Minister of the Interior from 1942 to 1944), delivered at the Great National Assembly held in Šabac (Serbia) on December 6, 1942, in which he blames the Jews for the outbreak of World War II and calls to “annihilate anyone who betrays the Serbian nation, no matter who he is or where he is.” Belgrade, 1943 – First edition. Serbian. Extremely rare.
A speech filled with venomous antisemitism in which the Minister of the Interior in the Serbian puppet government explains why Serbia allied itself with Nazi Germany in the extermination of the Jews, and calls on the Serbian people for “loyalty and sincere cooperation with the Germans and steadfast work.” In a speech saturated with poison and hatred, he elaborates in various ways that the true enemy is the Jews, and that joining Nazi Germany was intended to stand by its side in its war against this enemy.
Thus, for example, the Jews exploit the universal principles of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” for Jewish interests: “Liberty so that they may live freely within another people even if they do not belong to it.” “Equality” with the aim of exploiting Serbia’s resources. And they: “Created an entire organization of various international elements, and through them preached fraternity, so that under the cover of this humanistic slogan, they could more easily carry out their plans.” This led to a situation in which “over time, the Jews, with the help of this organization of international brothers, what is called ‘Freemasonry, ‘ under the protection of England, rule over all the nations of the world.” He accuses the Jews of creating “demagogic slogans of false democracy, which served Jewish-English capitalism in order to exploit all the peoples of Europe and the entire world in the most brutal manner.”
He further claims in his antisemitic speech that all of France’s wealth at the outbreak of World War II was concentrated in barely 200 families, of which at least 150 were Jewish families. According to him, the Jews had taken control of Yugoslav agriculture and that “the international Jewish-Freemason mafia is exploiting the people in the most brutal way.” With admiration for Nazi Germany and unequivocal support for its policy, he asserts that Germany was the first, in his view, to recognize and cast off Jewish exploitation: “Germany was exploited the most… and thanks to divine providence, it was also given a man” (referring to Adolf Hitler) “who understood the recklessness of these international exploiters and began to influence the people to awaken and stand up to that gang. The German people, who awakened, were the first to break free from the chains and shackles of Jewish capitalism.” He continues, stating that the Nazi revolution placed service to the state at its center—not the state serving the interests of the people—and thereby halted the exploitation of the people’s effort and labor by international Jewish partners. While the Jews tried to suppress the national consciousness of the people, Germany came and nurtured that consciousness. This, while London, Washington, and the “Jewish Freemasons, ” as he calls them, dragged Yugoslavia into war so that it would continue to serve as a victim of international exploiters.
In light of this, he concludes: “The Jews–Freemasons and Washington seduced us with false slogans and led us, for the first time, into a most unconscious war… But we allowed ourselves to be deceived again last year by unaware instruments or mercenaries, and it turned out to be both our shame and our fault… This (cooperation with Nazi Germany) is what is required today of every Serb as the most sacred duty, the holiest of all missions, and it is the foundation for the survival of the Serbian people and the restoration of Serbia.
Anyone who errs in these fundamental matters is a traitor to the Serbian nation forever and as such must be destroyed, no matter who he is or where he is.”
Tanasije Dinić [1890–1946], a reserve colonel in the Royal Yugoslav Army, politician, member of parliament on the Yugoslav National Party list, and a collaborator with Nazi Germany during World War II. From 1939 he established contact with German intelligence. As an intelligence officer, he commanded Battalion 312, and already on April 13 he issued an order for the battalion to lay down its arms before the Germans. After returning to Belgrade, he approached the German occupation authorities. From 1942 to 1943 he served as Minister of the Interior in the Government of National Salvation, after which Milan Nedić appointed him Minister of Social Policy and Public Health. In September 1944, he was among the first from Nedić’s cabinet to retreat to Germany, where he awaited the arrival of the rest of the cabinet in Ostmark. After being detained, he was tried in the Belgrade Trial and found guilty of collaboration with the Germans and war crimes. Dinić was arrested by American military police at his apartment in Salzburg on January 9. He was extradited by plane to Belgrade on January 26 from the American military prison in Tulln, near Vienna. His interrogation began on March 3. He was tried in the same trial as Mihailović and Jovanović. On July 15, Dinić was sentenced to death by firing squad for treason, collaboration with the Germans, taking hostages, persecution, and the dismissal from public service of individuals deemed unreliable. He was executed on July 17.
Extremely rare. Not listed in the WorldCat global library catalog.
24 pages. Stains on cover. Good condition.
