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From the Balkans to the Alps: Encounters in the Great War

During the First World War, thousands of soldiers from the Balkans ended up in the Alps in Trentino-South Tyrol. The landscape of this Italian region preserves traces of their presence, and the local population cherishes the memory of long-ago encounters

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Photo: europeana.eu
Photo: europeana.eu
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Traces

The path of the Serbs, the plain of the Bosanac, the street of the Serbs, the road of the Bosanac. During a trip through northern Italy, passing through the paths that lead through the Dolomites and the valleys of the Trentino-South Tyrol region, one can come across some of these toponyms, which preserve traces of long-ago encounters, mostly forgotten both east and west of the Adriatic. The origin of these names is woven into the landscape of the Alpine peaks that follow the line of one of the fronts of the First World War. Namely, today's Trentino-South Tyrol once belonged to Austria-Hungary. To this area, in the spring of 1915, after Italy declared war on Vienna, the imperial authorities began to move thousands of men, among whom were soldiers and militarized workers from all parts of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, but also prisoners of war mostly from the Russian, Serbian, and later also the Romanian army.

Of the many men originally from the Balkans, the "Serbs" and "Bosniaks", as they were called by the inhabitants of Trentino, remained etched in the memory of the local population. Diversity hid behind these labels: among the Bosnian soldiers from the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army, in addition to Muslims, there were also Orthodox and Catholics, and there are indications that among the Serbian prisoners in Trentino there were also Muslims, probably from Sandžak. Bosnian battalions were brought to work and to fight, many died hit by enemy fire or buried by snow avalanches. Serbian prisoners were included in work brigades. About eight thousand of them were engaged in the construction of roads and railways, and they also did other jobs crushed by hunger and cold.

And the war
photo: europeana.eu

Imaginaries

During the first months of the war, most of the civilian population of Trentino - tens of thousands of people - were displaced from the zone of military operations. However, a part of the civilians remained in their homes, telling later about the meeting with those who arrived in Trentino from distant and almost unknown regions. These testimonies reflect prejudices and inherited attitudes close to the then stereotypical ideas about the Balkans. Austro-Hungarian propaganda blamed the Serbs for the outbreak of the war, and it happened that the local population, in their testimonies, called them "evil" and "savage". Bosnians were subjects of the same empire as the inhabitants of Trentino, but their uniform was recognizable by the fez, and they were described in orientalizing language as monstrous and brave, but cruel warriors.

Survival in wartime was a daily challenge: Bosnian soldiers, as well as Serbian prisoners, were forced to compete with the local population for the few resources available. Trapped in war, forced into tragic living conditions, they sometimes tried to make ends meet by stealing whatever they could from local civilians. As the war progressed, the food crisis in the empire worsened, and Bosnian soldiers began to be accused of stealing from fields and houses. Locals continuously complained about the insecurity in which they lived because of one and the other. Bosnians who "go around the fields to steal potatoes defend their actions with hand grenades, a revolver or a rifle," wrote a concerned parish priest of a place in Trentino.

Encounters

Despite the mentioned difficulties, there is no lack of testimonies about the sympathy of the local civilian population with the fate of men who found themselves far from their homes, just as the Trentino fathers, husbands and sons were far away. Prisoners of war were more often viewed with pity. "The poor Serbs certainly did not manage to return to their homeland," wrote Luigia Miorandi from the town of Castellano, where several hundred Serbian prisoners were detained, in 1916. The Bosnian soldiers, more and more exhausted by the grueling war, also encountered more and more empathy, forced to wear "clothes, if you could even call them that, that were falling apart", recalled one of the locals. Through meetings with the local population, relationships based on concrete solidarity developed, so the inhabitants of Trentino, whenever they could, shared a piece of polenta or a potato with the starving prisoners and soldiers.

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photo: Marco Abram

Coexistence at workplaces and in settlements was so close that meetings led to a deepening of mutual acquaintance. For example, regardless of prejudices, the religious customs of the soldiers of the Muslim faith impressed and fascinated the locals "who seemed to live in another world", as recalled Candido Degiampietro, who was a child during the war in a place where, a few steps from the church bell tower, a rudimentary Bosnian minaret was erected. Similar admiration was caused by the religious devotion of the Orthodox soldiers - apart from the Serbs, there were also many Russians - who made small wooden crosses and gave them away in exchange for a little food. On the Carè Alto mountain, which reaches a height of almost 3500 meters, there is still a small church that the locals call the "Church of the Russians" or the "Church of the Bosnians", which was most likely built with the use of Bosnian, Russian and Serbian labor. In some special situations, encounters turned into moments of cultural contamination. Of the Bosnians she met in the inns, "my grandmother learned to count to five: one, two, three, four, five", recalls Maria Piccolin, a retired librarian from the town of Moena, hidden in the shadow of the UNESCO-listed Dolomite peaks. - this world heritage.

Church of the Russians
Church of the Russiansphoto: Marco Abram

Rediscoveries

Many men who arrived in Trentino during the Great War are buried in these regions, and the memories of their presence have long been passed down mainly within families and individual communities. Public memories of this war front were rare. One example is the monument on Mount Fior that was erected in 1996 by an Austrian association in memory of the Second Bosnian Regiment. However, in recent years, local communities have begun to rediscover the "other's story" from the war in Trentino. In Ziano di Fiemme today you can see a sign that tells about the presence of minarets and Bosnian soldiers, while in Castellano last year a plaque was placed in memory of Serbian prisoners who were buried in the local cemetery during the war.

And the war
photo: europeana.eu

Although telling about the past within a community rests inexorably on the historical experiences of its members, the effort to include the diversity of human existences, with the inclusion of external views, is of key importance for recognizing transnational dynamics and common experiences. In the concrete case, this effort enables the rediscovery of the dimension of encounter and humanity even within the tragedy of the Great War.

The author holds a doctorate in history from the University of Udine, a master's degree in European history from the University of Bologna, and a researcher for OBCTranseuropa

The text was created within the project "The Great War: Europe in Trentino and meeting the Other", with the support of the Caritro Foundation

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