Eh, what kind of people they were Tito i Sava. Good and virtuous, oh, how virtuous and dangerous fighters they were. There are no such people now.
That's how the story for "Vijesti" begins Zorka Vrbica, born Martinovic, one of the few living participants of the People's Liberation Struggle (NOB), on the occasion of May 9 - the Day of Victory over Fascism.
On that day in 1945, Nazi Germany signed the capitulation in World War II, but the war in Yugoslavia lasted until May 15 and the final operations in Slovenia against the strong Ustasha and Chetnik forces...
Grandma Zorka passed the age - on February 24, she turned 104 years old, during which she saw a lot of pain, but also a lot of happiness with her family. Her life took her to distant America, and 86 years ago she moved to Danilovgrad, where, as she says, she lives surrounded by the love of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren...
She spent part of her girlhood days in the Fifth Enemy Offensive, the Battle of Sutjeska - fighting.
She tells "Vijesti" that she lost two sisters in the NOB with whom she fought in the unit - both born to her uncle. One was 20 and the other 21 years old.
"They were both killed by the Germans," Grandma Zorka says sadly.
There, the old woman remembers, she also met Marshal Josip Broz Tito and the commander of the Third Strike Division, the legendary Sava Kovačević.
As she adjusts the scarf on her head, the weathered old woman, whose mind is still clear, remembers the battles in which she participated.
"Eh, where did we get to with the partisans and the guns. They were real people and real comrades. These others we fought against were not good people, but casteists. There were battles, a lot of them. I fought for three full years, everywhere. Who will remember that now", says Zorka.
COFFEE FOR THE WOUNDED MARSHAL
She remembers that she and her sisters went into battle to defend Yugoslavia, but also that there were other Martinovics from Cetinje in the unit.
"Before, I could remember better, now I forget what happened yesterday. Oh, it's been a long time. All my life... I know that women fighters were treated with respect by everyone. From Tito, no one was allowed to treat women fighters differently, or to do something bad. There was no Greek among us", says Zorka.
She says that during the battles, even though it was a war, she met many good and virtuous people.
"Tito used to come, he didn't let anyone make him coffee without me. He was a very good man, so what do you want now. He was wounded. He barely made it to where we had our base alive. We were sitting around the fire when he arrived. Fortunately, there was a doctor there... Oh, by God, Tito was terrible, and so was Sava. They were honest people and good fighters," says Grandma Zorka.
Tito was wounded on June 9, 1943, during the Battle of Sutjeska, and is the only commander-in-chief who was wounded during World War II. During the German bombing, a British officer was killed Bill Stewart, commander of the Fourth Montenegrin Brigade Vasilije Vako Đurović and Tito's companion Đuro Vujović, a Spaniard...
Four days later, Kovačević also died, trying to break out of the German encirclement with thousands of wounded...
GRANDMOTHER'S STORY NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN
Zorka tells her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren about the war days, but also how the Germans killed her sisters, and later burned her homeland in Duga - so that they would remember the family dramas.
They all know that in Duga their grandfather's house was burned down, their pregnant aunt was killed, a great evil was committed...
Her youngest grandson also listens to the story Milan, who returned from America with his parents to live in Montenegro, and studies here.
Zorka does not hide her joy that her two children - Ilija i Milka, decided to continue their life in Danilovgrad after many years of living across the ocean.
Hitler's Germany capitulated twice
On the night of May 8-9, 1945, German Nazi forces signed an unconditional capitulation in Berlin - the act was signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, on behalf of the USSR by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, and on behalf of the Western Allies by British Air Force General Arthur Tedder.
According to numerous historical sources, Germany signed the surrender twice - the first time on May 7 in Reims, wishing to surrender to the Western Allies. Although a representative of the USSR was among the signatories, the Soviet command did not agree with the text of the surrender, but also allegedly with the rank of their representative...
The USSR requested that the second, amended text of the surrender be signed in Berlin, with which the Western allies also agreed...
However, the capitulation did not end the Second World War, which officially lasted until the capitulation of Japan in August 1945, after the American army used the atomic bomb for the first time...
Bonus video:
