European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

We threw them all in a hole, covered them with sawdust from the nearby sawmill

and then we burned down the village. That was a terribly sad thing we did.

Years later I have travelled through Yugoslavia three or four times as a tourist,

I knew a little Croatian, I could speak quite well.

I was talking to a bartender, he asked me why I knew the language

and I said “I have been here”.

He told me not to speak because the locals had no friendly attitude towards us after what we'd done.

That's the truth. And don't come tell me that if you go to war you go to help.

Who goes to war goes to do their own business, to do whatever they want, to be the master.

And don't come tell me that the soldier does good … the soldier sucks:

he fights the war, burns houses, rapes women, just like all of us have done.

That's the sad truth, that's why I don't want to see war.

And I say, if there was a real God,

I'd bring some fifty world leaders to paradise and then we'd have peace.

There were the fascists and the army, that time there were the Italian fascists and snipers.

When they give you an order you obey.

Executing someone who is unarmed and shaking is not a nice act, it's just a shame.

You are forced to do these things, to violate people, rape someone who is imploring you, destroying …

Unfortunately I have seen all these things,

even when I was a partisan, but I have never touched anybody, not even the enemies.