Čiča Draža was rehabilitated in 2015 after it was determined that the death sentence against him was issued in an unlawful trial for political and ideological reasons.
General of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and leader of the Chetnik movement during World War II, Dragoljub Draža Mihailović, was executed on this day, July 17, 1946, in Belgrade.
The new authorities arrested him after the end of World War II, and following a brief trial, sentenced him to death by firing squad. To this day, the location of his grave remains unknown.
The late Partisan general Jovo Kapičić, who frequently spoke about his role in Mihailović’s capture, once told the media: “Even if I knew where he was buried, I wouldn’t tell you, no matter what.”
Possible locations for the general’s burial site have been speculated, including Ada Ciganlija, Lisičiji Potok, and Dedinje.
In an effort to preserve the memory of Čiča Draža, a museum dedicated to the royal Yugoslav Army general was opened last year in Belgrade, on Bregalnička Street, in the house where he lived with his family from 1931 until the start of the war. Additionally, Draža Mihailović has also been honored with a sculpture.
“On Bregalnička Street, at the site of his former home, we are unveiling a monument to the ‘graveless’ General Mihailović, the supreme commander of the ‘graveless’ Yugoslav Army in the Homeland. His street could have been named Cerska, Suvoborska, Kajmakčalanska, Solunska, the Albanian Golgotha, or Ravnogorska – and in each of them, there would have been a place for a monument to General Mihailović,” said poet Matija Bećković at the unveiling on October 23, 2023.
He reminded the audience that, in the end, “everyone abandoned the general,” but he “never abandoned anyone.”
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“Abandoned by all, he saved American and British pilots. Under the greatest torment and the worst accusations of lynching, General Mihailović repeated only one thing: that never, anywhere, under any circumstances, had there been collaboration with the occupiers under his command,” Bećković added, emphasizing that without reconciliation, there can be no hope or salvation.
The Higher Court in Belgrade rehabilitated Dragoljub Mihailović in 2015, restoring his civil rights, which had been revoked by the communist regime in 1946.
The court granted the request for rehabilitation and annulled the death sentence, ruling that the conviction was issued in an unlawful trial for political and ideological reasons. The presiding judge clarified that the court only decided whether Mihailović had received a fair trial, not whether he was a war criminal.
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Source: RT Balkan, Foto: Wikimedia Creative Commons