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„APRILSKI KRIJESOVI” OVER VINODOL: The Heroes of the April Antifascism Resistance MIRKO PLEIWEISS AND ĐURO HAJDINI
Stanko Antić
Abstract
On the tenth of April 1941., when the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) was announced and the Italian occupier was just about to cross over the Rječina, Đuro Hajdin, deputy of Kotar’s mayor of Crikvenica, and colonel Mirko Pleiweiss, commandant of the defense of the north Adriatic with a command post in Selce, did not answer the call from the Ustasha colonel Petar Kvaternik, the commander of the first Ustasha’s squadron in Crikvenica, to lay down arms and declare loyalty to the chief of the new state. Instead they, from the post in Selce, lead a group of soldiers, attacked the Ustasha squadron and imprisoned the Ustasha that were there at the time. However, in that shoot out Đuro Hajdin himself died. Mirko Pleiweiss tried to organize the squadron of defense on the north Adriatic, but when he was convinced of the treacherous behavior of the Yugoslavian leadership, military and civilian, he decided to destroy all military resources in his area, in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the occupier and their Ustasha servants. That is exactly what he did on the night of the 12th of April 1941., after which he retreated with his soldiers towards Dalmatia, where he managed to along the way destroy the remaining war ships. He moved towards east expecting to meet, in the mountainous region of Yugoslavia, an organized defense group and join them. However, wherever he went he came upon disarray and treason and thus finally went home to Slovenia, ill and disappointed.
Keywords
Mirko Pleiweis; Đuro Hajdin; Selce; Vinodol chanel; April 1941.; Yugoslavian army; defense of the north Adriatic; shameful capitulation; beginning of the antifascism fight
Hrčak ID:
331782
URI
Publication date:
19.11.2008.
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