SUDBINA POTPISNIKA APELA SRPSKOM NARODU 1941.
THE FATES OF SIGNATORIES OF THE 1941 APPEAL TO THE SERBIAN PEOPLE

Summary/Abstract: The Appeal To The Serbian people is a document that was published as part of the propaganda activities of the Serbian collaborationist authorities in the midst of the uprising in Serbia in 1941. lt was signed by 546 people (of which more than 400 public figures) and it publicly condemned the communist action, and the Serbian people were called to support the policy of peace and not to resist the measures of the occupiers. Although it turned out that the signatures of many were extorted, that others openly refused to sign it, and that the question of the credibility of such a document is questionable, it additionally contributed to the aggravation of relations within Serbs and, condemned by the CPY, contributed to intensifying conflicts in the civil war. The fates of the signatories of this document were different after 1944; in this paper, we have succeeded in reconstructing 199 of them, believing that additional research is needed that might provide different scientific interpretations. Of the total number of reconstructed destinies, over 40% were in some way repressed by the new communist authorities, slightly less than a quarter of them were under regime surveillance but without conviction or arrest, while slightly less than 30% managed to rehabilitate and continue professional life within socialist Yugoslavia. Some entered into cooperation with the new authorities voluntarily, some involuntarily, and there were also those who reached great scientific achievements at that time. A small part of the signatories had previously been liquidated by the Germans or otherwise ended their lives during the occupation. When it comes to lesser-known personalities, their destinies remain largely unknown for the time being. We enclose their list at the end as an appendix in order to publish in one place all the names of the signatories for future additional research, which would to some extent correct the analyzes and percentages given now. Nevertheless, this research may support the thesis that the penal policy of the CPY depended on the moment and place, and that the pragmatic needs of the regime, personal connections and ideological preferences were determining factors as to whether and how someone would be punished more than it was a „shameful act of signing”.

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