CHARGES DENIED
AMERICANS IN YUGOSLAVIA THOSE HELD FOUGHT FOR GERMANs/ WASHINGTON, October 19. In a statement to-night, M. Serjiji Makiedo, Acting Charge d’Affaires at the Yugoslav Embassy, denied the American charges that many Americans have died in Yugoslav prison camps, and others were being used for slave labour. “I emphatically deny that any Americans are . being subjected to slave labour in Yugoslavia or that slave labour , conditions exist in Yugoslavia,” he said. “ There are approximately 110,000 ’people of German origin in Yugoslavia, including those to whom the State Department referred, pending decision concerning them by competent Allied authorities. Yugoslavia has repeatedly asked that, as provided in the Potsdam agreement, they be resettled, in Germany. Yugoslavia on January 19 and May 19 requested the American Embassy in Belgrade to use its'efforts to speed a settlement concerning these people by the Allied Control Council in Berlin, but no replies have been received to these requests. “ Under Yugoslav law, the persons of whom the State Department speaks never obtained American citizenship in American without releasing Y ugoelav citizenship, and returned to Yugoslavia during the depression, when they were unable to find work in America. “ Those held in camps are of German descent, and were members of the Kulturbund, which is the Yugoslav equivalent of the German-American Bund. Many joined the German army, forming the Prinz Eugen Division, which is the outfit that was unequalled in barbarity and which slaughtered Yugoslav soldiers and civilians alike. Others served as Gestapo agents. .“This entire group formed Hitler’s most effective fifth column in Yugoslavia. The few individuals born in America were children of Yugoslav citizens, and thus under Yugoslav law are citizens of Yugoslavia unless released by Yugoslavia. Like others, they found it to their advantage to be Yugoslav citizens when they went to Yugoslavia during the depression years.” 1
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Evening Star, Issue 25928, 21 October 1946, Page 7
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303CHARGES DENIED Evening Star, Issue 25928, 21 October 1946, Page 7
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