Anđelko Srđak
76 years old
Students
“My battery had grown into a battalion and had more than 200 soldiers. Thirty-five of my students voluntarily joined my troop. There was this funny situation, I come, all of them are leaning on their shovels, I ask: ‘So, where are the trenches, lads?’, I make a sketch to show them how to dig, they say they’ll do it any second now. And while I’m talking, a grenade falls a hundred meters away from us. Boy, were they digging, you should’ve seen it! Bulldozers had nothing on ‘em! When in war, the person you can help the most is yourself. You have to find a good cover and not go all Tarzan: ‘Hey, Chetnik!’, or: ‘Shoot this heroic heart of mine.’ All of those were either killed or severely wounded. Which doesn’t mean that those who stayed in the trenches were cowards. Their lives were important to all of us. Both then and now.”