Valjevo hospital example of humanism in times of war

ANDRICGRAD - The fourth Historical Volume, dedicated to the World War I hospital in Valjevo, western Serbia, has been unveiled in Andricgrad, Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The Historical Volumes, covering events in the Great War, are published by the Historical Institute in Kamengrad - another name for Andricgrad - founded by the famous Serbian film director Emir Kusturica.

Archive of Serbia Director Miroslav Perisic said at Sunday's promotion that the fourth volume deals with an insufficiently researched topic - the suffering and humanism of Serbian doctors at the Valjevo hospital.

Between the autumn of 1914 and the spring of 1915, in addition to wounded Serbian soldiers and civilians, the doctors at the hospital treated around 3,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers suffering from typhoid fever.

Serbian doctors worked alongside captured Austro-Hungarian colleagues, treating wounded Serbian soldiers, as well as Austro-Hungarian soldiers left behind by their own command, while only 10 kilometres away, Austro-Hungarian soldiers committed gruesome crimes against Serbian civilians, Perisic said.

The history of warfare has seen few examples such as the one set by the Serbian doctors, the Serbian military and Serbia as a state, he said.

Unfortunately, this unique example from WWI has received little coverage in Serbian, let alone international historiography.

"It is a very dramatic episode of WWI that not enough is known about," the Republika Srpska Srna news agency quoted Perisic as saying.

The story of the Valjevo hospital is something that the Serbian historiography and culture should make known to the world, in particular in the year of the centenary of the outbreak of...