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Dveri – movement for the life of Serbia and the lebensborn policy

No one could have imagined that, in the late nineties, a student association would beborn at the Department for Serbian literature of the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, which would, twenty years later, become a far right-wing party. The principles of this party are founded on the most efficient left-wing and the darkest right-wing practices. This blend of national and social had gone through many transformations, finally asserting itself in the construction of a new national identity, denial of crimes committed by Serbian military and paramilitary forces, impediment to the process of democratization of the country, reintegration of “Serbian territories” and the new policy aimed at raising birth rate in Serbia. One could wonder about the connection between the concern about birth rate and the other aforementioned issues, crime denial in particular, but after taking a better look at the archive of articles written by dverjani[followers of Dveri, tr.] during the last twelve years, one could spot a construction line from the care for innocent national past to the ideology of birth of the “the honorable Serbian man”.

Regression: From Dositej to St. Sava

It all started with the lectures given by the late professor Jovan Deretic, expert on the Age of Enlightenment and the origins of modern Serbian culture in the European context. One of the most prominent historical figures of that period was the writer and educator Dositej Obradovic. The main controversy that arose among the students of professor Deretic pertained exactly to the interpretation of national past and to relating the beginning of that period with Dositej’s name and work. Namely, as it usually happens with nationalist interpreters, every insight into the past requires radical revision and megalomaniac perception of tradition. Isn’t it better to have a thousand years of tradition, rather than only two centuries? Another controversy evolved around the place of the Church in national history. Dositej made a radical turn away from the Church by leaving a monastery, while Rastko Nemanjic [later to become St. Sava, tr.] ran away from home and from the affluence of power in order to enter one. It goes without saying that, back in the year 1999, the act of Rastko Nemanjic came much closer to the worldview of professor Deretic’s students. Thus, the first issue of their magazine, under the unusual title Dveri srpske, duplicated on a copy machine and distributed within the libraries of the Faculty of Philology, introduced the fundamental views of that (at the time) small group of “students of Serbian language and literature at the nonexistent department of Serbian language and literature”. This was a confrontation with the heritage of Dositej Obradovic and his followers. This is how it all started, and the rest is history. No other idea found such fertile soil as the regressive idea of Dveri srpske. Dean of the Faculty of Philology at the time, Rade Bozovic, who came as a proponent of a softer policy after Radmilo Marojevic [member of the Serbian Radical Party, tr.], eagerly accepted the “group of students of Serbian language and literature” and opened the doors of lecture hall 011 for their public debates. Later followed the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering every Thursday, projects supported by the Serbian Ministry of Culture (promotional film “Movement for life”, 2007), an office at the Patriarchate,black funds from Kolubara [mining corporation, tr.]), printing of the magazine on fine paper and its distribution throughout the country, and finally, contacts with Jorg Heider’s followers in Europe and the decision to leave the confines of lecture halls and enter the political arena. And now, here we are. Billboards “Dveri – Movement for the life of Serbia”, with the slogan: “I finally have someone to vote for” are spreading all around the country.

Lebensborn policy

It is a well known fact that Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) had two key obsessions: extermination of European Jews and the enlargement of the Arian race. In accordance with these ideas, Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS and head of Gestapo secret police – thus, one of the leading figures in the extermination process, was also the founder ofLebensborn,a huge project of breading pure-blooded Aryans, which started on December 12, 1935. Prompted by the high abortion rate in Germany at the time (around 800,000 per year), Nazis launched a massive campaign in the defense of “Aryan life”. Himmler called on all members of SS to join the project, pointing out that the main tasks of Lebensborn were to offer support to racially and biologically purefamilies with multiple children and pregnant women who were racially pure and who would bear racially pure children, as well as special care for these children and their mothers. Himmler opened the first headquarters of Lebensbornin a village near Munich, the city where he was born. He had two children out of wedlock, and he paid special attention to children born the same day he was – on October 7. During the war, Lebensbornspread to some of the occupied territories, where the project with Norway was the most intensive one (aimed at raising children born from the union of SS members and Nordic women, as the idealrecipe for creating a super-race). The intent of NSDAP was to increase the number of Aryans to 120 millions. Lebensborn was not only about genetic potential, but also about raising the youth in the Nazi spirit. After removing all unsuitable art from the Third Reich, taking care of  “sick” parts of the society by sending communists and homosexuals to concentration camps at the very beginning of their rule – the education of children at the “Spring of Life”, never before seen in the history of mankind, began. All this was taking part in parallel with the process of extermination in concentration camps, as an oxymoronic blend (of the Spring of Live and the Factories of Death) within a dehumanized political project.

Serbia über alles!

“Dveri – Movement for the Life of Serbia” proclaimed their New popular agreement, published on their website translated into Russian (?!). “The quiet river of educated, honorable and affable Serbian patriots in the country and the Diaspora”, represent the foundation of this movement, the Agreement claims. The most important issue in their political program is “the revival of the family and the family values”, as well as “biological rejuvenation” of thehumiliatedandoffendedSerbian nation. Dveri srpske also produced a video spot inspired by Ljubivoje Ršumović’s poem “Deca ti se radjala” [May children be born to you], which is a step further from the promotional (anti-abortion) video “Movement for life”, promoted by Dveri in 2007 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. During the last few years, they organized two “national congresses on children and birthrate”. The foundation of their society is a pious Serbian family with many children ready to fight for the Dveri cause. Their main enemies are the gay population and anti-nationalist members of the society. They are interested in Serbs and Serbia before all. The so-called Diaspora is their primary “financial and biological engine”. The Republic of Srpska is the model according to which the motherland should be organized. This was confirmed after the arrest and extradition of general Mladic. Impressed with Dodik’s standpoint regarding the arrest, members of Dveri explained the role of Ratko Mladic. According to them, he actually “prevented the third successive genocide of Serbian people in the 20th century”. In their committed struggle against the Pride Parade, members of Dveri also formulated their political slogans which can now be seen on pre-election billboards: “We are not a party, we are a family”. One should not forget that the Serbian Orthodox Church gave the main incentive to this party while it was still in infancy, by offering it the Church infrastructure, as well as distributive and financial networks to spread its ideas. Therefore, the ideological foundation of the future social order is the teaching of St. Sava, which will be implemented by family people in their everyday lives. However, those who are not Serbs, as well as Serbs who do not fit the Dveri model, are not “organized” by this Agreement, i.e. they will be discussed subsequently, and in a different manner. There is probably a different program for them, one that is not encompassed by “the Spring of Life”.

Translated by Bojana Obradovic

Pescanik.net, 04.09.2011.


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Saša Ilić, rođen 1972. u Jagodini, diplomirao na Filološkom fakultetu u Beogradu. Objavio 3 knjige priča: Predosećanje građanskog rata (2000), Dušanovac. Pošta (2015), Lov na ježeve (2015) i 3 romana: Berlinsko okno (2005), Pad Kolumbije (2010) i Pas i kontrabas (2019) za koji je dobio NIN-ovu nagradu. Jedan je od pokretača i urednik književnog podlistka Beton u dnevnom listu Danas od osnivanja 2006. do oktobra 2013. U decembru iste godine osnovao je sa Alidom Bremer list Beton International, koji periodično izlazi na nemačkom jeziku kao podlistak Tageszeitunga i Frankfurtera Rundschaua. Jedan je od urednika Međunarodnog književnog festivala POLIP u Prištini. Njegova proza dostupna je u prevodu na albanski, francuski, makedonski i nemački jezik.

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