Summary
Đorđe Đurić
Testimony About Đuro Šarac from 1928:
A Source in Support of the Thesis that the Young Bosnians Acted Independently in the Conspiracy of June 28, 1914
Abstract: The paper analyzes a historical record from the archives, the testimony of Dušan Slavić about Đuro Šarac and the organization of the Sarajevo assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. In order to place the document in the context of the event and check its credibility, it was necessary to examine the biography of Đuro Šarac, a theologian who, as one of the closest associates of military commander Tankosić, participated in the Balkan Wars and World War I and who was in the circle around Gavrilo Princip at the time of the Sarajevo assassination. A review is also given of the activities of Dušan Slavić and Marko Maletin, the author of the writings and the then secretary of Matica Srpska, who decided not to publish the document in 1928 when it was sent to him.
Key words: Sarajevo Assassination, Đuro Šarac, Gavrilo Princip, The Question of War Accountability
Dušan Slavić’s file about Djuro Šarac, kept in the files of Matica Srpska, speaks about the organization of the Sarajevo assassination. According to the document, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was organized by the group Death or Life, founded in Belgrade by Đuro Šarac. This article explores the biography of Đuro Šarac, a theologian who, as one of Commander Vojislav Tankosic's closest associates, participated in the Balkan Wars and in World War I and was close to Gavrilo Princip at the time of the Sarajevo assassination. Later, at the trial in Thessaloniki, as a witness for the prosecution, he testified against Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis. Not long before the outbreak of World War I, the author of the archived paper, Dušan Slavić, was also a member of a circle of young men, originally from Bosnia-Herzegovina, who congregated at the Zlatna Moruna Tavern, also frequented by the assassins Gavrilo Princip and Nedeljko Čabrinović, whom he knew personally. The file on Šarac analyzed here is only a small part of the missing 600-page manuscript Slavić wrote about the Sarajevo assassination. The article also points to the controversy over whether Đuro Šarac participated in an attempt to prevent the assassination, which is an accepted version in the major part of Serbian historiography.