The Serbs Choose War

by Ruth Mitchell

This is the book for which America has been waiting over a year - ever since the cables crackled with the news that Ruth Mitchel, General Billy Mitchell's sister, had arrived safely in Lisbon as an exchange prisoner. Captured while engaged in espionage work, Miss Mitchell spent thirteen months in German Prisons and concentration camps and at onetime was condemned to death by the Nazis. In the autumn of 1937 Miss Mitchell, then en route to the Far East, accepted what she considered a rather frivolous assignment to stop off in Tirana and photograph the wedding of King Zog of Albania. Intending to stay only a few weeks in the Balkans, she stayed over four years. In 1940, when the Italians invaded Albania, Miss Mitchell was promptly expelled as a British spy - which she wasn't. Taking her unfinished guide book of Albania over the border into Yugoslavia, she became absorbed first in the literature of the Serbs and later in the political struggle which resulted in the repudiation of the pact with Germany and the contemporary resistance of General Mihailovich, the only Allied general now fighting on European soil outside of Russia. After the German invasion Miss Mitchell escaped from burning Belgrade on a troop train which was ambushed and attacked three times by detachments of the disloyal Croat troops, whose defection to the Germans caused the quick collapse of Yugoslavian resistance. She reveals for the first time the extent of this betrayal. Ruth Mitchell was arrested by the Gestapo in Dubrovnik while mapping the location of German gun emplacements for General Mihailovich. By keeping her head, and thanks to considerable good luck, she was able to save herself after being sentences to death. The portion of the book which deals with her prison experiences not only in Belgrade but also in several other Nazi prisons is indeed a grim and tragic story. Through other prisoners Miss Mitchell was able to piece together the untold story of Serbian resistance and the Croat Ustahi.

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1943