Vladimir Dedijer

Vladimir Dedijer (4 February 1914, Čepelica, Bileća - 30 November 1990) was a Yugoslav partisan fighter, politician and historian.

During World War II he was an editor of the Yugoslav Communist Party newspaper Borba, and member of the agitprop section to the General Staff.

After the war he was a member of Yugoslav delegation on 1946 Paris peace conference and on several sessions of United Nations General Assembly (1945-1952). In 1952 he became a member of the Party's Central Committee and was excluded from it following the fall of Milovan Đilas. From then on, he devoted himself to writing history and teaching (he taught at University of Belgrade and at various universities in United Kingdom and United States). In 1955 he was charged with disseminating "hostile propaganda", but served no jail time.

One of his most famous books is The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs During World War II which was translated in several languages. Another book, The Road to Sarajevo, discusses the origins of World War I. In his book Prilozi za biografiju Josipa Broza Tita, Dedijer cited casualties at the Jasenovac concentration camp of 700,000 people. The figure is frequently quoted despite the fact that historians, Serb and non-Serb alike, do not consider this a reasonable estimate.

On the other hand, there are authors who strongly oppose this kind of revisionism considering it an outright downplay of the body count and a mere apologism.

He wrote two important accounts of Partisan history: Diary and Tito, both of which have been published in English.

He was Chairman and President of Sessions at the 1966 Russell Tribunal, and member of the Scientific Committee of the Russell Tribunal in Rome in 1974.

See also

• Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• Jasenovac concentration camp
• Jefto Dedijer
• Stevan Dedijer

External links

• The Massacre at Koritska Gorge, Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1941 by Vladimir Dedijer