Mamula

[Najroda]

Does anyone have any knowledge of the situation on the island Mamula, which lies in the bay of Kotor, off the Montenegrin coast, during the 1st world war?

If not, I will also be glad with any advice where to look, besides the obvious google search.

All I know is that it's no more than an otherwise uninhabited piece of rock, but there's a fort on it, that was used as some sort of prison camp by the A-H army, who held it for most of the war.

[Najroda]

Pictures of Mamula:





Unfortunately, I know very little of this period, my grandfather dies when I was only 4 except for the following:

My father was selected into a firing squad for an execution, presumably of captured enemies (Mamula served as a prison camp in both WW's). My grandfather refused, and was called to the camp commander, who asked him why he refused to obey orders and warned him for the consequences. My father said he would not kill, as God's commandments forbid it (he had converted to seventh-day adventism shortly before the war). Then the commander's tears went wet, and he only said: "I wish all people thought like you do, because in that case my son would still be alive" (my grandfather found out later that the commander's only son had fallen in action, only weeks before). Instead of ordering my grandfather's execution, he arranged for him only to be assigned to duties that did not require him to carry arms...

To me, what he did was more heroic than single-handedly taking out 1.000 enemies.

I have been wanting to find out more about his time in the army for some time, but I don't know where to start. The obvious googling hasn't learned me much more than a few pictures and maps, and confirming the fact that it served as a military prison camp.

My cousin and I have deliberated to visit the site in the year of our grandfather's 110th birthday: 2006.

[Najroda]

BTW when I first found these pictures of Mamula on the internet, it was exactly how I imagined it to be. It was probably the most intense deja-vu experience of my life.

[Carol I]

QUOTE

My [grand]father was selected into a firing squad for an execution, presumably of captured enemies...

Does this mean that the Austro-Hungarians performed executions of POWs? On Mamula island only or in other camps as well?

[Najroda]

QUOTE

QUOTE My [grand]father was selected into a firing squad for an execution, presumably of captured enemies... Does this mean that the Austro-Hungarians performed executions of POWs? On Mamula island only or in other camps as well?

I'm only presuming, I don;t know who was to be executed. It is also possible it was/were (a) defected A-H soldier(s).

[Chandernagore]

An aerial view. It seems to have grown one level

[Mircea]

In Kotor there are 162 romanian soldiers who died in ww1,as prisoners.If you have fotos of this graveyard...... Respect Mircea