Taken to Testify

 One of the reasons for my recent visit to Valjevo in western Serbia was the Scottish link during the First World War. The Scottish Women's Hospital, rejected by the British army, established field hospitals in this and nearby towns to treat the wounded and those suffering from disease after the Austro-Hungarian invasion. However, they were not the only outside medical support the Serbian state received during the conflict.

In the local museum, I picked up a book, Taken to Testify, which tells the story of Dr Arius van Tienhoven's photographs taken from the Balkan battlefields between 1912 and 1916. 

Dr Van Tienhoven was a Dutch Red Cross surgeon who documented war crimes against civilians in Serbia during the Balkan Wars and the First World War. During his deployments from 1912 to 1916, he took hundreds of harrowing photographs and meticulous journal entries that served as primary evidence of atrocities. His wartime diaries were later published, notably as De gruwelen van den oorlog in Servië (The Horrors of War in Serbia), and subsequently formed the basis for this book by the historian Vladimir Krivošejev.

The photographs in the book are indeed harrowing, but also portray aspects of the war you rarely see. The centre of Valjavo has changed considerably over the years, but you can see elements in the surviving buildings. Most of his photographs are preserved in the original albums by the ⁠Koninklijke Bibliotheek.

Like many of the medical staff from across Europe who went to Serbia, he contracted Typhus. He survived and went on to have an outstanding medical career; many others did not. 

Dr Van Tienhoven and his team in Serbia

Retreating Serbian troops and civilians

He took pictures of dozens of raped, tortured and killed civilians. To the left of Van Tienhoven stands the captured Austrian major Josef Balzarick. He was accused of being responsible for the atrocities. Shortly after this picture was taken, he committed suicide.