La mutinerie de Villefranche-de-Rouergue (17 septembre 1943) : quelques éléments nouveaux sur un événement controversé.

Abstract

This article looks back at the mutiny that broke out on September 17, 1943 in Villefranche-de-Rouergue in the pioneer battalion of the 13th SS “Handschar” division, composed mainly of Muslims from Bosnia-Herzegovina. It shows how a memorial consensus was developed in the post-war period, presenting the mutineers as Yugoslav anti-fascists, before the violent disappearance of Yugoslavia shattered this image. From the 1990s onwards, the Villefranche mutiny was presented as the action of Croatian patriots, a version accepted by French authorities in the mid-2000s. This recomposition of memory was coupled with speculation about the motivations of the mutineers and their links with the French Resistance. In this context, this article looks in particular at the case of Božidar Vitković, a Serbian doctor based in Toulouse and accused by some historians of having betrayed the mutineers. In order to understand better his personality and role, new sources are used, namely the Vitković family archives, the military archives of Vincennes and the local press of the immediate post-war period, without being able to resolve all the questions surrounding the Villefranche mutiny.