The First Casualty

19

From letters preserved by present-day relatives of Tesla and shared with the author by surviving members of Tesla’s family in Croatia, it becomes clear he was concerned about the welfare of his family there under Nazi rule. He was particularly distressed by the service of his young nephew, Darf, in a regiment of Croatian infantry fighting the Russians, along with the Germans at Stalingrad. His unhappiness came not from a political point of view, but from a fear of harm to Darf, harm suffered on behalf of the Germans whom he trusted no more than the Russians.

In September 1942, when the Stalingrad offensive had just begun, he wrote his sister, Ljerka, Darf’s mother.

I fear for Darf. He is young, impetuous, and likely to take unnecessary chances on behalf of the country’s current masters who care nothing for Croatia nor the fate of its youth. Besides, the lad suffers from asthma and may perish without his family to care for him.

It is possible I may be able to help secure his release from the military.

If so, it is my intent to do so.

Thereafter, Tesla corresponded with the U.S. Department of State, seeking to have the U.S. government intervene in some manner. Since America was already at war with Germany and its allies by this time, there was little the government could do. Tesla then contacted the embassies of neutrals Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal as well as the representative of the Holy See in New York (exchanges of ambassadors between the United States and the Vatican were not established until 1984). As an internationally known scientist whose inventions “benefitted all mankind,” he asked each, in the “name of humanity” to intercede with the Croatian pro-Nazi regime to free his nephew from military service.

As naive as his efforts may seem, Darf’s children in Croatia today relate the story their late father told of his sudden release from the army just as the November 1942 Russian counter-offensive began in some of the worst weather conditions known to modern warfare. He was flown home and given a job in his country’s small war-production office. We may only speculate which neutral country succeeded in fulfilling Tesla’s requests. Or, more puzzling, why the German army, desperate for every man it could muster, would acquiesce.