Admiral Geprat

@Feniks25

24.11.2020.

Today, the fact that more than 60,000 Serbs stayed in camps and hospitals in North Africa during the First World War sounds almost unbelievable. More than 3,000 never returned from there, and there would have been many more casualties if Admiral Emile Geprat, the commander of the French army in Tunisia and the mayor of Tunisia, had not come to the aid of Serbian soldiers.

Admiral Geprat deserves credit for saving a Serbian soldier because, contrary to the views of the Supreme Command of the French Army, he decided not to place Serbian soldiers, who were plagued by death and death, deep in the desert sands of the Sahara, but in the town of Bizerte, which saved thousands from death.

After making sure of the condition of the soldiers on the ship who first sailed into the port of Bizerte and interrogated the doctors, the Admiral inquired where these people would be accommodated. The obvious idea was to place the soldiers under tents, in the hot sun and sand ...

"It's impossible, they have to get under the roof at least for the first time." Said Admiral Geprat.

Seeing that the Serbian soldiers were tired and weak, Admiral Geprat approved for the Serbian soldier to receive increased food intake and to be given a loaf of bread of one kilogram instead of 600 grams, as was the regulation for the French soldier.

However, the Serbian soldier most appreciated the fact that he treated them, exhausted and poor Serbian soldiers, who as human beings had touched only the bottom of life and dignity, as knights and chosen people. Encouraging them in such a state, he restored to them the confidence they had long since lost.

At the first meeting with the Serbian soldiers who sailed into Bizerte, he gave a magnificent speech in which he said, among other things:

"I greet in you the officers who led the army that the whole world admires. I greet in you the soldiers who were able with so much courage, enthusiasm and sacrifice to fight like a lion against a ten times stronger enemy, I greet the people in you ..."

Many testimonies of his human, paternal and chivalrous treatment of Serbs from the first meeting with them remain today.

Almost every day, Admiral Geprat visited the Lazouz camp and the hospitals where Serbian soldiers were accommodated, and he always made sure that every Serbian soldier received all the needs and complete care with the command, and especially with the medical staff.

If, sometimes driving his car through Bizerte, he saw a Serbian soldier, the admiral would stop the car and talk to that soldier at least briefly.

It is interesting that he always addressed Serbian soldiers in Serbian with the words:

"God help me, Serb brothers!" Do you need anything? ”

How much attention he paid to the condition of Serbian soldiers is best confirmed by the insult from those days, which, as a synonym of his personality and as a kind of criticism and jealousy of his superiors, followed him:

"Admiral Geprat and his Serbs!"

The event that happened during the unloading of one of the transports of Serbian soldiers in Bizerte will be remembered forever. Among the Serbian soldiers was a woman who was raped by enemy soldiers. Somehow ashamed of that, the Serbian soldiers tried to cover it with their bodies, to hide it. A crowd formed. It was dirty, lice-infested and torn, so the fragrant ladies of Bizerte recoiled at such a sight. Admiral Geprat approached to see what was happening and addressed the officer who commanded the machine:

"Why are you hiding this woman?"

The officer replied discreetly:

"... She is now carrying in her womb the child of an enemy soldier."

At these words, the admiral parted the soldiers, approached her gallantly and stood calmly in front of the woman. Then he bowed deeply, unbuckled his parade sword and laid it at the woman's feet, kissed her hand and said:

"Welcome, ma'am."

That is how this noble man paid tribute to the tragedy of one woman and one nation from when she originated.

For everything he did, Serbian soldiers poured all their love on the admiral, calling him "Serbian mother". And they expressed that love symbolically and with a magnificent parade that they organized as part of his departure from Bizerte.

As an expression of gratitude, Admiral Geprat was awarded the Order of the White Eagle with swords of the first order, the greatest Serbian decoration after Karadjordj's star.

The army and the people expressed their gratitude to Admiral Geprat in the best way during his visit to Belgrade on February 25, 1931, with a thunderous ovation "Long live France!" they carried it on their shoulders from the Main Railway Station to Slavija, where the main ceremony was planned.

Testament of Admiral Geprat

At the end of February 1931, a great Serbian friend from the war days, the famous French Admiral Emile Geprat, visited Belgrade for the first time. The French military leader was so popular in the Serbian army that they called him "Serbian mother".

Belgrade did not remember such a welcome. Tens of thousands of people shouted "Long live France!", At one point they lifted Admiral Geprat on their shoulders and carried him from the Main Railway Station all the way to Slavija, where the main ceremony was planned.

Along the entire street, which today bears his name, a "red carpet" was placed in honor of this great man.

At one point, Admiral Geprat was approached by a weeping woman, the mother of a soldier killed in the First World War, who left his bones far from his country, in Bizerte. She brought Admiral Geprat two fresh carnations, some Serbian soil and one request:

- - Bring this country. Save two cloves, even when they are dried. And when you are in Bizerte, visit my son's grave and lay this holy land instead of the unfortunate mother's carnation.

"I will go to the grave of your son, the hero," replied Admiral Geprat. - I will lay dried flowers and this Serbian land for which he died. I will kneel by the grave and devoutly pray to God for the soul of your child.

That unfortunate mother was Mrs. Zivka Nusic, whose son Miodrag fought in the ranks of the Serbian army for his country and died far from his homeland. More than two years have passed since the stay of Admiral Geprat and his wife in Belgrade. The poor mother knew nothing of the promise the French admiral was to fulfill to her son.

She waited, believed and hoped. One day, a letter arrived in the house from Bizerte, written by the hand of the French Admiral Geprat.

Geprat wrote to her:

"Ma'am,

You believed that I had forgotten my holy mission, by which you obliged me during my stay in Belgrade, in your beautiful homeland that we love so much. I'm not. Here I am in Bizerte, and at this moment I am returning from the Serbian cemetery. I could once, after the promise I gave you, put dried flowers and earth from your homeland on your son's grave. I laid two carnations and earth deep so that the wind would not blow them away. I inform you that I pray with all my heart in your name and mine for your dear child, for every Serbian hero who died for his homeland. Be, madam, confident in all my sympathies and in great affection for you and your beautiful homeland. Admiral Geprat. "

Grateful, Ms. Zivka Nusic responded to Admiral Geprat, emphasizing that she could never have thought that the celebrated hero of France could forget the promise made.

"Now that I am convinced that there is a grave of my son and that flowers were laid on it, picked by my hand, as well as that it is covered by a lump of Serbian land, his homeland, it is much easier for me."

And indeed, there are many Frenchmen that Serbs sincerely loved, but there was only one they adored - Admiral Geprat

Thank you for reading this article. I would be grateful if you would leave your opinion about the Admiral and this text in the comments. Regards to all.