The FBI and the Missing Tesla Papers Page 456

In a recent interview with Professor Michael Markovitch of Long Island University (Seifer, 1984), he informed me that as a Serb living in Croatia during World War II, 90,000 Serbs were killed by the Croats; and when I asked him why, he said, "Because the Croats were fascists," (i.e., because they backed the Nazis). Markovitch stated that he watched the bodies float down the river, and that the reason he was not killed was sheer "luck." Concerning the Tesla mythology, Markovitch said that as a boy growing up in what became Yugoslavia, his fellow Serb was considered a great hero. Years later, as Hitler's invasion became imminent, Markovitch and his countrymen had expected that Tesla himself would return to the land and shield it from the Nazis by harnessing his death ray! Unfortunately, Tesla never came.

Kosanovich was not as romantic a figure, and although a Serb, he abandoned the exiled King in order to back the rising Croat leader, Joseph Tito (Josip Broz), and his Communist doctrine. Tito was a solid choice; although he was an ally of the Soviets, he was able to maintain autonomy. Further, he sought to unify the warring factions, his marriage to a Serbian woman, being a powerful symbol for this goal.

The U. S. S. R. had become an ally of the United States in order to destroy the Axis nations, Kasanovich, as a Yugoslavian ambassador, was freely able to shuttle between America and Europe and discuss various diplomatic tactics with the new leadership. Therefore, during the course of World War II, he was able to attend to his ailing uncle in New York and also try to finalize plans to set up a museum in Belgrade in order to honor the great inventor.

In 1942, Tesla became very ill and suffered from palpitations and fainting spells. Although his true commitment was to the young King Peter, who had served in exile and travelled from England to America, Tesla's nephew was able to coax the inventor into sending a message to Tito which preached unification between Serbs and Croats (Cheney, 1981, p. 260). Kosanovitch also admitted to shielding Tesla from factions of the Serbian royalty at the same time; however, when Peter arrived in New York City, the nephew stepped aside.

Having unsuccessfully talked with Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who both reluctantly backed Tito, King Peter was at least consoled by Eleanor Roosevelt who attended a large party in his honor at the Colony Club in New York. Organized by the American Friends of Yugoslavia, the King's mother, Queen Marie and also Anne Morgan, J. Pierpont Morgan's daughter, attended, but Tesla was too ill to come (Cheney, 1981, p. 261).