Đorđe Mihailović ( sr-Cyrl, Ђорђе Михаиловић;

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

, 1 May 1928) is a keeper of Serbian Military Cemetery at

Zeitenlik Zeitenlik (, sr-Cyrl, Зејтинлик) is an Allied military cemetery and World War I memorial park in Thessaloniki, the largest military cemetery in Greece. It contains the graves of circa 20,000 Serbian, French, British, Italian, Russian ...

, in

.Čuvar Zejtinlika Plačem kad me niko ne vidi ("Novosti", 18. oktorbar 2013)
/ref> For more than half a century Đorđe Mihailović welcomes and sends off the descendants of Serbian soldiers who died in

Salonika front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of German ...

during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He shows them where the bones of their ancestors are stored. The first keeper of the graveyard was Đorđe's grandfather, Serbian military volunteer Savo Mihailović, a Serb from

Grbalj Grbalj ( sr-Cyrl, Грбаљ), denotes a historic, rural region, as well as a tribe of the Montenegrin littoral, and a parish located between town of Budva and the Luštica peninsula, Bay of Kotor in coastal Montenegro. Most of the region now li ...

, near

Boka Kotorska The Bay of Kotor ( Montenegrin and Serbian: , Italian: ), also known as the Boka, is a winding bay of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Montenegro and the region of Montenegro concentrated around the bay. It is also the southernmost part of the hi ...

. Savo collected the bodies of his dead friends and comrades, and then protected and guarded the cemetery until his death in 1928. After his death, his remains were also buried in

. Savo was succeeded by his son Đuro Mihailović (Đorđe's father), who succeeded in preserving the cemetery and relics from

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

looting during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Đuro died in 1961 and was buried along with his father on

. Duty to guard the cemetery was given to Đorđe, the last male descendant of the Mihailović line.Poslednji čuvar srpskog grobalja ("Blic", 29. jul 2013)
/ref> In 2020 he was awarded Serbian citizenship. Today, the keeper, host and curator of the Serbian Military Cemetery at

is Đorđe Mihailović, Đuro's son and Savo's grandson, who lives in the keepers house with his wife and daughter.

Other

Raša Perić dedicated the song to keeper of

, Đorđe Mihailović: "Marching all night". A documentary about Đorđe Mihailović titled: "The Last Guardian" was filmed in 2013.

Awards

Order of the Serbian Flag Order of the Serbian Flag ( sr, Орден српске заставе) is the second highest state order of Serbia. The order is awarded by the decree of the President of Serbia on special occasions. It is awarded for development of internationa ...

(2014) * Mother Serbia (2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mihailovic, Dorde 1928 births Living people Greek people of Serbian descent People from Thessaloniki 20th-century Serbian people Serbia in World War I Serbian people of Montenegrin descent