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underground party networks to the Nazis. ‘It is considered that she was weak in front of the police, because she named the whole party organisation to them,’ said Draza Markovic. ‘I don’t know how many people that was. The biggest loss was a spy in the secret police, Janko Jankovic. But it is impossible to tell whether she made her confession under torture or not.’ 3 According to Mira Markovic, her mother was held by the Gestapo for six months, and was then transferred to the Bajnica prison camp in Belgrade. ‘She was shot by a firing squad in September 1944, and one month later Belgrade was liberated. She was twenty–four and I was two. She had never seen me.’
    Others claimed that Miletic was one of many to be executed bythe partisans themselves once they liberated Belgrade. In post–war Yugoslavia, which lionised its partisan heroes, Vera Miletic was condemned as a traitor. For the young and idealistic Mira Markovic, already neglected by her father, the news that her mother was considered a traitor was traumatic. ‘Supposedly, the first time Mira heard about her mother was when she was ten or so years old. During a history lesson the teacher said that her mother was a traitor. That was shocking for her because she was convinced her mother was a courageous partisan, and since then she has done everything she can to rehabilitate her,’ said Draza Markovic.
    In later years Mira Markovic published a book about her mother, praising her wartime feats in the resistance. Mira’s rehabilitation campaign also included wearing a rose in her hair, as Vera Miletic had done, until it became an object of mockery. She carefully preserved a red star her mother had made in prison in Belgrade. Even calling herself Mira – a shortened version of Mirjana – was part of this drive, as Mira had been her mother’s partisan nom–de–guerre.
    What is clear is that Vera Miletic was brave and courageous to have ever joined the partisans in the first place. Nobody was expected to resist forever. ‘Traitor was the word used about her at the time, but I remember that one of my friends told me he could hold out for two days, and we could be sure for that time. But after that we should disperse, because he would talk,’ said Draza Markovic. The true facts will probably never be known, as files relating to the case disappeared once Milosevic came to power. Many in Belgrade believe that Mira ordered the records to be removed.
    But Mira had her adored Sloba, as she calls him. Even now she keeps their youthful love letters, bound in ribbon. After they met, Mira joyfully announced to Ljubica Markovic that Sloba was the only one. ‘Before Slobodan she always had to be in love with someone. She was sixteen when she fell in love with him. She told me that there was a big event happening, all the others were behind her. That was a big event for her.’ 4 Milosevic’s former schoolmate, Seska Stanojlovic says, ‘When I think about our teenage years, I cannot see him without Mira. They were always together. I remember him in his beige raincoat, and her in a blue winter coat.’ Teachers too looked fondly on the young couple, recalled the Belgrade writer Filip David, whose mother–in–law taught at Pozarevac high school. ‘Everyone knew about their love. From the early days they were dependent on each other. My wife’s mother saidshe always had good memories about a boy and girl who loved each other very much and who were always together.’
    As well as love, there was also mutual interest. For Milosevic, Mira’s partisan pedigree offered an entrée to Yugoslavia’s elite. The young Slobodan was better looking than his girlfriend, said Seska Stanojlovic. He could have chosen someone else. ‘He was a handsome boy, and Mira was never pretty, as you can see. But she was the only person in Pozarevac with such a prominent revolutionary