The Black Hand - The Serbian organization Unification Or Death, better known as the Black Hand, formed on May 9, 1911 with the goal of fighting Ottoman rule. Within a few years they numbered around 2,500 members, led by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, known as “Apis” after the Ancient Egyptian bull deity.
Members took an oath that placed the secrecy of the group above their own lives, stating “before God, on my honor and my life, that I will execute all missions and commands without question. I swear before God, on my honor and on my life, that I will take all the secrets of this organization into my grave with me.
”The group operated in cells. At the bottom of the ladder were groups of three to five people. Each bottom-level cell knew only details for their immediate contact but nothing of other cells or of the group’s higher leaders.
The idea was that if members didn’t know anything, they couldn’t give anything away.In 1914, Apis came up with a plan to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The mission was successful—and it triggered a war more deadly than any that had come before it.
Members took an oath that placed the secrecy of the group above their own lives, stating “before God, on my honor and my life, that I will execute all missions and commands without question. I swear before God, on my honor and on my life, that I will take all the secrets of this organization into my grave with me.
”The group operated in cells. At the bottom of the ladder were groups of three to five people. Each bottom-level cell knew only details for their immediate contact but nothing of other cells or of the group’s higher leaders.
The idea was that if members didn’t know anything, they couldn’t give anything away.In 1914, Apis came up with a plan to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The mission was successful—and it triggered a war more deadly than any that had come before it.
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