The rise and fall of the Independent State of Croatia in the memoirs and testimonies of the Ustasha members

Abstract

This article examines the defeat of the Ustasha movement and its impact on the way the members of the Croatian fascist movement represented themselves through memoirs and testimonies after the Second World War. The current historiography dealing with the Ustasha movement remains largely detached from the contemporary approaches derived from memory studies, which has resulted in existing research gaps related to questions of how, and why, the Ustashe remember their wartime activities. This paper is based on the analysis of 23 Ustasha memory sources; 11 testimonies and 12 memoirs. It examines differences between Ustasha testimonies given in Yugoslav detention, and memoirs which were written by the Ustashe who managed to emigrate to other countries. Significant discrepancy in the narratives and structure presented in the source material is attributed to the different circumstances in which they were written, the expected audience and the variegated experiences of defeat the Ustasha members went through.