Independent State Of Croatia Research Articles

USTASHA VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS AND JEWS IN THE SUMMER OF 1941: INSIGHTS FROM VICHY DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS

Numerous academics addressed the violence against the Serbs and Jews within the Independent State of Croatia. In addition to identifying research gaps in this regard, this paper analyses the letters of Georges Gueyraud, a Vichy diplomat in Zagreb, along with several other documents sourced from the French Diplomatic Archive. Primarily focused on the violence against the Serbs, this paper delves into the period when the violence reached its peak, namely the summer of 1941. It contains Gueyraud’s analysis of the atmosphere of violence in Zagreb that he had witnessed, as well as testimonies of violence from various parts of Croatia that he had acquired. Furthermore, this paper examines the reactions of the Croatian authorities and the press in response to these atrocities. In addition to analysing the content of Gueyraud’s letters, this article evaluates his handling of the information he received, examining the presence of a critical approach. Furthermore, it assesses the accuracy of his information by cross–referencing it with sources and literature.

He border between the German reich and the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945)

he border between the German reich and the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945)

Individual attempts to help Jews in Independent State of Croatia (NDH): petition letters by ordinary Croats

ABSTRACT We aimed to explore the efforts by ordinary Croats to help Jews in Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. Those efforts consisted of writing petition letters to NDH government in defense of their fellow Jews. Our research questions regarded the arguments presented in the petitions. We used 80 petitions and divided them into six categories based on their content. Then we compared those arguments with the propaganda statements about Jews from Croatian newspapers. As the regime’s propaganda was severely antisemitic, the analysis of the content of petitions attempted to explain the reasons behind them. This article also raised new questions which could provide the basis for further research.

A Croatian and Catholic State the Ustasha regime and religious communities in the Independent State of Croatia

This paper will analyze the status that various religious communities enjoyed in the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska; hereafter NDH), focusing on the legal status and relations, both practical and financial, these communities enjoyed with the Ustasha movement and state authorities. The religious question was a key political problem in the NDH: the treatment of different religious communities serves as a paradigm of the character of the NDH as a state. Numerous studies have been written on the participation of Catholic clergy in the atrocities of the Ustasha movement and the NDH with the earliest being published immediately after the end of the war in 1945. The persecution of the Serbian Orthodox Church has been well documented in a number of important studies. Instead, this article will focus on legal and administrative issues and financial exchange between various religious communities and the NDH authorities as well as the state?s program of mass religious conversion since these illustrate the authentic intentions of the Ustasha regime and the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia, as the dominant social and political forces in the state, regarding state religious policy. The article is largely based on primary archival sources drawn from the Croatian and Serbian state archives.

New Memory of the Old Trauma?

Recently, there has been a significant rise in the production of films on the ‎Jasenovac camp and related Ustasha crimes, taking their share in the mnemonic‎ politics. The paper focuses on the two most recent films, The Diary of‎ Diana B., a docufiction filmed in Croatia, and Dara of Jasenovac, a feature‎ film which was Serbia’s candidate for an Oscar. The memory of traumatic ‎events is remediated in each film differently and used for representing diverse‎ group identities through temporal relation with the difficult past. Comparison ‎between the two films focuses on subject positions and regimes of historicity ‎as categories that make the production of meaning mechanism visible. The‎ main questions that guide the analysis are: how are victims and perpetrators ‎portrayed, who is witnessing traumatic events, and to whom is the trauma attributed?‎ Do they bring something new to the cultural memory of the Holocaust‎ and genocide in the Independent State of Croatia?‎

CROATIAN PARTY OF RIGHTS AS AN ACTOR OF THE BOSNIAN CRISIS

The article explores the function of the Croatian Party of Rights at the time of the collapse of Yugoslavia, secession of Croatia and the Bosnian crisis. The disintegration of the federation along the republican borders presupposed Croats to become a divided nation. This fact determined an active involvement of the Croatian Party of Rights in the events of the Bosnian crisis as a rightwing movement, which considers Independent State of Croatia as an institutional reflection of the Croatian common aspiration to create independent nation-state. The Croatian Party of Rights proposed «Great Croatia» programme to create independent Croatia providing existence of the whole Croat population of the former Yugoslavia within one state. Consequently, The Croatian Party of Rights became a political competitor for the leading force of the Croatian national movement – The Croatian Democratic Union, giving rise to their political struggle. The Croatian Democratic Union, as more popular and moderate movement in comparison with the Croatian Party of Rights, prevailed. It proposed more pragmatic and realistic «Small Croatia» programme in the context of the internationalization of political processes on the whole territory of the former Yugoslavia, considering leading role of the external Great powers in determining the future of the entire region.

CROATIAN PARTY OF RIGHTS AS AN ACTOR OF THE BOSNIAN CRISIS

The article explores the function of the Croatian Party of Rights at the time of the collapse of Yugoslavia, secession of Croatia and the Bosnian crisis. The disintegration of the federation along the republican borders presupposed Croats to become a divided nation. This fact determined an active involvement of the Croatian Party of Rights in the events of the Bosnian crisis as a rightwing movement, which considers Independent State of Croatia as an institutional reflection of the Croatian common aspiration to create independent nation-state. The Croatian Party of Rights proposed «Great Croatia» programme to create independent Croatia providing existence of the whole Croat population of the former Yugoslavia within one state. Consequently, The Croatian Party of Rights became a political competitor for the leading force of the Croatian national movement – The Croatian Democratic Union, giving rise to their political struggle. The Croatian Democratic Union, as more popular and moderate movement in comparison with the Croatian Party of Rights, prevailed. It proposed more pragmatic and realistic «Small Croatia» programme in the context of the internationalization of political processes on the whole territory of the former Yugoslavia, considering leading role of the external Great powers in determining the future of the entire region.

The Muslim Resolutions: Bosniak Responses to World War Two Atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (by Hikmet Karčić, Ferid Dautović, and Ermin Sinanović, eds.)

In the 1912 tome Unsere Zukunft: Ein Mahnwort an das deutsche Volk, Friedrich von Bernhardi once wrote: “war is the highest expression in life of a truly cultured people” (55). This book would argue for a more nuanced view of reality. In 1941 Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy invaded royal Yugoslavia and established a puppet regime called the ‘Independent State of Croatia’ (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, or NDH). This polity included all of modern Bosnia-Hercegovina and included nearly one million indigenous Muslims. The dictatorship was led by an extremist Roman Catholic nationalist faction who initiated a campaign of brutal violence against citizens of the Serb Orthodox church and others, many of whom then turned their anger towards the mostly unarmed Muslim civilians. A cycle of religio-communal brutality erupted and several Islamic scholars and Muslim leaders signed a number of formal public resolutions: these documents resolutely condemned the bloodshed and carnage, and called on the authorities to enforce justice and peace, law and order. In retrospect, it was an act of remarkable courage and bravery.

Angažovanje kolaboracionističkih vlasti okupirane Srbije na regulisanju pitanja priliva i statusa izbeglih lica iz Nezavisne Države Hrvatske 1941-1944. godine

The collaborationist authorities were constantly engaged in reception and taking care of the Serbian and Slovenian refugees and migrants, during the whole period of occupation. "The Council of Commissioners" accepted the Serbian refugees from the Independent State of Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and other areas. However, the responsibility for the calamities was imposed on those authorities, while remarks on German guilt were interpreted as malicious propaganda and slander. The Serbian refugees left their homes accompanied with great threats and permanent traumas caused by the crimes they experienced and suffered "on their skin", or from the suffering of their close family "at their eyes", which did not include their possibility to provide them help. The policy of the "Government of the National Salvation" on total taking care of the refugees, without any property, was disturbed by the situation in Serbiaincluding the material requirements of the German occupier and paying the contribution for the endurance of its military power. Nevertheless, from the very beginning of the refugees inflow, the national authorities organized and executed successive humanitarian actions, conducting the reception of the great deal of refugees in public service. The refugees, to the greatest extent, mainly accepted any job, regardless of professional qualifications, being employed to do demanding physical jobs. The Nedić government gave the extraordinary significance to taking care of the refugees' children, allied with the support of the charity associations. The work of the "Government of the National Salvation" on preventing the Serbian people's suffering, could not give the expected results, primarily due to the Hitler's rooted hostility and inconfidence towards Serbs, and because of the neccesity of the German state not to alienate the allies during their wavering. Therefore, they tended to maintain the good relationships with the Ustasha authorities. At the same time, that was one of the reasons why they inclined to sanction the writings of the Serbian magazines on the situation in the "Independent State of Croatia", and to minimize the news about the Serbian people's calamities.

The Ustasha genocide over the Serbs: The continuing Dolus Specialis

The key characteristic of the criminal aspect of the genocide, which distinguishes it from other violations of international humanitarian law and raises it to the level of the "crime above all crimes", is the existence of the so-called genocidal intention of "complete or partial destruction of a specific national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The gravity and monstrosity of the content of such intention, as q rule, require that it is deeply rooted in the conscience of the members of the group perpetrating this crime, while such inveteracy also implies the permanence of the intention, or genocidal idea. During World War II, the Serbian people, together with Jews and Romas, in the Independent State of Croatia were the victims of the genocide, the crime that abhorred even the Nazis. The idea and intention of the extermination of the Serbian people from the territory considered as Croatia's national territory by the Croatian nationalists, although existing for centuries in the past, got its "theoretical formation" in the 19th century, primarily in the works of Ante Starčević, who was called the "Father of the Fatherland" while he was still alive. The Ustasha openly showed their enthusiasm and inspiration by Starčević's works during World War II, claiming that there would not have been the Independent State of Croatia if it had not been for Starčević. The Ustasha ideology persisted after World War II, primarily through the activities of the Ustasha emigrants, but Croatian nationalism, open to accept the Ustasha ideological legacy, also persisted in the territory of Croatia itself. At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the revival of the idea about the secession of Croatia and its realization also led to the revival of the idea of the Serbs as a "destructive factor" in Croatia and the necessity of their elimination from that territory. Tuđman's Croatia resumed the Ustasha ideology in all its elements, including its attitude towards the Serbs and the genocidal intention, which had been largely realized during World War II. Drawing on the experience from the ISC, the Serbs became organized and prevented the repetition of the fate of their ancestors and relatives killed during World War II, but did not succeed in avoiding the "ethnic cleansing" from the territory of Croatia. The manner in which today's Croatia interprets events both from World War II and from the 1990s shows that the Ustasha ideology is still deeply rooted in the significant element of the Croatian society, including practically the entire top government of Croatia. An essentially important element of the Ustasha ideology is its genocidal intention towards the Serbs still living in Croatia.

Jasenovac, the camp and its historical and moral meaning

The paper gives an overview and stages of the development of the Ustasha concentration camp Jasenovac, during the existence of the "Independent State of Croatia" (ISC) in World War II. The fact is emphasized that the policy of the "Final solution" (for Jews and Romas, and in Croatia for Serbs as well), which was implemented by Nazi Germany, chronologically looking, was actually first applied in the ISC, and then in Germany. According to several criteria, the comparison is made between the concentration camps Auschwitz and Jasenovac, while particularly insisting on the brutality in the Ustasha killing of the victims in Jasenovac.

The idea of a Greater Croatia and genocide as an instrument for its realization

The paper consists of two selected chapters from the author's monograph published under the title Through Genocide to a Greater Croatia. The text points to the development of the great state idea among the Croats, aimed at creating the ethnically pure and Catholic state of Croatia, which is followed from the middle of the 19th century to modern times. The genocide over the Serbian people perpetrated in the so-called "Independent State of Croatia" from 1941 to 1945 was also guided by that idea. The idea was continued during Tuđman's coming to power in 1990, and one of the first moves of the new government was to change Croatia's Constitution by turning the Serbs in Croatia as a constitutional nation into a national minority.

Identity Construction and State Loyalties of Otmar Babić

This paper provides a study case of the First World War Croatian Major General Otmar Babić. It investigates the post-First World War national identity construction and shifting state loyalties of this Austro-Hungarian high-ranking military official in three different state regimes: the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes / Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and Independent State of Croatia. In view of the limited scope of this paper, the presented preliminary findings are narrowly focused on the text – on Otmar Babić’s statements in various types of narrations. His personal records are treated as narrations that belong to the historization of warfare experience – a military history from below. Therefore, this micro-level sociological study has analyzed developed discourse and discursive practices reflected in the correspondence between Major General Babić and state institutions, and his private, more intimate, writings expressed in poetry. Otmar Babic’s statements have been analyzed and treated as social representations expressed in discourse about the impact of the First World War on his life. Foucauldian discourse analysis applied as methodology has therefore, enabled to do qualitative sociological research into the shifting nature of Otmar Babić’s identity construction in different state regimes, as well as into his shifting state loyalties after the First World War when he was retired. Otmar Babić’s case provides a subjective account of the military past and post-war life and represents a source of First World War history from a personal perspective and a true testimony to the long lost Croatian cultural memory.

ŠTAMPANA GLASILA JNP ZBOR O POLITIČKOBEZBEDNOSNOJ SITUACIJI U BANOVINI HRVATSKOJ (1939–1940)

In this paper, I shall analyse a number of articles published by the Yugoslav People’s Movement Zbor (JNP Zbor) in its party papers and newssheets, with the aim of reconstructing the attitude adopted by this political organization regarding the political and security situation in the Banate of Croatia in the period 1939-1940. In particular, the focus shall be on the process of the downfall of the regime established by the Croatian Peasant Party in the Banate of Croatia, which resulted from the persecution of Serbs and other non-Croat population and concurrent conflicts within the Croatian national movement. Special attention shall also be paid to the repressive measures taken by the Croatian Peasant Party regime against the Serbian population, whose sufferings were a prelude to the genocide that the Ustashe regime eventually perpetrated against the Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during the World War 2.

Genocide over the Serbian people in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945)

From its very establishment in 1918, the Yugoslav state strived to be the state of "reconciliation". That is why the crimes over Serbs perpetrated by Austria-Hungary were not largely emphasized in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes / Yugoslavia, particularly not the crimes by Croats in occupation units, but conscientious researchers have still left their testimonies about them (see Reiss, 2019). For the sake of "reconciliation", nothing was said about the genocide over the Serbian people in WW2 in the territory of the ISC. Because of the strategy of "keeping silent about the genocide", crucially and for years, in the name of brotherhood and unity of Yugoslav nations, the topic did not have its place in the primary and secondary school curricula; the genocide crime perpetrated over the Serbian people was not discussed in history textbooks; for decades, it was not the topic in literature, while historians did not research the genocide crime or wrote substantially about it. However, if several generations of the representatives of the historian profession have an "alibi" for such behaviour, the generation of those writing in Serbian culture today must also take an attitude towards that sensitive topic. "To speak up" about the genocide over the Serbian people in the 20th century primarily means to write critically about the past times, with no passion, rationally and based on historical sources, "the way it really occurred".

Hidden holocaust: Documents, interpretations and testimonies

The study Jasenovac - Auschwitz of the Balkans gathers in one place numerous documents, interpretations and testimonies about the notorious camp system in the territory of the former Independent State of Croatia. Behind this book, at the same time the first volume of the trilogy, stands the name of Professor Gideon Greif, PhD, the Israeli historian and University Professor, expert for research of the Holocaust, particularly known worldwide for his research regarding Auschwitz. It is due to the comparison itself of two synonyms of evil, where the scale can adequately be seen of what is immeasurably less visible in the planetary framework, with what has become the focal point of the Holocaust remembrance, that the work of the author and his associates is of particular importance, with the emphasis on the specific features of Jasenovac camp and giving a broader context through other segments. This work encourages thinking and contributes to the remembrance culture, thus fulfilling the moral obligation towards the victims, which is also stressed by the author's team.

Mađarsko stanovništvo u NDH – brojčano stanje i proces nestajanja u periodu između 1941. i 1945.

Hungarian population in the Independent State of Croatia – demographic situation and the process of disappearance in the period between 1941 and 1945. Hungarians in Croatia are a minority group in the Carpathian / Pannonian Basin, compared to Hungarians from other neighboring countries, which after 1918 lost most of their members partly by emigration, partly by assimilation. The most intensive disappearances of this minority group from Croatian areas are the decades between the 1931 and 1948 censuses. In this paper, we deal with the issue of emigration and social relations of Hungarians within the borders of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and under the administrative area of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOV). With the help of archival material, we try to reconstruct those social circumstances of the war years that caused the emigration of a large number of members of this community.

The Dark Side of Transnational Mobility: Croatian Travel Writers in Hitler’s New Europe

This article analyses the use of Europeanizing discourses in the travel writing of Croat visitors to the Third Reich. Situating these visits in the context of transnational exchanges in Hitler’s new Europe and the war against the Soviet Union, it considers a number of specific case studies of travel between Croatia and Nazi Germany. It argues that the European discourse of writers, journalists, and youth activists in the Ustasha-led Independent State of Croatia served a number of specific purposes. First, they created a space of normality in an extremely violent state, providing an illusion of stability. By bringing the sights, sounds, and pleasures of travel to the near abroad back to Croatia in the form of books, magazine articles, and mobile film reels, they also gave citizens a glimpse of the good life, consumption, and materiality. As such, these travelogues and accounts of journeys overseas also aimed to persuade intellectuals and members of the cultural elite who did not support the Ustasha regime of the various material and professional “club goods” that might accrue to them by becoming active supporters of the regime. Furthermore, they served to create an impression of mobility in a surveillance state in which even internal travel was extremely restricted. Finally, in depicting Nazi-led war in the East and the struggle against the “East within”—in the form of the campaign of genocide against Serbs, Jews, Roma and so-called “asocials”—to building European brotherhood, modernization, and becoming an essential member of the new Europe, they became a source of regime legitimation, thereby telling us important things about the subjectivity of both the state and ideological tourists in a time of terror, war, and occupation.

Obrazovanje o genocidu nad Romima u Drugom svjetskom ratu u Republici Hrvatskoj

The Roma population has been living in Croatian territories for more than six centuries and during that period was mostly persecuted by state and local authorities who sought to assimilate them. Such antigypsyism political practice was not unique only for the Croatian territory but was practiced in most other European countries. After World War II there was no commemoration and recognition of Roma victims in most European countries, including socialist Croatia (Yugoslavia). Such marginalization of the culture of remembrance of Roma war victims was reflected in the lack of education on this subject in the Croatian education system, where it is mostly mentioned in only a few words. The paper focuses on the analysis of how the issue of Roma suffering in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Europe is (un)integrated into the Croatian education system.

Cultural texts, enemies, and taboos: autocommunicative meaning-making surrounding the “Ready for the Homeland” Ustaša salute in Croatia

ABSTRACT In Croatia, the war of symbols and the rise of hate speech has been manifested most prominently through Za dom spremni (“Ready for the Homeland”); the official salute of the WWII fascist quisling-state the Independent State of Croatia. The case that triggered a broad public dispute occurred in November 2016, when a memorial plaque containing the inscribed salute was installed near the WWII concentration camp Jasenovac by radical right-wing politicians and war veterans. As a consequence of being intertwined with the controversial legacy of WWII and the 1990s Croatian War of Independence, the salute on the plaque gave rise to an enclosed meaning-making sphere characterized by the invocation of existing cultural texts and the creation of new ones, the reinforcement of the us-them boundary, and the strengthening of existing taboos. In line with the abovementioned, the overarching aim of the study is to place the Croatian WWII Ustaša salute into a broader theoretical meaning-making framework while demonstrating the importance of cultural functions of the salute and nationalistically fueled hate speech more widely.