Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia
In 1928, a Montenegrin Serb deputy named Puniša Račić shot Croatian Peasant Party leader Stjepan Radić in the parliamentary chamber of Zagreb. Two other deputies died and two more were wounded by the same bullet. This act of violence triggered violent student protests that would eventually lead to King Alexander I proclaiming a dictatorship on the 6th of January 1934. The assassination created a political vacuum that allowed radical nationalist groups to rise from the shadows. One such group was the Ustaše , Croatian Revolutionary Movement, founded by Ante Pavelić and journalist Gustav Perčec in late 1929 or early 1930. These founders claimed that Croats and Serbs were separated by an unbridgeable cultural gulf. They argued that living together as neighbors was impossible under any circumstances.
The ideological roots of this movement traced back to the 19th century when Ante Starčević established the Party of Rights. Starčević viewed Serbs as an unclean race and called them nomadic people who were a race of slaves. He believed that Bosniaks and Serbs were actually Croats who had been converted to Islam and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Eugen Kvaternik, co-founder of his party, denied the existence of Serbs in Croatia entirely. He saw their political consciousness as a direct threat to Croatian unity. Historian Milovan Đilas later cited Starčević as the father of racism within the Croatian nationalist tradition.
Following World War I, many war veterans fought on both sides of the conflict. Serbia suffered the biggest casualty rate in the world while Croats served in the Austro-Hungarian army. Two Croats even became military governors of Bosnia and occupied Serbia during that era. These officers endorsed Austria, Hungary's denationalizing plans in Serb-populated lands. Their opposition to Yugoslavia provided a blueprint for the Croatian radical right. The Frankists, followers of Josip Frank, embraced these positions and became the main pool of members for the subsequent Ustaše movement. They blamed Serbian nationalists for the defeat of Austria-Hungary and opposed the creation of Yugoslavia as a cover for Greater Serbia.
On the 10th of April 1941, Nazi forces entered Zagreb and Slavko Kvaternik proclaimed the formation of the Independent State of Croatia over Radio Zagreb. Ante Pavelić and several hundred Ustaše volunteers left camps in Italy to travel to Zagreb where he declared a new government on the 16th of April 1941. He accorded himself the title of Poglavnik which meant leader or headman. The state combined most of modern Croatia, all of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of modern Serbia into an Italian-German quasi-protectorate. Serbs made up about 30% of the NDH population.
The regime never enjoyed full sovereignty but it was a puppet state that had greater autonomy than any other German-occupied European regime. The Ustaše became obsessed with creating an ethnically pure state. Ministers Mile Budak, Mirko Puk and Milovan Žanić outlined a strategy to achieve this goal. One-third of the Serbs were to be killed, one-third expelled and one-third forcibly converted to Catholicism. This formula was never officially published yet historians agree the Ustaše applied it systematically toward Serb communities.
In May 1941, the Ustaše had about 100,000 members who took an oath of loyalty. Vladko Maček reluctantly called on supporters of the Croatian Peasant Party to cooperate with the new regime. Most officials from the former Croatian Banovina remained in place while Croatian soldiers who served in the Austro-Hungarian army held highest positions in the armed forces. Viktor Gutić gave speeches in early summer 1941 calling Serbs former enemies and unwanted elements to be cleansed and destroyed. He also threatened Croats who did not support their cause.
Adolf Hitler supported Pavelić in order to punish the Serbs for their resistance during World War I. The Nazis deemed Jews, Romani and Slavs as sub-humans under their racial theories. They endorsed claims that Croats were not Slavs but a Germanic race. Their genocides against Serbs, Jews and Romani were thus expressions of Nazi racial ideology. On the 30th of April 1941, Andrija Artuković signed into law the legal order of races and the protection of Aryan blood. Croats and about 750,000 Bosnian Muslims were proclaimed Aryans while Serbs lost citizenship, livelihoods and possessions.
On the 28th of April 1941, approximately 184 to 196 Serbs from Bjelovar were summarily executed after arrest orders by Slavko Kvaternik. This was the first act of mass murder committed by the Ustaše upon coming to power. It presaged the wider campaign of genocide against Serbs that lasted until the end of the war. A few days later, the Ustaše rounded up 331 Serbs in the village of Otočac. Victims were forced to dig their own graves before being hacked to death with axes.
Among those killed at Otočac was a local Orthodox priest and his son. The priest was made to recite prayers for the dying as his son was killed. He was then tortured, his hair and beard pulled out, eyes gouged out before he was skinned alive. On the 24th of July 1941, over 800 Serb civilians were killed in the village of Vlahović. Between the 29th of June and the 7th of July 1941, 280 Serbs were killed and thrown into pits near Kostajnica.
Large scale massacres took place in Staro Selo Topusko including in the village of Pecka where 250 victims died. In Perna, 427 old men and children were killed. About 60% of Sadilovac residents lost their lives during the war. More than 400 Serbs were killed in their homes including 185 children. On the 17th of April 1942, 99 Serbs were burned alive in the village of Kolarić near Vojnić. A total of 3,849 inhabitants of the town of Vojnić were massacred during the war out of approximately 5,000 total inhabitants.
That same month, a total of 759 women, children and elderly Serbs were massacred near the village of Krstinja. On the 31st of July 1942, in the Sadilovac church, Ustaše under Milan Mesić's command massacred more than 580 inhabitants of surrounding villages including about 270 children. At various dates, 2,019 primarily women and children were killed in the village of Rakovica. The district of Gospić experienced first large-scale massacres which occurred between late July and early August 1941 when some 3,000 Serb civilians were killed.
The Independent State of Croatia was the only Axis satellite to have erected camps specifically for children. Special camps existed at Sisak, Đakovo and Jastrebarsko while Stara Gradiška held thousands of children and women. Historian Tomislav Dulić explained that systematic murder of infants and children who could not pose a threat served as one important illustration of genocidal character. Božo Švarc testified that Ustaše tore off children's hands and applied liquid to their mouths causing them to scream and die.
Diana Budisavljević carried out rescue operations and saved more than 15,000 children from Ustaše camps. The Sisak camp commander Antun Najžer was dubbed the Croatian Mengele by survivors. Approximately 90,000 of the Serb victims perished in concentration camps while the rest were killed in direct terror through punitive expeditions and razing villages. The largest and most notorious complex was Jasenovac-Stara Gradiška with an estimated 100,000 inmates perishing there.
Vjekoslav Maks Luburić announced great efficiency of the Jasenovac camp at a ceremony on the 9th of October 1942. He boasted they had slaughtered more people there than the Ottoman Empire did during its occupation of Europe. The Ciglana brickyard camp had an 88% mortality rate higher than Auschwitz's 84.6%. A furnace was engineered into a crematorium where witness testimony described some including children being burnt alive.
Luburić built a gas chamber at Jasenovac V where a considerable number of inmates were killed during a three-month experiment with sulfur dioxide and Zyklon B. This method was abandoned due to poor construction yet it remained unnecessary as most inmates perished from starvation disease especially typhus assaults with mallets maces axes poison and knives. The srbosjek or Serb-cutter was a glove with attached curved blade designed to cut throats. Large groups executed upon arrival outside camps were thrown into the river.
On the 3rd of May 1941, a law was passed on religious conversions pressuring Serbs to convert to Catholicism thereby adopting Croat identity. This occurred on the eve of Pavelić's meeting with Pope Pius XII in Rome. The Catholic Church in Croatia headed by archbishop Aloysius Stepinac greeted this law and adopted it into internal church regulations. The term Serbian Orthodox was banned in mid-May as incompatible with state order while Greek-Eastern faith replaced it.
By end of September 1941 about half of Serbian Orthodox clergy totaling 335 priests had been expelled. To erase all history of Serbs and Orthodox religion churches dating to 1200s and 1300s were razed to ground or used as stables and barns. Ustaše propaganda legitimized persecution based on historic Catholic-Orthodox struggle for domination in Europe. Following start of Serb insurgency State Directorate for Regeneration launched program aimed at mass forced conversion of Serbs in autumn 1941.
Over 150 Serbian Orthodox priests were killed between May and December 1941 alone. In Lika Kordun and Banija alone 172 Serbian Orthodox churches were closed destroyed or plundered. The Encyclopedia of Holocaust described bishops conference that met in Zagreb in November 1941 was not prepared to denounce forced conversions taken place summer 1941. Many fanatical Catholic priests joined the Ustaše blessed and supported their work participating in killings and conversions.
In 1941-1942 some 200,000 to 250,000 Serbs were converted to Roman Catholicism although most practiced it only temporarily. Converts would sometimes be killed anyway often in same churches where they were rebaptized. 85% of Serbian Orthodox clergy was killed or expelled. On the 6th of February 1942 Pope Pius XII privately received 206 Ustaše members in uniforms blessing them symbolically supporting actions.
Determining number of victims for Yugoslavia Croatia and Jasenovac is highly problematic due to destruction many relevant documents long-term inaccessibility independent scholars faced those documents survived ideological agendas postwar partisan scholarship journalism. In 1980s calculations made by Serb statistician Bogoljub Kočović and Croat demographer Vladimir Žerjavić proved objective reliable studies. Kočović estimated 370,000 Serbs both combatants civilians died NDH during war with possible error around 10%. He noted Serb losses cannot be higher than 410,000.
Žerjavić estimated total number Serb deaths NDH was 322,000 including 125,000 as combatants while 197,000 were civilians. He calculated 78,000 civilians killed Ustaše prisons pits camps including Jasenovac 45,000 civilians killed Germans 15,000 Italians 34,000 battles warring parties 25,000 typhoid deaths. Number victims perished Jasenovc concentration camp remains matter debate current estimates put total around 100,000 half Serbs.
Historian Jozo Tomasevich said exact number victims Yugoslavia impossible determine yet Barbara Jelavich cites his estimate writing as many 350,000 Serbs killed period Ustaše rule. Rory Yeomans stated most conservative estimates state 200,000 Serbs killed Ustaše death squads actual number executed perished camps may high 500,000. In 1992 work Sabrina P Ramet cited figure 350,000 Serbs liquidated Pavelić henchmen. In 2006 work Ramet estimated at least 300,000 Serbs massacred Ustaše.
Raphael Lemkin initiator Genocide Convention described crimes against Serbs genocide. Croatian historian Mirjana Kasapović explained important scientific works genocide crimes against Serbs Jews Roma NDH unequivocally classified genocide. Yad Vashem Israel official memorial Holocaust stated Ustasha carried out Serb genocide exterminating over 500,000 expelling 250,000 forcing another 250,000 convert Catholicism.
Mile Budak and number other members NDH government such Nikola Mandić Julije Makanec tried convicted high treason war crimes communist authorities SFR Yugoslavia. Many executed Miroslav Filipović commandant Jasenovac Stara Gradiška camps found guilty war crimes sentenced death hanged. Many others escaped including supreme leader Ante Pavelić most Latin America.
Some emigrations prevented Operation Gvardijan Ljubo Miloš commandant Jasenovac camp captured executed. Aloysius Stepinac Archbishop Zagreb found guilty high treason forced conversion Orthodox Serbs Catholicism. Some claim trial carried proper legal procedure. Andrija Artuković Minister Internal Affairs Justice NDH signed racial laws escaped United States after war extradited Yugoslavia 1986 tried Zagreb District Court found guilty mass killings NDH sentenced death sentence not carried out due age health.
Efraim Zuroff Nazi hunter played significant role capturing Dinko Šakić another Jasenovac camp commander during 1990s. After pressure international community right-wing president Franjo Tuđman sought Šakić extradition stood trial Croatia aged 78 found guilty war crimes crimes humanity given maximum sentence 20 years imprisonment. Human rights researchers Eric Stover Victor Peskin Alexa Koenig called it most important post-Cold War domestic effort hold criminally accountable Nazi war crimes suspect former Eastern European communist country.
With Partisan liberation Yugoslavia many Ustaše leaders fled took refuge college San Girolamo degli Illirici near Vatican. Catholic priest Ustaše Krunoslav Draganović directed fugitives from San Girolamo. US State Department Counter-Intelligence Corps helped war criminals escape assisted Draganović later worked American intelligence sending Ustaše abroad. Many responsible mass killings NDH took refuge South America Portugal Spain United States. Luburić assassinated Spain 1969 UDBA agent Artuković lived Ireland California until extradited 1986 died natural causes prison.
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Common questions
Who founded the Ustaše movement and when was it established?
The Ustaše Croatian Revolutionary Movement was founded by Ante Pavelić and journalist Gustav Perčec in late 1929 or early 1930. This group claimed that Croats and Serbs were separated by an unbridgeable cultural gulf.
What specific genocidal strategy did the Independent State of Croatia implement against Serbs during World War II?
Ministers Mile Budak Mirko Puk and Milovan Žanić outlined a strategy to kill one-third of the Serbs expel one-third and forcibly convert one-third to Catholicism. Historians agree the Ustaše applied this formula systematically toward Serb communities despite never officially publishing it.
How many Serbs died in concentration camps like Jasenovac according to historical estimates from the 1980s?
Croat demographer Vladimir Žerjavić estimated total Serb deaths in the Independent State of Croatia as 322,000 including 78,000 civilians killed in prisons pits and camps. Current estimates for the Jasenovac-Stara Gradiška complex put the number around 100,000 inmates perishing there with half being Serbs.
When did the first mass murder committed by the Ustaše occur after they came to power on April 10th 1941?
On the 28th of April 1941 approximately 184 to 196 Serbs from Bjelovar were summarily executed following arrest orders by Slavko Kvaternik. This event marked the first act of mass murder committed by the Ustaše upon coming to power.
What role did the Catholic Church play in the persecution of Serbs during the war in Yugoslavia?
The Catholic Church in Croatia headed by archbishop Aloysius Stepinac greeted the law on religious conversions and adopted it into internal church regulations. Many fanatical Catholic priests joined the Ustaše blessed their work and participated in killings and forced conversions while over 150 Serbian Orthodox priests were killed between May and December 1941 alone.