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93-584: The killings in Garavice were part of a widespread genocide of Serbs , that included expulsions, forced religious conversions, and massacres of ethnic Serbs by the Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia. These atrocities were carried out by Croat collaborators and Axis occupying forces during World War II . The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was founded on 10 April 1941 by

186-602: A terrorist organization as well. The first Ustaše center was established in Vienna , where brisk anti-Yugoslav propaganda soon developed and agents were prepared for terrorist actions. They organized the so-called Velebit uprising in 1932, assaulting a police station in the village of Brušani in Lika . In 1934, the Ustaše cooperated with Bulgarian, Hungarian and Italian right-wing extremists to assassinate King Alexander while he visited

279-583: A Greater Croatia came about with the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia ( Croatian : Nezavisna Država Hrvatska , NDH). Following occupation of the country by Axis forces in 1941, Slavko Kvaternik , deputy leader of the Ustaše proclaimed the establishment of the NDH. The Ustaša, an ultranationalist and fascist movement founded in 1929 supported a Greater Croatia that would extend to

372-577: A Greater Croatia was developed further by Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik , who founded the nationalist Party of Rights (HSP) in 1861. Unlike Strossmayer and the proponents of the Illyrian movement, HSP advocated a united Croatia that stood independently of a Pan-Slavic umbrella state. Starčević was an early opponent of Croatia's unification with Serbs and Slovenes (chiefly the Kingdom of Serbia ); their ideologies gradually gained popularity during

465-457: A Greater Croatian state has its modern origins with the Illyrian movement , a pan- South-Slavist cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period , and revived by a group of young Croatian intellectuals during the first half of the 19th century. Although this movement arose in the developing European nationalist context of the time, it particularly arose as a response to

558-530: A bent for conspiracies, revolutions and coups is in their blood." Starčević called the Serbs an "unclean race", a "nomadic people" and "a race of slaves, the most loathsome beasts", while the co-founder of his party, Eugen Kvaternik , denied the existence of Serbs in Croatia , seeing their political consciousness as a threat. Milovan Đilas cites Starčević as the "father of racism " and "ideological father" of

651-443: A death camp, had 88% mortality rate, higher than Auschwitz 's 84.6%. A former brickyard, a furnace was engineered into a crematorium, with witness testimony of some, including children, being burnt alive and stench of human flesh spreading in the camp. Luburić had a gas chamber built at Jasenovac V, where a considerable number of inmates were killed during a three-month experiment with sulfur dioxide and Zyklon B , but this method

744-522: Is a term applied to certain currents within Croatian nationalism . In one sense, it refers to the territorial scope of the Croatian people , emphasising the ethnicity of those Croats living outside Croatia . In the political sense, though, the term refers to an irredentist belief in the equivalence between the territorial scope of the Croatian people and that of the Croatian state . The concept of

837-476: The Axis powers (after the invasion of Yugoslavia ), who installed the fascist Ustasha organization as the puppet government. The Independent State of Croatia consisted of most of modern-day Croatia and all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina , together with some parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia . NDH was the only nation beside Germany to operate extermination camps during World War II . Some of

930-728: The Frankists ( Frankovci ) and they would become the main pool of members of the subsequent Ustaše movement. Following the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I and the collapse of Austria-Hungarian Empire , the provisional state was formed on the southern territories of the Empire which joined the Allies -associate Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia), ruled by

1023-590: The Habsburg Empire to the east and south by asserting its historical rights to claim Illyria. "Illyria" as Slavic territory projected by Vitezović would eventually incorporate not only most of the Southeastern Europe but also parts of Central Europe such as Hungary. Vitezović defines territory of Croatia which, besides Illyria and all Slavic populated territory, includes all the territory between Adriatic , Black and Baltic seas. Because

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1116-997: The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina . At the beginning of the Bosnian war , the Croats and Bosniaks formed an alliance against the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). The main Croat army was the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), and the Bosniak was the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). In November 1991, the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia

1209-465: The Ustaše movement reaches back to the 19th century when Ante Starčević established the Party of Rights , as well as when Josip Frank seceded his extreme fraction from it and formed his own Pure Party of Rights. Starčević was a major ideological influence on the Croatian nationalism of the Ustaše. He was an advocate of Croatian unity and independence and was both anti- Habsburg , as Starčević saw

1302-578: The genocide of Serbs , the Holocaust and the Porajmos in the NDH carried out by Ustaše. The most recent expression of a Greater Croatia arose in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia . When the multiethnic Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992, Bosnian Serb political representatives, who had boycotted the referendum, established their own government of Republika Srpska , whereupon their forces attacked

1395-458: The racially superior Nordic race. On the other hand, Serbs belonged to the " degenerate race " of the Vlachs. The Ustaše promoted the theories of historian and politician Šufflay, who is believed to have claimed that Croatia had been "one of the strongest ramparts of Western civilization for many centuries", which he claimed had been lost through its union with Serbia when the nation of Yugoslavia

1488-669: The 1930s, an autonomous state within Yugoslavia, called the Banovina of Croatia was peacefully negotiated in the Yugoslav parliament via the Cvetković–Maček Agreement of 1939. Croatia was united into a single territorial unit and was provided territories of parts of present-day Vojvodina , Posavina , and parts of Herzegovina and Central Bosnia , which had Croatian majority at the time. The first modern development of

1581-532: The Austro-Hungarian army and two of them served as military governors of Bosnia and occupied Serbia . They both endorsed Austria–Hungary's denationalizing plans in Serb-populated lands and supported the idea of incorporating a tamed Serbia into the Empire. Newman stated that Austro-Hungarian officers' "unfaltering opposition to Yugoslavia provided a blueprint for the Croatian radical right,

1674-483: The Belgrade government of propagating "a barbarian culture and Gypsy civilization", claiming they were spreading " atheism and bestial mentality in divine Croatia". Supporters of the Ustaše planned genocide years before World War II, for example one of Pavelić's main ideologues, Mijo Babić , wrote in 1932 that the Ustaše "will cleanse and cut whatever is rotten from the healthy body of the Croatian people". In 1933,

1767-610: The Brezje forest. On the Serbian New Year , 14 January 1942, the biggest slaughter of the civilians from Slavonia started. Villages were burned, and about 350 people were deported to Voćin and executed. In August 1942, following the joint military anti-partisan operation in the Syrmia by the Ustaše and German Wehrmacht , it turned into a massacre by the Ustaše militia that left up to 7,000 Serbs dead. Among those killed

1860-604: The French city of Marseille . Pavelić's fascist tendencies were apparent. The Ustaše movement was financially and ideologically supported by Benito Mussolini. During the intensification of ties with Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Pavelić's concept of the Croatian nation became increasingly race-oriented. In April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers. After Nazi forces entered Zagreb on 10 April 1941, Pavelić's closest associate Slavko Kvaternik , proclaimed

1953-569: The Granik ramp crane, their intestines and necks slashed, then dropped into the river. When the Partisans and Allies closed in at the end of the war, the Ustaše began mass liquidations at Jasenovac, marching women and children to death, and shooting most of the remaining male inmates, then torched buildings and documents before fleeing. Many prisoners were victims of rape , sexual mutilation and disembowelment , while induced cannibalism amongst

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2046-562: The Jadovno concentration camp itself acted as a "way station" en route to pits located on Mount Velebit , where inmates were executed and dumped. Approximately 90,000 of the Serb victims of genocide perished in concentration camps; the rest were killed in "direct terror", i.e. Punitive expeditions and razing of villages, pogroms, massacres and sporadic executions which mainly occurred between 1941 and 1942. The largest and most notorious camp

2139-582: The Kingdom of Hungary was so large, Hungary attempted processes of Magyarisation on its constituent territories. As a reaction, Ljudevit Gaj led the creation of the Illyrian movement. This movement aimed to establish Croatian national presence within Austria-Hungary through linguistic and ethnic unity among South Slavs . This was the first and most prominent Pan-Slavic movement in Croatian history. An early proponent of Croatian-based Pan-Slavism

2232-585: The NDH population. The NDH was never fully sovereign, but it was a puppet state that enjoyed the greatest autonomy than any other regime in German-occupied Europe . The Independent State of Croatia was declared to be on Croatian "ethnic and historical territory". This country can only be a Croatian country, and there is no method we would hesitate to use in order to make it truly Croatian and cleanse it of Serbs, who have for centuries endangered us and who will endanger us again if they are given

2325-430: The NDH that lasted until the end of the war. A few days following the massacre of Bjelovar Serbs, the Ustaše rounded up 331 Serbs in the village of Otočac. The victims were forced to dig their own graves before being hacked to death with axes. Among the victims was the local Orthodox priest and his son. The former was made to recite prayers for the dying as his son was killed. The priest was then tortured, his hair and beard

2418-503: The NDH was one of the most lethal European regimes. Mile Budak and other NDH high officials were tried and convicted of war crimes by the communist authorities . Concentration camp commandants such as Ljubo Miloš and Miroslav Filipović were captured and executed, while Aloysius Stepinac was found guilty of forced conversion. Many others escaped , including the supreme leader Ante Pavelić, most to Latin America . The genocide

2511-671: The River Drina and to the edge of Belgrade . Ante Pavelić , the Ustaše's Poglavnik (leader) had been in negotiations with Fascist Italy since 1927. These negotiations included Pavelić supporting Italy's annexation of its claimed territory in Dalmatia in exchange for Italy supporting an independent Croatia . In addition, Benito Mussolini offered Pavelić the right for Croatia to annex all of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Pavelić agreed to this exchange. The Greater Croatian ideology, combined with Nazi racial theory , culminated in

2604-551: The Serbian Karađorđević dynasty . Historian John Paul Newman explained that the influence of the Frankists, as well as the legacy of World War I, had an impact on the Ustaše ideology and their future genocidal means. Many war veterans had fought at various ranks and on various fronts on both the ' victorious ' and ' defeated ' sides of the war. Serbia suffered the biggest casualty rate in the world, while Croats fought in

2697-450: The Serbs between sixteen and sixty years of age to be arrested. After much discussion, they decided that all of the arrested should be killed. Many of the town's Serbs heard rumors that something bad was in store for them but the vast majority did not flee. On the night of 11 May, mass arrests of male Serbs over the age of sixteen began. The Ustaše then herded the group into an Orthodox Church and demanded that they be given documents proving

2790-742: The Serbs had all converted to Catholicism. Serbs who did not possess conversion certificates were locked inside and massacred. The church was then set on fire, leaving the bodies to burn as Ustaše stood outside to shoot any survivors attempting to escape the flames. A similar massacre of Serbs occurred on 30 July 1941. 700 Serbs were gathered into a church under the premise that they would be converted. Victims were killed by having their throats cut or by having their heads smashed in with rifle butts. Between 500 and 2000 other Serbs were later massacred in neighbouring villages by Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić 's forces, continuing until 3 August. In these massacres specifically males 16 years and older were killed. Only one of

2883-507: The Serbs. Historian Michael Phayer explained that the Nazis' decision to kill all of Europe's Jews is estimated by some to have begun in the latter half of 1941 in late June which, if correct, would mean that the genocide in Croatia began before the Nazi killing of Jews. Jonathan Steinberg stated that the crimes against Serbs in the NDH were the "earliest total genocide to be attempted during

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2976-452: The Serbs. Political scientist Tamara Pavasović Trošt, commenting on historiography and textbooks, listed the claims that terror against Serbs arose as a result of "their previous hegemony" as an example of the relativisation of Ustaše crimes. Historian Aristotle Kallis explained that anti-Serb prejudices were a "chimera" which emerged through living together in Yugoslavia with continuity with previous stereotypes. The Ustaše functioned as

3069-546: The Ustashas murdered between 7,000-12,000 Serbs, Jews, and Roma in Garavice. The largest number of victims were Serbs. Corpses were thrown in mass graves at Garavice or tossed into the nearby Klokot and Una rivers. A large amount of blood contaminated the local water supply. In 1981, the Yugoslav government established a memorial park in Garavice, designed by renowned architect Bogdan Bogdanović and opened 39 years after

3162-452: The Ustaše cited, among other things, policies of the inter-war Yugoslav government which they described as Serbian hegemony "that cost the lives of thousand Croats". Historian Jozo Tomasevich explains that that argument is not true, claiming that between December 1918 and April 1941 about 280 Croats were killed for political reasons, and that no specific motive for the killings could be identified, as they may also be linked to clashes during

3255-471: The Ustaše concept of nation and racial identity, as well as the theory of Serbs as an inferior race. Pilar, historian, politician and lawyer, placed great emphasis on racial determinism arguing that Croats had been defined by the " Nordic - Aryan " racial and cultural heritage, while Serbs had "interbred" with the "Balkan-Romanic Vlachs ". Truhelka, archeologist and historian, claimed that Bosnian Muslims were ethnic Croats, who, according to him, belonged to

3348-485: The Ustaše had about 100,000 members who took the oath. Since Vladko Maček reluctantly called on the supporters of the Croatian Peasant Party to respect and co-operate with the new regime of Ante Pavelić, he was able to use the apparatus of the party and most of the officials from the former Croatian Banovina . Initially, Croatian soldiers who had previously served in the Austro-Hungarian army held

3441-480: The Ustaše movement and ultimately its anti-Serbian policies in World War II, which was totally out of proportions to earlier anti-Croatian measures, in nature and extent. Yeomans explains that Ustaše officials constantly emphasized crimes against Croats by the Yugoslav government and security forces, although many of them were imagined, though some of them real, as justification for their envisioned eradication of

3534-427: The Ustaše presented "The Seventeen Principles" that formed the official ideology of the movement. The Principles stated the uniqueness of the Croatian nation, promoted collective rights over individual rights and declared that people who were not Croat by " blood " would be excluded from political life. In order to explain what they saw as a "terror machine", and regularly referred to as "some excesses" by individuals,

3627-503: The Ustaše". The Frankists blamed Serbian nationalists for the defeat of Austria-Hungary and opposed the creation of Yugoslavia, which was identified by them as a cover for Greater Serbia . Мass Croatian national consciousness appeared after the establishment of a common state of South Slavs and it was directed against the new Kingdom, more precisely against Serbian predominance within it. Early 20th century Croatian intellectuals Ivo Pilar , Ćiro Truhelka and Milan Šufflay influenced

3720-409: The Ustaše, while some Ustaše ideologues have linked Starčević's racial ideas to Adolf Hitler 's racial ideology . Frank's party embraced Starčević's position that Serbs were an obstacle to Croatian political and territorial ambitions, and the aggressive anti-Serb attitudes became one of the main characteristics of the party. The followers of the ultranationalist Pure Party of Right were known as

3813-458: The Ustaše. The Ustaše's goal was to create an ethnically homogeneous Greater Croatia by eliminating all non- Croats , with the Serbs being the primary target but Jews , Roma and political dissidents were also targeted for elimination. Large scale massacres were committed and concentration camps were built, the largest one was the Jasenovac , which was notorious for its high mortality rate and

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3906-603: The World War II". Andrija Artuković , the Minister of Interior of the Independent State of Croatia, signed into law a number of racial laws. On 30 April 1941, the government adopted "the legal order of races" and "the legal order of the protection of Atyan blood and the honor of Croatian people". Croats and about 750,000 Bosnian Muslims, whose support was needed against the Serbs, were proclaimed Aryans. Donald Bloxham and Robert Gerwarth concluded that Serbs were primary target of racial laws and murders. The Ustaše introduced

3999-473: The actions of the German allies, including the Croatian one, and the town- and village-level elimination of minorities also played a significant role. On 28 April 1941, approximately 184–196 Serbs from Bjelovar were summarily executed , after arrest orders by Kvaternik. It was the first act of mass murder committed by the Ustaše upon coming to power, and presaged the wider campaign of genocide against Serbs in

4092-553: The agrarian reform. Moreover, he stated that Serbs too were denied civil and political rights during the royal dictatorship. However, Tomasevich explains that the anti-Croatian policies of the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav government in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as, the shooting of the HSS deputies by Radić were largely responsible for the creation, growth and nature of Croatian nationalist forces. This culminated in

4185-535: The bands [of rebels] is chiefly due to atrocities carried out by Ustaše units in Croatia against the Orthodox population. The Ustaše committed their deeds in a bestial manner not only against males of conscript age, but especially against helpless old people, women and children. The number of the Orthodox that the Croats have massacred and sadistically tortured to death is about three hundred thousand. The Ustaše's preference for cold weapons in carrying out their deeds

4278-405: The barbaric practices which occurred in it. Furthermore, the NDH was the only Axis puppet state to establish concentration camps specifically for children . The regime systematically murdered approximately 200,000 to 500,000 Serbs. 300,000 Serbs were further expelled and at least 200,000 more Serbs were forcibly converted, most of whom de-converted following the war. Proportional to the population,

4371-642: The basis of the NDH. Over time, the relations between Croats and Bosniaks worsened, resulting in the Croat–Bosniak War , which lasted until early 1994 and the signing of the Washington Agreement . Croatian President Franjo Tuđman was criticised for trying to expand the borders of Croatia, mostly by annexing Herzegovina and parts of Bosnia with Croat majorities. In 2013, the International Criminal Tribunal for

4464-445: The bodies in the trenches. Some historians use a sentence from German sources: "Even German officers and SS men lost their cool when they saw (Ustaše) ways and methods." The infamous camp commander Filipović , dubbed fra Sotona ("brother Satan") and the "personification of evil", on one occasion drowned Serb women and children by flooding a cellar. Filipović and other camp commanders (such as Dinko Šakić and his wife Nada Šakić,

4557-448: The conflict between Croatian and Serbian political parties, King Alexander I proclaimed a dictatorship with the aim of establishing the "integral Yugoslavism " and a single Yugoslav nation . The introduction of the royal dictatorship brought separatist forces to the fore, especially among the Croats and Macedonians . The Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement ( Croatian : Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret ) emerged as

4650-402: The elimination of "Eastern" (Serbian) words from Croatian, as well as the shutting down of Serbian schools. Ante Pavelić ordered, through the "Croatian state office for language", the creation of new words from old roots, and purged many Serbian words. Whereas the Ustaše persecution of Jews and Roma was systematic and represented an implementation of Nazi policies, their persecution of Serbs

4743-473: The elite Black Legion and Poglavnik Bodyguard Battalion (later Brigade). They were predominantly recruited among the uneducated population and working class. Besides ethnic Croats, the militia also contained Muslims where they accounted for an estimated 30% of the membership. Violence against Serbs began in April 1941 and was initially limited in scope, primarily targeting Serb intelligentsia . By July however,

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4836-546: The entire historical and ethnic area of the Croats. In that period, Mussolini was interested in Balkans with the aim of isolating Yugoslavia, by strengthening Italian influence on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea . British historian Rory Yeomans claims that there are indication that Pavelić had been considering the formation of some kind of nationalist insurgency group as early as 1928. In June 1928, Stjepan Radić ,

4929-510: The first decrees issued by the Poglavnik of the Independent State of Croatia, Ante Pavelić , reflected the NDH's adoption of the racist ideology of Nazi Germany towards Jews and Serbs . Arrests of Serb and Jewish civilians in and around Bihać were ordered by Ljubomir Kvaternik, a county prefect, in June 1941. Arrestees were transported and executed at Garavice, near Bihać. In July 1941,

5022-583: The formation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on a Radio Zagreb broadcast. Meanwhile, Pavelić and several hundred Ustaše volunteers left their camps in Italy and travelled to Zagreb, where Pavelić declared a new government on 16 April 1941. He accorded himself the title of " Poglavnik " ( German : Führer , English: Chief leader ). The NDH 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

5115-458: The former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled, by a majority, that the Croatian leadership had a goal to join the areas of Herzeg-Bosnia to a "Greater Croatia", in accordance with the borders of the Banovina of Croatia in 1939. Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, the presiding judge in the trial, issued a separate opinion in which he disputed the notion that Tuđman had a plan to divide Bosnia. On 29 November 2017,

5208-513: The highest positions in the NDH armed forces. Historian Irina Ognyanova stated that the similarities between the NDH and the Third Reich included the assumption that terror and genocide were necessary for the preservation of the state. Viktor Gutić made several speeches in early summer 1941, calling Serbs "former enemies" and "unwanted elements" to be cleansed and destroyed, and also threatened Croats who did not support their cause. Much of

5301-405: The ideology of the Ustaše was based on Nazi racial theory. Like the Nazis, the Ustaše deemed Jews, Romani, and Slavs to be sub-humans ( Untermensch ). They endorsed the claims from German racial theorists that Croats were not Slavs but a Germanic race. Their genocides against Serbs, Jews, and Romani were thus expressions of Nazi racial ideology . Adolf Hitler supported Pavelić in order to punish

5394-456: The inmates also took place. Some survivors testified about drinking blood from the slashed throats of the victims and soap making from human corpses . The Independent State of Croatia was the only Axis satellite to have erected camps specifically for children. Special camps for children were those at Sisak , Đakovo and Jastrebarsko , while Stara Gradiška held thousands of children and women. Historian Tomislav Dulić explained that

5487-421: The interwar period as tensions grew in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between the Croatian and the more influential Serbian political leaders. Ensuing events surrounding the ideology culminated in the World War II conflict between the Independent State of Croatia and its opponents including Chetnik Serbs and Communists of all ethnicities (including Croatian). Amid rising ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs in

5580-479: The laws to strip Serbs of their citizenship, livelihoods, and possessions. Similar to Jews in the Third Reich, Serbs were forced to wear armbands bearing the letter "P", for Pravoslavac (Orthodox). (Likewise, Jews were forced to wear the armband with the letter "Ž", fort Židov (Jew). Ustaše writers adopted dehumanizing rhetoric. In 1941, the usage of the Cyrillic script was banned, and in June 1941 began

5673-502: The leader of the largest and most popular Croatian party Croatian Peasant Party ( Hrvatska seljačka stranka , HSS) was mortally wounded in the parliamentary chamber by Puniša Račić , a Montenegrin Serb leader, former Chetnik member and deputy of the ruling Serb People's Radical Party . Račić also shot two other HSS deputies dead and wounded two more. The killings provoked violent student protests in Zagreb . Trying to suppress

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5766-513: The main Croatian enemy in the Habsburg Monarchy, and anti-Serb . He envisioned the creation of a Greater Croatia that would include territories inhabited by Bosniaks , Serbs , and Slovenes , considering Bosniaks and Serbs to be Croats who had been converted to Islam and Eastern Orthodox Christianity . In his demonization of the Serbs he claimed "how the Serbs today are dangerous for their ideas and their racial composition, how

5859-538: The massacre. In 2011, the memorial park was declared a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since then, however, the park has reportedly been neglected by the Bosnian government , and is overgrown with weeds and bushes, and desecrated with Nazi and Ustasha graffiti. Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia The Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia ( Serbo-Croatian : Genocid nad Srbima u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj / Геноцид над Србима у Независној Држави Хрватској )

5952-403: The more powerful nationalist stirrings in the then- Kingdom of Hungary , with whom Croatia was in a personal union . The foundations of the concept of Greater Croatia are laid in late 17th and early 18th century works of Pavao Ritter Vitezović . He was the first ideologist of Croatian nation who proclaimed that all South Slavs are Croats . His works were used to legitimize expansionism of

6045-478: The most extreme movement of these. The Ustaše was created in late 1929 or early 1930 among radical and militant student and youth groups, which existed from the late 1920s. Precisely, the movement was founded by journalist Gustav Perčec and Ante Pavelić. They were driven by a deep hatred of Serbs and Serbdom and claimed that, "Croats and Serbs were separated by an unbridgeable cultural gulf" which prevented them from ever living alongside each other. Pavelić accused

6138-448: The opportunity. The Ustaše became obsessed with creating an ethnically pure state . As outlined by Ustaše ministers Mile Budak , Mirko Puk and Milovan Žanić, the strategy to achieve an ethnically pure Croatia was that: According to historian Ivo Goldstein , this formula was never published but it is undeniable that the Ustaše applied it towards Serbs. The Ustaše movement received limited support from ordinary Croats. In May 1941,

6231-504: The opposition of a group of nationalists to the unification into a common state of South Slavs , influenced ethnic tensions in the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (since 1929 Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The 6 January Dictatorship and the later anti-Croat policies of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav government in the 1920s and 1930s fueled the rise of nationalist and far-right movements. This culminated in

6324-753: The respective local Ustaše warlords than a well-structured policy. The Ustaše set up temporary concentration camps in the spring of 1941 and laid the groundwork for a network of permanent camps in autumn. The creation of concentration camps and extermination campaign of Serbs had been planned by the Ustaše leadership long before 1941. In Ustaše state exhibits in Zagreb, the camps were portrayed as productive and "peaceful work camps", with photographs of smiling inmates. Serbs, Jews and Romani were arrested and sent to concentration camps such as Jasenovac , Stara Gradiška , Gospić and Jadovno . There were 22–26 camps in NDH in total. Historian Jozo Tomasevich described that

6417-534: The rise of the Ustaše, an ultranationalist , terrorist organization, founded by Ante Pavelić . The movement was financially and ideologically supported by Benito Mussolini , and it was also involved in the assassination of King Alexander I . Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, a German puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was established, comprising most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia , ruled by

6510-426: The sister of Maks Luburić), used ingenious torture. There were throat-cutting contests of Serbs, in which prison guards made bets among themselves as to who could slaughter the most inmates. It was reported that guard and former Franciscan priest Petar Brzica won a contest on 29 August 1942 after cutting the throats of 1,360 inmates. Inmates were tied and hit over the head with mallets and half-alive hung in groups by

6603-626: The so-called Delić pit. During the war, the Ustaše massacred more than 900 Serbs in Divoselo , more than 500 in Smiljan , as well as more than 400 in Široka Kula near Gospić. On 2 August 1941, the Ustaše trapped about 120 children and women and 50 men who tried to escape from Divoselo. After a few days of imprisonment, where women were raped, they were stabbed in groups and thrown into the pits. On 21 December 1941, approximately 880 Serbs from Dugo Selo Lasinjsko and Prkos Lasinjski were killed in

6696-463: The systematic murder of infants and children, who could not pose a threat to the state, serves as one important illustration of the genocidal character of Ustaša mass killing. The Holocaust and genocide survivors, including Božo Švarc , testified that Ustaše tore off the children's hands, as well as, "apply a liquid to children's mouths with brushes", which caused the children to scream and later die. The Sisak camp commander, aphysician Antun Najžer ,

6789-515: The town of Vojnić were massacred during the war, out of a total of approximately 5000 inhabitants. That same month, a total of 759 women, children and elderly Serbs were massacred near the village of Krstinja . On 31 July 1942, in the Sadilovac church the Ustaše under Milan Mesić's command massacred more than 580 inhabitants of the surrounding villages, including about 270 children. At various dates, 2,019 primarily women and children were killed in

6882-551: The victims, Ljubo Jednak, survived by playing dead. The district of Gospić experienced the first large-scale massacres which occurred in the Lika region, as some 3,000 Serb civilians were killed between late July and early August 1941. Ustaše officials reported an emerging Serb rebellion due to massacres. In late July 1941, a detachment of the Croatian military in Gospić noted that the local insurgents were Serb peasants who had fled to

6975-480: The village of Pecka with 250 victims, and Perna where 427 old men and children were killed. A large number were also killed in Vojišnica and Vrginmost . About 60% of Sadilovac residents lost their lives during the war. More than 400 Serbs were killed in their homes, including 185 children. On 17 April 1942, 99 Serbs were burned alive in the village of Kolarić , near Vojnić . A total of 3,849 inhabitants of

7068-416: The village of Rakovica . On 11 or 12 May 1941, 260–300 Serbs were herded into an Orthodox church and shot, after which it was set on fire. The idea for this massacre reportedly came from Mirko Puk, who was the Minister of Justice for the NDH. On 10 May, Ivica Šarić, a specialist for such operations traveled to the town of Glina to meet with local Ustaše leadership where they drew up a list of names of all

7161-964: The violence became "indiscriminate, widespread and systematic". Massacres of Serbs were focused in mixed areas with large Serb populations for necessity and efficiency. In the summer of 1941, Ustaše militias and death squads burnt villages and killed thousands of civilian Serbs in the country-side in sadistic ways with various weapons and tools. Men, women, children were hacked to death, thrown alive into pits and down ravines, or set on fire in churches. Hardly ever were firearms used, more commonly, knived axes and such were utilized. Serb victims were dismembered, their ears and tongues cut off and eyes gouged out. Some Serb villages near Srebrenica and Ozren were wholly massacred while children were found impaled by stakes in villages between Vlasenica and Kladanj. The Ustaše cruelty and sadism shocked even Nazi commanders. A Gestapo report to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler , dated 17 February 1942, stated: Increased activity of

7254-530: The war, the NDH armed forces killed over 7,000 Serbs in the municipality of Kozarska Dubica , while the municipality lost more than half of its pre-war population. The biggest massacre was committed by the Croatian Home Guard in January 1942, when the village Draksenić was burned and more than 200 were people killed. Greater Croatia Greater Croatia ( Croatian : Velika Hrvatska )

7347-630: The woods "purely as a reaction to the cleansing [operations] against them by our Ustaša formations". Following a sabotage of railway tracks in the district of Vojnić that was attributed to local communists on 27 July 1941, the Ustaše began a "cleansing" operation of indiscriminate pillage and killing of civilians, including the elderly and children. On 6 August 1941, the Ustaše killed and burned more than 280 villagers in Mlakva , including 191 children. Between June and August 1941, about 890 Serbs from Ličko Petrovo Selo and Melinovac were killed and thrown in

7440-544: Was abandoned due to poor construction. Still, that method was unnecessary, as most inmates perished from starvation, disease (especially typhus ), assaults with mallets, maces, axes, poison and knives. The srbosjek ("Serb-cutter") was a glove with an attached curved blade designed to cut throats. Large groups of people were regularly executed upon arrival outside camps and thrown into the river. Unlike German-run camps, Jasenovac specialized in brutal one-on-one violence, such as guards attacking barracks with weapons and throwing

7533-513: Was able to do during its occupation of Europe." Bounded by rivers and two barbed-wire fences making escape unlikely, the Jasenovac camp was divided into five camps, the first two closed in December 1941, while the rest were active until the end of the war. Stara Gradiška (Jasenovac V) held women and children. The Ciglana (brickyards, Jasenovac III) camp, the main killing ground and essentially

7626-446: Was dubbed the "Croatian Mengele " by survivors. Diana Budisavljević , a humanitarian of Austrian descent, carried out rescue operations and saved more than 15,000 children from Ustaše camps. A large number of massacres were committed by the NDH armed forces, Croatian Home Guard ( Domobrani ) and Ustaše Militia . The Ustaše Militia was organised in 1941 into five (later 15) 700-man battalions, two railway security battalions and

7719-518: Was established as an autonomous Croat territorial unit within Bosnia and Herzegovina. The leaders of Herzeg-Bosnia called it a temporary measure during the conflict with the Serb forces and claimed it had no secessionary goal. The Croatian Defence Forces (HOS), a paramilitary wing of the Croatian Party of Rights , supported a confederation between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but on

7812-474: Was formed in 1918. The outburst of Croatian nationalism after 1918 was one of the main threats for Yugoslavia's stability. During the 1920s, Ante Pavelić , lawyer, politician and one of the Frankists, emerged as a leading spokesman for Croatian independence. In 1927, he secretly contacted Benito Mussolini , dictator of Italy and founder of fascism , and presented his separatist ideas to him. Pavelić proposed an independent Greater Croatia that should cover

7905-513: Was not properly examined in the aftermath of the war, because the post-war Yugoslav government did not encourage independent scholars out of concern that ethnic tensions would destabilize the new communist regime. Nowadays, оn 22 April , Serbia marks the public holiday dedicated to the victims of genocide and fascism, while Croatia holds an official commemoration at the Jasenovac Memorial Site. The ideological foundation of

7998-467: Was partly a result of the shortage of ammunition and firearms in the early course of the war, but also demonstrated the importance the regime placed on the cult of violence and personal slaughter, in particular through the usage of the knife. Charles King emphasized that concentration camps are losing their central place in Holocaust and genocide research because a large proportion of victims perished in mass executions, ravines and pits. He explained that

8091-590: Was pulled out, eyes gouged out before he was skinned alive. On 24–25 July 1941, the Ustaše militia captured the village of Banski Grabovac in the Banija region and murdered the entire Serb population of 1,100 peasants. On 24 July, over 800 Serb civilians were killed in the village of Vlahović. Between 29 June and 7 July 1941, 280 Serbs were killed and thrown into pits near Kostajnica . Large scale massacres took place in Staro Selo Topusko , including in

8184-407: Was rooted in a stronger "home grown" form of hatred, implemented with more variance due to the larger Serb population found across rural areas. This was done despite the fact it would degrade support for the regime, fueled Serb rebellion and jeopardized the stability of the NDH. The level of violence enacted against Serb communities often depended more on the intercommunal relations and inclinations of

8277-435: Was simultaneously carried out with the Holocaust in the NDH as well as the genocide of Roma , by combining Nazi racial policies with the ultimate goal of creating an ethnically pure Greater Croatia . The ideological foundation of the Ustaše movement reaches back to the 19th century. Several Croatian nationalists and intellectuals established theories about Serbs as an inferior race . The World War I legacy, as well as

8370-541: Was the Jasenovac-Stara Gradiška complex, the largest extermination camp in the Balkans. An estimated 100,000 inmates perished there, most Serbs. Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić, the commander-in-chief of all the Croatian camps, announced the great "efficiency" of the Jasenovac camp at a ceremony on 9 October 1942, and also boasted: "We have slaughtered here at Jasenovac more people than the Ottoman Empire

8463-610: Was the politician, Count Janko Drašković . In 1832, he published his Dissertation to the joint Hungarian-Croatian Diet, in which he envisioned a “Great Illyria” consisting of all the South Slav provinces of the Habsburg Empire. Likewise, the influential Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer , although a supporter of the Habsburg monarchy , nonetheless advocated merging the Kingdom of Dalmatia with Croatia. The concept of

8556-492: Was the prominent painter Sava Šumanović , who was arrested along with 150 residents of Šid , and then tortured by having his arms cut off. In August 1941 on the Eastern Orthodox Elijah's holy day , who is the patron saint of Bosnia and Herzegovina, between 2,800 and 5,500 Serbs from Sanski Most and the surrounding area were killed and thrown into pits which had been dug by victims themselves. During

8649-552: Was the systematic persecution and extermination of Serbs committed during World War II by the fascist Ustaše regime in the Nazi German puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia ( Serbo-Croatian : Nezavisna Država Hrvatska / Независна Држава Хрватска , NDH) between 1941 and 1945. It was carried out through executions in death camps , as well as through mass murder , ethnic cleansing , deportations , forced conversions , and war rape . This genocide

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