Independent State of Croatia: Difference between revisions
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Following the attack of the [[Axis powers of World War II|Axis powers]] on the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]] in [[1941]], and the quick defeat of the Yugoslav army (''Jugoslovenska vojska''), the whole country was occupied by Axis forces. [[Hitler]] and [[Mussolini]] installed the [[Croatia]]n [[Ustaše]], who had long sought Croatian independence, forming the Independent State of Croatia (NDH - Nezavisna Država Hrvatska). |
Following the attack of the [[Axis powers of World War II|Axis powers]] on the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]] in [[1941]], and the quick defeat of the Yugoslav army (''Jugoslovenska vojska''), the whole country was occupied by Axis forces. [[Hitler]] and [[Mussolini]] installed the [[Croatia]]n [[Ustaše]], who had long sought Croatian independence, forming the Independent State of Croatia (NDH - Nezavisna Država Hrvatska). |
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The establishment of NDH was proclaimed on [[April 10]], [[1941]] by [[Slavko Kvaternik]], deputy leader of the [[Ustaše]]. [[Ante Pavelić]] came to power as leader (''Poglavnik'') of the Croatian [[puppet state]]. Pavelić took power with Mussolini and Hitler's blessing. The crown of this puppet state was handed to |
The establishment of NDH was proclaimed on [[April 10]], [[1941]] by [[Slavko Kvaternik]], deputy leader of the [[Ustaše]]. [[Ante Pavelić]] came to power as leader (''Poglavnik'') of the Croatian [[puppet state]]. Pavelić took power with Mussolini and Hitler's blessing. The crown of this puppet state was handed to Aymon, Duke of Spoleto, of the house of Savoy. The Duke never set foot in Zagreb nor was really interested in his "kingdom". <ref> The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War II, New York - London, 1980, Pages 394-395</ref> |
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[[Image:Ustasaguard.jpg|thumb|left|200px|An Ustaše guard pose among the bodies of Serbs in concentration camp [[Jasenovac]]]] |
[[Image:Ustasaguard.jpg|thumb|left|200px|An Ustaše guard pose among the bodies of Serbs in concentration camp [[Jasenovac]]]] |
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Revision as of 00:45, 8 September 2007
Independent State of Croatia Nezavisna Država Hrvatska | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1941–1945 | |||||||||
| Location of Croatia | |||||||||
| Status | Puppet state of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany | ||||||||
| Capital | Zagreb | ||||||||
| Common languages | Croatian | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||||||
| King | |||||||||
• 1941-1943 | Tomislav II | ||||||||
| Poglavnik | |||||||||
• 1941-1945 | Ante Pavelić | ||||||||
| Legislature | None | ||||||||
| Historical era | World War II | ||||||||
• Established | April 10, 1941 1941 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | May 8, 1945 1945 | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1941 | 6,300,000 | ||||||||
| Currency | Croatian kuna | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | HR | ||||||||
| |||||||||
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The Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska; NDH) was a puppet state of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during World War II.[1][2] It was established in April 1941, after the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was split up by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Geographically, it encompassed most of modern-day Croatia, as well as all of Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of Slovenia and Serbia.
The NDH was ruled by Ante Pavelić and his Ustaša; a racist, terrorist and saboteur organization that included supporters of the Pure Party of Rights, which was founded by Ante Starčević at the end of 19th century.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The NDH had a program, formulated by Mile Budak, to purge Croatia of Serbs, by “killing one third, expelling the other third and assimilating the remaining third”. The first part of this program began during WWII with a planned genocide in Jasenovac and other locations in the NDH.[10]
Geography
Upon its formation, the Independent State of Croatia encompassed most of present-day Croatia. Parts of Croatia that were not in NDH were occupied by other nations, such as Italy, who gained by Treaty of Saint-Germain Istria, Zadar and some Dalmatian islands like Krk and Lastovo. Rijeka was incorporated into Italy after Treaty of Rapallo, and was also not in the Independent State of Croatia. As well, Međimurje and southern Baranja were annexed by Hungary.
The NDH also encompassed the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as some 20 km² of Slovenia (villages Slovenska vas near Bregana, Nova vas near Mokrice, Jesenice in Dolenjsko, Obrežje and Čedem), and the whole of Syrmia (part of which was previously in Danube Banovina).
The situation changed significantly after the signing of the Roma contract on 19 May 1941. NDH ceded to Italy almost the whole of Dalmatia: the Zadar area, the Šibenik area and the Split area, a number of islands including Rab, Krk, Vis, Lastovo, Korčula, Mljet and many smaller ones, such as Boka Kotorska and parts of Hrvatsko primorje and Gorski kotar. NDH regained de jure control of this areas after the capitulation of Italy on 8 September 1943, but by then most of it was controlled by partisans.
History
Establishment of NDH
Following the attack of the Axis powers on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941, and the quick defeat of the Yugoslav army (Jugoslovenska vojska), the whole country was occupied by Axis forces. Hitler and Mussolini installed the Croatian Ustaše, who had long sought Croatian independence, forming the Independent State of Croatia (NDH - Nezavisna Država Hrvatska).
The establishment of NDH was proclaimed on April 10, 1941 by Slavko Kvaternik, deputy leader of the Ustaše. Ante Pavelić came to power as leader (Poglavnik) of the Croatian puppet state. Pavelić took power with Mussolini and Hitler's blessing. The crown of this puppet state was handed to Aymon, Duke of Spoleto, of the house of Savoy. The Duke never set foot in Zagreb nor was really interested in his "kingdom". [11]
From a strategic perspective, the establishment of the new puppet state was an obvious attempt by Hitler to pacify the now conquered Yugoslav peoples for the purpose of reducing the necessary occupation force to a minimum (in light of his plans for the upcoming Operation Barbarossa). The name of the new state was, thus, an obvious attempt at capitalizing on the Croat people's desire for independence, which had been unfulfilled since 1102. Vladko Maček the head of the Croatian Peasant Party, the strongest elected party in Croatia at the time, refused an offer from Germans to head the government but called on people to obey to and cooperate with the new government the same day Kvaternik made the proclamation. Ante Pavelić arrived on April 20th to become the poglavnik (Leader, correlated with führer- better to translate as a "Head-man"). The Roman Catholic Church's official stance was also openly positive in this period.
According to Maček the new state was greeted with a "wave of enthusiasm" in Zagreb, often by people "blinded and intoxicated" by the fact that the Germans had "gift-wrapped their occupation under the euphemistic title of Independent State of Croatia". But in the villages, he wrote, the peasantry believed that "their struggle over the past 30 years to become masters of their homes and their country had suffered a tremendous setback". [12]
On 19 May 1941 Pavelić and Mussolini, in accordance with the contract signed in Rapallo at the end of WWI between Serbs Kingdom of Jugoslavia and Italy, signed Roma operating contract by which NDH had to cede to Italy (in accordance with Rapallos Contract) almost all of Dalmatia and parts of Hrvatsko primorje and Gorski kotar. NDH was also forbidden to have a navy.
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Initial period
The Ustaše initially did not have a capable army or administration necessary to control all of this territory. The movement had fewer than 12,000 members when the war broke out. Therefore, the territory was controlled by the Germans and the Italians. The northeastern half of NDH territory was in the so-called German zone of influence, with the Wehrmacht making its presence. The southwestern half was controlled by the Italian fascist army. After the capitulation of Italy in 1943, NDH acquired northern Dalmatia (Split and Šibenik).
NDH eventually built up its own army, divided into two main groups. Ustaše proper constituted the elite militia (Croatian Ustaška vojnica) and Home Guard or Domobrani was the much larger regular army. Together they mustered about 110,000 troops by the end of 1942, and about 130,000 in 1943. They were initially equipped mainly with captured Royal Yugoslav Army weapons and equipment, as well as some ex-Italian and ex-Polish light armoured vehicles. The NDH had no navy, due to the terms of the Rome Agreement with Italy. The air force initially consisted of captured Royal Yugoslav aircraft (seven operational fighters and 20 bombers, as well some 150 auxiliary and training aircraft), and was supplemented by German, Italian and French fighters and bombers right up until March 1945.
Uprising
The state of permanent terror, mass killing, raping women and looting of the properties of their victims in the Independent State of Croatia led Serbs to rebel. According to the Glaise von Horstenau reports, Hitler was angry with Pavelić, whose policy inflamed the rebellion in Croatia, which caused Hitler to lose the ability to engage the Independent State of Croatia forces on the Eastern Front.[13] Moreover, Hitler was forced to engage his forces in quelling the rebellion. For that reason, Hitler summoned Pavelić to his war headquarters in Vinica (Ukraine) on September 23, 1942. Consequently, Pavelić replaced his minister of the Armed Forces, Slavko Kvaternik, with the less zealous Jure Francetić. Before meeting Hitler, to appease the public, Pavelić published the "Important Government's Announcement" (»Važna obavijest Vlade«), in which he threatened those who were spreading the news "about non-existent threats of disarmament of the Ustashe units by representatives of one foreign power, about the Croatian Army replacement by a foreign army, about the possibility that a foreign power would seize the power in Croatia ..."[14]
Hans Helm, the appointed head of the Gestapo in the Independent State of Croatia, wrote in his confidential January 14, 1943 report (titled "Basis of the partisan danger") sent to General Kasche):
Most of the partisan ranks are coming from the Serbs - due to the fact that they are the most villainous way persecuted ... the new regime in Croatia started the programs of annihilation and destruction of the Serbs, which (the programs) are publicly supported by the highest ranks of the Croatian government, and (the programs) adopted as the main government goal. The fact that a different talk was coming from the official Ustashe side - under the rebellion pressure and due to the course of events - even a reconciliation was mentioned - leaves no possibility to compensate the harm caused by, for example, Dr. Mile Budak, the actual (Croatian) minister in Berlin ...[13]
Appointed general Horstenau wrote in his report: "Ustashe movement is, due to the mistakes and atrocities they have made, and the corruption, so compromised that the government executive branch (the home guard and the police) shall be separated from the government - even for the price of breaking any possible connection with the government ..."
End of the war
In August 1944, there was an attempt by foreign Minister in NDH government Mladen Lorković and Minister of War Ante Vokić to execute a coup d'etat against Ante Pavelić. The coup (called Lorković-Vokić coup) failed and its conspirators were executed.
The NDH army withdrew towards Zagreb with German and Cossak troops by early 1945, and continued fighting for a week after the German surrender on May 9th, 1945. They were soon overpowered and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) effectively ceased to exist in May 1945, near the end of the war. The advance of Tito's partisan forces, joined by the Soviet Red Army, caused mass retreat of the Ustaše towards Austria.
In May 1945, a large column composed of anti-communists, Ustaša followers, NDH Army troops and civilians retreated from the partisan forces, heading northwest towards Italy and Austria. Ante Pavelić detached from the group and fled to Austria, Italy and finally Argentina. The rest of the group, consisting of over 150,000 soldiers (including Cossak troops) and civilians negotiated passage with the British forces on the Austrian side of the Austrian-Slovenian border. The British Army then turned over a number of them to the partisan forces. Some of them were court-martialed and executed on spot.
The end of the war resulted in the establishment of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with the constitution of 1946 officially making Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina one of six constituent republics in the new state.
Population
According to the data presented by former Austro-Hungarian officer Hefner, the population of the Independent State of Croatia numbered 6,042,000 people (data from 1941-04-23), including:
- Croats = 3,069,000 (50.78%)
- Serbs = 1,847,000 (30.65%)
- Muslims = 717,000 (11.86%)
- others = 410,000 (6.80%), of whom:
- Germans = 150,000
- Hungarians = 75,000
- Slovaks and Czechs= 65,000
- Jews = 40,000
- Slovenians = 37,000
- Italians = 5,000
According to another source, the Independent State of Croatia had a population of 6,300,000 and was ethnically diverse - the relative majority was held by Croats, but as Bosnian Muslims were counted as Croats, Croats held absolute majority according to Ustashe ideology, while over 33% (2,100,000) of the populace were Serbs (of whom most were Orthodox Christian); around 50% of the population were Catholics (Germans and Hungarians, aside from Croats). 750,000 inhabitants of the independent state of Croatia were Muslims. There was a significant minority of 30,000 Jews living mostly in Sarajevo, Zagreb and Osijek. Authorities soon disbanded the Serbian Orthodox Church on their territory and established Croatian Orthodox Church whose patriarch was Germogen, an exiled Russian.
Displacement of people
A large number of people were displaced due to internal fighting within the republic. The NDH also had to accept more than 200,000 Slovenian refugees which were forcefully evicted from their homes as part of the German plan of annexing parts of the Slovenian territories. As part of this deal, the Ustaše were to deport 200,000 Serbs from Croatia military; however, only 182,000 were deported due to the German high commander Bader stopping this mass transport of people because of the Chetniks and partisan uprising in Serbia[citation needed]. Because of this, 25,000 Slovenian refugees ended in Serbia.
Political and civilian life
The previously important civic factors, the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) and the Catholic Church, were reasonably uninvolved in the creation and maintenance of the Independent State of Croatia. All who opposed and/or threatened the Ustaše were eventually outlawed. The Ustaše government tried to convene a Croatian Parliament (as Hrvatski državni Sabor NDH) in 1942, with a manually selected list of deputies, but after three short sessions, parliament ceased operation by the end of the same year.
The Croatian Peasant Party was banned on June 11, 1941 in an attempt of the Ustaše to take their place as the primary representative of the Croatian peasantry. Vladko Maček was sent to Jasenovac concentration camp, but later released to serve a house arrest sentence due to his popularity among the people. Maček was later again called upon by the foreigners to take a stand and counteract the Pavelić government, but he refused. The Catholic Church participated in religious conversions at first, but eventually the main branches of the Church stopped doing so, as it became obvious that these conversions were merely a lesser form of punishment for the undesirable population. Nevertheless, a number of priests joined the Ustaše ranks.
Aftermath
Far right movements in Croatia inspired by the former NDH reemerged during the Croatian War of Independence. The current Constitution of Croatia does not recognize the Independent State of Croatia as the historical or legitimate predecessor state of the current Croatian republic.[15]
Endnotes
- ^ "International Law Reports" by Lauterpacht, C. J. Greenwood, Cambridge University Press 1957 Page 69
Croatia is defined by contemporary writers as a 'puppet-state' or 'puppet-government', terms which appear to be of comparatively recent adoption in the field of international law. - ^ "International Law in Historical Perspective" by Jan Hendrik Willem Verzijl, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1974 Page 313
CROATIA A very special case is that of the puppet State of Croatia, called into being with the help of Fascist Italy in April 1941 - ^ "Political Parties of Europe" by Skowronski, Sharon, Vincent E. McHale Greenwood Press 1983 Page 1046
USTASHE. The Ustashe was a Croatian terrorist organization formed on January 8 1929 by Ante Pavelic, secretary of Party of Rights merged into and provided the political core of the Ustashe ... - ^ "Croatia: between Europe and the Balkans" by William Bartlett, Routledge 2003 Page 18 <blr>Croatian Party of Right, had established a terrorist organization known as the Ustashe Croatian Revolutionary Organization
- ^ "Organizing for Total War" by American Academy of Political and Social Science, Francis James Brown, American Academy of Political and Social Science 1942 Page 225
As an interesting detail for the American public it may be reported that the terrorist organization Ustashe, paid by the Italians, was sending money to the ... - ^ "Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans Nationalism and the Destruction of Tradition" by Cathie Carmichael, Routledge 2003 Page 53
The anti-Serb sentiment of the Ustasa was of relatively recent historical vintage, having been initiated by the ninetheenth-century Croat writer Starcevic, founder of the Croatian Party of Rights (Hrvatska Stranka Prava HSP) - ^ "All Or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust, 1941-1943" by Jonathan Steinberg Routledge 2002 pages 29-30
By 28 June (1941) Glaise von Horstenau reported that 'according to reliable reports from countless German military and civil observers during the last few weeks the Ustasi have gone raging mad" Serbian and Jewish men, women were literary hacked to death. Whole villages were razed to the ground and the people driven into barns to which the Ustasi set fire. - ^ Hitler's Renegades: Foreign Nationals in the Service of the Third Reich" by Christopher J Ailsby, Brassey's 2004 Page 156
One of the Horstenau's reports stated: " We saw no sign of guerillas but there were plenty of ownerless horses and cattle, not to mention innumerable geese. At Crkveni Bok, an unhappy place where, under the leadership of Ustase lieutenant-colonel, some 500 country folk from 15 to 20 years had met their end, all murdered, the women raped then tortured, the chidren killed. I saw in the River Sava a woman's corpse with the eyes gouged out and a stick showed into the sexual parts. The woman was at most 20 years old when she fell into the hands of these monsters. Anywhere in a corner, the pigs are gorging themselves on an unburied human being. All the houses were looted. The 'lucky' inhabitants were consigned to one of the fearsome boxcar trains; many of these involuntary 'passengers' cut their veins on the journey" - ^ Blood And Homeland": Eugenics And Racial Nationalism in Central And Southeast Europe, 1900-1940 edited by Marius Turda, Paul Weindling Published 2006 Central European University Press Rory Yeomans article: Of "Yugoslav Barbarians" and Croatian Gentlemen Scholars: Nationalist Ideology and Racial Anthropology in Interwar Yugoslavia
- ^ http://www.usna.edu/Users/history/tucker/hh367/OgnyanovaArticle.pdf. "In fact, the roots of the Ustasha ideology can be found in the Croatian nationalism of the nineteenth century. The Ustasha ideological system was just a replica of the traditional pure Croatian nationalism of Ante Starcevic. His ideology contained all important elements of those of the extreme Croatian nationalism in the twentieth century. Starcevic’s writings reveal an attitude similar to that of the contemporary Croatian nationalists: Frankovci at the beginning of the twentieth century and Ustashas in the 1930s."
- ^ The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War II, New York - London, 1980, Pages 394-395
- ^ Vladko Maček, In the Struggle for Freedom (New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1957) pp. 220-231.
- ^ a b Hebrang, by Zvonko Ivanković - Vonta, Scientia Yugoslavica 1988 Pages 169-170
- ^ Hrvatski narod, September 3rd, 1942
- ^ The Constitution of Croatia, in English.
References
- Hermann Neubacher: Sonderauftrag Suedost 1940-1945, Bericht eines fliegendes Diplomaten, 2. durchgesehene Auflage, Goettingen 1956
- Ladislaus Hory and Martin Broszat: Der Kroatische Ustascha-Staat, 1941-1945 Stuttgart, 1964
- Encyclopedia Britannica, 1943 - Book of the year, page 215, Entry: Croatia
- Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, Europe, edition 1995, page 91, entry: Croatia
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Edition 1991, Macropedia, Vol. 29, page 1111.
- Helen Fein: Accounting for Genocide - Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust, The Free Press, New York, Edition 1979, pages 102, 103.
- Alfio Russo: Revoluzione in Jugoslavia, Roma 1944.
- Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Vol. 2, Independent State of Croatia entry.
- Vladko Maček: In the Struggle for Freedom, Robert Speller & Sons, New York,1957
See also
- Croatian Righteous Among the Nations
- Ustaše
- Balkans Campaign
- Fascist Italy
- History of Yugoslavia
- List of leaders of Independent State of Croatia
- Nedic’s Serbia
- Sutjeska offensive
- ZAVNOH
External links
- Axis History Factbook - Croatia
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust era in Croatia (1941-1945)
- Independent State of Croatia's Military Decorations
- BBC News: Croatian holocaust still stirs controversy
- Biography of Pavelić
- Another Biography of Pavelic
- Two Bullets for Pavelić
- Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović
- Pavelic's escape to Argentina
- Ivan Goran Kovačić The Pit
- Jasenovac - a prisoner execution
- Independent State of Croatia proclamation
- genocide committed by Ustashi
- unindentified Croatian Ustasha
- Avro Manhattan: "The Vatican's Holocaust", a book about the Ustaše and the NDH
- Map
- Map
- Map
