Serb Genocide (1941-1945)

1918-1941

In 1919, in Graz, the son of Josip Frank, Ivica Frank founded the Ustash movement. His goal was the independence of the Croatian state, its mono-ethnicity and monoconfessionality. The borders of independent Croatia were supposed to cover Zagorje and the Zagreb region, Istria , the lands of the former Military border , Dalmatia , all of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Raska on the territory of Serbia proper.

As a result of a number of political crises in Yugoslavia, separatist sentiments grew, especially in Croatia and Macedonia . Gradually, Ustash became increasingly popular, gaining support from those who had previously advocated a moderate Croatian peasant party . In particular, support to the leaders of the Ustash was provided by Hungary and Italy , where there were training camps for Ustash militants, who were then transferred to the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Significant was the help from the Vatican .

In 1932, the Ustashi tried to raise an uprising in Lika, but all their attempts were limited to an attack on the gendarmerie barracks, which was repelled. On October 9, 1934, together with WMO activists, the Ustashi committed a successful assassination attempt on King Alexander , killing French Foreign Minister Barthe too . In 1939 , after the signing of the Tsvetkovich-Maciek agreement , Croatia gained some autonomy within the framework of Yugoslavia, but this did not solve the accumulated contradictions.

No less difficult was the situation in Kosovo and Metohija , where the Albanian population was growing and ethnic conflicts were taking place. The Albanian uprisings in the 1920s, the authorities managed to stop with the help of amnesties, but they could not somehow rectify the situation. Acute interethnic tension remained in the region.

The April War and the partition of Yugoslavia

On March 27, 1941, Yugoslav officers led by aviation general Simovich carried out a military coup, overthrowing Prince Regent Paul and elevating the young king Peter II to the throne. The reason for this was the pact on the accession of Yugoslavia to the countries of the pro-German bloc. The Yugoslav authorities, fearing a German invasion, preferred to meet the Nazis. However, the broad masses did not understand this gesture. On the day of the signing of the pact, Belgrade was swept by mass demonstrations ending in the destruction of German symbols and the rebellion of officers. General Simovich immediately turned to the Soviet Union for help, but did not manage to get it - on April 6, 1941, German troops invaded Yugoslav territory without declaring war. On April 17, the country capitulated ^[5] .

In many ways, the quick surrender of the Yugoslav army occurred as a result of sabotage by Croatian soldiers and officers. In Croatia, the Yugoslav military authorities had the greatest difficulties with mobilization, the turnout of the drafted was very low ^[6] . For example, on April 3, 1941, a Croatian colonel Kren fled to Graz and handed over to the Germans detailed information about the Yugoslav armed forces, including data on the deployment of secret air bases. Another example is the uprising of two regiments in Belovar , which were formed from local Croatian reservists ^[6] . The rebels blocked Belovar and demanded the surrender of the garrison, threatening otherwise to kill all the officers living in the city and its environs and family members. The official Croatian newspaper Nova Hrvatska later wrote about the betrayal and collaboration of Croats in the Yugoslav army, which attributed the rout of the Yugoslav army to sabotage by Croatian soldiers and officers.

The division of Yugoslavia reflected revisionist sentiments among the Axis countries ^[7] :

• Germany included in its administrative system the northern part of Slovenia, mainly Upper Krajina and Lower Styria, with the addition of certain adjacent areas, in particular in the west of Prekomurie. Berlin also established its occupation control over the vast part of Serbia with the addition of certain areas of Kosovo and Metohija, and over the Yugoslav Banat, which constituted the eastern part of Vojvodina ^[8] .
• Hungary occupied and annexed the northwestern part of Vojvodina - Bachka and Baranju, the Slavonia region north of Osijek and the vast majority of Prekomurye. A Hungarian occupation administration was established in Medjumurje ^[8] .
• Italy occupied southern Slovenia, parts of Gorsky Kotar, Croatian Primorye and Dalmatia with islands, Montenegro, and annexed most of Kosovo and Metohija and western Macedonia to Great Albania. Regions in the east of Montenegro were also given to her ^[8] .
• Bulgaria occupied and annexed most of Macedonia and part of southern and eastern Serbia. These territories, in fact, were annexed, although formally, Berlin transferred them under Bulgarian rule so that their status was subject to a final decision after the war ^[8] .

Hitler and Mussolini, by agreement, also allowed the Croatian ( Ustash ) to create their own semi-independent state - the " Independent State of Croatia " ^{[9] [8]} . Its borders were determined in accordance with agreements with Germany (May 13, 1941) and Italy (May 18, 1941). Independent Croatia included the historical region of Croatia itself, parts of Gorski Kotar, Croatian Primorye and Dalmatia, as well as Srem and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some areas in Gorski Kotar, Primorye and Dalmatia with the Ustashi islands ceded to Italy. The territory of the NHC was divided in half into German (northeastern) and Italian (southwestern) spheres of military control, which could accommodate the troops of Germany and Italy, respectively ^[8] .

According to various estimates, from 1.8 to 1.9 million people in the NHC were Serbs and made up about a third of the country's population ^[10] .

Discrimination and Genocide

The national political goals of the Ustashas were pursued not only by the establishment of state independence of Croatia, but also by giving the new state an ethnically Croat character. The main obstacle to achieving this goal was the Serbs, who made up a third of the population of the NHC. As a result, from the first days of the existence of the NHC, Ustashi began active anti-Serb actions. The prelude was a powerful propaganda company portraying the Serbs as enemies of the Croatian people, who have no place in the NHC. The culmination was the massacre of Serbs and their internment in numerous concentration camps ^[11] .

Following the example of Nazi Germany , the Ustash regime issued racial laws in the image and likeness of the Nuremberg laws against Serbs, Jews and Gypsies . On April 17, 1941, the Law on the Protection of the People and the State was approved, introducing the death penalty for threatening the interests of the Croatian people or the existence of the Independent State of Croatia ^[12] . On April 18, decisions were made on the appointment of state commissioners to private enterprises owned by Serbian or Jewish entrepreneurs, and the confiscation of all their vehicles, on April 25, a law banning the Cyrillic alphabet ^{[12] [10] was} adopted, and on April 30 on the protection of “Aryan blood and honor Croatian people ”and on racial affiliation, etc. Serbs were ordered to wear bandages with the letter“ P ”, which meant“ Orthodox ” ^[12] .

On May 5, 1941, the Ustash government issued a decree according to which the Serbian Orthodox Church ceased to operate in Independent Croatia. On May 9, the Serbian Metropolitan of the Zagreb Diocese of Dositi (Vasić) was arrested. On June 2, an order was issued to liquidate all Serbian Orthodox folk schools and kindergartens ^[12] .

In his speech in Gospic on June 22, 1941, one of the leaders of the ousting Mile Budak formulated a program of action against the Serbs, which was published on June 26 by the Hrvatski List ^[13] :

Ustashi pursued a differentiated policy towards nations declared enemies. The difference in attitude towards Serbs and Jews was the desire of the Jews to completely destroy, and the Serbs to destroy a third, a third to catholicize , a third to expel to Serbia ^[14] . Thus, the Ustashi planned to make their state completely mono-ethnic . The Italian historian Marc Riveli wrote that the Jewish question was not the main “racial problem” for the ustashi. In his opinion, Pavelich undertook the extermination of Jews “in order to please the most powerful Nazi ally” ^[15] .

Ustashi made their first raids on Serb towns and villages immediately after the surrender of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but according to the version of the Ustash government, these raids were not official. So, in Gudovets near Belovar on April 27–28, 1941, about 200 Serbs were shot ^[16] ; in the village of Koritsa - 176 Serbs, in the Lyubishki area - 4,500 Serbs on the orders of Juro Borot, also about 5 thousand people died as a result of mass killings under the leadership of Franjo Vega, an employee of the Ministry of Artukovich. 280 Serbs were thrown into cisterns and filled with quicklime in an airfield between Swiecie and Livno, hundreds of Serbs were dropped into Galina by two metal wires in Galinjevo ^[17] .

After a significant number of occupying forces left the Balkans in June 1941 and German control over their ally weakened, the Ustashi increased the scale of the Serb killings. In just six weeks of 1941, the Ustashi killed three Orthodox bishops and 180,000 Serbs. A huge number of corpses were thrown into the waters of Drina , Drava and Sava , so that they reached Serbia. Some were affixed with signs with inscriptions like “Passport for Belgrade”, “Dear for Serbia”, “To King Petra to Belgrade”. ^[18] .

•  

  Ustash killed Serbian family

•  

  Sentenced to be shot by Serbs of Bania

•  

  Victims of Ustash Terror on Kozar

•  

  Ustashi chopped off the head of a captive partisan

•  

  Ustashsky terror

Concentration Camp System

Immediately after the proclamation of a new state, the Ustashi began to create two types of camps: deportation and concentration camps. The first people were sent for subsequent deportation to Serbia , etc. Such camps were located in Tsapraga near Sisak , Belovar and Slavonska Požeg . The latter became the site of massacres and a symbol of terror by the Ustashi.

In April-May 1941, the first concentration camps began to be created in the State Oil Museum. They were legalized on November 23 of the same year under the name "Internment and Work Camps" by a special decree of Pavelich and Artukovich. The camps were scattered throughout the territories controlled by the Ustashi. There were 22 of them. Of these, only 2 survived until the end of the war - in Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska . Their management was assigned to the Ustash Supervision Service. The first camp manager was Millau Babic, but in June 1941 he was killed by the Serbs. He was replaced by the inveterate Ustash fanatic Vekoslav Lyuburich, known for his statement that “he destroyed more people in the Jasenovac camp than the Ottoman Empire over the entire long period of occupation of European countries” ^[19] .

The Ustashi created their first camp due to the fact that ordinary prisons were crowded with prisoners. It was organized in Danica near Koprivnitsa in late April. The first batch of 300 prisoners arrived there on April 29th . In June, it already contained 9,000 people. at the end of 1941 the camp was closed, some of the prisoners were killed, the rest were sent to other camps ^[20] .

On May 23, 1941, the Yadovno camp began its work. Arriving prisoners were destroyed immediately, dropping off a cliff. At the end of July, 10,000 people were already killed. A month later, the camp was closed, by that time, according to various estimates, from 35,000 to 75,000 people were killed ^[21] .

On April 18, Kerestinets camp was set up in a castle twenty-five kilometers from Zagreb . Representatives of the intelligentsia and famous people from the capital of the National Palace of Culture were brought there. On July 8, the liquidation of prisoners began, on July 16 the camp was closed - there was no one to destroy ^[21] .

On June 25, the first prisoners arrived at the camp on the island of Pag ^[21] . In less than two months, 10,000 people were killed there. The Italians who occupied the island left a lot of terrible evidence of the results of this camp ^[21] .

1,000 survivors were sent to the Krusczyca camp in Bosnia, specially built for them. The women and children contained in it were subjected to all kinds of bullying. When at the end of September the number of prisoners reached three thousand, the camp was closed, and the prisoners were distributed between the camps Jasenovac and Loborgrad ^[22] .

The Loborgrad camp was created in an old castle, where 1,500 women and about 100 children were kept in terrible conditions. Many of them died from the typhoid epidemic. Survivors in October 1942 were sent to Auschwitz , from where none of them returned. ^[23]

In December 1941, the Ustashi opened a camp in Dzhakovo , where they accommodated 1,830 Jewish women and children and about 50 Serbs. The camp was run by Jozo Matievich. On February 24, another 1,200 women and several hundred children were brought to the camp. Typhoid epidemic and Ustashi overseers raged in Dzhakovo. In June 1942, the camp was closed, and 2,400 women and children were sent to Jasenovac ^[23] .

In the fall of 1941, another list was added to the list of Ustash camps - in Stara Gradishka . It was intended mainly for women and children. In four years, about 75,000 people were killed in it. When the partisans released him, they found in him only three men and three women who survived due to the fact that they hid in the well ^[23] .

The most famous "death camp" of the NHC is Jasenovac. It was created in May 1941. At first it consisted of a group of barracks, but then it grew into a whole complex consisting of several sectors: for Serbs, Jews, Croatian opponents of Ustasha and Gypsies. People were killed in it every day. In January-February 1942, two cremation furnaces designed by Ustash Colonel Hinko Pichilli were launched in Jasenovac. For three months of their work, fifteen thousand bodies were cremated. Until December 1941, all children remained with their families, then 400 of them were placed in a separate hut, and then killed. Periodically, “competitions” were held in the camp for agility between the executioners. The winner of these competitions was Petar Brzitsa, a student at the Franciscan College in Široki Brijeg and a member of the Crusader fraternity. On the night of August 29, 1942, he killed 1,300 people. During the winter of 1944-1945, the rhythm of executions accelerated. In March-April, 15,000 new prisoners were destroyed immediately upon arrival in Jasenovac. At the end of the month, the camp was liquidated. The exact number of people killed in it is unknown. According to the Serbian side, about 700,000 Serbs, 23,000 Jews, 80,000 Roma were killed in the camp ^[24] .

Persecution of the Serbian Orthodox Church

On May 5, 1941, the Ustash government issued a decree according to which the Serbian Orthodox Church ceased to operate in independent Croatia. On May 9, the Serbian Metropolitan Zagreb Dosifey (Vasich) was arrested. On June 2, an order was issued to liquidate all Serbian Orthodox folk schools and kindergartens ^[12] .

Along with the mass extermination of Serbs, the Ustashi systematically destroyed non-Catholic places of worship. Before the end of the war, Ustashi destroyed 299 Orthodox churches, killing 6 bishops and 222 priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church . For example, on June 28, 1941, by order of Eugene Dido-Quaternary, the Orthodox Cathedral was blown up in Bihac .

According to the Italian researcher Mark Aurelio Riveli, the murders of Orthodox clergy were carried out with particular cruelty. Bishop Anthony Dositey, Orthodox diocesan bishop of Zagreb , died under torture in March 1942. Eighty-year-old Metropolitan Dabro-Bosan Peter (Zimonic) was arrested by the Catholic priest Bozidar Bralo and sent to the death camp Jasenovac, where he was stabbed to death ^[25] . Bishop Banja Luka Plato (Jovanovic) (81 years old), who remained in the city as a result of the promise of the Catholic bishop Jozo Garic to petition for his salvation, was arrested at night and taken together with the Orthodox priest Dusan Sabotich to a village near Banja Luka, where both clergymen were tortured and then killed. Bishop Gornokarlovatsky Savva (Trlaich) was tortured and killed along with his three priests during the massacres on the island of Pag . Bishop Otočac Branko (Dobrosalevich) was arrested with his son, both Ustashi were cut with an ax. Before his death, the Orthodox priest of the Zhitsa, Nikolai Velimirovich, was tortured ^[26] .

In areas previously inhabited by most Serbs, some of the churches taken from the Orthodox were not used as places of worship for new Catholic masters: buildings were converted into warehouses, public toilets, and stables. But most of the buildings taken from the Orthodox Church turned into Catholic churches: this “conversion” was made in twenty-two different Croatian settlements.

The destruction of the Orthodox Church and the murder of its clergy was accompanied by a thorough confiscation of its property. This operation, carried out primarily in favor of the entire Catholic episcopate with Monsignor Stepinac at the head, was carried out through two organizations specially designed by Pavelich for the systematic theft of property of the Orthodox Church: the State Council for the Restoration and the Committee for the Confiscation of Orthodox Churches and Related Property. Both organizations were designed to coordinate the expropriation of the property of the Orthodox Church in favor of the Croatian Catholic Church.

In Srem , where the Ustashi destroyed 90% of the Serbian clergy, sixteen monasteries on Fruska Gora were destroyed, representing the Orthodox Athos on the Danube . Relics of Orthodox saints stolen by the Ustash were requisitioned by the German occupation forces (transferring them to the Protestant church, which later returned them to the Orthodox clergy) ^[27] .

At the end of the Ustash dictatorship, the Commission for the Investigation of the Yugoslav Government estimated the material damage caused by the Serbian Orthodox Church to seven billion dinars of that period (a large amount), not including burned or destroyed buildings.

The role of the Catholic Church

The role of the Catholic Church in the NHC and the Serb genocide is assessed differently: from accusations of incitement and direct participation in the genocide to allegations of attempts by the Catholic clergy to save the Serbian population. Basically, the debate on this issue comes down to a discussion of two figures - Pope Pius XII and the Archbishop of Zagreb Stepinac .

Archbishop Stepinac at the beginning of the existence of the NHC unconditionally supported Pavelic and his ustashi. He encouraged them to support both the Catholic clergy and the population of the country. On June 26, 1941, Stepinac personally assured Pavelich of “sincere and loyal cooperation for a better future for our homeland” ^[28] . Immediately after the proclamation of the NHC, he began to insist on the diplomatic recognition of the new Ustash state on the part of the Holy See and did much to build ties between the Vatican and the new Croatian state ^[29] .

On May 5, 1941, Pavelich and the Minister of Education and Worship Mile Budak adopted the Law on Religious Conversion, forcing the Orthodox to adopt Catholicism. Following this, the official Zagreb curriculum Katolicki List issued a message to Stepinac, who called the Serbs “renegades of the Catholic Church” and approved the new law. This publication on July 31 of that year called for speeding up the process of conversion of Serbs to Catholicism. In 1943, Stepinac wrote to the Vatican that the converted to Catholicism 240 000 Serbs ^[30] .

Stepinac was also the apostolic vicar of the Ustash armed forces, that is, the commander of all chaplains. The military formations of the NHC had military priests in their ranks. There were 150 in total, they obeyed the military papal vicar, that is, the archbishop Stepinac. Some of them personally took part in the destruction of the Serbs. Others limited themselves to trying to justify these killings. ^[15]

By the fall of 1941, the NHC and the Vatican exchanged diplomatic representatives. The NHC in the Vatican was represented by Nikola Rusinovich, and the Vatican in the NHC was represented by Abbot Marcon. At the same time, Rusinovich reported to Zagreb that in the Vatican his activity was complicated by the fact that the local clergy was divided into supporters and opponents of the Ustasha ^[31] .

During the war, Pope Pius XII repeatedly received reports of crimes committed against the Orthodox population in the National Palace of Arts and the participation of Catholic priests and monks in them, but refused to do anything. A similar position was taken by Stepinac and the Catholic Archbishop of Belgrade, Josip Uzice, who regularly received information about the destruction of the Serbs. Only the Cardinal Eugene Tisserand protested against the terror of the Ustasha in the Vatican . Nikola Rusinovich wrote that in a conversation with him about the crimes of the Ustash regime, Vatican Deputy Secretary John Battista Montini noted that “the Vatican perceives negative information about Croatia with some distrust” ^[32] .

Catholic priests and monks took a wide part in the killings and purges of the Orthodox population. For example, the priest Mata Gravanovich, along with several Ustashas, ​​was executed by German soldiers for atrocities against the Serbs. Franciscan monks organized a massacre of about 2,000 Serbs in the villages of Drakulic and Sargovac near Banja Luka. The parish priest of Udbina, Mate Moguza, in his sermon urged believers to expel or destroy Serbs in Croatia. The monk Sidonie Scholz converted Serbs to Catholicism, killing Serbian priests and those Serbs who did not want to convert to Catholicism. Monk Augustine Chevola with weapons in his hands led a detachment of Ustasha, who arranged for purges of the Serbs. The monks-warders of the concentration camp Jasenovac - Maistorovich, Brklyanich and Bulanovich, who killed prisoners of the camp, were especially famous. The participation of Catholic clergy in the genocide continued until the end of the war.

Another controversial issue is the mass conversion of Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism. The Katolicki List, the official periodical of the Zagreb curia, published a circular from the Stepinac bureau on May 15, 1941, in which Serbs were defined as “renegades of the Catholic Church” and enthusiastically praised the adoption of a law that forced the Orthodox to adopt the Catholic faith. The same newspaper on July 31, 1941 called on the Ustash dictatorship to expedite the process of forced “circulation”. Stepinac’s apologists later claimed that conversion to Catholicism saved the lives of Serbs. Nevertheless, there are known cases of massacres of Ustash over Serbs already converted to Catholicism.

The conversion of the Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism was done, accompanied by armed groups of Ustasha. The English historian Richard West , who investigated this issue, in one of his books refers to the text of a Bosnian newspaper, which spoke of the conversion to Catholicism of 70,000 Serbs in the Banja Luka diocese. He wrote that the Catholic clergy directed their aspirations primarily to Serbian peasants. According to him, all those who had secondary education, as well as teachers, traders, wealthy artisans and Orthodox priests, were considered to be carriers of the “Serbian consciousness” and were subject to total destruction. ^[33] . A similar point of view was voiced by modern Serbian researchers ^[34] . In total, more than 240,000 Serbs were converted, for which Pope Pius XII thanked the Catholic structures in Croatia ^[35] .

A number of Ustash activists escaped court, having fled to Western Europe and joined the anti-communist movement in exchange for silencing Nazi activities. The United States called such routes along which the Nazis escaped from the court, "rat tracks." In Rome, assistance to the Croats was provided by the Austrian Alois Gudal and the Pontificate Croatian College of St. Jerome, led by Krunoslav Draganovic . According to Feyer, the Ustashi leaders and the priests supporting them, led by Bishop Ivan Sarić, fled from Croatia with looted gold and took refuge in Rome ^[36] . But the location of Pavelich could not even establish intelligence ^[37] . Counterintelligence Corps agent William Gowan, son of the US representative to the Vatican, Franklin Gowen, personally looked for Pavelich, but the Holy See did not like such US activity, and as a result, Gowen was forced to leave the Vatican ^[38] .

After the war ended, the Yugoslav authorities arrested the most priests involved in the crimes: several hundred Catholic clergymen were put on trial, and at the end of the process, many of them were sentenced to death. Stepinac, who was sentenced to sixteen years of imprisonment for hard labor, was not escaped from the trial. However, in custody, Stepinac was released from hard labor and spent only five years in prison, after which he was exiled to a settlement in Krazic.

Destruction in the German occupation zone

In the fall, subordinate to the German government of Serbia, the activity of partisans and Chetniks against the occupying forces intensified by the fall. On October 10, Franz Böhme, the authorized representative of the General Command in Serbia, gave the order to shoot 100 civilians for each killed German soldier, 50 for each wounded.

On October 13, partisans managed to surround the city of Kraljevo and the Wehrmacht's 717th Infantry Division located in it. In response, she took hostages of numerous residents of the city. The Germans fought off the ongoing attacks by Serb partisans until October 15 with difficulty and heavy casualties. After fighting began on the streets of the city in the evening, German soldiers shot 300 Serbian civilians. The next day, the Germans began a large-scale action of retaliation for their losses in the battle for the city. For this, the 717th Infantry Division drove the entire male population of the city into the yard of the car factory and shot it in groups of one hundred people. The report noted that for the losses on October 15, 1736 men and 19 women were shot. Executions continued in the following days. According to Yugoslav data, from 7,000 to 8,000 people became victims of executions in Kraljevo and its environs.

Similarly, the Wehrmacht operated in the north of Kragujevac . Near the city, during a clash with partisans, 10 German soldiers were killed and 26 were injured. For this, the 749th and 727th infantry regiments under the command of Major Paul König collected the first 2323 people who came across Serbian civilians and shot them not far from the city. Along with them, a German soldier Joseph Schulz was allegedly executed, who refused to kill civilians.

In general, between April and December 1941 the Germans shot between 20 and 30 thousand Serbian civilians as measures to combat the partisans. Until the end of the occupation of Yugoslavia, by 1944, the Wehrmacht, according to historians, killed about 80 thousand hostages.

Destruction of the Serbs in Vojvodina

Hungary considered the Yugoslav regions of Bačka and Baranya to be their “southern lands”. After the country joined the axis attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941, Regent Horthy issued an appeal stating that the Yugoslav kingdom ceased to exist and that it wanted to protect the Hungarians living there. He also argued that the Hungarian offensive was not directed against the Serbs, “with whom Hungary has no debate and with which Hungary seeks to live in peace” ^[39] .

The Hungarian government in March 1941 considered the issue of national politics in Vojvodina. In Budapest, it was considered necessary to evict from there all the Serbs who settled later than 1914, and to ensure that the Hungarian national element was completely dominated in this region ^[39] .

The first incidents in Vojvodina occurred immediately after the invasion of Hungarian troops in Yugoslavia. According to the Yugoslav Regional Commission for the Investigation of the Crimes of the Invaders, about 3,500 civilians were killed in the first four days after the attack by Hungarian soldiers. The village of Sirig near Srbobran was completely burned on April 13. Of its 1,000 inhabitants, 350 were shot from machine guns, while the rest were taken to concentration camps. At the same time, there were no battles between the Hungarian and Yugoslav units, since the latter retreated beyond the Sava and the Danube ^[39] .

The General Staff of the Hungarian Army on April 11, 1941 published an instruction to the army units, which described measures in relation to the non-Hungarian population of the occupied areas. According to her, all Serbs were divided into two categories: those who lived in Bačka and Baranje until October 31, 1918 and those who settled there later than this date. Among the first, it was supposed to calculate those who are not ready to put up with the Hungarian authorities and who promote "great Serb ideas." They, like everyone who settled in these regions after the fall of 1918, were subject to deportation. In addition, it was planned to expel all Jews ^[40] . According to Hungarian data, in the first two months of the occupation, about 15,000 people were expelled from Bachka and Baranya. Some of them died during the deportations. Yugoslav historians consider these figures to be underestimated.Deportation was opposed by the German occupation authorities, who began to return people back to Hungarian-controlled territory. In turn, the Hungarian authorities began the creation of concentration camps both in the occupied territories and in Hungary itself. They sent people returned by the German administration, Serbs who settled in the region after 1918, as well as Jews. After the transfer of power in Bachka and Baranya to civilian bodies on August 15, 1941, local commissions were formed from local Hungarians, who compiled lists of Serbs to be sent to concentration camps. The homes and property of the expelled Serbs were transferred to the Hungarians ^[39] .

Кроме депортаций по Бачке и Баранье прокатилась волна погромов и массовых расстрелов. После непосредственно оккупации этих регионов расстрелы сербов осуществлялись военными судами. Но зимой 1941—1942 гг. венгерская армия предприняла крупные операции по блокаде ряда населенных пунктов, жившие в которых сербы подвергались массовым казням. Свои действия венгры оправдывали информацией о якобы готовящемся сербском восстании. Во время рейдов армии и жандармерии в Нови-Саде, Чуруге, Тителе, Мошорине и др. были убиты несколько тысяч человек. Часть трупов была брошена в Дунай. Они доплывали до Земуна, где их собирали немецкие части ^[41] .

Уничтожение сербов в Косове и Метохии

Часть Македонии, Черногории, Косово и Метохия были оккупированы итальянскими войсками. 29 июня специальным постановлением Муссолини передал эти земли под управление албанского правительства в Тиране. Все чиновники из числа сербов были уволены, часть их была убита. На их должности были поставлены местные албанцы, либо чиновники, приехавшие из Албании. 12 сентября 1942 года албанское правительство объявило о присоединении этих территорий к Албании ^[42] .

Вопросами управления оккупированными районами Югославии в Тиране занималось специально созданное Министерство по делам новых провинций и освобожденных краев. Его возглавлял Влора-бей, крупный албанский землевладелец, ранее бывший османским дипломатом. Согласно планам, озвученным в Приштине в июне 1942 года главой правительства Мустафой Круем, на аннексированных территориях предполагалось убить недавно переселившихся туда сербов, а тех, кто жил там длительное время — изгнать ^[42] .

Первые погромы сербов в регионах Косова и Метохии произошли ещё во время вторжения стран оси в Югославию. Пользуясь отступлением югославской армии, вооруженные албанцы нападали на небольшие группы солдат, полицейских и гражданских лиц. После оккупации этих районов итальянцами, албанцы начали более масштабные атаки на населенные сербами города и села. Согласно докладам итальянских офицеров, ещё во время продвижения своих частей вглубь страны они видели трупы убитых албанцами сербов. Уже в апреле 1941 года в сербские дома, чьи хозяева были изгнаны или убиты, заселялись их соседи-албанцы или албанцы с территории собственно Албании. Во время апрельской войны албанцами были убиты 14 православных священников и одна монахиня, осквернены несколько церквей ^[43] .

Первые крупные погромы сербов после оккупации итальянцами произошли в районе Джяковицы. Во время рейдов вооруженных албанцев по сербским селам в апреле—мае 1941 года было убито от 155 ^[44] до 200 ^[43] сербов и черногорцев. Женщины и дети, которым удалось выжить в этих событиях, пешком двинулись в сторону черногорской границы и были расстреляны в албанском селе Црнобрег. В этот же период был сожжен ряд сел в Метохии. В июне того же года атаки на сербов приняли более организованный характер, так как в оккупированные районы прибыли вооруженные добровольческие отряды из Албании — « вулнетари ». Летом—осенью 1941 года ими были совершены массовые преступления против неалбанцев. Итальянской армии удалось эвакуировать часть живущих в этих района сербов и черногорцев в немецкую зону оккупации страны или на территорию Черногории. Погромы в Косове начались несколько позднее, нежели в Черногории. Здесь главной базой албанских отрядов была Приштина. В своих рейдах они неоднократно заходили в немецкую зону оккупации, где также убивали или изгоняли неалбанское население ^[43] .

Часть сербов и черногорцев были отправлены в лагеря в Кавайе, Клосе, Фиори, Буреле и др. Условия в них были тяжелыми, от голода и плохой гигиены каждый день умирали десятки людей. Албанским антифашистам удалось освободить узников лагеря в Буреле. Правительство в Тиране не вело статистику по этим лагерям и точно неизвестно, сколько в них было узников и сколько их в них погибло ^[45] .

Важным фактором защиты неалбанского населения были подразделения итальянской армии и полиции. В ряде случаев они защищали сербов и черногорцев, предотвращая албанские атаки, или вмешивались уже после начала погромов, также спасая массу жизней. В мемуарах итальянских офицеров рассказывается о погроме сербов в Печи, который был остановлен вмешательством армейских подразделений. После этого, согласно мемуарам, с территории Черногории в окрестности Печи прибыли отряды четников, убившие до тысячи местных албанцев. Позднее югославская литература отрицала рейд четников ^[45] .

После капитуляции Италии территории, ранее занятые итальянцами, перешли под немецкий контроль. Командование немецких частей распустило все албанские формирования, созданные итальянцами. Опираясь на албанскую националистическую организацию «Бали комбетар» и её вооруженные отряды численностью до 45 000 человек, известные как «баллисты», немцы начали создание новых вооруженных структур из числа албанцев. Были организованы полицейский полк, несколько батальонов жандармов, 20 батальонов «баллистов» и укомплектованная добровольцами 21-я горная дивизия СС «Скандербег» ^[46] . Эти формирования не приняли масштабного участия в боях, однако занимались террором по отношению к сербам, черногорцам и евреям. 28 августа 1944 года члены дивизии «Скандербег» убили 428 женщин, детей и стариков в селе Велика близ Чакора. Среди убитых в 1944 году в Косове было и несколько албанцев, пытавшихся защитить соседей-сербов ^[44] . Погромы неалбанского населения продолжались вплоть до освобождения этих районов Югославии партизанами НОАЮ осенью 1944 года ^[47] .

За все время оккупации из югославских районов под контролем Албании продолжался исход неалбанского населения. По приблизительным данным, эти территории покинуло около 100 000 сербов и черногорцев ^[48] . На их место прибывали албанцы с территории Албании, большинство из которых были бедняками. Оценкой численности албанских переселенцев частично занимались итальянские военные. На основе их докладов югославский академик Смиля Аврамов называет цифры от 150 000 до 200 000 албанцев, переселившихся в Косово, Метохию и Македонию ^[49] .

В Независимом государстве Хорватия

Именно сербы составили подавляющее большинство жертв усташского режима. В Глине, Двор-на-Уне, Доньем Лапце сербы составили 98 % пострадавших; в Войниче, Коренице, Вргинмосте — 96 %; в Новской и Новой Градишке — 82 %; в Славонской Пожеге — 80 % ^[50] .

По данным Американского музея Холокоста число жертв усташей в Боснии и Герцеговине и Хорватии составляет 330—390 тыс. сербов ^[51] .

В книге Бранимира Станоевича «Усташский министр смерти» говорится, что в Хорватии в 1941—1945 годах погибло 800 тысяч человек. Такую же цифру назвал известный сербский исследователь в эмиграции Мане М. Пешут в своей книге «Крајина у рату 1941—1945». По данным специальной комиссии Синода Сербской православной церкви, в 1941 и первой половине 1942 годов усташами были убиты 800 000 сербов, 300 000 были изгнаны в Сербию, 240 000 — обращены в католичество ^[16] .

Примерную картину масштабов усташского террора можно получить, если сравнить данные о численности населений до и после войны. В 1940 году в Горнокарловачской епархии Сербской Православной Церкви насчитывалось 1.114.826 сербов. А по переписи населения 1948 года на этой же территории проживали только 543 795 человек. ^[52] Помимо этого необходимо помнить, что в зоне геноцида оказались не только земли бывшей Военной Краины, но и Босния и Герцеговина и запад Воеводины.

Немецкий посланник в НГХ Герман Нойбахер писал:

В присоединенных к Албании территориях

Вопрос деятельности усташей вновь привлек к себе внимание в годы распада Югославии. В 1991 году президент Хорватии Франьо Туджман позволил вернуться в Хорватию находившимся в эмиграции усташам ^[54] . Также он первым среди хорватских политиков начал рассуждать о роли НГХ как хорватского национального государства. В одном из своих выступлений Туджман заявил, что Хорватия времен Второй мировой войны была не только нацистским образованием, но и выражала тысячелетние стремления хорватского народа ^{[55] [56] [57] [58]} .

Историк Института славяноведения РАН Владимир Фрейдзон так оценивал политику Туджмана и реакцию на неё ^[59]

Фрейдзон также писал, что в Хорватии в начале 1990-х «началась кампания реабилитации НДХ, эту кампанию поддерживала и ХДС. В Хорватию из-за границы хлынул поток идейных потомков усташей» ^[60] .

Некоторые исследователи отмечали, что политика хорватских властей в период распада СФРЮ у живущих в Хорватии сербов ассоциировалась с политикой усташей в 1941—1945 гг. Американский исследователь Крейг Нейшн в своей монографии «Война на Балканах 1991—2002» отмечал, что национализм хорватского правительства спровоцировал сербов на ответную реакцию, и они приступили к объединению муниципалитетов. Их в этом поддержали сербские республиканские власти. Хотя сербы в Краине использовали тот же диалект сербскохорватского языка, что и хорваты, а их образ жизни ничем не отличался от хорватского, они были православными христианами и хорошо помнили ту резню, которую над ними устроили усташи в годы Второй мировой войны ^[61] . Известный хорватский военный историк Давор Марьян хотя и подтвердил тезис, что приход ХДС к власти вызвал у значительной части сербов опасения возрождения идей усташей, тем не менее отмечал, что несмотря на острую политическую риторику ХДС у краинских сербов не было причин браться за оружие. По его словам, часть сербов в Хорватии противилась хорватскому государству как таковому ^[62] . Схожую точку зрения озвучил хорватский историк Никица Барич ^[63] .

С момента провозглашения независимости Хорватии в начале 1990-х годов некоторые националистические политические группы пытались продолжить традиции усташей. Историк Института славяноведения РАН и сенатор Республики Сербской Елена Гуськова так описывала ситуацию в Хорватии в 1990—1991 гг. ^[64] :

В частности, в 10 населенных пунктах ряд улиц был переименовал в честь одного из лидеров усташей Миле Будака ^{[65] [66]} . Иво Ройница, глава усташей Дубровника в 1941—1945 гг., обвинявшийся в изгнании сербов, евреев и цыган и после Второй мировой войны живший в Аргентине, был назначен Туджманом на пост своего уполномоченного представителя в Буэнос-Айресе ^{[66] [67] [68]} . Произошло массовое уничтожение памятников антифашистам, в частности, были уничтожены «Памятник победы народов Славонии» ^[69] , памятник «Беловарец» ^[70] , памятник жертвам концлагеря Ядовно ^[71] и др. После прихода Туджмана к власти начались выплаты пенсий бывшим усташам и ветеранам вооруженных формирований НГХ ^[72] .

Среди хорватских партий открыто симпатии движению усташей выказывала Хорватская партия права во главе с Доброславом Парагой. Политический секретарь ХПП Иван Габелица подчеркивал ^[64] :

Глава Венского центра по расследованию нацистских преступлений Симон Визенталь в интервью миланской газете Corriere della Sera в 1993 году отмечал, что в Хорватии возрождается фашизм. По его словам, первыми беженцами югославского кризиса были 40 000 сербов из Хорватии. Также в ней произошли первые инциденты с поджогом православной церкви и синагоги, осквернением еврейского кладбища ^[73] .

По мнению украинского историка Владимира Корнилова , отношение к усташам в хорватских правящих кругах изменилось в 2003 году, когда премьер-министром стал Иво Санадер . Некоторым улицам и площадям, переименованным в честь усташей, вернули прежние названия. Кроме того, правительство Санадера запретило публичное восхваление усташей. В мае 2003 года президент Стипе Месич заявил ^[74] : «Любая реабилитация идей усташей и фашизма не может и не должна быть возможна! Нельзя реабилитировать тех, кто убивал невинных людей».

• Сербосек
• Сербомолот