The partition of Yugoslavia 12 Apr 1941

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David Thompson
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The partition of Yugoslavia 12 Apr 1941

#1

Post by David Thompson » 04 Nov 2004, 18:17

This translation is taken from Document 1195-PS, in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947, pp. 838-839.
Copy

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
W.F.St./Abt.L (IV/Qu) Nr. 00630/41
Top Secret.
Fuehrer's H.Q.
12 April 1941

Reference: OKW/L (IV/Qu) Nr.4434/41 Top Secret of 3 April

I. Provisional Directions for the Partitioning of Yugoslavia

The Fuehrer has issued the following directions for the partition of Yugoslavia:

1. Former territory of Steiermark and Krain.

The territory of the former Steiermark enlarged towards the South by a strip of about 90 Kilometer breadth and 10-15 Kilometer depth will go to Gau Steiermark.

The Northern part of Krain, with a border line which runs in the south only as far as the river Sava but north of Laibach according to attached map OKH/GEN Qu, will belong to Kaernten.

The territory occupied by German troops will be handed over district by district by the Army High Command to the Gauleiters concerned as soon as the pacification of the country permits.

The handing over of the territory occupied by the Italians will be prepared by letter from the Fuehrer to the Duce and carried out according to a more detailed direction of the Foreign Office. Until that time no measures whatever are to be taken from the German end. (Telegram OKH-Gen Qu/Abt. Kr. Verw. A. Ob. Kdo. 2 I Nr.801/41 g. Kdos, is hereby dealt with).

2. The territory beyond the river Mur [Ubermur-Gebiet]:

The territory beyond the river Mur goes as a whole to Hungary conforming with the historic boundary. A later transfer of the German population in the north-eastern part of this territory has been taken into consideration. The handing over of this territory to the Hungarians will be regulated by the Army High Command.

3. Banat

The territory from the point where the river Orava cuts the Hungarian national boundary to the entry of the river Tisa in the Danube goes to Hungary.

The territory east of the river Tisa will be at first under German protection as will the territory south of the Danube and east of the general line: mouth of the river

Morava-Danube-Pozarevac-Petrovac-Boljavac-Kugarevac-Kalina. This territory comprises the Boz copper territory and the adjoining coal district in the south-east. The above line is to be considered as the basis [Anhalt] and provisional demarcation line. At first Military Government under the Army High Command is to be established.

4. Southern Serbia:

The territory inhabited by Bulgarian Macedonians, in conformity with the ethnographical boundary goes to Bulgaria.

Preliminary delimitation from the military view point will be carried out by the Army High Command which will prepare the handing over to Bulgaria.

5. Former Serbia [Alt-Serbien]:

The territory of former Serbia will be placed under German military administration of the Army High Command.

6. Croatia

Croatia becomes an independent state within its ethnographical boundaries. There will be no interference on the part of Germany with its home policy.

7. Remaining territories including Bosnia and Montenegro:

The political shaping of these territories will be left to Italy. Here also the restoration of an independent state of Montenero can be considered.

II. The drawing up of boundaries

1. If the drawing up of boundaries has not been laid down in the above part I it will be carried out by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces in agreement with the Foreign Office, the plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan and the Reich-Minister of the Interior.

The Operational Staff of the Armed Forces (L IV/Qu) is the authority which will prepare the drawing up of the boundaries for the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.

2. The Army High Command will forward as soon as possible to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces W. F St., its military requirements in this regard -- where not already laid down by the Fuehrer -- and with the exception of the territory under protection south of the Danube.

3. The OKW/Branch Economy and Armament [OKW Wi Rue Amt] will forward as soon as possible to the Operational Staff (Section L) its demands regarding the boundaries of the territory under protection south of the Danube (Part I. par; 3).

4. As far as the Italians are concerned, tactical boundaries between the armies are valid for the present.

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
/s/ Keitel

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BoroXXX
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#2

Post by BoroXXX » 09 Dec 2004, 15:21

David Thompson
Croatia becomes an independent state within its ethnographical boundaries. There will be no interference on the part of Germany with its home policy.
This simply ain't true. Croatia was robbed of region Baranja by Hungary, parts of Croatia that were awarded to Italy bcs of participation on Antanta's side in WWI (Istria, town Rijeka, town Zadar and islands Veliki Lošinj, Mali Lošinj, Cres) remained under Italian jurisdiction and Occupation zone was established by Italians in regions of Dalmatia, Lika and Gorski kotar.

Bosnia&Herzegovina was Croatian historical territory from 7th century up to 1463 when it was conquered by Ottoman Empire and radical islamisation took place, so in 1941 it is disputable to say that Bosnia was etnographically Croatian. It stands only in cases of region Bosanska Posavina, Cazin Krajina and Bihać Krajina. So when NDH got those territories they weren't Croatian any more!

About "independance" of NDH. How can a state half of which is occupied by a foreign power be "independent"? Ustaše who seized power in Croatia after collapse of YU weren't (generally) allowed to enter Italian Occupation zone, and when they were allowed to do so they were only allowed to carry side-weapons! In territories outside of the Italian zone NDH was pressured to extinct Jews, and NDH racial laws were exact copy of German ones!

So, NDH (Independent State of Croatia) was all but independent!


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G. Trifkovic
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#3

Post by G. Trifkovic » 09 Dec 2004, 18:31

Mr. Boro,

I would strongly urge you,in the most friendly manner,to do some real research on medieval Bosnia before posting...

Welcome to the Forum again,

Gaius

P.S. To Mr. Thompson:Don't worry it's the last post from me to Mr. Boro concerning Bosnia from 7th till 15th century-I would not like to see the thread ruined.BTW keep supplying us with these great documents!

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Allen Milcic
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#4

Post by Allen Milcic » 10 Dec 2004, 00:22

* I have split the postings on the Medieval history of Bosnia-Herzegovina into a separate thread found here: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=66061

Allen/ *

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Csaba Becze
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#5

Post by Csaba Becze » 12 Dec 2004, 19:14

BoroXXX wrote:This simply ain't true. Croatia was robbed of region Baranja by Hungary
Your historical knowledge is a bit incomplete. Baranya was the part of Hungary till 1000 years, then Hungary lost it after the peace treaty (in fact: dictate) Trianon in 1920.
It was 'officially' the part of Yugoslavia between 1920-1941 (21 years and 1000 years - do you know, what is the difference?) and you called it as 'robbing'??? :roll:

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BoroXXX
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#6

Post by BoroXXX » 19 Dec 2004, 05:02

Roman Empire was the greatest empire in the world - once!
Same as Baranja was Hungarian - once!
Of course it was, there are still a lots of Hungarians, but the fact that the region was Hungarian for 1000 years cannot diminish the fact that after the "April War" it was robbed from Croatia.

And you yourself said the same thing with "It was 'officially' the part of Yugoslavia between 1920-1941". I dunno why you make irony out of term official . I think that creators of post WW1 Europe were enough - official. Yugoslavia was part of international community and she was recognized as such.

So when she (YU->CRO) was attacked by the Axis she was attacked by law-breaker(s). Baranja as official part of Croatia was seized by the foreign power, which was Hitler's ally, almost up to the last stage of war, while FREE Croatia (NOVH/ZAVNOH/AVNOJ) was an important anti-fascist subject in SE Europe, and in Teheran recognized as such by the leaders of "the free world". So analogically Baranja was returned to Croatia when WW2 was over.

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#7

Post by THECLASH » 20 Dec 2004, 03:29

The NDH was an indepent nation with a fascist government independent from Hitler. The idea that the NDH was a puppet state is false.

I would like to point out that the NDH "racial laws" did call for the slaughterment of 1/2 Million Orthodox Christian Yugoslavs (the Serbs) and also Jews.

However the Italian Army became disgusted with the genocide practiced by the Croats and started to protect Jews and even Serbs. This went against the orders of their Il Duce but they did it anyways. They also started to arm and support the Serb Chetniks (at first a part of the Allies but turned into Pro-Axis and slaughtered some Muslims in Bosinia) while the Nazis, who hated the Chetniks and believed in the racial superiority of the Croats over their fellow Orthodox Yugoslavs, supported the Croat Ustashe.

These decisions caused a semi-split in the Axis in the Balkans that fortunatly saved tons of Jews and Serbs from genocide but it also helped the Partisan Armies of Tito to conquer the fascist factions and liberate their nation from fascism and genocide.

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#8

Post by Allen Milcic » 20 Dec 2004, 16:50

THECLASH wrote:The NDH was an indepent nation with a fascist government independent from Hitler. The idea that the NDH was a puppet state is false.
Why and how false? Present a substantiated argument - your personal opinion is irrelevant.
THECLASH wrote: I would like to point out that the NDH "racial laws" did call for the slaughterment of 1/2 Million Orthodox Christian Yugoslavs (the Serbs) and also Jews.
Kindly quote the laws in question and identify the source.
THECLASH wrote: However the Italian Army became disgusted with the genocide practiced by the Croats and started to protect Jews and even Serbs. This went against the orders of their Il Duce but they did it anyways. They also started to arm and support the Serb Chetniks (at first a part of the Allies but turned into Pro-Axis and slaughtered some Muslims in Bosinia) while the Nazis, who hated the Chetniks and believed in the racial superiority of the Croats over their fellow Orthodox Yugoslavs, supported the Croat Ustashe.
Kindly provide a source for these claims.
THECLASH wrote: These decisions caused a semi-split in the Axis in the Balkans that fortunatly saved tons of Jews and Serbs from genocide but it also helped the Partisan Armies of Tito to conquer the fascist factions and liberate their nation from fascism and genocide.
Kindly quantify the terms "tons" and provide sources.

CLASH, any opinionated and unsubstantiated postings will, from this point, be edited for content by the Moderator. This is a research and discussion Forum, and not a place for delivering misinformed propaganda-type postings that provoke flame-wars.

Allen/

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#9

Post by THECLASH » 20 Dec 2004, 20:06

A Zagreb newspaper published 5 days after the invasion of Yugoslavia:
"God's providence in concord with the resolution of our allies had brought it about that today on the eve of the resurrection of the Son of God our Independent State of Croatia is also resurrected ... all that is right and true in Christianity stands on the side of the Germans." That same exact day, the NDH was declared by the Ustasha, who were waiting the return of their leader, Pavelic as the Nazi Army paraded through the streets of Zagreb.

West pg 77
-----------------------------------------
Von Horstenau account of drivng along the Sava River in a jeep in an area branded a "Partisan Area' by the Croats. There he saw the crimes of the Croats:

"We saw no sign of them but there were plently of ownlerless horses and cattle, not to mention innumberble geese. At Crkveni Bok, an unhappy place where, under the leadership of an Ustasha lieutenant-colonel, some 500 yokels (Lumpen) of from 15 to 20 years old met their end, all murdered, the women raped and then tortured to death, the children killed. I saw in the Sava river a woman's corpse with the eyes gouged out and a stick shoved into the sexual parts. The woman was at most 20 years old when she gell into the hands of these monsters. Anywhere in a corner, the pigs are gorging themselves on an unburied human being. All the houses are lotted. The 'lucky' inhabitants were consigned to one of the fearsome good trains; mainy of these involuntary 'passenger' cut their veins on the journey."


(taken from Richard West's book: Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia):

"Far from being an unpopular alien state, the NDH [aka Croatia] had the undoubted support both of the great majority of the Roman Catholic Croat population and of the Church itself. Far from being a docile puppet regime subservient to its Axis allies, the NDH was incomparably more determined, more abitious and more independent that MUssolini's Italy, and more violent than Hitler's Reich. The NDH policy towards the almost two million Orthodox Serbs of 'convert a third, expel a third, and kill a third' was conceived without the support of the Axis powers, and was executed with a ferocity that horrified the Italian army, and shocked even the German SS." pg. 74
--------------------------------------------------------------
An Italian, Zoli was outraged by the crimes of the Croats and their supporters, the Franciscans:

"The first brother of Assisi spoke with the birds and fish, calling them brothers and sisters, but his disciples and spiritual heirs, filled with hate, massacre the people in the Independent State of Croatia, who are before God and the Father, their own brothers, brothers of the same blood, the same language, mother earth which has nourished them with the sap of her breasts. They massacre, they kill, and bury people alive. They throw their victims into the rivers, the sea and inro crevices. Bands of these killers still exist and they are in a state of frenzied excitement, led on by the priests and the Catholic religious officials."

The OCTOBER 2004 issue of WORLD WAR II magazine has an article caleld "Italian Efforts to Save Jews":

"Evidence of these atrocities surfaced when the Italian army took over two camps [concentration camps[ on the island of Pago in September 1941. Soldiers were shocked to discover the bodies of 407 men, 293 women and 91 children, many of them stabbed and hacked to death. By 1942 only 12, 000 of Croatia's 35, 000 Jews remained alive."

The article goes on to tell that the Italians unile the Germans did not encourage the killings and at one point, allowed the Jews of Croaita to flee to their sector of control and live with them. This went against direct orders from Rome to hand them over. In May 1942, the Croatians signed an agreement with the Nazis to deport all of the Croatian Jews. The Italian army protested - as was shown in a letter sent to Foreign Minister Ciano by a colonel who suggested that the Italian army have no role in the deportation of the Jews: "We refuse to be pimps to such an ignoble enterprise," he wrote, "even standing by and allowing such things to happen would soil the honor of the Italian Army."

Richard West:
"After a delegation of Serbs had gone to Rome to implore assistance, Mussolini ordered his army back into the NDH to stop the UStasha persecution. From 9 September [1941] onwards, the ITalians reoccupied most of Hercegovina, enabling Serbs to go back to their homes and worship at Orthodox churches where there was still a priest alive. In Mostar, a crowd of 10, 000 Serb women and children gathered in the main square. A small girl, orphaned by the Ustasha, stepped up to the Italian commander, offered him flowers and begged, in the name of all present, for the protection of the Italian army." pg. 102

Italian General Mario Toatta (which the previous article is written on him) wrote in his memoirs:
"So, in spite of the protests from Berlin and Zagreb and the requests from the government in Rome ... we continued for our part in the collaboration of the Chetniks. Their units were resipplied with weapons etc. almost regularly until they reached a total force of 30, 000 men."


"Throughout 1942, and until their country's surrender on 9 September 1943, the Italians did not hand over a single Jew to the Germans, the Crotas, or anyone else who intended to kill them." pg. 137
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Vlatko Macek, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, who had declined the offer to become the leader of the NDH was one of the first detainees at Jasenovac - the famous Croat controlled death camp in Yugoslavia. He was sent there by Pavelic, who feared a rival but for some weird reason allowed him to write his memoirs while staying at the "Yugoslav Aushwitz":

"The camp had previously been a brick-yard and was situated on the embankment of the Sava river. In the middle of the camp stood a two-storey house, originally erected for the offcies of the enterprise ... The screams and wails of despair and extreme suffering, the tortured outcries of the victims, broken by intermittent shooting, accompanied all my waking hours and followed me into sleep at night."


Macek also noticed that one of his Croat guards crossed himself at night before retiring, even though he spent his days killing Yugoslavs:

"I asked him if he were not afraid for the punishment of God. 'Don't talk to me about that,' he said, 'for I am perfectly aware of what is in store for me. For my past, present and future deeds I shall burn in hell but at least I shall burn for Croatia.' "

Richard West, pg 130:

"From the mass of Ustasha documents on the 'cleansing,' as well as detailed testimones of the few inmates who escaped or were released, it seems that at least 70, 000 Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies were killed at Jasenovac alone. The total number of dead at all the NDH camps is certainly very much higher, though not as high as the million sometimes claimed by the Serbs."

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Allen Milcic
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#10

Post by Allen Milcic » 20 Dec 2004, 20:22

So your entire knowledge on an issue as complex as the second world war in 'Yugoslavia' is based on a single book, that is not even a primary source. I rest my case.

Allen/

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hmmmmmmmmmm

#11

Post by BoroXXX » 20 Dec 2004, 20:58

What THE CLASH stated is very disputable.
It's true that NDH (and that doesn't equals Croatia!) killed scores of Serbs bcs of sick politics of A.Pavelić and his gang of criminals, but...

...you cannot discuss WWII in western Balkans (especially Serbo-Croatian issue) without any knowledge about that gun-powdered part of Europe since, at least 1848.

About Jasenovac, dr.Ivo Goldstein, acknowledged holocaust researcher came up with very exact number of casulties in that KZL, the figure is 70.000-90.000 with some 15% of Croats (members of NOVH) accounted for.

And when you speak of Italians it seems that they were so humanious...
...and they were, in fact they organised KZLs for Croats in order that they all get together and spend some quality time with each other, and so humanious to supply četnik outfits (like "Dinara division") in southern Croatia, so that they too can do a little knife-work.

And about "independency" of NDH. In late 1942 there was 150.000 partisans in YU, 2/3 of them in Croatia and B&H. If NDH was oh, so independed why did Germans employed 4 or 5 divisions in "Weiss" op, Italians 3-4 div. Why they didn't let NDH solve the problem by herself?

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#12

Post by DrG » 20 Dec 2004, 22:27

Allen Milcic wrote:
THECLASH wrote:However the Italian Army became disgusted with the genocide practiced by the Croats and started to protect Jews and even Serbs.
Kindly provide a source for these claims.
Allen, any source that refutes TheClash's words?

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#13

Post by THECLASH » 20 Dec 2004, 22:37

Mr. Allen Milcic, If you noticed I used several sources. If you want I can use more...
SEE THIS LINK FIRST:
USA HOLOCUAST MUESUEM ON YUGOSLAV GENOCIDE (1941-1945):
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/jasenovac/

==============================================
The Real Genocide in Yugoslavia by Srdja Trifkovic
http://www.balkanpeace.org/cib/cro/cro15.shtml
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiding Genocide by Gregory Copley
http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosta/ ... ocide.html

" Pavelic had noted: "The Slavoserbs are the rubbish of a nation, the type of people who will sell themselves to anyone and at any price, and to every buyer ..." By June 12, 1941, the movement of all Jews and Serbs in Croatia had been restricted, but by then the mass killings had already begun.


Croat writer Mile Budak declared in Gospic on July 22, 1941: '... We shall slay one third of the Serbian population, drive away another [third], and the rest we shall convert to the Roman Catholic faith and thus assimilate into Croats. Thus we will destroy every trace of theirs, and all that which will be left, will be an evil memory of them ....'"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Online Maps of 1993 book "Atlas of the Ustasha Genocide of the Serbs" by
Dr. Strahinja Kurdulija
http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosta/knjige/atlas/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE USTASHA GENOCIDE By Marko Attila Hoare
http://www.mail-archive.com/news@antic. ... 06407.html

"On 30 April the Jews were deprived of
citizenship of the NDH; subsequent legislation deprived them of freedom of
movement and residency. From 23 May all Jews were forced to wear yellow
identification tags
. These moves were based on the Nazi Nuremberg Laws and
other Nazi legislation and practice. Jews were arrested on an individual
basis along with other undesirables from the first days of the NDH's
existence, but their mass arrest began following the German attack on the
USSR. On 26 June Pavelic issued a decree placing collective responsibility
on the Jews for anti-state activities and ordering their internment in
concentration camps."

"The Ustasha genocide of the Croatian and Bosnian Serbs, in contrast to the
genocide of the Jews and Gypsies, was a project whose origins were primarily
domestic.
The Ustashas were a fringe movement of extremists with whom the
mainstream Croat national movement under Vlatko Macek and the HSS cannot be
equated. The Ustasha attempt to exterminate, expel or forcibly assimilate
all Serbs on Croatian territory was a reversal of the policy pursued by
Stjepan Radic and Macek from 1927 to 1941, of maintaining a firm alliance
with the Independent Democratic Party as representative of Croatian Serbs
loyal to Croatia. The Ustasha genocide of the Serbs was not the

ideologically predetermined outcome of Croat national aspirations, nor the
accidental by-product of Axis rule; rather the increasingly bitter political
conflicts of interwar Yugoslavia, both at the national and at the local
level and particularly in its final years, created the conditions that made
genocide possible in the exceptional circumstances created by the Axis
invasion."
-------------------------------

Role of the Catholic Clergy in the Genocide of Yugoslavs:
http://jmgainor.homestead.com/files/PU/ ... PS/2/2.htm

Archbishop Saric of Sarajevo's published "Ode to Pavelic":
"Against the greedy Jews with all their money,
who wanted to sell our souls,
betray our names
those miserable ones.


You are the rock on which rests
homeland and freedom in one
Protect our lives from hell,
from Marxism and Bolshevism"

Diary of Archbishop Stepinac: Entry for March 28, 1941:
"All in all, Croats and Serbs are of two worlds, northpole and southpole; they will never be able to get together unless by a miracle of God. The schism [Eastern Orthodoxy] is the greatest curse in Europe, almost greater than Protestantism. Here there is no moral, no principles, no truth, no justice, no honesty."

Italian historian Carlo Falconi noted:
"Allowing for exceptions here and there, the phenomenon just described is characteristic of Ustashe massacres—as opposed to exterminations in other countries during the Second World War—in that it is almost impossible to imagine a Ustashe punitive expedition without a priest at its head spurring it on, and usually a Franciscan."

Priest Franjo Kralik
May 25, 1941:
"The descendents of those who hated Jesus, who condemned him to death, who crucified him and immediately persecuted his pupils, are guilty of greater excesses that those of their forefathers .... Satan helped them invent Socialism and Communism .... The movement for freeing the world from the Jews is a movement for the renaissance of human dignity. The Almighty and All-wise God is behind this movement."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Encyclopedia Article on the NDH and Ustasha:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustase

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
"Due to differing views and lack of documentation, estimates for the number of Serbian victims in Croatia range widely, from 25,000 to more than one million. The estimated number of Serbs killed in Jasenovac ranges from 25,000 to 700,000. The most reliable figures place the number of Serbs killed by the Ustaša between 330,000 and 390,000, with 45,000 to 52,000 Serbs murdered in Jasenovac."

Photo of Croat Troops Gathered Around the Head of a Serb Orthodox Priest:
[url]ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ustase1.png[/url] (WARNING: IT SHOWS A BEHEADED YUGOSLAV)

"Thus, Ustaše ministers Mile Budak, Mirko Puk and Milovan Zanic declared in May 1941 that the goal of the Ustaše was:

1. One third of the Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) to be catholicized
2. One third of the Serbs to be expelled out of ISC
3. One third of the Serbs in the ISC to be liquidate"

"Some priests, mostly Franciscans, particularly in, but not limited to, Herzegovina and Bosnia, took part in the atrocities themselves. Miroslav Filipović, a Franciscan friar, was the most prominent of them. He used the Petrićevac monastery as a base for the Ustaše, and on February 6, 1942, led the Ustaše in a brutal massacre of 2730 Serbs of the nearby villages, including 500 children. The same Filipović later became Chief Guard of Jasenovac concentration camp where he was nicknamed 'Fra Sotona' "
-----------------------------

NOTE: The Italian Army committed genocide else where such as Ethiopia and Albania. I'm not saying they were great people. Plus yes I know not all Croats supported the Ustasha gov't because a good number of them joined Tito's Partisans. However its not wrong to say Croats committed genocide since people say that the Germans did. Does that mean everyone? No.

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#14

Post by Allen Milcic » 20 Dec 2004, 22:48

DrG:

I propose that it is up to the person making a claim to provide corroboration, and not vice-versa. CLASH has made a claim that "...the Italian Army became disgusted with the genocide practiced by the Croats " - I would like to see this claim supported by some kind of source, preferably a primary source. WHO in the Italian army? WHERE? WHEN? Same questions relating to the alleged genocide - WHERE did the "Italian Army" witness this, WHICH units, WHEN...?

I further propose that "the Croats" in general, as a nation, did NOT commit any crimes, just as no other nation is guilty of or should be accused of same. Certainly certain Croats ordered and/or committed them, while other Croats did everything in their powers to prevent them.

Allen/

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#15

Post by Allen Milcic » 20 Dec 2004, 23:03

CLASH:

The question is simple - do you have substantiation, preferably primary source, for your claims that:

- the NDH was not a puppet state,
- that NDH racial laws legislated the "slaughterment (sic) of 1/2 Million Orthodox Christian Yugoslavs (the Serbs) and also Jews."
- that the Italian Army was "...disgusted with the genocide practiced by the Croats and started to protect Jews and even Serbs"
- that "tons" of Jews and Serbs were saved from genocide by the actions of the Italian army (please also quantify the term "tons").

Kindly spare us all from yet another listing of propaganda-type websites whose information cannot even be deemed as a proper secondary source, let alone a primary source. For your edification:
Evaluating Evidence: Primary and Secondary Sources:
In the previous sections we discussed Source Citations and Documentation. This brings us to "evaluating evidence." There are lengthy books written on this subject, but briefly speaking, evidence comes from two general sources: "Primary" or "Secondary."

The broad definition of a primary source is a record made at or near the time of the actual event described and, preferably, recorded by someone with first-hand knowledge of the event and without a vested interest in what the record says. In short, a contemporary, unbiased record of an event.
The "vested interest" part simply means that when you examine records, you need to be alert to the fact that people say or write things that tend to reflect their perception of those events in terms of their own self-interest. A simple example might be great grandmother's propensity for understating her own age.

Primary records include deeds, wills, court proceedings, church documents which record births, baptisms, marriages, deaths or burials, birth and death certificates, and (usually) such documents as an application for a Social Security number (keeping in mind that the applicant may have had a reason for not telling the truth).

Secondary sources include almost all published works, be they county histories, genealogies or indexes and abstracts of original records. Please note that almost everything you will find on the Internet is a secondary source.
Allen/

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