Tito's lost world <- an opposite view !

[jkraljic at gwtlaw.com]

I did not see any specific names on the HSP list - it was just a very general statement.  We could also, of course, add the Stalinists (Informbiro-ists) as well who made up the bulk of the victims on Goli otok.

I certainly agree with what I think is Ivo's point - that Croats were not the only victims of Tito's Communist.  They included Serbs as well as all the other nations that had made up Yugoslavia (remember the Albanians!).

On the issue of the Catholic Church and WWII, we could go on and on about that one.  I fully agree with Ivo's point related to the fact that the Communists suppressed much information that they did not find "convenient" related to the Church's role during the War and this contributed greatly to much misunderstanding.

I think what one needs to keep in mind that Communist histories, which continue to have an influence, did not fully and accurately discuss the role of the Church heirarchy in World War II.  A good example is the Bishop of Krk, Josip Srebrnic, who was labeled by one author as an "Ustasha" supporter - this of course was a ridiculous assertion in light of the fact that he wasn't even a Croat (he was Slovene) and that his entire diocese had been annexed by the Italians.  But this gives you an idea of the stupid lengths the Communists went thru to try to discredit the Church, which remained the only credible organization which opposed the Communists' totalitarian rule.

If you read more recent histories based on documents which the Communists had suppressed I think readers will be surprised by what they read.  I set forth below excerpts of an annotated bibliography (unpublished) on this subject.

With respect to Stepinac specifically, I think the Communists were very devious in their trial against him.  I remember seeing a photo of Stepinac standing next to Vladimir Bakaric, the top CP official in Croatia, on a stand in Jelacic Sq. after Zagreb had been liberated.  We also know of other meetings he had with other top CP officials after the war (including one with Tito).  If this is not enough to show that it was a show trial, we have the statement of Jakov Blazevic, Stepinac's prosecutor, who said in an interview in the 1980s in a Croatian newspaper that there would have been no trial had Stepinac agreed to break with the Vatican.  Blazevic later retracted the statement, though the other evidence more than adequately supports Blazevic's initial statement.

The problem with respect to Stepinac from a legal perspective is that there is no basis in law for prosecuting him. "Collaboration" is not a crime; indeed, under international law local authorities have a duty to submit to occupation forces.

That the Communists were aware of the legal shakiness of their case is more than adequately shown in the memoirs of Josip Hrncevic (Globus, Zagreb, 1984), a communist federal prosecutor in Yugoslavia.  I don't have the quote here, but he basically argued that the reason Stepinac was prosecuted is that everyone had a "duty" to fight the occupier and for revolution and if you didn't you were a traitor.  That's an absolutely absurd standard that can't apply to any reasonable situation.

Hrncevic also provides an interesting discussion of the Partisan attack on the monatery of Siroki Brijeg in Herzegovina which developed a reputation of being an Ustashe stronghold (though whether this is deserved or not is another question).  The monastery is on a hill and had been taken over by German troops.  Hrncevic admits that the Partisans, in the "heat of battle," massacred all of the priests in the monastery.  He admits that this was wrong.  Of course, no one was ever punished for that "error."

Not every cleric is of course innocent - unfortunately, the Communists adopted the practice of trying to bury the whole Church rather than focusing on those who actually did commit crimes.  I think in this regard, the reports made by Father Dominik Mandic from Rome are instructive, which I quote extensively below.

Moreover, many Catholic clerics actually supported the Partisans - see Petesic's book discussed below.

John Kraljic

*************************************

	The anti-clerics are best represented by Dr. Viktor Novak, a Croat historian.  He was a former clericalist, but turned against the Church and became a prominent Mason.  His work, Magnum crimen, was published in Zagreb in 1948 (reprinted in Belgrade by Nova knjiga in 1986).  Even during Communist Yugoslavia, Novak's work received criticism from the likes of Bogdan Krizman who published a multivolume history of  the Ustashe during the early 1980s.  Krizman wrote that Novak's work gave the impression of being a "masonic revenge against clericalism."  Novak's work forms the basis for many later attacks against the Church which appeared in the West.  Among them, Richard West's Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia (New York, Carroll and Graff, 1995) which is unfortunately widely available in the US despite the scathing criticism the book received from those who know something about ex-Yugoslavia.  Novak himself had a questionable role during WWII, signing a document in August 1941 with several hundred other Serbian intellectuals calling for the populace to support the German named Nedic government in Serbia.

	Another anti-clericalist is Edmond who Paris wrote "Genocide in Satellite Croatia 1941-1945," published in the US by the "American Institute for Balkan Affairs" in Chicago in 1961.  Paris' other publications include "The Vatican Against France" and "The Vatican Against Europe."

	Another "favorite" is Avro Manhattan's "Terror Over Yugoslavia."  Mr. Manhattan's other books include "Catholic Terror in Ireland," "Catholic Power Today," "The Vatican and the USA," "The Dollar and the Vatican," "Vatican Imperialism in the Twentieth Century," "The Vatican in World Politcs," etc.  The back cover of "Catholic Terror in Ireland" boldly proclaims that "Avro
Manhattan clearly details the Vatican's sinister actions in Ireland.  Beware, your country
may be next!"

	Who Paris and Manhattan are remains unknown.  I have read claims on the internet that Manhattan is really a Serbian Chetnik.  In the Aarons and Loftus book, "Unholy Trinty," the authors note that "Despite Manhattan's religious bigotry. he was very well informed, having worked for British intelligence during the war."

	Of interest is Proces Alojziju Stepincu [The Trial of Aloysius Stepinac], edited by Marina Stambuk-Skalic, Josip Kolanovic and Stjepan Razum (Zagreb: Krscanska sadasnjost, 1997) which contains documents for the defense in the Stepinac trial.  Also included are some extremely relevant documents concerning Stepinac which originated with the German embassy in Zagreb during WW II, edited by Kolanovic, and a section entitled "The Holy See, the Independent State of Croatia and the Church in Croatia (1941-1945)," which was edited by Stjepan Razum.  The German documents appear to be new; those collected by Razum appear to have for the most part been published previously in the Actes et Documents du Saint Seige collection.  In any event, both sets of documents contain much material concerning Stepinac's reactions to the persecution of Jews and Serbs.  Importantly, the German and Italian documents are written in, respectively, German and Italian and can thus be easily looked at by foreign scholars.

	An article by Sabrina Petra Ramet on the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia in her book "Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to Ethnic War," Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996, 2nd edition, pp. 135-63 is of interest with regard to Stepinac.  She discusses his opposition to Pavelic and the attempts of Tito to "nationalize" the Church. She also mentions Tito's meeting with Stepenic in June 1945, hardly a sign that he was viewed as a war criminal.

	An invaluable book is  Ciril Petesic's "Katolicko svecenstvo u NOB-u 1941-1945" [The Catholic Clergy in the National Liberation War 1941-1945], Globus and Vjesnik Press Agency, 1982 (The Catholic Clergy in the National Liberation War 1941-1945).  The book was published in cooperation with the Commission for Relations with Religious Communities of the Executive Committee of the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Croatia.  It is not a "scholarly" work, though it abounds in footnotes but appears to have been an attempt by the Communist government to build bridges with the Catholic Church.  Stepinac, having remained a taboo topic, is not mentioned. Instead, the book contains a number of disjointed chapters which discuss the role certain priests played in supporting the Partisans.

	These included people such as Svetozar Rittig, the parish priest of St. Mark's in Zagreb (the main parish church in the city), who went to the Partisans in 1943.  There is a chapter on the role of the Istrian priests (Istria having been annexed to Italy after WWII, the Croats of the province were subject to ethnic persecutions by the Fascists for two decades), a chapter on priests killed in Jasenovac and other concentration camps, etc.  There are a number of chapters concerning Slovenian priests, but the focus is on Croats.  Petesic lists 75 priests as "participants in the National Liberation War," 21 of whom were Slovenes, 2 Poles and the remainder Croats.   This list is restricted to "participants" in the War - it does not include, as an example, those priests who gave their support to the liberation of Istria by the Partisans (such as Josip Pavlisic, the retired Archbishop of Rijeka, who the Pope mentioned on his recent trip to Croatia, who participated in the September 1943 meeting of representatives of the Istrian people organized by the Partisans which, among other things, declared Istria's determination to join Croatia; it further passed other acts, such as allowing for the use of Croatian in Church services (which had been banned by the Italians)).

	Petesic also lists 43 priests killed because of their collaboration with the "National
Liberation War."  21 were Slovenes, one from Czechoslovakia, a Pole, a Slovak and an
Austrian.  The remainder were Croats.

	The book also contains chapters which showed how Christmas was celebrated among the Partisans and how masses were held for Partisans (there is one photo showing Grgo Starcevic, the Catholic parish priest from Otocac, conducting a burial ceremony for 27 partisans killed by the Ustashe in a hospital).  An interesting book to say the least.

(it should be noted, by the way, that the support the Istrian clergy showed for the Partisans in their calls for the return of Istria to Croatia did not mean they supported the
Communists.  Indeed the Istrian clergy was subject to a great amount of pressure and
persecution, with some clergy murdered by the Communists as discussed by Ivan Grah in
"Crkvene i politicke promjene i zbivanja u Istri 1945-1947. god.," in Dometi, vol. 7,
(7-12), 1997, pp. 57-70).

	Among more recent studies, one must mention Jure Krsito.  His "Katolicka crkva u II svjestkom ratu 1941-1945" (The Catholic Church in World War II) appeared in the Casopis za suvremenu povijest [Journal of Contemporary History], vol. 27, 1995, pp. 461-74.  Also important is his "Katolicka crkva i Zidovi u vrijeme NDH" (The Catholic Church and the Jews During the Independent State of Croatia), which appeared in a collection of related articles called "Antisemitizam, Holokaust, Antifasizam," published in Zagreb by the Zidovska opcina (Jewish Community) in 1996, pp. 139-47.  Another article of interest in the same book is by the priest Luka Vincetic, "Antisemitizam u hrvatskoj katolickoj stampi do Drugog svjetskog rata" (Antisemitism in the Croatian Catholic Press Until the Second World War).  Vincetic concludes that while such anti-semitism existed it was limited to a handful of publications and was more than offset by those Catholic intellectuals who worked to protect Jews during the War.

	One of the more recent studies to appear concerning the concentration camp on the Island of Rab (Arbe) is by Ivan Kovacic, "Kampor 1942-1943: Hrvati, Slovenci i Zidovi u koncentracijskom logoru Kampor na otoku Rabu" [Kampor 1942-1943: Croats, Slovenes and Jews in the Kampor Concentration Camp on the Island of Rab], Rijeka: Adamic, 1998.  It is important to note that prior to 1990 Kovacic wrote many articles and books which extolled the Partisans.  Thus, his discussions about the Church's attitude toward Kampor are especially revealing.  He includes a general chapter about the Catholic Church and the "Jewish Question" (pp. 253-63).  A prior chapter concerns the attitude of representatives of the Catholic Church and of the NDH toward those imprisoned in Kampor (pp. 201-15).  It is important to note in this connection that while Kampor is often only portrayed as a Slovene and Jewish camp, Croats, mostly from the Gorski kotar region, made up approximately 1/3 of the approximately 15,000 people who passed through the camp, and 39% of the deaths recorded there.

	Concerning the Church, I was especially interested in the actions of Father Fugosic, the parish priest of my father's home town of Omisalj on Krk Island.  In January 1943, Fugosic made a statement in Church concerning the terrible conditions that civilians in Kampor were subjected to.  Italian authorities subsequently arrested him.  My father tells me that Fugosic made a pledge to the Virgin Mary during this period and that after the war he led processions in thanksgiving to the nearby town of Njivice every September 9th.

	The book also discussions the intervention of the local bishop, Srebrnic, concerning the internees at Kampor as well as of the monastery of St. Euphemia on Rab island.

	Concerning the Church generally the author notes that vis a vis the Jews "one can state that the role of the Catholic Church in solving the problems of Jews in the area of the NDH, under the conditions of the Holocaust during 1941-1943, was extremely important and that a great role in this must first be given to Archbishop A. Stepinac . .  ." (p.263).

	Interestingly, the author notes that the reaction of the Church often came late.  On this note he specifically cites to the massacre and destruction of the Croatian village of
Podhum near Rijeka in July 1942 where Italian troops executed 114 men and boys,
destroyed all the houses and deported the remaining population to camps -  the Church
only reacted to this a year later according to the author.

	Jure Kristo also dealt with the reactions of the Bishop of Sibenik, Jeronim Mileta, toward Italian persecution against Croatian citizens in his "Postupci Talijana prema Hrvatima od 1941 do 1943 prema Crkvenim vrelima," (The Actions of the Italians Toward Croats From 1941 to 1943 According to Church Sources] in "Talijanska uprava na Hrvatskom prostoru i egzodus Hrvata (1918-1943)" [The Italian Administration Over Croatian Areas and the Exodus of the Croats], Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest and Drustvo 'Egzodus Istarskih Hrvata, 2001, pp.623-35.

	I had mentioned the Aarons and Loftus work, "Unholy Trinity."  I note that they mentioned a Father Dominick Mandic, a Franciscan priest, as being a "crucial link in the Ratline" which allegedly worked to smuggle Ustashe out of Europe after WWII.  Croatian historian Ljubo Boban writes extensively about Mandic in "Hrvatska u Arhivima izbjeglicke vlade 1941-1943" [Croatian in the Archives of the Government in Exile 1941-1943],  Zagreb: Globus, 1985.  Boban's book contains a number of reports from Mandic from 1942, based at the time in Rome, about events in Croatia.  On more than one occasion, he states that 75% of Croats were against the Ustashe.  Here is what he said in his report to Jurej Sutej, a Croatian member of the government in exile in London, on June 10, 1942:

"The situation in Croatia every day becomes even more difficult and unbearable.  The people, and the clergy and the secular intelligentsia are more and more distancing themselves from forcible methods and the regime.  From here I have done everything I could to prevent the massacres of Serbs and the burning of their houses and villages.  And through our Province, and through Bishops and through the Holy See.  The Holy See has on a number of occasions called on certain Bishops and we through the Province have given them instructions how to act and influence the government to soften their brutality and injustice." (p. 207)

	In the same letter here is what he says about "Father Satan":

"You have certainly heard about the charges against the Franciscans, but I can assure you that 90% of the Croatian Franciscans are in favor of the old state [Yugoslavia] in which there will be equality for the Croats and freedom for the Holy Faith.  The charges were made as a result of several of the very young brothers around the Poglavnik [Pavelic] and a number of military chaplains.  Others condemn this and do not support it.  The leadership has especially held up correctly.  In Bosnia they excluded from the Franciscan Order Brother Filipovic who sinned against the brother Serbs in Banja Luka." (p. 209)

	In a letter dated December 16, 1942, Mandic notes:

"The actions of the Ustashe and the development of the situation have sobered many, including the great majority of younger Franciscans.  There are still two to three Franciscans acting as chaplains near the Poglavnik [Pavelic], but these have no ties with the Province and they remain there against the wishes of Church leaders.  One of them, Brother Celestin Medic, of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina, was expelled from the Order as he refused to leave his place with the Poglavnik and return to Hercegovina.  And the Bosnian Province has expelled from the Order Brother Filipovic who wanted to be too much like the Ustashe. The Dalmatian Province as well has pressured its members who went into Ustashe service without the consent of the Order's leadership.  All of this, as well as the passive stance, often unfriendly, of the older generation of Franciscans toward the Ustashe movement is the reason that in Zagreb there is a good amount of unhappiness toward the Franciscans and that the Franciscan influence on the Ustasha government is minimal. Similar to this is the influence of the secular clergy and Archbishop Dr. Stepinac.  There has not been a public dispute, but among the Poglavnik and his people there is a great amount of unhappiness toward the clergy and the Vatican, which has in no event recognized Pavelic's Croatian state." (p. 240)

	Boban's book also contains an introduction concerning Mandic's life where he extensively quotes from Mandic's essay "Moje uspomene na kardinala Stepinca."  Mandic discussed in that essay the letters and instructions that went to Croatia from Rome telling the Francsicans to, among other things, "assist the persecuted brother Serbs who are in need," forbidding the Franciscans to engage in mass conversions, etc.

	Boban's book also contains the reports of a Msgr Dr. Augustin Juretic who was also in Rome during the war.  His reports went for the most part to Juraj Krnjevic, the leading HSS member of the exiled government, as well as others in London.  They contain a lot of information concerning the Church in Croatia.  Writing in June 1942, for example, he notes, "Stepinac is helping, protecting as much as he can the Orthodox and Jews.  He has Jews and Orthodox coming to him everyday.  He has been criticized for not having publicly enough condemned the Ustashe's crimes.  In any event, he is unceasingly protesting against the persecution against the Serbs, especially against women and children.  Thus, he sought, eight days ago, to be allowed to care for about 9,000 Serbian orphans, and he gave a stinging speech against robbery and killing.  He is helping many materially without differentiating among Slovenes, Serbs and Jews."  Juretic pulls no punches and recognizes and condemns those clergy who support Pavelic.
	
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