German historical revisionism in the Balkans at the turn of the 21st century

there was no positive economic effect” (pg. 156-157). Thus, the mass
killings of prisoners did not represent “any kind of planned beginning
of a systematic genocide, but rather the consequence of specific camp
logic in one regional context” (pg. 365). In regards to Jasenovac, that
was, according to Korb, one of the “larger” camps in Europe and it
ended the lives of “up to 70 thousand Serbs” (“Croatian central bank
of historical information”), with people dying from hunger, cold and
illness, but also from occasional mass killings (pg. 296). Moreover, for
him it is extremely important to mention the following: “One of the
worst crises in the Jasenovac camp that resulted in mass casualties
among the inmates was, however, a natural disaster, the flooding of
the Sava in late autumn of 1941” (pg. 320). Thus, the causes for the mass
killings in Jasenovac were not part of a planned genocide: “Those were
less so the plans of the Ustashe and more so situational factors that led
to the escalation of violence, such as the famine that affected the state,
Serbian rebels, and the flooding of the Sava (pg. 366).
I will now mention a few things about the attitude of the Croatian
state at the time towards the Serbian Orthodox Church, noting that
there were no known protests made by the Catholic Church in Croatia
regarding the treatment of the Serbs, nor were there any attempts to
help a fellow Christian community. For Korb, this fact was not worth
mentioning.
On April 10 1941, the day that Ante Pavelic and his movement came
to power, the Serbian Orthodox Church had 9 bishops inside the In-
dependent State of Croatia (ISC).
The Archbishop of Zagreb Dositej was immediately arrested, in-
terrogated and tortured; he became ill with a neurological ailment and
was exiled to Serbia where he died from injuries sustained during his
time in captivity.
The Archbishop of Banja Luka Platon was arrested on the 5th of
May 1941, and was subsequently tortured and killed. His body was
found and photographed before the funeral – his beard was forcibly
plucked out, his nose and ears were cut off, and remnants of salt were
found in many of his open wounds.
The Archbishop of Sarajevo Peter was arrested on the 12th of May,
1941, tortured and murdered soon after.
The Archbishop of Karlovci shared the same fate.
The Archbishop of Dalmatia Irinej was captured by Italian forces
and his life was spared.
The Archbishop of Syrmia Valerian died on the 12th of July, 1941 of
natural causes. The Archbishop of Tuzla Nektarije and the Archbishop
of Herzegovina Nicholas managed to get to Serbia safely.
The Ustashe exiled hundreds and killed 187 Serbian Orthodox
priests, 30 monks, and two seminary teachers. At the same time, we
saw the beginning of a campaign of systematic destruction and usurp-
ation of Orthodox Churches. In the document "Dossier Remis par la
Yougoslavie”, which was presented at the "Conférence Sur les répara-
tions" in Paris following the end of the war, it is stated that “...a total
of 456 Orthodox churches were destroyed by the occupation forces...”,
but the fact is that “Germans were responsible for 10% of this number
at the most, while the rest was the result of an Ustashe crusade...”.
Alexander Korb simply ignores, leaves out, and dismisses this chap-
ter in the history of the Croatian State 1941-1945. He does not mention
it and, naturally, he does not comment on it. He briefly mentions the
inhuman torture of Serbian Orthodox priests and religious figures (pg.
249), and he dedicates a single sentence to the systematic destruction
of hundreds of Serbian houses of worship: “Croatian forces destroyed
church steeples so that they could not serve as watchtowers for the par-
tisans” (pg. 240).
As far as the forced conversion of Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism
is concerned, another important chapter in the history of the Croatian
State 1941-1945, here are a few historical sources and reports from aca-
demic literature on the subject:
On the 18th of May 1941 Ante Pavelić signs the “Roman papers”
with Fascist Italy and on the same day, at the request of Croatian bish-
ops, he is received by the Pope. Pius XII dedicates half an hour for
the meeting with Pavelić, a terrorist eventually condemned to death in
abstention on two separate occasions.
At the beginning of May 1941, a flier is printed at the Bishop’s press
in Djakovo and distributed to Serbs: “The Lord Jesus Christ said, that
there will be one flock and one shepherd (...) This means that there
will be one church and one leader of that church, Christ’s represent-
ative on earth and the holiest priest in Christ’s church (...) Residents
practicing the Greco-Eastern faith! Heed this friendly advice – the
Bishop of Djakovo has converted thousands of citizens into the sacred
Catholic faith (...) follow the example of your brothers and sign up as
soon as possible for conversion into the Catholic faith. As Catholics
you will be permitted to remain in your homes.”
The Conference of Croatian Bishops publishes instructions to its
clergy on May 15 1941 regarding the conversion of Orthodox Christians.
The Conference warns that the conversion should not be motivated by
“...material and egotistical...” interests but calls for understanding of
all those who “...in the past twenty years, under State pressure and
against their own principles, and for personal benefits, concerns over
their careers, or other individual interests strayed from the Catholic
church...”. The Ustashe Minister of Justice writes the following to the
Conference of Croatian Bishops on July 14 1941 (document number
42687-D 1941): “The Croatian government does not want Orthodox
priests, teachers or the intelligentsia in general, including the rich mer-
chant class, to be given the opportunity to convert to Catholicism....”
A response is already given by July 16 (document number 9259-41): “As
far as the conversion of Orthodox priests, teachers, merchants, the in-
telligentsia and the wealthy in general is concerned, there is no doubt
that caution is required (...) We must, however, emphasize that it
would be against the spirit and obligation of the Catholic church to
reject the entire intelligentsia (...) With that in mind we take it upon
ourselves to note that the church cannot abdicate its rights and God-
given duties to accept all schismatics...”.
The Vatican’s “Holy Congregation for the Eastern Church” writes
to the president of the Conference of Croatian Bishops, Dr. Aloysius
Stepinac, on July 17 1941: “The Holy Congregation for the Eastern
Church wishes to bring to your Eminence’s attention that one should
not prevent the natural return of schismatics to the Greco-Catholic
rite (...) If your Eminence was to make this into an obligation for your
honourable brothers, you would be commended for contributing to
the proper development of Catholicism, now that there is great faith in
the potential for unity....”
The claim that the Croatian Catholic Church and the Croatian
State worked together on the common project of converting Ortho-
dox Christians to Catholicism is supported by the fact that Croatian
Bishops were able to grant Pavelić an audience with the Pope, but also
by their failed attempt to persuade the Vatican into formally recog-
nizing the “ISC”: “The relationship with the Vatican remained prob-
lematic because the Vatican – contrary to the recommendations of
Aloysius Stepinac – did not formally recognize the new state (...) but a
compromise was reached for the Vatican to send Benedictine Giuseppe
Ramiro Marcone as an Apostolic Visitor and permanent representative
in Zagreb, whose job was to function as the Pope’s de facto minister...”.
The chief of Germany’s security agency writes in his report dated
February 17, 1942 and addressed to his superior Reichfuhrer-SS Hein-
rich Himmler (after confirming that the Ustashe killed around 300
thousands Serbs up to that point):
“The forced conversions into Catholicism of Orthodox believers in-
itiated by Croatians and the terror that is attached to it (...) are also
greatly contributing to increased tensions. With that in mind it must
be understood that the Catholic Church, through the use of forced
conversions, served the Ustashe. This was all the easier for them to do
as the Croatian population is fanatically Catholic (...) From this we
can see that the Croatian-Serbian tensions are also a struggle by the
Catholic Church against the Orthodox Church....”
The weight and merit of the report rests on the fact that this wit-
ness: a) belonged to a regime that was the mentor, protector, and ally of
Ustashe Croatia and the enemy, occupier, and repressor of Serbs, and
b) that we can surely say that he was not driven by any sort of personal
bias related to the Balkans, whether national, religious, or individual,
but rather that he was solely driven by the German national interest
at the time, which was primarily the desire to maintain power as ef-
fectively as possible in the areas that had been occupied by Nazi forces.
The Croatian envoy to the Vatican, Dr. Rušinović, confirms in his
reports to Ustashe minister Lorković that concrete and reasonably de-
tailed knowledge about the Ustashe genocide was available by (at the
latest) February 6, 1942 at the Vatican, and thus, it is reasonable to con-
clude, among the Croatian clergy as well:
“Cardinal (Tisserant) said, among other things: ‘Your friends the
fascists mock your independence and freedom, as well as the existence
of the Croatian State (...) in Croatia everyone rules, except the Cro-
atians.” (...) Friar Simić personally led a mob, with weapons in hand,