Ante Pavelic, the self-styled poglavnik (führer) of wartime Croatia (1941)

To understand fully the role Archbishop Stepinac played during the crucial pre-war years, as well as during the war and after the liberation of Yugoslavia, it is necessary to remember the centuries-old struggle which the South Slavic peoples, the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Macedonians carried on for their independence. The Slavic peoples of the Balkans have a glorious tradition as fierce and stubborn fighters for their cultural and religious heritage as well as for national independence. During 500 years of Turkish rule over the Balkans, the Serbs formed the very core of the resistance movement. When, during the last century, the old Ottoman Empire declined, the Balkan peoples gained their national independence. The great powers carved the Balkans into smaller states which subsequently became pawns in the intrigues of the European powers.

Imperial Germany especially, together with the old Habsburg Empire, followed a program aimed at dominating the Balkans. This old Pan-German program for conquest, known as the Berlin-Bagdad Railroad Project, threatened vital points and communication lines of the British Empire and, in addition, brought tremendous danger to Russia. It was this German-Austrian aggressive policy against the Balkans, especially against Serbia, that finally provoked World War I.

One has to remember that at that time the German General Staff, with the help of the Austro-Hungarian regime, was using every conspiratorial device to stir up hate among the peoples of the Balkans. Following the old directive "divide and conquer," Germany and Austria were particularly eager to exploit and capitalize on religious differences between the Serbs and Croats. The Serbs, by tradition, belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Croats and Slovenes to the Roman Catholic faith.

The defeat of the central powers in 1918 brought great changes to the Balkans. The old Habsburg Empire was dissolved and the South Slavs, the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, formed the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia on the basis of their close racial and linguistic affinities. It was the task of this new United Slavic state to block another attempt of German aggression against the Balkans and the Near East.

But in this it did not succeed. For the young nation made numerous mistakes. One was too great a centralization under Serbian hegemony (a mistake that the federative structure of the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia has avoided). This resulted, among other things, in a corresponding separatist sentiment in Croatia. And cleverly and persistently throughout the between-wars period the Germans used for their own ends every divisive inheritance from the past, every legislative and administrative mistake of the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia which tended to keep alive these divisive feelings.

With the resurrection of Germany's might under Adolf Hitler, German-inspired intrigues and conspiracies in the Balkans became ever bolder, and such terroristic organizations as the Ustashi in Croatia were found to be willing instruments in the plans of Mussolini and the German General Staff.

After Hitler's rise the peace-loving European nations became alarmed about the new German threat to the post-Versailles order, and the Yugoslav Government then declared itself willing to make commitments towards a strong defensive alliance. In 1934 preliminary discussions for such an alliance between France and other powers were far advanced. In October of that year King Alexander of Yugoslavia visited France. In Marseilles he was welcomed by French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, who at that time was working on a new European security program. As the two men, King Alexander and Foreign Minister Barthou, rode through the streets of Marseilles they were struck down suddenly by bullets from well-posted assassins; both men were killed.

King Alexander and French Foreign Minister Barthou just before their assassination

Investigation uncovered an international plot. The details were of so sensational and delicate a nature that the French government, for fear of repercussions abroad, found it expedient to make only perhaps 10 per cent of the political background story publicly known. The investigation established the fact that the murder ring, members of the Croat terrorist Ustashi organization, had been supplied with money, weapons and false passports by Nazi authorities in Munich, by Mussolini, and by Horthy's Hungary.

The leader of the murder gang, Ante Pavelic, who had lived in Italy since 1929, was first arrested and then set free by Mussolini. Pavelic was sentenced to death, in absentia, by a French court. [2] It will be shown later, through documents, that Ante Pavelic and the Ustashi were from the beginning in close contact with some representatives of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy as well as with a section of the lower clergy in Croatia. Evidence will be produced that shows how the Ustashi and one part of the Catholic clergy conspired in the overthrow of the Yugoslav government by secret collaboration with the Nazis. It will be demonstrated, furthermore, how both the Ustashi and a section of the Roman Hierarchy became partners in Axis conquests and established their own Independent State of Croatia, a ruthless terroristic puppet regime whose political and administrative apparatus was participated in by the Ustashi and parts of the Roman Hierarchy.

When Hitler attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941,[3] the Ustashi, including many Catholic priests who were among its members, directed active fighting in the rear of the regular Yugoslav army. This well-organized Fifth Column helped the German High Command in the conquest of Yugoslavia. After the defeat of the Yugoslav Army this combine, the Ustashi and fascist elements of the clergy, launched one of the most horrible massacres in recorded history. Of the two million Serbs who for centuries had lived peacefully among the Croats, hundreds of thousands were driven from their villages and towns and their property stolen. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs were tortured and slaughtered in and out of concentration camps, and the rest were "converted" by force to the Roman faith. Torture and death were also the lot of Croatians who refused to support the quisling cause, and of the Jews.

The man under whose spiritual blessing and active support these monstrous crimes were committed was Aloysius Stepinac, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Zagreb.

NEXT:    The Preparation of the Plot

THE CASE OF ARCHBISHOP STEPINAC

Croatian Holocaust

Papacy Uncovered