Hitler shakes hands with Pavelic (June 9, 1941)

The Germans and Italians launched their surprise attack on Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. [5] Simultaneously the Ustashi, at many points in Croatia, formed treacherous armed bands which attacked isolated Yugoslav Army groups from the rear. The Ustashi bands had the task of helping the invading Axis enemy by disrupting lines of communication in their own country, and by sabotaging the mobilization of the Yugoslav Army. In wartime such crimes are punished by every nation with summary death.

"A young and energetic Franciscan, Dr. Radoslav Glavas, came to Siroki Brijeg and placed himself at the head of the struggle. A plan was even drawn to prevent the mobilization of the Yugoslav Army. Thus the historic day of April 10th was welcomed, and in the night between April 10th and 11th the Ustashi disarmed the local gendarmerie and captured the post office."

Hrvatski Narod, No. 251, of June 4, 1944, page 3, carried a death notice, written by priest Eugen Beluhan, of Chaplain Ivan Miletic, which in describing his Ustashi activities asserted:

"As a priest he assisted in the disruption of the Yugoslav Army during the revolution."

The Catholic weekly Nedelja,in its issue of June 22, 1941, describes in an article entitled "The Last Convulsion of Yugoslavia on the Island of Pag" the manner in which the priest on that island took part in disarming the Yugoslav Army:

"Late at night younger Croatians would follow the development of events. The Reverend Stipanov in Vlasici on Pag would also listen to the news and ride on his bicycle to inform the officer, and soldiers. Thus the new events found us prepared and enthusiastic. It was decided to disarm the officers from Serbia and to send the soldiers to their homes. About midnight Lieutenant Orsanic came to my home and asked me to take a carbine in my hands and find eight youths more for the purpose of capturing Serbian officers, gendarmes and treasury agents."

The Ustashi periodical Za Dom No. 1, April, 1941, adds:

"Another priest, joining forces with two customs guards, captured two generals and 40 officers, while a Franciscan brother, with the help of a number of youths, disarmed an entire Serbian company."

Pavelic's Hrvatski Narod of July 25, 1944, published a death notice about Priest Don Ilija Tomas which read in part:

"He accepted with joy in his heart the Ustashi ideas, and as far back as 1937 we see him as a sworn Ustashi in the din of work, exertion and struggle. "The war started, but the Croatians did not want to wage war against their old allies the Germans; they are throwing down arms and Don Ilija collects them. He works together with his neighbor from the other side of Neretva, the priest Don Juro Vrdoljak-Biscevic--and the two of them like two giants rise to the defense of their people against the Serbian plundering bands. It seems that it is not known that as early as April 8, 1941, they proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia! "Transport is interrupted, because the transport center, Capljinac, is held by two Ustashi, two Catholic priests, Don Ilija Tomas, priest in Klepci, and Don Juraj Vrdoljak-Biscevic, priest in Studenac. They disarmed whatever army units tried to escape through Capljinac. They even captured a cannon, while Croatian soldiers came voluntarily to serve as reinforcements. Thus, the two of them, cut off from the world and surrounded by the Serbian army, held on amid unceasing dangers and battles until April 20th, when the Germans came to their assistance. Shortly after that, Don Ilija was appointed Ustashi Commissioner for the entire region."

There is an endless list of such reports in the files of the War Crimes Commission. There was, for instance, Father Emanuel Rajich, priest in Gornji Vakuf, who participated in disarming the Yugoslav Army, organized Ustashi rule in Gornji Vakuf and was appointed Ustashi tabornik. In that capacity he organized the first Ustashi army unit in Gornji Vakuf. There was the Catholic priest Ante Klaric Tepeluh from the village of Tramosnica, district of Gradacac, who in April, 1941, became an Ustashi tabornik and took part in disarming the Yugoslav Army. There was Father Karlo Grbavac, priest in the district of Duvno, together with Mato Kapulica the Ustashi emigre who returned from Italy to fake an active part in disarming the Yugoslav Army. After the formation of the quisling state Father Grbavac became Ustashi confidante in that parish. The active participation of one part of the Catholic clergy in the betrayal of Yugoslavia could have been possible only on the basis of instructions from highest church authorities. On April 11, 1941, the day after the traitor Kvaternik* and the Germany Army had entered the Croatian capital, the Zagreb radio station instructed the people to welcome the German Army and "to seek answers to all questions from the Catholic parish offices, where instructions will be given about the future work." Thus from the first day of Nazi occupation the Catholic parishes were used as political propaganda agencies for the invaders and their Ustashi quislings.

Immediately after Pavelic and his circle assumed power, with the backing of the Nazi fascist conquerors, many priests were appointed to local and provincial administrative posts in the newly created Ustashi state. Others became members of the highest state institutions, as a later chapter will show. The paper of the Catholic Crusaders, Nedelja, in its issue of August 10, 1941, reported that priest Grga Peinovic, a director of the "Brotherhood of the Crusaders," was appointed president of the Ustashi Central Propaganda Office. In an article entitled "Crusaders in the Independent State of Croatia," the same paper pointed to the fact that many persons trained in the Crusader organization were now occupying high positions in the Ustashi state. The president of the Crusaders, priest Dr. Felix Niedzielski, was made Ustashi Vice-Governor of Bosnia during the first days of the Pavelic regime. Novi List, No. 34, of July 1, 1941, carried an order of the government appointing priest Didak Coric to the post of tabornik in Jaska; Ante Djuric, priest in the village of Divusa, to the post of logornik for the District of Drvar; and priest Dragan Petranovic to the post of pobocnik (adjutant) in the camp for the District of Ogulin. The same newspaper, No. 54, in 1941, reported the appointment of priest Stjepan Lukic to the post of logorni pobocnik (camp adjutant) of the Zepce camp. Cecelja Martin, priest in Recice, District of Karlovac, was appointed to the post of Ustashi tabornik for the county of Recice. Dr. Dragutin Kamber, priest in Doboj, was appointed in April, 1941, to the post of Ustashi confidante for the District of Doboj, with all political and civil power thus concentrated in his hands. These are but a few examples from hundreds of cases in which priests, from the very beginning, made common cause with the Ustashi and obtained their rewards.

The Ustashi began putting their criminal program into execution immediately upon establishment of the Independent State of Croatia. After the Yugoslav Army was disarmed the Ustashi and the Crusaders started the killing of Serbs, Jews and anti-fascist Croats, and again many Roman Catholic priests played an active role in the mass slaughter of innocent people. When the traitor Pavelic returned from Italy to Zagreb to assume leadership in the puppet state he stopped off in the town of Ogulin on April 13, 1941. There he was greeted by one of the most fanatical Ustashi disciples, the canon Ivan Mikan. In a public meeting this Ustashi priest acclaimed Pavelic and incited the people to hatred against the Serbs and the Jews. In his speech he proclaimed "There will be purges," and he threatened that "the dogs (the Serbs) will be driven across the Drina." Priest Ivan Mikan must already have had knowledge of the program Pavelic intended to execute during the coming months in the puppet state of Croatia.

From the pulpit and in their own press, sections of both higher and lower Catholic clergy propagated Nazi-fascist ideas under the cloak of religious and moral teachings. They sang the praises of Germany and Italy and simultaneously castigated the democratic Western powers. They told the faithful that Hitler was a crusader for the Lord and that Pavelic and the Ustashi had keen sent by God to the Croatian people; abundant evidence of this appears in two late chapters. A few examples may suffice at this point. Priest Dr. Felix Niedzielski, who was appointed by Archbishop Stepinac a leader of the Crusader organizations, wrote of Ante Pavelic:

"In his political farsightedness he did not seek contacts with politicians, but with great men, with the leader of Italy and with the leader of the German people ... God who dissects the destiny of nations and controls the hearts of Kings has given us Dr. Ante Pavelic and moved the leader of a friendly and allied people, Adolf Hitler, to use his victorious troops to disperse our oppressors and enable us to create the Independent State of Croatia. Glory be to God, our gratitude to Adolf Hitler and infinite love and loyalty to chief Dr. Ante Pavelic!" (Nedelja, April 27, 1941).

"Until now, God spoke through papal encyclicals, numerous sermons, cathechisms, the Christian press, through missions, through the heroic examples of the saints, and so on ... And? They closed their ears. They were deaf. Now God has decided to use other methods. He will prepare missions. European missions- ! World missions! They will be upheld not by priests but by army commanders led by Hitler. The sermons will be well heard with the help of cannons, machine guns, tanks and bombers. The language of these sermons will be international. No one will be able to complain that he did not understand it, because all people know very well what death is, and what wounds, disease, hunger, fear, slavery and poverty are."

Can there be any question that a priest would write thus in an official organ of the Catholic church without the consent, if not the approval, of his superiors? The fanatical devotion of the Ustashi and parts of the Catholic clergy to Nazism was so clear that the German Wehrmacht decided after a brief occupation, that it could safely leave Croatia. Hitler appears to have felt certain that he could put the task of supporting the German war machine and applying all measures necessary to clean the country of "unreliable" elements entirely in the hands of the Ustashi quislings. An instance of this devotion was a speech made by priest Dr. Dragutin Kamber, who was Ustashi confidante in Doboj. This collaborator expressed his love of Nazism on July 9, 1941, at a reception given German occupation forces on the `occasion of their departure from Doboj. His speech, reported in Novi List of August 16, 1941; said in part:

"We love you sincerely as friends; we respect you highly; and all of us are sorry, deeply sorry, that we must part. We love you! We love you because you carry in your hands the most powerful sword that has ever been forged in the history of mankind. You are brothers and manly knights by your behavior and by your deeds. The Paradise to which the Germans are going needs no better propagandists than the soldiers of Germany, this German army ... We respect you because you are fighting to give political and social justice to all of Europe. With the blood and the bones of precious German soldiers, the flower of Germany, you are building the foundations of a happy world for future generations."

NEXT:    Archbishop Stepinac Blesses the Criminals

THE CASE OF ARCHBISHOP STEPINAC

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