From: simic@pollux.ccsf.caltech.edu (Petar Simic)
Subject: Re: Irony continues in our history
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 11:09:38 GMT

 	Josip Loncaric writes:

In article <1992Aug14.160640.24664@cco.caltech.edu> simic@pollux.ccsf.caltech.edu (Petar Simic) writes:
>
>       Josip Loncaric writes:
>>>
>True, Serbs were DRIVEN into resistance by Ustashe terror, but Croats 
>joined resistance OUT OF PRINCIPLE.  ...
><<
>
>       This is very naive, isn't it? Or is it a joke? 

There is nothing funny about my statement.  Nor is it naive: unlike
Serbs, Croats had joined the resistance primarily because they wanted
freedom from occupation and fascism. Serbs did not have luxury of such
a choice: Ustashe terror simply forced them into resistance.

	Josip
<<<
	I challenge this statement on the two grounds:

	* First, it was only Serbs who remained loyal (out of principle, I
 guess?) and fought within Yugoslav army the invasion of Germans. *Croatian
 contingent* of this army refused to fight, as it is recorded in the books
 dealing with this period. This was a heavy blow to defense of Yugoslavia,
 since Germans got a free passage through half of Yugoslavia and could
 concentrate all their powers on attacking Belgrade and the rest of Serbia,
 inflicting thousands Serbian causalties. Here is the relevant quote (Edmond
 Paris, "Genocide In Satellite Croatia", 1962):
 
	"...On April 6, German army attacked Yugoslavia from several directions,
 while the German air force bombed Belgrade and other Serbian cities
 mercilessly.
	Many members of the minority groups sided with the enemy. The army's
 Croatian contingent refused to fight..."


	--------------- end of the quote --------------------


	These Serbs were not driven by Ustasha terror, but resisted Germans
 out of patriotic duty (principle). On the contrary, the sample of Croatian
 population, represented by the Croatian contingent of Yugoslav army,
 "refused to fight Germans". This says lot about the "principle" staff.

	If you add to this the fact that Croatian ustasha army was very
 numerous, some units fighting on the East front, and that the increase in
 strength of partisans in Croatia was often in direct correlation with ustasa
 terror on the local Serbian population (many original German documents
 testify to this - this worried Germans a lot but they had somewhat limited
 authority in Croatia) you will realise that most of the partisans were Serbs,
 those who joined out of principle (patriotic duty, ideology, whatever), as
 well as those who joined out of rebelion against the ustasha terror.
	 
	* Second, those Croats who joined the anti-resistance movement might
 indeed have done it out of principle. Unfortunately, Croatian participation
 in the anti-fascistic movement in Yugoslavia was NEGLIGIBLE untill it started
 to become clear that Nazies might loose. I could quote many YU historians
 who were participants in the partisan movement - dr. Dedijer, dr. Bulatovic,
 etc. who write in length about this - and risk that you will discvalify them
 as "former partisan and communists", so I will quote from the book by the
 well known former partisan and the new-born anti-communist author,
 president of todays Croatia, Franjo Tudjman:
 
 	"Spreading of the partisan movement in Croatia came depending upon
 the realisation of the broad masses of people that the Independent State
 of Croatia does not mean the solution of the Croatian national question,
 because this state would share the fate of fascism and Hitler's Europian
 order...(pp.443, "Wastelands of Historical Reality", Nakladni Zavod Matice
 Hrvatske, 1989)."

	------------------------ end of citation ------------------------

	Given the weight of the evidence, do not think that further discussion
 between us about this question, on this net will be usefull, because, even
 if you have some very original ideas of how to revise part of the history
 of Croatia in the WWII, we dont have on this net forum qualified to accept
 the revisions.

	Petar.

PS. 	I will be absent for a while, and most likely I will not be able to
 	continue this discussion.
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