Organized massive forced migration of Serbs from Croatia in 1941
Authors: Skiljan Filip 
Published: January 2019

The author brings forth a range of information on forced migration of the
Serb population from the Croatian part of the Independent State of Croatia in
1941 (NDH). Almost one third of the population were Serbs in the NDH. One of
the methods of solving ?the Serbia issue? in the NDH was migrating the Serbs
into Serbia. The other methods were forced conversions of the Serbian
population, namely physical killings. The adopted legal provisions made the
terror policy over Serbian population legitimate. A conference was held on
June 4th in the German legation in Zagreb. At the meeting it was agreed that
Slovenians from Styria were to be moved to NDH, and Serbs from the NDH to
Serbia. Deportation was to be carried out in three waves. The first wave was
to last from June 7th to July 5th and 5000 Slovenian intellectuals from Lower
Styria were to be deported directly to Serbia, except for catholic priests
who were to be deported to the NDH. Orthodox priests from the NDH were to be
deported to Serbia together with their families. In the second wave, lasting
from June 10th to August 30th, 25,000 Slovenians from Slovenia were to be
deported to the NDH and NDH was to deport just as many Serbs. In the last
wave (from September 15th to October 31st), 65,000 Slovenian peasants from
the Gorenjska region (Upper Carniola region) were to be deported to the NDH,
and NDH was to migrate just as many Serbs to Serbia, as well as 30,000 Serbs
whose citizenship was not acknowledged by the NDH. The government of the NDH
founded an office for this purpose under the name State Directorate for
Renewal. The migration of the Serbs from NDH began in June of 1941.
Volunteers from the Salonika Front were then moved from their properties in
Slavonia and Srem. Their total number was about 28,000. Then the Orthodox
priests were migrated. According to the lists made by the NDH authorities,
327 of them were migrated from the NDH. 104 priests from the Croatian part of
NDH were moved away in an organized manner. One part of them managed to
escape before they were arrested. The migration of priests was carried out
through transit camps in Caprag and Pozega. Massive deportations of the
Serbian population through transit camps in Caprag, Bjelovar and Pozega began
with the arresting of Serbs in Zagreb in the first half of July 1941, and
then continued in other districts of northern Croatia and Bosnia. The total
number of migrations in an organized manner from the Croatian part of the NDH
up to the beginning of September 1941, according to the name list drawn up in
2012, amounted to 9875 Serbs, although that number was not final since there
were greater disparities for certain districts. By the end of September 1941,
the Ustashas migrated 14,733 Serbs out of the NDH in a legal way. Croatians
from Dalmatia, Herzegovina and the Croatian Zagorje as well as displaced
Slovenians primarily originally from Styria, moved into their houses. The
authorities of NDH confiscated the property of the forced out Serbs. Other
forms of the Ustasha terror, like massive killings, caused intensive illegal
emigration of Serbs from NDH to Serbia, which, according to German data, had
already increased to around 180,000 relocated Serbs by the end of July,
although it seems this number exceeded 200,000 by the end of September.
Organized migration was ceased in October 1941 after the German authorities
in Serbia forbid further immigration of Serbs from the NDH mainly because of
the uprising in western Serbia. Part of the banished Serbs from the Pozega
concentration camp were returned home to the districts of Osijek, Garesnica,
Krizevac, Virovitica and Ludbreg. However, from the documentation of the
Commissariat for Refugees in Belgrade, it is evident that the research on the
migration of Serbs from Croatia and the whole of NDH was not finished in
1941, so the number of 200,000 of forced migrants who have left is not final.