Independent State of Croatia

The **Independent State of Croatia** (in Croatian , shortened as the **NDH**) was a puppet state created during World War II. It was created in April 1941, when Yugoslavia was split up by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It included most of what is now Croatia as well as all of Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of Slovenia and Serbia.

## Overview
The NDH was ruled by Ante Pavelić and his Ustaše. The Ustaše were a far-right terrorist group that was created when its members left the Croatian Party of Rights. The Ustashe had a plan to remove the country of Serbs. This would be achieved through mass killings, forced expulsions, and forced assimilation. Part of this plan started during WWII by genocides in the Jasenovac concentration camp and other places all over the country.

## Establishment
Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers in 1941. The whole country was occupied by Axis forces. Hitler and Mussolini made the Ustashe the leaders of the new Croatian state.

The establishment of the state was proclaimed on April 10, 1941 by Slavko Kvaternik, deputy leader of the Ustashe. Ante Pavelić became the leader () of Croatia. Italy also made Prince Aimone, the Duke of Aosta, as the King of Croatia. The king did not hold any power however. All real power was with Ante Pavelic and his Ustashe. The Ustashe created a totalitarian state.

### Motives for establishment
The puppet state was created by Germany and Italy to ease efforts to prepare for Operation Barbarossa. Hitler wanted to create a puppet state in Croatia, because that would allow him to keep occupation forces to a minimum. The state was also forced to cede territory to Italy and was prevented from having a navy. These demonstrated the dependence of the country upon the Axis powers.

## Genocides
### Prelude
#### Racial laws
The first "Legal order for the defense of the people and the state" dated April 17, 1941 ordered the death penalty for "infringement of the honour and vital interests of the Croatian people and the survival of the Independent State of Croatia". It was soon followed by the "Legal order of races" and the "Legal order of the protection of Aryan blood and the honour of the Croatian people" dated April 30, 1941, as well as the "Order of the creation and definition of the racial-political committee" dated June 4, 1941. The enforcement of these legal acts was done not only through normal courts but also new out-of-order courts as well as mobile courts-martial with extended jurisdictions.

#### Ethnic composition within controlled territories
Most of the NDH population was not Croat, mostly because of the inclusion of Bosnia. It had significant populations of Serbs – about 19% of the population of Croatia at the time and over 30% of the population of NDH. Bosnian Muslims – the largest population group of Bosnia at the time and over 10% of the population of NDH – Germans, Hungarians and others. The Catholics – mainly Croats, Germans and Magyars – constituted just over 50% of the 6.3 million population. 

Mile Budak, politician and minister of the NDH – also a Croatian writer – immediately took the chance to declare the Muslims as *Brothers* and wanted to force them to convert to Christianity. Many Croatians agree with the idea that the majority of Bosnian Muslims are actually Croatians who were converted to Islam during the invasion of the Turks in the 15th Century.

### Beginning
#### Muslim ethnic cleansing
Many Bosnian Muslims were accepted the NDH – in many cases were forced to accept it under the penalty of converting to Christianity or being executed – and immediately became involved. The most infamous of Islamic Ustase divisions was the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar. In respect to the soldiers of Muslim faith, a mosque was built in Zagreb – Croatia's capital city – known as the "Poglavnikova dzamija" or Poglavnik's Mosque. Despite Pavelić's assurances of equality with the Croats, many Muslims quickly became dissatisfied with Croatian rule. A Muslim leader reported that not one Muslim occupied an influential post in the administration. 

Fierce fighting broke out between the Ustaše, Chetniks and Yugoslav Partisans in NDH territory. Some Ustaše militia units became convinced that the Muslims were communist sympathizers, and burned their villages and murdered many civilians. The Ustase almost immediately enacted racial laws that reflected the acceptance of the ideology of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, with an emphasis placed on Croatian national issues.

#### Genocide of Jews, Roma and Serbs
The normal jails could no longer sustain the rate of new inmates and the Ustaša government started preparing the grounds what would become the Jasenovac concentration camp by July 1941. The regime would eventually form concentration camps in eleven different locations. The Ustaše started conducting a deliberate campaign of mass murder, deportation and forced conversions to do away with the Serbs. The Jews and Roma were set for total annihilation. reports, Hitler was angry with Pavelić whose policy inflamed the rebellion in Croatia - by which Hitler lost ability to engage the Independent State of Croatia forces on the Eastern Front. 

Moreover, Hitler was forced to engage his forces in quelling the rebellion. For that reason, Hitler summoned Pavelić to his war headquarters in Vinica (Ukraine) on September 23, 1942. Consequently, Pavelić replaced his minister of the Armed Forces, Slavko Kvaternik, with the less zealous Jure Francetić. Before meeting Hitler, to appease the public, Pavelić published the *Važna obavijest Vlade* ("Important Government's Announcement") in which he threatened those spreading news,

## Connections with the Roman Catholic Church
 (1889–1945) shaking hands with Alberto Vassallo-Torregrossa (1865–1959), a high-ranking Vatican clergy in Bavaria, Nazi Germany.]] kept diplomatic relations with the Ustaše state throughout WWII.]]

Throughout the Catholic Ustaše-led NDH's existence, the Roman Catholic Church played a significant role in Ustaše's genocides. Alojzije Cardinal Stepinac, then the Archbishop of Zagreb, was seen by the survivors as an Ustaše war criminal. 

Under subordinate bishops' pressure, Stepinac told the Pope that they would ask Pavelić to stop the massacres and forced conversions, while sending Pavelić a different letter in which they asked for neither to stop.

### Participation in the Holocaust
Contrary to the common perception that the Roman Catholic Church was opposed to Nazism and the Holocaust, priests and bishops throughout the Church hierarchy were highly sympathetic to them due to classical antisemitism and their belief that Nazi Germany was the "lesser evil". British author and journalist John Cornwell pointed out that
# Pope Pius XII's allegedly anti-Nazi sermons never mentioned Jews
# Pope Pius XII was silent after the Nazi roundup of 1,200 Jews below the Vatican hill on 16 October 1943
# the reason for (1.) and (2.) was Pope Pius XII's lifelong antisemitism preventing him from developing sympathy for Jews
# Defenders of Pope Pius XII promoted lies to make him look like a hero by misclassifying his neutral correspondence with the Nazis as "protests" and overstating his interventions in Nazi deportations of Jews

## Relations with Nazi Germany
Hans Helm, the appointed head of Gestapo for the NDH, in his confidential report – under the title *Basis of the partisan danger* and sent to General Kasche of January 14, 1943 – wrote,

Appointed general Horstenau wrote in his report,

## Disestablishment
* August 1944
** A failed coup attempt by Mladen Lorković and Ante Vokić against Ante Pavelić, the leader of the NDH, resulted in the execution of the conspirators.
* Early 1945
** The NDH army, along with German and Cossack troops, withdrew towards Zagreb as the Yugoslav Partisan forces, led by Josip Broz Tito, advanced.
** The NDH government began to disintegrate, and many officials fled the country.
* May 1945
** On May 6, the Yugoslav Partisan forces entered Zagreb, and the NDH government officially ceased to exist.
** Between May 10 and 15, a large column of Ustaša supporters, NDH soldiers, and civilians retreated towards Austria and Italy.
** Ante Pavelić fled to Austria, Italy, and eventually Argentina.
** The British Army turned over many of the retreating troops and civilians to the Yugoslav Partisan forces.
** On May 25, the last remnants of the NDH army surrendered, marking the final end of the Independent State of Croatia.

## Aftermath
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established, with Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as two of its six constituent republics. Many former NDH officials and soldiers were tried and executed for war crimes and crimes against humanity between 1945 and 1949.

## Related pages
* Antiziganism
* Antisemitism
* Supersessionism

## References
* Alfio Russo: Revoluzione in Jugoslavia, Roma 1944.
* Encyclopædia Britannica, Edition 1991, Macropedia, Vol. 29, page 1111. 
* Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Vol. 2, Independent State of Croatia entry.
* Encyclopædia Britannica, 1943 - Book of the year, page 215, Entry: Croatia
* Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, Europe, edition 1995, page 91, entry: Croatia 
* Ladislaus Hory and Martin Broszat: Der Kroatische Ustascha-Staat, 1941-1945 Stuttgart, 1964
* Helen Fein: Accounting for Genocide - Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust, The Free Press, New York, Edition 1979, pages 102, 103.
* Hermann Neubacher: Sonderauftrag Suedost 1940-1945, Bericht eines fliegendes Diplomaten, 2. durchgesehene Auflage, Goettingen 1956

## Notes
## Other websites
* U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust era in Croatia (1941-1945)
* BBC News: Croatian holocaust still stirs controversy
* Biography of Pavelić 
* Another Biography of Pavelic
* Two Bullets for Pavelić
* Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović 
* Pavelic's escape to Argentina 
* Ivan Goran Kovačić The Pit
* Jasenovac - a prisoner execution
* Independent State of Croatia proclamation 
* genocide committed by Ustashi 
* unidentified Croatian Ustasha 
* Avro Manhattan: "The Vatican's Holocaust"