THE USTASHE POLITICS of ETHNIC CLEANSING Relation Between The
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THE USTASHE POLITICS OF ETHNIC CLEANSING Relation between the state-organized and wild ethnic cleansing in the Independent State of Croatia during 1941 By Lovro Kralj Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Constantin Iordachi Second Reader: Professor Gabor Kadar CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2015 Copyright notice Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This thesis deals with the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing and mass violence in the Inde- pendent State of Croatia during 1941. The aim is to analyze the research gap between the state-organized and other methods of conducting ethnic cleansing, appearing simultaneous- ly, during the first months of the Ustashe being in power. Current scholarship puts an over- whelming emphasis on the state and party agencies in conducting mass murder, and dimin- ishes the role of other factors, such as grassroots, in the process. My argument is that state-organized ethnic cleansing had a limited role in the first months of the Ustashe being in power, because of institutional underdevelopment, lack of expertise, understaffing and issues regarding concentration camp systems. Simultaneously with the state-organized ethnic cleansing, a process of wild or mass violence was employed towards, primarily, Serbs. One of the prime actors in conducting this wild ethnic cleansing were the so called Wild Ustashe. These grassroots groups were created under the propagan- da and encouragement of a part of the Ustashe elite. Wild ethnic cleansing was indirectly organized by the regime, but it was not implemented according to the plan or the state hier- archy. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the complexity of agents and methods in conducting ethnic cleansing in NDH through analysis of archival documents, newspapers and testimonies. I will examine the question of why were the Jews and Roma primarily tar- geted by the state-organized genocide, while the wild one was primarily oriented towards CEU eTD Collection the Serbs throughout the first year of the Ustashe reign. On a macro level I will demonstrate the relation between the wild ethnic cleansing and the state-organized one, and further ten- sions which existed between the two. On a micro level I will discuss the relationship be- tween the Wild Ustashe, the state and the party organs which entered an open conflict that escalated in the late summer of 1941. ii Table of contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................................ 5 Methodology and source analysis ..................................................................................................... 11 Structure ............................................................................................................................................ 14 Chapter I. Twisted road to ethnic cleansing: from genesis to implementation of policies towards the Serbs, Jews and Roma (1930-1941)...................................................................... 16 The birth of the Ustashe movement .................................................................................................. 16 The Ustashe as radical, militant and organic nationalists.................................................................. 19 The Ustashe discourse of ethnic cleansing ........................................................................................ 25 Chapter II. State Organized Ethnic Cleansing in the Independent State of Croatia ................. 31 The “Jewish Question” ...................................................................................................................... 31 Economic exclusion ...................................................................................................................... 32 Social exclusion ............................................................................................................................. 34 Extermination ................................................................................................................................ 37 The “Roma Question” ....................................................................................................................... 39 The “Serbian Question” .................................................................................................................... 43 Ethnocide ....................................................................................................................................... 46 Politicide........................................................................................................................................ 47 Deportations of Serbs .................................................................................................................... 49 Assimilationist policies towards the Serbs .................................................................................... 56 Chapter III. Opening the Ustashe Pandora’s box: Policy of Wild Ethnic cleansing in NDH .. 62 The image of the Ideal Ustashe ......................................................................................................... 62 The Wild Ustashe: Terminology and Typology ................................................................................ 67 The voluntarily recruited Wild Ustashe ........................................................................................ 68 Coerced recruitment of the Wild Ustashe ..................................................................................... 75 The first appearances of the Wild Ustashe ........................................................................................ 75 CEU eTD Collection “The Vujčić affair” – the case which split the Ustashe leadership .................................................... 78 The Wild Ustashe and ethnic cleansing ............................................................................................ 81 Becoming a Burden ........................................................................................................................... 83 The Wild Ustashe rebellion against the state .................................................................................... 87 Chapter IV. Reshaping the policy of ethnic cleansing: Transition towards a completely state-organized ethnic cleansing ............................................................................................... 91 iii Quelling the Rebellion of the Wild Ustashe ...................................................................................... 91 The transition period: From Wild to State organized ethnic cleansing ............................................. 94 Establishing the camp system ........................................................................................................... 97 The aftermath (1942-1945) ............................................................................................................. 108 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 113 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 119 CEU eTD Collection iv Introduction Image of concentration camps, the most infamous occurrence of the mid-twentieth century, became the symbol of atrocities committed during the Second World War in Europe. Over- whelming emphasis has been put on Auschwitz, which had eventually become the most important symbol in interpreting the Holocaust on the European and global level of public memory. Similar trends can also be followed on the national level of Croatia. Jasenovac, the largest concentration camp in Europe where mass murder was conducted without the partic- ipation of SS, also became the dominant prism through which ethnic cleansing in the Inde- pendent State of Croatia was interpreted both on a public and scholarly level.1 However, both narratives of interpreting mass murder committed by the Nazis and Ustashe, through the motif of domination of concentration camps, are deceiving because they tend to reduce the complexity of mass murder to these entities and minimize the one happening outside the camp systems. The problem with the camp narrative of mass murder is that it blurs the fuller picture of what was happening during that time. Timothy Snyder, regarding this issue, noted that Most Soviet and Polish Jews under German occupation had already been murdered by the time Auschwitz became the major death factory. By the time gas chambers and crematoria complexes at Birkenau came on line in spring 1943, more than three quarters of the Jews who would be killed in the Holocaust were already dead. 2 CEU eTD Collection 1 Ivo Goldstein, Holokaust u Zagrebu [Holocaust in