Internal Macedono-Odrinian Revolutionary Organization and Independent State of Croatia: Difference between pages

Latest revision as of 21:03, 15 November 2005

Revision as of 23:41, 10 January 2007

Line 1:

{{Mergefrom|Hanging in NDH|date=December 2006}}

#REDIRECT [[Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization]]

{{Infobox Former Country

|native_name = Nezavisna Država Hrvatska

|conventional_long_name = Independent State of Croatia

|common_name = Croatia

|

|continent = Europe

|region = Balkans

|country = Croatia

|era = World War II

|status = Client state

|status_text = Client state of the [[Axis Powers]]

|empire = Nazi Germany

|government_type = Monarchy

|

|year_start = 1941

|year_end = 1945

|

|date_start = [[April 10]], [[1941]]

|date_end = [[May]], [[1945]]

|

|event1 = Roma Contract

|date_event1 = [[May 19]], [[1941]]

|event2 = [[Italy]] Surrenders

|date_event2 = [[September 8]], [[1943]]

|event3 = Proclamation of [[Democratic Federal Yugoslavia]]

|date_event3 = [[November 29]], [[1943]]

|event4 = [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] Surrenders

|date_event4 = [[May 9]], [[1945]]

|

|event_pre = Invasion of Yugoslavia

|date_pre = [[April 6]], [[1941]]

|

|<!--- Flag navigation: Preceding and succeeding entities p1 to p5 and s1 to s5 --->

|p1 = Kingdom of Yugoslavia

|flag_p1 = Flag of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (state).svg

|s1 = Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

|flag_s1 = Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg

|

|image_flag = Flag of Croatia Ustasa.svg

|flag = Flag of Croatia

|

|image_coat = Ndh-coa.gif

|symbol = Coat of arms of Croatia

|

|image_map = Europe WWII 1942 locator map - Croatia.PNG

|

|capital = [[Zagreb]]

|latd=44|latm=48|latNS=N|longd=15|longm=58|longEW=E

|

|common_languages = [[Croatian language|Croatian]]

|religion = [[Roman Catholicism]]

|currency = [[Croatian kuna]]

|

|<!--- Titles and names of the first and last leaders an their deputies --->

|leader1 = [[Tomislav II]]¹

|year_leader1 = 1941-1943

|title_leader = King

|deputy1 = [[Ante Pavelić]]

|year_deputy1 = 1941-1945

|title_deputy = Poglavnik

|

|<!--- Legislature --->

|legislature = Hrvatski državni Sabor NDH (briefly in [[1942]])

|

|<!--- Area and population of a given year --->

|stat_year1 = 1941

|stat_area1 = <!--- area in square kílometres (w/o commas or spaces), area in square miles is calculated --->

|stat_pop1 = 6,300,000

|footnotes = 1. Tomislav II was a member of the [[House of Savoy]] residing in Italy, who did not visit his kingdom even once during its existence. It was a monarchy de jure, but de facto a [[Fascist]] [[dictatorship]].

}}

The '''Independent State of Croatia''' (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) was an [[Axis powers of World War II|Axis]] ally state in [[Croatia]] and its environs during [[World War II]]. It was established in April [[1941]], after the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]] was split up by [[Nazi Germany]] and fascist [[Italy]]. Geographically it encompassed most of modern-day Croatia as well as [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] and parts of [[Slovenia]] and [[Serbia]].

The NDH was ruled by [[Ante Pavelić]] and his [[Ustaša]] coming from the extremist wing of [[Croatian Party of Rights]] (HSP), which was founded by [[Ante Starčević]] in 1861. The NDH had a program, formulated by [[Mile Budak]], to purge Croatia of Serbs, by killing one third, expelling the other third and assimilating the remaining third. The first part of this programme was begun during WWII by a planned genocide in [[Jasenovac]] and other places all over NDH.

Independent State of Croatia was allied with Italy and Germany. The guerilla group called the [[Partisans (Yugoslavia)|Partisans]], led by [[Josip Broz Tito]] and other members of the [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia]], as well as rival guerilla group called [[Chetniks]], opposed the Ustaše. The Partisans, Chetniks and the Ustaše effectively fought a 3 sided civil war in the NDH. Communist Tito took control of increasingly large patches of NDH territory by [[1943]], and in May [[1945]] Yugoslav army finally defeated the Axis forces.

==Geography==

Upon its formation Independent State of Croatia encompassed most of present-day Croatia. Parts of Croatia that were not in NDH upon it's formation were those that [[Italy]] gained by [[Treaty of Saint-Germain]] like [[Istria]], [[Zadar]] and some Dalmatian islands like [[Krk]] and [[Lastovo]]. [[Rijeka]] was incorporated into Italy after [[Treaty of Rapallo, 1920|Treaty of Rapallo]], so it also was not in Independent State of Croatia. Also, [[Međimurje]] and southern [[Baranja]] were annexed by [[Hungary]].

The NDH also encompassed the whole of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] as well as some 20 sq. km of [[Slovenia]] (villages Slovenska vas near Bregana, Nova vas near Mokrice, Jesenice in Dolenjsko, Obrežje and Čedem), and the whole of [[Syrmia]] (part of which was previously in [[Danube Banovina]]).

The situation changed significantly after the signing of the [[Roma contract]] on [[19 May]] [[1941]]. NDH ceded to Italy almost the whole of Dalmatia: the [[Zadar]] area, the [[Šibenik]] area and the [[Split]] area, a number of islands including [[Rab]], [[Krk]], [[Vis (island)|Vis]], [[Lastovo]], [[Korčula]], [[Mljet]] and many smaller ones, such as Boka Kotorska and parts of [[Hrvatsko primorje]] and [[Gorski kotar]]. NDH regained ''de jure'' control of this areas after the capitulation of Italy on [[8 September]] [[1943]], but by then most of it was controlled by Croatian [[Partisans (Yugoslavia)|partisans]].

[[Image:Map of ndh.jpg|right|300px|thumb|A map of NDH]]

==History==

===Establishment of NDH===

Following the attack of the [[Axis powers]] on the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]] in [[1941]], and the quick defeat of the Yugoslav army (''Jugoslovenska vojska''), the whole country was occupied by Axis forces. [[Hitler]] and [[Mussolini]] helped install the [[Croatia]]n [[Ustaše]], who embraced an ideology of freedom for the Croatian people even before WWII started, forming the '''Independent State of Croatia (NDH - Nezavisna Država Hrvatska)'''.

The establishment of NDH was proclaimed on [[April 10]], [[1941]] by [[Slavko Kvaternik]], deputy leader of the [[Ustaše]]. The leader of the state was [[Ante Pavelić]]. On paper, it was a kingdom under king [[Tomislav II of Croatia|Tomislav II]] of the [[House of Savoy]] (The Duke of Spalato), but he was only a figurehead with no real power.

The name of the new state was an obvious attempt at capitalizing on the [[Croats|Croat people]]'s desire for independence, which had been unfulfilled since [[1102]]. [[Vladko Maček]] the head of the [[Croatian Peasant Party]], the strongest elected party in Croatia at the time, refused an offer from Germans to head the government but called on people to obey to and cooperate with the new government the same day Kvaternik made the proclamation. Ante Pavelić arrived on April 20th to become the ''poglavnik'' (Leader, correlated with ''[[führer]]''). The [[Roman Catholic Church]]'s official stance was also openly positive in this period.

According to Vladko Maček, the establishment of the state was greeted with approval by the middle classes and the [[intelligentsia]] who had become disillusioned with [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], but the peasantry met it with suspicion. The concession of an autonomous Croat province, the [[Banovina of Croatia]], had been too recent ([[1939]]) to offset the friction that had marked the last two decades under the [[militarism|militarist]] regime of the Yugoslav king.

On [[19 May]] [[1941]] Pavelić and Mussolini, in accordance with Contract signed in Rapallo at the end of WWI between Serbs Kingdom of Jugoslavia and Italy, signed Roma operating contract by which NDH had to cede to Italy in accordance with Rapallos Contract almost whole of [[Dalmatia]] and parts of [[Hrvatsko primorje]] and [[Gorski kotar]]. NDH was also forbidden to have a navy.

{{History of Croatia}}

{{History of Bosnia and Herzegovina}}

===Initial period===

The Ustaše initially did not have a capable army or administration necessary to control all of this territory: the movement had fewer than 12,000 members when the war broke out, and not nearly all of them were deployed during the invasion. Therefore the territory was controlled by the Germans and the Italians:

* the northeastern half of NDH territory was under the so-called German zone of influence, with the [[Wehrmacht]] making its presence

* the southwestern half was controlled by the Italian Fascist army. After the capitulation of [[Italy]] in [[1943]], NDH acquired northern Dalmatia ([[Split]] and [[Šibenik]])

NDH would eventually build up its own army, divided into two main groups:

* [[Ustaše]] proper constituted the elite militia (Croatian ''Ustaška vojnica'')

* [[Croatian Home Guard|Home Guard or ''Domobrani'']] was the much larger regular army

Together they mustered about 110,000 troops by the end of 1942, and about 130,000 in 1943 and were initially equipped mainly with captured Royal Yugoslav Army weapons and equipment, as well as some ex-Italian and ex-Polish light armoured vehicles. On the other hand, the NDH had no navy, owing to the terms of the Rome Agreement with Italy.

The air force was modest as well, initially consisting of captured Royal Yugoslav aircraft (7 operational fighters and 20 bombers, as well some 150 auxiliary and training aircraft), but also supplemented by further German, Italian and French fighters and bombers right up until March 1945.

===Uprising===

[[Image:Tito.jpg|right|thumb|180px|[[Josip Broz Tito]] ]]

The anti-fascist movement emerged early in 1941, in Croatia under the command of the [[Communist]] party, led by [[Josip Broz Tito]], as in other parts of [[Yugoslavia]]. The Croatian [[Partisans (Yugoslavia)|Partisans]] (''partizani'') began what would come to be known as the War of Liberation in Yugoslavia on [[June 22]], 1941, when their first armed unit was formed in Brezovica near [[Sisak]]. The Partisans first engaged in combat on [[June 27]]th in [[Srb]] in [[Lika]].

Another faction among the rebels were the [[Chetniks]] (''četnici - четници''), the [[Serbian]] royalists. The first Chetniks armed unit in Croatia was formed on [[June 28]] (on the day of [[Vidovdan]], a [[Serb Orthodox]] holiday).

With increasing atrocities by Cetniks in Croatia, the Partisans gradually received support from an increasing amount of population. At first they were isolated guerilla units formed in the areas of the atrocities — this is why Partisans were often quoted as being a movement composed mostly of Serbs. Shortly after the Communists started their uprising, the Ustaše incarcerated much of the left-wing [[inteligentsia]] in [[Zagreb]], and in an oft-quoted incident of [[July 9]]th, 1941, killed [[Božidar Adžija]], [[Otokar Keršovani]], [[Ognjen Prica]] and other Croatian communists.

Starting in 1941, Yugoslav communists under the leadership of [[Josip Broz Tito]] organized their own multi-ethnic resistance group, the [[Yugoslav partisan]]s, who fought against both Axis and Chetnik forces.

By the end of [[1942]], the news about the Ustaše atrocities in [[Jasenovac concentration camp|Jasenovac]] and elsewhere had also spread among the Croatian population. Noted writers [[Vladimir Nazor]] and [[Ivan Goran Kovačić]] escaped from the Ustaše-held territory to join the Partisans, and were followed by many more.

On November 25, 1943 the [[Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia]] with Tito at its helm held a founding conference in [[Jajce]] where [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] was reestablished as a republic within the Yugoslavian federation in its [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] borders.

The Serbian royalist guerilla the [[Chetniks]] fight for [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]] and monarchy, in turn committed atrocities against [[Croats]] in retaliation. Later in the war, both [[Ustaše]] and Četnici collaborated with the Axis powers and fought together against the [[Partisans (Yugoslavia)|Partisans]]. Military successes of partisans in the [[People's Liberation War|battles in Yugoslavia]] eventually prompted the Allies to support them.

===End of the war===

In August of [[1944]] there was an attempt by foreign [[Political minister|Minister]] in NDH [[government]] [[Mladen Lorković]] and Minister of War [[Ante Vokić]] to execute a [[coup d'etat]] against Ante Pavelić. The coup (called [[Lorković-Vokić coup]]) failed and conspirators were executed.

The NDH army held its lines as it withdrew towards Zagreb with German and Cossak troops by early 1945, and even continued fighting for a week after the German surrender on [[May 9]]th, [[1945]]. They were soon overpowered and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) effectively ceased to exist in May [[1945]], near the end of the war. The advance of [[Tito]]'s partisan forces, joined by the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Red Army]], caused mass retreat of the Ustaše towards Austria.

In May 1945, a large column composed of [[anti-communist]]s, Ustaša followers, NDH Army troops and civilians retreated away from the Partisan forces, heading northwest towards [[Italy]] and [[Austria]]. Ante Pavelić detached from the group and fled to Austria, Italy and finally [[Argentina]]. The rest of the group, consisting of over 150,000 soldiers (including Cossak troops) and civilians negotiated passage with the British forces on the Austrian side of the Austrian-Slovenian border. Unfortunately the British Army then turned over the overwhelming majority to the Partisan forces. Most did not survive the return journey, with those killed either perishing in the [[Bleiburg massacre]] or being led back into the newly formed Yugoslavia in death marches the Croats call the ''Križni Put'' (Way of the Cross).

The end of the war resulted in the establishment of the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]], with the [[Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|constitution of 1946]] officially making [[Croatia]] and [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] one of six constituent republics in the new state.

During the Tito's Yugoslavia, many Croatian nationalists were executed or imprisoned (the Lepoglava jail and [[Goli Otok]] were the most notorious). The expression of Croat nationalist ideas (and any other nationalist ideas) in [[SFRJ]] became illegal.

Today, this monument stands just south of [[Srb]] commemorating the battle which ensued.

== Population ==

The Independent State of Croatia had a population of 6,300,000. It was ethnically diverse - the relative majority was held by [[Croats]], but as Bosnian Muslims were counted as Croats, Croats held absolute majority according to Ustashe ideology, while over ''33%'' (2,100,000) of the populace were [[Serbs]] (of whom most were [[Orthodox Christian]]); around ''50%'' of the population were [[Catholic]]s (Germans and Hungarians, aside from Croats). 750,000 inhabitants of the independent state of Croatia were [[Muslims]]. There was a significant minority of 30,000 Jews living mostly in [[Sarajevo]], [[Zagreb]] and [[Osijek]]. Authorities soon disbanded the Serbian Orthodox Church on their territory and established a short-lived [[autocephalus]] [[Croatian Orthodox Church]] whose Patriarch was Germogen, an exiled Russian.

==Displacement of people==

A large number of people were displaced internally due to fighting as well as from external sources. The NDH also had to accept more than 200,000 [[Slovenia|Slovenian]] refugees which were forcefully evicted from their homes as part of the German plan of annexing parts of the Slovenian territories. As part of this deal the Ustaše were to deport 200,000 [[Serbs]] from Croatia military, however only 182,000 were deported due to the German high commander Bader stopping this mass transport of people because of the Chetniks and partisan uprising in [[Serbia]]. Because of this 25,000 Slovenian refugees ended in Serbia.

==Political and civilian life==

The previously important civic factors, the Peasant Party (HSS) and the Catholic Church, were reasonably uninvolved in the creation and maintenance of the Independent State of Croatia. All who opposed and/or threatened the Ustaše were eventually outlawed.

The Ustaše government tried to convene the [[Croatian Parliament]] (as ''Hrvatski državni Sabor NDH'') in [[1942]], with a manually selected list of deputies, but after three short sessions, this mock parliament ceased operation by the end of the same year.

The [[Croatian Peasant Party|HSS]] was banned on [[June 11]], 1941 in an attempt of the Ustaše to take their place as the primary representative of the Croatian peasantry. [[Vladko Maček]] was sent to [[Jasenovac concentration camp]], but later released to serve a [[house arrest]] sentence due to his popularity among the people. Maček was later again called upon by the foreigners to take a stand and counteract the Pavelić government, but refused.

The Catholic Church participated in religious conversions at first, but eventually the main branches of the Church stopped doing so, as it became obvious that these conversions were merely a lesser form of punishment for the ''undesirable'' population. Nevertheless, a number of priests joined the Ustaše ranks (see: [[Involvement of Croatian Catholic clergy with the Ustaša regime]]).

==See also==

*[[Ustaše]]

*[[Balkans Campaign]]

*[[Fascist Italy]]

*[[Hanging in NDH]]

*[[History of Yugoslavia]]

*[[List of leaders of Independent State of Croatia]]

*[[Nedic’s Serbia]]

*[[People's Liberation War]]

*[[Quisling]]

*[[Sutjeska offensive]]

==References==

* Hermann Neubacher: Sonderauftrag Suedost 1940-1945, Bericht eines fliegendes Diplomaten, 2. durchgesehene Auflage, Goettingen 1956

* Ladislaus Hory and Martin Broszat: Der Kroatische Ustascha-Staat, 1941-1945 Stuttgart, 1964

* Encyclopedia Britannica, 1943 - Book of the year, page 215, Entry: Croatia

* Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, Europe, edition 1995, page 91, entry: Croatia

* Encyclopaedia Britannica, Edition 1991, Macropedia, Vol. 29, page 1111.

* Helen Fein: Accounting for Genocide - Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust, The Free Press, New York, Edition 1979, pages 102, 103.

* Alfio Russo: Revoluzione in Jugoslavia, Roma 1944.

* Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Vol. 2, Independent State of Croatia entry.

==External links==

*[http://www.vojska.net/ww2/ndh Independent State of Croatia - NDH]

* [http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=34 Axis History Factbook - Croatia]

*[http://www.secondstory.com/collection.php?id=43 U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust era in Croatia (1941-1945)]

*[http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/axis_allies/croatian_awards.htm Independent State of Croatia's Military Decorations]

*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1673249.stm BBC News: Croatian holocaust still stirs controversy]

*[http://www.pavelicpapers.com/documents/pavelic/index.html Biography of Pavelić]

*[http://www.pavelicpapers.com/documents/pavelic/ap0011.html Another Biography of Pavelic]

*[http://www.pavelicpapers.com/features/tbfp.html Two Bullets for Pavelić]

*[http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/StaticPages/414.html Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović]

*[http://www.diacritica.com/degenerate/4/pavelic13.html Pavelic's escape to Argentina]

*[http://www.ezgeta.com/jama.html Ivan Goran Kovačić The Pit]

*[http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/232.html#Top Jasenovac - a prisoner execution]

*[http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/224.html#Top Independent State of Croatia proclamation]

*[http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/361.html#Top genocide committed by Ustashi]

*[http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/228.html#Top unindentified Croatian Ustasha]

*[[Avro Manhattan]]: [http://www.reformation.org/holocaus.html "The Vatican's Holocaust"], a book about the [[Ustase|Ustaše]] and the NDH

[[Category:Independent State of Croatia| ]]

[[Category:Former countries in the Balkans|Croatia, Independent State of]]

[[Category:Short-lived states of World War II|Croatia, Independent State of]]

[[Category:1941 establishments]]

[[bs:Nezavisna Država Hrvatska]]

[[bg:Независима хърватска държава]]

[[da:Den Uafhængige Stat Kroatien]]

[[de:Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien]]

[[es:Estado Independiente de Croacia]]

[[fr:État indépendant de Croatie]]

[[hr:Nezavisna Država Hrvatska]]

[[it:Stato Indipendente di Croazia]]

[[nl:Onafhankelijke Staat Kroatië]]

[[ja:クロアチア独立国]]

[[no:Den uavhengige staten Kroatia]]

[[pl:Niezależne Państwo Chorwackie]]

[[sl:Neodvisna država Hrvaška]]

[[sr:Независна Држава Хрватска]]

[[fi:Itsenäinen Kroatian valtio]]