The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican
Vladimir Dedijer
Vladimir Dedijer, the Yugoslav historian and eyewitness, Tito biographer and President of the International Russell Tribunal, has documented for the first time and comprehensively one of the bloodiest and most unknown chapters of the Second World War: the bestial murder of 800.000 Orthodox Serbs in Ustasha-Croatia, the »Kingdom of God«, by henchmen of the Catholic Church between 1941 and 1943. Particularly since the beginning of the civil wars in Yugoslavia, whose roots and background are illuminated in great depth by this historical documentation, this work has increased its circulation considerably: the fourth revised German edition has been published by now.
Contents
- A Preliminary Note on the Historical Background of the Present Yugoslav Crisis
- Foreword to the American Edition
- Foreword to the Second German Edition
- Foreword to the First German Edition
- Editor's Preface
- Introduction
- I. THE BALKAN AS A BULWARK AGAINST ORTHODOXY
- The Vatican's Attitude toward the Yugoslav Peoples since the Nineteenth Century
- Initial Contacts between Pius XII and Pavelic
- The Participation of Roman Catholic Priests in the Fascist Attacks on the Yugoslav Army
- Roman Catholic Dignitaries Welcome the Destruction of Yugoslavia and the Creation of the NDH
- Decorations for Roman Catholic Priests for Meritorious Service to the Ustasha State
- Pope Pius XII's Special Attention to Pavelic and the Ustasha State
- II. MASSACRES AMONG DISSENTERS IN THE "KINGDOM OF GOD"
- The Ustasha State: The State of Catholicism
- The Participation of Vatican Clergy in the Mass Murders of Serbs
- The Massacre in the Karitska Jama Gorge
- The Massacre in the Church at Glina
- The Massacre in the Village of Urije
- Documents on Massacres under the Leadership of Priests
- III. THE DEATH CAMP JASENOVAC
- Decrees Concerning Sending People to the Camp
- The Various Methods of Killing in Jasenovac
- The Franciscan Miroslav Filipovic, One of the Commandants of Jasenovac
- The »Holy Masses« of Ivica Brkljacic
- The Mass Murder of Children
- IV. THE POPE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE MASSACRES
- Reports about the Intimate Conversations with the Pope and His Closest Collaborators
- The Role of the Papal Legate Marcone
- Eyewitness Testimonies about the Compulsory Conversions
- The Interrogation of the Accused Alojzije Stepinac, Archbishop of Zagreb
- Cloisters and Churches as Ustasha Bases
- V. THE POPE'S LOYALTY TO THE USTASHE EVEN AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE NDH
- The Efforts of the Vatican to Save the NDH
- Archbishop Stepinac Preserves the Ustasha Booty
- Andrija Artukovic: »I Was Guided by the Moral Principles of the Catholic Church.«
- Two Secret Documents on Catholic Priests' Help in the Flight
- Afterword
- Appendix
From the editor's preface
»...in Catholic Croatia, the ›Kingdom of God‹, everyone who did not belong to the Catholic faith – for the most part Orthodox Serbs – was compelled to convert to Catholicism. Those who refused – as well as many who had already converted – were murdered, usually after prolonged torture in which the order of the day was the cutting off of noses, ears, or other body parts, or poking out eyes. Children were cut out of the bodies of pregnant women and subsequently beheaded; people were chopped to pieces before the eyes of loved ones, who were even forced to catch the spurting blood in a bowl, etc., to list only a few horrors as examples. These atrocities assumed such an extent that even German Nazis, who were not exactly sensitive in such matters, protested.
If this historical fact is little known where we are, another fact completely escapes our knowledge: the decisive involvement of the Vatican in these massacres. .«
The way the Croatian side is »burying the ghosts of the past« is tailor-made to thrill the hearts of the Catholic and the Green faction: the leader of the Croation regime, Tudjman, has meanwhile had Jasenovac levelled to the ground, destroyed all documents and declared it a »bird sanctuary«.
Vladimir Dedijer
The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican
Prometheus Books, Buffalo (NY) 1992
445 p., 108 ill., 20 facsimiles
€ 36,-
ISBN: 978-0-87975-752-6
ISBN-10: 0-87975-752-3
