Controversies surrounding the Catholic Church in Wartime Croatia, 1941–45

1. See John Cornwell, Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (New York: Viking, 1999) and Daniel Goldhagen, A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). Over the last decade, the debate over Pius XII’s conduct during the Holocaust has intensified. In addition to the works of Cornwell and Goldhagen, critical works have appeared by J. Michael Phayer, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust: 1930–1965 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000); Garry Wills, Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit (New York: Doubleday, 2001); James Carroll, Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001); Susan Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001); and David I. Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti‐Semitism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001).

2. The western scholarly literature on the Ustaša movement and the NDH is not extensive. See Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), pp.233–579; M. Broszat and L. Hory, Die kroatische Ustascha‐Staat, 1941–1945 (Stuttgart: Deutsche V.A., 1964); Dimitrije Djordjević, ‘Fascism in Yugoslavia: 1918–1941’, and Ivan Avakumović, ‘Yugoslavia’s Fascist Movements’, in P.F. Sugar (ed.), Native Fascism in the Successor States, 1918–1945 (Santa Barbara: University of California Press, 1971); Yeshayahu Jelinek, ‘Nationalities and Minorities in the Independent State of Croatia’, Nationalities Papers, Vol.8, No.2 (1984), pp.195–210; Aleksa Djilas, The Contested Country: Yugoslav Unity and Communist Revolution, 1919–1953 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp.103–27; and, Holm Sundhaussen, ‘Der Ustascha‐Staat: Anatomie eines Herrschaftssystem’, Österreichische Osthefte, Vol.37, No.2 (1995), pp.497–533. Also useful is Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, Ein General im Zwielicht: Die Erinnerungen Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, comp. Peter Broucek, vol. 3 (Vienna: Boehlau, 1998). The literature produced in former Yugoslavia is abundant, although of varying quality. The following works stand out: Bogdan Krizman, Ante Pavelić i Ustaše (Zagreb: Globus, 1978), Pavelić između Hitlera i Mussolinija (Zagreb: Globus, 1980), and Ustaše i Treći Reich, 2 vols. (Zagreb: Globus, 1982); and Fikreta Jelić‐Butić, Ustaše i Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 1977).

3. Cited in Patrick Moore, ‘Former Yugoslavia and Pope John Paul II’, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Balkan Report, Vol. 9, No. 11, 9 April 2005.

4. On the beatification of Stepinac, see ‘Drugi Papin pohod Hrvatskoj 2–4. listopada 1998’, at http://www.papa.hr/papa_u_hrvatskoj_drugi_posjet.html (accessed 12 August 2006).

5. For the standard Yugoslav works on the role of the Catholic Church in wartime Croatia, see Joža Horvat and Zdenko Štambuk (eds.), Dokumenti o protunarodnom radu i zločinima jednog dijela katoličkog klera (Zagreb, 1946); Viktor Novak, Magnum crimen: Pola vijeka klerikalizma u Hrvatskoj (Zagreb: NZ Matica Hrvatska, 1948); Branko Petranović, ‘Aktivnost rimokatoličkog klera protiv sredjivanja prilika u Jugoslaviji (March 1945–September 1946)’, Istorija XX veka: Zbornik radova 5 (1963): pp.263–313; the two books by Sima Simić, Tudjinske kombinacije oko NDH (1958, reprint Belgrade: Kultura, 1990), and Prekrštavanje Srba za vreme Drugog svetskog rata (1958, reprint Belgrade, 1990); Dinko Davidov, ‘Đakovački biskup Antun Akšamović i Srbi’, in Zbornik o Srbima u Hrvatskoj, ed. Vasilije Krestić, vol. 2 (Belgrade: SANU, 1991), pp.309–26; Novica Vojinović, ‘Odnos Katoličke crkve prema Jugoslaviji’, in Drugi svjetski rat – 50 godina kasnije, ed. Vlado Strugar (Podgorica, 1997), pp.349–64; Dušan Lj. Kašić, ‘Srpska crkva u tzv. Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj’, in Srpska pravoslavna crkva, 1920–70, ed. Rajko L. Veselinovic et al. (Belgrade: Sinod SPC, 1971), 183–204; R.V. Petrović, Genocid sa blagoslovom Vatikana: Izjave Srba‐izbeglica (Belgrade: Nikola Tesla, 1992); Veljko Đ. Đurić, Prekrštavanje Srba u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj: Prilozi za istoriju verskog genocida (Belgrade: Alfa, 1991); Milan Čubrić, Između noža i križa (Belgrade: Književne novine, 1990); Milorad Lazić, Krstarski rat Nezavisne Države Hrvatske (Belgrade, 1991); Vladimir Dedijer, The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs During World War II (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992); and the two books by Milan Bulajić, Misija Vatikana u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj, 2 vols. (Belgrade: Politika, 1992), and Ustaški zločini genocida i sudjenje Andriji Artukoviću 1986. godine (Belgrade: Nova knjiga, 1988). Generally speaking, these views are also expressed by Hervé Laurière (pseud. of Branko Miljuš), Assassins au nom de Dieu (Lausanne: Editions l’Age d’Homme, 1951); Edmond Paris, Genocide in satellite Croatia, 1941–45: A record of racial and religious persecutions and massacres (Chicago: American Institute for Balkan Affairs, 1961); and Branko Bokun, Spy in the Vatican 1941–45 (New York, 1973).

6. The most recent defence of Stepinac and the Church is provided by Jure Krišto: ‘Katolička crkva u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj’, Časopis za suvremenu povijest, Vol.27, No. 3 (1995), pp.461–74; and, Katolička crkva u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj, 2 vols. (Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest, 1998). A recent compilation of Stepinac’s sermons and other pronouncements may be found in J. Batelja and C. Tomić, Alojzije Kardinal Stepinac, Nadbiskup zagrebački: Propovijedi, govori, poruke, 1941–46 (hereafter, Propovijedi) (Zagreb: Glas koncila, 1996). For earlier studies, see H. O’Brien, Archbishop Stepinac: The Man and His Case (Westminster: Newman Bookshop, 1947); B. Wallace, The Trial of Dr. Aloysius Stepinac, Archbishop of Zagreb (London, 1947); Richard Pattee, The Case of Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1953); Th. Dragoun, Le dossier du cardinal Stepinac (Paris: Nouvelles Editions Latines, 1958); Francis Eterovic, Aloysius Cardinal Stepinac: A Spiritual Leader (Chicago, 1970); M. Raymond, The Man for this Moment: the Life and Death of Aloysius Cardinal Stepinac (New York: Alba House, 1971); and Aleksa Benigar, Alojzije Stepinac – Hrvatski kardinal (Rome: ZIRAL, 1974).

7. Cited in http://www.catarchive.com/detailPages/640315.html (accessed 12 August 2006).

8. See Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (New York: Da Capo Press, 1964); Saul Friedlander, Pius XII and the Third Reich: A Documentation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964); and Carlo Falconi, The Silence of Pius XII (Boston: Little Brown, 1970), which originally appeared in Italian in 1964.

9. The first truly critical western account of Stepinac and the Church episcopacy in Croatia and Bosnia‐Herzegovina was provided in 1956 by Hubert Butler, in his essay, ‘The Sub‐Prefect Should Have Held His Tongue.’ It is available online at http://www.archipelago.org/vol5-1/butler.htm (accessed 12 August 2006).

10. The most comprehensive and objective work produced outside former Yugoslavia thus far about Stepinac is Stella Alexander, The Triple Myth: A Life of Alojzije Stepinac (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1987). She also authored Church and State in Yugoslavia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), which is a useful study of both the Catholic Church and Serbian Orthodox Church under Yugoslav Communist rule from 1945 to 1970, and ‘Croatia: The Catholic Church and the Clergy, 1919–45’, in Catholics, the State, and the European Radical Right, 1919–45, ed. R.J. Wolff and J.K. Hoensch (Highland Lakes, N.J.: Atlantic Research and Publications, 1987), pp.31–66. Also useful are Pedro Ramet, ‘Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslavia’, in Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics, ed. P. Ramet (Duke: Duke University Press, 1989); Chapter 4 of Sabrina Ramet, Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the War for Kosovo 3^rd ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 1999). Two balanced and judicious treatments of Stepinac and the Catholic Church may also be found in Ivo Goldstein (with Slavko Goldstein), Holokaust u Zagrebu (Zagreb: Globus, 2001), pp.559–78; and, Jozo Tomasevich, (note 2), Chapter 12, pp.511–79.

11. I have tried to outline the relationship between religion, religious identity and Croat nationalism in my article, ‘Religion and Nation in Wartime Croatia: The Ustaša Policy of Forced Religious Conversion, 1941–42’, Slavonic and East European Review, Vol.83, No.1 (January 2005), pp.71–116.

12. On Starčević, the ‘state right’ ideology and the movement he spawned, see Mirjana Gross, Povijest pravaške ideologije (Zagreb: Institut za hrvatsku povijest, 1973), recently updated as Izvorno pravaštvo (Zagreb: Golden Marketing, 2001).

13. The party’s nomenclature changed many times. It was known as the HPSS from 1904 to 1920, then as the Croat Republican Peasant Party (HRSS, 1920–25), and finally as the Croat Peasant Party (HSS, after 1925).

14. The original Party of (Croatian State) Right split in 1895 into two fractions: the Pure Party of Right (or so‐called Frankists, named after their leader, Josip Frank) and the larger group, known as the domovinaši (after their newspaper, Hrvatska domovina). In 1908 the Frankists fractured, with a splinter group forming the Starčević’s Party of Right (named after its leader, Mile Starčević). In 1910 a Frankist youth group, known as the Young Croats, briefly came to the fore.

15. Stadler’s conversion programme was not supported in all Catholic quarters, and even the Herzegovinian Franciscans did not share his views. See Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984), p.364.

16. Cited in P. Ramet, ‘From Strossmayer to Stepinac: Croatian National Ideology and Catholicism’, Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, Vol.12, No.1 (1985), p.131.

17. Cited in ibid., p.130.

18. Banac, (note 15), pp.349–54. While the Croat People’s Party pursued an autonomist political platform to 1929, the Croat Party of Right belonged from the outset to the ‘hard’ opposition and believed that it was engaged, in the words of one of its exiled followers, in a struggle against a Great Serbian policy ‘which with unbending consistency is working to destroy Croatdom.’ See Stjepan Sarkotić, Radićevo izdajstvo (Vienna, 1925), p.27. By the late 1920s, there was a consensus within the ranks of the Croat Party of Right that ‘a new movement [far more radical than the HSS] had to be created which would be the bearer of an uncompromising and revolutionary struggle [against Belgrade]’. See Eugen Dido Kvaternik, Sjećanja i zapažanja, 1929–1945: Prilozi za hrvatsku povijest, comp. by Jere Jareb (Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za pavigest, 1995), p.271.

19. On the origins and pre‐1941 development of the Ustaša movement, see Fikreta Jelić‐Butić, (note 2), pp.13–57; and Bogdan Krizman, Ante Pavelić i Ustaše (Zagreb: Globus, 1980).

20. On the Catholic youth organisations, e.g., the Orlovi [The Eagles], Domagoj (the name of a medieval Croatian ruler), and so on, see the essay by Sandra Prlenda, ‘Young, Religious and Radical: The Croat Catholic Youth Organizations 1922–1945,’ in Ideologies and National Identities: The Case of Twentieth‐Century Southeastern Europe, ed. John Lampe and Mark Mazower (New York/Budapest: Central European University Press, 2004).

21. Jelić‐Butić (note 2), p.5.

22. See Alexander, ‘Croatia: The Catholic Church and the Clergy, (note 10), pp. 31–66.

23. Jelić‐Butić, (note 2), p.43.

24. See, for example, the following articles: ‘Još jedan ustaški proglas hrv. narodu!’, Nezavisna Hrvatska Država, 22 April 1939, p.8; Mile Starčević, ‘Slava Anti Starčeviću!’ Hrvatski narod, 24 February 1939, p.1; Mile Budak, ‘11. i 13. lipnja’, Hrvatski narod, 9 June 1939, p.1; Ur., ‘Naša prva riječ!’ Hrvatski narod, 9 February 1939, p.1; and Ivan Oršanić, ‘Dr. Ante Starčević’, Hrvatski narod, 1 March 1940, p.1.

25. See, for example, ‘Ne damo Bosnu!’, Nezavisna Hrvatska Država, 3 June 1939, p.2; ‘Opomena vodstvu HSS,’ Hrvatski narod, 28 July 1939, p.1. Luka Grbić, ‘Još o Srbo‐Cincaro‐Vlasima,’ Nezavisna Hrvatska Država, 4 November 1939, p.4; and, ‘Hrvatska politika u Bosni,’ Hrvatski narod, 28 July 1939, p.6. See also, M.O., ‘Vlasi a ne Srbi’, Nezavisna Hrvatska Država, 1 June 1940, p.2. Muhamed Hadžijahić, ‘Nacionalna obilježja bosansko‐hercegovačkih Muslimana’, Hrvatski narod, 24 March 1939, p.7. See also, I.Z.H., ‘Još nešto o muslimanima istočne Bosne’, Hrvatski narod, 26 May 1939, p.1; and, d., ‘Tragedija Hrvatske krajine’, Hrvatski narod, 26 May 1939, p.5; Petar Preradović, ‘Na prošlosti budućnost se snuje’, Hrvatski narod, 9 June 1939, p.5; and M.G., ‘O Hrvatstvu’, Hrvatski narod, 7 July 1939, p.7.

26. M.S., ‘Srpski apetit’, Nezavisna Hrvatska Država, 24 December 1938, p.4.

27. See, for example: Mladen Lorković, Narod i zemlja Hrvata (Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska, 1940); Krunoslav Draganović’s Katolička crkva u Bosni i Hercegovini (Zagreb, 1934); and X., ‘Katolička crkva u Bosni i Hercegovini’, Hrvatski narod, 5 May 1939, p.5.

28. Ivo Pilar, Južnoslavensko pitanje: Prikaz cjelokupnog pitanja, trans. by Fedor Pucek (1943; reprint Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska, 1990), 112, 215. Originally published as L. von Südland, Die Südslawische Frage und der Weltkrieg (Vienna: Manz, 1918).

29. See the discussion in Robert O. Paxton, Europe in the Twentieth Century, 3^rd ed. (New York: Harcourt, 1997), pp.361–2.

30. Ivan Oršanić, ‘Posljedice Versaillesa’, Hrvatski narod, 5 May 1939, p.1.

31. Ivo Guberina, ‘Naš katolicizam i poljska tragedija’, Hrvatski narod, 10 November 1939, p.3.

32. In 1939 the Split‐based Catholic newspaper Katoličke riječi [Catholic Words] accused Hrvatski narod, which was edited by Mile Budak, and the ‘Croat nationalists’ generally of possessing racist and National Socialist views, which prompted Budak to dismiss such claims as untrue. See ‘Onima, koji ne znaju ideologiju hrv. nacionalista’, Hrvatski narod, Christmas 1939, p.1.

33. Krsto Spalatin, ‘Prvi glasovi iz Francuske’, Hrvatska revija, Vol.14, No.7 (1941), pp.382–4.

34. Ibid.

35. Cited in Slavko Goldstein, ‘Beatifikacija kardinala Alojzija Stepinca’, Ha‐kol (November 1998), p.14. Strictly speaking, this was not a ‘diary’; entries were made by Stepinac and his aides.

36. Alexander, (note 10), p.53.

37. Cited in Ramet, (note 10), pp.137–8.

38. Alexander, (note 10), p.52.

39. Cited in ibid., pp.23–4.

40. Alexander, (note 10), 36–8. On the Concordat and its demise, see ibid., pp.28–38.

41. Cited in Goldstein (note 10), pp.562–3.

42. Cited in ibid., p.41.

43. Dragutin Kamber, Slom NDH: Kako sam ga ja proživio, ed. Božica Ercegovac Jambrović (Zagreb: Hrvatski informativni centar, 1993), p.5. During the war Kamber belonged to the Ustaša movement, and in April–May 1941 participated in the Ustaša commission which ran Doboj district in Bosnia. In 1945 he emigrated, and eventually made his way first to the United States and then Canada, where he died in 1969.

44. Cited in Alexander, (note 10), pp.61–2.

45. Archbishops Stepinac of Zagreb and Šarić of Sarajevo; and Bishops Antun Akšamović of Đakovo, Josip Marija Carević of Dubrovnik, Kvirin Klement Bonefačić of Split, Alojzije Mišić of Mostar (after 1942, Petar Čule), Jeronim Mileta of Šibenik, Josip Garić of Banja Luka, Josip Srebrnić of Krk, Miho Pušić of Hvar, Viktor Burić of Senj‐Modruš, Pavao Butorac of Kotor, and Janko Šimrak, the Apostolic Administrator of the Greek Catholic Bishopric of Križevci. The bishoprics of Đakovo, Senj‐Modruš, and Križevci all fell under the Zagreb Archbishopric, while those of Mostar and Banja Luka fell under the Sarajevo Archbishopric. The five Dalmatian bishoprics of Šibenik, Split, Hvar, Kotor, and Dubrovnik fell under the Zadar (Zara) Archbishopric, which was part of Italy at the time.

46. On 13 June 1941 Mgr Ramiro Marcone, the Benedictine Abbot of Monte Cassino, who was not a member of the regular Vatican diplomatic corps, was appointed apostolic visitor to the Croatian Bishops’ Conference (not to the Croatian state, as is sometimes incorrectly claimed) in summer 1941. He arrived in Zagreb on 3 August 1941 in the company of his secretary, Don Giuseppe Masucci. He remained in Croatia until late 1945, and spent the entire time in Stepinac’s palace in Zagreb; ibid., pp.66–7.

47. This letter is reproduced in Pattee, (note 6), Doc. XXVI, pp.300–302. One month earlier, on 23 April 1941, Stepinac had written to Artuković reminding him that many Jews had turned to the Church, were ‘good Catholics of the Jewish race,’ and several had also ‘excelled as good Croatian patriots.’ See ibid., Doc. XXV, pp.299–300.

48. Cited in Goldstein, ‘Beatifikacija kardinala Alojzije Stepinca,’ pp.15–16.

49. Alexander (note 10), pp.71–2.

50. See Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la seconde guerre mondiale, vol. 4 : Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe, Juin 1940–Juin 1941 (Rome: Libreria editrice vaticana, 1967), Doc. 347, dated 15 May 1941, p.491.

51. Documents on German Foreign Policy, Volume XII (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1962), Doc. 603, pp.977–81.

52. Count Galeazzo Ciano, Diplomatic Papers, ed. by Malcolm Muggeridge (London: Odhams Press, 1948), p.472.

53. Kamber (note 43), pp.18–19.

54. Cited in Batelja & Tomić (note 6), pp.283–4.

55. Alexander (note 10), p.74.

56. Ibid., p.75.

57. Alexander, Church and State in Yugoslavia (note 10), pp.27–8.

58. On 4 November 1941, Bishop Josip Garić of Banja Luka wrote to Archbishop Stepinac about the persecution of Serbs in his region. However, Garić placed most of the blame on the local Muslims in the Ustaša ranks who committed, he claimed, numerous crimes against local Serbs. He added that many local Serbs who had converted to Catholicism had been killed by Muslims, and some were apparently even forced to convert to Islam. On 15 November 1941, the Archbishop of Sarajevo, Ivan Šarić, wrote to Stepinac on the problems relating to the conversion of Serbs. He complained mainly of the Muslims employed in the civil administration who were, upon receiving written requests for conversion by Serbs, not following up on these requests. He even complained about the propaganda of the Evangelical Church; Protestant pastors were telling Serbs that they need not convert to Catholicism, and could convert to Protestantism. See Alexander, Church and State in Yugoslavia (note 10), p.33; Carlo Falconi (note 8), p.286; and, Đoko Slijepčević, Istorija Srpske pravoslavne crkve, vol. 2: Od početka XIX veka do kraja Drugog svetskog rata (Munich, 1966), pp.675–8.

59. Alexander, Church and State in Yugoslavia (note 10), p.32.

60. Cited in Alexander (note 10), pp.80–2.

61. Cited in Goldstein, Holokaust u Zagrebu, p.570.

62. Cited in Alexander , Church and State in Yugoslavia (note 10) p.34. The letter to Pavelić is reprinted in Pattee, Stepinac, Doc. LII, pp.384–395. Stepinac’s 3 December 1941 letter to Pope Pius XII, summarising the proceedings of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, is reproduced in Actes et documents (note 50), vol. 5, Doc. 216, pp.368–9.

63. Cited in Ciano (note 52), p.472.

64. See note 12.

65. Tomasevich (note 2), pp.576–9.

66. Hrvatski Državni Arhiv (HDA), Državno ravnateljestvo za ponovu, Vjerski odsjek, Box 1: Broj 282/41 (‘Teški udarac hrvatskoj nacionalnoj politici u slučaju prelaza grčkoistočnjaka na grkokatoličku vjeru’), 11 December 1941.

67. Aleksa Djilas (note 2), p.209, n.24.

68. Cited in Jure Krišto, Sukob simbola: Politika, vjeraiI ideologije u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj (Zagreb: Globus, 2001), p.96.

69. Jure Krišto (note 6), vol.1, p.77.

70. Goldstein (note 10), p.565.

71. Cited in ibid., p.573.

72. Krišto (note 68), pp.98–104.

73. Cited in G. Masucci, Misija u Hrvatskoj (Madrid: Drinina knjižica, 1967), p.44.

74. The letter and circular are reprinted in Pattee (note 6), Documents I and IV, pp.245–6, pp.254–5.

75. Sabrina Ramet (note 10), pp.136–7.

76. Goldstein (note 10), p.565.

77. Tomasevich (note 2), p.572. In a written statement given to Yugoslav investigators on 20 September 1946, Stepinac alleged that at least 260–270 priests and about one dozen nuns had been killed by Partisans from the beginning of the war. See Batelja and Tomić (note 6), p.279.

78. Cited in Goldstein (note 10), p.570.

79. Cited in ibid., p.572. See Pattee, Stepinac, Doc. XXVIII, p.306.

80. Reprinted in Pattee, Ibid. Doc. XXXV, pp.319–22.

81. Cited in Alexander (note 10), p.91.

82. See Stevan Pavlowtich, Unconventional Perceptions of Yugoslavia, 1940–1945 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).

83. Alexander notes that on 19 June 1946, Ilija Jukić, the former Under‐Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Yugoslav government in exile (1941–43), wrote to the New York Times confirming that London had sent Rapotec to occupied Yugoslavia, and that Rapotec had met with Stepinac. He also confirmed that Stepinac had agreed to distribute funds to victims of the Ustaša regime. Alexander also cites a 14 July 1942 report by the Yugoslav ambassador to Turkey, who informed the Yugoslav government in exile, after his meeting with Rapotec: ‘According to reports from Serbs in Zagreb Stepinac is behaving well. He has interceded for Serbs on many occasions, helped them and defended them but he has not always been successful. He might well have resigned because of the Ustaša crimes but found that it would not be tactically a good thing.’ Cited in Alexander (note 10), pp.95–101.

84. Nikola Rušinović, Moja sjećanja na Hrvatsku (Zagreb: Meditor, 1996), pp.120–26.

85. Mladen Lorković, Ministar urotnik: Mladen Lorković, comp. by Nada Kisić‐Kolanović (Zagreb: Golden Marketing, 1998), p.153. Rušinović was replaced in 1942 by Prince Erwin Lobkowitz.

86. Rušinović, (note 84), pp.127–8.

87. Peter Broucek (note 2), p.293f. There is nothing in Horstenau’s memoirs to suggest that Stepinac actively collaborated with the Ustaša government.

88. Alexander (note 10), pp.98–9. This sermon followed closely on the heels of the execution of Stepinac’s brother, who happened to be a Partisan sympathiser, as well as the SS execution of a priest and a dozen peasants in a village north of Zagreb, all in October 1943. See, Broucek (note 2), pp.299–300, pp.314–15. The sermon is reprinted in Pattee (note 6), Document XVI, pp.281–7.

89. Alexander (note 10), pp.99–100.

90. In late June 1942, he remarked in a sermon that the Church opposed forcible conversion to Catholicism and would defend as best it could all converts, and blamed ‘irresponsible elements’ in the Croatian government for the killing of innocent people. In March 1943, when the Ustaša authorities issued a decree ordering all remaining Jews of Zagreb to register with the police, Stepinac protested, and in a sermon of 14 March 1943 denounced racist policies. But even at this stage there is still no indication of an attempt to assist those Jews who had not converted to Catholicism; ibid., pp.96–7.

91. Ibid., pp.108–9.

92. Archbishop Šarić and Bishop Garić of Banja Luka were the only two Croat members of the Catholic hierarchy to flee the country in 1945. The Slovene Bishop Gregorij Rožman of Ljubljana also fled in 1945. Šarić eventually found asylum in Franco’s Spain. In the mid‐1990s he was re‐buried in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. Garić died in Austria, evidently in 1946.

93. Batelja and Tomić (note 6) p.260.

94. Alexander (note 10), p.107.

95. Rušinović (note 84), pp.116–17, p.130.