The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs During World War II

Front Cover
Vladimir Dedijer
Prometheus Books, 1992 - 444 pages
First-hand testimony of survivors and eyewitnesses is compiled in this shocking and graphic account of the crimes committed during World War II at the largest death camp in Yugoslavia. At the small Croatian town of Jasenovac, the fascist "Independent State of Croatia" (a satellite state of the Nazi Third Reich) constructed a concentration camp where more than 200,000 people, mostly Orthodox Serbs, were systematically murdered. Among the participants in this genocide were members of the Roman Catholic clergy, from the Franciscan monk who became the camp commandant to the infamous Archbishop Stepinac, the spiritual advisor to the fascist state appointed by Pope Pius XII. Vladimir Dedijer, a close associate of Tito, has collected irrefutable documentary and photographic evidence, attesting to thousands of atrocities and the complicity of the Catholic Church in these crimes. The events described in this important volume provide a historical context to the current conflict in Yugoslavia and shed light on the motivations behind the apparently senseless ethnic and religious strife which is tearing Yugoslavia apart. The massacre at Jasenovac was the terrible culmination of centuries-old animosities between Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats and a dark episode in the history of the Catholic Church, one that the Church has attempted to hush up for fifty years.

Contents

A Preliminary Note on the Historical Background
9
Foreword to the American Edition
15
Foreword to the First German Edition
23
Introduction
33
The Vaticans Attitude toward the Yugoslav Peoples
61
Initial Contacts between Pius XII and Paveliæ
75
The Participation of Roman Catholic Priests in
83
Roman Catholic Dignitaries Welcome the Destruction
92
The Various Methods of Killing in Jasenovac
231
The Franciscan Miroslav Filipovic
268
The Holy Masses of Ivica Brkljacic
284
Reports about the Intimate Conversations with the Pope
313
The Role of the Papal Legate Marcone
331
Eyewitness Testimonies about the Compulsory Conversions
348
The Interrogation of the Accused Alojzije Stepinac
375
Cloisters and Churches as Ustasha Bases
385

Decorations for Roman Catholic Priests
103
Pope Pius XIIs Special Attention to Paveliæ
112
The State of Catholicism
129
The Massascre in the Karitska Jama Gorge
155
The Massascre in the Church at Glina
165
The Massascre in the Village of Urije
172
Decrees Concerning Sending People to the Camp
225
The Efforts of the Vatican to Save the NDH
391
Archbishop Stepinac Preserves the Ustasha Booty
414
I Was Guided by the Moral Principles
419
Afterword
425
From the Encyclopaedia Judaica
433
Copyright

About the author (1992)

The late Vladimir Dedijer held many high state offices in the government of Yugoslavia, including the post of official delegate from Yugoslavia to the United Nations. He was considered a leading authority on genocide in the twentieth century and, together with Jean-Paul Sartre, chaired the Bertrand Russell International Tribune on War Crimes. Dedijer was also a highly-respected scholar of modern history, who taught in universities throughout the world, and the author of many books, among which is his widely acclaimed biography of Tito.

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