Incitement to Murder: Civilians’ Role in the Holocaust in WWII Croatia

The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia was, for a long time, seen as an event in which Nazis played the dominant role. According to this narrative, the Ustasa were nothing more than executioners of their will while fascism and anti-Semitism were foreign ideas without any real roots in Croatia.

To an extent, Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito and the leadership of socialist Yugoslavia laid the foundation for this narrative during the immediate post-war period. In their attempt to ensure stability in a multi-ethnic state ravaged by war and genocide, it was expedient to put the onus of blame on the German and Italian 'occupiers' while questions about the true extent of popular support for domestic fascist regimes were largely glossed over.

Though not intentional, a consequence of this essentially populist narrative was that it absolved the local community from responsibility for war crimes. In socialist Yugoslavia and beyond, the involvement of the public in World War II was mainly interpreted through the paradigm of resistance.

The Yugoslav Partisans were deemed the 'true' representatives of 'the people'. Any involvement of 'ordinary' men and women in the Ustasa regime's actions was seen as a deviation instead of an integral part of the history of societies involved in genocide.

While recent studies of the Holocaust and genocide in the Independent State of Croatia are increasingly sceptical about the notion of the Ustasas as mere 'puppets' subserviently implementing the plans of their Nazi 'masters', the scholarship is still pervaded by top-down interpretations.

While we know much about the Ustasa elites who were the architects of the genocide, little is known about Ustasa perpetrators in mid- and lower-ranking positions...