VIOLENCE OF USTASHAS AGAINST SERBS IN HERZEGOVINA DURING SECOND WORLD WAR

Abstract

Following the pressure of German and Italian representatives in Zagreb (German Plenipotentiary General in the Independent State of Croatia EdmumdGlaise von Horstenau warned Ante Pavelic’s military leader SlavkoKvaternik over the senselessness of the slaughter of Serbian people in the Independent State of Croatia), there came an intervention of Italian occupation troops and some political measures of the Ustasha government and so the situation in troubled Herzegovina region calmed down to certain extent, but it did not last for a long time. As soon as the situation was calmed down to some extent, the Ustasha leaders personally asked permission from Adolf Hitler to continue ethnic cleansing of the Serbs, Jews and Roma peoples on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia and they got it from him. On July 21st during the talk of Adolf Hitler and SlavkoKvaternik regarding the June uprising of the Serbian people in Herzegovina, Hitler said that there were the people who were not eligible to be included in the framework of the state since they could not be required to accept the authority which demanded the order and discipline, and that the only thing one could do with them was to destroy them. Immediately after the return of Kvaternik from the talks there followed a new strong wave of the Ustasha’s genocide which was remembered as “the Ilinden massacres” among the people in Herzegovina. In the period from 1941 to 1945 in the region of Herzegovina there were formed several German, Italian and Ustasha’s prisons. For the accommodation of prisoners there were used: the buildings of former prisons (in Mostar Celovina), the gendarmerie and military barracks (Jablanica, Avtovac, Bileca, Mostar), the warehouses for tobacco purchase (Capljina, Listica, Stolac, Domanovici), the buildings of primary and secondary schools (Bileća , Divin, Zvijerina, Trebinje, Stolac, Berkovici, Ljubinje, Nevesinje, Mostar), the Falcon centres (Korita), the monasteries and old churches (monastery Duzi, Zitomislic near Mostar, Mitropolija near Mostar), silos (Capljina, Tasovcici) and the buildings of the state institutions (Trebinje, Konjic, Nevesinje). In these prisons, some of which had the character of detentioncenters, there were collected mostly the members and sympathizers of the National Liberation Movement (NOP) and later from there they were transported to large camps Jasenovac, Kruscica, Jadovno, Rab, Mamula, Sajmiste and the camps in Germany and other states. All these camps in Herzegovina existed in the period from one month to three years and over 70,000 people passed through them.