The Vatican's Holocaust The sensational account of the most horrifying religious massacre of the 20th century Chapter 1 NEW NATIONS FROM OLD ONES By Avro Manhattan

Chapter 1 



NEW NATIONS FROM OLD ONES 

When in 1917, during the First World War, the Papal Nuncio in Munich, E. 
Pacelli, secretly negotiated with the Central Powers to accomplish the Pope's 
Peace without Victory, in order to save both Germany and Austria-Hungary 
from defeat, he had already made his first attempt to strangle a nation as yet 
unborn; Yugoslavia. If the Vatican's attempt was directed at preserving its most 
useful Hapsburg lay partner, it simultaneously had another no less important 
goal: to prevent a motley of nationalities from springing out of the Empire's 
ruins as sovereign States in their own right. In such States, Poland excepted, 
Catholicism would have sunk to the level of a minority. Worse, it would have 
been dominated by heretical churches and their political Allies: i.e. by the 
Protestant and Liberal in Czechoslovakia, by the Orthodox in Yugoslavia. With 
its last attempt to save the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Vatican therefore 
struck a final blow against the yet unborn "Hussite" Czechs and the Catholic 
Slovaks on one side, and the Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats and Slovenes 
on the other, the fulfillment of their dreams lying as it did in the disintegration 
of the Austro-Hungarian colossus. 

The Emperor Charles was advised to transform the Empire into a Federation. 
The idea, which originated at the Vatican, was repellent to both, as it meant, 
besides the loosening of Imperial control, the loosening of Catholic control 
over the various races of the tottering Empire. But in the circumstances the 
alternative was total collapse. In October Charles announced the transformation 
of the Hapsburg Monarchy into a Federal State. The offer — which, 
significantly, was made only at the last moment — although accompanied by 
secret papal moves, left the Allies determined to end for good the rule of the 
double-headed Austrian eagle. President Wilson's reply to Charles, and thus to 
the Pope, was firmly hostile. The USA, said Wilson, admitted "the justice of 
the national aspirations of the Southern Slavs." It was for these people, he 
added, to decide what they would accept. 

As far as the USA was concerned, he concluded, it had already recognized 
Czechoslovakia as a belligerent independent State. The American reply had 
sealed the fate of Austria-Hungary. On October 28, 1918, the Czechoslovaks 
declared their independence. On the 29th the Yugoslavs proclaimed theirs. On 
December 1 the Yugoslav Council invited the Regent, Alexander, in Belgrade, 



to proclaim the Union. The new independent kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and 
Slovenes — Yugoslavia — had come into being. 

The birth was welcomed in certain quarters — e.g. by the Allies — and was 
unwelcome in others — e.g. the Vatican — to which the new nation, besides 
being the unnatural creature of the Allies' political blindness, was a religious 
aberration not to be tolerated. Orthodoxy, swept away in Russia, where it had 
seemed unassailable, with the birth of Yugoslavia had now become paramount 
in a country the population of which was more than one-third Catholic. Worse 
still, in addition to permitting Orthodoxy to rule Catholics, Yugoslavia was 
preventing the latter from setting up a wholly independent Catholic community. 
When to the above was added the fact that Yugoslavia, by her mere existence, 
represented the greatest obstacle to the long-range Catholic strategy, the 
Vatican's feeling, more than one of hostility, become one of implacable hatred, 
a wind which boded no good to the young nation. This hatred became the main 
inspirer of the Vatican's anti- Yugoslav strategy, the objective of which was the 
destruction of Yugoslavia. Having embarked on such a course, the Vatican 
began a vigorous campaign, the fulfillment of which to some extent depended 
on another factor: the collapse of Bolshevik Russia, the early disappearance of 
which was, at that period, taken almost for granted by everyone, particularly by 
the Allies, who had dispatched sundry armies to hasten her collapse. The 
Vatican counted, then, on a Russian collapse in order to execute its policy of a 
forced Catholic domination of the Balkan peninsula through the sword of 
Pilsudski. The creation of the Catholic Danzig-Odessa Polish Empire would 
have meant one thing: the death of Yugoslavia and other Balkan Orthodox and 
Protestant countries. When, however, Pilsudski's bloody adventure terminated 
and the Allies' efforts to destroy Bolshevik Russia relaxed, the Vatican changed 
its tactics and embarked on a new policy: destruction of Orthodoxy by 
penetration, instead of by force. Consequently, when in 1920 Pilsudski's 
Catholic Empire vanished, and the Pope set out to convert Russia, a parallel 
policy was pursued in connection with Yugoslavia. Although the keynote of 
this new anti-Orthodox strategy was penetration, its tactics were different in 
each country. Thus, whereas in Russia they were meant to penetrate in order, in 
the long run, to dominate her religious life, in Yugoslavia they consisted of 
penetrating Yugoslav political life in order, once Catholics had come to control 
it, to enhance the power of Catholicism, and thus ultimately stultify, and indeed 
paralyze, the Orthodox Church throughout Yugoslavia. 

Such a policy, vigorously promoted, mostly by ambitious, clerically-dominated 
Catholic politicians in Croatia, yielded no little success. In no time Catholic 
clericalism became a power behind the scenes, with the result that, within a few 



years, the Hierarchy began to exert undue weight in the administration, not only 
of Croat affairs, but also of those of Yugoslavia as a whole. This alarmed 
several honest Catholic Croats, notably Radich, leader of the powerful Croat 
Peasant Party, aware of the danger that such tactics were creating both for 
Yugoslavia and for Croats. Defying the Hierarchy — and thus indirectly the 
Vatican — he began to combat the Catholic Trojan-horse tactics, warning 
Croatia that, by permitting their politicians to be led by the Hierarchy in 
political matters, they were bound, sooner or later, to lead all Croats to disaster. 
Radich's counsel was followed; and for almost a decade Catholic strategy, 
weakened where it should have been at its strongest, was far less successful 
than if Radich had acted otherwise. 

But in 1928 Radich was assassinated. The assassination coincided with the 
general overhaul of Vatican European strategy towards Communism. In that 
same year the Curia finally broke off its negotiations with Soviet Russia. The 
Papal Nuncio in Germany, E. Pacelli, led the powerful Catholic Centre Party 
sharply to the extreme Right, thus allying it with the forces which were to sky- 
rocket Hitler to power. In Italy the Vatican strengthened Fascism by signing a 
pact with Mussolini (1929). Fascist Catholic movements rose everywhere. An 
era of Catholic policy had ended, and a new one had begun. The policy of 
penetration had been replaced by one of active agitation and the swift 
mobilization of all the religious and political forces of Europe against 



Strip of photographs from the Album of Terrorists, maintained by the Yugoslav Secret Police, as early as 
1933. Bottom row, first left, Ante Pavelic, the future Leader of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia. 
Prior to the latter's establishment, all the men above, as sworn Ustashi were engaged upon the promotion 
of a policy of terrorism, within and outside Yugoslavia. This they did by murdering singly or collectively, 
political enemies or innocent people alike. They placed explosives in public places, ships or trains. For 
instance, a train compartment was blown up by an Ustashi bomb at Zemum, killing the family of 
Professor Bruneti. 

Before the Second World War these men were active all over Europe. Their most spectacular success was 
the simultaneous assassination of the King of Yugoslavia and of Mr. Barthou, the French Foreign 
Minister, during a State visit to France, 9 October 1934. The double murder was the forerunner of a series 
of many others which were to contribute to the birth of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia. 

The Ustashi and Ante Pavelic were "protected" by Mussolini, and tacitly but effectively by the Vatican. 
Both supported them financially. 



Bolshevik Russia. Thus, while in the West the Vatican had launched upon a 
global hate campaign against Communism, in the Balkans, after Radich's death, 
it embarked upon a policy directed at the disintegration of Yugoslavia. 

Radich's successor, Dr. Macek, reorientated the Croatian Peasant Party into a 
rabid nationalist movement which, by becoming increasingly bold, became an 
active factor for the growing political tension inside Yugoslavia. From this 
period onward, Separatism became the keyword of Croat Nationalism, with the 
result that the latter began increasingly to play into the hands of the Catholic 
Hierarchy and thus into those of the Vatican. The Vatican's policy in the first 
decade implied Yugoslavia's existence as a united nation; in the second — i.e. 
since the emergence of a naked Separatism — it overtly aimed at Yugoslavia 
disintegration. In the promotion of the Vatican's new grand strategy, 
Yugoslavia was reckoned a major obstacle even more than in the past, in that 
now it was impeding the swift Fascistization of Europe and the eventual Fascist 
attack on Soviet Russia, with all the ensuing Balkan commotion which, it was 
hoped, would cause the tumbling of Yugoslavia itself. In connection with the 
latter, the Vatican laid down a three-fold policy: 

1. (a) The detachment of Catholic Croatia from the rule of Orthodox 
Serbia, 

2. (b) the setting up of Croatia as an independent Catholic State, and, last 
but not least, 

3. (c) the possible creation of a Catholic Kingdom in the Balkans. 

For such goals to be attained, one thing was necessary: the partial or total 
disintegration of Yugoslavia. 

To assert that Yugoslavia succumbed thanks only to Vatican machinations 
would be to falsify history. On the other hand, to minimize its role would be a 
crude historical distortion. Factors alien to religion played into its hands. These 
could be summarized as: the animosities of the Croats and the Serbs in the 
domestic field, the political ambitions of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the 
international. Croat Separatism became an increasingly important factor as the 
internal and external tension grew. Its identification with Catholicism made it 
almost a blind tool of the Catholic Hierarchy, and thus of the Vatican, which 
unhesitatingly used it to further not only its local interests, but also its vaster 
Balkan schemes of religio-political domination. 




Typical portraits of Ustashi leaders. Men like the above were the brains behind the numberless acts of 
terrorism carried out by the Ustashi in Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary, Germany, France and in other 
countries, chiefly from their headquarters in Fascist Italy. 

(Left) Mijo Bzik, known as "Miko," was chief of the Ustashi camps in Italy, and the recruiter of the 
assassins who came from Yanka-Pusta. One of his main tasks was the placing of internal machines in 
public buildings, or crowded places. 

(Centre) Eugen Kvaternik, one of Ante Pavelic's principal accomplices. He personally accompanied from 
Italy to France, the assassins, who went to murder the King of Yugoslavia. Pavelic created him Minister 
of Police when Catholic Croatia became independent. 

(Right) Zvonimir Pospishil, one of the most brutal of terrorists. He belonged to a special group of 
Catholic Ustashi charged with the assassination of eminent personalities. He was given the task of killing 
King Alexander, by blowing him up in Paris had the Marseille plot failed in 1934. 



The Croat leader, Radich, never tired of warning the Croats against following 
the Vatican in political matters; in this he echoed the voice of another great 
Catholic patriot, the leader of the Polish Nationalists, Roman Dmowski, whose 
slogan became a by- word of certain Catholic Polish Nationalists: "Never rely 
upon the Vatican in political affairs." 

Hostility to Vatican political directives by Catholic political leaders was born 
out of bitter experience: e.g. during the First World War, when Roman 
Dmowski, having gone to Rome to ask for help to establish Polish 
independence, was greeted with open disfavour, such Vatican hostility being 
inspired by political interests identified with those of Austria and other great 
European Powers who had worked against Polish aspirations for centuries. The 
extraordinary result of this was that the Poles never got any support from the 
Vatican, even when they rose against the Czars — an attitude which incensed 
them to such a degree that one of their great national poets, Julius Slowacki, 
coined the famous warning: "Poland, thy doom comes from Rome." Which 
subsequent events proved was more than prophetic. 

Radich adopted the same slogan, although with more tact. When, however, his 
Party was taken over by Macek, the original ideal of Ante Starcevic was swiftly 
injected with a new overdose of undiluted extremism, which made it turn 
sharply to the extreme Right. The main exponent of this new trend was one 
Ante Pavelic, an individual obsessed by the idea of an independent Croatia, 
inspired by racialism, erected upon Fascism, wholly impregnated with 
Catholicism, a formidably compact miniature totalitarianism. A movement 
sprang out of this weird conception; its backbone a ruthless core of terrorist 
bands, led by Pavelic himself, whose policy consisted of blackmail, murder, 
plots, and assassinations. The shadow of powerful protectors from across the 
sea descended swiftly upon them, thus enabling them to carry on their activities 
in defiance of national or international procedure — e.g. from Italy and 
Germany, both of whom saw in Pavelic's Croatia a useful instrument for Fascist 
and Nazi expansion in the Balkans. 

The expansionist policies of these nations often ran parallel with that of the 
Vatican, which, by skillfully manipulating them, could frequently promote its 
own interests. It did that, not by remaining only an aloof spectator of various 
Fascist and Nazi activities, but by promoting a most vigorous anti- Yugoslav 
policy of its own. 



iSpiwRffwr^HI 





.%i 




m. 


' lk\ 


. 


tfrte 


?SS$5?L 


> 


i 







The Vatican and Fascism helped each other from the beginning. Pope 
Pius XI (1922-1939) ordered the Leader of the Catholic Party to 
disband it (1926), the better to consolidate the regime of Mussolini. 
The latter negotiated the Lateran Treaty and Concordat with the 
Church (1926-1929). 

By virtue of the first, the Vatican became a sovereign state within 
Rome. While with the second, the Church was granted immense 
privileges and Catholicism was declared the only religion of Fascist 
Italy, which it wholeheartedly supported. 

Bishops took an oath of allegiance to the Fascist Dictatorship, and the 
clergy were ordered never to oppose it or incite their flock to harm it. 
Prayers were said in Churches for Mussolini and for Fascism. Priests 
became members of the Fascist Party and were even its officers. 

One of the main supporters of the Fascist-Vatican pact was Mgr. E. 
Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII), then in Germany. His brother, a 
lawyer, became one of the chief secret negotiators. He is seen in this 

photograph standing behind Cardinal Later, the Papal Nuncio to 

Germany, Mgr. E. Pacelli saw to it that his brother was made a Prince. 



This yielded a rich harvest sooner than was expected. While the Vatican's 
Fascist associates were busy engineering political or terrorist activities, 
Catholic diplomacy — as previously in Spain, Austria, Czechoslovakia, 
Belgium, and France — came to the fore with the promotion of a powerful 
Catholic fifth column. This, which had already gnawed at the internal structure 
of Yugoslav unity, consisted of all those Croats infected with national-religious 
fanaticism, of the Catholic Hierarchy of Croatia, and of an illegal Nationalist 
Army composed of bands of Catholic terrorists, called the Ustashi, the last led 
by Ante Pavelic, supported by Vladimir Macek, leader of the Croat Peasant 
Party, who in 1939 arranged for Mussolini to finance him with 20 million 



diners for the Croat Separatist Movement, and by [l] Archbishop A. Stepinac, 
leader of the Catholic Hierarchy in Croatia. 

The specific role played by the Vatican followed the familiar pattern: use of the 
Hierarchy to help political and military plotters engaged in undermining or 
overthrowing the legal Government. Unlike its practice in other countries, 
however — e.g. Petain's France or Franco's Spain — here the Catholic Church 
attempted to erect, and indeed did erect, a State in complete accord with all her 
tenets. The result was a monster standing upon the armed might of twin 
totalitarianism: the totalitarianism of a ruthless Fascist State and the 
totalitarianism of Catholicism — the most bloodthirsty hybrid yet produced by 
contemporary society. What gives to such a creature of Vatican diplomacy its 
peculiar importance is that here we have an example of the Catholic Church's 
implementing all her principles, unhampered by opposition, or by fear of world 
opinion. The uniqueness of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia lies 
precisely in this: that it provided a model, in miniature, of what the Catholic 
Church, had she the power, would like to see in the West and, indeed, 
everywhere. As such it should be carefully scrutinized. For its significance, by 
transcending its local background, is of the greatest import to all the freedom- 
loving peoples of the world. 



Footnotes 



1 See The Ciano Diaries, 1946, pp. 46,48,50-60. 



Chapter 2 



THE YEAR OF POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS