The Vatican's Holocaust The sensational account of the most horrifying religious massacre of the 20th century: Chapter 5 THE TRIUMPH OF TERRORISM By Avro Manhattan

Chapter 5 



THE TRIUMPH OF TERRORISM 

To complement the wholesale manhandling, torturing, and legalized killing of 
the Ustashi, another terrible instrument, perhaps the most execrable of all, 
struck with fears an already terrorized population: the "punitive expeditions" 
carried out by Pavelic's own special militia, the Ustashi, who in no time 
acquired such an infamous notoriety as to equal the most abominable human 
monsters of the past. These expeditions destroyed houses and villages, arrested, 
tortured, plundered, and often massacred their inhabitants, usually without even 
bothering about any excuse or appearance of legality. Whole districts, such as 
Bosanska Krajina, Lika, Kordun, Banija, Gorski Kotar, Srem, and regions of 
Slavonia, were completely laid waste by them. Numerous small towns, such as 
Vojnic, Slunj, Korenica, Udbina, and Vrgin-Most, were entirely destroyed, 
while wholesale massacres took place at a number of places, such as Rakov 
Potok, Maksimir (near Zagreb), the Vojnovic plateau at Bjelovar, the Osijek 
town park, and Jadovno in Lika. At the last named place victims were wired 
together in groups of twenty, taken to the edge of a 1000 feet cliff, where the 
Ustashi killed the first persons only, so that they dragged the others down alive 
with them. 

Pavelic participated personally even against Croat villages — e.g. on December 
1, 1941, when Cerje, Pasnik, and Jesenje were razed, on which occasion seven 
women, four children, and nine old men were killed and thrown into a burning 
house; or in 1945, when the village of Jakovlje was razed, after most of its 
inhabitants had been murdered. 



In April, 1941, in the village of Gudovac, 200 Serb peasants were killed by 
Ustashi, followed by larger groups in the villages of Stari Petrovac, in the 
district of Nova Gradiska, and in Glina. There, in the early days of May, 1941, 
Ustashi from Karlovac, Sisak, and Petrinja gathered together all males over 
fifteen years of age, drove them in trucks outside the town, and executed them 
all. 

Often the executions were committed in the homes of the victims, with the 
most primitive weapons. Some Ustashi specialized in disposing of their charges 
by crushing their skulls with hatchets, or even with hammers. Incredible but 
authenticated atrocities were committed wherever the Ustashi appeared. At 
Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, for instance, Italian soldiers took pictures of an Ustashi 
wearing two "necklaces." One was a string of cut-out eyes, the other of torn 
tongues of murdered Serbs. \U 

Mass deportations and mass executions, mainly in isolated small towns and 
villages, were well-planned operations. As a rule, the procedure was a simple 
one. Ustashi authorities summoned groups of Serbs under the pretext of 
recruitment for military service or public works. Once rounded up, they were 
surrounded by detachments of armed Ustashi, taken outside the village, and 
executed. In the mountainous regions of Upper Dalmatia, like Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, women and children were taken to remote spots and massacred. 
In Brcko, the home town of Dzafer Kulenovic, Ustashi Deputy Prime Minister, 
the prisoners were executed on bridges and then thrown into the river. 

At the beginning of May, 1941, the Ustashi besieged Glina, and, having 
gathered all Orthodox males over fifteen years of age from Karlovac, Sisak, 
and Petrinja, drove them outside the town and killed all 600 of them with guns, 
knives, and sledge-hammers. The following day all the other Serbs were also 
murdered. The center of the massacre was in the village of Bosanski Grabovac. 

On August 3, 1941, over 3,000 Serbs were Likewise massacred in Vrgin-Most. 
On July 29, 1941, Bozidar Cerovski, chief of the Ustashi police in Zagreb, 
arrived in the locality of Vojnic; having rounded up more than 3,000 Serbs 
from Krnjak, Krstinje, Siroka Reka, Slunj, Rakovica, and other villages, he led 
them to Pavkovitch, where he had them all massacred near a village mill. In the 
villages of Baska, Perna, and Podgomolje, Bosanska Krupa district, in the 
summer of 1941, 540 women and children were locked in houses, which were 
then set on fire. 

In the village of Crevarevac about 600 people were burned in their houses. In 
the district of Cazin, at Mlinici Smiljanic, more than sixty women and children 



were burned to death. Five hundred people were massacred at Bugojno. At 
Slavonska Pozega, 500 peasants, brought from Bosnia, were 



Ustashi cutting the throat of one of their Serbian Orthodox victims. 
Notice how a Ustashi is holding a vessel to collect the first spurt of 
blood and thus prevent their uniforms from being blood stained. The 
brutal crime — one of many — look place near Cajaice in 1943. 

This type of execution was not exceptional. Some Ustashi specialized 
in dispatching their Orthodox prisoners in this manner. 

Catholic priests, friars, and, indeed, even some of their pupils, followed 
their example. The case of Peter Brzica is undoubtedly one of the most 
incredible in this category. Brzica was a law student and an ardent 
member of the foremast Catholic organization called the Catholic 
Crusaders. During the day and night of 29th August 1942, Brzica cut 
the throats of 1300 prisoners in the Concentration Camp of Jasenovac. 
He was rewarded with a gold watch and proclaimed King of 
Cutthroats. Dr. Nikola Kilolic, a Croat and a Catholic, was an 
eyewitness to the deed. 



From left to right: Djuro Vranjesh, the author, and Slanko Djokie. 

Djuro Vranjesh, Orthodox Serb, was born at Selo Cetina, Velika, 
Dalmatia. His uncle, Illija A. Vranjes, one day in July 1941 was 
arrested by a detachment of Ustashi, who without even bothering to 
give any legal excuse tortured him to death, hacking him to pieces, 
while still alive. This they did with such horrifying fiendishness that 
once he was finally dead, his nephew, Djuro Vranjesh, seen above, had 
to use a blanket in which to collect the chopped members of the body. 

On the 30 January 1942 the Ustashi descended on the village of 
Bosanska Ribnica, where Stanko Djokie (above, right) lived with his 



her five children to the banks of the nearby little river of Ribaica, and 
without even asking them if they wanted to become Catholics, 
massacred the lot. Six months later, when Stanko Djokic came back, he 
found the six corpses of his family still lying there where they had been 
killed. He buried them with his own hands. 



killed. In some districts of Stem, in the summer of 1942, over 6,000 Serbs were 
killed. At Bihac, within one single day in June, 1941, 2,000 Serbs were killed; 
while during July and August of the same year over 12,000 more were 
massacred. In the Bosanska Krupa district, in the summer of 1941, a total of 
15,000 people were killed. 

Such mass murders were carried out in the most systematic fashion, and were 
often planned directly from Zagreb. At times they were semi-legalized by 
statutory orders. For instance, On October 2, 1941, Pavelic issued a "statutory 
order" that in any case of attack against the Ustashi, as a reprisal, without any 
court procedure, ten persons to be chosen by the police were to be shot. On 
October 30, 1943, in another "statutory order" he ordered reprisals by shooting, 
hanging, or sending to concentration camps hostages to be chosen by the 
police, together with their parents, children, and spouses. On June 30, 1944, he 
appointed a special Deputy for pronouncing such measures of reprisal. Under 
these orders a large number of citizens were shot, hanged, or taken to 
concentration camps without any trial. At Ruma on August 14, 1942, for 
instance, ninety hostages were shot; at Sremska Mitrovica, on August 19, 1942, 
another ninety; and at Vukovar, on August 24, 1942, 140 hostages. 

The worst atrocities, strange as it may seem, were carried out by members of 
the intelligentsia. The case of Peter Brzica is undoubtedly one of the most 
incredible in this category. Peter Brzica had attended the Franciscan College at 
Siroki Brijeg, Herzegovina, was a law student, and a member of the Catholic 
organization of the Crusaders (Krizari). In the concentration camp at Jasenovac, 
on the night of August 29, 1942, orders were issued for executions. Bets were 
made as to who could liquidate the largest number of inmates. Peter Brzica cut 
the throats of 1,360 prisoners with a specially sharp butcher's knife. Having 
been proclaimed the prize-winner of the competition, he was elected King of 
the Cut- throats. A gold watch, a silver service, and a roasted sucking pig and 
wine were his other rewards. A doctor, Dr. Nikola Kilolic, himself a Croat, was 
an eyewitness in the camp when the event took place, and subsequently 
testified to the authenticity of this astonishing deedJ21 



Mass murders were supplemented by the massacre of individuals and of small 
numbers, as part of the well-calculated policy of the Government, which had 
them carried out uninterruptedly in rural districts, with a view to terrorizing the 
populations. Cases of the utmost ferocity which occurred all over Croatia 
would be unbelievable were they not authenticated. In September, 1942, the 
Ustashi carried out a raid on the village of Dukovsko, and killed anyone on 
sight. Among other deeds they threw eight men into a pit. One of these saved 
himself by getting hold of a protruding rock. The Ustashi, noticing this, amused 
themselves by hurling heavy stones at him until he dropped to the bottom and 
died. Others — mostly people who were related, or members of the same 
family — were tied together and similarly thrown into a pit. In July, 1941, a 
youth of sixteen, Slavko Popovic, was taken by the Ustashi to a field, ordered 
to dig a grave, killed while doing so, and buried in it. On September 20, 1942, a 
group of escaping people were caught by the Ustashi. All of them — fifty-four 
men and women — were massacred, their bodies heaped up and set on fire. In 
June, 1943, the Ustashi, passing through the village of Zijimet, rounded up 
those who had not had time to escape — seventy-four old men, women, and 
children — put them into a shed, which they set on fire. All were burned alive. 
Among them were the aunt and her two children of Vojislav Zivanic, who lost 
twenty-five members of his large family, including his father and brother, 
massacred by the Ustashi during these raids. T31 

These were not isolated instances. The Ustashi more often than not massacred 
all the inhabitants of Serb villages, callously torturing and killing even children, 
and then setting the villages on fire. In the village of Susnjari, for instance, the 
Ustashi, after having killed most of the inhabitants, led away about twenty 
surviving children, whom they tied to the threshold of a big barn, which was 
then set on fire. Most of the children, of an average age of about ten, were 
burned alive. The few who survived, horribly scorched, were eventually killed. 
141 Eye-witnesses testified to similar occurrences: 

In the village of Gorevac, on September 13, 194i, children of 
about 3 years of age were impaled. In some places mothers threw 
themselves down with children in their arms, and one stake 
perforated mother and child. Some young girls had their breasts 
tied or cut, others had their hands made to pass through them. 
Men had their ears and noses sawn away, and eyes had been 
uprooted from their sockets. "[51 

On April 28, 1941, Ustashi encircled the villages of (Judovac, Tuke, Brezovac, 
Klokocevac, and Bolac, in the district of Bjelovar, 












Orthodox worshippers, when not dispatched to concentration camps, 
suffered the same fate us their clergy. Congregations, unless willing to 
change their religion, were not only persecuted, hunted down and 
arrested; but, at times, besides being massacred by the Ustashi 
bayonets or machine guns, they were killed within their own churches. 

There were instances even when they were burned alive within them. 

To terrorize the population into becoming Catholic, the Ustashi very 
often hanged lay Orthodox Leaders and their Orthodox parish priests 
during mass executions under the very eyes of the faithful. This was 
one of the most tangible methods of "persuasion" whenever the 
Orthodox proved obdurate. 

Those who escaped with their lives were sent to concentration camps, 
while about 700 that is, one quarter of the total number of Orthodox 
priests — were murdered by the Ustashi in this manner. 

Above, Orthodox priests and Serbs, hanged together for defying the 
policy of the Ustashi and of the Catholic clergy. 






The ordinary Orthodox clergy became the target of Ustashi Catholic 
ferocity. Priests were imprisoned, hunted down, or simply massacred. 

Orthodox priests, before being executed or hanged, very often were 
horribly tortured, e.g. Father Branko Dobrosavlievich, from Velinn, 
who had to read the obituary of his own son, whom the Ustashi killed 
in his presence after horribly mutilating him. 

On April 20, 1941, in the village of Svinjica, the Ustashi arrested the 
Orthodox priest, Father Babic, and after knifing him all over buried 
him, still alive, in an upright position. 



murdered 135 Orthodox priests, of whom eight- five came from one 
single Orthodox diocese. 

Hundreds of Orthodox clergy perished thus only because they were 
priests of a religion which refused to join "the true Church." 

In this photograph: two Orthodox priests hanged in public, without 
trial, by the Catholic Ustashi. 



arresting 250 Orthodox peasants, among whom was Stevan Ivankovitch and the 
Orthodox priest, Bozin. Having led them all to a field, the Ustashi ordered them 
to dig their own graves; after which their hands were tied behind their backs 
and they were pushed alive into their graves. This feat created a commotion 
even among the Nazis, who set up a Committee charged with the specific task 
of exhuming the bodies and taking photographs as evidence. The "oral process" 
was incorporated in an official document of Nazi Germany, under the title of 
Ustachenwerk bet Bjelovar. In a memorandum drafted by an officer sent to 
protect the Orthodox population of Eastern Bosnia during the terrible massacre 
of August, 1941, there was, among other things, the following: 

During our journey towards the hill of Javor, near Srebrenica and 
Ozren, all the Serbian villages which we came across were wholly 
deserted. But inside the houses very often we find whole families 
massacred. We even came across some barrels filled with blood. 
In the villages between Vlasenica and Kladanj we discovered 
children who had been impaled upon stakes, their small members 
still distorted by pain, resembling insects stuck upon pins." [6] 

In the town of Sisak the Ustashi arrested an Orthodox Serb industrialist, Milos 
Teslitch, well known for his kindness, and burned him alive. One of those most 
responsible for this crime was Catholic Ustashi Faget.JTl 

To crown all these horrors, some Ustashi did not hesitate to crucify their 
victims. To mention only two: Luke Avramovitch, former member of 
Parliament, and his son, who were both crucified and then burnt in their own 
home in Mliniste, in the district of Glamoc.[81 

Such atrocities occurred with a frequency that shocked even the Ustashi's 
ideological allies: the Italian Fascists and the German Nazis. This to such an 
extent that on more than one occasion both the Italian and German authorities 
not only deprived the Ustashi of the command of whole regions, but actually 



ousted them altogether, replacing them with Italian or German troops, to 
prevent a repetition of the terrible individual and mass murders committed by 
Pavelic's Catholic units. It will suffice for us to mention two typical cases 
which led to such a replacement. On August 2, 1941, the Ustashi authorities of 
Vrgin-Most and of Cemernica announced that all Serbs who did not wish to be 
molested had better assemble on the following day at 3 a.m. in Vrgin-Most, 



Mass executions, with the Ustashi, took sundry forms. Often they 
assembled the members of the village outside, and then shot the lot. Or 
they shut a whole congregation inside their church and then set fire to 
it. When in a hurry, however, they became experts at individual and 
mass hangings. Their expertise was a regular feature of their barefaced 
terrorization. This was particularly so during the last years of their 
regime. 

Here are a few examples. On August 7, 1944, they hanged ten persons: 
on August 26 at Jablanac, near Zapresic, thirty-six people. On 
September 30th, between the stations of Pusca, Bistra and Luka, ten 
persons. On October 4, at St. Ivan, twenty-nine persons. On October 5, 
again at Zapresic, five persons. On October 6th, Cucerje, twenty 
persons. On October 9, at Velika Gorica, thirteen persons. On the same 
at Svetaa Nedjelja, near Samobor, eighteen persons. On December 28, 
at Krusljevo Selo, fifty persons. 

Above, one of their last mass hangings, in Sarajevo, prior to the 
collapse of Ustashi Croatia in 1945. 



where Catholic priests would be waiting to convert them to Catholicism. About 
5,000 people followed this advice. Instead of Catholic priests, units of Ustashi, 
armed with machine guns, encircled the assembled crowd, who were held 
prisoners until the following day, when they were all massacred. Among them 
were thirty- seven children under ten years of age. [91 

Not long afterwards, on August 20, 1941, another unit of the Ustashi arrested 
all Serbs in the neighboring region of Lijevno, took them to the woods of 
Koprivnica, between Bugojno and Kupres, and killed them all. A few days later 
they arrested all the surviving families, whom they also massacred on the same 
spot. Before the massacre, women and even young girls were raped, after 
which most of them had their breasts cut and arms and legs broken. Some old 



men, before being executed, were blinded by way of having their eyes cut with 
knives or torn from their sockets. HOI 

Five hundred women and children were hurled into pits in the hills of Tusnica 
and Komasnica, while another eighty women and children were massacred in 
the village school of Celebic. The Italian Fascist authorities were so shocked by 
such incredible cruelty that, in addition to dispatching their troops to protect the 
surviving population and occupying the region of Lijevno and neighbouring 
places, they dispersed the Ustashi and sent a protest to Zagreb. 

Ustashi were committing no less abominable atrocities in other parts of the 
country. In the town of Prijedor, for instance, during the night of July 31- 
August 1, 1941, they massacred 1,400 men, women, and children, leaving their 
corpses to rot in the houses and in the streets. The Nazis nearby, horrified at 
such wholesale butchery, entered the town, compelling the Ustashi to leave. 
The Nazis had records of massacres of their own second to none. Yet the 
horrors committed by Pavelic's Ustashi troops proved to be of such bestiality as 
to shock even them: a most crushing evidence that the Ustashi massacres had 
surpassed anything experienced even by the Germany of Hitler. The magnitude 
of the butchery can best be gauged by the fact that within the first three months, 
from April to June, 1941, 120,000 people perished thus. Proportionately to its 
duration and the smallness of the territory, it had been the greatest massacre to 
take place anywhere in the West prior to, during, or after that greatest of 
cataclysms, the Second World War. 



Footnotes 

1. For further atrocities, see Memorandum on Crimes of Genocide Committed 
against the Serbian People by the Government of the Independent State of 
Croatia during World War 11, dated October, 1950, sent to the President of the 
5th General Assembly of the United Nations by Adam Pribicevic, President of 
the Independent Democratic Party of Yugoslavia; Dr. Vladimir Belajcic, 
former Justice of the Supreme Court of Yugoslavia; and Dr. Branko Miljus, 
former Minister of Yugoslavia. TBackl 

2. This event is described in his book, The Concentration Camp at Jasenovac, 
p. 282. See also above Memorandum. TBackl 

3. The eyewitness, Bojislav Zivanic (father, Duko; brother, Bogoljub) from 
Dukovsko, related these events under oath before a group of Serbs and Croats, 



among them Dr. Sekulich, General Mirkovic, and the author, at a meeting 
specially held on May 20, 1951 in London. TBackl 

4. Martyrdom of the Serbs, p. 145, issued by the Serbian Eastern Orthodox 
Diocese for the U.S.A. and Canada. TBackl 

5. Eyewitness: Pritova, Bihac, Bosna JBackl 

6. See Dokamenti o Protunarodnom Radu i Zlocinima Jednog, Dijela 
Katolickog Klera, Zagreb, 1946. Also above Memorandum to UNO. [Back] 

7. Assassins au Nom De Dieu, Herve Lauriere, Paris, 1951 .rBackl 

8. See Dokumenti o Protunarodnom Radu i Zlocinima Jednog Dijela 
Katolickog Klera, Zagreb, 1946. Also file of Yugoslav State Commission for 
the Investigation of War Crimes. TBackl 

9. Eyewitness: Stanko Sapitch, of Blakusa JBackl 

10. Evidence given by a survivor, Marija B o guno vitch . \B ackl 

Chapter 6 



"CHRIST AND THE USTASHI MARCH TOGETHER" 

If the first ingr