Chapter 7 CATHOLIC FRIARS, PRIESTS, EXECUTIONERS, BISHOPS AND MURDERERS: The Vatican's Holocaust by Avro Manhattan from reformed.org
Chapter 7
CATHOLIC FRIARS, PRIESTS, EXECUTIONERS, BISHOPS AND MURDERERS
As
Ustashi racialism had embarked upon a policy of Serbian extermination, it
followed that its twin counterpart, Catholicism, could do no less than embark
upon the extermination of its main religious foe: the Orthodox Church. State
and Church,
consequently,
to implement their mutual scheme of total racial-religious exclusiveness, set
out to pursue parallel policies, epitomized in the extermination of the racial
elements, the Serbs, by the political authorities, and in that of the religious
elements, the Orthodox, by the Catholic Hierarchy.
The Catholic
Church did not leave the execution of a religious war to the secular arm, as
she had done in similar circumstances in bygone centuries. She came down into
the fighting field, full tilt, shunning precautions and brandishing the sword
against those whom she had decided to exterminate,
Orthodox churches were converted into halls—e.g. that of Prnjavor, on July 10, 1941. Others were transformed into Catholic churches, when they were not pulled down altogether—e.g. in the provinces of Lika, Banija, and Kordun, where 172 churches were totally destroyed. Orthodox monasteries shared the same fate. At Fruska Gora fifteen Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches were given to Catholic monks of the Franciscan order, as was also done with the Church properties at Orahovica, Pakrac, Lepavina, and other places. The monastery of Vrdnik-Ravanica, wherein were buried the remains of King Lazar, who led and died in the historical battle of Kosovo against the Turks in 1389 in defense of Christianity, was also taken over, as was Sremski Karlovci, the former seat of the Orthodox Patriarchate. There the great cathedral was first plundered of all valuables, then closed, after all its physical properties had been taken over by the Catholic Bishop. Within a short period 250 Orthodox churches were pillaged or destroyed. In the diocese of Diakovo, mentioned before, twenty-eight Orthodox churches became Catholic churches.
Together with the destruction of Orthodox churches, Catholic ferocity struck at the very backbone of the Orthodox Church: i.e. at the Orthodox clergy. Orthodox priests were imprisoned, sent to concentration camps, hunted down, or simply massacred. Hundreds of them, including Orthodox Bishops, perished, only because they were priests of the religion hostile to the "true Church."
Orthodox priests, before being executed or hanged, were often horribly tortured—e.g. priest Branko Dobrosavljevich, from Veljun, who was compelled to read the obituary of his own son, whom the Ustashi first killed in his presence, this preceding his own torture and death, which became the signal for the mass execution of hundreds of Orthodox inside the Orthodox churches of Kladusa, Veljun, Slusnica, Primislje, and other places. On April 20, 1941, in the village of Svinjica, the Ustashi arrested the Orthodox priest, Babic, and after torturing him buried him in an upright position to his waist in the ground. Within a few weeks the Ustashi and Catholic priests murdered 135 Orthodox priests, of whom eighty-five came from one diocese.
The higher clergy were not spared. On the night of June 5, 1941, on orders from the Ustashi chief, Gutic, the Orthodox Bishop Platon, of Banjaluka in Western Bosnia, together with several Orthodox priests, some of whom were former members of the House of Representatives, was taken to the outskirts of the town by the Ustashi. There the old Bishop's beard was torn out, a fire lit on his naked chest, then, after prolonged torture, he and all his companions were killed with hatchets, and their bodies thrown into the Vrbanja River.
Dositej, Orthodox Bishop of Zagreb, capital of the Independent State of Croatia, where Archbishop Stepinac had his residence, lost his reason as a result of the tortures inflicted upon him before his expulsion to Belgrade. Three Orthodox Bishops, Peter Zimonjic of Sarajevo, Sava Trlajic of Plaski, and Platon of Banjaluka, were murdered. [1]
Numerous Catholic priests and monks, some of whom were not even attached to the Ustashi formations, carried out indiscriminate executions with their own hands. Many of them methodically and with precision took part in the most incredible orgies of blood. Canon Ivan Mikan, already mentioned, made daily rounds of the prison and mercilessly beat Orthodox Serbs with a bull-whip, scolding the Ustashi for being lax in their work, personally ordering that the Orthodox monastery of Gomirje be looted and its inmates sent to a concentration camp, where they were all executed. Fra Anto, a Catholic priest of Tramosnjica, organized Ustashi bands with the object of capturing as many Orthodox Serbs as he could, whom very often he tortured personally, as he did at Brcko. Simic Vjekoslav, a monk of the monastery at Knin, personally killed numerous Orthodox. Sidonije Sole, a monk of the Franciscan monastery in Nasice, deported the Orthodox population of whole villages, while the Catholic priests Guncevic and Marjanovich Dragutin, in addition to acting as police officials, ordered the arrest of hundreds of Orthodox, whom they tortured and then killed, taking an active personal part in their execution.[2] German Castimir, abbot of the monastery in Guntic personally directed the mass murder of the Orthodox Serbs of Glina, a hundred of whom were murdered inside the Orthodox church there. The names of many others have been put on record by the Serbian Eastern Orthodox diocese of the USA and Canada, by the Orthodox Church of Yugoslavia, by the Yugoslav Government, and by other official agencies.[3]
The purpose of all this terror was to destroy the enemies of Catholicism. Yet, while the Catholic Church, whenever given total power, can become a ruthless destroyer of her enemies, bursting with dreams of expansion, she can simultaneously follow a no less ruthless campaign of absorption. Absorption can be accomplished by only one means: by conversion.
|
In
the village of Mikleus, 1942, a Catholic parish priest "converting"
in bulk hundreds of peasants. Many Catholic priests were at the head of the
Ustashi. Witness priest Mate Mogus, of the parish of Udbina, in the province
of Like. "We Catholics," he told the to be forcibly converted
Serbs, "until now have worked for Catholicism with the cross and with
the book of the Mass. The day has come, however, to work with the revolver
and with the gun."
"Converting"
the Orthodox Serbs, December 21st, 1941, Friars, besides Priests,
participated in forcible conversions. They were no less ruthless than the
parish clergy, e.g. Monk Ambrozjie Novak, Guardian of the Capucine Monastery
in Varazdin, who, utter surrounding the village of Mostanica with Ustashi
contingents, told the people: "You Serbs are condemned to death, and you
can only escape that sentence by accepting Catholicism."
A
Franciscan monk converting Orthodox villagers in Mikleus, near Kutina.
The
Orthodox churches became the main targets of the Catholic storm troopers, the
Ustashi, and even of the Catholic clergy. These churches were seized,
evacuated, closed, transformed into Catholic churches, or burned down
altogether.
Catholic
Brothers, and Monks, when visiting villages to "convert" the
Orthodox population, were always escorted by the heavily armed Catholic storm
troopers, the Ustashi.
The
Franciscan Monk, Father Miroslav Filipovic. Left as a priest, wearing his
cassock. Right, in Ustashi uniform. Father Filipovic was the Commandant of
the terrible concentration camp at Jasenovac.
The
non-Catholic population in Catholic Croatia were given two basic
alternatives: conversion or death. Their churches were closed, parish
documents destroyed, ecclesiastical buildings burned down. Orthodox
worshippers very often were arrested inside their own churches, and kept
there or in local halls while awaiting their fate: i.e. forcible conversion,
concentration camps or execution. Their survival, more often than not,
depended upon the whim of the Ustashi Commandants of the Catholic Padres
accompanying them.
Once
inside the sundry concentration camps, the inmates were still liable, not
only to be tortured, but to be executed as well. The camp Commandants had
unwritten authorization to kill anyone taken there. Indeed, to quote Ljubo
Milos, Commandant of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp, there was "an
agreement" that all prisoners sentenced to three years were to be
"liquidated" at once.
Bodies
of Orthodox Serbs executed by the Ustashi contingents at Sinj on August
26,1941.
The
Ustashi not only detained, arrested and "punished" people whom they
considered hostile, they tortured and even executed them, regardless of any
legal justification.
Another
case of throat cutting, which took place in Croatia in 1943. The photograph
was found in the pocket of a dead Ustashi. One of his companions is holding
up the already severed head of a victim, for his friend to take a photo.
Mass
murders were supplemented by the massacre of individuals, mostly in rural
districts. Instances of the utmost ferocity occurred. The Ustashi very often
used the most primitive weapons, such as forks, spades, hammers and saws, to
torture their victims prior to their execution. They broke their legs, pulled
off their skin and beards, blinded them by cutting their eyes with knives and
even tearing them from their sockets, as a survivor, Marija Bogunovitch,
testified.
Indiscriminate
mass deportations and muss executions became one of the most characteristic
features of the Ustashi. Very often the life or death of the prisoners
depended upon the whims of the local Commander or even the local Catholic
priest.
The
Archbishop of Sarajevo, Dr. 1. Saric, giving the "Heil Hitler" with
a group of Ustashi civilians and Nazi officers at the airport of Butmir, in 1943.
The
Orthodox Church became one of the prime targets of Catholic Croatia, which,
very often, used the German armies of occupation, outside Croatia, to round
up obstinate Orthodox Serbs. |
The
Catholic Church has never believed in persuasion, which is used only when she
cannot enjoy absolute power. Her actions have always been based on one of the
most incontrovertible and typical Catholic dogmas: naked force. This, not only
to smite, but also to convert. In Croatia she used force to do both,
destruction and conversion having been, in all her wars of religion, two facets
of the same grand strategy.
It was thus
that, while demolishing Orthodox churches, while massacring Orthodox clergy and
bishops, she was at the same time converting their congregations to
Catholicism, using a "persuasion" behind which stood boycott,
threats, force, and even death. Catholic priests became the natural leaders of
this specialized operation, priests and monks competing to see who could
convert most Orthodox to the "only true faith."The spirit in which
the campaign was conducted can best be judged by a typical leaflet, issued in
1941, by the diocesan journal of Djakovo, which read:
The Lord Jesus Christ said that there shall be one pasture and one shepherd. Inhabitants of the Greek-Eastern faith, hear this friendly advice.... The Bishop of Djakovo has already received thousands of citizens in the Holy Catholic Church, and these citizens have received certificates of honesty from State authorities. Follow these brothers of yours, and report as soon as possible for re-Christening into the Catholic Church.
This
was not a unique example of Catholic "persuasion" backed by the
bayonet. Priests openly told Orthodox to become Catholics if they wished to
avoid persecution, concentration camps, and extermination. Franjo Pipinic,
priest of Pozega, for instance, carried out mass conversions of Serbs towards
the end of 1941, with the assistance of the Ustashi Captain Peranovic, telling
the Serbian people that acceptance of Catholicism was the only way in which
they could save themselves from death in concentration camps. In the files of
the Commission for Investigating War Crimes there are hundreds of cases of this
"persuasion," of which we quote only a few.
One of the
most fanatical missionaries for conversion was priest Ante Djuric, in the
district of Dvor. He ordered the slaughter, plunder, and burning of many
villages, and sent hundreds of Serbs to the concentration camp in Kostajnica.
He personally mutilated and killed Serbs from Bosanska Kostajnica. In his
speeches he always emphasized that the Serbs in his district "have only
three ways out: to accept the Catholic faith, to move out, or to be cleansed
with the metal broom."
Priest
Ambrozije Novak, Guardian of the Capucine monastery in Varazdin, in 1941 went
to the village of Mostanica, accompanied by Ustashi, and ordered the Serbian
people to assemble, telling them: "You Serbs are condemned to death, and
you can only escape that sentence by accepting Catholicism."
Priest Mate
Mogus, of the parish of Udbina, in the province of Lika, was even more
explicit: Until now, my brothers," he preached in his church, "we
(the Catholics) have worked for our Catholic religion with the cross and the
book of Mass; the day, however, has now come to work with the revolver and the
gun." Some, however, wanted to use guns to bring an abundant crop of
forcible conversions on a far larger scale. The words of Father Petar Pajic,
published in the organ of the Archbishop of Sarajevo, bear witness to that: [4]
Until now, God spoke through papal encyclicals...And? They closed their ears.... Now God has decided to use other methods. He will prepare missions. European missions. World missions. They will be upheld, not by priests, but by army commanders, led by Hitler. The sermons will be heard, with the help of cannons, machine guns, tanks and bombers. The language of these sermons will be international.
Such
sentiments were shared by priests holding the most influential positions—e.g.
Mgr. Dionizije Juric, one of the heads of the Ministry of Cults, and, more
important still, the confessor of none other than Ante Pavelic himself. When in
Staza, in the district of Banija, Father Juric put the matter of forcible
conversions in a nutshell: Any Serb who refused to become Catholic should be
condemned to death, he said, because "today it is no longer a sin to kill
a child of seven, should such a child be opposed to our movement of the
Ustashi."
The Ustashi
had committed and were committing massacres beyond counting. Yet the devout
Catholic Mile Budak, in an address at Karlovac on July 13, 1941, did not
hesitate to declare that "the movement of the Ustashi is based upon
religion." Catholics who had any qualms about it could reassure themselves
simply by examining the professions of many of the leaders of the Ustashi, a
great proportion of whom were monks, priests, and even bishops—e.g. Dr. Ivan
Saric, the Archbishop of Sarajevo, an Ustashi since 1934. This pillar of the
Holy Catholic Church, as soon as Catholic terror descended upon Croatia, spoke
and acted as the veritable Ustashi that he was, inciting his subordinate clergy
to act as Ustashi, and indeed, "to employ revolutionary methods to the
service of the truth, of justice and of honour"; words which he repeatedly
printed in his Katolicki Tjednik, where he never tired of declaring that
"it is unworthy of the disciples of Christ to think that the struggle
against evil (sic) could be conducted in a noble manner and with gloves
on." This in addition to writing poems to Pavelic, and inciting all Catholics
to follow Pavelic's example and the example of the Ustashi.[5]
But if open
refusal of conversion spelt death, acceptance of "the true faith,"
although very often an insurance of terrestrial life, was not always a
guarantee of safety. The slightest reluctance on the part of the Orthodox
individuals, any obvious indication that they were becoming Catholic as a means
of saving themselves, very often aroused Catholic vengeance. Apart from that, there
were times when the call to conversion became only an excuse for wholesale
massacre.
Curate Ilija
Tomas, from the village of Klepac, for instance, was responsible for the death
of hundreds of Serbs in that district. In order more easily to capture frightened
victims who were fleeing to the mountains, he promised that no harm would
befall them if they would embrace the Catholic religion. When many, believing
this, called on him, he turned them over to the Ustashi, who murdered them all.
In the village of Stikade, in Lika, Catholic priest Morber, leader of the
Ustashi, invited the Serbs to be converted to the Catholic religion. Because
those who accepted his proposal to be converted showed some reluctance, the
Ustashi surrounded and massacred them with rifles and hammers and threw their
bodies into a ditch. When the bodies were dug up later it was established that
many had been alive when buried.
Josip Orlic,
priest in Sunja, an old sworn Ustashi, compelled the Serbs in his district to
accept Catholicism by threatening them with concentration camps. A great
majority of the Serbs there changed to Catholicism, in fear for their lives.
But as many of those re-christened made it clear that they did so to save their
lives, they were carried away to the Jasenovac concentration camp in May, 1942,
where practically all of them were killed. Some priests and monks specialized
in forced mass conversions. The Ustashi priest Dionizije Juric, the Franciscan
and close friend to Pavelic whom we have already mentioned, was appointed to
head this division, which devised a plan for the systematic conversion of those
Serbs who had been spared from persecution and massacre.
The daily
mass murders taking place before them became the most powerful weapon of mass
persuasion. Many followed the "friendly advice" and were
"converted." Conversions of individual and mass character became
increasingly frequent. Most of these were duly announced in the Catholic Press.
Katolicki List, organ of the Bishopric of Zagreb, controlled by Stepinac,
in its issue No. 38 in 1941, for instance, reported that "a new parish of
over 2,300 souls" had been created in the village of Budinci, as a result
of the entire village having been re-christened to the Catholic Faith, and
added that preparations for the re-christening had been made by a Franciscan
from Nasice, Father Sidonije Solc. A similar mass conversion in the vicinity of
Osijek, carried out by Father Peter Berkovic, was described in Ustaska
Velika Zupa, No. 1372, of April 27, 1942:
His work covers the period from preparation of the members of the Eastern Orthodox Church for conversion to Catholicism until they were actually converted, and thus in the counties of Vocin, Cacinci, and Ceralije, he converted more than 6,000 persons.
An
Ustashi administrator, Ante Djuric, priest of Divusa, forced all heads of
families to assemble round their local teacher, bringing a 10 diners tax stamp,
in order to write out petitions for conversion for themselves and their
families. The alternative: forfeiture of their residences and posts. The curate
of Ogulin, Canon Ivan Mikan, charged 180 diners for each forced conversion, so
that in one Serb village along—Jasenak—he collected 80,000 diners.
A frank
admission of how these mass conversions were made was given by Nova Hrvatska,
an Ustashi paper, on February 25, 1942: "The re-Christening was carried
out in a very solemn manner by the curate of Petrinja, Michael Razum. An
Ustashi company was present at this solemn occasion."
The
re-christenings, as they were euphemistically labeled, were frequently
celebrated with, in addition to water, blood. Priest Ivan Raguz had no
inhibitions about it. He repeatedly urged the killing of all Serbs, including
children, so that "even the seed of these beasts is not left." His worthy
colleague, the curate Bozidar Brale, from Sarajevo, took part in Serbian
liquidation with gun in hand, loudly postulating the "liquidation of the
Serbs without compromise." The Spiritual Board of the Archbishop of
Sarajevo was eventually to see Brale. As a culprit before an ecclesiastical
tribunal? Far from it. As that Catholic body's President.
With the
Catholic Hierarchy as the brains of such a policy of terror, with the ruthless
armed Catholic bands at their disposal, the expected occurred. Individuals,
whole families, entire villages, and even small towns embraced Catholicism.
Their official entry into the "true Church" usually took place during
mass ceremonies performed by Ustashi priests, "watched" by armed
units of Ustashi. Refusal, or even postponement, on the part of the prospective
converts brought upon them immediate requisitioning of property, threats
against themselves, their relatives, and their very lives.
Thousands
embraced Catholicism in this manner. Following their "conversion,"
the new Catholics wound in a procession to the local Catholic Church, as a rule
escorted by units of piously armed Ustashi, chanting about the happiness of
having at last become the children of the true Church, and ending up with Te
Deums and prayers for the Pope. As if this were not sufficient, the villages
where Serbs had been re-christened had to send congratulatory telegrams to
Stepinac. For the eager Archbishop had, as befitted a good shepherd, ordered
that the news of any mass conversions performed in any parish throughout
Croatia be sent directly to him. Telegrams bearing such happy tidings were
printed in the Ustashi paper, Nova Hrvatska, as well as in Stepinac's
own official Diocesan Journal, Katolicki List. In its issue of April 9,
1942, the former printed four such telegrams, all addressed to Stepinac. In
these, the mass entries into the bosom of Mother Church were laconically and
succinctly described. One, for example, read:
2,300 persons assembled in Slatinski Drenovac, from the villages of Drenovac, Pusina, Kraskovic, Prekorecan, Miljani and Gjursic, accepted today the protection of the Roman Catholic Church and send their profound greetings to their Head.
Thirty
per cent of Orthodox Serbs in the New Croatia were converted to Catholicism
within a remarkably short period. The use of fear of losing property, or even
life, however, was still not sufficient for most members of the Catholic
Hierarchy engaged on this type of proselytization, and whenever resistance was
encountered, Catholic clergymen ordered and, in fact, themselves often carried
out the execution of many Orthodox. When collective resistance was met,
ruthless collective punishment was inflicted upon the reluctant Orthodox. More
often than not that meant torture and even execution.
Instances of
such priestly murderers are many. Suffice it to mention a few. For example,
Father Dr. Dragutin Kamber, a sworn Ustashi, but also a Jesuit priest. Father
Dragutin ordered the killing of about 300 Orthodox Serbs in Doboj, and the
court martial of 250 others, most of whom were shot. Or Father Dr. Branimir
Zupanic, who had more than 400 men, women, and children killed in one village
alone, Ragolje, and who was a personal friend of Ante Pavelic. During one of
his sermons in the church of Gorica, Father Srecko Peric, of the Gorica
monastery near Livno, advocated mass murders with the following words:
"Kill all Serbs. First of all, kill my sister, who is married to a Serb,
and then all Serbs. When you finish this work, come here to the Church and I
will confess you and free you from sin." This resulted in a massacre, on
August 10, 1941, during which over 5,600 Orthodox Serbs in the district of
Livno alone lost their lives.
The chief
ecclesiastic murderer, however, was neither a mere Catholic clergyman nor a fanatical
Jesuit. He was no less than a member of the Order of meek St. Francis:
Nliroslav Filipovic, an Ustashi since long before the war, and a Franciscan
monk. Father Filipovic killed a child with his own hands in the village of
Drakulic, while addressing a battalion of Ustashi: "Ustashi," was his
curt brotherly exhortation, "I re-Christen these degenerates in the name
of God. You follow my example." One thousand five hundred Orthodox Serbs
were then executed on one single day. Jasenovac, an Ustashi concentration camp
which equalled Dachau in horror, not long afterwards received a new Commandant:
Father Filipovic. In his new role, Filipovic, cooperating with Father Zvonko
Brekalo, Zvonko Lipovac, and Father Culina, caused the deaths of 40,000 men,
women, and children in the camp during the period of his administrations. [6]
The losses
inflicted by these frenzied attempts of the Catholics to destroy the Orthodox
Church were immense. The material damage amounted to 7 milliard pre-war gold
diners. Out of twenty-one Orthodox bishops in Yugoslavia, one was taken to
internment in Italy, two were forcibly removed from their sees and sent to
Serbia, one was imprisoned with Patriarch Gavrilo, and then sent to Dachau
concentration camp, two were beaten and sent to Serbia, where they died shortly
afterwards, two died in internment camps, and five were murdered in cold blood.
[7] About 400 Orthodox priests were sent to concentration camps,
while about 700 (one-quarter of the total number of Orthodox priests) were
killed. One-quarter of monasteries and churches were completely destroyed,
about half of the total number were damaged, an unknown number were transformed
into Catholic churches or Catholic halls. Out of 189 churches in the Gornjo
Karlovachka diocese, for instance, 175 were burned and destroyed. [8]
The greatest
losses, however, were inflicted among the humble members of the Orthodox
Church. In Pavelic's New Ustashi State, in fact, between April, 1941, and the
spring of 1945, thanks to Ustashi units, Ustashi police, and concentration
camps, at least 850,000 members of the Orthodox Church and citizens of
Yugoslavia, including numerous Croats (plus 30,000 Jews and 40,000 Gypsies),
perished thus.
[9] Hundreds of Catholic priests and Catholic friars
contributed, either directly or indirectly, to this colossal massacre.
To say that
these were the deeds of individuals suffering from religious mania, or that
these same individuals had discarded the most elementary rules of humanity,
acting on their own initiative after scoring the admonitions of their Church
and rebelling against her authority, is untrue. The Ustashi massacres, all the
atrocities committed by either Catholic officials, priests, or monks, fell
within a coolly calculated scheme for the total elimination of the Orthodox
masses, actively or passively resisting their absorption into the Catholic
fold. Indeed, it was the premeditated policy of the Catholic Hierarchy, acting
on behalf of its true inspirer, the Vatican.
1.
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.[Back]
2. See also Martyrdom
of the Serbs, p. 176.[Back]
3. For list
of names of Catholic priests who personally committed such crimes, see Martyrdom
of the Serbs (p. 176), prepared by the Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese,
for the USA and Canada, Palandech's Press, Chicago, 1943. Archbishop Stepinac,
had he been willing, could have punished them, with military sanctions, as
their military vicar. It is sinisterly significant that the Vatican permitted
Stepinac to become military vicar, in October, 1940, before Yugoslavia was
invaded. See also Tablet, January 17, 1953.[Back]
4.
Katolicki Tjednik, No. 35, August 31, 1941.[Back]
5. Hrvatski
Narod, December 25, 1941; Novi List, November 10, 1942.[Back]
6. Filipovic
was regarded as abnormal even by many of his Ustashi colleagues. All the cases
just quoted are authenticated and can be found in the files of the Yugoslav
State Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes.[Back]
7.
Throughout Yugoslavia only six were left at their posts.[Back]
8. These
losses include the whole of Yugoslavia. The largest proportion, however, were
willfully caused by Catholics in Croatia (figures published in Glasnik,
official paper of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchy, 1951).[Back]
9. These are
official figures, reputedly on the conservative side. The Serbian Orthodox
Patriarchy estimated the killings at 1,200,000.[Back]
No comments:
Post a Comment