Visions of Annihilation: The Ustasha Regime and the Cultural Politics of Fascism, 1941-1945

457 Pages·2013·31.44 MB·English

by  Rory Yeomans

VISIONS OF ANNIHILATION
PITT SERIES IN RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES
Jonathan Harris, Editor
VISIONS OF
ANNIHILATION
The Ustasha Regime and
the Cultural Politics of Fascism,
1941–1945
RORY YEOMANS
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH PRESS
Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260
Copyright © 2013, University of Pittsburgh Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yeomans, Rory, author.
Visions of annihilation : the Ustasha regime and the cultural politics of fascism, 1941-1945 /
Rory Yeomans.
pages cm. — (Pitt series in Russian and East European studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8229-6192-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Ustaša, hrvatska revolucionarna organizacija. 2. Croatia—History—1918–1945. 3. World
War, 1939-1945—Croatia. 4. Croatia—Politics and government—1918–1945. 5. Nationalism—
Croatia—History—20th century. I. Title.
DR1591.Y46 2012
949.72΄022—dc23 2012041336
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. The Generation of Struggle:
Ustasha Students and the Construction of a New Elite 29
Chapter 2. Annihilate the Old!
The Cult of Youth and the Problem of National Regeneration 81
Chapter 3. Merciless Warriors and Militant Heroines:
Making a New Ustasha Man and Woman 126
Illustrations 168–177
Chapter 4. Social Justice and the Campaign for Taste:
Cultural Values after the Revolution of Blood 178
Chapter 5. Between Annihilation and Regeneration:
Literature, Language, and National Revolution 236
Chapter 6. “An Unceasing Sea of Blood and Victims”:
The Cultural Politics of Martyrdom and Moral Rebirth 295
Conclusion 345
Notes 365
Bibliography 417
Index 437
v

PREFACE
Visions of Annihilation is a case study in the cultural politics of mass murder.
It aims to demonstrate how one European fascist movement, the Croatian
Ustasha regime, used popular culture as well as ideas of national regenera-
tion to legitimize its rule and, in particular, its campaign of mass murder
against what it considered to be dangerous, enemy, and “alien” populations.
It explores why the Ustasha regime, which founded and ruled the Indepen-
dent State of Croatia between 1941 and 1945, considered this campaign a vi-
tal precondition for the survival of the Croatian nation and how and why it
evolved over time. The Ustasha regime was notorious in postwar Yugosla-
via for the orchestrated campaign of extermination and terror it instigated
against Serbs, Jews, and gypsies. It aimed to create a Greater Croatia cleansed
of all these “invading” groups. By the time Croatia and Bosnia were liberated
from its rule in 1945, its elite death squads and militias had unsystematically
murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians, including large numbers of
children. With the exception of the Nazi camps in Eastern Europe, it erected
the largest concentration camp on the continent. The sadism and cruelty of
the movement shocked even hardened Nazi commanders, who wrote of it
with contempt. Months before the Wansee Conference was even convened,
the regime in Croatia had already inaugurated its own self-willed Holocaust.
Despite this, relatively little has been written about this subject in the English
language.
Through an examination of the way in which the Ustasha regime used
notions of culture and national regeneration to legitimize its campaign of
mass murder, this book aims to understand how the movement’s activists and
leading cadres perceived the world around them: in their case, the imagined
Croatian nation. It also explores how, for the most part, radical nationalist in-
tellectuals, artists, and writers—the public face of the regime—presented and
vii
viii Preface
interpreted the regime’s visions to the nation. Given the still-controversial
nature of the subject and, until recently at least, the lack of English-language
research, there is a tendency to expect any study to provide a comprehen-
sive history of the state, its policies, and fortunes. Due to constraints of space
and time, I have had to omit many important areas I had initially planned to
cover, including detailed analysis of the mechanics of the Ustasha regime’s
campaign of mass murder against Serbs, Jews, and gypsies; racial politics and
the regime’s evolving policy toward the Serbs; and the regime’s complex atti-
tude toward Muslims. Nor have I been able—except tangentially—to explore
the public reception of the regime or the attitude of the Catholic Church, ei-
ther among the ecclesiastical hierarchy or at the local, village level. The im-
portance of all these areas is acknowledged and addressed in the introduction
but is outside the scope of this study’s focus.
That said, in the past decade a new generation of scholars has emerged,
in Croatia and elsewhere in Europe and the United States, that is committed
to exploring many of these subjects from new and innovative perspectives. I
hope that, if nothing else, my study—whatever its deficiencies, omissions, and
oversights—will help contribute in some modest way to the ongoing intellec-
tual dialogue about the Ustasha regime and the Independent State of Croatia.
The issues raised by its rule are as important and relevant today as they were
in 1945.
Chapter 3 originally appeared in a somewhat different form under the ti-
tle “Militant Women, Warrior Men, and Revolutionary Personae: The New
Ustasha Man and Woman in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941–1945,”
Slavonic and East European Review 83, no. 4 (October 2005). I am grateful to
Martyn Rady and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board for granting
me permission to reprint some of this material here.
The conception, research, writing, and completion of this book would not
have been possible without the assistance, advice, and, in many cases, friend-
ship of a number of individuals. In the course of writing a book, most histo-
rians accumulate so many debts it is a wonder they have any friends left at the
end of the process. I hope I will be forgiven if I have inadvertently omitted
to thank any individuals by name. First and foremost, I thank Peter Siani-
Davies, formerly of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Uni-
versity College London, who made an immeasurable contribution to the early
development of this book. Not only was he extremely supportive of me in ev-
ery step of the book’s evolution, making countless perceptive suggestions that
have aided the clarity of my central argument, but he has also been unfailingly
kind, considerate, and tolerant. At numerous moments, when I despaired of
ever completing it, he never lost faith. I also thank Wendy Bracewell, who,
Preface ix
with her unparalleled knowledge of the history and politics of southeastern
Europe, was enormously encouraging and on a number of occasions showed
me the way forward when my research plan came to a grinding halt.
My sincere thanks are also due to Rebecca Haynes for her early interest in
my work and her encouraging remarks. She not only read drafts of my man-
uscript, making many judicious observations, but also arranged for me to
present research papers in both the initial and the late stages of my research,
which helped me clarify and develop my ideas profoundly. Marius Turda de-
serves recognition for his consistent interest in and support of my work, as
do Hannes Grandits, Christian Promitzer, and Sevasti Trubeta. Tomislav
Dulić from Uppsala University and Anton Weiss-Wendt from the Center for
Holocaust Studies in Oslo were extremely supportive of my work in its later
stages. Tomislav, in particular, was generous in sharing archival sources with
me, some of which I have used here with kind permission from the Military
Historical Institute in Belgrade and the National Archives and Records and
Administration, Washington, DC. I am grateful to Miladin Milošević at the
Archives of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, Josip Kolanović at the Croatian State Ar-
chives, and Dragan Kršmanović at the Military-Historical Archives in Bel-
grade for granting Tomislav permission to share some of his primary source
material with me. Needless to say, I alone am responsible for all errors of fact,
interpretation, and translation.
In America, I would like to thank Robert M. Hayden for his support of
my research and work. I am also extremely grateful to Peter Kracht, editorial
director at the University of Pittsburgh Press, who agreed to publish the book
and displayed remarkable patience even while I promised to make (and sub-
sequently missed) countless deadlines and word limits. His belief in the im-
portance of the story being told was a key motivating factor in its completion.
In Britain, I owe a massive debt of gratitude to the staff of the British Library
at St. Pancras and the Newspaper Library in Colindale, as well as the staff of
the library of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Their help-
fulness, availability, and accessibility went far beyond the bounds of duty. In
Croatia, which I visited on a number of occasions for research purposes be-
tween 2003 and 2010, I would like to thank the staff of the Croatian State Ar-
chives and the National University Library in Zagreb for their kindness and
helpful attitude. Not only did they locate many rare journals and documents,
but they also dealt heroically with my unreasonable requests and enquiries
about a subject still highly controversial in their country. I would especially
like to thank Boris Suljagić of the Croatian State Archives for his unfailing
good cheer and enthusiasm. I should also like to thank the many individuals
in Zagreb and elsewhere with whom I enjoyed stimulating conversations and
exchanges of opinions. They are too numerous to mention. I am grateful to