Organized Massive Forced Migration of Serbs from Croatia in 1941

Abstract

The author brings forth a range of information on forced migration of the Serb population from the Croatian part of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941 (NDH). Almost one third of the population were Serbs in the NDH. One of the methods of solving “the Serbia issue” in the NDH was migrating the Serbs into Serbia. The other methods were forced conversions of the Serbian population, namely physical killings. The adopted legal provisions made the terror policy over Serbian population legitimate. A conference was held on June 4^th in the German legation in Zagreb. At the meeting it was agreed that Slovenians from Styria were to be moved to NDH, and Serbs from the NDH to Serbia. Deportation was to be carried out in three waves. The first wave was to last from June 7^th to July 5^th and 5000 Slovenian intellectuals from Lower Styria were to be deported directly to Serbia, except for catholic priests who were to be deported to the NDH. Orthodox priests from the NDH were to be deported to Serbia together with their families. In the second wave, lasting from June 10^th to August 30^th, 25,000 Slovenians from Slovenia were to be deported to the NDH and NDH was to deport just as many Serbs. In the last wave (from September 15^th to October 31^st), 65,000 Slovenian peasants from the Gorenjska region (Upper Carniola region) were to be deported to the NDH, and NDH was to migrate just as many Serbs to Serbia, as well as 30,000 Serbs whose citizenship was not acknowledged by the NDH. The government of the NDH founded an office for this purpose under the name State Directorate for Renewal.

The migration of the Serbs from NDH began in June of 1941. Volunteers from the Salonika Front were then moved from their properties in Slavonia and Srem. Their total number was about 28,000. Then the Orthodox priests were migrated. According to the lists made by the NDH authorities, 327 of them were migrated from the NDH. 104 priests from the Croatian part of NDH were moved away in an organized manner. One part of them managed to escape before they were arrested. The migration of priests was carried out through transit camps in Caprag and Požega. Massive deportations of the Serbian population through transit camps in Caprag, Bjelovar and Požega began with the arresting of Serbs in Zagreb in the first half of July 1941, and then continued in other districts of northern Croatia and Bosnia. The total number of migrations in an organized manner from the Croatian part of the NDH up to the beginning of September 1941, according to the name list drawn up in 2012, amounted to 9875 Serbs, although that number was not final since there were greater disparities for certain districts. By the end of September 1941, the Ustashas migrated 14,733 Serbs out of the NDH in a legal way. Croatians from Dalmatia, Herzegovina and the Croatian Zagorje as well as displaced Slovenians primarily originally from Styria, moved into their houses. The authorities of NDH confiscated the property of the forced out Serbs. Other forms of the Ustasha terror, like massive killings, caused intensive illegal emigration of Serbs from NDH to Serbia, which, according to German data, had already increased to around 180,000 relocated Serbs by the end of July, although it seems this number exceeded 200,000 by the end of September. Organized migration was ceased in October 1941 after the German authorities in Serbia forbid further immigration of Serbs from the NDH mainly because of the uprising in western Serbia. Part of the banished Serbs from the Požega concentration camp were returned home to the districts of Osijek, Garešnica, Križevac, Virovitica and Ludbreg. However, from the documentation of the Commissariat for Refugees in Belgrade, it is evident that the research on the migration of Serbs from Croatia and the whole of NDH was not finished in 1941, so the number of 200,000 of forced migrants who have left is not final.