REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER TO THE SS CAPTAIN REXEISEN OF JANUARY 28, 1942, ON THE SITUATION IN EASTERN BOSNIA, ESPECIALLY IN TUZLA AND BRČKO, THE ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE, THE MASS CRIMES OF THE USTASHA AUTHORITIES AGAINST SERBS AND JEWS, AND THEIR FORCED CONVERSION TO CATHOLICISM.[1]
Ustasha[2]
Belgrade, January 28, 1942
No. Pa/Ha
1.) NOTE:
Subject: Savagery of Ustashas in Bosnia.
Dear Mr. Rexeisen! [3]
The events that are coming and which I sense will happen make me briefly describe the situation in our area.
The spring is coming, our unfortunate Balkan spring, and the Ustashas are pushing their independent “Ustasha state” at an express pace into an economic, and thus into a political catastrophe. The mass of the Orthodox and Mohammedans is in a state of expectation – because no one can believe in the possibility of the continuing of this situation – this provisorium – everyone knows and feels that the independent state died at the moment it was born. Every occupation army, even the Chinese, would be welcomed with joy, if the basic principles on which every civilization is based were recognized, and that is freedom of religion, freedom of private property and equality before the law.
The fields have remained unploughed and unplanted this fall, the villages were torched, and with them everything that existed of cereals and wheat. Today, corn flour in Tuzla costs 25 to 30 dinars per kg, lard 250 to 300 dinars per kg, potatoes 15 dinars and more. And yet nothing can be obtained of foodstuffs. The city rationing administration in Tuzla has been expecting flour from Zagreb for months, but has not received it. Municipal officials have been going from Pontius to Pilate[4] for months, and there has been virtually no result.
He who had money and who was supplied with the most necessary foodstuffs on the black market in time, has the food. The masses in the city, however, are literally starving. But even those who have food, are trembling at the events that will come and that will cause an economic catastrophe. And the Ustashas accelerated this process with their mindless terror and their provocations.
In December 1941, a unit of Ustashas broke into the town of Brčko on the Sava river during the night. They pulled all citizens, Jews and Serbs together with women and children out of their beds and took them to the Sava river. Here, all Jews, men, women and children were killed in the most horrible ways with knives, axes and mallets, and the bodies were thrown into the Sava river. They grabbed small children by the legs and with a swing, like a piece of wood, threw them far into the waves of the Sava river. At the same time, horrific scenes took place, reminiscent of barbarism from the darkest centuries of world history. A physician, Dr. Bukvica, who is a Mohammedan, wanted to save 2 children and knelt before the Ustashas and begged them to give him the children without parents, because he had been present at their birth, they were twins, and it was a close call for him to be killed too. Now this doctor is lying in his house in a nervous breakdown and is not letting anyone into his house, into his room, not even the occupants of the house.
After the Jews, it was the turn for the Orthodox. I do not know how many of them were killed, but after that all those present declared themselves ready to convert to Catholicism.
Thus, after this bloody St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre – and how many such nights there were in this independent state – the whole of Brčko was converted to Catholicism. The next day, on the order of District Chief Montani, all Orthodox citizens had to hand over their oil cups and sacred images (icons) of their baptismal patron saint to the district administration, so that these would be destroyed there. One must know what family patron saint’s day[5] means to Serbs, and only then can one understand the magnitude of the insult and humiliation as well as the depth of the pain of these people. Then came the obligatory telegram for Ante Pavelić and the Croatian people, when all prominent Serbs from Brčko had to sign, and in which they expressed their happiness on the occasion of their conversion, understandably and voluntarily, under the wings of the only liberating Roman Catholic Church and the supposed faith of the ancestors. This had to be signed with the obligatory Croatian nationalist salute “Za dom spremni”[6].
The Ustashas then recruited citizens for the militia created to maintain order, and took them out of the city, showing them several Serb villages that needed to be torched and their population killed. And when they rejected this request, explaining that they were intended only to maintain order and peace in the city, they were immediately disarmed.
This mass crime in Brčko had a strong repercussion throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Mohammedans are confused because they come to believe that the fate of the Serbs will be theirs as well. In this way, the mentioned events were commented on in all Bosnian taverns, where Mohammedans gather, as well as in various associations. And from here, this opinion spreads further to the villages. In Tuzla, it is said that the same Montani, the head of the Tuzla District, arrested over 200 Mohammedans there, allegedly because they were communists. Also, some Serbian women converted to Catholicism, daughters of merchants, allegedly because of their connection with the Chetniks.
In Gračanica, a small town located near the Doboj – Tuzla railroad, a new act of violence took place shortly afterwards. The Ustashas, who came from Zagreb, wanted to take Mount Ozren, which is nearby. In the whole triangle, which is formed by the rivers Preća[7] and Bosna, almost only Serbian peasants live with a few Mohammedans on the periphery. Here is the old Orthodox monastery of Ozren, which has existed since before the Turks and which is sung about in folk songs. This whole triangle forms the massif of Mount Ozren. Peaceful, honest and, in our conditions, very progressive peasants live here. After almost 4 months of Ustasha terror in this area – murders, robberies, rapes, taking farmers and entire families to concentration camps and other acts of violence – there was a popular uprising. The Chetniks and the people drove the Ustashas, legionnaires and the like from this area, and since then the people there have been living in peace.
In December 1941, shortly after the murders in Brčko, the Ustashas came to Gračanica with the army to capture Ozren. However, they returned with 120 dead and wounded. Then they went to Gračanica, which is located on the other side of the railroad, broke the door of the Orthodox church, which was closed, stormed into the church, destroyed and looted everything, demolished church furniture and pictures of saints and after that they danced kolo in the house of God. When the Chetniks cut off the electricity supply, which leads from Tuzla (Krek) to Gračanica, the Ustashas hung oil cups from the church on the city’s electric candelabra and thus illuminated the city. After the Ustashas left the city, the Chetniks turned on electricity again. Whenever the Ustashas came to Gračanica, the Chetniks turned off the electricity, and when they left, they would turn it on again.
For the Serbian Christmas Eve[8], the Ustashas went to Tuzla and organized a night similar to that in Brčko. Ante Stitlić from Zagreb, who was at the head of the Ustasha military police, came to Tuzla. When this became known, a great alarm arose. One part of the Orthodox fled to the forests and the others resignedly expected the worst. There was a great unrest among the Mohammedans. The idea was to show resistance. Sessions were convened, even with the County Executive [veliki župan – Translator’s note], who is a Mohammedan. An Orthodox sacristan, whose son disappeared as soon as it had been heard what was coming, was beaten by the police. During the hearing, which was also attended by Tuzla’s priest Risto Babunović, the police investigating judge told the priest and the beaten sacristan that “Bosnia will never be Serbian, as long as the last soldier of Croatia and Germany is alive.” So even the last soldier of the National Socialist Reich has to fall in the fight for a papist, Roman Catholic Ustasha independent state under the leadership of the Duke of Spoleto and Supreme Leader Ante Pavelić, the killer of the king in communist Marseille. With this statement, the investigating judge did a great honor to the National Socialist Reich and great propaganda for the new Europe!
After 20 days, the sacristan’s son returned from Belgrade, where he had arrived without documents in an adventurous way, while his father was beaten and was lying in prison because his son was with the Chetniks.
During this period, I was visited by the camp warden[9] Miloš, who is in his first year of study in Zagreb. He came to Tuzla during Catholic Christmas, where he was to talk to me about a very important and serious matter. As we sat behind closed doors in the office, he told me that he had come to me because he wished me well and because what he had to tell me must remain in strict confidence. When I gave him my word of honor, he told me that an action of cleansing the Tuzla Serbs was being prepared, that all the Serbs were connected with the Chetniks and that all of them would be punished for that.
He could take me under his protection as long as he was in Tuzla. But he was to go to Zagreb and then he could no longer give guarantees for my life. He suggested that I immediately sign a statement with approximately the following content. That I am with all my heart and soul a supporter of the Supreme Leader Ante Pavelić and Ustasha Croatia, that I have never been a member of any anti-Croatian association, that I am a good Croat, etc. In the end, he told me that it would be best if I converted to the Roman Catholic Church. I would have to give this statement immediately, before it is too late, in some 10 copies.
It was clear to me what he wanted. First, an idiotic statement, which would be used for propaganda purposes among the people and which would morally bury me. And when I am morally dead, then they would give me a statement about converting to Catholicism as the only way out. Then there would be no going back. I came to the conclusion that the situation in Tuzla was very serious and that this gang was preparing something terrible, so I immediately ran to the German command of the town, where I repeated my conversation and everything that was said in the city. I begged to be protected, because all Orthodox Serbs focus their attention only on the German army in Tuzla, which was born from the National Socialist revolution and which will not allow a return to the Catholic Inquisition of the dark centuries of the Middle Ages. Then I had a confidential conversation with prominent Mohammedans in Tuzla and I came to the conviction that they were even better informed than me, and that the anxiety among them was very great. Then came the first deputation of Mohammedan citizens to the German military command, where they prayed for protection from the Catholic attack. I heard that they stated that there were 15,000 Mohammedans in the city and that there would be knee-high rivers of blood if the same thing happened to the Orthodox here as it had happened in Brčko.
They were also in the command of the Croatian army. The peak of excitement was on Christmas Eve, January 6, 1942. At the County Executive’s house[10], there was a gathering of Mohammedans to which the more prominent Ustashas were invited. There was a sharp conflict at the gathering, and there were threats of an uprising. As an illustration of the atmosphere, I would like to mention Mufti Kurt from Tuzla, who, in front of a crowd, before going to the meeting with the County Executive, said: “For God’s sake, folks, I risk my head, just take me where I need to go.”
At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the German command of the town issued posters with the following content. To anyone who is not against the state, the German Wehrmacht guarantees security and peace. The German Wehrmacht will not tolerate any act of violence based on confessional reasons, nor will it allow it. After that, the town calmed down, and the Ustashas pulled the long face. That evening, but also during Christmas, the Orthodox church was guarded by the police and the German Wehrmacht. And in the city the guards were reinforced. The Ustashas tore down the German posters, only one remained at the command of the town. The church was closed, of course, as the authorities did not recognize it. How it was in remote villages where there was no German Wehrmacht or Chetniks to protect the people, only the people there know.
The army is completely powerless, demoralized and will not fight. There is a big gap between the army and the Ustashas. Soldiers and officers openly say that it is the Ustashas and not them who should fight the Chetniks. Because it is the Ustashas who have created the Chetniks. The army will not fight at all. It tolerates only because it has to and everyone has only one thought in mind, to serve their 3 months or until the end of their military service and then go home. As soon as a combat started, the soldiery would disperse and lay down their weapons.
The Chetnik armament was carried out by the Croatian army. If there is a shooting, the army fires non-stop, meaninglessly wastes ammunition as long as the supplies run out, and of course the Chetniks can hardly wait for this, so that they can simply order them to surrender.
Six weeks ago, an entire battalion fled in front of 14 Chetniks in Doboj and all weapons were left behind. On that occasion, Colonel Aligodić was killled, abandoned by his soldiers. The army’s diet is poor. Lately, they have been getting cornbread.
Chetniks in Eastern Bosnia hold the entire triangle between Doboj, the river Bosna and the Spreča, then along the Spreča below Tuzla and Zbornik[11] and along the Bosna to Sarajevo.
There are Communists here and there in smaller groups of 50-100 people. They mainly consist of the city mob, of Mohammedans and Catholics, because Mohammedans and Catholics are religiously blinded or, if they have broken away from the influence of religion, then they go to the Communists. In the Catholic village of Husinam[12] near Tuzla, a camp warden[13] was appointed and an Ustasha camp was established. During one night, this commander of the camp, a certain peasant Marianović, with all his Ustashas and complete weaponry, with typewriters and radios and with the entire inventory of the Ustasha camp, fled into the woods. They are now located somewhere in the vicinity of the Catholic villages near Tuzla.
There are Catholic villages all around Tuzla, while the mountain villages are inhabited by Orthodox peasants mixed with Mohammedans. The Catholics are mostly workers, employed in coal mines and other industries near Tuzla. These semi-peasants and semi-workers, or rather neither peasants nor industrial workers, are semi-communists, i.e. they are infected with communism unless they are papists.
So they serve either the Black or the Red International. They are peaceful, they don’t take up arms even against Chetniks, either because of communist tendencies (the worse the better) or because they have been instructed by the Catholic clergy to wait for the mutual eradication of the Serbs and Turks first, and then the Catholic Church will come to reconcile them. The Orthodox Serbian miners, who live far from the city, have been the element from which the Chetniks were recruited. They are anti-communists and nationalists. If an Orthodox communist is found, he is a seduced man who does not believe in Marxist Russia but in nationalist Russia. These insignificant groups operate separately from the Chetniks, and there is tension between them. The only thing that connects them is the fight against Pavelić.
A peasant woman from the Majevica mountain told me the following: “Chetniks came to our village of Priboj and gave a speech in front of the church. They opened the church and the Divine Service was held. Then, at the assembly, they said that everyone who is for the Serbian faith, for family patron saint’s day[14], for Greater Serbia, for the King and Fatherland[15] should raise three fingers. Then all the peasants raised their hands and thus joined the Chetniks. After a few days, some communists came. They closed the church, set up a guard in front of the door, they did not mention the King or Greater Serbia or the slava, or the Serbian faith, but a Soviet Union. Then a Chetnik captain came with the Chetniks, they threw the communists out, opened the church and stated that no communist assemblies were needed here. Then, several peasants who were seduced by the communists and joined them, immediately joined the Chetniks, and the communists withdrew without a single new supporter. From this moment on,” said the woman, “the peasants would only join the Chetniks.”
The Chetniks fight only against the Croatian army, and when they capture them, they disarm them and let the members of the army go home, the Ustashas, however, are shot dead on the spot, while the German army is not touched at all. Everywhere they publicly declare that they will fight against Pavelić to the last man, but if Germany occupies the country and if everyone is treated equally, they will immediately go home and lay down their weapons. The best proof that the Chetniks do not see their enemies in the Germans is the road between Zvornik and Tuzla. Although this road is located between Chetnik lines, it is still free, because German transports are constantly passing through here, while the road Tuzla-Brčko, although it is on the periphery of the uprising, has been blocked for months because the Germans do not use it. The same is with the railway line Tuzla-Doboj. The Chetniks are only half a kilometer away from Petrovo Selo to Doboj, and yet not a single German transport has been attacked. The line is completely free, although the Chetniks could destroy it if the Croatian army depended on it. And so that not only would the sleepers be missing, but also the rails.
That was the situation in my place until 10 days ago. Nobody believes that the Germans will allow this situation to continue. The only way out to protect the people from further suffering and to maintain order and peace in these parts is seen in the German occupation, i.e. that Bosnia be declared de jure “independent”, but that this be de facto annulled and that the whole area be placed under the German regime without exception, guaranteeing equality before the law, freedom of religion and guarantee of private property, and that sufferers from the concentration camps in Bosnia and Croatia are sent home. Then absolute peace would come and it would be peaceful until the end of the war. The masses do not want anything else and nothing more than that. This would be welcomed with delight by the Orthodox and Mohammedans, who today make up 75% of the population of all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and when you take into account the Italian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina where Bosnia’s Catholics are mostly concentrated, and that is southwest of Travnik, it would include as much as 85% of the population.
The Orthodox population is distinctly nationalist due to various influences, especially religious ones, which are taken to be a special Serbian religion. Jewish-Freemason propaganda has made great efforts in this part of the population and provoked its national sensitivity, its love for freedom and the national state, with Germany portrayed as a monster, as a three-headed dragon that wants to swallow all nations, in order to create a purely Roman empire on their ruins. Jewish-Freemason and Anglophile propaganda has tried to transfer the old distrust towards the Austro-Hungarian Black-Yellow and clerical Habsburg Monarchy as well as towards Kaiser’s Germany to the revolutionary young National Socialist Reich and to emphasize this to the extreme. He who dared to declare himself differently, is slandered as a traitor and a German mercenary.
During that time, this nation of today, was protected and guarded as much as possible in the territory where the German Wehrmacht was. Wherever there were German soldiers, the Ustashas could not carry out what they were doing elsewhere. Today, these people expect salvation only from German occupation. And that can be seen from the fact that the Chetniks do not give resistance to the Germans anywhere, except possibly where the Germans are acting together with the Croatian army.
One example. In Tuzla, the son of a Serb was shot dead in Doboj by the Ustashas. He was once my great opponent and could not understand my anti-English and anti-Soviet (or as they were called then anti-Russian) attitude or my enthusiasm for the National Socialist Reich. A few days ago, I asked him where he saw salvation for us. He replied that he would consider the German occupation to be liberation.
The Mohammedans represent one religious circle, which, viewed from the point of view of the bloodline, is the same as the Orthodox. But according to their feelings, they are directed only towards Turkey. At one time, they were delighted with Hitler and Germany, because they saw an element of order and discipline in the National Socialist Reich. Today they are very disappointed with this hell, which the Ustashas as a striking unit of Catholicism have created. They are very worried about the future, because it cannot be put in jeopardy. – Here, there is a planned work on the destruction of whatever is not Catholic. They often say about it: “It’s our turn after you!” Then we will no longer be any “Croatian flowers” as the Supreme Leader has named us, but something completely different that belongs in the toilet. That is why they are exposed against the process of Catholicization of the Serbs in Bosnia. Due to the outrage on the occasion of the Orthodox Christmas holidays, a Mohammedan deputation went to the Supreme Leader in Zagreb to protest. Posters for the Christmas holidays made a great propaganda for the Germans. The Orthodox thank God and say that this is not the first open gesture by the Germans. The Mohammedans say the same.
Until now, the German authorities have been passive about everything. Because it is an independent state and everything that the Ustashas say was viewed as an internal matter of an independent state.
When the Chetnik action began, the Germans continued to be passive. The people began to believe that Germany would allow the Chetniks to liberate them (the most important thing was that it would not be the communists to do that) and that Germany would accept this situation and carry out the occupation, given that events proved in the best way that the Ustasha state was unsustainable. However, just the opposite of what was expected happened. The German Wehrmacht goes to the forests and clears them of Chetniks. They have seized Vlasenica, Srebrenica, Olovo, Kladanj, etc. And what will happen now, the Germans will retreat after the job is done and after they have enthroned the impotent governance and the perpetrators of unrest in their office.
The people there have been peaceful so far. A villager from Mojlovica,[16] whose husband is a village merchant and who fled to Tuzla before the Ustashas, and whose property was burned, talked to me, and to my question why she did not come to Tuzla with her children (she came to her husband through the forest), she replied that it was nice in their place now. “Freedom has come to us.” These are her words. “We organize parties in the village, we dance kolo and, most importantly, we live peacefully as before. Why would I tremble before the Ustashas here in Tuzla?” And she went back to the village again. The Germans will blow away the national Chetniks straightforwardly, and the Ustashas will be able to continue their reign of terror without obstacles. And then the deadly struggle between nationalities would recur time and again.
And then what? Communist propaganda is not resting, it will point the finger at that and say: “You see, the German wants your destruction, he does not want you to get rid of your executioners.” Or, as that police officer stated in front of the priest, as long as the last Croat and the last German live, this country will be ours. The communists will say (because then there will be no more national Chetniks), “The only salvation is mother Russia and Stalin.” The people will be in an abnormal state, bordering on madness, spring is approaching and hunger therewith.
As for the communists, they are in full number. Because they are mostly found among Mohammedans and Catholics. They are all in high positions and disguised by Catholicism, living well and working intensively. Namely, the Ustashas persecuted only the Serbs, or rather the Orthodox, but not communists. The Mohammedan masses are also disappointed and starving. Because with the arrival of the Germans in these parts, they sank from relative prosperity into social misery, which will lead to a catastrophe in the spring.
The Mohammedans still have some hope in Hitler, the Orthodox see in the Germans the saviors of those who stand before the gallows. Now would be a huge psychological moment to calm everything down with a stroke of a magic wand, with a German proclamation that would guarantee the most basic human rights. Everyone would go back to their homes and everyone would compete in work and peaceful behavior after this bloody experience. Some Germans with whom I talked about these opportunities in our country, even if they agree with me in everything, think that it is true that the German occupation would bring peace, but Germany needs every man today. It’s true. But no one is demanding that the Germans become gendarmes. They would be the leadership, those who give orders, the element of order would be our Chetniks and the anti-communist element (as evidenced in Serbia) would therefore be similar to the German one.
It is not important to know how much someone loves the Germans. It is important to know that the someone wants the victory of the National Socialist Reich over the Jews and communists in Russia and all over the world 100%, because if the opposite happened, then there would be no Serbia, no Yugoslavia, no Germany and no more free nations in Europe. A judgment day would come and the general national death of all. Therefore, these elements must be trusted and helped. It is clear that the Ustashas are the ideological antipode to National Socialism. It is a papal army, a Catholic counter-revolution for the German National Socialist revolution and ideology, and that is why they do not even enter into consideration in the New Europe.
If, however, the opposite happened, and if this situation lasted until the spring, even after the cleansing of the Chetniks by the Germans, we would inevitably face an economic and political catastrophe in the spring.
Turkey’s decision has not been made yet, God forbid that it be made in favor of the democratic-communist side. Then these masked communists hiding behind Catholicism and Islam would flee into the woods and impose leadership on each other (namely the Orthodox and Mohammedans) and then that would lead to the most terrible Judgment Day. This could lead to unforeseeable consequences for Serbia, i.e. for the German occupation court in Serbia, and then we would find ourselves in a situation that is not in the least in the interest of the German Reich, and even less in the interest of my unfortunate people.
Forgive me for being so extensive, but I wanted to open my soul before you, because I have always been your sincere friend with all my heart and soul. My destiny is connected with the victory of the National Socialist Reich, as well as the destiny of my people. That is why I want things to develop in such a way that the interests of my people and the German Reich are satisfied alike. And these interests are completely identical.
With most cordial greetings
Yours:
[1] АВ, Ф. 562, 3.1.1.2, 87-102. See documents nos. 109, 110 and 111 in this book.
[2] Handwritten note.
[3] SS Captain (Hauptsturmführer) Hans Rexeisen was the head of the Operational Police Command (EC Sipo-SD) in Osijek and was subordinated to the Operational Police Command (EC Sipo-SD) in Zagreb. At the same time, the Command submitted reports to the Operational Group of the Security Police (EG Sipo-SD) in Belgrade. His field of work was not only Slavonia, but also eastern Bosnia, where among his agents-in-charge was a pharmacist from Tuzla, Obrad Mićić. Rexeisen was transferred to Belgrade in November 1941, to later become the head of the Third Department (Security Service, SD) in the institution of the Commander of the Security Police and the Security Service (BdS) in Belgrade as an SS major (SS-Sturmbannführer). Rexeisen’s earlier agents remained in touch with him, including Obrad Mićić, who is probably the author of this document. Through Mićić, Rexeisen established ties with the Chetniks in that part of Bosnia. For more about Obrad Mićić, see: V. Mujbegović, Tuzla moje mladosti, Vol. Two, Beograd, 2015, 250, 254.
[4] In the original: “von Ponzius bis zu Pilatus”, figuratively: “from one place to another” (aimlessly, usually for bureaucratic reasons).
[5] Slava in the original text. – Subeditor’s note.
[6] “For homeland – ready!” – Subeditor’s note.
[7] Prača.
[8] January 6. – Subeditor’s note.
[9] Commander of the camp, i.e. of the Ustasha organization for the district (kotar).
[10] Ragib Čapljić; Tko je tko u NDH, 78 (D. Stuparić).
[11] Zvornik.
[12] Husino.
[13] Probably: commander (tabornik).
[14] Slava in the original text. – Subeditor’s note.
[15] “For King and Fatherland, with Faith in God“ (S verom u Boga, za Kralja i Otadžbinu) used to be the motto on the regimental flags of the Royal Serbian Army, to become the slogan of the Chetniks, i.e. Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Royalist/Nationalist Ravna Gora Movement, during World War II. – Subeditor’s note.
[16] Unidentified village.