Vladimir Bursać

Abstract: Post-war Yugoslav literature took the position that the Independent State of Croatia was not a state. Such a position was imposed on the joint state through the federal levels of government by Croatian historiography. After the wars over the Yugoslav legacy, leading authors from the successor states of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) adopted this position, disputing the statehood of the NDH. The objective of this narrative is to portray the crimes committed in NDH territory as isolated incidents, inconsistencies, and irrational actions of anonymous Ustashe, without a common denominator or possibility of connection. Consequently, an extensive body of literature emerged describing what happened in the NDH, while a symbolic number of works attempted to explain why these crimes occurred. Post-war commemorative culture fundamentally altered the character of the victims who perished in the NDH (Latin inscriptions, red stars, patriots, peoples and nationalities, victims of the occupiers and their collaborators). This transformation occurred while archival darkness concealed the earliest historical sources that preserved the true nature of the crimes committed in the NDH. Records from Serbian refugees fleeing the NDH to German-occupied Serbia between 1941 and 1942 began to emerge in August 1941, but their systematic publication only commenced in 2020. Similarly, interrogation records, trial proceedings, and reports from the State Commission for the Determination of Crimes Committed by the Occupiers and Their Collaborators were compiled between 1944 and 1947, with their systematic publication starting only in 2024. These documents confirm that wherever Serbs lived in the NDH, identical planned, organized, and systematic activities occurred: forced displacement and expulsion of the Serbian population accompanied by the confiscation of their immovable and movable property, physical extermination of military-age males, and pressure for assimilation through forced religious conversions. The latest scholarly literature challenges the notion that the Independent State of Croatia was not a state and convincingly demonstrates the existence of key state elements: territory, population, and government. The evolution of the Independent State of Croatia's penal-legal system within its first month of existence (drawing parallels with the legislation of the Third Reich, application of a modified Penal Code of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, enactment of "secondary legislation", and the establishment of a network of "special courts") created the legal instruments for genocide. The involvement of Independent State of Croatia institutions and officials established a system of governance that ensured the execution of death sentences against Serbs. The evidence before us reveals a clear intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.