document count: 29

 

Never recognized the Independent State of Croatia, but approved exchange of ambassadors and countless high-level, private meetings with NDH henchmen such as Father Krunoslav Draganovic, Mile Budak, and poglavnik Ante Pavelic himself. Remained deaf to pleas made by refugees from the Ustase terror, even after Mussolini had turned against his former proteges. The indispensible force behind the Ratline which protected dozens of notorious Ustase and other war criminals such as Klaus Barbie and Adolf Eichmann and smuggled them out of Europe to the New World.

Tacitly supported the Ustase before the war. Archbishop of Sarajevo Ivan Saric first met Pavelic in St. Peter's Basilica in 1939. Pope Pius XII gave a personal interview to Pavelic after the latter became Poglavnik in April, 1941. Told the British ambassador he really didn't believe Pavelic was guilty of the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in Marseilles, or of any of the other terrorist acts the Ustase had undertaken in the decade before the war.

Refused to excommunicate a single Franciscan who had taken part in Ustase atrocities against Serbs, Jews, or other innocent civilians during the war, and helped organize the "Krizari" or Crusader movement made up of former Ustase who conducted terrorist incursions into Yugoslavia through the late 1940s. Through the offices of Father Krunoslav Draganovic, organized the removal of the Ustase treasury from the Balkans and its concealment abroad. Protected Pavelic for at least two years from arrest in Italy. Helped scores of other Ustase, such as Archbishop Saric, escape to Spain or South America along the Ratline. Today, praises the "wise and skilful" diplomacy of Pius XII, denies assisting war criminals escape from justice at all, and has steadfastly refused to admit the institution of the Holy See obstructed justice in any way. Released report by its own experts denying any knowledge of the fate of the Ustase treasury.

Katolicki List: The Foundation of the Independent State of Croatia
April 1941: Article from the Catholic paper Katolicki List lauding the formation of the Independent State of Croatia

Catholic Origins of the Ustase Oath
"The intensity of Croatian Catholicism would now be transferred... to a political movement"

Encyclopedia of the Holocaust
Excerpt on the complicity of the Vatican and Catholic priests in the Ustase massacres

News: In the Sign of Sacrifice
April 27, 1941: Excerpt from an article by Father Franjo Kralik praising the work done by Dr. Ivan Merz's Croatian youth group as being in line with the "spiritual program of the Ustase"

Letter: "The Franciscans Haven't Gotten a Dime"
Summer, 1941: Powerful letter from a Catholic priest in the NDH to his exiled Orthodox counterpart

Letter: "Nature Takes Its Course"
July 31, 1941: Letter from a Franciscan priest from Koraca to the Ustase Prefect at Dervanta, on the marriage of widowed Serbs to Catholic men

Letter from the Bishop of Mostar to Archbishop Stepinac
August, 1941: Response to Stepinac's inquiry as to the progress of forced conversions to Catholicism among the Serbian population

Italian Article: "The Renewal of Medieval Times"
September 18, 1941: Excerpt from an article in Il Resto del Carlino describing Franciscan complicity in the massacre of the Serbs

Letter: Bishop Aksamovic on Prayer for the "Crusade War"
September 24, 1941: Letter from the Bishop of Djakovo calling on Croats to pray for a quick end to the war after the Nazi invasion of the USSR - and honoring Pavelic and Hitler

Letter: Rusinovic on Meeting with Cardinal Tisserant
March 6, 1942: Letter from the NDH ambassador to the Vatican on a stormy meeting with Vatican official Cardinal Eugene Tisserant

Letter of Nikola Rusinovic on Stepinac in Rome
May 9, 1942: Letter from the NDH ambassador to the Vatican on the conduct of Stepinac during his interviews with Pope Pius XII

Letter: Lobkowicz on February 1943 Meeting with the Pope
February 9, 1943: Letter from the NDH's ambassador to the Vatican detailing his interview with Pope Pius XII

Letter: Lobkowicz on Meeting with Cardinal Spellman
March 6, 1943: Letter from the NDH ambassador to the Vatican on a meeting with New York Cardinal Spellman at the height of the war

Letter: Erwin Lobkowicz on Stepinac in Rome
May 1943: Letter from the NDH ambassador to the Vatican on Stepinac's second visit to Rome, in which he justified the persecution of the Jews as abortionists

Letter: Lobkowicz on Stepinac's Meeting with the Pope
June 10, 1943: Letter from the NDH ambassador to the Vatican describing the general impression among Vatican officials of Stepinac's second interview with the Pope

Letter: Lobkowicz on July 1943 Meeting with the Pope
July 13, 1943: Letter from the NDH ambassador to the Vatican on a July meeting with the Pope

US Treasury: The Bigelow Memo
October 21, 1946: Report from Emerson Bigelow on the fate of the wartime Ustase treasury

CIA File: Documentary Evidence of Krunoslav Draganovic's Ustase Activity
September 5, 1947: CIC Agent Mudd's stunning report citing evidence of Draganovic's role in the Ratline, sent without results to his superiors

CIA File: Background Report on Krunoslav Draganovic
February 12, 1947: CIC Special Agent Robert Clayton Mudd's background report on Draganovic's activities

CIA File: "An Uncompromising and Dangerous Extremist"
July 24, 1952: Overview of Fr. Krunoslav Draganovic's activity from 1943 to 1952

CIA File: Irregular Activity of Krunoslav Draganovic
October 1, 1953: Report, possibly intercepted, of Krunoslav Draganovic's alleged corruption

CIA File: Dismissal of Krunoslav Draganovic from San Girolamo
November 19, 1958: Document outlining circumstances behind Draganovic's departure from the former nerve center of the Ratline

CIA File: Summary of Activities of the SILC
November 20, 1958: Summary of the unidentified SILC, with reference to Krunoslav Draganovic's activities in Italy in 1944

Article: Under the Government of the Ustashi Monster
November 11, 1993: Review of the History of the Yugoslav Jews by Yosef Algazi, Haaretz

Article: Holocaust Gold Taints the Vatican
July 27, 1997: From the Sunday Telegraph, UK

Article: Pope's Apology to Jews an Empty Gesture
October 30, 1997: "...Ante Pavelic, the Croat Fascist leader, arrived in Argentina dressed as a priest and carrying a certificate of safe conduct from the Vatican..."

Article: A Vow of Silence
March 30, 1998: "Did Gold Stolen by Croatian Fascists Reach the Vatican?"

Article: The Vatican Response
April 29, 1998: One of the Vatican officials with access to the wartime archives responds to criticisms in these news stories and others

State Department Report: Holocaust Assets: The Fate of the Wartime Ustasha Treasury
June 2, 1998: Report from the US committee investigating the fate of Nazi gold looted from their victims

 

Essay: The Patron Saint of Genocide
Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac and the Ustase

Essay: The Lawsuit Against the Vatican and the CIA
Co-lead counsel explains the lawsuits to discover the fate of the Ustase treasury.

 

- None.