Alleged Vatican Protection of Jugoslav War Criminals
This document was obtained from the archives of the US State Department; its origins are, despite investigation, undetermined. Despite the notation that it is a "re-typed copy," there are numerous typographical errors, and repeated misspellings which a trained and educated diplomat would be unlikely to make. It identifies San Girolamo monastery as the chief base of shelter and smuggling for accused war criminals. However, for the first time, members of the Serb and Montenegrin puppet regimes are identified as hiding there. Only one other document mentions officials from these regimes in San Girolamo - a February 12, 1947 report from Naples CIC agent Robert Clayton Mudd which identifies the Minister of Propaganda of the Nedic regime as residing in San Girolamo. Members of the Albanian collaborationist regime are also mentioned. Paragraph 9(c) refers to Stjepan Hefer, a prewar member of the Croatian Peasant Party who joined the Ustasha as a minister in the NDH government and led the Croatian Liberation Movement after Pavelic's death.

 

 

[handwritten:] Re-typed copy

12 July 1946

SUBJECT: Alleged Vatican Protection of Jugoslav War Criminals.

1. At No. 7 Via Carlo Alberto, Rome, in a building under extraterritorial Vatican jurisdiction, are located the COLLEGIUM ILLIRICUM and the COLLEGIUM ORIENTALIS.

2. The Ustasche of PAVELIC'S Independent Croat State formerly championed the theory that the Croats are not Slavs, but are of Gothic origin. Subsequent to the fall of Nazium [sic] this theory was repudiated, and [censored] the COLLEGIUM ORIENTALIS is engaged in advancing the theory that the Croats are of Porsian [sic here and below - read "Persian"] origin.

3. Both theories, that of the Gothic and that of the Porsian origin of the Croats, are supported by the Vatican which wishes to strengthen Croat separatist tendencies and to assure their support of the Vatican-inspired "Catholic State" which is projected to include CROATIA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, DALMATIA, SOLVENIA [sic], CARINTHIA, ISTRIA and the JULIAN MARCH linked to AUSTRIA.

4. This same separatist tendency, is evident among the Slovenians, too, and the "Strazar" Party supported by the Jesuit Academy at No. 6 Via Borgia, Rome, is its principal propaganda organ. The Academy is headed by Father PRESEREN himself of Slovenian origin, a member of the Supreme Directorate of the Jesuit Institutions. Hesitation of Slovenian People's Party leader Dr. Mih KREK to join the Jugoslav Central Committee in London, despite his strongly maintained position regarding the necessity for the creation of a democratic Jugoslav Federation, is surely to a great extent based on a knowledge of what is taking place in the Croat San Girolamo degli, Illirici Foundation in Rome and in the Jesuit Academy.

5. In Austria, following their withdrawal from Jugoslavia with the Germans, the members of the NEDIC and the Dimitrijo LJOTIC Quisling organizations, and the Montenegrin Separatists proceeded to draw up a deed with Croatian Ustascha organs by means of which they hoped to obtain Vatican sponsorship with a view to escaping possible war-criminal prosecution. Such Vatican sponsorship was accorded the Ustascha, chiefly in order to assure their silence regarding the atrocities committed by Clergy-led Croats who had indulged in a ruthless program of extermination of Jews and Orthodox Serbs.

6. The mission of resquing [sic - rescuing] war criminals was assumed by [censored] at the COLLEGIUM SAN GIROLAMO, took over the matters of sheltering and administering sheltered NEDIC-LJOTIC war criminals, Montenegrin Separatists, Bosnian and Albanian Moslems, as well as Ustascha members and Croat war criminals. The terms of the mutual deed, which was applicable to war criminals of all parties, were carried out by sending the fugitives, provided with forged papers, from Italy to Spain via France, in groups of three. In order to avoid too stringent police check, top-drawer criminals were allowed to travel by sleeping car.

7. Save RADONIC, former Minister of Justice of the Montenegrin Separatist Quisling Government, previously sheltered by the COLLEGIUM ILLIRICUM, disappeared from Rome a short time ago, and it is believed that he, too, was sent to Spain. RADONIC was apparently well-provided with money, having brought with him the funds remaining to the Montenegrin Government at the time of withdrawal from Jugoslavia. It is difficult to estimate the amount of such funds, but it is rumored to be in the neighborhood of 50 million Lire; this sum was well-hidden and remained unknown even to Vatican experts.

8. The following fugitives are reported to be sheltered by the COLLEGIUM ILLIRICUM in Rome at the present time:

a. Steve VUJOVIC, ex-Minister of Montenegrin Separatist Quilsing [sic] Government;
b. Lazar SOSKIC, ex-Police Chief of Montenegrin Separatist Government;
c. Dr. Stevan IVANIC, Director of the Belgrade Institute of Hygiene under NEDIC-LJOTIC Quisling Government;
d. Eng. VALILJEVIC, ex-Commerce Minister under the Puppet Government;
e. Marisav PETROVIC, formerly Colonel of LJOTIC SS formations.
f. The two VRIONI brothers, former members of the Albanian puppet government;
g. Jusuf KOSOVAC, well-known Albanian assassin, sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for murder in pre-war Jugoslavia.
h. Isa NOLJETINAC, Chief of Police of the Albanian puppet government, responsible for the slaughter of 200 Serbs at Prishtina.

9. Others, not actually sheltered in the COLLEGIUM ILLIRICUM but who otherwise enjoy Church support and protection are reported as follows:

a. Dr. Dimitrije NAJDANOVIC, formerly a professor of theology at the University of Belgrade, is presently in a private apartment in Rome at No. 13a Via Capedistria [censored];
b. Dr. Salih BALIC, Bosnian Muslim, formerly a deputy of the late Dr. Mehmed SPAHO's Moslem Party, he later adhered to PAVELIC and became the latter's Consul at LJUBLJANA. A short time ago he was arrested by the Italian Police in the vicinity of the COLLEGIUM SAN GIROLAMO; checking on his illegal sojourn in Rome, the Police discovered his name on an Allied war-criminal list, and sent him to the Ustascha Camp at Forli. Escaping from the camp, BALIC returned to Rome and is said to be hidden
c. Dr. HEFER, ex-Minister of the PAVELIC government and a Ustascha war-criminal, is said to be hidden

 

:: filing information ::
Title: Alleged Vatican Protection of Jugoslav War Criminals
Source: US State Department, declassified 9/15/85.
Date: July 12, 1946 Added: September 20, 2003