Letter: "Nature Takes Its Course"
A letter from a Franciscan priest, Ivo Brkan, to an Ustase prefect on the subject of the marriage of widowed Serbian women whose husbands have been murdered (euphemistically, "those taken away," later admitted explicitly) to Croatian men. Author and journalist Richard West calls this "one of the vilest documents ever written."

 

In the surrounding villages there are some 500 to 600 widows ready to marry, young and desirable things who have quickly forgotten those taken away... Nature takes its course and now these widows would like to marry, naturally with Catholics, for there are no Serbs in the neighborhood.

This is an opportune moment to inculcate them and their children with the Catholic faith and Croatian consciousness in the quickest time and with little difficulty for the government and the Church. The government would have to set up a school to teach Catholicism and Ustase Croatianism... and also authorize the Church to explain the factual truth that the deaths occurred because of rebellion, so that the widows can now marry with our people.

This materially prosperous community of perhaps 500 houses, and probably more, is ready to change to the Croat and Catholic faith, so that through marriage, which most of them want with our people, they can come to our religion... Our people have already got their eyes on that land and the beautiful women but are conscious of the difficulty of the state in admitting to the killing of some 900 to 1,000 people, and for that reason we are asking for instruction of how we may legalize their deaths while safeguarding the reputation of the state.

 

:: filing information ::
Title: Letter: "Nature Takes Its Course"
Source: Letter from Father Ivo Brkan of Koraca to the Ustase prefect at Dervanta, July 31, 1942. Quoted in Novak, Viktor. Magnum Crimen, pp 677-678.
Date: Added: October 2002