Hrvoje Klasic: Graduates, Ustashas were not sacrificial, brave … you don’t need to be a role model!

For most high school students, Norijada is given to entertainment and, as the name implies, crazy about city streets. Unfortunately, every year, some graduates seek to use that day to show that they are big guys, but in a completely wrong way. This time I will avoid the story of (excessive) intoxication and look back at the singing of the Ustasha songs, the shout of the Ustasha greetings, and the highlight of the signs and symbols that are contrary to the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Croatia. And I know that there are those who are honest right -wingers and nationalists. There have always been such, so what would not be today?! I do not write this because of them because such arguments and facts have never been needed to make conclusions and create attitudes.

I am writing this because of all those who, perhaps naive, believe that they are confused often by contradictory information that they come to or just do not know the truth, but it is easier for them to join the group of those who are louder and more aggressive. I will start immediately with a statement that I will then briefly elaborate. So, if you are looking for role models in the past, that is, someone who was brave, sacrificed, who has achieved success with his own merits, who won in great battles and who was ready to sacrifice his own life for the defense of Croatia … then they were by no means Ustasha. And here’s why.

The Ustasha organization was not established in Croatia, nor did its members deal with illegal activities against Greater Serbian ideology in Croatia (Yugoslavia). The Ustasha movement was founded in emigration, where in the mid-1930s, its members, including the leadership, lived a peaceful life and almost gave up the struggle for a free and independent Croatia. The decision to return to Croatia in 1941 did not bring the Ustasha leaders to Croatia, but the fascist leader Benito Mussolini and the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. In other words, the Ustashas did not even fire the bullet to win power in Zagreb. The authorities were donated to them by Germans and Italians, of course at a large territorial and material price.

However, although they were given power in the territory of present -day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ustashas could never say that they were lords the area to the disappearance of the NDH. Why? Because day by day, the growing parts of NDH ruled partisans. Although they were belittled and called forest robbers, bandits and robbers, the Ustashas were powerless before the partisans. They were not helping them that they were more numerous and far better armed. They simply did not have enough courage or military skills to break the partisan movement. All the biggest battles against the partisans took place in the NDH area, but none of these battles led independently (let alone received) NDH Armed Forces. The Germans and Italians quickly realized that NDH soldiers were incapable of it, and took the matter in their own hands. In all these battles, Ustashas (and Home Guard) participated only as their auxiliary troops.

True, the Ustashas showed aggression and ruthlessness. But not in the fight but in the mass killings of women, the elderly, the children and the other civilians. Finally, when it was necessary to show that they were ready to die for the home, that is, they would sacrifice their own lives before Croatia than to leave it, they decided to escape from Zagreb without great resistance. Of course, the highest Ustasha officials, such as Ante Pavelic and Andrija Artukovic, were first escaped, not caring for their army, nor for the fellow citizens, who naively believed in their stories about patriotism and sacrifice for Croatia.

Unlike the Ustashas, ​​the Communists, although their actions were already legally banned, remained legally in the country all the time. They fought against King in Belgrade and Greater Serbian ideology, organized protests, strikes, assassinations. They were closed, tortured and killed, but they did not give up. This is why, not an increasing number of young people joined them, not Ustashas, ​​year after year. Unlike the Ustashas, ​​the Communists organized a partisan movement without a side of help. In big battles, their hips were not kept by powerful allies. Free territories, especially in the NDH area, released themselves, without any help. The armed resistance of the Germans, the Italians and the NDH army meant incredible courage. No one in occupied Europe showed such an efficiency with such efficiency. Unlike the Ustashas to whom the government in the state was donated, the partisans led by the Communists won the authorities themselves.

I know, many will answer this that they do not agree with communist ideology and that therefore they do not like partisans. You don’t even have to love them. But you need to know that they were incomparably courageous, sacrificial and more successful than the Ustashas. So think carefully when you start showing your Croatian patriotism with the magnifying glass of a subject, treacherous and losing movement as Ustasha.