Naslov (hrvatski) | Groblje hrvatskih vojnika na Mirogoju, Zagreb, 1941. – 1945. : o uklanjanju u poraću 1945. – 1946. grobalja i grobova "okupatora" i "narodnih neprijatelja" poginulih 1941. – 1945. u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj |
Autor | Vladimir Geiger |
Autor | Pero Šola |
Autor | Marko Krznarić |
Autorova ustanova | Hrvatski institut za povijest |
Znanstveno / umjetničko područje, polje i grana | HUMANISTIČKE ZNANOSTI Povijest Hrvatska i svjetska moderna i suvremena povijest |
Sažetak (engleski) | The Croatian Soldiers’ Cemetery at Mirogoj, Zagreb, 1941–1945
On the Removal of Cemeteries and Graves of ‘Occupiers’ and ‘Enemies of the People’ who Died in the Independent State of Croatia (1941–1945) in the Post-War Period (1945–1946)
Since antiquity, soldiers who gave their lives were seen as deserving of reverence as well as decent individual or collective graves. From ancient times, graves and headstones were given a prominent place in the culture of mourning of South Slavic peoples, including Croats.
Every human being has a right to a grave and headstone, or at least a cenotaph.
European historiographies and related disciplines have, regularly and persistently, as is customary when dealing with the ‘awkward’ questions of contemporary history, avoided the issue of ‘enemy’ soldiers’ graves from World War II. — More recently, however, several important contributions addressing this issue have appeared, covering topics such as the graves of Soviet soldiers in Austria or those of German soldiers in Russia.
In contrast to earlier times and wars, during World War II and in its aftermath, the issue of the graves of soldiers who fell in wars, including those of ‘enemy’ soldiers, became a world-view and ideological issue, which was resolved one-dimensionally and in an exclusive manner in countries that adopted totalitarian or authoritarian systems. The graves of ‘enemy’ soldiers were not allowed to exist, and were removed together with any mention of them. — In Croatian historiography, the issue of the graves of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’ from World War II became open for discussion only in the mid-1990s, though this was still somewhat earlier than in the other countries established after the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
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In this book, we present the fate of ‘enemy’ graves and the relationship of the post-war Yugoslav authorities towards the graves of the defeated side in World War II on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC). — In the first chapter, we describe some examples of the removal of ‘enemy’ cemeteries and graves conducted by the post-war Yugoslav communist authorities. The inevitable question of the relationship of the Catholic Church towards the removal of graves conducted by the Yugoslav ‘people’s government’ in the aftermath of the war is addressed in the second chapter. The third
chapter presents transcriptions and copies of the currently known documents pertaining to the issue of ‘enemy’ cemeteries and graves. The fourth chapter shows the relationship of the communist authorities towards the cemeteries and graves of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’ who died on the territory of the ISC in the 1941–1945 period, as well as those who died in Yugoslav captivity in the post-war period, that were removed or concealed in 1945/1946, and briefly refers to the revival of the memory of the removed and concealed cemeteries and graves of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’ after the collapse of the SFRY in the newly-created states and circumstances. The fifth chapter describes the visit of the delegation of the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V.) in Croatia in the autumn of 1980. This visit was under the close surveillance of the State Security Service of the Republican Secretariat of the Interior of the Socialist Republic of Croatia.
This chapter also presents how the question of German military cemeteries from World War II was dealt with in Socialist Republic of Croatia. The sixth chapter contains a description of the largest military cemetery on the territory of the ISC, the cemetery of Croatian soldiers (Ustashas and Home Guards) at Mirogoj, from 1941 to 1945 and its post-war fate. This chapter is supplemented by a list of Croatian soldiers (Ustashas and Home Guards) buried at Mirogoj from 1941 to 1945. —
Put together, these chapters address selected, highly important issues regarding the fate of ‘enemy’ cemeteries and soldiers and the relationship of the Yugoslav authorities towards the graves of the defeated side in World War II.
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The communist showdown with all real and assumed opponents in Yugoslavia during and especially towards the end of World War II and in its immediate aftermath was massive and merciless. — The Yugoslav communists’ intent to completely and radically deal with any enemies immediately after the end of World War II was explicitly stated in Order no. 1253 of the Ministry of the Interior of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, issued on 18 May 1945, regarding the removal of cemeteries and graves of the ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’, which included the cemeteries of the German, Italian, and Hungarian armies as well as the Ustashas, Chetniks, and Slovenian Home Guards.
The Ministry of the Interior of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia and all later republican ministries of the interior highlighted the obligation to implement the decision to remove cemeteries and graves of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’. — In accordance with the order issued by the Ministry of the Interior of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia on the removal of cemeteries and graves of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’, all graves and cemeteries of all members of ‘enemy’ armies who died and were buried on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and eastern Srijem) and in other parts of the occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia were removed or neglected and left to fall into ruin. — In Croatia as well as in other parts of Yugoslavia, instructions and orders regarding the removal of cemeteries and graves of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’ were regularly forwarded to subordinate institutions on all levels. — The order issued by the Ministry of the Interior of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia about the removal of cemeteries and graves of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’ was conducted systematically, which is attested to by contemporaneous documents as well as eyewitness accounts and the states of the cemeteries themselves.
— The victims on the ‘enemy’ side were systematically erased from public memory and denied the right to a grave. ‘Enemy’ mass graves, individual graves, and victims were simply not allowed to exist in socialist Yugoslavia. Cemeteries and graves of the ‘enemy’ were devastated, destroyed, and concealed.
— This was the most radical example of damnatio memoriae in socialist Yugoslavia.
However, there are rare examples of graves and cemeteries that were not removed according to the decision of the Ministry of the Interior of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia of 18 May 1945. But even these cemeteries and graves (headstones) were neglected and left to ruin. The result was the disappearance of the usually wooden grave markers (most commonly crosses) bearing the names of the soldiers who died or were killed, leaving only the (usually overgrown) stone markers standing.
The removal of graves and cemeteries of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’ could not have gone unnoticed and without producing a reaction among the broadest strata of the population. Along with limiting civil rights and political freedoms, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia significantly limited and suppressed traditional religious values. All those who failed to understand this on time were subjected to political and judicial persecution. — The implementation of the decision of the Ministry of the Interior of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia regarding the removal and destruction of cemeteries
and graves of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’ of 18 May 1945 was met with unease among the people, in a climate of fear, which is confirmed by numerous documents and eyewitness recollections. The Catholic Church openly opposed the removal of ‘enemy’ soldiers’ graves by the ‘people’s’ authorities in Yugoslavia. — The Serbian Orthodox Church and Orthodox believers and the Islamic Community and Muslim believers in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other parts of Yugoslavia fared no better. Graves and cemeteries of ‘occupiers’ and ‘enemies of the people’ were removed regardless of their religious affiliation.
After World War II in Yugoslavia, the graves and cemeteries of fallen Partisans and the graves and cemeteries of victims of ‘fascist terror’ were constructed, protected, and maintained according to laws, while the graves and cemeteries of ‘enemy’ soldiers and the graves of ‘collaborators of the occupiers’ remained outside the law. — This situation persisted until the collapse of the SFRY. — Republican funerary service and cemetery laws (or, in some Yugoslav republics, laws regarding public order offences) enacted during the 1970s and 1980s did not, as a rule, allow markers, inscriptions, images, or symbols to be set up if they would signify the belonging of the deceased to an enemy movement, i.e. those which
acted against the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia or the SFRY’s social order.
At the largest Croatian and German military cemetery from the World War II period in the ISC, the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, over 2,000 graves of German soldiers, members of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, were removed in the immediate aftermath of the war, in summer 1945, as were over 2,500 graves of Croatian soldiers, Home Guards and Ustashas. This is confirmed by many contemporaneous documents and testimonies (recollections of contemporary witnesses) as well as the state of the cemetery itself. — The cemetery fields at Mirogoj where Croatian and German soldiers were buried 1941–1945 were, through the period of socialist Yugoslavia and until the establishment of the
Republic of Croatia in the early 1990s, completely neglected and overgrown. — Some cemetery fields where Croatian Home Guards were buried were dug up in the post-war years, and the mortal remains removed and thrown in an unmarked mass grave, while the burial plots were sold for new graves. — Several memorials to Croatian soldiers who died 1941–1945 were erected after the establishment of the Republic of Croatia, while the German military cemetery was restored and reconstructed. However, the graves of Croatian soldiers, Ustashas and Home Guards, have not been reconstructed, remaining levelled and concealed, without any markers or names of fallen soldiers. — The competent authorities
in Croatia, wholeheartedly supported by ‘antifascist’ and other groups and individuals, have, despite their declarative statements that everyone has the right to a marked grave, not done anything regarding the marking or restoration of the graves of these Croatian soldiers—in fact, they have done everything in their power to prevent it.
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The unhindered marking and inscribing of names on the headstones of family plots or individual cenotaphs of those family members who lost their lives during World War II and in its aftermath as members of the armed forces of the ISC, Wehrmacht, the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, and other ‘enemy armies’, or were killed as ‘enemies of the people’, became possible only after the disintegration of the SFRY.
It is telling that, while some of the countries that were created after the collapse of the SFRY (Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia) have restored and reconstructed German World War II cemeteries as part of certain local cemeteries and erected memorials bearing the names of fallen soldiers, none of these countries have restored the military cemeteries of national anti-communist and collaborator forces from World War II.
However, the inscribing of names and marking of the military affiliation on the headstones, cenotaphs, and other memorials of those who were, for a long time and until not that long ago, labelled as ‘occupiers’ and ‘local traitors’ has led to new controversies because, for some, the right to a grave and a possible ‘restoration’ of the memory of the deceased is tantamount to their political rehabilitation. — Even now, in the still-present atmosphere of the ‘collective guilt’ of the ‘Others’, there exists significant resistance towards the reconstruction and marking of military cemeteries belonging to ‘enemy’ soldiers, which continues to be opposed primarily by ‘left-wing’, ‘antifascist’ groups and individuals as well as
the competent authorities. |
Ključne riječi (hrvatski) | |
Jezik | hrvatski |
Vrsta publikacije | Autorska knjiga-Znanstvena knjiga-Znanstvena monografija |
Status objave | Objavljen |
Vrsta recenzije | Recenziran |
Verzija publikacije | Objavljena verzija rada (izdavačev PDF) |
Izdanje | 1. |
Naslov serije | BIBLIOTEKA HRVATSKA POVJESNICA. Monografi je i studije |
ISSN serije ili nakladničke cjeline | 2670-885X |
Numeracija serije ili nakladničke cjeline | III/96 |
Broj stranica | 515 str. |
ISBN | 9789538335266 |
URN:NBN | urn:nbn:hr:255:859280 |
Datum objave tiskanog izdanja | 2022 |
Vrsta resursa | Tekst |
Izdavač | Hrvatski institut za povijest |
Mjesto izdavanja | Zagreb |
Prava pristupa | Institucijski pristup |
Uvjeti korištenja | |
Datum i vrijeme pohrane | 2022-07-07 09:28:32 |