ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 39. (ZAGREB, 1996.)

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J. Kolanović, Holocaust in Croatia - Documentation and research perspectives, Arh. vjesn., god. 39 (1996) str. 157-174 1,000 in Sirmium. According to the same source from there 19,800 Jewish victims, 13,000 Jews were executed in Jasenovac

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. These horrifying figures are testimony to crimes which cannot be justified. Although the majority of the Croatian people were opposed to these crimes, they were, nonetheless, committed by individuals from this nation and it is necessary to point that out. Historical documents assists us in uncovering the causes of such crimes in a more objective manner. Slavko Kvaternik, who proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on April 10, 1941 and was a Minister of Croatian Home Guard until 1942, says in one of his memoranda that Pavelić enacted racial laws primarily to show his loyalty to nationalsocialist Germany, although his wife was half-Jewish

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. Such an explanation can be found in a report written by Eugenio Coselschi, the envoy of the Fascist Party in Zagreb, who on July 31,1941 sent a report to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on racial laws in Croatia

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. Pavelić's persecution of Jews cannot, however, be justified by such an interpretation. Moreover, according to the sources, economic interests as well as personal benefits were some of the motives for the persecution of Jews, because it was widely believed that Judaism was synonymous to financial power

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. 6 13,500 Jews were killed in Serbia and 100 in Macedonia. A total of 33,000 Jews were killed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Vladimir Žerjavić, Demografski pokazatelji o stradanju Židova u NDH, in: Antisemitizam, holokaust, antifašizam. Studia Iudaico-Croatia, Židovska općina Zagreb, the Jewish Community in Zagreb, 1966, 133-138. In other studies different figures are quoted. Ivo Goldstein, The Genocide of the Jews in: Voice of the Jewish Comunnities in Croatia, Zagreb, Spring 1966, 35: "before the war, about 38-39,000 Jews lived on the territory of the ISC, and only about 9,000 lived to see the end of the war. The figures according to region are basically the same: out of 14,000 Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina only 4,000, i. e. nearly 30% survived, and out of 25,000 Jews in northern Croatia, Slavonia and Sirmium, only about 5,000 or about 20% were saved". * Ivo Goldstein in: Antisemitizam ustaškog pokreta, Spomenica Ljube Bohana, Zagreb, 1966, page 321, claims that in 1941 there were 40,000 Jews on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and only about 8,000 survived. Obviously, the figures of the Jewish population killed in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) range from 19,800 (according to Žerjavić), to 30-32,000 (according to Goldstein). Similar figures are quoted by Slavko Goldstein, Fighting the Evil. The Jews of Croatia in the Anti-fascist Resistance, Voice of the Jewish Communities, 36. 7 HDA, Ministry of the Internal Affairs, Dossier Kvaternik: Manuscript, Pavelić i NDH; HDA, Ostavština Teodora Božidara Alberta: Denkschrift über die Lage in Kroatien nach der Kapitulation der deutschen Armeen in Europa und dem Einmarsch der bolschewistischen Truppen Titos in Westkroatien, Chapter Judenfrage und Judenverfolgung. 8 Roman, Archivio storico del Ministero degli affari esteri (ASAE), AG Croazia, 4: il provvedimento e stato generalmente riprovato. E non piace nemmeno al Poglavnik. Ma non si fa mistero che e state imposte dai tedeschi colla giustificazione di volere, essi, con questo segno distintivo, riconoscere quegli ebrei che dalla Germania si erano rifugiati in Croazia. 9 Coselschi's report: il sistema piu pratico sembra quello di colpire questa gente nella borsa e di liberare il Paese dalla loro piovra economica. Non gia pero col sistema iniziata da certi gruppi di ustasci di 162