CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Kralj, Lovro |
|---|---|
| Title | The Ustashe Politics of Ethnic Cleansing: Relation between the state-organized and wild ethnic cleansing in the Independent State of Croatia during 1941 |
| Summary | This thesis deals with the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing and mass violence in the Independent State of Croatia during 1941. The aim is to analyze the research gap between the state-organized and other methods of conducting ethnic cleansing, appearing simultaneously, during the first months of the Ustashe being in power. Current scholarship had put an overwhelming emphasis on the state and party agencies in conducting mass murder, and diminished the role of other factors such as the grassroots in the process. My argument is that state-organized ethnic cleansing had a limited role in the first months of the Ustashe being in power because of institutional underdevelopment, lack of expertise, understaffing and the issues in regards to concentration camp systems. Simultaneously with the state-organized ethnic cleansing, a process of wild of mass violence was employed towards, primarily, Serbs. One of the prime actors in conducting this wild ethnic cleansing were the so called “Wild Ustashe.” These grassroots groups were created under the propaganda and encouragement of the part of the Ustashe elite. Wild ethnic cleansing was indirectly organized by the regime, but it was not implemented according to the plan or the state hierarchy. The aim of this thesis is do demonstrate the complexity of agents and methods in conducting the ethnic cleansing in NDH through analysis of archival documents, newspapers and testimonies. I will examine the question of why were the Jews and Roma primarily targeted by the state-organized genocide, while the wild one was primarily oriented towards the Serbs throughout the first year of the Ustashe reign. On macro level I will demonstrate the relation between the wild ethnic cleansing and the state-organized one, and further tensions which existed between the two. On a micro level I will discuss the relationship between the “Wild Ustashe,” state and party institutions which entered into an open conflict which escalated in the late summer of 1941. |
| Supervisor | Constantin Iordachi |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/kralj_lovro.pdf |
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