Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia (Serbo-Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; German: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; Italian: Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany[6][7][8] and Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, after the invasion by the Axis powers. Its territory consisted of most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as some parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia, but also excluded many Croat-populated areas in Dalmatia (until late 1943), Istria, and Međimurje regions (which today are part of Croatia).
"NDH" redirects here. For other uses, see NDH (disambiguation).
Independent State of CroatiaNezavisna Država Hrvatska (Croatian)
Puppet state of Germany
(1941–1945)
Protectorate of Italy
(1941–1943)
Fascist one-party
totalitarian dictatorship
(1941–1945) under a
constitutional monarchy
(1941–1943)[note 1]
10 April 1941
18 May 1941
15 June 1941
10 September 1943
30 August 1944
8 May 1945
15 May 1945
115,133[5] km2 (44,453 sq mi)
6,500,000[5]
During its entire existence, the NDH was governed as a one-party state by the fascist Ustaša organization. The Ustaše was led by the Poglavnik, Ante Pavelić.[note 2] The regime targeted Serbs, Jews and Roma as part of a large-scale campaign of genocide, as well as anti-fascist or dissident Croats and Bosnian Muslims.[9] According to Stanley G. Payne, "crimes in the NDH were proportionately surpassed only by Nazi Germany, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and several of the extremely genocidal African regimes."[10]
In the territory controlled by the Independent State of Croatia, between 1941 and 1945, there existed 22 concentration camps. The largest camp was Jasenovac. Two camps, Jastrebarsko and Sisak, held only children.[15]
The state was officially a monarchy after the signing of the Laws of the Crown of Zvonimir on 15 May 1941.[16][17] Appointed by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta initially refused to assume the crown in opposition to the Italian annexation of the Croat-majority populated region of Dalmatia, annexed as part of the Italian irredentist agenda of creating a Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea").[18] He later briefly accepted the throne due to pressure from Victor Emmanuel III and was titled Tomislav II of Croatia, but never moved from Italy to reside in Croatia.[2]
From the signing of the Treaties of Rome on 18 May 1941 until the Italian capitulation on 8 September 1943, the state was a territorial condominium of Germany and Italy.[19] "Thus on 15 April 1941, Pavelić came to power, albeit a very limited power, in the new Ustasha state under the umbrella of German and Italian forces. On the same day German Führer Adolf Hitler and Italian Duce Benito Mussolini granted recognition to the Croatian state and declared that their governments would be glad to participate with the Croatian government in determining its frontiers."[20][21][22] In its judgement in the Hostages Trial, the Nuremberg Military Tribunal concluded that NDH was not a sovereign state. According to the Tribunal, "Croatia was at all times here involved an occupied country".[23]
In 1942, Germany suggested Italy take military control of all of Croatia out of a desire to redirect German troops from Croatia to the Eastern Front. Italy, however, rejected the offer as it did not believe that it could on its own handle the unstable situation in the Balkans.[24] After the ousting of Mussolini and the Kingdom of Italy's armistice with the Allies, Tomislav II abdicated from his Croatian throne: the NDH on 10 September 1943 declared that the Treaties of Rome were null and void and annexed the portion of Dalmatia that had been ceded to Italy. The NDH attempted to annex Zara (modern-day Zadar, Croatia), which had been a recognized territory of Italy since 1920 and long an object of Croatian irredentism, but Germany did not allow it.[18]
From 1941 to 1943, territory of the Independent State of Croatia was divided into German and Italian zones, sometimes described as zones of influence[114][21][115] and sometimes as occupation zones:[116][117]
After the capitulation of Italy in 1943, the Italian zone of influence was abolished and the German zone of influence was expanded to the whole Independent State of Croatia. At the same time, the NDH acquired control of northern Dalmatia (Split and Šibenik).
Demographics
Population
According to data calculated by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the creation of the state, the population was approximately 6,285,000 of which 3,300,000 (52.5%) were Croats, 1,925,000 (30.6%) were Serbs, 700,000 (11.1%) were Muslims, 150,000 (2.3%) Germans, 65,000 (1.0%) Czechs and Slovaks, 40,000 (0.6%) Jews, and 30,000 (0.4%) Slovenes. Croats comprised slightly over half of the population of the Independent State of Croatia. With Muslims treated as Croats, the Croat share of the total population was still less than two-thirds.[134][157]
Displacement of people
A large number of people were displaced due to the internal fighting within Yugoslavia. The NDH had to accept more than 200,000 Slovenian refugees who were forcefully evicted from their homes as part of the German plan of annexing parts of the Slovenian territories. As part of this deal, the Ustaše were to deport 200,000 Serbs from Croatia military regions; however, only 182,000 had been deported when German high commander Bader stopped this mass transport of people because of the uprising of Chetniks and partisans in Serbia. An estimated 120,000 Serbs were deported from NDH to German-occupied Serbia, and 300,000 fled by 1943.[158][159]
Internal colonization to the region of Slavonia was encouraged during this period from Dalmatia, Lika, Hrvatsko Zagorje and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The state maintained an Office of Colonization in Mostar, Osijek, Petrinja, Sarajevo, Sremska Mitrovica, and Zagreb.[160]