Ustascha vs Partisans

Yesterday, on the 12^th May, an annual meeting was held, in a meadow, just outside the town of Bleiburg. It was attended by about 11,000 visitors from Croatia, to commemorate the murder of many thousands of members of the “Ustascha.”

Who were the so-called “Ustascha?” Even a perfunctory look into the history of this organization reveals this:

“The Ustascha was a Croatian Revolutionary movement, supported by Nazi Germany and by the Roman Catholic Church.

It was, in fact, a fascist, racist, ultra nationalist, terrorist, Nazi supported organization, who ruled in a German-protected area of Croatia.

Between 1939 and 1945 the Ustascha had established a number of Concentration and Extermination camps, the most notorious of which was in/near Jasenovac, an Extermination Camp in which low number estimated 60,000 victims were murdered. They were mostly Serbians, Jews, Roma and anybody else who did not agree with this National Socialist (Nazi) philosophy.

Now, of course, came the 8^th of May 1945, the day in which the end of WWII was documented by the signing of the unconditional surrender of the German Army.

The Tito-friendly so-called “Partisans” now moved to get their revenge, killing as many of the Ustascha as they could.

The Ustascha, men, women and children fled to Austria where, on the 14^th day of May 1945, they reached a field in Loibach, near Bleiburg, where they encountered the British arm of the Allied victorious liberation forces, who, in accordance with International Law returned them to the Jurisdiction of the then Yugoslavia.

This is when the Partisans took over, and commenced with the killing of the Ustaschas right there on the “Loibach Field,” continuing during a forced death march, where those, who, exhausted, could no longer walk, were shot, their bodies littering the side of the road. Men, Women and Children.

The number of victims killed during this “death march” is under dispute and varies widely. It may be believed that tens of thousands were murdered during this episode.

Many of the Ustaschas fled to South America, where they were supported by right wing local Governments and by the Catholic church.

What, finally, have we left?

A pastoral scene of flower strewn meadows, a lovely country side of rolling hills reaching for the mountains and...

….....A History of Killers killing Killers.

Bertstravels 

thought a lot about posting this or not posting it. 

It is, after all, ancient History and should probably be buried and forgotten.

But, since this fascist ideology, saturated with the blood of the innocent and the guilty, is still very much in evidence, Bertstravels thinks that it must be told again and again, so that the deeds of criminals in power should never be forgotten, and, it may be hoped, not be repeated.