What role did religion play in the occupation of Yugoslavia?

Answer 1

A:

When the German Wehrmacht entered Yugoslavia in April 1941, Hitler ordered the country to be partitioned along religious lines, to create a Catholic Croatia under the prime ministership of the convicted criminal Ante Pavelic. Catholic Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac was effusive in his praise for the German victory and for Pavelic.

To be considered a Croatian, one had to be a Catholic. Out of a total population of 6.7 million, there were 3.3 million Catholics, over 2 million Orthodox Serbs, 700,000 Muslims and 45,000 Jews in Croatia. On 22 July 1941, Minister for Education Mile Butak stated, "We will kill one part of the Serbs, transport another part and the rest will be forced to embrace the Roman Catholic religion."

Jews were forced to wear the star of David, and Orthodox Serbs were forbidden to hold public office, teach in schools or work in factories.

Entire villages were converted at gunpoint, via mass baptisms. Death camps were set up, with post-war reports varying up to 700,000 Serbs executed, but some believe a figure around 300,000 more probable. Father Miroslav Filopovic was commandant of one of the most infamous of these death camps, with three Franciscan monks helping him to supervise the executions. Summary public executions of Serbs were also carried, with only those who could produce a certificate of conversion to Catholicism excluded.

Orthodox churches, monasteries and houses were ransacked, with some two thirds of the loot transferred to the Vatican and the remainder kept by members of the Ustashi.

After the war, Pavelic fled to Rome disguised as a priest and was provided shelter by the Vatican, afterwards continuing his flight disguised as a monk. In a confidential report written in 1947 by US Army special agents William Gowen and Louis Caniglia, who were aware of his whereabouts, they stated, "Pavelic's contacts are so high and his present position so compromising to the Vatican that any extradition of the subject would deal a staggering blow to the Roman Catholic Church." Archbishop Stepinac was tried by the Yugoslav authorities for his part in the atrocities, but the Vatican regarded this as a "show trial" since Yugoslavia had come under Communist rule. Pope Pius XII elevated Stepinac to the status of cardinal in 1951, and Pope John Paul II announced his beatification in 1998.