7

This morning, the Great Župan of the Great Župa of Sana and Banja Luka, Colonel Sir Ladislav Aleman, passed by the two guards at the entrance without responding to their salute, which was entirely contrary to his usual civil manner. Moreover, he didn't even look at them but made his way, in a great hurry, towards his office, where, as every morning, his personal secretary, Miss Clara, called Claire, was expecting him, having preceded him by just a few moments. Even though it was rumoured here and there that there was something between the two of them, he wasn't any more courteous towards her on this particular occasion: after a curt greeting, he said to her in a peremptory manner:

- Insert a sheet, Miss Claire, and type!

He paced to and fro about the office for a short while, then stood by the window. Even though he was in his sixties, his movements were still very quick and energetic, which showed that, despite his advanced age, he was in perfect shape. To tell the truth, he wasn't a particularly talkative man, but he would always take the opportunity of pointing out how he had served, in the most conscientious manner possible, as an officer in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I. Indeed, his appearance was that of an officer in every respect: upright posture, tight-fitting clothes, clean-shaven, the grey hair slightly oiled. Apart from his general civil manner, he was known for his iron will, both when dealing with others and towards himself. It was said, not without a certain dose of irony, that he had kissed the hands of more ladies in Banja Luka than all the officers and non-coms in the Independent State of Croatia together. Now, however, even this trademark of his was conspicuous by its absence: he showed no intention whatsoever of kissing Miss Claire's hand. Turning from the window towards her, he asked curtly:

- Well, are you ready? - and started dictating, not waiting for her reply: "Type the usual letterhead, then in block capitals, 'Coded radio message'. Underneath: 'To the Head Office of Public Order and Security, Zagreb'. Also in block capitals. Have you typed that? Then let us proceed..."

The middle-aged, still quite attractive Claire, who had never received such peremptory orders in the six months that they had worked together, was taken aback by his attitude, but she did not dare to ask anything. One thing was perfectly clear to her as an experienced and shrewd clerk: something very serious, of the utmost importance, had happened. Instead of asking what had happened, she kept all ten fingers on the keys of her typewriter and waited tensely.

- Concerning classified information number eleven - he went on, totally ignoring her all too apparent bewilderment - of February 9th, I send the following report: On February 7th, at four o'clock in the morning, a Company of the Ustashi Battalion under the command of Captain Josip Mišolov, accompanied by Friar Filipovic, the parish priest, occupied the Rakovac coal mine and killed thirty-seven Greek-Orthodox miners using pickaxes. Stop. The killing, by means of pickaxes and axes, was continued in the village of Motike, where about seven hundred and fifteen people were killed, as well as the villages of Drakulic and Šargovac, where about fifteen hundred people were killed in all. The killing was terminated on the same day about two o'clock in the afternoon. Stop. Ever since then, the Ustashi have been transporting food, cattle and furniture and other possessions from the houses of the slaughtered villagers to their warehouses. Stop. A more detailed report follows. Stop. Underneath, in the lower right-hand corner, add: The Great Župan, Colonel Sir Ladislav Aleman. Right... Kindly take this to the Code Department and come back immediately!

When Claire came back from the Code Department, her superior was in no better mood than before. He was still frowning and very official in his manner, and for a moment she had the impression that his normally pink and clean-shaven face was now pale and showed lack of sleep. From time to time, he bent his long fingers nervously. At one moment she thought of saying something comforting to him, to cheer him up a bit, the way she often did, but gave up immediately. He had never, ever since they had started working together, told her how and where to type certain items, which was a clear enough indication to her that this event, whatever it was, was a great and very unpleasant surprise to him.

- Write this at the top of the sheet, in the middle, in block capitals, and no typing errors, please: Independent State of Croatia. Underneath, also in the middle, The Great Župa of Sana and Banja Luka, Banja Luka. Now, in the top left-hand corner: Classified information number eleven stroke forty-two, in the right-hand corner, Banja Luka, comma, February 11th, 1942.

Done? Now, again in the middle, in block capitals: To the Headquarters of the Ustashi Supervisory Service. Underneath, in the right-hand corner, in block capitals: Zagreb. Indent the next line and type: Regarding the coded messages, classified information number eleven, of February 9th, and top secret information number eleven, of February 11th, I send the following extensive report. Colon, new line, indented:

Upon the arrival of an Ustashi Battalion in Banja Luka, about one month ago, the officers and non-coms of the aforementioned unit required flats for their accommodation. They did so in a very arrogant, gruff manner; this treatment was not restricted to the representatives of the local authorities. The Director of the local Branch Office of the State Directorate of Supplies, for example, suffered this kind of treatment, but so did numerous local residents. The unit officers would make exorbitant demands, insisting that they be met immediately and in full, regardless of other assignments that the administration of the Great Župa had to attend to and the requirements of the owners of the flats thus commandeered. New line! The aforementioned Ustashi Battalion set up its own town patrols, disregarding entirely the agreement previously concluded with the local civil and military authorities. The unit patrols, entirely of their own accord, intervened in matters pertaining to the mandatory blackout, made detailed searches of local flats, arrested passers-by in the streets without any grounds whatsoever, et cetera. These patrols behaved in a most cruel, wild manner, which was often tantamount to sheer maltreatment of peaceful local residents. Thus, for example, on account of insufficient blackout measures, they would drag local citizens out of their flats at night, subject them to interrogations often lasting all night, and keep them in custody for days on end, depriving them of food. Moreover, some of those arrested have gone missing, and despite a very thorough search, we have not been able to locate their whereabouts to the present day. It is feared, with good reason, that they have been killed...

The Great Župan went over to the window again, placed his hand on the lock-handle, and remained in this position, all tense, his eyes gazing towards some undefined point. All of a sudden, he turned towards his secretary and went on:

- A few nights ago, having watched a patriotic performance at the local Croatian Theatre, the Ustashi from this unit, both officers and non-coms, gave vent to their feelings by firing in the air, in a state of advanced inebriation, with their sub-machine guns, rifles and revolvers, in utter disregard of the need to save state ammunition and to the great alarm of the local population. On this occasion they also sang all sorts of ribald songs, as, for example... I do apologise, Claire... As, for example, the following: From Široki Brijeg to Mostar town / There wasn't a girl who wouldn't lie down. I do apologise once again, Claire, but please type: I f...d her hard, oh, yes, indeed / For three whole days her c...t did bleed... Moreover, they shot an elderly man of Mohammedan faith with a revolver, which was received with consternation and protests by the local Mohammedans, and could result in a worsening of the relations and conflicts between them and our Croatian population. New line again, Claire!

That same night, in Headman Dr Ante Pavelic's Street, members of the same Battalion disarmed a four-man local Ustashi patrol, exposing patrol members to various forms of humiliation, threats of summary shooting and slaughtering, following which a group of these Ustashi, in a gross breach of military conduct, broke into the Banja Luka prison called "The Black House" after midnight, having previously disarmed the few guards, and killed an as yet unknown number of prisoners... New line!

Concerning the slaughter of the Greek-Orthodox villagers in the vicinity of Banja Luka, which it has been my honour to report by radio, I have by now acquired the following information, based on eyewitness accounts and statements given by low-ranking civil servants. Namely, on February 7th this year, at four o'clock in the morning, approximately ten Ustashi from the Battalion occupied the Rakovac coal mine, near Banja Luka. Two Greek-Orthodox miners who were sleeping in the room where the roll-call is carried out before every shift were killed right away. About eight o'clock, another fifty or so Ustashi joined them, and they waited for the miners from the second shift to appear, then checked their identity, separating the Greek-Orthodox ones from the rest. Then they tied their hands behind their backs, took them away to a place in the immediate vicinity of the mine, felled them by hitting them on the back of the head with a blunt instrument known by the name of Serb-basher. Following this, they killed them using pickaxes. They subjected the workers from the third shift to the same treatment when they came out of the pit. They killed sixty-five out of the sixty-eight Greek-Orthodox miners employed there. The remaining three were probably killed in the slaughter carried out in the villages of Motike, Šargovac and Drakulic, of which in more detail in the following paragraph, or possibly managed to get away... New line, please!

Having finished the slaughter in Rakovac, the same Company, acting under the command of Captain Mišolov, accompanied by Friar Miroslav Filipovic, the parish priest from Petricevac, near Banja Luka, carried out the slaughter of the Greek-Orthodox population of the village of Drakulic, near Banja Luka. They would gather several households together, carrying little children in their arms, and then proceed to slaughter them in a group, using axes, daggers and small knives, even pickaxes. In this way, about fifteen hundred persons were slaughtered in this village. It has to be pointed out that the personal attendant to the Minister of Traffic and Public Works of the Independent State of Croatia, Mr Hilmija Bešlagic, was among the Greek-Orthodox villagers who were slaughtered on this occasion. The Ustashi took away the Minister's car and sled... New line, then type on!

Slaughter was also carried out in the village of Šargovac, near Drakulic. On their way back to Banja Luka, the same Ustashi unit slaughtered the Greek-Orthodox population of the village of Motike, where about seventy families, numbering about seven hundred and fifteen people in all, were slaughtered in the aforementioned manner. New line!

The total number of victims of this slaughter adds up to about two thousand three hundred persons... Please underline the two thousand three hundred with a full line! No, type this instead of two thousand three hundred: according to some estimates, two thousand three hundred and seventy. Wait! Type two thousand three hundred, after all. All right! New line!

In view of the fact that in the villages of Šragovac and Motike the Greek-Orthodox population was mixed with Croats, the latter were ordered by the Ustashi to bury the dead bodies of the slaughtered Serbs under threat of being shot or being otherwise executed if they breathed but a word as to where they had buried the said dead bodies... New line!

The food, cattle, poultry and household belongings of the slaughtered Greek-Orthodox population has been transported by the Ustashi from the Battalion to their warehouses from the day of the slaughter to the present day. For that purpose, they have commandeered all private and other vehicles available. According to unverified reports, they have sold part of the looted cattle to local butcher's shops. New paragraph!

Due to the fact that I, as the Great Župan, had no prior knowledge whatsoever of the aforementioned slaughter, which was planned in the strictest secrecy by the Great Župan with the Ministry of the Interior, Dr Gutic, his brother Blaž, the commanding officers of the aforementioned Battalion, some local clergymen and other high-ranking officials, I still do not have all the necessary information about the slaughter. Word has reached me, although indirectly, that the slaughter had been prepared for some time. Thus, in keeping with the very detailed plan of the extermination of the Greek-Orthodox population of the villages of Drakulic, Šargovac and Motike, as well as the Rakovac coal mine, a census had been carried out under the pretext of distribution of free food. In view of the fact that the previous year's harvest had not been a good one, that cattle and food articles had already been requisitioned from the Greek-Orthodox villagers, they all hastened to apply for the free distribution of food, reporting all their family members truthfully to the Ustashi dressed in plain clothes. To avoid any unnecessary alarm among the local population, all their dogs had been poisoned before the operation under the pretext of there having occurred a dangerous epidemic of rabies; it had also been agreed that not a single shot was to be fired in the course of the operation, so as to avoid alarming the Greek-Orthodox elements. It should be added that, due to the high snowdrifts, one day before the slaughter the Ustashi from the Battalion, dressed in plain clothes again, presenting themselves as Town Hall attendants, had ordered the villagers, Greek-Orthodox as well as Croatian, to clear paths through the snow so that all the houses should be accessible. The aim of this was to enable the Ustashi to reach their chosen destinations more easily and more quickly, even though the villages marked for the slaughter were also circled by armed Ustashi units. On top of everything else, guides were chosen from among the Croatian part of the population for the purpose of pointing out Greek-Orthodox houses even though Friar Filipovic knew them only too well. New line!

Why is it necessary, one might ask, to point out these facts? Our greatest allies, the Germans, have, for a long time, been against mass slaughters of the Greek-Orthodox population, most likely because they consider such acts unfavourable to themselves, primarily because they result in the consternation of the whole of Christendom, particularly England and America, which might turn against them even more fiercely on account of this. The Italians have already collaborated in a big way with the so-called Serbian Cetniks, so they have to protect the Greek-Orthodox elements willy-nilly. As for us in Banja Luka and its environs, we have particularly good reasons to avoid mass slaughters. For, the aforementioned act of slaughtering two thousand three hundred Greek-Orthodox elements entails the danger of retribution by their rebels, taking their revenge on Croats and Mohammedans. This danger is all the greater, due to the fact that there are not enough armed Ustashi units here to defend Croatian and Mohammedan villages after the majority of German troops stationed here leave. It would not be possible to evacuate the inhabitants of those villages to Banja Luka because the town has too many refugees from other places already, and the food and water supplies are almost gone. Let me add that the town water supply system suffered substantial damage five or six days ago. It is not possible to establish whether the damage was caused by the diversion of the Cetnik forces or is due to the weather conditions on account of the inaccessibility of the location where the damage occurred due to high snowdrifts. Despite the fact that the cause cannot be determined, the Ustashi from the same Battalion, as I have just found out, killed about eighty hostages a couple of days ago, hostages taken by the German military authorities for the purpose of protecting the water supply system... New line, please, Claire, and type on.

It is of particular importance, in view of this event and its possible consequences, to emphasise that the Greek-Orthodox population in the villages where the slaughter was carried out was entirely loyal and peaceful. A short while ago, they were praised, both in the press and on the radio, for their loyal attitude towards the Croatian authorities, which was received with great relief among them; there is no doubt that this event will cause great alarm in the surrounding Greek-Orthodox villages. As the aforementioned villages - Šargovac, Motike and Drakulic, as well as the Rakovac coal mine - are surrounded by villages populated by Croats, they were unable to establish any contact with the rebel forces. This completely rules out the possibility of any illegal or rebellious action on the part of the slaughtered villagers, which, allegedly, was the motivation for the aforementioned Ustashi Battalion to act in the manner described... All right, insert a new sheet. Can we go on?

It is beyond any doubt that I cannot in any way be partial towards the local Greek-Orthodox population, particularly in view of the fact that the former Yugoslav Army took me from the also former armed forces of Österreichische-Hungarn Kaiser und König Monarchie in the rank of Captain, then had me retire at the age of forty on account of being unfit for military service. Let me add that this gross injustice was rectified only with the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, when, in accordance with the Headman's personal order, "the time of neglect and premature retirement by the Former Yugoslav authorities" was recognised as active military service; at the same time, I was promoted to the rank of infantry Colonel. Along with subsequent promotion, the Headman decorated me with the Grand Medal of the King Zvonimir Crown of the Second Order with swords, and I am also the holder of a Bulgarian medal for my contribution to the war effort in the 1914-1918 war. But as an officer of three different armies, I must point out that the slaughtered Greek-Orthodox inhabitants of the aforementioned villages were entirely peaceful and loyal, even though, as far as I know, they have never voluntarily accepted our Holy Faith, apart from being converted en masse by the order of the Bishop of Banja Luka, Msgr Jozo Garic. It is my firm belief, and I feel it my duty to point his out, that such actions can in no way serve the desired advancement of our homeland, the Independent State of Croatia, but will only result in angering Serb Cetniks and other rebels to an even greater extent. The Commanders of German and Italian units stationed here have already lodged their protests against this action, and I shall venture to say, expressed their contempt of us... New line!

It is generally believed that the moving spirit behind this slaughter is Doctor Viktor Gutic, the Great Župan with the Ministry of the Interior, currently residing in Banja Luka. On account of his wild temperament and great crimes committed against the local Jewish and Greek-Orthodox population, as well as looting proved beyond any reasonable doubt, he was removed from office when he came into open conflict, for the reasons stated above, with the Commander of the German troops stationed in Banja Luka, General Fortner. In view of the events described above and the like, which occurred in the region of this Great Župa while Doctor Gutic was its Stožernik and the Liquidator of the Vrbas Banovina, it is hardly any surprise that the Ustashi movement has been received with such little enthusiasm by the local population in its entirety, which is indubitably to the detriment of the general advancement of our state... New line again, Claire!

I have received records of the interrogations to which several persons of Roman Catholic faith have been subjected, and shall enclose excerpts from them. Thus Vladimir Žižak, from Motike, employed as a public notary in Saracica, twenty-three years old, son of the late Pero and Anica, maiden name Maric, of Roman Catholic faith, single, stated the following at the Banja Luka branch office of the Ustashi Supervisory Service: "On February 7th, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, I found out from fellow Town Hall employees that a group of about sixty Ustashi, headed by Reverend Friar Miroslav Filipovic, the parish priest from Petricevac, and Mile Kasupovic, a Home Guard member from Motike, carried out a mass slaughter in our village. Also, Joso Maric, employed at the tobacco factory in Banja Luka, told me that the Ustashi had come to the Rakovac coal mine, taken away all Greek-Orthodox miners and killed every one of them, some with axes, others with knives. According to what he had heard, the number of miners killed on the spot was forty-six. When they had finished the slaughter at the mine, they went to the villages of Drakulic, Šargovac and finally Motike. I do not know exactly what happened in the villages of Drakulic and Šargovac, but I heard that the Ustashi had passed through there, slaughtering all the Greek-Orthodox villagers. As the village of Motike is part of my borough, I inquired in some detail as to what exactly had been done in my village, and found out the following. The Ustashi who had come to our village had also been headed by Friar Miroslav Filipovic, the above-mentioned parish priest from Petricevac, and Mile Kasupovic, a Home Guard member from Motike. There were about sixty Ustashi there. They went from one Greek-Orthodox house to another, led by Filipovic and Kasupovic. They would gather a certain number of Greek-Orthodox villagers in a single house, and then proceed to slaughter them, mainly with axes, daggers and knives. Let me stress that the Ustashi slaughtered all the Greek-Orthodox inhabitants of Motike, the borough of Saracica, regardless of their age, children one day old as well as grown-up men and women, thus killing about seven hundred and fifteen of them. This statement I have given on the basis of what I have heard from fellow Town Hall employees, Croatians, that is, Roman Catholics only, and this is all that I have to say on the matter..." New line!

The Manager of the Lauš mine, Dragutin Kostanjšek, a mining engineer, thirty-nine years old, Ante Josipovic, from Motike, a student of mining and geology, twenty-three years old, and Rudi Barišic, from Banja Luka, a miner, thirty-two years old, all Croats, that is, of Roman Catholic faith, gave a joint statement at the above-mentioned branch office of the Ustashi Supervisory Service, as follows: "On February 7th, at four o'clock in the morning, a group of ten Ustashi came and took control of the Rakovac mine. The Greek-Orthodox miners who had remained to sleep in the roll-call room, on account of the fact that they couldn't go home because of big snowdrifts, were captured by the Ustashi, taken away and killed in the vicinity of the mine, mostly with mining pickaxes. About eight o'clock in the morning, on Saturday, when the first shift was due to start work, the Ustashi checked the identity of all the workers. The Greek-Orthodox miners were taken away one by one with their hands tied, and were killed in the field behind the mine. The killing was carried out in the following way: first they were hit by a special blunt instrument on the back of their heads, and as they fell down to the ground, they were finished off by means of pickaxes. When all the Greek-Orthodox miners had been killed in this fashion, they caught the whole third shift as they were leaving the pit after work and disposed of them in the above-mentioned manner."

Kostanjšek, the Lauš mine Manager, said: "I came to the mine about nine-thirty in the morning, then went to the field where the dead bodies of the miners lay. There I came across several workers, Croats, who were digging a pit for the burial. When I asked how many of them had been killed, they replied that there were thirty-seven dead miners from the third shift. They also told me that wherever they tried to dig burial pits they found dead bodies in the snow. They believed that those were miners from the first shift and those who had slept in the roll-call room. I still do not know the exact number of miners killed, but the Croat workers claim sixty-three of the sixty-eight Greek-Orthodox miners employed at the mine were killed... New line!

Ante Josipovic confirmed everything that Mr Kostanjšek had said; being from Motike, he added this: "I was at the mine that day from eight o'clock in the morning to three o'clock in the afternoon, so I didn't know what had happened in Motike during that period. The local Home Guard members, however, told me that the Ustashi had appeared suddenly and ordered the local Company Commander to encircle the village with his unit and block all the exits and roads. The Ustashi took several local Home Guard members as guides and immediately made their way towards the Greek-Orthodox part of the village, the Stijakovic and the Todic households. According to the accounts of the local Home Guard members, the Ustashi Commander would call the roll at each house, and when the whole family had gathered the slaughter would begin at once. Others carried out the killing of all the so-called Orthodox villagers in the same manner at the Vasic household. The same held true in the case of the Brkovic household and all the others. All in all, seventy Greek-Orthodox families were slaughtered. The Commander would first tell the head of the family to bring all the household members for the purpose of distribution of food, which they readily believed..."

Indent a new line, then type this statement: "I, Rudi Barišic, a miner, can only confirm the statement of the Manager, and add that, together with several other workers, I was ordered by the Ustashi to dig large pits, several large pits, in view of the number of people killed, for the purpose of burying them as quickly as possible. Together with the others, I dug from eight o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon, but we couldn't finish the job by that time. Other workers took over from us. The above..." Claire, leave out Barišic's statement, please! This is too long anyway, and we still have things to add. Start a new line and type as follows:

Ivo Juric, son of the late Petar and the late Jela, maiden name Maric, from the village of Šargovac, a miner, thirty-three years old, of Roman Catholic faith, married, father of four children, gave the following statement: "As a miner at the Rakovac mine, I was scheduled to work from eight o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon, that is, with the third shift, on February 7th. When I came to work, the Ustashi were there, one positioned at each of the corners of the mine, the others scattered here and there about the mine. I do not know the exact number of the Ustashi. Then we were told by the Ustashi to stand in line for a roll-call and that each one of us had to present his identity card. By examining these, the Ustashi found out which ones among us were Greek-Orthodox. These were led away, one by one, their hands tied behind their backs, to a field outside the mine area, where they were killed. The killing was carried out by hitting them on the head by a pickaxe until they died. The number of people killed in this way was between forty-four and fifty-two, which fact was established later, that is, when they were buried. Since I didn't have my identity card on me at the time of the check-up, witnesses had to confirm that I was a Croat and a Catholic, so the Ustashi took me with them to Drakulic and Šargovac. When we reached Drakulic, they demanded that I show them the houses where the Greek-Orthodox villagers lived. I showed them the upper part of Drakulic while Šimun Pletikosa showed them the lower part of the village. I also showed them the houses of the Greek-Orthodox families in Šargovac. The Ustashi called the Greek-Orthodox inhabitants of the village out of their houses one by one, and killed them by hitting them on their heads with axes. Then they would take out the children who were too small to answer their call, throw them in a heap, then slaughter them using axes and knives. I do not know how many people were killed altogether, but I don't believe that any of the Greek-Orthodox locals survived the slaughter. The Ustashi came back to Šargovac and Drakulic on February 8th, with sleds, actually they also took some sleds from the houses of the slaughtered Greek-Orthodox families, onto which they loaded maize, bacon, smoked meat, brandy and other foodstuffs. They also took the furniture, cattle and poultry from the houses of the murdered Greek-Orthodox families. This has been going on ever since the day of the slaughter up to the present day, that is, February 11th. I am prepared to swear that everything stated above..." Please leave out this last bit, about being prepared to swear. New line!

In addition to the above, I would like to add part of the report submitted by Mr Andrija Golub, Chairman of the local council of the borough of Budžak, wherein it is also stated that on February 7th an Ustashi unit came from Banja Luka to the villages of Drakulic and Šargovac, where they killed all the Greek-Orthodox villagers regardless of their sex and age. The killing was carried out using a special kind of blunt instrument, axes, daggers and knives. There were dead bodies lying all around, so the local Croats were ordered to bury them. The corpses had been dragged about by stray dogs, pigs and wild animals. New line!

Acting on the orders from your radio message, Commander, I tried immediately to contact Captain Mišolov and inform him of the aforementioned classified radio message number ninety-three stroke forty-two, sent to the Headquarters of the Ustashi Supervisory Service in Banja Luka, wherein you sent the following express orders: "Contact the Great Župan immediately STOP Get this message to Mišolov STOP All the goods, cattle and everything else that the Ustashi took from the villages of Drakulic and Motike is to be handed over to the Great Župa immediately STOP The Great Župan will dispose of the goods as he sees fit STOP This order is to be carried out immediately and I am to be informed of it by radio STOP" New line!

The said Captain Mišolov not only denied any knowledge of the fact that the property of the slaughtered Greek-Orthodox families from the aforementioned villages had been taken by the Ustashi, but also behaved most disrespectfully towards me, saying that the job he was doing was of a higher rank than mine and that his task had been entrusted to him from a higher authority than was the case with mine. When I asked him whose rank was higher, he replied: "Any 'old Ustashi' from Belgium, Italy, Hungary and South America, be he only a private, outranks any old fart who had been hiding his arse in the offices of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia!"

I do apologise, Claire, for quoting those vulgar words, but I consider it necessary that Mr Eugen Dido Kvaternik should know of them. New line!

After my radio message to you, there followed another radio message from you, classified information number ninety-four, wherein you issued the following orders to the said Captain Mišolov: "Stop the transport of the property of the slaughtered Serbs to your warehouses at once STOP You are strictly forbidden to interfere with the work of the civil authorities STOP You are issued this order under threat of being court-martialled STOP New line again, Claire

When I warned the Captain of how pernicious his acts were, he threatened me, saying: Whoever asked you anything? As soon as I and my unit return to Zagreb, you'll be sorry for what you said. I guarantee to you that you will remain the Great Župan for less than a month. It would be best for you and our cause if you took a revolver and shot yourself..."

I am prepared to submit the evidence required to prove that everything stated above is true in its entirety. I shall order that further investigation be carried out, of which I shall inform you in due course... Write this in the middle of the sheet, Claire: READY FOR THE HOMELAND! In the lower right-hand corner: The Great Župan... That's it! Now call the courier by phone to send this message urgently...

I do apologise once again, Claire, for my conduct in your presence today. This, you know, is the greatest humiliation in my life. I am a member of the Ustashi movement, also, I am ready to do everything for the benefit of our state, but I am nevertheless an officer who is against brutal treatment of peaceful citizens, whatever religion and nation they may be. Through acts of this kind, we present ourselves in the worst possible light before our allies and others, as the worst barbarians in recent history. I beg you, dear Claire, that this confession of mine should remain strictly between us - the Great Župan concluded, gently embracing his secretary, who responded with a grateful smile.

* * *

I have endeavoured, most conscientiously and diligently, to put down the statements of my Commander, Captain Mišolov, who was undoubtedly blessed not only with the most excellent characteristics of an Ustashi officer and fighter but also with those of a master story-teller. If I did not manage to render his words quite truthfully, I beg his forgiveness in Heaven. Let me just add that I obtained the report of Great Župan Aleman later, straight from his diary, so I present it in its original form.

Trieste, March 7th 1946

A. Puvaca, Ustashi Sub-Sergeant

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Copyright © 1998 Jovan Babic
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