From ...............

By Howard Blum

Pub by Quadrangle ....... NY, NY 1977

pgs 153-4 .

........ Organization- which came to be known as the Ustashi (Insurrection) - would fulfill its promises with a bloody vengeance and dedication. The head of the Ustashi, its poglavnik, was Ante Pavelic, a veteran of many Croat right-wing movements. Pavelic molded a political movement demanding fanatic excess and, in return, offering expiation for these passions through mysticism, Croatian nationalism, and [Roman] Catholicism.

Upon joining the Ustashi, the novitiaite was immediately indoctrinated with its mystery and authority. The initiation rite required that one swear before a crucifix framed by a dagger and a revolver an oath promising total devotion:

The choice of the three symbols - the crucifix, the dagger, and the revolver - was not a casual one. The Ustashi "call to blood" that Pavelic was demanding of his followers would be a religious calling. The intensity of Croatian [Roman] Catholicism would now be transferred, Pavelic hoped, to a political movement. The devotion, duty and bloodletting which the Ustashi promised, would become a holy war to create a Croatian state, a state which would be both separate and [ROMAN] Catholic.

As Ustashi member Dr. Mile Budak, later to become the Croatian Minister of Education, said,

The Ustashi was less than a year old when Andrija Artukovic, then a twenty-nine-year-old lawyer, swore his oath of allegiance before the crucifix, the revolver, and the dagger. He seemed a natural Ustashi recruit. The eldest son of a family of Croat farmers living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Artukovic was raised to be a devout Catholic and a fierce supporter of an independent Croatia. And as Eichmann, supervised the conversion of the brick kilns into ovens where thousands of Serbs and Jews were burned alive. Death at these camps, though, was not just by anonymous fire. The Ustashi, more so than even the Gestapo, demanded a more personal involvement in their evil.

The Ustashi murderers killed their victims with an atavistic passion: throat slashings, eye gougings, tongue extractions, axe decapitations, and disembowelments - all were common ways of death for "enemies of the state."

At Jasenovac, contests were conducted to see which Ustashi could execute the fastest with his graviso, a long, curve-bladed knife. Petar Brzica was the champion- His graviso cut through 1,300 throats in a single night. For nearly four years the killings continued. Artukovic's executioners hunted in the towns and cities of Croatia for those he had labeled

His men were very effective: Over 300,000 Yugoslavs were victims of the Ustashi. And, despite all the killings, Artukovic personally demanded more excess.

It was Artukovic, according to Yugoslav documents, who ordered Chief of Police Franjo Truhar:

It was Artukovic who warned the mayor of Cerin:

It was Artukovic who scolded Simun Buntic for killing only two Serbs:

"you should not have come to me at all if you have not killed two hundred Serbs."

But as the Reich crumbled, so did the independent state of Croatia. On May 4, 1945, the German troops pulled out of Croatia and the Ustashi followed. For PaveIic and Artukovic, the years on the run began once more. They changed into civilian clothes and, under the protection of the retreating Nazis, managed to reach Austria.

The [Roman Catholic] Church, which had supported them in power, now supported them in defeat. Pavelic and Artukovic moved through a network of Austrian monasteries, disguised as Father Benarez and Father Gomez. PaveIic, always cautious, clipped his distinguishing bushy eyebrows, grew a beard, and wore false glasses. Using a passport in the name of DaI Aranyos, a priest, he sailed from Rome in 1948 to Buenos Aires. These disguises and precautions [-----].

- END page 154 -

A comparitive examination of Hitler's appeal in America, Ireland, Spain, S.America, and Europe will confirm the FACT that Roman Catholics world-wide tended to favorably view Adolf Hitler in contrast to Prots and Jews who tended to not favor Hitler.

No Catholic was ever persecuted by the Nazi regime for being a Catholic.

Certain Catholics WERE persecuted for the personal stand which they took in opposition to the Nazis.

Hitler himself was born and died a Roman Catholic in good standing, as did most of his high level subordinates and allied heads of state.

Hitler's home base was Bavaria,... the home of Nazism, and the most Roman Catholic section of Germany.

One of Hitler's fellow head of state [MONSIGNOR Tiso-Slovakia] allies was a Roman Catholic clergyman who was NEVER defrocked.

In Croatia, the Nazis were allied with the USTASHI, which was explicitly 100 % Roman Catholic.

The avowed USTASHI goal, was a 100% Roman Catholic Croatia.

Not to mention Hitler's early mentor,

RC Mussolini, of RC Italy.

And RC Franco of RC Spain.

And RC Petain of mostly RC France.

[ see PETAIN'S CRIME by Paul Webster, pub by Ivan R. Dee ]