Communist Retaliation and Persecution on 
Yugoslav Territory during and after WWII (1943-1950)

by

Michael Portmann

Abstract: The following article deals with repressive measures undertaken by communistdominated Partisan forces during and especially after WWII in order to take revenge on former enemies, to punish collaborators, and “people’s enemies“ and to decimate and eliminate the potential of opponents to a new, socialist Yugoslavia. The text represents a summary of a master thesis referring to the above-mentioned topic written and accepted at Vienna University in 2002.¹ The author is scholarship holder of “ZEIT Foundation” (Hamburg) and is currently working on his doctorate on “The Process of Transformation in Vojvodina in the Period of 1944 to 1946”.

I RETALIATION AFTER WWII IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT 

It is a general phenomenon in history that transformation processes of states and societies have always been accompanied by persecution, retaliation and political trials and cleansings. Neverthele ss, it is a fact that with respect to the extent, intensity and the consequences retaliation upon fascism and collaboration in Europe between 1943 and 1948 stands singularly. Hundreds of thousands of real or imagined war criminals, collaborators, and “people’s enemies” have been killed, even more have been condemned by courts and millions of people (mostly civilians) have been expelled or were forced to leave their homes by the new authorities. Especially since the beginning of the 1990ties the historiography has asked the crucial questions in this context and found (or is still looking) for adequate answers.² Some of these questions are:

• The whole spectrum of possible activities for people in an occupied country (from active collaboration to open resistance) has to be exactly defined and described.³
• Which role played collaboration in the occupying policy of the Axis powers?⁴
• Which power did indeed decide who has to be treated as a war criminal, collaborator or “people’s enemy”?
• How narrow was the link in the respective countries between legal punishments, revolutionary jurisdiction and - in areas where a civil war took place - retaliation upon former war enemies?

The often one-sided historiography in communist countries stigmatised all former war enemies and also political opponents in general as traitors and collaborators, without making any differentiation. It was exactly this one-sidedness, which led in some of the new states (Baltic republics, Ukraine, Slovakia, Croatia and Serbia) - after the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the dissolution of the old Yugoslavia - to a similar one-sided political and legal rehabilitation of convinced representatives of the collaborationist regimes. It might be one of the most delicate and difficult tasks of European historiography to describe the complex of “occupation – collaboration – retaliation” during and after WWII with all its complex facets.

II STAND OF RESEARCH AND SECONDARY LITERATURE

The following literature review does not claim to be complete. It may be that a publication was deliberately not mentioned, or it was omitted because this author was not aware of its existence.

a) Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian literature of the 1990ties

It almost goes without saying that in socialist Yugoslavia a free, scholarly-based, and public debate about the “dark sides” of communism coming into power was neither possible nor desired. It was only after the violent break-up of the old Yugoslavia during the 1990ies, when in Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro the historiography was to be turned a new page in recent history of their countries.

The articles and books published by Slovenian historians usually do emphasize - but not overstress - a national point of view and most of them can be characterized as professional and impartial works.⁵

In the light of the difficult political situation in Croatia between 1992 and 1995 not only the population but also a part of Croatian historians and journalists were affected and influenced by nationalistic war propaganda. Among other works, a spate of literature appeared on the sensitive topic of “Bleiburg and the Death marches”, most of it by far not reaching the level of scholarship. ⁶ It rather seemed to be the intention of the authors to describe the “right” (in both senses of the word) Croats as the good ones and to condemn and stigmatise the (alleged) then and present-day enemies of the Croatian people, such as Communists and Serbs. Therewith they helped – whether on purpose or not – to prepare and legitimate the forthcoming respectively ongoing expulsion and flight of Croatian Serbs from the Krajina and Eastern Slavonia. Nevertheless, there were also some works about the so-called “greatest tragedy in Croatian history” which tried to support an objective discussion within Serbian and Croatian historiography and public on the events during and after WWII.⁷

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1 Portmann, Michael, Kommunistische Abrechnung mit Kriegsverbrechern, Kollaborateuren, „Volksfeinden“ und „Verrätern“ in Jugoslawien während des Zweiten Weltkriegs und unmittelbar danach, unpublished MA Paper, Wien 2002.

2 Bjelajac, Mile, Istoriografija o gradanskom ratu u Jugoslaviji 1941-1945. in: Istorija 20. veka, god. XV, broj 1, Beograd 1997, p. 129-144.

3 Okkupation und Kollaboration (1938-1945). Beiträge zu Konzepten und Praxis der Kollaboration in der deutschen Okkupationspolitik. Zusammengestellt und eingeleitet von Werner Röhr (=Europa unterm Hakenkreuz. Die Okkupationspolitik des deutschen Faschismus (1938-1945), Ergänzungsband 1), Berlin, Heidelberg 1994.

4 Die Okkupationspolitik des deutschen Faschismus in Jugoslawien, Griechenland, Albanien, Italien und Ungarn (1941-1945), (=Europa unter Heknkreuz. Die Okkupationspolitik des deutschen Faschismus (1948-1945), Bd. 6), Berlin, Heidelberg 1992.

5 The bibliographical data of the most important works are to be mentioned here: Griesser-Pecar, Tamara, Das zerrissene Volk. Slowenien 1941-1946. Okkupation. Kollaboration. Bürgerkrieg. Revolution, Wien/Graz 2003; Vodusek Staric, Jera, Prevzem oblasti 1944-1946, Ljubljana 1992; Ibid., Ozadje sodnih procesov v Sloveniji v prvem povojnem letu, in: Pripevki za novejso zgodovino 1-2, Ljubljana 1992, p.139-154; Ibid., Überlegungen zur Sowjetisierung Nachkriegs-Jugoslawiens, in: Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung, Mannheim 1998, p.86-98; Ibid., Stalinismus und Selbst-Sowjetisierung in Jugoslawien. Von der kommunistischen Partisanenbewegung zu Titos Einparteiensystem, in: Gleichschaltung unter Stalin? Die Entwicklung der Parteien im östlichen Europa 1944-1949, edited by Stefan Creuzberger und Manfred Görtemaker, Paderborn 2002, p. 219-237; Jancar, Drago (ed.), temna stran meseca. kratka zgodovina totalitarizma v sloveniji 1945-1990, Ljubljana 1998; Slovenija v letu 1945. Zbornik referatov, edited by Zveza zgodovinskih drustev Sloveniji, Ljubljana 1996; Sirc, Ljubo, Resnicna borba za svobodo: mnozicno ubijanje - cast ali sramota za Slovence? Kranj, 1995; Ibid., Between Hitler and Tito. Nazi Occupation and Communist Oppression, London 1989 (Sirc actually belongs to the group of Southslavic exile writers); Repe, Bozo, Povojni sodni procesi v Sloveniji, in: Zgodvina v soli, Vol. 1 (1992), No. 3, p. 9-16; Vodopivec, Peter (ed.), Usoda slovenskih demokraticnih izobrazencev. Angela Vode in Boris Furlan - zrtvi Nagodetovega procesa, Ljubljana 2001; Drnovsek, Darinka, Zapisniki politbiroja CK KPS/ZKS 1945-1954, in: Viri, 15, Ljubljana 2000; Griesser-Pecar, Tamara, Zur Problematik der katholischen Kirche in Slowenien unmittelbar nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, in: Österreichische Osthefte, Vol. 37, book 1, Wien 1995; Ibid., Rozmanov proces, Ljubljana 1996; Dornik-Subelj, Ljuba, Nastanek in razvoj organov za notranje zadeve republike Slovenije v oVolobju 1945 do 1963, in: arhivi 1-2/1993, p. 78- 81; Ibid., Oddelek za zascito naroda za Slovenjo, Ljubljana 1994.

6 A nationalistic view Nikolic, Vinko (ed.), Bleiburg: uzroci i posljedice. Spomen-zbornik cetrdesete godisnjice tragedije, München/Barcelona 1988. Nikolic, Vinko, Poslije pola stoljeca – Bleiburg je povijest, in: Spomenica povodom 50-te obljetinice Bleiburga i Kriznog puta 1945.-1995., edited by Mirko Valentic, Zagreb 1995. Other contributions in this book - such as the one by Vladimir Geiger - are highly recommendable. Herceg Stjepan, Samobor. Mali Bleiburg 1945, Samobor 1996.

7 Zerjavic, Vladimir, Demografija o Bleiburgu. In: Bleiburg. otvoreni dossier. Marko Grcic (ed), Zagreb 1990; Ibid, Opsesije i megalomanije oko Jasenovca i Bleiburga. Gubici stanovnistva Jugoslavije u drugom svjetskom ratu, Zagreb 1992; Ibid., Population losses in Yugoslavia 1941-1945, Zagreb 1997.