ARCHBISHOP STEPINAC, THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA AND WESTERN ALLIES

Milan, Koljanin, Dragica

ISTRAŽIVANJA, Јournal of Historical Researches

30

272

293

2406-1131

http://istrazivanja.ff.uns.ac.rs/index.php/istr/article/view/2141

2019-2020/01/21/12:21:49

There are various doubts and ambiguities regarding the dispatch of the memorandum by the Government of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) to the Western Allies asking for military intervention in early May 1945, giving rise to different interpretations in historiography. These varying interpretations are related to the circumstances of the dispatch of the memorandum, its text, the actions of prominent representatives of the Ustasha government, relations between the new Yugoslav authorities and Western allies, especially the British and the role of Archbishop Stepinac and the Holy See in the ISC. In order to understand the memorandum, it is necessary to consider the most important political and military circumstances at the end of World War II in Yugoslavia, especially the politics of the new Yugoslavia and the Western powers, primarily the British. The representatives of the Holy See in the ISC and the Archbishop of Zagreb, Alojzije Stepinac, played an important role in efforts to preserve the Ustasha state. This paper was written based on unpublished and published archival sources and relevant historiographical literature.

Archbishop Stepinac, Holy See, memorandum, the Ustasha government, Western Allies, World War II, Yugoslavia