Osječki zbornik, Vol. Vol. 30 No. xx, 2011.
Original scientific paper
Displacement of Serbs from western Slavonia and their property nationalisation by the Independent state of Croatia authorities in 1941
Filip Škiljan
; Institut za migracije i narodnosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
One of the forms of terror over Serbian orthodox population in the Independent State of Croatia was to displace them and deprive them of their property. The Ustasha did not shrink from no means to achieve that aim. For this reason their actions took various forms of terror. The documents of the archives of the National Authority for Renovation show how extensive these actions in the area of western Slavonia were and what nationalisation of the property belonging to Serbian population was like. Before establishing the National Authority for Renovation a great number of estates inhabited by the Thessalonica volunteers in Virovitica and Slatina Podravina region had been displaced. This was a case of 12000 people ( 7000 from the Virovitica and approximately 5000 from the Slatina area). The research results for the Virovitica area include partially those who were displaced later i.e. through emigration camps (villages in the southern part of the Virovitica district). After displacement of the Thessalonica volunteers and their families in June 1941 there followed displacement of Orthodox clergy that was almost completely displaced from the area of western Slavonia by July 1941. Only the priests that were ethnically not Serbs but Russians, Montenegrins or Ukrainians remained.
After displacement of priests through established displacement camps in Caprag, Bjelovar,and Slavonska Pozega there began displacement of well-off Serbs. Almost at the same time and a little bit later common villagers were diplaced. However, the number of the persons displaced through displacement camps was smaller than of those who were directly transported to Bosnia and over the Drina to Serbia, i.e. the Thessalonica volunteers. The number of persons displaced in this manner amounted to about 1100 persons. If the number of those who emigrated on their own is added, which according to the document data could not be big, the number of displaced Serbs from western Slavonia could amount to between 13000 and 13500 people including the Thessalonica volunteers. Besides displacement one of the forms of terror over the Serbian population was mass deprivation of their property both movable and immovable. Partial research results indicate only to the forms and ways of property deprivation. Property sealing, appointment of commissioners for the owners who were present in their shops and workshops, but also all sorts of plunder (both legal and illegal) of Serbian property caused the feeling of insecurity surely not only in those who were directly affected (i.e. Serbs) but in local Croatian population as well. Because of the amount of property and inability of national and in particular of local authorities to cope with the problem of property nationalisation the impression was that the state was disorganized and confused. Documents of the National Authority for Renovation, Serbian Section, indicate at the same time to the lowest human passion. Until-yesterday neighbours were ready to search the most wretched property parts of their former close acquaintances. Eventually the total of nationalized objects and firms which is surely incomplete, shows the wealth of Serbian community in western Slavonia whose most eminent representatives, unless they were moved out, perished in the Ustasha camps of Jadovno, Pag, Jasenovac or Stara Gradiska.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
207109
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2011.
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