Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31823/d.28.4.2
The Relationship of NOVJ towards the Croatian Civilians and the Defeated Soldiers of the NDH Armed Forces in Mostar at the End of World War II and the Immediate Aftermath
Hrvoje Mandić
orcid.org/0000-0002-7331-7645
; Central Office for the Archive of the University in Zagreb
Abstract
By seizing Mostar, the Yugoslav National Liberation Army (NOVJ) established control over the lower course of the Neretva River and achieved one of two preconditions for establishing a revolutionary communist government in the area. The second precondition was dealing with all potential political opponents in Mostar. The problem of the suffering of the Croatian population in February and the immediate aftermath of 1945 in Mostar has not been sufficiently investigated. The Communist authorities deliberately neglected the Croatian civilian casualties in February and the aftermath of 1945 with the help of regime historiography. The paper is a contribution to the research on the Croatian victims in Mostar. The paper uses descriptions, historical-narrative method, content analysis method, count-ing/enumeration method, and oral history method. By implementing the method of division and liquidation, the Department for People’s Protection (OZNA) and the People’s Defence Corps of Yugoslavia (KNOJ) committed a systematic series of murders of Croatian civilians and members of the Independent State of Croatia’s (NDH) armed forces in Mostar, in February and the immediate aftermath of 1945. The largest execution sites of murdered civilians and soldiers are located under the partisan monument in Mostar, in the Novakuša Cave towards Nevesinje, and the Radimlja site near Stolac.
Keywords
Mostar; Josip Broz Tito; Independent State of Croatia’s (NDH) armed forces; NOVJ; OZNA; KNOJ; Partisan monument
Hrčak ID:
249188
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2020.
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