Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH): Belittling, Banalizing and Denying Crime

U tekstu se razmatra revizionistička struja u suvremenoj hrvatskoj historiografiji, a posredno i u politici, koja se bavi Nezavisnom Državom Hrvatskom (1941-1945). Revizionistički narativ čine tri glavne postavke: (a) NDH je bila normalna onodobna protupobunjenička država koja nije koristila državni teror kako bi uništila vjerske i etničke zajednice koje su u ustaškoj ideologiji i politici bile određene kao prirodni ili organski neprijatelji te tvorevine, nego je primjenjivala ograničena legitimna sredstva borbe da bi se zaštitila od političkih pobunjenika; (b) u NDH nisu izvršeni masovni zločini, a kamoli genocid, ni nad Srbima, ni nad Židovima, ni nad Romima; štoviše, glavne žrtve bili su Hrvati te zločine NDH treba desrbizirati i dejudeizirati; (c) logor Jasenovac bio je samo radni i sabirni logor, a ne koncentracijski logor smrti, u koji je NDH privodila političke protivnike kako bi se zaštitila od njihova razornog djelovanja, a ne kako bi ih ubijala; pravi smrtonosni logor u Jasenovcu osnovala je tek jugoslavenska komunistička vlast poslije svršetka Drugoga svjetskog rata. Pokušavajući dekonstruirati “jasenovački mit”, revizionisti zapravo nastoje dekonstruirati “mit o genocidu” u NDH, a time potpuno ili djelomice rehabilitirati NDH.This article analyses the revisionist currents in Croatian contemporary historiography – and implicitly also in politics – which in its focus has interpretation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH, 1941-1945). Three main elements of the revisionist narative are: a) NDH was just a normal state concerned with rebellion in its own territory, rather than the state which used state terror to exterminate religious and ethnic communities marked as its “natural and organic enemies”. In other words, it only applied limited and legitimate instruments to protect itself from its political opponents. b) There were no massive crimes, and especially no genocide, neither against the Serbs, nor Jewish or Roma population. On the contrary, the main victims in 1941-1945 had been Croats, and thus the crimes of NDH should be de-Serbianized and de-Jewisized. c) Jasenovac was only a labour camp and prison, not a concentration death camp. The NDH used it for gathering and arresting its political opponents in order to prevent them from pursuing their destructive actions against the state. The real death camp in Jasenovac was formed only in 1945 by post-NDH communist authorities. By deconstructing what they call the “Jasenovac myth”, the revisionists are in fact trying to deconstruct “the myth of genocide by NDH”, and thus to rehabilitate the NDH either completely or partially