The Ustaša Genocide Against Serbs - Short History Documentary

During the Second World War, a puppet state was installed by the Axis powers. The Ustasha were Croatian fascists who attempted to rid the region of Serbs, Jews and Roma. Whilst similar genocides were been committed by the Axis powers at the time, the level of barbarity and violence would be such as to raise concerns by their Nazi allies. Much of the horrors were carried out by way of tools and knives.

As a Greek I am surprised to see a video about this. Even I as a Balkan citizen had only heard it from a Serbian friend who mentioned it once and I was bewildered. Huge tragedy that remains hidden with no attention to this day.

One of the things mostly overlooked by historians when studying NDH ( Independent State of Croatia ) is actually that Ustashe weren't an organization that only had ethnic Croats in their ranks. My mother comes from a village called Ukrina in Bosnia, which probably got it's name from a large number of Ukrainian (or Galician) settlers that were settled there during the rule of Austria-Hungary.

There isn't or ever was a settlement or a city with a large Croatian population nowhere near the village in a radius of about like 100-150 kilometers, and the closest Domobran (Croatian Home Army) ''police station'' was also kilometers away. Anyway, my great grandmother was thrown on a bonfire by the local Ustashe members from the village, which were ethnic Galicians and Ukrainians.

They made my grandfather (who was 8 years old at the time) watch his mother burn in the bonfire, and he grew up to become an drunkard. I rarely saw him laugh and smile, and even though when he was smiling, his eyes were never filled with joy, you could see the pure sorrow and suffering in them because of that trauma.

Finally someone is talking about Ustaše. My family has suffered a lot in Ustaše camps, this needed to come to light!