"The Renewal of Medieval Times" in Yugoslavia, 1941

Article from the Fascist-controlled press in Italy in 1941. The author, Corrado Zoli, was traveling through Bosnia and witnessed the Ustase massacres - and the assistance of Franciscan priests in the butchery - firsthand.

There can be little doubt that this article appeared with the agreement of the Fascist Party in Italy, and the Italian Army had already begun to stand between the Ustase and their victims in zones of the NDH under their authority.

There were special bands who performed the massacres and are probably still doing so, actually led and incited by Catholic priests and monks. This is more than confirmed. There was a monk near Travnik with the crucifix in one hand who was inciting a band of people whom he had organized and was leading. This happened in the first few days after my arrival there.

"This therefore means the renewal of medieval times," remarked the correspondent.

"Yes, but made worse by machine guns, hand grenades, dynamite, barrels of gasoline and other means of terrorism."

"Was this committed by the local Croat people?" asked Zoli.

"That's it, but by the worst element of the Croat population, just young men of around 20, collected, armed and led by Croats who came from Zagreb. This was all taking place among people who pretend to be civilized and who brag about having accepted the Mediterranean and Roman culture, sometimes even stating that they are the direct descendants of the Goths. It was a terrible massacre! It was a living terror! Entire families, men women, babies, old men, the sick and children massacred and tormented by the worst imaginable Chinese tortures."...

...The first brother of Assisi spoke with the birds and fish, calling them brothers and sisters, but his disciples and spiritual heirs, filled with hate, massacre the people in the Independent State of Croatia, who are before God and the Father, their own brothers, brothers of the same blood, the same language, the same mother earth which has nourished them with the sap from her breasts. They massacre, they kill, they bury people alive. They throw their victims into the rivers, the sea and into crevices. Bands of these killers still exist and they are in a state of frenzied excitement, led on by the priests and the Catholic religious officials.

September 18, 1941

Article by Corrado Zoli in Il Resto del Carlino. Quoted in Paris, Edmond. Genocide in Satellite Croatia. Online at www.jasenovac-info.com