The Evolution of Ustasha Mass Violence: Nation-Statism, Paramilitarism, Structure, and Agency in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941

Abstract

Kralj highlights the differing and competing versions of the Ustasha policy of ethnic cleansing. Focusing on the dynamic relationship between the institutional top-down approach to violence, and the paramilitary bottom-up mobilization, this chapter examines the evolution of the Ustasha mass violence from pogroms to concentration camps. Due to conflicts between various state agencies and the armed Ustasha militias in the countryside, this evolution was not straightforward. Focusing on the ‘wild Ustashe’ militias, the main argument is that their pogrom-like activities against the Serbs were encouraged by the Ustasha regime due to various structural reasons closely examined in this chapter. However, the nature of bottom-up mobilization and erasure of limits to its violence created further difficulties for the Ustasha regime and threatened its very existence.