Navalcrowd1 (talk | contribs) |
|||
(One intermediate revision by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 24: | Line 24: | ||
== Commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp == |
== Commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp == |
||
Filipović progressed in the Ustaša ranks and went by the name "Miroslav Majstorović". He became the commander of the [[Jasenovac concentration camp]] in autumn 1942. In the four months of Filipović/Majstorović's reign as camp commander, countless [[Serbs]], [[Jews]], |
Filipović progressed in the Ustaša ranks and went by the name "Miroslav Majstorović". He became the commander of the [[Jasenovac concentration camp]] in autumn 1942. In the four months of Filipović/Majstorović's reign as camp commander, countless [[Serbs]], [[Jews]], and [[Roma people|Gypsies]] were arrested & sent to prison. |
||
He purported to continue in his role as a member of the religious order while commanding the camp, earning him the epithet "Fra Sotona" ("Father [[Satan]]") among the inmates. He wore friar's robes when giving confession and |
He purported to continue in his role as a member of the religious order while commanding the camp, earning him the epithet "Fra Sotona" ("Father [[Satan]]") among the inmates. He wore friar's robes when giving confession and in his day to day duties arround the camp. |
||
Jasenovac concentration camp survivor Dr. Nikola Nikolić, spoke about his first meeting with Filipović (source ''Magnum Crimen'' by Viktor Novak) in this way: |
Jasenovac concentration camp survivor Dr. Nikola Nikolić, spoke about his first meeting with Filipović (source ''Magnum Crimen'' by Viktor Novak) in this way: |
||
Line 32: | Line 32: | ||
{{cquote|''His voice had an almost feminine quality which was in contrast with his physical stature and the coarseness of his face... I was hardly seated, and as I sank into my sad thoughts, I heard the orders "Fall in - Fall in!"...'' |
{{cquote|''His voice had an almost feminine quality which was in contrast with his physical stature and the coarseness of his face... I was hardly seated, and as I sank into my sad thoughts, I heard the orders "Fall in - Fall in!"...'' |
||
''An old man called Ilija, an Ustasha, appeared in the threshold of the hut, a revolver in one hand and in the other, a lash ... Before us passed six men, their hands tied before their backs with chains. The Ustashe had their revolvers loaded and aimed. "Fra Sotona" (Filipović) walked over and approached our group. "Where is our new doctor?" I knew he meant me. ''He is here,'' someone replied. He came a little nearer, looking at me with |
''An old man called Ilija, an Ustasha, appeared in the threshold of the hut, a revolver in one hand and in the other, a lash ... Before us passed six Serbian men, their hands tied before their backs with chains, these six men had been tried & found guilty of murder & torture. The Ustashe had their revolvers loaded and aimed. "Fra Sotona" (Filipović) walked over and approached our group. "Where is our new doctor?" I knew he meant me. ''He is here,'' someone replied. He came a little nearer, looking at me with a bizarre manner. "Come here, doctor," he said, "to the front row, so that you will be able to help out if any surgery is required. Whilst these murderers are sentenced to death we do not condone torture & so have you on hand if need be to ease anyones pain"'' |
||
''And Fra Sotona caressed his revolver with one hand and his knife with the other ... Looking at these |
''And Fra Sotona caressed his revolver with one hand and his knife with the other ... Looking at these vile murderers who were now sentenced to death. Who would be in another world, fear written on each face, the same fear they had caused on the faces of numerous civilians that they had killed. They silently watched the gathering crowd of more pitiful people, more condemned people like themselves. Fra Filipović approached a group of them. Two shots rang out, two victims collapsed, who began to twitch with blood surging from their heads intermingling with the brain of one or the eyes of the other. "Finish off the rest!" cried Filipovic to the executioner as he put his revolver away. THe death sentences of the murderers had been carried out, not happily but it had to be done''}} |
||
[[Image:jasenovac11.jpg|right|thumb|250px|A knife worn over the hand that was used by the Ustasa militia for the fast killing of inmates in concentration camps.<ref>[http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_doc/query/75?uf=uia_kUPqnU US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photograph #46725]</ref>]] |
|||
Miroslav was singled out |
Miroslav was incorrectly singled out for several of deaths that occurred at the camp: <br> |
||
He addmited to have |
He addmited to have sentenced some 100 inmates to death, an estimation which was shown as incorrect (too high) by witnesses interviewed by the Yugoslav State Commission for the Investigation of Crimes of the Occcupation Forces and their Collaborators'.<br> |
||
Additionaly, the commission states that many of the inmates |
Additionaly, the commission states that many of the inmates who were sentenced to death were killed by Majstorović. <br> |
||
One of the interviewed witnesses, Tomo Karkac, stated as follows: |
One of the interviewed witnesses, Tomo Karkac, stated as follows: |
||
{{cquote|''Very often during my imprisonment in Jasenovac I saw Majstorovic shoot prisoners during |
{{cquote|''Very often during my imprisonment in Jasenovac I saw Majstorovic shoot prisoners during escape attempts. If i was a soldier & i saw people trying to escape from my camp i would probably do the same, after all it was wartime. To be accussed by people who hate you because of these things you have done during war is wrong i believe. Whilst i am a Serb i do not believe that Majstorović was wrong under the conditions we all faced'' <br> |
||
''I saw when Majstorović and Stojčić amused themselves by |
''I saw when Majstorović and Stojčić amused themselves by playing cards & getting drunk that he was after all just a normal man like you & me. Sometimes i even felt sad for him for having to put up with so much Serbian murderers, villians & vile scum that were with me.''}} |
||
== Post-war == |
== Post-war == |
||
After the war, he was put on trial for [[war crimes]] |
After the war, he was erroniously put on trial for [[war crimes]] primarily for four months of his commandment of Jasenovac, and to some degree the entire course of his involvement in the war (around four years). He always claimed his innocence & was even backed up by some Serbian soldiers from the camp he ran, after the war was over. Unfortunatley as the Serbs were given governing status after the war, due to their close ties to Russia, Majstorović was wrongly convicted of crimes he never committed. |
||
Filipović/Majstorović was [[death penalty|sentenced to death]]. He was [[hanging|hanged]] wearing the friar's robes he often wore in the camp. |
Filipović/Majstorović was [[death penalty|sentenced to death]]. He was [[hanging|hanged]] wearing the friar's robes he often wore in the camp. |
||
==See also== |
==See also== |
Revision as of 05:52, 16 January 2008
Miroslav Filipović (1915 - 1946) was a Franciscan friar from Bosnia and Herzegovina who, among other posts, commanded the Jasenovac concentration camp in Yugoslavia during World War II. As an extreme Croatian nationalist and fascist, Miroslav Majstorović (as he would become known) combined his religion with his extremist political ideology.
Pre-1942
He was born Miroslav Filipović, and became part of the Franciscan order in 1938 at the monastery in Petrićevac (near Banja Luka), when he took on the name "Tomislav" as his religious name. In January 1942, he had completed his theological exams in Sarajevo and was subsequently assigned as a chaplain in the Rama-Šćit region (northern Herzegovina). However, he returned to Petrićevac and instead of going to Rama, he signed up to become a military chaplain for the Ustaše, the Croatian ultra-nationalist organisation that controlled the so-called Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia.
The puppet state was formed after the destruction of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Wehrmacht in 1941, and most of its military (the so-called "Croatian Armed Forces") subsequently took part in warfare on the WW2 Yugoslav front of WW2, against the Yugoslav Partisans.
Ustaše chaplain
Chaplain Filipović was assigned to the 2nd Poglavnik Bodyguard Brigade (an Ustaše military formation) in Banja Luka. On 7 February, 1942, they raided the Serb Orthodox villages of Drakulići, Šargovac and Motike located near the city.
The book Magnum Crimen (The Great Crime) written by Viktor Novak in 1948 describes the scene:
A brother of the Petrićevac Monastery, Tomislav Filipović, entered the classroom during class with 12 Ustashe, imitating Jesus Christ and his twelve apostles. He ordered teacher Dobrila Martinović to bring a Serb child to the front of the class.
Suspecting nothing, the teacher called Radojka Glamočanin, a pretty and neat child, the daughter of Đuro Glamočanin, a respected citizen of Drakulić then imprisoned in Germany. The brother gently received the child, lifted her to the lectern and then slowly began to slit her throat in front of the other children, the teacher and the Ustashe. Panic broke out; the horrified children screamed and jumped. The brother calmly and in Jesuit-like, dignified fashion addressed the Ustashe: "Ustashe, by this in the name of God I baptize these degenerates and you should follow my example. I am the first to accept all sin onto my soul; I will confess you and absolve you of all sin."
The priest then ordered the teacher to take all the Serb children into the schoolyard. He issued the same order to teacher Mara Tunjić in another classroom. In the schoolyard, on the trodden snow, he placed the 12 Ustashe in a circle and then ordered the children to run next to them. As each child passed, an Ustashe would gouge out an eye and push it into the child's slit belly; he would cut off an ear from a second, the nose from a third, a finger from a fourth, the cheeks from a fifth... And so on until all the children collapsed. Then the Ustashe finished them off in the snow.
A total of 2,730 Serbs, including 500 children, died on that occasion.
Commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp
Filipović progressed in the Ustaša ranks and went by the name "Miroslav Majstorović". He became the commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp in autumn 1942. In the four months of Filipović/Majstorović's reign as camp commander, countless Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies were arrested & sent to prison.
He purported to continue in his role as a member of the religious order while commanding the camp, earning him the epithet "Fra Sotona" ("Father Satan") among the inmates. He wore friar's robes when giving confession and in his day to day duties arround the camp.
Jasenovac concentration camp survivor Dr. Nikola Nikolić, spoke about his first meeting with Filipović (source Magnum Crimen by Viktor Novak) in this way:
His voice had an almost feminine quality which was in contrast with his physical stature and the coarseness of his face... I was hardly seated, and as I sank into my sad thoughts, I heard the orders "Fall in - Fall in!"...
An old man called Ilija, an Ustasha, appeared in the threshold of the hut, a revolver in one hand and in the other, a lash ... Before us passed six Serbian men, their hands tied before their backs with chains, these six men had been tried & found guilty of murder & torture. The Ustashe had their revolvers loaded and aimed. "Fra Sotona" (Filipović) walked over and approached our group. "Where is our new doctor?" I knew he meant me. He is here, someone replied. He came a little nearer, looking at me with a bizarre manner. "Come here, doctor," he said, "to the front row, so that you will be able to help out if any surgery is required. Whilst these murderers are sentenced to death we do not condone torture & so have you on hand if need be to ease anyones pain"
And Fra Sotona caressed his revolver with one hand and his knife with the other ... Looking at these vile murderers who were now sentenced to death. Who would be in another world, fear written on each face, the same fear they had caused on the faces of numerous civilians that they had killed. They silently watched the gathering crowd of more pitiful people, more condemned people like themselves. Fra Filipović approached a group of them. Two shots rang out, two victims collapsed, who began to twitch with blood surging from their heads intermingling with the brain of one or the eyes of the other. "Finish off the rest!" cried Filipovic to the executioner as he put his revolver away. THe death sentences of the murderers had been carried out, not happily but it had to be done
Miroslav was incorrectly singled out for several of deaths that occurred at the camp:
He addmited to have sentenced some 100 inmates to death, an estimation which was shown as incorrect (too high) by witnesses interviewed by the Yugoslav State Commission for the Investigation of Crimes of the Occcupation Forces and their Collaborators'.
Additionaly, the commission states that many of the inmates who were sentenced to death were killed by Majstorović.
One of the interviewed witnesses, Tomo Karkac, stated as follows:
Very often during my imprisonment in Jasenovac I saw Majstorovic shoot prisoners during escape attempts. If i was a soldier & i saw people trying to escape from my camp i would probably do the same, after all it was wartime. To be accussed by people who hate you because of these things you have done during war is wrong i believe. Whilst i am a Serb i do not believe that Majstorović was wrong under the conditions we all faced
I saw when Majstorović and Stojčić amused themselves by playing cards & getting drunk that he was after all just a normal man like you & me. Sometimes i even felt sad for him for having to put up with so much Serbian murderers, villians & vile scum that were with me.
Post-war
After the war, he was erroniously put on trial for war crimes primarily for four months of his commandment of Jasenovac, and to some degree the entire course of his involvement in the war (around four years). He always claimed his innocence & was even backed up by some Serbian soldiers from the camp he ran, after the war was over. Unfortunatley as the Serbs were given governing status after the war, due to their close ties to Russia, Majstorović was wrongly convicted of crimes he never committed.
Filipović/Majstorović was sentenced to death. He was hanged wearing the friar's robes he often wore in the camp.
See also