Comparison Between Nazi and Ustase Racial Decrees
On April 30, 1941 - just twenty days after the formation of the Independent State of Croatia - Ustase Poglavnik Ante Pavelic signed the "Aryan Decrees." These infamous documents (located here and here) gave a precise legal definition for who was a Jew and who was an "Aryan." Far from being the result of Nazi "pressure" on the new state, these decrees were in reality more narrow and restrictive for Jews than those in Nazi Germany. The following table is reproduced from Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg's monumental The Destruction of the European Jews. Hilberg notes that "As one might expect, the Croatian authorities dutifully followed, and even improved upon, the original Losener definition. We need only recall the problems to which the original German definition gave rise to realize that the Croatian definition, with all its improvements, was drafted by expert hands... In a very short time the Croatian government also proceeded to enact all those measures which German bureaucrats had toiled over for eight years: the prohibition of intermarriage, of employing female Aryan servants under forty-five, of raising the Croatian flag; the revocation of name changes adopted since December 1, 1918; the marking of Jewish stores and persons; the registration of property; the removals from the bureaucracy and the professions; the termination of business activities; and transfer of enterprises. The impoverishing process spread with great rapidity. By the end of August 1941, after only four months of Croatian government, most Jewish enterprises worth less than 200,000 kuna (RM 10,000, or $2,500) had been 'Aryanized.'" The noted exception to the tight enforcement of the Aryan Decrees was that Pavelic reserved for himself the right to grant full "Aryan rights" to non-Aryans, which, as Hannah Arendt has pointed out, led to the great enrichment of select Ustase leaders.

 

GERMAN AND CROATIAN DEFINITIONS OF "JEW"
 
German   Croatian
 
1. A person who had at least three Jewish grandparents

2. A person who had two Jewish grandparents and who

(a) belonged to the Jewish community on September 15, 1935, or joined it on a subsequent date, or
(b) was married to a three-quarter or full Jew on September 15, 1935, or married one on a subsequent date, or
(c) was the offspring of an extramarital relationship with a three-quarter or full Jew, and was born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936

 
1. A person who had at least three Jewish grandparents

2. A person who had two Jewish grandparents and who

(a) belonged to the Jewish community on April 10, 1941, or joined it on a subsequent date, or
(b) was married to a Jewish person on April 30, 1940, or married a Jewish or half-Jewish person on a subsequent date, or
(c) was the offspring of an extramarital relationship with a Jew, and was born after January 31, 1942, or
(d) was classified as a Jew by decision of the Croatian Interior Minister acting upon a recommendation of a "race-political" commission, or
(e) was born outside of Croatia of parents not resident in Croatia

3. Any child of an unmarried Jewish mother

4. Any person (including one-quarter Jews and full Aryans) entering into marriage with a Jew after April 30, 1941

 

:: filing information ::
Title: Comparison Between Nazi and Ustase Racial Decrees
Source: Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews, pp 710-711 (New York 1985)
Date: 1941 Added: May 17, 2004