April 23, 1941

Mr. Minister,

On the occasion of the announced promulgation of the anti-Semitic law, I have the honour to draw your attention to the following facts:

There are good Catholics of the Jewish race who have been converted to Catholicism. There are among them those who have exceled as good Croatian patriots. I think it necessary to take account of such converts in the promulgation of the laws.

[.....]

 

May 22, 1941

Mr. Minister,

I had the honour on April 23 of this year to address you with respect to Jews converted to Catholicism. The laws promulgated on April 30, however, took no such notice this Catholic affiliation. Daily there have been severe privations which have hit equally the guilty and the innocent. Today's newspapers carried the order that all Jews, without regard to age or sex or Catholic affiliation, must wear Jewish insignia.

Already there are so many measures that, those who know the real situation, will say of us Croatians that not even in Germany were the racial laws applied with such vigour and haste.

[.....]

 

March 7, 1942

I take the liberty, Mr. Minister, of asking you to prevent, through your offices, all unjust proceedings against citizens who individually can be accused of no wrongdoing.

I do not think that it can bring us any glory if it is said of us that we have solved the Jewish problem in the most radical way - that is to say, the cruelest. The solution of this question must provide only for the punishment of Jews who have committed crimes, not for the persecution of innocent people.

[.....]

 

November 2, 1942

Mr. Minister,

I have twice asked the Poglavnik, personally, to make possible entrance to Jasenovac, Gradiska and Labor. Although we are certain that the dying have asked for a priest so that they may prepare for death, this has not been granted.

Can the Ustase movement count on receiving a divine blessing when it refuses to the dying what all civilized states will grant them?

I address you, Mr. Minister, to ask you respectfully to take all necessary steps with the proper authorities in the ministry you command so that when the sick and dying ask for priests they can go there without interference.

... I know there are such [mixed] marriages among the chief leaders of our Croatian State and these are protected. It is against logic and against justice that these are protected and others are not.

If even dumb animals protect their young and will not let themselves be separated by force, who among you can believe that thousands of people in mixed marriages will be able to watch passively as their families are destroyed by force?

Is it not precisely because of such measures, so full of injustice, that our people are driven by force into the ranks of the Partizans? This is the case with many Croatians who can no longer tolerate the injustices.

In Italy there are thousands of innocent Croatians from Gorski Kotar, Primorje, and Dalmatia living in concentration camps and when my delegation together with Ustase representatives of our Croatian State sought to free these people, the Italian Foreign Minister told us, "Why do you interfere in our treatment of these people after all that you've done in Croatia?"