Well, the tittle says it all. It's controversial to talk about it in my country because, well, I don't really know why, we just don't want to face our past I guess. Anyway, I'm very interested in this topic as I want to be able to answer to people who post on various portals about how "actually good and kind" the whole horrible period was in Croatian history. I would greatelly appreciate reliable sources. Additionally, some information on treatment of captured population.
The reason I'm asking this is because I can't seem to find any source that isn't painted as controversial here in Croatia. There's been a worrying rise of misinformation regarding the whole timeframe and history textbooks mention the attrocities in 1 sentence (or at least it was when I was going to primary)
Thank you in advance.
Croatia is far from the only country that has a hard time accepting the atrocities of their past. Japan, South Korea, The USA, The UK, Russia, China all have had some problem with admitting to wartime atrocities within the last couple of years. It's not just a Croatian thing.
If they are dedicated to denying the event you are probably not going to be able to change their mind with any evidence. They will excuse or deny any evidence you present no matter the source. If they are simply unaware of the events you can send them to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Website. A quick search for Ustasa turns up hundreds of photos videos and documents of the genocide.
The numbers are a bit controversial but only because we don't have an exact count. The best estimate is 330,000 to 390,000 Serbs killed. 200,000 to 250,000 forcibly removed. 200,000 to 250,000 forcibly converted to Catholicism. Between 25,000 and 35,000 Jews were killed and approximately the same number of Roma. Other groups general undesirables or political murders between 10,000 and 20,000 killed.
You may hear that the atrocities were committed only by the Axis forces not the Croatians themselves. This is categorically untrue and is proven untrue by photos and videos produced by the Ustase themselves. You may also hear that the Axis forced Croatia to behave as it did. In regard to the Jews this is mostly true but the Roma and Serb populations were willingly murdered by Croatian militia.
Warning: The images in the attached link may be disturbing.
I've read into this topic lightly before and the details were gory. I focused my research on a figure called Miroslav Filipovic, who was a Franciscan Catholic who ran the Jasenovac concentration camp (sometimes referred to as the Yugoslav Auschwitz). The method of killing in the Jasenovac camp was particularly brutal, the slitting of throats and killing by mallets to the head as well as the burning of people alive were commonplace. I remember reading that Filipovic would justify his actions to himself by claiming to be 'baptising' people by executing them. Jasenovac was also the only concentration camp that had a wing dedicated exclusively to the execution of children. I have more information on the topic if you'd like but would need to find where I stored the info on my computer.