The Partisan Capture of Zagreb in World War II and the Downfall of the NDH

Zagreb was a important target due to its strategic and symbolic significance as the capital of Croatia during World War II. The Partisans launched their offensive in early May 1945, supported by the Red Army and other Soviet-backed Yugoslav forces. On May 8, 1945, Germany officially surrendered, marking the end of World War II in Europe. The news of Germany's surrender reached Zagreb, and the remaining German and collaborationist forces in the city realized that further resistance was futile. On May 9, 1945, the Partisans entered Zagreb, effectively liberating the city from Axis control. The liberation was met with jubilation and relief by the local population, who had suffered under occupation and the repressive policies of the Ustasha regime. The Partisans established control over the city, marking the beginning of a new era for Yugoslavia: the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito.
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SOURCES
- Hitler's New Disorder. The Second World War in Yugoslavia (Stevan K. Pavlowitch).
- The Independent State of Croatia 1941-45 (Sabrina P. Ramet).
- Ratni dnevnik [War Diary] (Ivan Šibl).
- War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945. Occupation and Collaboration (Jozo Tomasevich).
- balkaninsight.com/2020/05/08/... (23-06-2023).
IMAGES
Images from commons.wikimedia.org.
MUSIC
"Crossing the Chasm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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SOUNDS
Freesound.org.
E-MAIL
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[@HistoryHustle]

Axis Invasion of Yugoslavia: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hni6g5yEbr5nrMk Croatia during WW2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqHSpmZpnZJ-qLc

[@marcoskehl]

✅ 👍

[@josipivanic6755]

Zionism is ultranationalist political movement just like Ustasha political movment. Only diference between Zionist Israel and Ustasha Croatia is sponsor. Zionist Israel was sponsored by London BANK, and Ustasha Croatia was sponsored by Berlin BANK.

[@stephanottawa7890]

Great job, Stefan...May I tell a story? I had a friend who is passed away about 20 years ago. His name was Ivan or Ivo. Another Croatian friend would sometimes call him "le petit prince" because he would dash around Ottawa with his red sports car. Being small, spry and young looking actually saved his life. He was about 17 when he was drafted or joined the rump Croatian forces and participated in the retreat to Austria. They really did think that in surrendering to the British that they would be treated in a fair manner as they all knew what to expect from the Tito partisans. As you explained, they were handed over by the British to the partisans. Ivo was there amongst his fellow soldiers and they were taken one by one and shot without any sort of trial. When it came to Ivo's turn, the partisan commander said to the other partisans "Look at him. He is just a boy. He has never shaved, never f**ked a girl. Let him go". To Ivo he said something like "Run, run, go hide in the mountains" which is what he did. Eventually he found a family that would take him as a farm labourer as there was a storage of labourers. Thus he survived. Possibly they also felt sorry for him. There were still some very good Christian people in the hills. The rest of his story is even stranger as he did return to the communist Yugoslavia stating that he had a conversion to communism. The government at the time was quite happy to have him back as it was good for propaganda by that point. The mass executions had stopped, although there were still lots of prisoners in prison camps. He was allowed to study chemistry in Zagreb because he was quite smart and the new state needed chemists as authorities wanted to rebuild the industries for the working proletariat. However as soon as he could he went to Canada, first on an exchange between the university of Zagreb and the university of Ottawa and then having become an official immigrant, joined the Canada Research Council. He certainly knew how to take advantage of any situation. He was actually a very kind person and if you were considered his friend, he was very loyal. Even in his senior years, he always looked about 10 years younger than he really was, which as already told, saved his life in 1945. I miss him as I miss all my dear Slavic friends who have now passed away.

[@mammuchan8923]

Amazing story, what a stroke of luck!

[@EcEcEcEcEcEcEcEcEcEc]

Same😊

[@refivejs1841]

I'm not saying that Ivo was bloodthirsty, but you must know that the Ustase committed such crimes that even the German occupation forces complained to their command in Germany, the Independent State of Croatia was the only one that had concentration camps besides Germany and Italy in World War II. The only difference between the camps is that the Ustasha preferred knives, axes and hammers to execute their victims.

[@mammuchan8923]

@@refivejs1841 sadly that does come out strongly in books and documentaries. When I visited Croatia in 2012, one feels quite conflicted. Croatia is of course breathtakingly beautiful and you can’t reconcile such horror happening in this paradise. Especially since the people are very friendly and welcoming. That is the duality of humanity I guess.

[@refivejs1841]

The most important thing is to learn from history so that history does not happen to us again in the future... that's why we should say to everyone, never again fascism, never again the Holocaust, never again killing people just because their names are different from us or they pray to other gods .@@mammuchan8923

[@ivansusec2718]

Great video. A good amout of Ustaša went from Zagreb to Sv. Ivan Zelina, a town some 30 km to the northeast. The city was easier to defend and they held it until the german surrender. The partisan retribution on the town was sharp, flattinging most of the old town, and killing prisoners. My grandpa was a partisan from this town, he died before I was born but his older brother was ustaša. He went into hiding for a few days before being told that anyone who willing surrendered and never commited war crimes would be treated fairly. When he surrendered he was put on a death march to Serbia where he did hard labor for years. When he returned he was hollwed from starvation, and barred from employment. He was lucky though. Most captured in Zelina were killed on the spot. There are my graves in village cemeteries that end in 1945, of young local Ustaša regulars and national gaurds who were massacred

[@Borna958]

Volim Zelinu, često sam tamo. I gledam si kuće i stanove. Iznenađen sam ovom crticom iz povijesti. Hvala

[@andrejkraguljac91]

Kazes masakrirani, sta je sa milionima ubijenim od istih tih "masakriranih", mislim da niko ne zasluzuje da umre, ali ustaše su druga priča, sta su sve radili je potpuno bolesno, u svakom smislu te reči.

[@ivansusec2718]

@@andrejkraguljac91 Ne kažem da Ustaše nisu učinili užasno zlo prema nevinima, ali puno od njih nisu se borili jer se su htjeli ubiti Cigani i Srbi, nego su branili svoju domovinu. Moraš se sjetiti da Hrvatska kao dio Austrougarske Carstvo je poslje 1848 bila prilična slobodna, ali nije kao dio Jugoslavije. Kaj ćeš ti kada netko ti ponovo nudi slobodu? Ne velim da Partizani nisu trebali strelati onih koji su ubili nožem žene i onih koji su napravili šampon od židove, daleko od toga, ali puno mladići, domoljubnih junaci, su se bezveze poginuli.

[@themikew7]

I applaud you Stefan for not only having the goal to create unbiased and truthful historical video content, but delivering on that goal. Unfortunately truth is becoming more difficult to find in today's world and we are all poorer for it. Your well-researched videos are much appreciated - thank you!!

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for watching.

[@jacobhyde9367]

I appreciate your videos and I am grateful that you make them. Thank you!

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for your reply.

[@jokodihaynes419]

I hope you keep showing us the wonderful locations on your travels keep up the work mate

[@slekic]

Good work Stefan. You make a conscience effort to be unbiased, especially in episodes about Indonesia. Which I appreciate knowing how touchy the issue still is in “Belanda.” When dealing with relations between Serbs and Croats, please keep in mind that nationalists on both sides have absolutely no empathy for the other side, always claiming that they are the real victims of this or that war. Or that they achieved some incredible feat of arms which changed the world - but one which is demonstrably untrue. In my experience it’s impossible to try to get them to acknowledge that the other side may have a valid point.

[@xvsj5833]

Great research Stefan 💪🏻 Thank you Friend have a perfect week!

[@HistoryHustle]

👍👍👍

[@mharcsa]

Well, as a Croat and a history professor I have to say - great job! :)

[@HistoryHustle]

Many thanks!

[@koris4356]

​@@HistoryHustleHitler could not believe what crimes the Croats were committing!!

[@SavaKrizevci]

Hehe gj

[@gregmcclelland3488]

Stefan, You are a great historian and I really love your videos! Thank you for preserving history.

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for your reply.

[@dutchman7216]

Once again, thank you. That was interesting.

[@HistoryHustle]

Nice to read, thank you.

[@nikola5670]

Nice! I shall say it is a really forgotten theatre of WW2, often overshadowed by the eastern front.

[@stephmaccormick3195]

And lack of Western presence (allied forces).

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for watching.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

Another wonderful historical coverage video was shared by an excellent ( History Hustle) channel .allot, thanks, Sir Stefan 🙏 for sharing

[@HistoryHustle]

Many thanks for watching!

[@MarkVrem]

Have nothing to add! I appreciate you trying your best to figure out an unbiased facts/records-driven history.

[@HistoryHustle]

Many thanks for your reply.

[@Artur_M.]

Fun fact: the family of Polish General Stanisław Maczek had Croatian ancestry. He and Vladko Maček, mentioned in this video, were actually distant relatives.

[@HistoryHustle]

Didn't know, very interesting to read! Have a good weekend.

[@Artur_M.]

@@HistoryHustle You too!

[@user-ds8vn3cg2b]

@@HistoryHustle do some research on the history of the Mesica Marko, and maybe you will come to some conclusion, WW2 is a gray area

[@GaiusPrimusMatius]

Maček surname background is of Slovenian ancestry....just to let u know...

[@Borna958]

Great video, you have earned a sub. There are a lot of history youtubers but by far this is my favorite now.

[@HistoryHustle]

Awesome. Welcome to the channel!

[@salsheikh4508]

Great episode

[@HistoryHustle]

Many thanks!

[@mikepaz8385]

I love your “niche “ subject videos Stephan! Are you on any other platforms? I think a history hustle podcast would be fantastic!

[@HistoryHustle]

Instagram but KZbin is my main platform. I am on ocasion in a podcast on politics, but it is in Dutch. On KZbin also: Stoere mannenpraat.

[@Parabellum-oe3sw]

The killings of the Ustasha in Bleiburg was a logical consequence of WW2. If the axis had won the war I don’t think the Ustasha would’ve treated them according to the Geneva convention. Moreover, both ideologies were detrimental to each other so one simply had to perish

[@serdradion4010]

How comes Western Nation Armies didn't kill POW and captured civilians? Their soldiers died in the war too. Was it just an clearing the ground, scharted earth policy to build the new Federal Yugoslavia?

[@splicoo1950]

killing 500 000 civilians and 300 000 unarmed solders is logical? bruv please...

[@Parabellum-oe3sw]

@@splicoo1950 what would’ve happened if the Ustasha had won? The same the other way around

[@sentaveliki425]

​@@Parabellum-oe3swustasha used labour camps while commies were just satanist pigs

[@Parabellum-oe3sw]

@@cropp3667 ask yad vashem, ask the United States holocaust memorial. Furthermore do you know the saying show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are. Who was Croatia's friend during ww2? Germany = war criminals, Italy = war criminals, Japan = war criminals, Hungary = war criminals, Romania and Bulgaria saved their butts by switching to the winning team . Where did Croatia's Jews go? I think the Jews know who persecuted them

[@szakachdekapolna4372]

Extremely complex subject. Lots of executions, looting, Jewish apartments and houses were confiscated, intellectual elite was also eliminated. Lots of chetniks changed their uniforms few weeks before as well, so it's a question who really entered in ZG 1945.

[@brankodrljaca1313]

I love that claim about Chetnik changing uniforms. It was proven that 3500 Chetniks from Montenegro were executed in Slovenia while only about a hundred were killed on famous Lijevča Polje (it wasn't even a battle by 1945 standards). In summer of 1944, German command reports that Draža had about 25 000 men under arms in Serbia. In December of 1944, DM claims to have under his command about 19 000 men, including a regiment sized group of Serbian State Guard. So, 15 000. Means that 10 000 have been killed in battle, went into hiding, escaped or were mobilized by Partisans. Partisans themself claimed that they have shot bearded Chetniks while remobilizing recruits. Serbian researchers also found names of lot of Chetniks who were executed by Partisans, also not in numbers or for reasons they still claim. Yugoslavs mobilized more than 200 000 men from Serbia proper. Percentage of Chetnik was very small among them. Also, Serbian Chetniks haven't done mass crimes on Muslims and Croats. Montenegrin and NDH did, and partisans executed them on spot, just as they did with Ustasha. Meanwhile, in September and October 1944, entire Home Guard 1st and 4th Jager and 3rd Mountain Brigade joined partisans, with large chunk of other units doing the same. Even entire companies and battalions of freshly mobilized Ustasha joined Partisans as well as at least 2000 men from 13th SS Division. German report says that over 4500 defected in just 15 days and Partisan reports say that more than half of some brigades were ex-Home Guards. In 1947, after several demobilizations, there were about 3000 ex-Axis officers serving as officers in Yugoslav Army, 1955 of them were from Home Guard.

[@goldeneagle5820]

@@brankodrljaca1313 A tvoje mišljenje o rehabilitaciji Nedića i Draže Mihajlovića u Srbiji danas? Laži vas neće nikuda dovesti kao ni ovo potplaćivanje "nezavisnih" YOU tubera u zadnje vrijeme... Da Srbi nisu htjeli Hrvate prevesti u Srbe i asimilirati ih ne bi nikad bilo reakcije s hrvatske strane u vidu ustaškog pokreta. A ako ćemo o brojevima ustaša nikada nije bilo više od 10 000. I nisu kažeš ČETNICI činili masovne pokolje? A istočna Hercegovina i pokolji muslimana samo zato što zbog njih nisu imali prevagu u zastupnicima u 'kraljevini' pa se pribjeglo diktaturi i ubijanjima političkih protivnika po izričitoj naredbi svoga 'kralja'?

[@lukamarkovinovic6719]

Those 3500 chetniks were mostly Montenegrians that switched sides after serbian chetnik vojvoda Đurišić started executing Montenegrian leaders before the battle of lijevca polje, 5000 of them switched to ustashe side on the night before the battle, and together they killed a couple of thosands and captured over 5000 which ustashe in their ruthless ways executed not long after the battle. Battle of lijevca polje btw was not a minor battle as you portray it. It was the biggest battle of ustashe and chetniks in ww2 which resulted in a complete and utter defeat of chetnik forces. Lastly, I am a Croat and I think ustashe were a disgrace for our nation, which we should all be ashamed of cause of all the crimes against humanity they did. But the current Serbian propaganda or narrative if you wish, that is making chetniks look like they were the good guys, scares the shit out of me. Chetniks were really really bad, they didn’t have the numbers or the apparatus to do what ustashe did, but they comitted countless crimes and atrocities just like ustashe did only on a smaller scale. Trying to justify or abolish them from all that they did feels really bad. You shouldn’t do that, it’s just wrong and the sooner you realise that the better, good luck.

[@lukamarkovinovic6719]

@@cropp3667 I am not sure why you ask me this, but we all know that only in Jasenovac some 80-100k people were executed. In total I think Ustashe killed some 300k Serbs in total.

[@brankodrljaca1313]

@@lukamarkovinovic6719 I disagree. Your numbers about Lijevca polje are way too high and fon't match German assesments of Chetnik group withdrawing alongdide them from Montenegro in December 1944. Estimates say about 7000 of them. They were joined by more than 2000 Chetniks from Sandjak. On their way to Vučjak, where Draža had his base (surounded by Ustasha garrisons who never laid a finger on his troops in 6 months of him being there), they were decimated by typhoid and Partisan attacks. Seeing simmilar conditions of Serbian Chetniks under Draža, Đurišić asks Pavelić for help. Pavelić gets him in contact with Sekula Drljević,Montenegrian separatist and they formed Montenegran Army. Đurišić real goal is to get his army out of Yugoslavia and into Allied captivity. But in desperation and lack of discipline, his Chetniks loot Croatian villages. This causes reaction of NDH forces, including motorrized parts of Ustaška Obrana in Jasenovac. Most Chetniks did defect as battle started, some 130 were killed in Jasenovac after surrender, Đurišić included. Now, Montenegrian NGO that is dedicated to find names of almost 5700 of Montenegrian Chetniks that withdrew in 1944 from CG. Less than 600 of those survived the war and close to 4000 were shot by Partisans or died in combat in Slovenija. As soon as they crossed NDH border, Chetniks shot Drljević and became Chetniks again. They were captured at and around Bleiburg and shot with Ustashas. Same happend with members of Ljotić's SDK, 2440 of them were killed in Kočevje. OZN documents mention some 600 Chetniks in prison camps in Croatia in June 1945 and looking at list of survivors, it seems that they were spared because they were under 20. One of reasons why Montenegrian Chetniks were treated same as Ustashe is that they were volunteers (on paper) and were involved in genocide of Muslims in Eastern Bosna and Sandjak. According to their own report, they massacred over 8000 civilians in one operation in 1943 (reasearch suggest that real number is over 3000, but that doesn't make it better). Read documents from znaci.net (use wayback machine) and book "Kazna i Zločin". Author of that book did great job debunking revisionist narrative about Chetniks, strong in Serbian media. Irony is that same "historians" pushing his narrative (as well as relativising Srebrenica and Mladić's role in it or calling Dubrovnik Serbian on Facebook) are welcomed guests at summits organised by Croatian right-wing historians. Only reason Lijevča Polje is famous is that Luburić wrote about it. And his statment were funny (claiming that his troops had 2 Tiger tanks that Germans gave them for instance).

[@dansmith4077]

Great video

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks!

[@coling3957]

another fascinating story of one of the smaller Axis countries.. one wonders why anyone ever tried to create a Yugoslavia given how hostile the main groups were to eachother. only Tito kept the country together post-war, soon as he died it fell apart.

[@meopen1888]

When you understand that Yugoslavia was the name implemented by the Serbian king Alexander Karadzordevic, after 1929 i think when he renamed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes into Kingdom Yugoslavia, at the same time suspending the democratic institutions, and imposing his dictatorship, you will understand why it was done. They could not name it Srboslavia, as it would be too obvious, so the Serbs came up with Yugoslavia, as a 'maskirovka' to shove Serb domination, onto the rest of us.

[@dancarter6044]

Ironically Tito was a Croat.

[@user-pc2jp2yr3c]

Croatia wasn't an "Axis" country as it was invaded by Nazi Germany in April 1941 and a puppet govt put in place. It continued to be occupied by foreign armies until 1945.

[@Vlain-hc5sb]

​@@dancarter6044and Slovene

[@ares8866]

@@meopen1888 Nonsense. It is the process of creating a new nation, Yugoslavia. The academic community of Croats, Serbs and Slovenes has been working on this for decades. The idea itself is several centuries old. The Serbs could very easily encircle their national territory.

[@xvsj5833]

Thanks!

[@HistoryHustle]

Many thanks Jesse. I am extremely grateful for your ongoing support. Have a great weekend. Cheers from Medellín 🇨🇴

[@johnkilmartin5101]

As always a great video Stefan! I was wondering if you might do a video on the period after the Americans joined the Entente and the Netherlands took over as the "protecting power" for both sides on the Western Front?

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for your reply.

[@mammuchan8923]

Thanks as usual for an interesting video. Bless you for encouraging moderation in the comments. But this is the Balkans so it’s going to get messy. Actually in general I try to not read the comments after these videos as they become truly shocking. But one can hope ✌

[@HistoryHustle]

Indeed, thanks for your reply and have a good weekend!

[@P.H.H.A]

i think you can make a video about Zagreb 1945 from the perspective of the axis army.I know in may 1945,the german army, Ustasha,Chetniks(some of the remnants,,radic detachment and Montenegrin chetniks are also in Zagreb), SDK,russia protective corps almost every axis and it’s puppt army are in Zagreb and with their family members.this tragic phenomenon lasted until the last batch of German troops withdrew in Zagreb.and you can also introduce the Montenegrin national army and the ustasha fight in the battle of lijevca polje and the consequences.

[@serdradion4010]

Dinara division so called, that is Vojvoda Djuic forces escaped in direction Knin-Trieste, never entering Zagreb.

[@P.H.H.A]

​@@serdradion4010ok.i delete dinara division

[@bigsarge2085]

Interesting!

[@HistoryHustle]

👍

[@justanapple8510]

Good video! How is it going in South America Stefan?

[@HistoryHustle]

Very good. I am now in Medellín. Will go back to Bogotá after the weekend and will soon fly off to Peru.

[@icecoffee1361]

Stefan fantastic episode and unfortunately the is a lot of people who can’t have healthy conversations on KZbin, just keep going with your fantastic content 🫡

[@HistoryHustle]

Many thanks for your reply!

[@tonnywildweasel8138]

I once read a book about Tuvia Bielski. (And of course saw the movie Defiance.) The Partisans have always interested me a lot. Interesting video again, Stefan 👍 Greets from Grun' 🇳🇱, T.

[@s.t.lacroix372]

Bielski was from Belorussia, not former Yugoslavia

[@tonnywildweasel8138]

@@s.t.lacroix372 : yes, i know. partisans at a lot of places

[@mrstacyj9496]

Stefan, will you comment on more current history? (Netherland's newly elected PM?) As of this writing (Nov 22, 2023) I can't kind any information online. Here in the US, we're aching to see the ship of state and economics take a more logical track (more logical than the domestic current trends). Happy Holidays

[@HistoryHustle]

Wilders has to form a coalition and other parties are hesitant to work with him. And even if they managed to form a coalition it is the question whether he can get anything done cause we are entangled in EU regulations.

[@gumdeo]

The last Axis force in Europe.

[@HistoryHustle]

I believe so.

[@figaroqua221]

😊Hi Stefan, love your videos on Croatia. Just a minor correction, if you don’t mind? The C in JASENOVAC isn’t pronounced CH but TS ie JASENOVATS. Cheers

[@HistoryHustle]

👍

[@serdradion4010]

By the 4th Moscow Conference and the Yalta Conference, KoY was to be divided 50:50 between the West Allies and the USSR . That was on all the Croatian politicians were counting on: Pavelic , Tito, Macek. Croatia was to be independent already in 1945 as part of the free Western World . V-day in Europe was established on May 8th, the German capitulation to the Western Allies. The day after, Germans capitulated to the Soviets on May 9th. Croatian capital was liberated on the May 8th, the very V-day Europe . There was no battle, and the city was surrendered without the fight. It was the day of capitulation of Croatia, ISC-NDH too . All the operations of the Yugoslav Army against the Croatian Army were delayed and in the slow motion, mainly because Red Army didn't assisted. One explanation is that Tito arranged with Tolbuhin Commander of the 3rd UF, on their meeting in Krajova, Romania, that Red Army does Not enter the Croatia, but to be liberated by the Yugoslav Army exclusively. That means that Croatian Tito saved the Croatia from the destruction of the powerful Red Army. Croatian Army slowly retreated and waited untill the German capitulation to capitulate themselves. Croatian politicians working for themselves and the Croatia, that was all about.

[@rjames3981]

Interesting 👌

[@HistoryHustle]

👍👍

[@8000296]

History is history, but during history not always the true story is being told. But keep on the good work Stefan.

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for watching.

[@pollock_madlad]

My great grandpa wasn't fighting in the Zagreb area, but he was partisan machinegunner. He was in the 1st Proletarian Division, 13th Proletarian Brigade "Rade Končar", in the machine gun platoon. He was using Breda m.37 HMG, he ended up in the weseternmost part of the country, the Istria. Also, one pretty bad thing is that people destroyed many monuments to killed people during 90s as a measure against communism. That is bad in my opinion, as not all of the people in the partisans were communist ( my grandpa wasn't one ). That also happened in my place. Our school was named in honor of the small fish communist Mirko Bukovec, wich was from my village, and was mercillesly kiled in Nova Gradiška concentration camp. In the nineties school was renamed into the village name, but the bust of the Bukovec still stands in front of school.

[@pollock_madlad]

@@XcT27 Well, my grandpa was only stationed in Istria, he didn't fight there. He fought mostly in the middle part of the country.

[@markoresler7730]

JEBO TI TVOJ DJED CETNK DJECU

[@pollock_madlad]

@@XcT27 That's right, battle of Batina was partisan D - Day.

[@serdradion4010]

He transferd from the Ustasa to Yugoslav Croatian partisans in 1944? Did he killed any Chetniks and corrupted Serbs?

[@pollock_madlad]

@@serdradion4010 No, he was to be sentenced for smuggling goods into then Hungarian part of Croatia. He was imprisoned and US bombers saved his ass. Then he joined partisans on his own will. No, he wasn't ustasha or anything extremist, he was just regular north Croatian farmer.

[@tomabbott5259]

I have a good question and i think my question applies to most people in similar circumstances,why do people only point fingers you know your fault! and your fault! but nobody never ever asks WHY?would it be so terrible?and furthermore if somebody did do some bad thing in the past why cant enough good people say this stops with me and people will see there is allways another way

[@systematicjim9295]

Saying Croatia was captured by Nazis is weird since they were welcomed with people on the streets throwing flowers at their feet.

[@HistoryHustle]

While the Yugoslav army was in full retreat, so in military terms that means captured. The fact that many Croats welcomed them is irrelevant.

[@mottom2657]

Did each and every Croat welcome the Nazis? Absolutely not. This is a recurring Chetnik-Mongol propaganda of dehumanizing Croats as a whole. By the way, Draža Mihailović himself eagerly collaborated with the Nazis. Milan Nedić happily became the ruler of the Nazi-occupied Serbia. Does this mean that every Serb is to be dehumanized? But you Mongols will never utter a single word about your crimes.

[@BlokpostMarienerg]

Goed uitgelegd @Stefan @historyhustle. Door de verschillende bevolkingsgroepen en geloven, is de situatie op de Balkan vrij complex en gecompliceerd. Dat wil niet zeggen dat ze niet met elkaar kunnen opschieten, dat is afhankelijk van regio dorp en de families. De Balkan is een mooie regio en gebied met gastvrijheid en vriendelijke mensen.

[@HistoryHustle]

Mee eens, fantastisch gebied om doorheen te reizen. Tragisch dat ze zo met elkaar overhoop lagen. Goed weekend!

[@zeljkodejanovic8786]

@@HistoryHustle The CIA and British intelligence were involved in the last war. Yugoslavia was a land of dreams and it had to be broken up, and how else than by war. I was born and lived part of my life in Yugoslavia. We had free education as much as we wanted to study, we were even paid if we wanted to study abroad. Free treatment even for the most serious diseases such as cancer, etc. We had everything that Western Europe had. Yugoslavia even had the production of fighter planes and a strong military industry, we even had a tank that at that time was better than the Russian or American ones. You probably didn't know that Ei Niš (Electronic Industry Niš) produced processors in the 80s. As a child during communism, I was not at all technologically behind American children, I had almost as much as they did. For example my first computer was ZX 81, ZX 84, ZX 84 sinclair, atari, amiga 500 etc. And then the war came and I was called up for the army and I served 46 months in the combat zone and now I take pills because I have severe rheumatism at the age of 51.

[@michaelhemphill8575]

"Instructor"..you "Sir" are the "Standard Bearer".. in regards to.."Post WW1& WW2".."Military History"..and"Politics.."No Doubt"!!

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for replying!

[@Buckshot9796]

"I don't think this is a healthy way to discuss history" There probably no health way to discuss the history of such a socially and ethnically unhealthy part of the world. The Balkans is like a volcano, always building up pressure for the next big blowup.

[@HistoryHustle]

Let's hope peace remains.

[@gibraltersteamboatco888]

Great video. Thanks Martyrdom of the Serbs (1943) by the Orthodox Church of the United States and Canada.

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for your reply.

[@brankodrljaca1313]

Great to see another video from you, especially from my country, and a part of history that is hard for foreigners to understand. Diary of Ivan Šibil you used is a very interesting source and Yugoslav cinematography made a lot of good movies from it ("U gori raste zelen bor" for instance). But there is some nuance to it. He was political commissar of 10th "Zagreb" Corp operating in outskirts of Zagreb. It was a weaker (about 10 000 men on a good day, few artillery and tanks), "guerilla" styled Corp that has suffered heavy casualties and defections over winter. It was also not on a good road to get first in Zagreb, but for political purposes, they needed to get there among first. They were belated by a day. Most of battles that taken part on outskirts and in Zagreb, were done by members of 1st Army, mostly much better, proletarian divisions filled up to 10 000 men each with recruits from Serbia and armed with Soviet guns and tanks. And battles were very bloody, Vrbovec, 2 days before, was perhaps most bloodies day for 1st Proleterian Division in number of men they lost (% wise, not by a long shot for that division). They were also helped by lot of Domobranci who turned their weapons on Ustasha or surrendered (Domobranci did that and partisans spared them, let them home or integrated them in their ranks). Croatian nationalists claim that Serbians ("shaved Chetniks" they call them) entered city first to plunder the city and to "punish" Croats, but that is mostly BS. As for orgies, story about "facility for raping underage girls" in Gračani is fake. Grozda Budak (16 or 17, daughter of Milan Budak, one of main architect of genocide in NDH) was killed, but not in Zagreb, wasn't raped and sawed alive, that story was for a long time illustrated with a picture body pulled out of LA harbor and is completely fake. In Gračani, however there was a group of mass graves exhumated from 2013 onwards by Republic of Croatia. Here, 6th Proleterian Division and battalion of Home Guards beat one group of retreating Ustasha. Partisans stayed there and cleared woods and also did some executions of prisoners from other camps. Turns out that most of skeletons were of young men, but some were also underage (17 years old), presumably captured aviation cadets. For members of Ustasha MIlitia, there was no mercy and lot of mass graves show it. However, there is not evidence for mass, unselective killing of Croatian civilians as described by Ustasha emigration and much of their claims were proven to be false. Collection of documents of 1st YUgoslav Army and collection of documents on partisan crimes in Croatia are avaliable online, but unfortunately, not in English or German.

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for sharing.

[@mladenmatosevic4591]

Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito made deal with Stalin to be allowed to liberate Yugoslavia alone so Soviet troops just passed from Romania over Belgrade to Hungary. But to avoid British landing Partisans liberated coast all the way to Zadar already in October 1944. So British landing became obsolete there, and next suitable landing area was only way north in Istria, where were no royalist support at all. But Partisans focused on liberating coast up to Trieste, so Zagreb came on menu only day before German capitulation. At that time Germans were fleeing and Ustashe did not want to get surrounded either without any hope of escape.

[@awesomee24]

Can you make a video on Titos government after ww2 and if Tito de-ustashed croatia? Thanks

[@HistoryHustle]

Not anytime soon. I am traveling till August 2024.

[@tomislavkralj3214]

My dude, no one calls it Agram. But nice video!

[@HistoryHustle]

Ok 👍

[@Springbok295]

I stayed at the Hotel Esplanade several times from 1977-1988. I was told that it was used by the Germans during the war. Fast forward to 1992 and my father and sister stayed there. At the nearby train station the Black Shirts were busy doing a recruitment drive for the Balkan Civil war. There was also a bar in Zagreb named "Kod Ante" named after the notorious war criminal Ante Pavelic. My father lost a cousin on May 9th fighting in a Partisan unit chasing the German forces out of Ilirska Bistrica.

[@HistoryHustle]

Interesting to read. Thanks for sharing.

[@serdradion4010]

Hotel Esplanade in the Vukovar Avenue did not existed in the WW2.

[@antoniosigmund7223]

There is a mistake on a thumbmail of the video is not Zabreb is Zagreb

[@MarkVrem]

LOL oops. My mind did not notice that, guess it went with pattern recognition instead of actually reading lol

[@HistoryHustle]

Yes, I corrected it.

[@lc5421]

Releasing videos on very important dates for Croatia. Would be bether if you talked about Vukovar and Serbian massacre on this date.

[@HistoryHustle]

Wasn't aware of this. Covered it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKOwiWWYbbF_qrs&pp=ygUZZmFsbCBvZiB5dWdvc2xhdmlhIGh1c3RsZQ%3D%3D

[@serdradion4010]

Massacre was under supervision of also Croatian JNA. Croatian side did not demystified the killing in the Jasenovac concentration camp in the size of 700k. All kinds of revenge were just inevitable, must do pay back to Ustasa.

[@pels1978]

​@@serdradion4010😂

[@izgubljenageneracijalostge9192]

¸Ustashi movement came back with Tuđman , Croatian president elected in 1991, he was spreading hate against Serbs, when Serbs rebelled, they were showed as agressors, it was also Catholic church, Vatican and Nato, who were involved in genocide against Serbs.

[@HistoryHustle]

Tudman wasn't ustasha since he fought with the Partisans in WW2. He did have some very right wing ideas though.

[@igorch69]

Tuđman was Tito's youngest general. Fact is that in 91. Tuđman had to unite the ex Ustashas and ex partisans as one in the war against the Serbs.

[@DD-qw4fz]

And here we have 12 year old Jovan , a Serb wannabe ultranaionalist typing furiously from his apartment in Vienna. hhahhahaha

[@mottom2657]

@@DD-qw4fz Serb ultranationalists are comedy gold mines nowadays. Yes, there are Croat and Bosniak ultranationalists with unhinged opinions, but the sheer number of unhinged fanatics on the Serb side make the general Serbs much more vulnerable to hate.

[@mottom2657]

What happened to the Serbs happened during WWII, and it was horrible from any point of view. But during the nineties, there was no genocide against the Serbs in Croatia. By the way, why do Serbs still deny their own crime, the Srebrenica genocide? And in Croatia, Serbs were the first to make problems, starting with the 'Log Revolution'.

[@adamdragon8549]

Just here to read those comments that defend Nazi Croatia during WW2

[@HistoryHustle]

It's crazy.

[@user-pc2jp2yr3c]

Its called correcting disinformation. Nazi= National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). You call Croatia Nazi because it had a puppet govt but so did Serbia with the Nedic puppet govt so then it would be Nazi Serbia according to your logic.

[@aquss33]

Yeah it's a very complex topic, I just wanna say something to the people picking favorites because of their nationality - none of the parties present were in any way good, they were all horrible. You can cherry pick information to make all of them look as good or as bad as you would like. In Yugoslavia it's generally accepted by many older people that Partisans were good - yet they burned down the archives containing information about almost every city's history not to mention ruthless killing, the Ustashe - while they wanted a free state of Croatia, they also practiced eugenics and killed many in concentration camps, the chetniks - same thing, concentration camps, eugenics... Lastly, all of them killed civilians so there really isn't much of a side to pick here... I applaud you for making a video that correctly states this information unlike many videos that either read Serbian or Croatian nationalistic websites and focus on one side of the story - for example, one of the parties being good and the other being bad...

[@marcoskehl]

8:58. Of course you are not perfect, Stefan, but good enough for an average KZbin historian. 😄 Keep doing your best for the community of this amazing channel. Obrigado! ヽ(͡◕ ͜ʖ ͡◕)ﾉ 🍀 🇧🇷

[@skutly]

Make interview with Jože Možina or Jože Dežman, two best researcher for post-war massares in Slovenia and Croatia.

[@HistoryHustle]

Don't do interviews but I am curious what they wrote about it.

[@guilesivann1949]

Very neutral approach and fact based, too, which is very important today with too many attempts to obscure or distort facts about WWII, leaving only Germany responsible for atrocities. In fact almost every European country had Nazis who participated in genocides. On the top of the list was Hungary.

[@HistoryHustle]

Why do you claim Hungary was on top?

[@mladenlucic6601]

Totaly fair analysses from neutral observer.

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for watching.

[@jaymudd2817]

I see you spelled it right this time.

[@HistoryHustle]

Indeed.

[@stevep5408]

Tito certainly achieved amazing results. He stayed and risked his life, not some government in exile. He commanded respect from the Americans because the Yugoslavs earned it.

[@zmajoljupka]

As a local, Pavelic is such a shameful part of our history, he sold Dalmatia and was a racist and fanatic. My grandma was in the partisans at 13 years old (born in 1929) and carried messages hidden in her pigtails. What I find worrying in the Balkans today is that we in Croatia punished our radicals, while in Serbia they are still celebrated. That's why they still threaten peace and BiH, Montenegro, and Kosovo need outside protection to this day.

[@tombuddy100]

To be fair, Serbs established their medieval state in and around what is now Kosovo, including Montenegro, which separated from Serbian nation after Ottoman conquest. That does not mean they should try to reconquer the territory today. Montenegro and Kosovo are now separated, and that's the reality they should accept.

[@user-zx5yd4cf3y]

​@@tombuddy100But you also have to accept that Serbs existed outside of Serbia in mentioned country such as Montenegro. All of my ancestors considered themselves as Serbs, even those from late 1700's. Proud member of Serb tribe Drobnjaci from Montenegro.

[@tombuddy100]

@@user-zx5yd4cf3y That was my point, wasn't it?

[@zmajoljupka]

Tom, that was a long time ago, too long to be enough of a reason today when a referendum for independence was passed. User-zx, no one is disputing Serbs lived/live there, there are also huge numbers of Croats living in Herzegovina/Austria/Germany/USA/Australia but it doesn't make it Croatia today (and that's fine as huge historical contexts have split the populations so if this is a way to peace, that's great. I wouldn't give a f* if each county became a state, as long as it actually helped us develop, defeat corruption, and create a better life for the next generations).

[@user-zx5yd4cf3y]

@@zmajoljupka Kinda stupid comparing Croatians from Germany/Austria. They are not there historicaly but we Serbs in Montenegro we were here for centuries and not only my tribe, others too. I dont care if we are separated from Serbia or not we are Serbs just like Croatians from Vojvodina in Serbia are Croatians not Serbs.

[@Cro95]

Thats a day of tragedy for me...

[@HistoryHustle]

Explain.

[@Leon-bc8hm]

@@HistoryHustle He lost his car keys ...

[@filiphlupic1582]

In the beginning it says that Ustashe were ultra nationalist. I think that they were just nationalists. If Netherlands was part of Germany and wanted independence that would be called ultra nationalism… Ps you are very good at what you are doing and thank you for covering Croatia so much. 😊

[@HistoryHustle]

Looking at their acts and how they carried out there extreme policies, not to mention militarism and the Hitler salute it is safe to say they were ultranationalists or even fascists.

[@filiphlupic1582]

@@HistoryHustle ok but in the beginning of the movement they wanted a free Croatia. That was only nationalism. The problem was later because they were ready for anything to achieve that goal and they had to pick a side which would help them in reaching that goal. Many of ustashe government wanted to switch sides but were tried for it in 1943. They had no good options in my opinion to get free Croatia in that time and they got too extreme. Afterwards they were fascists regretably

[@arebolar]

Croatia was suppressed at the end of the war, but reappeared half a century later and was finally victorious

[@HistoryHustle]

Yet I don't think you can put the NDH on a par with the Croat state today.

[@sentaveliki425]

​@@HistoryHustleits simple partisans were mostly serbs and ndh are croats and we got some kind of victoty for shitty democratic "free" state whatever

[@salec7592]

Did you found anything about the motivation for the Ustasha brutal destruction of Croatian Serbs? My father's family lived in Lika almost since the formation of Voina Kraina after Karlovci Peace, but my grandfather, as an Yugoslav volunteer in WWI gained estate in Bachka, in a newly created village of settlers from Lika, before WWII and moved there. My elder uncle who was a teenage boy back then, recalled how, when in 1941. Honveds came to round up the settlers for deportation into a camp in mainland Hungary, they stripped shirts from men, searching for "Chetnik sign" (a tattoo?). None was found that he recalled. Supposedly, pre-war propaganda of Yugoslav state was that they have ready guerrilla spec ops fighters among common population and will use them if the country was occupied. That was supposed to be a deterrent against invasion, but it became an argument for expulsion or killing of population which was deemed especially loyal to former Kingdom (i.e. the Serbs). In post-WWII Yugoslavia, we (all citizens of all ethnicity) were all trained since elementary school to participate in armed resistance against any future would-be aggressor, and that none can legally sign off capitulation. It seems in retrospective that ability to accept defeat exists for the sake of survival of civilians. So, freedom-loving gets you killed. Back in the time before democracy, in centralized empires, you could have been let to live, because your opinions would not matter, you were a property of a monarch, like everyone else. In democracies, if your land is annexed, you are a danger for the victor, because you have a right of self-determination, so either you they expel or kill you (or keep you depraved and oppressed in perpetuity like a Helot, and forcibly assimilate you over a longer time).

[@micksaitlik2693]

As a Aussie croat not proud of this history...sad that croats in Australia still glorify this,, older generation. .. Do a story how croats halted ottaman empire west..

[@ZokiDobrojevic]

"croat halted ottaman empire" 😂😂😂

[@zmajoljupka]

Agreed.

[@marton6611]

@@ZokiDobrojevic What's so funny? Never heard of 'Antemurale Christianitatis'? Croatia was never fully conquered by the Ottomans, same can not be said about Servia.

[@micksaitlik2693]

@@ZokiDobrojevicu jealous🚜🚜.

[@Leon-bc8hm]

@@ZokiDobrojevic Come on be a man and try to debunk it with facts. Instead of stupid laugh emote.

[@edmara8577]

Your videos are great. Can you make a video about the Chetniks and their collaboration with the Nazis and Ustasha? E.g. in the battle of Kozara in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the partizans fought against the Nazis, Ustasha and Chetniks. In that battle, the Chetniks killed the national hero of the partisan army dr. Mladen Stojanović.

[@HistoryHustle]

Already made a video on Chetniks.

[@icxcnikasrb]

My grandfather liberated Zagreb from Nazis

[@HistoryHustle]

What can you tell us about his experiences?

[@icxcnikasrb]

@@HistoryHustle Well his origin is from Lika, which is predominantly Serbian. Shocked by the mass crimes of the Ustashas, he joined the anti-fascist fight, mainly with Serbs from Croatia. Immediately in the early battles, he stood out when he and a group of rebels destroyed a Ustasha truck. This action is actually considered the beginning of the uprising of the people in Croatia. So, I can say that he was one of the leaders of the uprising in Srb on July 27, 1941. After that, he was involved in most battles during the war, including the liberation of Zagreb and Belgrade. I don't know the details about the liberation of Zagreb, but it's interesting that the partizans were greeted the same way as Hitler in 1941, which tells me a lot about the character of the Croats. I don't want to get into politics, but they always seem to choose the side that is stronger at that moment. My grandfather was against the breakup of Yugoslavia, but when he saw that the Ustashas were returning to Croatia in the early nineties, which had been expelled after WW2, he knew what was coming. Soon he was retired, and as a general colonel of the JNA and a national hero of WW2, he did not participate in the last wars. Although our house in Lika was burned down in the action Storm 1995. Guess that was ‘thanks’ for liberating them. sh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_%C5%BDe%C5%BEelj

[@icxcnikasrb]

@@HistoryHustle also he was Tito’s personal guard for 20+ years and Guard General.

[@user-nm1gz6cm7h]

Serbs started to join partisans in 1944 before that all serbs were on german side

[@icxcnikasrb]

@@user-nm1gz6cm7h that is a dirty lie. Serbs were 80% of the Partisans. Croats joined Partisans after Italy was defeated and when they saw Nazis are loosing. Germans bombed Belgrade to the ground not Zagreb. Germans were killing 100 Serbs for one dead German soldier and 50 for one injured. How can you even say that you peace of sh…

[@eugeneterreblanche5389]

You should make video about bleiburg repatriation

[@HistoryHustle]

I was close to the area in 2021 but couldnt make it there. One day for sure.

[@eugeneterreblanche5389]

@@HistoryHustle Ok i will be waiting for that Mr Stefan

[@dcinput7645]

Regarding your issue with those comments everyone are always frustrated with, and my proposal to go around it, i tried to brainstorm some things which may serve you as inspiration and sorry for bad English. its a lot of nationalist kids, extremists, and diaspora that are victims of revisionism, I mean surely Partisans painted their battle as holy, just and stainless, about the revolution of the working people and peasants etc. (which wasn't really the case always, especially if we talk about ideological leanings of resistance fighters, most just wanted to resist and picked a best platform for it). Also never forget the power of troll farms about Balkans politics, history, and basically anything, they are often Serbo-Croatian speaking but you have many English speakers, from KZbin to TikTok to Instagram etc. In ex-Yugoslavia discussion about history is done in a circle of your friends or other people around or at university, but not on the internet, it's good to post content and people will watch it, but people just lost all nerves to battle with troll farm invasion and internet hate speech. Romantic history and revisionism is a form of a genre not just in ex-Yugoslavia, but spans to Albania, Bulgaria and Romania, a lot of orators and popular historians with crazy stories about the origins of ethnic groups, their great history with big G, many people are labeled certain ethnicity, a lot of revisionism of events that already happened etc. Sometimes even popular history and academic one can't resist it - like the most famous one of Illyrian origins of Albanian culture (which is pretty broad) but language too (which is specific so i can speak about it precisely) - overall portraying them as being an island of different ancient people in the sea of "average" Slavic people sometimes, speaking about it, there are big indications that Albanian language have paleo-balcanic roots, but there is certainly no strong evidence for that paleo-balcanic root to be illyrian - (in terms of syntax and morphology ofc, lexically, other languages have same roots, and huge portion of albanian is loan words, like other languages). (skip this paragraph if you want) Sadly politicians for financial reasons want to stick their flag in everything - as their cultural heritage, and there was never anything immoral done in the history of certain nation, like war crimes and such, often its about the possibility of paying reparations and all that international court stuff, BUT its also not related to it. In official Serbian history textbooks unlike some others surely Partisans weren't portrayed as bad, as well as chetniks. Nedic government is called occupation government etc. But it never gets into detail, so I often hear even from politicians trying to sound eloquent and people around how only Serbia never had any fascist forces, which is false, but we never mention so clearly that yes there was a certain unit of people led by Ljotic and ZBOR, operating in Serbia but were also sent to Eastern Front to fight Russians which is also today thought to be funny fake history to ordinary people, because they never heard for it, they weren't educated. (skip this paragraph if you want) Academic Historians here don't talk about the chetniks or ustasha but call units the name they had - like it was Yugoslav Royal Army in the homeland, and often people speak about different commanders as factions etc... I have a proposal for you in order to promote dialogue (by excluding all the hate speech from the comment section which might be for your reach) and remove the stigma which certainly isnt true that ex yugoslavian people hate each other or something crazy as that, i mean surely there is ultras soccer fans, but they exist everywhere. (My proposal) My proposal is to make a video about Serb generals, officers, and elite in NDH (Independent State of Croatia), then to do the same with Bosniaks and Croats in Yugoslav Royal Army led by Mihajlovic, many of those. You already mentioned Slovenian chetniks, you can also name ORJUNA Croats in well known "chetnik" unit in Dalmatia under Anti-communist millitia. You can accent how many socialists/communist were in Mihajlovic politican circle that didnt join partisans, you may meantion serbian orthodox priests which took part of partisans (like Pop Vlado Zecevic is most prominent), or how majority of Mihajlovics children were communists even before world war 2, joined partisans and after the formalization of tito stalin split after the war, served in prison camps for Stalinists. You can also cover crimes chetniks commited against Serbs in Serbia proper where they were mostly active other then Montengro (but its serb on serb so not intersting for cotemporary historians) - which is forgotten because of 90s and ethnic framing of different resistance groups, it was "anti communist" murders of citizens. Also you may cover different factions and infighting in partisan forces, split between nkvd and commintern spanish Tito led figthers alike factions (they consolidated after Sutjeska battle namely, it was only Tito faction after that), Zagreb, Serbian, Slovenian, Macedonian, Greek communist central committee, regionalism there, relationship with Bulgarian and Albanian one, i think Velebit wrote about it. Basically portray same not so significant but normal pre-90s stuff which are significant today for people that think in identity politics alike oppositions, which are basically binaries: Orthodoxy=Serbs, Catholic=Croats, Muslim=Bosniaks, and there is opposition between all of 3,partisans, chetniks, croatian ndh forces were monolithic homogenous units fighting for 90s identity politics, which surely isnt true. Even communist forces werent monolithic as today western historiography cover every communist movement as vassals of Kremlin, same goes for so called chetniks etc. So maybe, when covering events and people in certain units responsible for something, good or bad, saving or killing people, or just being in certain unit of some army, try to find something about the ethnicity of some people and if you find something interesting in this key, to break the idea of monolithic Serbian, Bosniak or whatever forces, mention it. Also role of Yugoslavian jews in the partisan resistance, and their relationship to Bosniaks in it, its good for contemporary identity politics where nationalist Islamist identity has to align with cotemporary antisemitism among nationalist islamists in the world triggered by Israel war and zionism etc. (tldr, skip if you want) Sadly because of the modern political landscape and all the elements I mentioned which are always tightly connected to power structures, after 30 years of the same groups (SPS/SRS/SNS, HDZ, SDA, DPS circle of parties-ex elites connected to businessmen and crime, extremists and international interests etc) ther they shaped internet comment sections like this, popular history like this etc. It's always about war crimes, good vs. bad guys, certain good ancient groups of people winning everywhere etc. (my further recommendations if it may serve to you as inspiration) Its always about those identities and their relationship and contemporary politics. Some subjects i rarely search but i never heard neither in school nor online, about some important issues that slip this schema for history to be researched I mentioned (national identity) are out there. You covered some, but the issue of the holocaust of romani people (i dont know is holocaust only about jews or any target of racial framing by Germany, here we call all victims of axis forces in sense of genocide holocaust victims) - many of them lived in this area and its never covered, they aint represented well enough anywhere around the world to have money to fund asking such questions on university, media or whatever level, Russians, Poles, Jews, Serbs, everyone sadly meantion mostly their victims and use it in twisted way (for me, using dead people and identity politics to explain some other group is actually hostile to you, just you didnt know it is twisted). And find roles of chetniks, partisans, ustasha, soviet, italian, bali kombetar, bulgarian, hungarian, german forces etc. I dont know would it bring as much views from your subscribers, but there is not much content online about that unlike all the topics you usually cover. Also Bulgarian crimes Macedonian historians talk about, somehow its hushed, and Bulgarian history is stainless which certainly ain't the case. My grandma is a child refugee from Strumica area in southeast Macedonia, one of her brothers was murdered, they weren't colonists but celebrated slava which is considered Serbian among Bulgarians so i am not sure was it related, i don't know much about it but i am just giving you some traces if you want to cover it. Macedonian anti-Bulgarian sentiment was related primarily to World War 2. So the best way to go around those people is to find some contradiction between those identities i mentioned, its dumb to search ethnicities because it's pretty useless but for this occasion may be useful - to combat hate speech alike nationalist talk which may infest your comment section. And watch out the trolls, you never know person you just meantioned to be croatian anti serbian website is to be truly croatian or is it made to portray Croatians as bloodthirsty ustashas, same media campaigns for 30 years its not hard to recognise them, but yeah may be genuine especially among diaspora...

[@KnezBranimir879]

One important correction - the post-war massacres (I would call it a genocide, given the scope) conducted by the partisans was not so much a matter of "revenge" as much as of the communist revolution. Capturing all thoue tens of thousands of both soldiers and civilians was an opportunity to "purge" the new Yugoslavia of all the potential opposition. That is why, for example, whole families including women and children of the captured soldiers and officials were shot and thrown into many pits in Slovenia. Because the partisans knew that today's children whose fathers were the enemies of communism would become the future enemies of the Yugoslav state. The same goes for all the intellectuals. There are numerous artists, scientist, priests, industrials, etc. who did not favor communism and they were all brutally shot just because of that fact. Also, noblemen and industrials were ideologically considered as "class enemies" and were also shot or exiled.

[@HistoryHustle]

It is an interesting but overlooked topic I would like to discover more about.

[@atomov]

@@HistoryHustleI wouldn't put much time into this, this guy has an Ustashe crest in profile picture, that alone should tell you enough about his credibility. The ultra-nationalists in both Croatia and Serbia are constantly making up these communist "crimes" so theirs don't look so bad... like that would help.

[@djdulerep]

All of the problems in Balkan where made by King Aleksandar of Serbia because he came to power as teenager as I recall , check that out ... Don't get me wrong I'm a Serbian but his deeds where not okay , then nationalists took over a subject and we have history of today .

[@nenad.zaninovic]

as croat, one thing you get wrong, not all member of partisans were coumunists, in fact, most of them were just freedom fighters, comon people were forced to choose sides in the world when information was slow and unreliable. many people were drafted to ustaše and domobrani, and many od chetniks were just continuation of kings army. and one thing is common with this regular people, they want to survive hell on balkans in ww2, and that was special kinf of hell as usual on balkans. even in my family parents distribute children in diferent armys in hope one will survive. my all famly was captured by italians and transfer to sicilia to work on fields and camps. as i sad, we in balkans in every conflict have our special hell

[@camilla_k97]

It's very sad that those nations are still against each other. They even speak one Serbo-Croatian language (the differences between Serbian and Croatian are not huge), and Serbo-Croatian was considered one language for both Serbs and Croats, and also for Bosnians and Montenegrins. The worse national conflict for me personally is only the Irish Troubles.

[@HistoryHustle]

Let's hope it won't come to conflict again.

[@user-pc2jp2yr3c]

They did not all speak "Serbo-Croatian" ( a language with two alphabets) as this was not the official language of socialist Croatia during communist Yugoslavia. Officially under communism in Croatia it was the Croatian or Serbian language (or Croato-Serbian).

[@zalosnasova750]

Zagreb wellcomed germans like they were the rollingstones or the beatles

[@HistoryHustle]

And later they welcomed the Partisans also.

[@seb_1504]

Biggest problem for the Balkans is blind nationalism and stubbornness. Too many people are unwilling to admit their respective countries did wrongs make amends and get on with life. Too stubborn and proud to make peace....

[@HistoryHustle]

I hope peace will remain.

[@croleon7006]

2:57- December victims was the name for the murder of croatian nationalists in 1918, following the creation of Kingdom SHS. You used "december victims" for some execution of enemies in 1943. Completely opposite

[@HistoryHustle]

I see. As far as I know the name was used for those executed in 43.

[@croleon7006]

@@HistoryHustle It probably got mixed since both happened in December, we call the 1918 massacre "prosinačke žrtve" literal translation is december victims, so its all fine cuz it got mixed up, You have an awesome channel btw! I'm honored to have you under my comment

[@HistoryHustle]

@@croleon7006 Thanks. Interesting to read.

[@sotirzvanidjubre4109]

Croats didn't had Partizan units until mid. 1943.

[@HistoryHustle]

Could be. That doesn't mean Croats did not serve before.

[@rodneydelboy6910]

The ustashe were a product of the kingdom of Yugoslavia and the serbian dominance of the other nations

[@HistoryHustle]

Your point?

[@rodneydelboy6910]

@@HistoryHustle The point is that it is never mentioned and most people who cover this topic make it look like they appeared from nowhere.

[@bojanbukovski1995]

Hey Stefan, thanks for talking more about the Balkan during ww2. You are correct in the description of the biases of all south Slavs. I would like to even share my bias which probably isnt very common. For me all who collaborated with the invaders in any form and any degree are treators to the nation. I dont know how many Slovenians share this belief but thats me, plane and simple. To me and my slavic bias, Jugoslavija is a dream come true, compared to ceturies of Habsburg subjugation. We can blame each other for nationalism, it will be like shooting yourself in the foot, because every nation on this planet has been nationalistic, some more, some less. Hopefully poeple can seen reason with each other and move on, for it is the only way to progress. Forgivness is worth more then all the riches of the world. I wish you the best of health and God bless you.

[@janporinchak5867]

LOL! Yes you are not going to get a un biased view on the wartime events in the Balkans. None of those involved had clean hands. The final battle between the Croatian and the Serb Partisans, after the surrender of Germany would make an interesting topic.

[@HistoryHustle]

Odzak yes. Perhaps one day I travel there.

[@DD-qw4fz]

"Yes you are not going to get a un biased view on the wartime events in the Balkans" lets be frank, no conflict younger than 100 years is looked at without bias, often times reinforced by current politics that still benefit from the bias . Try to say Germany wasnt responsible for the start of ww1 and you will get some very biased opinions from the French and the British that will devolve into emotional responses.

[@teo-medesi]

As a Croatian, It's great to see someone outside of the Balkans taking a interest into our history. I highly recommend you check out Ivo Goldstein, he is arguably the go-to man for 20th century Croatian history and I find him to be very objective and neutral. I believe you can find his books and work translated to English as well as countless interviews on youtube.

[@serdradion4010]

History of the Balkan nations was written by the Great powers, not by themselves. Ivo, Slavko Goldstein being Croatian Jews, are not aligned with the Serbian Jews regarding WW2 history. Croatian Jews stand for around 90k killed in Jasenovac, Serbian Jews go for around 700k. Who can be correct, and may it be that they are just pushing each side to fight the other one?

[@user-pc2jp2yr3c]

@@serdradion4010 Look up the Yugoslav population census from 1931 and 1948. Then there were 3 Yugoslav studies (1x 1960s, 2x 1980s) done during communist Yugoslavia on Yugoslav deaths during WW2 not one of these studies claim 700K dead in Jasenovac.

[@ribsgonorway]

Thanks for covering this topic. I am Croatian myself, and I can say that basically, we could have either resisted the Germans and get crushed with SEVERAL casualites, or we could have joined them, which we did, and stay alive. We are not the only ones that allied with Germany, half of Europe did it, so I always get pissed of when all of Europe gang up on little country like Croatia and talk about our "Nazi times", while France, Sweden, Slovakia, and others were nothing better :/ Also, you should have mentioned how Partisans bombed 7 hospitals, and of course, noone was charged for that.

[@HistoryHustle]

I didnt find sources on that as I mentioned in the video. Do notice that other European collaboration is widely covered on this channel.

[@0trov_]

Yes, none of those collaborators committed atrocities comparable to the bestiality carried out by the Ustase against other ethnic groups. German SS officers, the same individuals responsible for the atrocities at Auschwitz, were appalled by the actions of the Ustase in Jasenovac. Additionally, there are letters from Italian soldiers describing the heinous acts committed by the Ustase in Herzegovina against the Serbs.

[@DD-qw4fz]

@@0trov_ lol first it regular German army objecting how horrible the ustashe were, now its "German SS officers from Auschwitz" lmao , next year Jovan from Vienna who never stepped foot outside Vienna in his 14 years of existence will claim it was Himmler himself saying that.

[@Invest4Cash-Flow]

The Serbians defeated the Croatian Nazis . Greetings from USA 🇺🇸

[@HistoryHustle]

Its more nuanced than that. Many non Serbs fought against the ustasha.

[@ML-zg9im]

Yes, Josip Broz Tito famous serbian

[@user-wl8si4ry5g]

Yes, of course! That's why the Serbs boasted to Hitler that Belgrade was the first city that was "Judenfrei". how do you call that?

[@altergreenhorn]

You need to look for historian Joze Pirjevec a Sovenian guy born in Trieste as Giuseppe Pierazzi for Yugoslav history. He is not Croatian neither Serbian which have some weight in mesed situation as balkan is. BTW My family was probobaly saved German last name, back in May 1945 when most of the Germans, Ustasha, Slovenain Domobran, Serbian Cetnic, some Bulgarians, etc fleed in direction of Austria, German officier on today border between Austria&Slovenia near the river Drava prevented killing a members of my familly as my grandmother said there was some thugs threatening familie, my grandmother somehow run to the German officier explain to him what is going on and he prevented bad outcome by puling out his pistol, because he need a pistol to inforce his comand Im shure that those gunmen was not Germans.

[@kname1882]

Well when partisan enter Agram they started to do revegne killings of members of Ustaše and remainings of German forces, here and there some colanorators...

[@HistoryHustle]

I read such things as well.

[@Nikola2006]

It’s crazy to think a modern democracy would have a statue to fascists and Nazis in their capital city. It’s like Berlin having a monument to the SS.

[@HistoryHustle]

The statue I am standing in front of is not dedicated to fascism but to its victims.

[@user-pc2jp2yr3c]

Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović ?

[@Nikola2006]

@@HistoryHustle ok thank you for clearing up

[@Nikola2006]

@@user-pc2jp2yr3c is there a statue to him somewhere?

[@igorknizek6560]

And again, the liberation, not the capture. Already in the end of 1943.the Partisans were consisted by more than 60 percent of Croatian people, so it's very unlikely you can call it a capture.

[@HistoryHustle]

Capture is a neutral word. Giving the fact that many people were shot afterwards it for sure was not a liberation for many. And if I used that word many others would have been mad. I encourage you to watch the video and lemme know your thoughts on it.

[@igorknizek6560]

@@HistoryHustle considering how many innocent people were killed by ustashe and Germans, liberation is the only correct term. Were there some innocent victim in retribution? Probably, and taking even one innocent life can not be justified, but it's not comparable. I am a Croat myself and my Croatian grandmother was in ustasha concentration camp and she told me what they were doing to people. Never even try to find the balance between ustashe and partisans. There isn't one

[@mildew1]

The majority of the partisans were of Serbian ethnicity.

[@igorknizek6560]

@@mildew1 oh no my friend, from the end of 1942, most partisans were Croatians. Check your facts

[@mildew1]

@igorknizek6560 most of the partisans were never Croatians. There are no sources that support this. Even the majority of the partisans from Croatia were ethnic Serbs until 1943/44. Learn some history.

[@edwinhoward42]

I spent some time in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. One of the best books I have read about Yugoslavia is The Serbs by Tim Juddah.

[@HistoryHustle]

Havent read it yet.

[@annai6393]

He is not an academic historian, I think he is a journalist.

[@edwinhoward42]

@@annai6393 He wrote for the Economist if I recall correctly.

[@annai6393]

@@edwinhoward42 Possibly, I don't know much about him other than that he is a journalist.

[@amitchakravati8189]

The remnants of croat ustasa still exist in Croatia. Regret to say EU does not condemn this fascist elements

[@HistoryHustle]

I see.

[@glaonrielelsinoth7243]

Stefan, I listened carefully to your end note and I do agree that unbiased history is something everyone looking at historical events has to strive for. However, I have to say I do fail to find that in your videos. That isn't to say I believe your bias comes out of malicious intent, but it does from selective analysis of historical sources. Unfortunately, history of WW2 in this region has for 50 years been written exclusively by a totalitarian communist regime which, along with the typical ideological narrative, had to keep up the "brotherhood and unity" narrative as well. In all the post-Yugoslav countries, former communists or their ideological successors still have a monopoly on historical "truths" and this leads us to where we are now. I therefore find it hard to see your work as objective. You use biased terms such as "notorious NDH", but then you use euphemistic terms such as "antifascists" when talking about the Partisans/Yugoslav Army. You say that you checked some nationalistic Croat site where Zagreb massacres have been mentioned and concluded that that must be false because of the nationalistic narrative, but you haven't even looked into other sources which may prove to be more objective. I believe it is not possible to speak of the event without dedicating significant portion of the video to it. Massacres did occur, intellectuals were murdered, but not because of some abstract "revenge" as you framed it (it's the same logic that the Ustashe sympathizers "explain" the Ustashe crimes). No, it was a typical totalitarian murder of ideological opponents so that they do not pose a threat to the new government. You claimed that many were killed without trial, implying that those who were killed after a trial were executed after a fair trial! This may seem like a minor thing to a layman, but I as a lawyer have never found a single process carried out against the Ustashe or their sympathizers which could even remotely be considered as fair. Not a single one. Even looking into the sentences carried out against high ranking officials in the NDH, or significant people of cultural or religions importance, will show you how disproportionate these sentences were when compared to the other Axis powers. Not a single member of the Croatian government who was caught by the Yugoslavs and who had a "trial" of any sorts ever escaped a death sentence except Ademaga Mešić (who was very old and died only a month later due to abuse while in hospital). This does not even mentioned tens of thousands killed in Bleiburg, Tezno and other crimes following the end of WW2. It was not liberation, nor was it antifascism, it was a power takeover in a very brutal way so that the opponent is completely crushed. This mass destruction of not only Ustashe, but Croatian national elite was possible because of the nature of totalitarian regimes (in this case Yugoslav Communism) and because Croats had no state to protect them. A nation without a state, especially in this circumstance is one completely on the mercy of its enemy. To put it simply, nobody cared if some Croats got killed in the "barbaric" Balkans. Today, when these crimes have finally been revealed, Yugo-apologets claim it was "revenge" and that these peoples were fasicsts and nazis and whatnot so therefore to murder them is justified. Because if you are in the Axis, even by association, you are guilty, but if you are with the Allies, your crimes can always be rationalized in one way or the other.

[@dancarter6044]

Don't forget the Ustashe was run by Roman Catholic clerics with the blessings of the Vatican.

[@HistoryHustle]

It is a little more nuanced than you present I believe.

[@dancarter6044]

@@HistoryHustle Yes RCC clerics played leading roles in the Croatian regime and supported their mini Holocaust

[@ZokiDobrojevic]

A kasnije organizovali bekstvo putem "pacovskih kanala" , prihvat i pomoć na američkom kontinentu . Što je i normalno pošto je veći deo opljačkane imovine od ustaša otišao Vatikanu .

[@user-pc2jp2yr3c]

The Vatican never recognised the "Independent State of Croatia" since it was a puppet govt and occupied by foreign armies. There were Roman Catholics & Bosnian muslims in the Ustasha organisation while there were thousands of Orthodox Serbs fighting for Ante Pavelic during WW2, for example, Serbian Chetnik commander Uros Drenovic etc.

[@user-pc2jp2yr3c]

@@radagast1708 Only some supported the Ustasha as their main loyalty was to Rome not to the Ustasha organisation which promoted muslims. The Partisans had a policy of targeting the Catholic priests ( & Nuns). Even those that were opposed to the Ustasha organisation were executed without trial.

[@callsighnbyorn]

Its weird how in nazi ndh jews were just left to be until partizans came

[@HistoryHustle]

This comment doesn't make much sense to me.

[@callsighnbyorn]

@@HistoryHustle talk about partizans killing jews and taking their property after ww2 in croatia i would like to hear about that and also about jews enlisted in croatian army wich some of them were generals that is like hidden history why they joined nazis why ?

[@HistoryHustle]

Feel free to share sources.

[@callsighnbyorn]

1. Ing. Hinko Alabanda, 2. Ladislav vitez Aleman, 3. Edgar Angeli, 4. Emanuel Balley, 5. Oton Ćuš, 6. Julio Frez, 7. Josip Kamberger, 8. Ferdinand pl. Halla, 9. Dragutin Heklbich, 10. Gjuro Isser, 11. Oskar Kirchbaum , 12. Rudolf Kraus-Tudić, 13. Rikard Kubin, 14. Josip vitez Metzger, 15. Milan Miesler, 16. dr. Milan pl. Alinstrepner, 17. Julio Resch, 18. Dragutin Rumler, 19 Julio Sach, 20. Julio Simonović, 21. Nikola vitez Steinfel, 22. Ivan Šarenbek, 23. Ivo vitez Šnur, 24. Josip Šolc, 25. Kvintijan Tartarglia, 26. Rudolf Wanner, 27. Mirko vitez Zgaga, 28. Božidar Zorn.

[@callsighnbyorn]

Those are generals some are serbs some jews from those are 28 who joined nazis

[@nadacalo9289]

NDH ruled by Ante Pavelic/Ustashe founded concentration camps and killed in monstrous ways cca 700 000 Serbs,Jews and Roms.Also there was the only concentration camp for children😢😢😢

[@HistoryHustle]

Nope, the Germans had one in Lodz. Check your facts before you post antoganizing posts. The NDH was brutal, yet this post seems nothing more than to antagonize people. Perhaps you are from Serbia?

[@igorch69]

Around 50 000 people were killed in Jasenovac.

[@user-nm1gz6cm7h]

Serbian concentration camp for children: Rakovica manastir near belgrade Serbs also rpd over 50.000 croatian, bosniak and albanian children in the 1990s and ethnic cleansed over millions from bosnia and kosova

[@stephmaccormick3195]

Thank you very much for these niche videos. Your remark at 8:22 is exactly why there will be no lasting peace in the Balkans. Ever. Mark my words. There will always be "osveta". Ja, če mi ne verjamete, mi pač ne, jbg... Mi boste, ko bo razfukalo Kosovo, Sanđak, Zahodni del Makedonije in pa seveda jebeno Bosno. Se vidimo v naslednji vojni.

[@HistoryHustle]

Let's hope peace remains.

[@sistemasrbija]

Ah croatians.. the only people that won WW2 twice.

[@HistoryHustle]

Interesting quote.

[@sistemasrbija]

@@HistoryHustle indeed. From Stjepan Mesic himself.

[@TRUBOLAZ]

An interesting contribution, but also requires some corrections for better understanding. There was no battle for Zagreb because the Ustasha retreated and forced everyone else to flee with them as human shields, Home Guards and civilians. Pavelić, the Ustasha leader, cowardly left his army and wanted to save only himself, he even left his parents on the outskirts of Zagreb. The Ustashas were indeed cruel, but they killed more Croats than Serbs, Jews and Roma combined, not communists but ordinary citizens. Therefore, they did not have the support of the Croats, which is confirmed by German sources (Horstenau and Helm). (However, even the Serbian Chetniks were not behind the Ustaše in terms of crimes, they finally united in the fight against the partisans) Throughout the war, Zagreb was in a constant partisan environment, every fifth citizen joined the partisans, the diversion of the post office was shown, Germans and Ustaše were attacked like in no other city. But in the end, partisans from Serbia, yesterday's Chetniks mobilized at the end of 1944, entered Zagreb first, and began to kill and punish at their own discretion. It is believed that 5,000 to 10,000 citizens were killed in this way, many simply because, as the father of 4 children, Veselić said "How come there is no God?" and his wife Ivka was left alone with the children. Many believe that this is a consequence of the games that started during the war and ended with the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 90s

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for sharing your insights. Dunno what you mean with corrections though.

[@TheBorg01]

Smrt Fašizmu , Sloboda Narodu, Zivio drug Tito , Zivjela narodno oslobodilacka borba ! .

[@HistoryHustle]

The famous quote.

[@dupacinaskopje]

they were partizans for 15 minutes lol

[@HistoryHustle]

Please explain.

[@tomislavivankovic6971]

We Croats lost most of our hopes those days, all good and faithfull people, smart and capable just vanished, and we will need another 500 years to recover from that. Communism still operating in full scale in our country which led another 1 million people leaving the country during last 10 years. May God help us, but with all this suffering our nation has fallen and is about to vanish.

[@HistoryHustle]

Sounds a little too dramatic...

[@tomislavivankovic6971]

@@HistoryHustle im verry happy to see smart people from other contries taking intetest and doing hard work to put some things on spot of the light. But you will never know true scale of things going on here and trust me if u find some traces of truth best for you is to keep it for urself cuse you will find out why in hard way like many honest and brave people that tried to say truth of things going on and what is it all about. May peace be upon you friend

[@branislavsaula9815]

Bad job dude

[@HistoryHustle]

Ok, dude. Thanks for the explanation. Oh wait, there is none.

[@spraakkanon]

Oh Balkan pride.

[@Leon-bc8hm]

Bad job at what ? Your parents did a bad job not teaching you manners or perhaps anything.