Hey guys

Hey guys

I've recently come across a book about propaganda in the Independent State of Croatia. For those of you who don't know, Independent State of Croatia was a German puppet state during World War 2. As you can see on the map, it contains a lot more than the current Croatian state – it also contains parts of modern-day Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Slovenia. I will be posting the interesting posters from the book, translating their contents and providing some commentary, as this is part of my history as well and I think that people would benefit from knowing about it.

I'd also like to ask that the discussion in the thread doesn't devolve into shitposting whether Nazis were right or not, whether Ustaše were the heroes or villains and such. I don't want to take sides, I just want to present the information in these posters and have a discussion about them.

I’ll be referring to Independent State of Croatia as NDH. It’s an abbreviated form of Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, the state’s name in Croatian.

Other urls found in this thread:

history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/currency.htm).
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The poster says that after half a year of the state's existence, the government has spent 534 million Kunas (Kuna is the current Croatian currency and was used in ISC as well. It means Marten – a type of animal) on railroads and bridges, 100 million Kunas for building houses, 193 million Kunas for creating arable land from marshes, 533 million Kunas for building roads and bridges, 450 million kunas for building hospitals, siloses and public works. Totally, in six months, 1.81 million Kunas.

Kuna was bound to value of Reichsmark. In 1941, 1 Reichsmark was worth 25 Kunas, and 1 Dollar was worth 2.5 Reichsmarks (according to history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/currency.htm). Adjusted for inflation, this means that the NDH spent 143 billion $ on railroads and bridges, 26 billion $ on houses, 51 billion $ on creating arable land, 143 billion $ on roads and bridges and 120 billion dollars on public works – all in all, nearly 486 billion dollars. This was an unprecendented amount of money for the period and I don’t believe a Balkan state has ever invested such an amount of money into public good.

“The Forest of Katyn – Bolshevism unmasked”. It refers to the killing of Polish officers by Soviet forces in the Forest of Katyn, which happened in April and May 1940.

Bolshevism was one of the main enemies of the NDH. This is because the anti-fascist resistance formed in the territories of former Yugoslavia was headed by communist and socialist organizations. The partisan movement had close ties to the Soviet Union, both ideological and supply-wise, and there was great fear that in case of Partisan victory, Yugoslavian territory would become part of the Soviet Union. The government used that fear and fanned it in order to discourage people from helping the Partisans.

“The Murder forest of Katyn. This is how Soviets treat their Slavic brothers”. NDH was formed about a year after the invasion of Poland. It’s interesting if you compare the depiction of the Polish man to depictions of Poles in German propaganda. Here, he is an Aryan male, while in German propaganda, Poles are usually depicted as subhuman.

“Your work also helps destroy Bolshevism”

It’s interesting how the average person is depicted very similarly in both your average communist and NDH propaganda. He’s always a working class male, slightly faceless, doing some sort of manual work that destroys the symbol of opposition. In fact, if you took the text out and replaced the star with a swastika, you couldn’t tell this was once a pro-fascist poster.

If anyone is familiar with Laibach – a Slovene counter-culture and music group, there’s an interesting story there. In Socialist Yugoslavia, Tito’s birthday was, even after his death, celebrated with a huge event called Štafeta Mladosti – The Relay Run of Youth. In 1987, Laibach, who were active and as always critical of the regime, submitted a poster to a poster design competition. Their design won, but it was pulled at the last minute. Why? Someone discovered that it was a Nazi propaganda poster with the Nazi flag replaced with Yugoslavian flag, and the German eagle replaced with a dove.

“Strike the bandits! And their helpers among you… They hurt you the most!”
“Whoever lets the bandits do as they will is their partner in crime! Report suspicious occurences to the nearest Croatian or German office.”

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joined the Axis at first. There was a military coup d’etat, and the newly formed government broke away from it. This prompted an invasion in April 1941 that took 11 days and saw annexation of Yugoslavia to Italy and Germany. Slovenia was annexed to Germany and Italy, Montenegro was puppeted by Italy, Serbia was under German military command, Macedonia was annexed by Bulgaria, some parts were given to Albania (Italian puppet) and parts were given to Hungary. Italy also got parts of Dalmatian coast.

There was, of course, an uprising. In this case, it was popular forces led by communist and socialist parties that championed the idea of liberation of the entirety of Yugoslavia as a socialist state of brotherly nations. They were called bandits by all occupying forces and the NDH and were a great thorn in the side. More on them later.

“Why the sabotage? To starve out villages and towns.”

The Partisans (the official name of the resistance) carried out guerrilla warfare throughout the entirety of former Yugoslavia. They were known for sabotaging train lines, guerrilla attacks on German batallions. As the movement gained popular support, it also engaged in large-scale offensives. The movement was supported financially and materially by the Soviet Union, as Stalin sought to annex it to the Soviet Union. However, the movement had different plans – ultimately, Yugoslavia was liberated before the arrival of the Red Army, and Tito was able to force a Yugoslavia independent of the Soviet Union.

Someone might be able to tell what this is. I’m not so good with military technology. It’s a neat poster nonetheless.

“22nd of June – anniversary of European struggle against Bolshevism”

“Lipanj” in Croatian means June. It would literally be translated as “Month of the Linden”

The 22nd of June is the date on which Germany invaded Soviet Union.

This one just says “Consider!”

“Bolshevism would end like this for us Croatians. Only Germany and fighting as one can save us from this”

It’s interesting to note that the Chetnik movement – essentially Yugoslav royalists – were, at first, also opposed to occupying forces. However, once the Partisan rebels began gaining traction and more and more popular support, they became a collaborating force.

“I will always hate religion – Stalin”

Croatia was, and still is, a heavily Catholic country. Pope Pius XII condemned Bolshevism as an even greater threat to people than fascism (in fact, he was kind of a fan of fascism since Mussolini ended the whole argument between Italy and Vatican about who Vatican belongs to). NDH heavily promoted this Catholic identity, and the communist rebels were often portrayed as the antichrist.

It’s a political cartoon comic about communism and capitalism. “Janus – Roman god of two faces. Janus is even today a Jewish deity with two faces – one called Capitalism and the other Communism. But their body is the same and both faces mislead the hungry and uneducated”. Below it is “Capitalism and Communism at work and meal – At the table: “We need to feed ourself for the upcoming work. And now let’s go do business.”
The left part is about capitalism. “Capitalism – as guest and as countryman.” “Theory – Money, rich tables, cars, prosperity! All this is brought by our proven system...” “Practice - Jony, throw this bastard out! Take away half his pay because of his behaviour, does he want us to act as he wants?” “Capitalism at work – Where do you think you are, Bolshevik Russia? You are wrong. Here we have a completely different law and order. You cannot change this, we will find a way to pacify and behave you, if it takes to the last man!”
The right part is about communism. “Communism – as guest and as countryman.” “This fist will bring you peace, support, equality and freedom like you don’t know and don’t have!” “And this fist will not stop rising and falling until you are docile and equal to the ones in the grave, free from this fist.” “Communism at work – Where do you think you are, capitalist England? You are wrong. Here we have a completely different law and order. You cannot change this, we will find a way to pacify and behave you, if it takes to the last man!”

The upper comic states: “This is how Britain sells Balkan to the Bolsheviks. Balkan to Balkan nations! Europe to European nations!”

Quite different from the modern notion of Balkan nations distancing themselves from Balkans and trying to be more and more European.

The bottom comic states “Samaritans”. The chart above the woman’s bed says: “Name and last name – Europa”. The text is “-Here, Doctor, we brought our blood to save the sick girl” “-“Gentlemen”, what sort of strange ideas do you have? Europe will be saved with the blood of its youth, your old rotten gangster blood would kill her!”

It’s important to note that Axis forces viewed both Capitalism and Communism as enemies. Capitalism wasn’t an enemy just because of Jewish conspiracies – it represented the domination of old money, entrenched banks, political elites and such. Back then, it was married to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy, but today, the idea that capitalism is a malignant force due to the factors of entrenched elites is gaining popularity.

“”Heroes” of the RAF”

“-Why is Billy so proud today?””-Haven’t you heard that in his last terrorist flight across Croatia, he killed over 100 people, mostly women and children, in Dubrovnik, Sarajevo and other open cities?”

There’s a lot of talk of bombing civilian cities in Germany – it should also be mentioned, I think, that there was extensive bombing of Croatian cities. This was done as part of an agreement with the Soviet Union that had interests in helping the Partisan resistance in former Yugoslavia.

“British Poltics”

The panels say, in clockwise order, “”Liberator” incites”, “”Liberator” arrives” (That’s Papandreu rickshawing Macarthur I think, while a Turk yells “Long live Moscow!”), “”Liberated” are plotting” (That’s Stalin saying “Hit the English wherever you can”), “”Liberator” and “Liberated”” (The two men are saying “Long live London”, “Long live Moscow”, and below their speech bubbles “…but what about Greece?”).

Anti-imperialism was also an important sentiment in the entirety of Axis space.

“American Journal, 19th of August 1942 on Dieppe – “We and the British are entering France””.

The Dieppe raid was an attempt of Allied forces to invade the French coast. It was a catastrophic failure, but it laid the groundwork for Normandy. The propaganda machine started the presses.

Also, Kolovoz is the Croatian name for the month of August. It means “Month of Wagon Driving”

“This is how they help the Partisans”

As mentioned before, United States and United Kingdom ran bombing missions across occupied Yugoslavia.

“Now some England knows what it means to throw bombs at women and children”

“Europe is now answering to her strikes!”

The little piece of paper says: “Since 15th of June, the new German weapon “V1” is, without pause, attacking London and Southern England, the base of the whole entire army for the British-American invasion.” The gravestones list Berlin and Croatian towns – victims of Allied bombing.

Understandably, when the German weapons struck back at United Kingdom, there was much rejoicing. Revanchism fuelled this war.

“Result of negotiations – England capitulates before Moscow. Leaving Balkans to the Soviets shows that England has no more power to be the supposed protector of Europe against Bolshevism.”

The preparedness of ideological enemies – capitalism and communism – to cooperate against the Axis was used as ammunition against the capitalist regimes. Communism was more opposed to Fascism than Capitalism, so additional ammo against capitalism was always welcome.

“And these would “Liberate” Europe”.

The photographs are labelled by the countries (clockwise: France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Greece) in which they were taken. Allied retaking of the continental Europe resulted in much destroyed property, of course.

I’m not sure if anything actually happened in Switzerland during WW2.

“Roosevelt – the man who declared a war of bombs at Croatia”

“Americans were here. Yes, Americans were here. Gangsters and murderers. If they were not such, they would not bomb homes of civilians. They can shoot accurately – this they have said multiple times. Leader of the air force, Joubert, said on radio: “We have enough of this, tossing bombs on military targets.” They have proven they are not soldiers but murderers that follow orders to kill in cold blood.

There are people who say this is fine, who do not condemn these crimes, but who seek excuses. “Well, it’s war” they say. Yes, it is war and war is something terrible, something a man can’t imagine when he is full and well dressed. But there are different ways of waging war. Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill have their own way. It’s one way to kill in the dark with a revolver and a machine gun, it’s another to massively murder innocent Croatians with bombs.

By order of Moscow and Tito, Angloamericans support predatory and bandit demands of the “National liberation army”

We do not need more evidence to understand that the blood of our countrymen, in the eyes of the British and the Americans, has no worth, same as we need no evidence that Tito has incited angloamerican terrorist attacks against the peaceful towns and villages to prepare for his destructive work he has planned for the Croatian nation.”
“Titos terrorist bands, in alliance with angloamerican terrorist planes – two partners that support each other in the “fight for freedom” against the Croatian Nation”

“Work harder – make the war shorter”

You know how American propaganda is full of “buy war bonds” and such?

There was no such financial infrastructure in NDH, of course. The only way to contribute to the economy was to actually work harder. So that’s what the posters were about.

“Work harder – make the war shorter”

That was a popular slogan back then.

“Work harder to make the war shorter”

I really like the imagery on these posters. They are simple, but radiate beauty and serenity.

Honestly I prefer these posters to the one depicting the enemies. They are too violent in my eyes.

“Prevent this!”

I’m not sure if the communists actually sabotaged crops and shit – I don’t imagine they have, since their food supplies depended on the popular support. But the people supporting them might have explained the missing food by saying it was burned, so maybe that’s what it’s referencing.

“Give us our daily bread”

Again, Catholic nation.

“Fight of united Europe – battle in the East”

Notice how Croatians are second in line – before Italians. Though knowing Italian military, they might as well have been performing better than the Italians.

I like how both Finland and Spain are up here despite not being part of the Axis or actually doing any fighting on the German side. This must have been before Mannerheim’s political spiel in Finland.

For those of you who don’t know, Mannerheim was a Finnish politician who tried not to get annexed by Soviets while not joining the Axis because he thought the Axis would lose, but the Allies didn’t want to help him.

So he entered an alliance with Germany and got Germans to send weapons to Finland. But before entering the alliance, he told the parliament to depose him right after they got the weapons and charge him with treason. This meant that, after receiving weapons, this feigned coup d’etat effectively ended the Axis alliance so Finland was no longer part of the Axis. But they had weapons to fight the Soviets with.

1941 – 10 – 4 – 1942

NDH was formed on 10th of April 1941 – funny how a European country was using the YDM format back then.

“Guard your crops!”

And then, the little images: “YOUR CROPS ensure and guarantee the future of your nation.” ”Bolshevik hordes want you to withdraw it from your nation… even if it means destroying it!” “HUNGER AND MISERY would make you a willing puppet to the Bolshevik creatures” “Save yourself and your brothers from the Bolshevik madness!”

In addition to the war, the period saw some bad winters and horrible harvests. Ensuring crops made it to harvest and end up on the market instead of in rebel hands was crucial for the government.

“Today the Croatian nation is united and unified in defense of its own country, because it is aware that it is not just about national welfare, but about the bloody heritage of the fathers and the beautiful and sacred offspring”

The interesting thing about this cover of a newspaper is not the text, but the fact that it depicts men of different national garbs. The interesting one is the Bosniak, with the Turkish Fez.

As you are probably aware, Bosniaks are Slavs who have accepted Islam. They are considered a separate ethnicity and nation. But the fascinating thing in this case that, as far as NDH’s national programme went, they were considered, by the state, to simply be Croats of a different religion.

The same way Croatians went through Magyarization while the kingdom was part of the Hungarian domain in Austria-Hungary, the NDH held a program of Croatization of its non-Croatian citizens – Serbs, Montenegrins and Bosniaks. NDH was a national Croatian state – therefore, all its inhabitants had to be Croatians and had to consider themselves Croatians. Religion, in case of Bosniaks, didn’t factor into this.

“Adriatic is ours”

In 1943, Italy capitulated. After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, Italy annexed parts of Yugoslavia it considered parts of its national territory. This included Rijeka (Fiume), Zadar (Zara) and Istria. NDH took control of these territories after Italian surrender.
Despite Italian policy of strict Italianization, there were no “hard feelings” by the government. The populace resented the Italian occupation, but the government printed no anti-Italian propaganda, not even after Italian surrender.

“Adriatic is ours”

“Croatians of Herzeg-Bosna! Great leader Adolf Hitler and Commander Dr. Ante Pavelič command you to defend your homes”

“Enlist in volunteer Croatian SS divisions”

As a sovereign state, Croatia was considered as an equal to Germany for purposes of participating in the SS. There’s a often-repeated claim that Hitler considered Croatians Aryan or some such nonsense – this is false, but they were treated as equals for the purposes of the army. Croatian territory was not part of the German Lebensraum.

“Croatians of Herzeg-Bosna! Join the volunteer Croatian mountain division and to German police in Croatia, in whose ranks are thousands of your brothers. Protect your homes! Do you perhaps want to see your proud Bosna in flames?” “Volunteer immediately at the closest SS unit or at a German police station in Croatia!”

Recruiting was full-on in Croatia. A lot of people joined the SS.

“Help the Croatian Red Cross”

I’ve always found the Red Cross’ mission incredibly noble and difficult. To bridge different warring nations like that in its mission is incredibly noble and shows ability and dedication to the cause.

“Croatians of the seaside and Dalmatia!” “Join the Croatian volunteer SS division and the German police in Croatia! Protect the law and order in your land! Protect Croatia and your sea for ever!” “Volunteer immediately at the closest SS unit or at the station of the German police in Croatia”

“Croatians! Volunteer for the volunteer SS units!” “a) Croatian volunteer SS Mountain Unit, b) German police in Croatia” “Conditions, detailed instructions and forms can be obtained at 1) all operating SS units and units of German police in Croatia 2) all Croatian military and police units”
“You will get free transport to the closest SS recruitment camp”

Then there’s the address for written applications.

“Croatia will await peace with a gun in its hand”

“Never a slave!”

I assume this means slave to Bolshevism.

By the way, the U-emblem is part of the coat of arms of NDH, in case anyone was wondering.

“And blood for Croatia!”

This is a pretty standard war poster

“Everything for Croatia!”

“To Work!”

I’m going to post the rest tomorrow as tying out the translations and the comments take a while. I hope someone is finding these interesting.

These are pretty cool. I read the first half, I need to finish later but it's nice

Nice thread OP.

If only the Germans took the Anti-Bolshevism propaganda seriously.

Fucking Croat slime bags

Was Herzeg-Bosnu an administrative Division of the NDH, somewhat akin to the SSRs in the USSR that had special rights and so forth?

Nope, Herzeg-Bosnia was Croatian entity in Bosnian war. It's virtually just another name for Bosnia.

Your math is shit. By your exchange rate given, 1.81 million kunas is actually worth 72,400 reichsmarks which is actually worth 28,960 dollars.

Nice thread.
My grandparents were Croatian nationals living in Berlin during the war but they got gassd nonetheless.

Nice thread. Bumping for later.