The United States' Response to Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941-1945

In April 1941, Ante Pavelić, the fascist leader of the Independent State of Croatia, and his paramilitary force, the Ustaše ("rebels"), began a genocide that killed at least 330,000 Serbs and essentially eliminated Jews and Roma from Croatia. The American response to genocide in Croatia provides a fuller context for examining Washington's reaction to the Nazi genocide. By the summer of 1941, the US government had reliable information that genocide was taking place in Croatia. Washington expressed little interest in this slaughter, except insofar it affected Croatian-American and Serbian-American relations; made no direct public statement condemning the Ustaše's actions; and offered no protest to the Vatican. Croatian events, however, propelled the FBI and the Office of War Information to suppress pro-Ustaše supporters in the United States.