The Suffering of Serbs in Dubrovnik in 1937

In 1937, a Eucharistic Congress was held in Dubrovnik, and during the two days it took place, all shops owned by Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Serbs were looted. That same year, the premises of the Serbian Sokol societies in Konavle—in Popovići, Postrenje, Mrcine, Vitaljina, Pločice, Komolac, and Osojnik—were destroyed, set on fire, or blown up…

A Eucharistic Congress was held in Dubrovnik from July 15 to 18, 1937. The organizing committee for this congress included not only the Bishop of Dubrovnik, Josip Carević, and the Catholic clergy, but also a large number of leaders from the local branch of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS)—most notably Miho Škvrce and Vicko Svilokos.

During the event, leaflets were publicly distributed, which stated, among other things:

“Croatian people! We are now celebrating a magnificent Eucharistic observance here in Dubrovnik. With sincere hearts and tears of joy, we demonstrate to all our vibrant Catholic consciousness and our fervent Croatian patriotism. In the spirit of our militant nationalist zeal, we declare once again to the entire world that this is a Catholic and Croatian land. We proclaim loudly to all that our past, our present, and our future are exclusively Croatian…“

This leaflet concludes as follows:

“In the name of God and St. Blaise, join the ranks of the Croatian nationalist struggle! Long live a free and independent Croatian state, in which our Dubrovnik, too, will find its rightful place—at home on its own soil,” etc.

When such leaflets were being distributed during the Eucharistic Congress in Dubrovnik, the Minister of the Interior, Dr. Korošec, did not fear that unrest might ensue, nor did he send the police to break up the Eucharistic Congress.

The Eucharistic Congress concluded two days later with the looting of all shops owned by Serbs—both Orthodox and Catholic.

Member of Parliament Mr. Risto Grdić

62nd Regular Session of the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, held on July 23, 1937, in Belgrade.

Reactions in the Press

The clerical newspaper *Narodna svijest* explains the looting of shops owned by Orthodox and Catholic Serbs by suggesting that a group of thieves, operating in an organized manner, happened to be in the city at the time. In doing so, the newspaper reduces what was an organized campaign against Serbs in Dubrovnik to mere theft by a gang of criminals.

What is missing is an explanation as to who organized these thieves to target specifically the shops owned by Serbs. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that preparations for this congress lasted a full nine months—ample time for a band of thieves to organize themselves effectively to plunder every single Serbian-owned shop. (1)

Against the Catholic Serbs

Despite the efforts of Croatian clericalists to transform all Catholic celebrations into Croatian manifestations, Catholic Serbs also took part in them.

Pilgrims from Cavtat arrived at the Dubrovnik Eucharistic Congress aboard the ship “Cavtat.” Dr. Nikola Dobrečić was present in Dubrovnik for the Eucharistic Congress on July 14, 1937. During the theophoric procession, he was accompanied by Roko Mišetić and Mayor Ruđer Bračanović. (3)

Konavle and the Dubrovnik Area

Another fact regarding Dubrovnik in 1937 demonstrates that, in the period between the two world wars, Orthodox and Catholic Serbs in that city were subjected to severe persecution by Croatian associations, political parties, and the Catholic clergy:

On July 28, 1938, the Dubrovnik Sokol Society sent a formal petition to Milan Stojadinović:

“In order to hinder the progress of the Sokol movement in the Dubrovnik district—which comprised 26 Sokol units—preaching against the movement took place from the altar, with threats of the torments of hell directed at those who joined or remained within the Sokol organization. Furthermore, there were even threats against people’s lives and property. Some of our members were physically beaten, and others had their property destroyed. In 1936, haystacks belonging to our members were set on fire, hundreds of grapevines were uprooted, and the Sokol hall in Orašac was set ablaze.

In 1937, the Sokol hall of the Popovići (Konavle) unit was set on fire. That same year, a mob of separatists smashed the shop windows of our members, and a few days ago, dynamite was planted beneath the house where the Sokol unit in Postrenje is based.” As a result of such pressures, the Sokol units in Mrcine, Vitaljina, Pločice, Komolac, and Osojnik ceased operations entirely.

Under the Cvetković–Maček Agreement of August 26, 1939, Konavle was separated from the Zeta Banovina and assigned to the newly created Banovina of Croatia. The HSS (Croatian Peasant Party) used its authority within the Banovina of Croatia to take action against the Sokol movement. (2)

Viktor Novak on Eucharistic Congresses

In a paper from April 1935 concerning the political situation in Croatia and Slovenia, Viktor Novak describes the true nature of these congresses:

Eucharistic congresses in Yugoslavia “have become veritable political-clerical gatherings—a kind of ominous, wordless political music—where the clericalists, acting entirely in accordance with their own principles, entrench themselves among the broad, deluded masses. In the view of the episcopate, these Eucharistic congresses serve as reviews of a clerical army—a ‘militant church’—acting as a direct counterpart to the *Sokol* rallies; in short, they are anti-Yugoslav assemblies—all held with the permission of the state authorities!”

While skillfully masking its destructive work by claiming to defend against alleged Orthodox proselytism, Catholic Action serves as the most persistent facilitator of Roman Catholic proselytism. Catholic Action has expanded its activities not only in Croatia and Bosnia but, most extensively, in Dalmatia. Fanatical young clerics—and subsequently priests—act as zealous pioneers for these agendas set by their ecclesiastical superiors.

Raised in a clerical spirit within Catholic secondary schools and rigorously trained in seminaries—following a Jesuit pedagogical model—they are prepared for this specific objective. They then enter the public sphere imbued with the genuine hatred characteristic of medieval religious warriors, viewing anyone who is not Roman Catholic as a dangerous adversary to Roman Catholicism.

Naturally, their hatred and intense religious intolerance also incite ethnic animosity. For this reason, they have designated the lay adherents of these principles by the name of ancient religious combatants: *Križari* (Crusaders)! Thus, these young, dependent servants of the Church have been raised in hatred toward the largest segment of our people—the Serbs.” (4)

The *Križari* (Crusaders) and the Independent State

The prevailing atmosphere and the intentions of Croatian clerical and political circles—both before and after the Eucharistic Congress in Dubrovnik—are best illustrated by a legal proceeding held before the District Court in Zagreb on June 15, 1938.

The case was brought against Dr. Ivan Protulipac, a lawyer from Zagreb and president of the *Križari* (Crusader) organization. On August 22, 1937, in Bosanski Brod, while addressing a gathering of *Križari* societies and other citizens who had participated in the Eucharistic Congress, he stated, among other things:

“When we *Križari* arrived in this town for the Eucharistic Congress, many who saw us in our uniforms wondered who we were, what we were, and what we wanted. Well, I tell them: we want an independent Croatian state—a state that must be granted to us—and if it is not granted, we shall seize it by force...” (5)

The Secret Directorate

“Maček’s and the Frankists’ ‘Secret Directorate’ worked on fabricating narratives about the mass suffering of Croats at the hands of the gendarmerie and Serbian peasants—whom they labeled ‘Chetniks’ (much like in 1991–1995)—in the ethnically mixed Orthodox–Roman Catholic regions of Dalmatia, the Krajina, and Slavonia…

According to the writer Vilović, priests and friars led ‘their own combat battalions…’ under a ‘tribal banner—with or without a cross’—accompanied by the battle cry: ‘To battle, to battle, brothers, draw your swords from their sheaths!’

‘Their speeches were always filled with “intense passion” and marked by an “elevated, feverish pitch.”‘ Such conduct by priests and friars at these ‘congresses of brotherly love—Eucharistic congresses’—would drive the Croatian Catholic audience into a delirious state, leaving them ready to ‘scream, destroy, and charge into battle—bare-handed—against the even more exposed bayonets of the Yugoslav gendarmes’ (Eucharistic Congress in Omiš).” In reality, therefore, these “peaceful Croatian lambs” frequently attacked legitimate units of the Yugoslav Gendarmerie, as well as members of the “heresy”—labeling them “Chetniks” (as seen in the Kerestinec incident on the estate of Ban Mihalović)—and targeted the Yugoslav Sokol movement, among others…

Alojzije Stepinac was among the first to sustain and stoke this heightened state of tension through his anti-state activities.” (6)

During the first half of the 20th century—and particularly in the interwar period—these clerical congresses served as aggressive anti-Serbian manifestations. They were directed against both Orthodox and Catholic Serbs, whose centuries-old presence was called into question within a state that was ostensibly meant to provide them with protection.

It is, therefore, curious that detailed information regarding the events of 1937 in Dubrovnik and its surrounding area is not easily found in Serbian historical sources. Perhaps this is because the events in Dubrovnik unfolded at the height of the Concordat Crisis and immediately preceding the “Bloody Procession” (*Krvava litija*).

Dalibor Drekić

Literature:

(1) Narodna svijest, Dubrovnik, 20. 7. 1937.

(2) Srbi katolici u Ćilipima i Konavlima

(3) Saša Nedeljković – Srpstvo barskih nadbiskupa (Barski portal)

(4) Vasilije Krestić – Istoriografski članci i rasprave 2, Beograd 2020.

(5) Viktor Novak, Magnum Crimen – Pola vijeka klerikalizma u Hrvatskoj, Zagreb, 1948.

(6) Nikola Žutić – Ideologija i vjerska politika nadbiskupa Stepinca u Jugoslaviji 1934-46, ISI, Beograd 2017.

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Persecution of Serbs in Croatia at the beginning of the 20th century
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