I DISCOVERED THE USTASA WAR CRIMINAL AŠNER

By Aleksandra Stingl

Globus is revealing: who is the man who informed the SWC that has recently started the Last chance operation, pursuit for the last living Nazi criminals who escaped justice, about the 92-year old Milivoj Ašner, member of the Ustaša movement, chief of the town police in Požega from 1941. until 1942, accusing him for enforcing racial laws of the NDH, thus causing the death of hundreds of Jews and Serbs from Požega, as well as suffering of Croatian antifascists and other «unsuitable elements»

My motive was neither money, nor revenge, I wanted to pay respect to Jews

Even before the Last chance action by the SWC and the Targum Slishi foundation officially started in Croatia, offering 10.000 USD for information leading to criminal proceedings and conviction in court of those who committed Nazi crimes in WW 2, the Center received a thick dossier containing data about a perpetrator of war crimes on the territory of Croatia.
A few days before the start of the action, 27-year old Alen Budaj, born in Požega, by the occupation – merchant gave the documents about Milivoj Ašner, Ustaša police chief who is responsible for the elimination of Jews in the Požega district, to Efraim Zuroff, executive director of SWC. For seven years Alen Budaj was investigating the past of the Jewish community in Požega and its suffering during WW 2 and after he learned that Ephraim Zuroff is involved with the Holocaust theme, he showed to him his investigative work and transferred to him the documents he collected. It is a unique case that, even before starting the action, the Center gets so detailed documentation that it is enough for being forwarded directly to a court. After the name of Milivoj Ašner was made public, the Civic Committee for Human Rights already recorded three phone calls from persons who can testify about what Ašner was doing during WW 2.

Houses on graves

How and why did you start to investigate the suffering of Jews in Požega?
Seven years ago, embittered because of the way people from Požega were treating Jews, I started investigating history of the Jewish community in Požega. People here never wanted to stress the role of Jews in the development of Požega and this role is so significant that it simply cannot be neglected. In the books of several historians from the Požega territory Jews are being mentioned only in a few sentences from which it is not visible what was their influence and what was their role in economy, culture, science and – generally – in the public life of the town.

This was the only reason for starting the investigation?

Seven years ago I visited the Jewish graveyard in Požega for the first time and I was deeply shocked. The graveyard containing today only 15 graves is terribly devastated, because for years nobody is taking care of it in sense of giving money. From citizens I learned that after WW 2 there were people who built their family houses above the graves, using them for foundations and I was horrified by that fact.

Could it be that you started the investigation because of your origins?
My parents are Jews in «third row», but that did not have anything to do with my investigating work. In the first place I wanted to present facts about how Jews came to Požega and about their suffering.

What did you do first? Where did you start from?

I started looking for the survivors going through documents in all the institutions where these documents are being kept, museums, archives etc. However I had to establish first who lived in this territory, and then who survived and where are those people now. I thouth in the beginning I will not succeed, because I suspected the bulk of the documents I could use is already destroyed. But, little by little, I started constructing the mosaic and thus reconstructing the life of the Jewish community.

Afraid of Ašner

When and how did you learn about Ašner living in Croatia?

A year ago I got a call from my friend Vladimir Bunjevcevic who asked me to come to his home, because he wants to tell me something very important, but not on the phone. I went to his place and he told me that Ašner is back in Croatia, living in a family house in Daruvar. I told him that this is impossible, because – according to my information – Ašner was killed or died either at Bleiburg, or in the Crno prisoner’s camp. But, obviously, he was canny enough to avoid death. Bunjevcevic further told me that Ašner returned form Klagenfurt where he owned a firm. Later, I leaned that in 2000. Ašner in Croatia founded the Original Croatian Peasants Party and introduced, as its president, the initiative for founding, with money from Croatian emigrants abroad, the Croatian Agrarian Bank.

Did you decide to go to Daruvar personally and find him?

Yes. I told Bunjevcevic that I would get myself ready and visit Ašner. My intention was to tell him I am interested in his party and want to become a member. Besides that, as I explained to Bunjevcevic, I would act as a young man interested for the Ustaša movement and fond of it, thus making him tell me about what he was doing in Požega in 1941. and 1942. At that point Benjevcevic jumped from his chair, saying categorically: «No!», because he thought Ašner is too clever and he would see that I am only acting. Even after 60 years he was afraid of Ašner. When I visited him, he would always open his doors only slightly and I would loudly introduce myself, so that he knew who is coming. When he learned that Ašner is back, he was afraid day and night. It seems that this feeling was «implanted» by Mata Novacic who was arrested by Ašner together with him and who discovered that Ašner is back in Croatia. Although Bunjevcevic claimed at that time that something has to be done in order that this criminal gets his punishment, Mata Novacic recommended to him to let the past rest, because otherwise he would for sure be hurt.

Who is Vladimir Bunjevcevic?

Bunjevcevic comes from a left oriented workers family, he was actively involved in the antifascist struggle and he is an honest friend of Jews. I met him for the first time 4 years ago through a lady from Požega. After the founding of the NDH, he was suspicious to the authorities, although he was only 17 years old. Ašner accused him for towing stolen guns for the Cetniks and Partisans, although it is completely clear that only horses could have towed such a gun. Without even being investigated he was sent to a provisional camp in Požega, on a stadium. One summer evening when his aunt brought him some food, he made use of the inexperience of a young guard and escaped to his aunt house, where he went into hiding. Later his mother asked the Ustaša officer Dragutin Ðuric to help Vladimir, what he did.

Is he still alive?

No, he died last year, without witnessing the trial of this criminal. One day before he died, I visited him in the institution for old people in Zagreb and promised to him that I will go till the end. I cannot back off the promise I gave to a dying man.

What do you think will happen with Milivoj Ašner?

All the documents collected clearly show what kind of man he is. His first reaction to journalists was that it is all rubbish and that he is surprised Jews did not look after him earlier, because everybody, including Jews, knows him. He thought that after 60 years nobody would be looking after him and that he would not be made accountable for his misdeeds. It is really unimaginable that somebody can be so impudent. Today, I think that he is not going to feel secure wherever he might be.

Who can be the key witness in the Ašner case?

His collaborator Viktorija Kir, who lives today in Požega, could witness about his misdeeds. She did that already once in the publication Chronology of the events on the Požega valley in 1941., so she could be the key witness. Bunjevcevic too confirmed that Mrs. Kir could be the one who could know most about this. Apart from that I gave the SWC documents with names of 7 Jews who could be witnesses against Ašner and recently 3 persons contacted the Civic Committee for Human Rights, confirming Angers guilt for war crimes.

Lining memory

Did you meet with the Jewish survivors of Holocaust?

Personally I met 2 Jews from the Požega territory who survived the Holocaust and who told me that nobody was sentenced for crimes against their parents, brothers and sisters. These people were very bittre, because they waited for 60 years that justice be done and already thought they will not live to see it happen. It is interesting that some of them were children during Holocaust, but their memories of events of that time are still very vivid.

How many Jews were victims in Požega?

During WW 2 308 Jews from Požega perished, not all of them in the town. This number contains those too who fled to other places in Croatia. Only those who found refuge in Hrvatsko Primorje survived.

How were you gathering documents?

In all possible ways. I would be sending for days letters to people I thought they might be of Jewish origin. However I succeeded in finding the right ones in several occasions and I got the answers I was looking for.

Did you experience closed doors during your investigation?

One might say there were some provocations. In the Croatian State Archives they told me they can give me data until a certain year, but not after it – because of the secrecy of private data and because 100 years should pass from the birth of the person being subjected to investigation. To me that sounded stupid, because in some cases these 100 years have already passed. In the Archives I was not allowed to copy certain documents, for example the files of Jewish companies that was never used before and that contains no private data. They stressed that there is no problem in investigating economy or culture of that time, but when I started investigating Holocaust I felt as if the investigators dealing with this part of history are under some surveillance. Closed doors did not discourage me, on the contrary that gave me an even greater impulse to discover what happened with the Jews from Požega.

On the trail of crime

When you discovered that Milivoj Ašner, chief of the Ustaša police, was responsible for the death of Jews from Požega, did you tell this to any of the survivors of the Holocaust?

Few days before the start of the Last chance action I was talking to a couple of the survivors about what I knew, but I was cautious enough not to mention the name on the phone. I just told them I am following a firm trail of a person who was positioned very high it the Ustaša mechanisms and that I will soon give the whole documentation to the SWC. They were surprised that such a young person after so many years of work was able to achieve such a discovery. They thought there will never be a trial and that most probably all the criminals were either dead or they managed to escape the justice. After I talked to them they were satisfied, because they felt relief.

Why did you not want to say anything about this on the phone? Do you think your phone is tapped?

Now I can clearly state that Milivoj Ašner is responsible for the suffering of Jews from Požega, but as long as my investigation was still being conducted, I was very cautious. I do not think that anybody has tapped my phone, but I still did not want to ruin the case by being careless. I did not want that the name of the man who was hiding from justice for 60 years leak before the investigation be closed. I was not led by any wish for revenge, because Ašner did no harm to me, or my family. I was led by curiosity and by the wish to pay respect to all the Jews for their contribution in the development of Požega.

Are you afraid that somebody could threaten your life now?

Not at all, although I am aware of the situation, quite a lot of Ustaša emigrants returned to Croatia and they have great influence in various associations. After all, I ma not the criminal who should be brought to justice, it is Milivoj Ašner, chief of the Ustaša police who sent many people into death. I did not appear in public until now, I did not want my name to appear in newspapers, not out of fear, but because I wanted the initial interest to be focused on the criminal.

What will be your role in the Ašner case? Do you expect to be invited, in whatever role, to the trial?

If anybody invites me to participate in any role in the court proceedings, I would gladly accept, because I want to help justice be done. In this investigation I was led by this idea: justice must be done. After 60 years in hiding, the criminal Ašner does not deserve to live his old days peacefully. Maybe some people would ask the question, what kind of person I am, dragging an old man through newspapers and wanting to see him in jail. But, if he was as a 28-year old, able to commit brutal crimes against Jewish children and old people who were guilty of nothing, if he did not object to sending them to camps, then nobody can have any objection to me, claiming that I am making some old man suffer, because this old man is a war criminal. I am asking myself how could one remain calm when confronted with the case of the Rechnitzer family whose 4-year old child was deported to the Stara Gradiška camp and killed there. This is terrible and there can be no excuse for such a thing.

Did you already collect the 10.000 USD reward promised by the SWC for information about Nazi criminals from WW 2?

No, not yet.

Did you investigate because of this reward?

I would not like anybody to think that I did it for money. I started investigating the Ašner case a year ago and it is pure coincidence that I gave the material to the SWC at the same time the Last chance operation with its 10.000 USD reward started.

Valley of Jews

Are you going to help the SWC in investigating other cases?

I would be glad to, because I think that now I have experience. If my help would be needed and if they ask me, I will be ready to cooperate. I was not offered anything yet, but they stressed how very content they are with my work.

What is your idea of getting hold of all those criminals, when the majority of them is about 90 years old, some of them probably ill, maybe even not in a conscious state any more?

Anybody who is responsible for a crime and who is not fit for a trial, should be at least publicly denounced as a war criminal and morally condemned. But, Ašner is not ill. On the contrary, he is in an extremely good shape, he is politically active, he is active as an entrepreneur and people were not perceiving him as an incapable old man, but as a foreign investor, not knowing about the dark side of his past. His neighbours in Daruvar claim that he was a good neighbour, ready to help etc. We could say the same about the Serb criminal Radovan Karadžic – that he is a good neighbour who helped many people. But, the fact remains that he is a war criminal.

Conflict over the Jewish gold

How did Ašner manage to become so wealthy?
Mostly through the so-called case of gold from Požega. At the end of 1941., when all the Jews were in the concentration camp or waiting for the deportation to other camps, Ašner had a conflict with Krešimir Kišpatic, chief of Ustaša in Požega over the Jewish gold. We are speaking about more then one million Dinars in gold that the two of them wanted to take for themselves. But, they were not able to agree how, because Ašner thought he should get the greater part. Because of this he ordered the arrests of many people suspected for their sympathy for communism, among them young Bunjevcevic and Mata Novacic. Ašner wanted thus to compromise Kišpatic, showing that he is too weak towards the so-called communists. After all, Ašner was removed from Požega based on the decision by Eugen Dido Kvaternik who rewarded him for his good work. Ašner was namely one of his favorites.

Ašner was the omnipotent, nobody ended up in jail, without him knowing it

Who was, according to your information, Milivoj Ašner?

Milivoj Ašner was active in the Ustaša control in Zagreb and after that on 15th May 1941. was named by the NDH Ministry of Interior chief of town police in Požega. It is interesting that this document is put into archives under the letters N.G. (E.D.), meaning Enemy documents. In other words, already after the liberation in 1945. Croatian judiciary authorities were interested in him. He was appointed at the proposal of dr. Mirko Jerec, who was the head of the county at that time. As a convinced Ustaša and police chief, Milivoj Ašner was working, together with the Ustaša authorities, and the community and county leadership in Požega, on the persecution of Jews, Serbs, communist Croats from Požega, on robbing them of their property, forceful evictions from houses and apartments, arrests and putting before court-martials. Only one day after he was appointed, on 16th May 1941., anti-Serb and anti-Jewish measures were introduced in Požega, after which Jews were not ordinary citizens any more, but second grade citizens only. Jews and Serbs were marked by humiliating badges and subjected to the racial laws of the NDH. In October 1941. Ašner ordered the eviction of all Jews from their apartments, more than 60 families, and their deportation to a ghetto on the town outskirts. After that he brought a larger number of Požega Jews to the Ustaša headquarters, where they were molested. He is personally responsible for the death of Jew Edo Moskovic, who was deported by him at the end of July 1941. to the concentration camp in Gospic, where he was murdered. Finally, on 29th December 1941. Požega police deported Jews from the town to concentration camps where they were murdered to the past. He remained loyal to the Ustaša regime till the last days of the Pavelic NDH.

What kind of a person was Ašner?

He was omnipotent, people were afraid of him; nobody was jailed without his knowledge. Even now, when he is over 91, he looks arrogant and you can just imagine how he was at the age of 28, when he was working with heart and soul on the elimination on Jews. He was the one who decided who is a Jew, and who is not. For the Schillinger couple who were deported to Jasenovac, and for whom as «good Croats» a whole village was pleading, Ašner – under pressure – wrote his opinion to the Ustaša control service, confirming what the villagers claimed, although prior to that he personally ordered their eviction and deportation to the Jasenovac camp. They were never released. They were killed there.

Milivoj Ašner from the fascist victims list is the Ustaša criminal

How would you comment on the statement of the State Archives that claims there are two Milivoj Ašners? One is victim of fascists and the other is the Ustaša police chief in Požega?

Family name Ašner could indeed be both Jewish and German. But in this case we are dealing with one person only. Namely, in 1985. the State Archives was working on the Dotršcina project aimed at listing all the victims of fascism from Zagreb territory, including Jews. I could not believe that Milivoj Ašner was listed there as a Jewish victim in Zagreb. Obviously Ašner took care, through people who were helping him, to put himself on that list in order to secure his future. I do not believe that anywhere else a criminal was promoted into the victim, as was the case here in Croatia.

How was it possible that the State Archives made such a mistake?

The Archives did not acknowledge their mistake, but in the Dr. Melita Švob book «Jews in Croatia – Jewish Communities» we can see that in 1945, there was just one Ašner and we have here a case of duplicating a person.

So, according to you, there is no doubt we are dealing with one person only?

I have no doubt whatsoever. When you see the way he is listed in the Dotršcina project, it is clear that the whole thing is a construction. It is impossible that a Jew could have been on 7th May on the Jelacic square, besides many Ustaša soldiers who were passing through on their way to Bleiburg. His wife obviously gave on 3rd July a false statement to the Central commission in order to protect him, claiming that he was a National liberation movement sympathizer. Although Ašner was listed in the Dotršcina project based on the statement made by his wife, it is not clear how could he, as a Croat and Roman-catholic be listed among Jewish victims. This Milivoj Ašner from the list is born in the same year as the criminal Milivoj Ašner, both have three children. When I read this in the Archives, everything got in its place. This is a unique case in the world that a criminal succeeded to get himself among victims, which was confirmed by the Center too. It is time for Croatia to get rid of the sticker of a country that is recycling the fascist garbage and that is genocidal.