The International Committee of the Red Cross from Geneva and its activities in the circumstances of the Second World War has been exclusively humanitarian, and the ICRC based it on the then ...applicable provisions and regulations of the International Law of War (the Law of Armed Conflict). In the aftermath of the Second World War, sporadic allegations began to arise on the ICRC's activities in the war’s circumstances, from 1939 to 1945. These allegations focused in particular on the ICRC's relations with the Authorities of the German Reich, and on the ICRC's activities in favor of the Jews during the war. Initially, the ICRC and its leadership has been facing sporadic accusations from various organizations or individuals, as well as accusations from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), that had no official relations with the ICRC, and shown open hostilities towards the ICRC in the aftermath of the Second World War. In mid-1946, the representatives of Yugoslav authorities accused the ICRC of protecting collaborators and war criminals and further aggravated the situation. The reason for the outbreak of the conflict was the issue of displaced persons, among other. The Yugoslav Red Cross started the conflict that continued through the official Yugoslav press, with the support of the Yugoslav authorities. Soon, both the Yugoslav Red Cross and the Yugoslav authorities extended their allegations towards the ICRC to the entire ICRC’s activities carried out during the war. Based on original archival sources, published sources and literature, the author presents the genesis of the conflict.
The active role of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) comes to the fore in wartime circumstances, in carrying out activities based on international war law (the Geneva and Hague ...Conventions) regarding providing assistance to all war victims. In securing working conditions during World War II, the ICRC attempted to establish official relations with all belligerent parties regardless of whether they were or were not recognised as belligerent parties. Therefore, the author presents part of the ICRC efforts made in the process of recognising the international war law-regulated status of belligerent party to members of the People’s Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, i.e. the status of prisoners of war. Despite some earlier contacts, after the designation of a permanent representative to the Independent State of Croatia (1943), the ICRC launched extensive activities in favour of members of the Yugoslav Partisan movement, the most important of which was the practical application of the international law of war. Permanent representative Schmidlin constantly intervened in the ministries and the prime minister of the Independent State of Croatia through the Central Office of the Croatian Red Cross and as well through prominent figures in the political and social life of the State. However, although the Partisans de facto achieved the position of a belligerent party in their relations with the German military forces, this status was strongly opposed by the ISC authorities.Due to the change in the British attitude towards the Yugoslav Partisans, in the summer of 1943 the ICRC leadership ordered its permanent representative in Zagreb to establish contact with members of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia as soon as possible. Very soon, Schmidlin contacted the Supreme Headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army and Partisan detachments of Yugoslavia. In late November 1943, shortly after the beginning of the Allied Conference in Tehran, the ICRC leadership also received an Allied recommendation on the same subject. The existence of the Yugoslav Committee of the Red Cross in London, which had legitimacy and was the only recognised Yugoslav national Red Cross society, was a major problem in establishing relations between the ICRC and the Yugoslav Partisans. The ICRC leadership remained committed to not recognising the new societies created during the war. After the signing of the Tito-Šubašić agreement in mid-June 1944, the ICRC leadership changed its position, and representatives of the Yugoslav government and Marshal Tito sent several letters to the ICRC Permanent Delegation in London in late September and early October 1944. In those letters, they informed the ICRC leadership of the establishment of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Red Cross on the island of Vis. At the same time, the Royal Yugoslav Red Cross Society in London was dissolved. All of this resulted in the unification of the national organisation of the Red Cross in Yugoslavia, which led to the establishment of official relations between the ICRC and Yugoslav Partisans at the end of 1944. Based on original archival sources and literature, the author points to some aspects of cooperation until the end of World War II and in the early post-war period. One of the main aspects of the ICRC’s work during this period was the practical application of the provisions of the international law of war to prisoners of war in Yugoslavia. Tito himself made the same promises, though the Yugoslav Ministry of Social Policy made this conditional: they would be applied only if it was proven that captured members of the Partisan movement had been treated in the same way during the war. The treatment of prisoners of war in Yugoslavia could only be speculated about, and the authorities immediately refused to allow foreign diplomatic or ICRC representatives to gain insight into the treatment of prisoners of war. It is clear that the ICRC faced the same problems in its relations with the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia and the German Reich during the war and the Yugoslav authorities at the end of the war and in the immediate post-war period.
Na temelju izvora i literature autori prikazuju najznačajnije elemente koji su utjecali na gospodarski razvoj grada i kotara Vukovar na prijelazu iz 19. u 20. stoljeće. Kao gradsko središte te ...sjedište Srijemske županije, Vukovar je smješten na iznimno povoljnom prometnom položaju koji karakterizira plovnost rijeke Dunav što je, među inim, bio jedan od temelja gospodarskog razvoja tog kraja. Pod utjecajem niza političkih, društvenih i prirodno-geografskih elemenata, Vukovar se mijenja i oblikuje prerastajući u jednu od najznačajnijih gospodarskih točaka istočne Slavonije i Srijema.
Based on published archival sources and literature, the authors present the most important aspects that influenced on the economic development of the city and the district of Vukovar at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Vukovar as the center of the then Srijem (Syrmia) county is located on a very favorable traffic position characterized by the navigability of the Danube river. That position was one of the foundations of the economic development of that region, among other factors. Influenced by numerous political, social, natural and geographical elements, the city and district of Vukovar went through a transformation and became one of the most significant economic points of the Eastern Slavonia and Srijem.
Based on published archival sources and literature, the authors present the most important aspects that influenced on the economic development of the city and the district of Vukovar at the turn of ...the 19th to the 20th century. Vukovar as the center of the then Srijem (Syrmia) county is located on a very favorable traffic position characterized by the navigability of the Danube river. That position was one of the foundations of the economic development of that region, among other factors. Influenced by numerous political, social, natural and geographical elements, the city and district of Vukovar went through a transformation and became one of the most significant economic points of the Eastern Slavonia and Srijem.
The author points to some aspects of the work of the Central Agency for Prisoners of War of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), especially of the Work of Yugoslav Service of the same ...Agency on behalf of war victims native to the area of the Independent State of Croatia. Work is based on original archival sources and also the text discusses some points of establishing official relations among the Independent State of Croatia and the ICRC. Primarily on their mutual contacts based on the work of the special service of the ICRC's Central Agency for Prisoners of War, which was competent and responsible for the above problem for the whole area of pre-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The author points to some aspects of the work of the Central Agency for Prisoners of War of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), especially of the Work of Yugoslav Service of the same ...Agency on behalf of war victims native to the area of the Independent State of Croatia. Work is based on original archival sources and also the text discusses some points of establishing official relations among the Independent State of Croatia and the ICRC. Primarily on their mutual contacts based on the work of the special service of the ICRC’s Central Agency for Prisoners of War, which was competent and responsible for the above problem for the whole area of pre-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In this and in the preceding issue of Scrinia Slavonica, the author presents a
transcription of the archival materials about the numbers of the detainees held in the
women's section of the Stara ...Gradiška concentration camp (including Kula), starting
from the late May and finishing in the early December 1944.
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