Bleiburg Repatriations - Surrender at Bleiburg

Surrender At Bleiburg

The NDH troops began surrendering to the British on 15 May. The British negotiator was Brigadier Patrick T. D. Scott of the 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade. Ustaše infantry generals Ivo Herenčić of the V Ustasha Corps, and a translator, Professor/Colonel Danijel Crljen of the Ustasha propaganda office, were involved in the surrender negotiations. In the afternoon of the same day, the Croatian forces started raising white flags in surrender. The Partisan representatives included Major-General Milan Basta, the political commissar of the 51st Vojvodina Division, and Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Kovačič Efenka of the 14th Attack Division.

NDH military representatives attempted to negotiate a surrender to the British, but were directed to surrender to the Yugoslav military, in accordance with Article 20 of the Hague Convention: After the conclusion of peace, the repatriation of prisoners of war shall be carried out as quickly as possible. General Brian Robertson gave British troops the order, "All surrendered personnel of established Yugoslav nationality who were serving in German Forces should be disarmed and handed over to Yugoslav forces".

The Independent State of Croatia had joined the Geneva Convention on 20 January 1943, and was recognised by it as a "belligerent", which nominally guaranteed the Yugoslav Axis soldiers prisoner of war status upon their surrender and repatriation, as opposed to that of civilians.

Historians examining the events at the Bleiburg field have had to rely only on a handful of witness accounts, most of which were not published until many decades after the events:

• Danijel Crljen published articles about it in Hrvatska revija in Paris in 1966.
• British army reports, compiled by Lord Nicholas Bethell in his 1974 book The Last Secret, published in London.
• A Yugoslav officer Petar S. Brajović wrote about it in his 1983 book Konačno oslobođenje (Sjećanja i obrade), published in Zagreb.
• Milan Basta wrote a book, published in Belgrade in 1986, called Rat je završio 7 dana kasnije ("The war ended 7 days later").
• A testimony by a Croatian diplomatic courier one Teodor (Ted) Pavić cited in Nikolai Tolstoy's 1986 book.
• A Slovene soldier Franci Strle wrote about it in a 1990 book Otvoreni dossier: Bleiburg, published in Zagreb.
• A testimony of a Croatian survivor Zvonimir Zorić was recorded in the 1994 work Od Bleiburga do naših dana, published in Zagreb.

The Partisan forces of the 51st Vojvodina Brigade of the Yugoslav 3rd Army and the 12th Proletarian (Slavonian) Division had established tactical control over the field of Bleiburg. Milan Basta set an ultimatum to the NDH negotiators - unconditional surrender within one hour, or else they would attack them and not uphold the norms of the international conventions of the Red Cross. Basta's ultimatum was extended for another fifteen minutes, after which point a general surrender started.

The exact events after the expiry of the ultimatum are the source of the original controversy regarding the repatriations. Teodor Pavić wrote that the Partisan forces started strafing the crowd in the Bleiburg field with machine guns and shooting them individually. Petar S. Brajović described a fifteen to twenty minute machine gun and mortar fire on the column. Franci Strle wrote that the 3rd Battalion of the 11th "Zidanšek" Brigade and the 3rd Battalion of the 1st "Tomšič" Brigade were involved in the fire, and their records noted at least 16 deaths, mainly from the machine gun fire. Zvonimir Zorić also wrote of a massacre in the Bleiburg field.

The notion of a massacre at the Bleiburg field was promoted by the leftovers of the Ustasha in exile. Croatian-American historian Jozo Tomasevich dismisses the notion as part of this propaganda. Croatian historian Martina Grahek Ravančić who is known for her research of the topic of Bleiburg wrote that the complete extent of the casualties sustained by the NDH column at Bleiburg on the day of the surrender was not described in any available sources, but she is certain that a short Yugoslav Army attack on the column had happened and that there were casualties, but their number is unknown.

In addition, Franci Strle and Milan Basta claimed that as the Ustasha forces tried to make a breakthrough at the north side of the valley, three British tanks were engaged to stop them, reportedly causing numerous casualties as well. On the other hand, only three Croatian testimonies supported the notion that there were British tanks in the proximity of the column, but without any mention of such a grave incident. These kinds of unconfirmed reports of British military involvement, coupled with the actually legitimate act of repatriation, were subsequently exaggerated by Ustasha supporters in a variety of biased published works to accuse the British of war crimes.

Later on the same day, NDH generals Slavko Štancer, Vjekoslav Servatzy and Vladimir Metikoš oversaw the surrender to the Partisans. British army reports say Štancer had previously been captured by the Partisans when they strayed from the column, seeking the British.

The surrender continued for several days and at various locations; it took until 21 May for Tito to order the Partisans to withdraw from Carinthia.