2. MY RESEARCH OF WWII CASUALTIES

 

I began my research with the existing official data published by the Federal Institute of Statistics for the census from the years 1921 and 1931. Furthermore I analyzed the movement of the officially registered increase of population until 1939, which had been continued in 1947. I also found out that the State Statistical Bureau of the Democratic Federate Yugoslavia had published in its publication Demographic Statistics Volume II, No. 2 the ESTIMATED NUMBER OF INHABITANTS for 1941 and 1945, that is for the beginning and the end of the war, published in Belgrade in May 1945 with the following crucial data:

 
 
  Number of inhabitants Growth percentage 

 
Number of registered inhabitants 31 March 1931 13,934,038  
Population increase 1931-1941 1,905,326 1.29%
Estimated number of inhabitants 31 March 1941 15,839,364  
Population increase 1941-1945 762,129 1.19%
Estimated number of inhabitants 31 March 1945 16,601,493  
 

 

What remained to be done was to calculate the expected population increase from 31 March 1945 to the first postwar census held 15 March 1948, that is for only 3 years, in order to obtain possible human losses for the pre-war territory of Yugoslavia. The credibility can be compared with the results of Dr Bogoljub Kocovic, Serbian nationality, who published his calculations under the name "Casualties of WWII in Yugoslavia" according to "Nase delo" (Our Work) editions, by Biddles of Guilford for Veritas Foundation Press, London, 1985.

 

Table 1

 
 
  Kocovic 

(in thousands)

 Zerjavic 

(in thousands)
Expected population 15 Mar 1948 17,263 17,359
Population census 15 Mar 1948 15,278 15,377
Total demographic losses 1,985 2,022
Decreased birth rate & increased death rate due to war situation 333 326
Number of emigrated people 638 669
War losses (killed) 1,014 1,027
 

 

Table 2

LOSSES OF POPULATION ACCORDING TO NATIONALITY
(in thousands) - Kocovic did not show figures of losses abroad

 
 
  Kocovic
Zerjavic
    in country abroad total
Serbs 487 497 33 530
Croatians 207 178 14 192
Slovenes 32 36 6 42
Montenegrins 50 20 - 20
Muslims 86 100 3 103
Macedonians 7 6 - 6
SLAVS 869 837 56 893
Other Slavs 12 7 - 7
Jews 60 33 24 57
Romanies (Gypsies) 27 18 - 18
Germans 26 28 - 28
Rest 20 24 - 24
TOTAL 1.014 947 80 1.027
 

Table 3

DEMOGRAPHIC AND WAR LOSSES (in thousands - Zerjavic)
 
 
Demographic losses
Lower birth-rate
Actual dem. losses
Emigrees
War losses
Abroad
At home
B&H 480 101 379 51 328 12 316
Montenegro 53 7 46 9 37 - 37
Croatia 502 50 452 157 295 24 271
Macedonia 63 13 50 26 24 7 17
Slovenia 76 5 71 31 40 7 33
Serbia - total 848 150 698 395 303 30 273
Serbia 392 120 272 86 186 19 167
Vojvodina 405 15 390 297 93 10 83
Kosovo 51 15 36 12 24 1 23
YUGOSLAVIA 2,022 326 1,696 669 1,027 80 947
 

Table 4

 

WAR CASUALTIES - fighters, victims, quislings (in thousands - Zerjavic)
 
 
Victims
Killed in
 Quislings
  Altogether Fighters All victim Populated areas Camps Collaborators
B&H 316 72 174 89 85 70
Montenegro 37 15 15 14 1 7
Croatia 271 66 153 105 48 52
Macedonia 17 14 2 1 - 1
Slovenia 33 12 11 8 3 10
Serbia - total 273 58 146 67 70 69
Serbia 167 42 92 39 53 33
Vojvodina 83 10 46 20 26 27
Kosovo 23 6 8 8 - 9
YUGOSLAVIA 947 237 501 383 216 209
 

Remark: The differences between the calculated and registered number of inhabitants of Kocovic and Zerjavic show due to unequal scope of pre-war and annexed regions of Croatia and Slovenia. However the growth-rate 1941-1945 has been counted as the 1.2% annually, which is appropriate for that period. Data for Table 3 have been taken out of monographs, listings of the Union of fighters, Lexicon of NOR (People's Liberation War) and archives, 122 sources each named in my book published in 1989.

When my book was published in March 1989, all the Yugoslav republics gave it positive criticism. And the Association of Demographers of Yugoslavia invited me by letter to join the association, what I had done. However Dr. Milan Bulajic wrote in an article in the Belgrade magazine OSMICA (EIGHT) from 11th May 1989 under the title HOW TO APPEASE DEAD the following: "If instead a million and 700 thousand there were a million victims, then the number of killed in genocide also decreases, and the number of fallen fighters, and the number of civilian casualties. Why hasn't this country ever counted how many lives its freedom had costed? Between the exaggeration and the minimalization of casualties" - says Dr. Milan Bulajic; diplomat and author of book "The Crime of Genocide of Ustashas". He writes further: "The purpose of something like that is to decrease the responsibility of those crimes, but little is done for proving the actual casualties. With the study of Zerjavic the question has been put in such a way that all casualties in WWII come into question. We came to the international community after the war with the number of a million and 700 thousand casualties and on basis of that we were setting the issue of war reparations. Here in a way the size of the fight of the 305 thousand fighters who were killed was displayed, and now it is claimed that there were 700 thousand less. In all camps according to Zerjavic 216 thousand people were killed, and if you take into account that on the territory of NDH there were about fifteen camps, then a few more in Serbia, Macedonia and other parts of the country, what number goes then for the Jasenovac camp?" He goes on: "it is a fact that our country or its responsible organs do not have precise data about the number of victims. Therefore, according to my opinion, one should put the issue of responsibility of how it is possible that Yugoslavia 45 years after the war does not have a list of casualties. Above all there is the duty towards those victims... and the responsibility of Yugoslavia since on basis of that data it asked for reparation demands". Also, in the same text Bulajic writes furthermore: "In August 1966 Federal Institute of Statistics made an account of the number of victims, but that account (it was an account performed in 1964 on demand of Germany), holds Bulajic, is completely inaccurate, because according to it there were only 49.874 victims in Jasenovac, 1.794 in Jadovna, 128 in Gradina. Even though this document was labeled "Top Secret" and today is the basis to some polemicists in the debate about the number of victims of genocide in NDH". My polemics were published in "Obsessions and Megalomania around Jasenovac and Bleiburg".

Written by Vladimir Zerjavic
Back to Inventions and Lies of Dr Bulajic