Velika Župa Bilogora

Velika Župa, or the Great Governorate of Bilogora, was established in August 1941. As one of the 22 Great Governorates across the Independent State of Croatia, it was the highest regional authority directly responsible to the Ustasha-led government. Velika Župa Bilogora is composed of seven counties: Bjelovar, Križevci, Koprivnica, Đurđevac, Čazma, Grubišno Polje and Garešnica. The first part of the archival collection of Velika Župa Bilogora (boxes 1-7 and books 1-2) is mainly concerned with the orders from the top which it received from various state ministries. However, the fond also contains multiple reports from the subordinate institutions such as counties, towns, and cities (book 8 and box 9). In addition, documents about various security issues ranging from defense policy, activities of the German and Croatian military, and security protocols in cases of air raids or lack of food provisions are collected in the files of the Regional Police Office [Župska redarstvena oblast] (box 10). The fond contains extensive material referring to the educational policies and activities in Velika Župa Bilogora (boxes and books 10-15). It has dossiers of all staff working in education and various school reports. Information on the economy (box 16) is also available, and it can be helpful for researchers of the Holocaust regarding the process of “Aryanization.” The collection contains lists of stores and businesses still active in the Velika Župa, reports on the regulation of prices, and the process of colonization which was mainly conducted through redistribution of Serbian, Jewish, and Roma property. Sources regarding the social history (box 17) contain reports on war refugees, lists of orphans, and various types of social aid actions and associations. Researchers of the Holocaust will find boxes 21-24 most useful in the entire collection since these refer specifically to various forms of persecution of Serbs, Jews, and Roma, as well as acts of terror against other civilians. The collection contains files on the destruction of Christian Orthodox and Jewish places of worship. The collection includes lists of Jews who are intermarried with Catholics and those who converted to Roman Catholicism. Various reports against Jews who had not yet been deported can be found, and researchers of antisemitism “from below” will find these particularly useful. Moreover, the collection contains reports on the treatment of Jews in the Italian occupation zone in the south of the Independent State of Croatia. In addition, the collection contains records on Jewish property, which was confiscated from Jews in Velika Župa Bilogora. The collection contains information on the deportations of Roma from Čazma to the Jasenovac death camp, as well as instructions on the different treatment of Muslim Roma in comparison with those of other religions. Further information can be found on the instructions of how to deal with the bodies of victims of the Ustasha mass violence. Researchers of transnational and entangled aspects of the Holocaust and interethnic relations in Central and Southeastern Europe will find boxes 21-24 particularly interesting since they contain instructions and various measures on the treatment of Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Montenegrin, Roma, Serb and Jewish minorities in Velika Župa Bilogora.

5 Books, 19 Boxes