Tias Mortigjija
Encyclopedia
Tias Mortigjija was a Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 journalist, publicist, member of the Croatian Historical Revolution (similar to German Conservative Revolution), best known for his activities during the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...

 when he was chief editor of the most important newspaper and magazine.

Biography

Mortigjija has attended elementary school and real high school (gymnasium) in his native town Dubrovnik. As a high school student he began to publish poems, reviews, articles and debates in the Croatian newspapers and magazines; Hrvatska revija, Hrvatski narod, Spremnost, Glas Matice Hrvatske, Luč, Hrvatska straža, Novo doba, Hrvatska smotra...

After completing high school he enrolled the study of history and geography on University of Zagreb
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...

  1931, which he completed just before the Second World War - 1940 . It has long been studied because it is in fact the entire time of the study dealt with the publishing, editor of various journals of the 1933rd-1936th like; Krijes, Alma Mater, Dubrava i Hrvatski Jug. At that same time he wrote a book (actually a pamphlet) name Dinko Tomasic in the right light (Dinko Tomašić u pravom svijetlu).

Mortigjija was appointed assistant in the department of economic history on High economic and commercial school in Zagreb, but at that point had never worked, because he was to busy doing editorial works. Mortigjija in his autobiography, said that in his youth He was a keen Yugoslavian, but he turned on by bloody events in Belgrade Assembly on 20 June 1928th Since then heturns to Croatian nationalism. For Mortigjija true nationalism - its above partys, one that emerges from the petty-bourgeois narrow framework, defensiv, resistance and those who is inspired by Ante Starčević
Ante Starcevic
Ante Starčević , was a Croatian politician and writer whose activities and works laid the foundations for the modern Croatian state.His works are base for Croatian nationalism, he is often referred to as Father of the Fatherland by Croats.-Life:...

 ideas.

Career during the Independent State of Croatia

Since the establishment of the NDH
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...

, from April 1941 Mortigjija was editor of the most important national newspaper of that time Hrvatski narod, until February 1942 when she goes to the newly founded weekly magazine Spremnost where he works as director and chief editor until Xmas
Xmas
"Xmas" is a common abbreviation of the word "Christmas". It is sometimes pronounced , but it, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the typical pronunciation...

 1944. When dismissed, and replaced by Franjo Nevistić. So the remaining 4 months of 1945 he did't have any functions. Mortigjija was a member of the Ustasha
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...

 movement since 1941, and reserve sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

 and later captain of same movement, although he never did subscribe to Ustasha ideology.

Weekly news magazine Spremnost was a journal of
the Ustasha movement, and in fact the only weekly, after the Ustasha banned publication of all "other journal that time". Newspaper Hrvatski narod as well as weekly magazine Spremnost were typical puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....

 papers which followed the policy of the Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

 and in particular the Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, to illustrate the true state, it is already on 20 April 1941., newspaper Hrvatski narod quoted text from the Deutsche Zeitung, entitled »Against the Jews should take the toughest measures«which ends with the words:»Without final decision of the Jewish Question theire no final settling in the southeastern region. And it is equally certain that these measures can never be quite sharp.« Hrvatski narod has not only passed someone else texts, but also brought their own articles as that from June 26, 1941. entitled: »Despite the ban, the Jews are still swimming in the Sava River.« In a similar racist tone they have written articles about the Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

, Gypsies
Names of the Romani people
The Romani people are also known by a variety of other names, in English as Roma and Gypsies, in Greek as . In Central and Eastern Europe as Tsigani , in France as gitans besides the dated bohémiens and manouches....

 and other inferior races.

When the collapse of the Independent Croatian State, was more than clear Mortigjija together with the thirty other journalists from so called Prosvjetna bojna (Education battalion) fled to Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 on May 6, 1945.

Days in the Austrian refugee camps

In Austria, he spent more than a year (since May 1945. until August 1946.) And In the refugee camp, whose location occasionally move, Mortigjija accepted the job to organizing social life, events, lectures on Croatian history, organizing committee of the Initiative-Croat refugees in
Carinthia. He even published one newspaper at March 1. 1946. (all in only two pages) which should become the voice of Croatian refugees in Austria - Today and Tomorrow.

Trial and death

At the request of the new Yugoslav authorities, the British occupation forces in Austria, has delivered Tias Mortigjija into Yugoslavia on September 2, 1946. After that began the investigation and trial in Zagreb, at the end District Court has sentenced Tias Mortigjija to death by firing squad and the loss of all civil rights. Croatian Supreme Court has upheld the conviction at September 8, 1947, he is executed at October 23, 1947 somewhere in the area of Samobor
Samobor
Samobor is a town in the Zagreb County, Croatia. It is part of the Zagreb metropolitan area.-Geography:Samobor is located west of Zagreb, between the eastern slopes of the Samoborsko gorje , in the Sava River valley.-Population:...

.

Reconstruction of the trial

Reconstruction of court proceedings from 1947. and the cancellation of the verdict (K-417/47), asked his son Mato Mortigjija (at the time of shooting his father he had 4 years) through his lawyer Antun Mihočević from Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...

 in the late 1990s. After a long trial, the County Court in Zagreb, which formed Judge Erna Dražančić (president), and judges; Ivan Turudić and Vladimir Pavleković(as a members), on 18 February 2003. acquitted of guilt Tias Mortigjija.

In his writings, noted the Council of the County Court in Zagreb, Mortigjija did not personally exhibited positive totalitarian elements, and in any case did not approved abuse and intimidation ...

Because that on this verdict District Attorney's Office has not appealed, it became final - and it means that Tias Mortigjija has sentenced innocent

It is expected that soon may follow similar trials (40 NDH journalist has killed after May 1945., 47-seven, was banned for life for any public work, 13 were killed in the final operations).

Reaction to this verdict

The verdict provoked a negative reaction of the public. Thus, expressed his
amazement journalist of Croatian newspaper Vjesnik
Vjesnik
Vjesnik is a Croatian daily newspaper, published in Zagreb. Through its history, it has been considered a newspaper of record.The paper was originally printed as a monthly publication by the League of Communists of Croatia starting in 1940...

 Ivo Horvat - which actually is not assailed the acquittal to Mortidjija, but in her view by her colleague Josip Grbelja. Ivo Horvat in short says »that despite the annulment of the verdict of 1947. Can not be rehabilitated policies and practices for that are responsible and chief editors of the Ustasha newspapers who spent time in the service of Pavelic's regime. It is now perhaps clear in all aspects of our political scene, on left and right, especially in journalism. Except in isolated filoustaša nostalgic groups

On this text reacted, called Josip Grbelja saying that Horvat not judge soberly and objectively, but emotionally - because it has a prejudice about the Ustasha moviment, and that in fact not charged with him, but with a final court decision.

The verdict was greeted in some emigrant circles as a rare example of correcting injustice committed during the communist Yugoslavia, so even the President of the Croatian House in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

Anđelko Jurun in his letter to ex President of Croatia Ivo Sanader referring to it and asked that this can be an example for other cases.
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