Magnum Crimen

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In Latin, Magnum Crimen means "The Great Accusation". The book of this title was published in Zagreb in 1948. The author was a Catholic priest and a professor at University of Belgrade, Dr. Viktor Novak. Dr. Novak started writing the book long before World War II, but the book assumed its true meaning only after the Independent State of Croatia was formed. The book describes the Clericalism in Croatia from 1900 the end of the WWII. Croatia's left-wing Feral Tribune has called the book "propaganda (...) in which there is no distinction between fact and fiction".^[1]

One excerpt from the book describes an Ustaše raid led by a Catholic priest on the Serb Orthodox villages of Drakulići, Šargovac and Motike, located near Banja Luka on February 7th 1942. It describes how a brother of the Petrićevac Monastery, Tomislav Filipović, entered the classroom of teacher Dobrila Martinović class with twelve Ustashe, in the manner of Jesus and his twelve disciples.

He requested that a Serb child be brought to the front of the class; Radojka Glamočanin, was selected. Filipović then slit her throat, and said to the Ustashe:

Ustashe, by this in the name of God I baptize these degenerates and you should follow my example. I am the first to accept all sin onto my soul; I will confess you and absolve you of all sin.

Then, he ordered the Ustashe to kill the children as they ran around the snow-covered schoolyard; the Ustashe would cut off a nose, an ear, an eye, or similar. A total of 2,730 Serbs, including 500 children, died on that occasion.

The book was first published in 1948 in Zagreb. Because the first edition was very rare, it is suspected that the Catholic Church in Croatia bough and destroyed most of the books. The second edition was published only in 1986.