Anti-Fascist Resistance Day: June 22
Anti-Fascist Resistance Day is a public holiday celebrated in Croatia.
Croatia is a country found in the central-European region bordering the Balkans and the Mediterranean Sea. The land which is now called Croatia had its first settlers in the seventh century, and it was a monarchy until its union with the nation of Hungary. It declared itself as an independent country in the year 1918, and it was the founding member of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Fascism was the policy followed by the state until the rise of the anti-fascist Croatians against German and Italian forces that occupied the country during the Second World War. This uprising is celebrated as Anti-Fascist Resistance Day (sometimes called Anti-Fascist Struggle Day) by the Croatians on June 22 of every year.
History of Anti-Fascist Resistance Day in Croatia
During the time of the Second World War, The Axis powers were mostly fascist states, and they conquered other states and brought them under fascist rule. The country of Croatia was one of such victims. The German army conquered the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, of which Croatia was a part, and created a puppet government in the newly formed country known as the Independent State of Croatia. Policy changes, many of them radical, cost the lives of many people.
Catholicism and the Orthodox Church were at loggerheads as the new regime was Catholic and the existing was Orthodox. But due to government support, the Catholic Church ordered forced conversions of the Orthodox people to the Catholic faith. Those who resisted were killed. The authoritarian regime allowed this without any interference and thus resulted in genocide of the Jews, Orthodox Serbs and people of other faiths who refused to be converted.
This resulted in massacres all over the country which was already rendered apart by the ongoing war. This resulted in the famous uprising on June 22, 1941. The leader of the revolution was Josip Broz Tito who eventually defeated the forces of the Royalists and the Germans and set up a Socialist state, Yugoslavia. This did not last long and the union broke with Croatia becoming an independent state.
Croatia’s Anti-Fascist Resistance Day Traditions, Customs and Activities
The people never forgot the sufferings they underwent and they never will. That is why the day is celebrated every year with such fanfare and, reminding them of the liberation from fascism.
