troops would finally have to intervene against Ustaše crimes. This may happen eventually. Right now, with the available forces, I could not ask for such action. Ad hoc intervention in individual cases could make the German Army look responsible for countless crimes which it could not prevent in the past. A report (to SS chief Heinrich Himmler, dated 17 February 1942) on increased partisan activities stated that "Increased activity of the bands is chiefly due to atrocities carried out by Ustaše units in Croatia against the Orthodox population." The Ustaše committed their crimes not only against males of conscript age, but especially against helpless elderly people, women and children. Between 172,000 and 290,000 Serbs, 31,000 of the 40,000 Jews, and almost all of the 25,000—40,000 Roma were killed in the Independent State of Croatia by the Ustaše and their Axis allies. Both Jews and Gypsies were subject to a policy of extermination. According to an official Yugoslav report, only 1,500 out of 30,000 Croatian Jews remained alive at the end of World War II. Approximately 26,000 Gypsies were murdered of approximately 40,000 residents. Some 26,000 Croatian anti-fascists (Partisans, political opponents and civilians) were also killed by the NDH regime, including an estimated 5,000-12,000 Croat anti-fascists and other dissidents that were killed at the Jasenovac concentration camp alone. End of the NDH Seeing Germany's collapse and aware that the Croatian army could not resist the Communists, Pavelić started a move of his forces to Austria, causing several groups of tens of thousands of Croatian soldiers as well as civilians to start a major northward march without a clear strategy. Pavelić left the country on 6 May 1945, and on 8 May, he convened a final meeting of the NDH government in Rogaška Slatina. At the meeting, General Alexander Löhr informed the government of Germany's capitulation and handed command of the NDH forces to Pavelić. Pavelić subsequently named General Vjekoslav Luburić commander. Later that day Pavelić's convoy passed into the Soviet occupation zone in Austria, separate from the rest of the NDH government which went to the British occupation zone. The group made it into the American occupation zone and by 18 May arrived at the village of Leingreith near Radstadt where Pavelić's wife Mara and their two daughters had been living after leaving the NDH in December 1944. On May 8, Pavelić ordered that the columns from NDH continue to Austria,