outside the law, leading to their persecution and destruction. The Ustaše had opened and started filling their first concentration camp (15 April), and had instituted additional discriminatory edicts against Jews and Serbs (14, 19, 22 and 25 April). Stepinac already knew of the planned racial laws, which Pavelić signed only 2 days after Stepinac issued his letter praising Pavelić and the Ustaše state. On 30 April 1941, Pavelić signed the main race laws - the Legal Decree on Racial Origins, and the Legal Decree on the Protection of Aryan Blood and the Honor of the Croatian People. In a letter to the Pope from May 16, Stepinac wrote that the race laws were meant to appease the Nazis, and concludes that "it was a much lesser evil that the Croats passed this law rather than that the Germans took all power into their own hands". In a May 14 letter to the Pope, when he knew of the slaughter of 260 Orthodox Serbs held in the Glina Church, Stepinac praised Ustaše efforts to turn Croatia into a "Catholic country", and praised Pavelić in particular, noting he will "liquidate" (eliminate) Orthodox Serbs from Croatia: Completely honestly, I notice that in the circles of power there is the utmost desire to turn Croatia into a Catholic country. The Minister of War [Slavko Kvaternik] absolutely guaranteed me: either Croatia will be a Catholic country, or let it disappear…The desire of those who currently rule Croatia to implement the teachings of the Catholic Church obliges us to help and support them with all the loyalty and strength we have." Stepinac added: "Pavelić is a true Catholic practicing believer, and he wants to create, despite huge obstacles, a Catholic state in Croatia ... I believe that if the Poglavnik, Pavelić, were head of government for 20 years, the schismatics [i.e. Orthodox Serbs] would be completely liquidated (eliminated) from Croatia." Referencing Nazi plans to expel 260,000 Slovenes, Stepinac wrote: "Earlier [Pavelić] asked me what I thought if he decided to ask the German authorities to change the fate of Slovenes and transfer them as Catholics to Croatia, among Catholics, and transfer the same number of schismatic Serbs from Croatia to Macedonia. I replied to [Pavelić] that such a solution would be better for the unfortunate Slovenes" Croatian historian, Hrvoje Klasić, notes Stepinac supported actions that today's courts would classify as ethnic cleansing of Serbs. In May