Response to Ustaše atrocities The atrocities committed by the Ustaše can be categorised into four broad areas, all of which fell largely on the Serb population of the NDH; racial laws, mass killings and concentration camps, deportations, and forced conversions to Catholicism. Racial laws On 23 April 1941, Stepinac wrote to the Ustaše Interior Minister, Artuković, "on the occasion of the announced passage of anti-Jewish laws", to caution of "good Catholics who are of the Jewish race and who have converted from the Jewish religion ... I consider that it would be necessary, in passing the necessary laws, to take converts of this kind into account." Historian Ivo Goldstein notes that Stepinac not only did not protest against the adoption of racial laws, he called them "necessary", and only asked that Jewish converts to Catholicism be exempted. Following Pavelić's proclamation of the Race Laws, Stepinac praised Pavelić to the Pope, as "a true Catholic practicing believer", and stated 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". Stepinac again wrote to Artuković on 22 May to protest the race laws and their application to converted Jews, telling him that members of other races should not be discriminated against "through no fault of their own." He wrote, "We ... appeal to you to issue regulations so that even in the framework of antisemitic legislation, and similar legislation concerning Serbs, the principles of human dignity be preserved." Stepinac added: "Everyone will certainly approve the attempt for the economy to be in national hands, not to allow a non-national and anti-national element to amass capital, or foreign elements to decide about the State and the people. But to take away any possibility of existence from members of other peoples or other races, and to brand them with the stamp of shame, this is an issue of humanity and a question of morality". As Goldstein notes, Stepinac seemingly argued for "humane" race laws. On 24 May 1942, Stepinac condemned racial persecution in general terms, although he did not mention Serbs. He stated in a diocesan letter: All men and all races are children of God; all without distinction. Those who are Gypsies, Black, European, or Aryan all have the same rights ... for this reason, the Catholic Church had always condemned, and continues to condemn, all injustice and