Lyenko Urbanchich

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Lyenko Urbanchich pictured in 1980
Lyenko Urbanchich pictured in 1980

Lyenko Urbanchich (alternative spellings: Ljenko Urbančič and Urbancic) (1922-2006) was a Slovenian-born Australian political activist. He was the most powerful of the central and eastern European Nazi collaborators and war criminals who infiltrated the Liberal Party of Australia from the 1950s and coalesced with Australian rightists to form the ‘Uglies’ faction [1].
A charismatic and highly motivated extremist leader, Urbanchich died without ever publicly acknowledging his role as a senior Nazi collaborator and propagandist in Slovenia during World War II. In private, he acknowledged that his wartime anti-Jewish tirades were bound to have offended many Australians, although he persistently pursued anti-Semitic causes at all levels of his political life.


Born in 1922 in what became Yugoslavia, Urbanchich grew up in an era of left and right totalitarianism. At a young age, he chose fascism and in sixth grade was expelled from school as an ardent member of Yugoslavia's pro-Nazi party, the ZBOR, for which he became a capable organiser and propagandist at university in Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana. The son of a poor customs official, Urbanchich was 18 when Germany and Italy annexed and divided Slovenia in 1941. He was sent to the Italian Gonars concentration camp for nine months for organising a pro-German military unit.
Following Italy's surrender in September 1943, the Nazis quickly occupied the Italian zone of Slovenia and made Urbanchich's mentor, Leon Rupnik, Slovenia's puppet ‘president’. At 20, Urbanchich was catapulted into a senior position in the German quisling administration. In early October 1943, Urbanchich wrote his first pro-Nazi article and organised the first SS-backed Slovenian Home Guard volunteers, for which he was promoted into the Information Department, the Nazi-controlled propaganda section. In the following 18 months, Urbanchich became "Ljubljana's Little Goebbels" [2], as he spewed forth streams of Nazi propaganda in newspapers and on radio. His themes were invariably the same: communist Jews controlled Britain and the US, who were using ‘negroes’ in their war against Hitler's New Europe. In typical style, broadcasting on Radio Ljubljana in June 1944 Urbanchich said:
“All those Anglophiles – that word is actually wrong, as they are not Anglophiles, but fruitcakes – must bear in mind that our anti-Communist battle would be all in vain if we were to make such a fatal mistake and take today’s Anglo-American invasion troops for anything other than what they are, a Jewish-communist tool” [3].
"... it is not important that I speak to you as the youngest Slovene journalist . . . (what is important is that) the truth which is older than I, which is centuries old (be proclaimed). That is, the truth about all the vile intentions of the chosen people, the 15 million Israeli race roaming the world". He went on "We went to war for Jewish interests, for the benefit of international communism", and the responsibility rested "with those 'allies', the British, Soviets and Masons, and above all, and I stress the words above all, the Jews - sworn enemies of Christianity and all the non-Jewish world".
Later in the broadcast he concluded with a tirade against the Chinese, Indian and African troops fighting against the Reich on European soil, and then with a rallying cry to his listeners to:
“. . . follow our leader, the experienced and homeland-loving General Rupnik, about whom we can say that God himself has sent him to us . . . It is our duty to repeat over and over again, to exhaustion, that there is only one way, the way of General Rupnik”. [4][5].

Despite Urbanchich's efforts, the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans won the war and in 1945 he fled from Slovenia. Allied policy was to return proven war criminals, traitors and quislings to Tito's government, and thousands were repatriated and summarily executed. Western policy also excluded collaborators, classified as 'blacks' or 'greys', from immigration to the West. Only 'whites' (Nazi victims) could enter countries such as Australia. Urbanchich not only avoided extradition and certain death, but was 'bleached' from 'black' to 'grey' and finally to 'white', despite being on the West's final list of 44 proven Nazi collaborators. He was released from British custody in May 1948, and accepted for migration under Australia's Displaced Persons scheme just 18 months later in 1950 [6].

A painter and sculptor, he was president of the Liberal Party's Five Dock branch in 1974. During the 1970s and 1980s, he headed an unofficial Liberal faction in Sydney, New South Wales that became known as "the Uglies".

In 1979 allegations were made in an ABC documentary and in the New South Wales and Federal parliaments that Urbanchich had been a Nazi collaborator and anti-Semitic propagandist for the Slovenian government during World War II. He vigorously denied the claims, but in 1986 he admitted that "I did follow (Leon) Rupnik and I thought it was correct thing to do at that particular time" [7].

In the New South Wales Parliament on 23 May 2006 Paul Lynch, NSW Minister for Local Government, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Mental Health Minister described Urbanchich in Parliament as "that fascist, ... that Nazi, Lyenko Urbanchich. Undoubtedly he is a man of incredibly bad reputation. He is in essence a paradigm of intolerance, someone with a complete lack of compassion" [8].


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[edit] References

  1. ^ Ardent Nazi took Liberal to extremes - Obituaries - smh.com.au
  2. ^ Governor's Speech: Address-In-Reply - 24/09/1997 - NSW Parliament
  3. ^ Jutro 29 June 1944. See http://www2.arnes.si/~ljgozzb1/javnost17.htm
  4. ^ Governor's Speech: Address-In-Reply - 24/09/1997 - NSW Parliament
  5. ^ Ardent Nazi took Liberal to extremes - Obituaries - smh.com.au
  6. ^ Konrad Kalejs given refuge again: Australia a "safe haven" for Nazi war criminals
  7. ^ Lateline - 05/09/2005: Clarke denies denigrating Jews, homosexuals
  8. ^ Liberal Party of New South Wales - 23/05/2006 - NSW Parliament