Vladimir Laxa
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Vladimir Laxa (21 January 1870-1945) was born in Sisak, in what is now Croatia, and was a distinguished soldier and general. He spent his adult life from the age of 20 as a professional soldier who was highly decorated during the First World War. During World War Two he was Army Chief of Staff of the Axis Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) from June 1941 until August 1942, when he resigned his commission in protest at atrocities committed by Ustaše irregular forces.
Laxa was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Army on 18 August 1890 [1]. During the First World War he was commander of the 18th Mountain Brigade, and was one of only 131 men [2] that during the First World War were awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresa, the highest Habsburg decoration; in Laxa's case for the “heroism, enormous bravery and tenaciously successful defence of positions” by himself and his men on Škabrijel (Italian: Mount Saint Gabriel) during the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo in 1917 [3]. After the war ended, he joined the newly-formed army of (what became known later as) the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia was invaded by the Wehrmacht on 6 April 1941, and this led to the proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia, of which he was first the military's second in command (April-June 1941) and then chief-of-staff. During the war he was awarded the state's Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir. In October 1941 he was transferred to the NDH High Command. He took part in a conference in Opatija (2-3 March 1942)[4] that planned the Third anti-partisan offensive, codenamed ‘Trio’. He remained in the NDH high command until August 1942 when he resigned (although there is a source that claims that Laxa was "removed by order of Marshal Slavko Kvaternik and retired" [5]) due to his failure to obtain support from Ante Pavelić, NDH leader, for his wishes to end the atrocities of Ustaše irregulars, about which he had authored several scathing reports[citation needed]. Laxa was among the exodus that were forcibly returned to the Partisans at Bleiburg. He was executed on an unknown date in 1945 [6]. He was subsequently buried in Mirogoj cemetery.[7]
