| Ante Pavelić | |
|---|---|
| Poglavnik of the Independent State of Croatia |
|
| In office 10 April 1941 – 8 May 1945 |
|
| Monarch | Tomislav II (1941–1943) |
| Prime Minister | Nikola Mandić (1943–1945) |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Nikola Mandić (as Prime Minister) |
| Foreign Minister of the Independent State of Croatia |
|
| In office 16 April 1941 – 9 June 1941 |
|
| Monarch | Tomislav II |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Mladen Lorković |
| Member of Yugoslav Parliament | |
| In office 11 September 1927 – 7 January 1929 |
|
| Monarch | Alexander I of Yugoslavia |
| Prime Minister | Velimir Vukićević (1927–1928) Anton Korošec |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 July 1889 Bradina, near Konjic, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 28 December 1959 (aged 70) Madrid, Spain |
| Resting place | San Isidro, Madrid, Spain |
| Political party | Croatian Liberation Movement (since 1956) Croatian Statehood Party (1950) Party of Rights (1910–1929) |
| Other political affiliations |
Ustaše (1929–1945) |
| Alma mater | University of Zagreb |
| Occupation | Politician, statesman |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Signature | |
Ante Pavelić (July 14, 1889 – December 28, 1959) was a Croatian fascist leader,[1] revolutionary,[2] and politician.[3] He ruled as Poglavnik or head, of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia.[4] In the 1930s, he was a founding member and leader of the Croatian fascist[5] movement, the Ustaše.
Pavelić was a lawyer and prominent politician in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, known for his nationalistic beliefs, particularly about an independent Croatia. From 1927 until 1929 he was a member of the Yugoslav Parliament where he declared his beliefs about Croatian independence. During this time he called on Croats for armed revolt against Yugoslavia, and after King Alexander I declared his 6 January Dictatorship he escaped to Italy where he founded the Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement. At first it was a Croatian nationalist movement with the goal of creating an independent Greater Croatia by means of armed revolt. In October 1934 he planned the assassination of King Alexander I and spent time in prison in Italy until 1936. After the Axis invaded Yugoslavia on April 10, 1941 Slavko Kvaternik declared the Independent State of Croatia in the name of the Poglavnik, Pavelić. As the leader of the Croatian state Pavelić took full control of the country and soon created a political system similar to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. After the war he escaped to Argentina where he remained politically active. He was wounded in a 1957 assassination attempt by the Yugoslav Department of State Security, following which he went to Spain where he died from his wounds on December 28, 1959.
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Ante Pavelić was born in the small Herzegovinian village of Bradina on the slopes of Ivan Mountain north of Konjic, roughly 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) southwest of Hadžići, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. His parents had moved to the Austrian-Hungarian condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the village of Krivi Put in the central part of the Velebit plain, in southern Lika (today's Croatia). In search of work his family moved to the village of Jezero outside Jajce where Pavelić attended primary school - a Muslim Maktab.[6] Here Pavelić listened to Muslim traditions and lessons that influenced his attitude towards Bosnia and its Muslims. Pavelić also attended a Jesuit primary school in Travnik, growing up in a city where the majority of population was Muslim. Bosnian Muslim culture was later to become a major influence on his political views.[6] Health problems interrupted his education for a short time in 1905. In Sommer he found job on the railway in Sarajevo and Višegrad[7] Afterwards he continued his education in Zagreb, home city of his elder brother. In Zagreb, Pavelić attended high school where failure to complete his fourth year classes meant he had to resit the exam. Early in his high school days, he joined the Pure Party of Rights as well as Frankovci students' organization, founded by Josip Frank, father-in-law of Slavko Kvaternik, an Austrian-Hungarian colonel.[8][9] Later he attended high school in Senj at the classical gymnasium where he completed his fifth year classes. Health problems again interrupted his education and he took a job on the on road in Istria, near Buzet. In 1909 he continued his education in Karlovac where he finished his sixth year classes. Seventh year classes were taken in Senj and Pavelić graduated in Zagreb 1910. In 1910 he entered the Law Faculty at the University of Zagreb. At the same time Pavelić became a lawyer's clerk with the firm of Aleksandar Horvat, President of the Pure Party of Rights, where he earned his doctorate in July 1915.[10]
During World War I Pavelić played an active role in the affairs of the Party of Rights. As an employee and friend of its leader Horvat, he often attended important party meetings, later taking over Horvat's duties when he was absent. Horvat ceased legal practice in 1918 and Pavelić became an independent lawyer. After unification of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs with the Kingdom of Serbia on December 1, 1918 the Party of Rights held a day of public protest. The Croatian people were against having a Serbian king they had not asked for, neither had their highest state authorities agreed to unification. Further, the party expressed their wish for Croatian republic. By 1921 Pavelić was an elected city official in Zagreb and soon became a leading figures in the Party of Rights where he was a major influence on younger members. Initially he was member of the party's business committee, then secretary and later vice-president of the party.[11] After becoming leader of the party Pavelić began to advocate Croatian independence.
At this time, along with several other party members, Pavelić was arrested for anti-Yugoslav activities. He acted as defence lawyer at the subsequent trial and they were all released. On August 12, 1922, in St. Mark's Church, Zagreb, Pavelić married Maria Lovrenčević.[12] Maria was part Jewish through her mother's family and her father, Martin Lovrenčević, was also a member of the Party of Rights and a well-known journalist. The marriage resulted in three children: son Velimir and daughters Mirjana and Višnja.
Later Pavelić became vice-president of the Croatian Bar Association, the professional body representing Croatian lawyers.
Following his election to parliament as a member of the Croatian Bloc in the 1927 election, Pavelić became the Croatian Party of Rights liaison with Nikola Pašić, the Yugoslav Prime Minister. He was one of two elected Croatian Bloc candidates alongside Ante Trumbić,[13] one of the key politicians in the creation of a Yugoslav state. Pavelić held the position of party secretary in the Party of Rights until 1929, the beginning of the royal government in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In his speeches to the Yugoslav Parliament he was pointed in his opposition to Serbian nationalism and spoke in favor of Croatian independence. His activity with the youth of the Croatian Party of Rights was prominent and he began contributing to the Starčević and Kvaternik newspapers.[11]
Serbian members of the Yugoslav Parliament disliked him and when a Serbian member said "Good night" to him in parliament, Pavelić responded:
"Gentleman, I will be euphoric when I will be able to say to you 'good night'. I will be happy when all Croats can say 'good night' and thank you, for this 'party' we had here with you. I think that you will all be happy when you don't have Croats here any more."[6][14]
In June 1927 Pavelić represented Zagreb County at the European Congress of Cities in Paris.[11] Later the same year Pavelić defended Macedonians charged in Skopje with terrorist offences.
Through his Viennese contacts, Pavelić established clandestine links with the Italian government. He was less successful in attempting to forge similar links in Hungary, where the Budapest authorities were wary of jeapordizing their relations with other countries.[15][16][17]
Pavelić was eyewitness to the 1928 assassination of Stjepan Radić in the chamber of the Yugoslav Parliament.
The following year Pavelić founded the armed group Hrvatski domobran[11] ("Croatian Home Guard"), an act through which he openly called on Croatians to revolt. Yugoslav authorities declared the organization illegal and forbade its activities. When King Alexander I proclaimed dictatorship on 6 January 1929, Pavelić left for Italy, later moving on to Vienna. Circumstances then forced him to engage in political activities he had wished to avoid. He established contact with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and shortly afterwards was invited to Bulgaria to meet representatives of the Macedonian National Committee. The meeting produced the Sofia Declaration in which they formalized cooperation between Ustaše and Macedonian revolutionists. Pavelić stated that the name was taken from Bosnian rebels who called themselves Ustaše. The Ustaše had resisted the Austrian-Hungarian occupation since 1878, and their anthem the Ustaška koračnica ("Ustaše March") was based on a Bosnian rebel song of 1878. This declaration was very important to Pavelić and the Ustaše. Yugoslavia protested to Bulgaria. whilst Pavelić was charged with and found guilty of high treason, then sentenced to death in absentia along with Gustav Perčec. Serbian nationalism in Yugoslavia made it easier for Pavelić to establish Ustaša The Croatian Revolutionary Organization.[6]
With permanent residence in Austria forbidden, Pavelić and his family left for Italy where they lived until April 1941. In Italy he frequently changed location and lived under false names, most often as Antonio Serdar. The Italian authorities did not want to formally support Ustaše or Pavelić to protect their reputation, nevertheless they received support from Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who saw them as a means to help destroy Yugoslavia and expand Italian influence in the Adriatic. Mussolini allowed Pavelić to live in exile in Rome and train his paramilitaries for war with Yugoslavia. Later, many Croats would join the Ustaše over dissatisfaction with the situation in Yugoslavia. When Pavelić left Italy in 1929, he did not immediately set up an organization. Instead he first used Ustaša as the name of a newspaper he wrote, then later for an organization he founded in 1930 called Ustaša - Hrvatska revolucionarna organizacija (Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Organization; abbreviated to UHRO). Shortly afterwards Croats in Argentina, the United States, Belgium and many other European countries joined the Hrvatski domobran (Croatian Home Guard) led by Pavelić as Poglavnik.[6] Early members of UHRO later became high ranking figures in the Ustaša regime including Vjekoslav Luburić (codename Maks), Jure Francetić (codename Laszlo) and Rafael Boban.[18]
In the main Ustaša Department on July 1, 1933 Pavelić laid out the 17 objectives of the Ustaše. The main goal was the creation of an independent Croatian state based on its historical and ethnic areas, with Pavelić stating that Ustaše must pursue this end by any means necessary, even by force of arms. According to his own rules he would organize actions, assassinations and diversions. Ustaše training camps were set up, chiefly in Brescia and Borgotaro[19] in Italy along with Janka Puszta in Hungary.[20]
At a meeting held in Spittal in Austria in 1932, Pavelić, Gustav Perčec and Vjekoslav Servatzy decided to start a small uprising. It began at midnight on September 6, 1932 and was known as the Velebit Uprising. Led by Andrija Artuković, the insurgency involved around 20 Ustaše members armed with Italian equipment. The Ustaše attacked a police station and half an hour later pulled back to Velebit with no casualties. Despite the small scale of the uprising the Yugoslav authorities were unnerved because the power of the Ustaše was unknown. As a result major security measures were introduced.[21]
The Ustaše later made two attempts to assassinate King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. A general laxity in security and the absence of armed protection afforded the Yugoslav monarch when it was common knowledge that one attempt had already been made on Alexander's life testify to Pavelić's organizational abilities; he had apparently been able to bribe a high official in the Sûreté General. The Prefect of Police of Marseilles, Jouhannaud, was subsequently removed from office.[22] For the second time, Pavelić was in absentia sentenced to death, this time by a French court.[23] Under pressure from France, the Italian police arrested Pavelić and several Ustaša emigrants on October 17, 1934. Pavelić was imprisoned in Turin and released in March 1936.[24] where he wrote his novel Liepa Plavojka ("The Lovely Blonde")[6]
Disappointed with relations between the Italians and the Ustaše organization, Pavelić became closer to Nazi Germany, which promised to change the map of Europe fixed under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.[6] At the end of October 1936, he finished a study for the German Foreign Ministry entitled "The Croatian Question" (Die kroatische Frage). However, since German foreign policy promulgated a united Yugoslavia, Pavelić's study made little impression on them. The day after his next book, Horrors and Mistakes (Italian: Errori e orrori, Croatian: Strahote zabluda), was published in Italy it was seized and like all Ustaše activities its distribution proscribed. Following the Ciano–Stojadinović Agreement of April 1, 1937, which normalized relations between Italy and Yugoslavia, Pavelić was forced to issue an order dissolving all Ustaše units and camps in Italian territory. He then lived in Siena until 1939.[21] Following Stojadinović's fall from power in 1939, Ustaša activity increased. Nazi Germany remained adamant that Yugoslavia must be united, the Italians wavered and only Pavelić remained firm in his belief in the creation of an independent Croatian state.
In March 1941 Germany invaded Yugoslavia. The Germans believed that it would be easier to break the country if they made contact with the large number of Croats and other groups dissatisfied with the then king's regime. Since the Croatian Peasant Party had the support of the majority of Croats, the Germans considered that giving them power through a newly formed Croatian state under the leadership of Vladko Maček offered a better option than supporting the Ustaše. The Germans thought of Pavelić as just an Italian political figure. When Maček refused to cooperate with the Axis, Adolf Hitler accepted Italy's proposal that Pavelić become Head of State of Croatia. On April 10, 1941, Ustaše deputy leader Slavko Kvaternik declared Independent State of Croatia in the name of Poglavnik dr. Ante Pavelić.[21] On April 13, 1941 Pavelić entered Croatia and spent the night of April 15 in Zagreb together with his Ustaše emigrant escort. He began his duties as Head of State and formed a new government. Not long afterwards his family joined him in Zagreb.
To gain favor with their Axis allies, the new Croatian government introduced a similar one-party state. Ustaše and all other political parties, including the Croatian Peasant Party, were dissolved. Many Croats who wanted to help develop the Croatian state were jailed as political dissidents. They included Maček who was imprisoned in Jasenovac concentration camp and later placed under house arrest, a situation that lasted until the end of the war. Since Pavelić was Poglavnik of both Ustaše's and the Croatian state he held absolute power. As part of the development of a personality cult he was represented as the second most important person in Croatian history with his name linked to that of Ante Starčević, "liberator" of the Croatian people. Many artists wrote songs in Pavelić's honor whilst a host of sculptures and paintings were produced including a statue by Antun Augustinčić and a portrait by Ante Kaštelančić.[6]
Although Pavelić announced his new government on April 16, 1941[11] he took all important decisions himself. He summoned the Sabor, (Parliament of Croatia) in February 1942 but it had little influence and after December 1942 was never called again. Relations with Germany and Italy were the key factors in a Croatian state with a political system modeled on that of her Axis allies. Italian claims over Croatian territory disrupted relations between the two states. Matters came to a head with the Treaty of Rome when Croatia was forced[6][11] to give up part of Dalmatia, Krk, Rab, Korčula, Biograd, Šibenik, Split, Čiovo, Šolta, Mljet and parts of Konavle and the Bay of Kotor to Italy. A Croatian proposal that Split and Korčula Island be jointly administrated was ignored by Italy. These annexations shocked the people and led to the only public demonstration recorded in the Independent State of Croatia's history.[6] Hundreds of citizens, members of the Ustaše Movement and Domobranstvo protested on Christmas Day 1941. Pavelić tried to retrieve the lost areas but kept his real feelings and those of the people from the Italians to maintain the pretext of good relations.
Although Croatia sought support from Germany over the territory issue, their erstwhile ally considered such areas under Italian influence and refused to intervene. Communist propaganda discredited Pavelić over the Italian annexations even though he did his best to maintain the territorial integrity of Croatia through refusing an Italian offer of customs, monetary and personal union. Pavelić agreed to Italy's suggestion and named Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, king of Croatia, but he was neither accepted as king nor ever held sway over the Croatian state.[6] Pavelić's internal policies were largely unacceptable to the Croatian people, particularly his arrests of political enemies and Ustaša's uneasy relationship with indigenous Jews who were accepted in Croatian society.[6] Ustaša's persecution of Serbs caused many of them to join the Yugoslav Partisans or Chetniks which destabilised Croatia. German influence on Croatia led to the introduction of regulations for Jews, the least pleasant of which were Ustaše run concentration and forced labor camps. The most notorious camp was Jasenovac concentration camp where 70,000-80,000 people died. The death of 18,000 Croatians Jews is somewhat incongruous given that at the time many high ranking army officers were Jewish as were the wives of some government ministers. Josip Frank, a noted representative of the Party of Rights of which Pavelić was a member, had also been a Jew. At the outset the Ustaše was largely anti-Serb in orientation with later Nazi influence making it anti-Semitic too. Although Pavelić had founded the Ustaše Movement to free Croats from Serbian oppression and punish Serbs for their torture of Croats, the organization was not based on a policy of racial hatred. Because Serbs massively started to revolt and after they committed various crimes against Croats and Muslims, Pavelić founded the Croatian Orthodox Church[25] in the hope of pacifying the Serbs.[6] Thereafter, as per the ideology of Ante Starčević, Serbs were considered Orthodox Croats[25] and their status improved, especially in urban ares.
Pavelić loyalists, mainly Ustaše, wanted to fight to the bitter end against Communist partisans whilst other Croats, unnerved by the idea of a new Yugoslavia, also supported him. At the time, Communism seemed alien to the majority of Croats hence they did not support the partisans.[6]
At a meeting in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria in early June 1941, Hitler encouraged Pavelić to accept Slovenian immigrants and deport Serbs to Serbia. The German leader also stated that too much tolerance could be damaging and suggested Pavelić adopt "fifty years of a nationally intolerant policy"[21] Over the next few months, the Ustaše deported around 120,000 Serbs.[21]
Pavelić and his government devoted great attention to culture. Although most literature was propaganda, many books did not have an ideological basis which allowed Croatian culture to flourish. The Croatian National Theatre staged a number of performances and received many world-famous actors as visitors. The major cultural milestone was the publication of the Croatian Encyclopedia, a work later forbidden under the Communist regime. Croatian sport also improved and in 1941 the Croatian Football Association joined FIFA.[6]
One of the key events in the history of the Independent State of Croatia was the Lorković-Vokić coup of 1944. Minister Mladen Lorković and army officer Ante Vokić suggested a plan to Pavelić whereby Croatia would change sides in the war and Pavelić would no longer be head of state in accordance with British demands.[26] At first, Pavelić supported their ideas but changed his mind following a visit from local Gestapo officer who told him that Germany would win the war with new weapons under development. Pavelić decided to arrest Lorković and Vokić along with others involved in the coup, some representatives of the Croatian Peasant Party and a number of Domobran officers. Lorković and Vokić were shot at the end of April 1945 in Lepoglava prison. After plans for an "Anglo-American" coup were discovered, from September 1944 until February 1945, Pavelić negotiated with the Soviet Union. The Soviets agreed to recognize the Croatian state on condition that the Red Army had free access and Communists were allowed free rein. Pavelić refused their proposal and remained allied with Nazi Germany until the end of the war.[6]
Seeing Germany folding and aware that the Croatian army was no longer in any condition to resist the Communists, Pavelić ordered withdrawal of all Croatian Armed Forces to Austria. There they were to surrender to the British who he believed, unlike the partisans, would treat his soldiers in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Pavelić left the country on May 6, 1945 and reached the Austrian border on May 8. For his abandonment of Croatian soldiers and civilians in Rogaška Slatina, later Croatian emigrants would accuse Pavelić of cowardice for fleeing. In fear of the advancing communists, Croatian soldiers and a large number of civilians retreated to Austria. Of the more than 100,000 Croats in retreat, at least 100,000 were killed by partisans during the Bleiburg massacre in mid-May 1945.[27] Aware that the same fate might befall him, Pavelić sent his family to Austria in late 1944. He joined them afterwards and they lived in the American Occupational Zone for short time. Although Pavelić reported himself to American intelligence, neither they nor their British counterparts arrested him despite being aware of his location. Pavelić moved to Rome, where according to de-classified US Intelligence documents he was hidden by members of the Roman Catholic Church. The Americans still made no move to arrest him.[28] Tito and his new Communist government accused the Catholic Church of harboring Pavelić who, along with the Anglo-American "imperialists" wanted to "revive Nazism" and take over communist Eastern Europe.[6] The accusations were not entirely without foundation given Anglo-American Intelligence use of former fascists and Nazis, including Pavelić, as agents against the communists.[29]
As leader of The Independent State of Croatia, Pavelić was responsible for a campaign of terror against Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and anti-Fascist Croats. For its size Pavelić's Ustaše regime was the most murderous in Axis-occupied Europe.[30][31] Numerous testimonies from the Nuremberg Trials along with records in German, Italian and Austrian war archives, bear witness to atrocities perpetrated against the civilian population.[32]
Serbian, Jewish, and Gypsy men, women, and children were literally hacked to death. Whole villages were razed to the ground and people driven into barns which the Ustaše then set on fire. General Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau reported to the German Army Command OKW on June 28, 1941:
| “ | ...according to reliable reports from countless German military and civil observers during the last few weeks the Ustaše have gone raging mad. | ” |
On July 10, General Glaise-Horstenau added:
| “ | Our troops have to be mute witnesses of such events; it does not reflect well on their otherwise high reputation... I am frequently told that German occupation 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 Gestapo 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 deeds in a bestial manner not only against males of conscript age, but especially against helpless old people, women and children.
Pavelić's regime was not officially recognized by the Vatican, but the Church never condemned the genocide and forced conversions to Catholicism perpetrated by the Ustaše.[33] Soon after coming to power in April 1941, Pavelić was given a private audience in Rome by Pope Pius XII, an act for which the Pope was widely criticized.
Between 197,000[34]–217,000[35] Serbs 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 total annihilation. According to an official Yugoslav report, only 1,500 out of 30,000 Croatian Jews remained alive at the end of Word War II.[36] Approximately 26,000 Gypsies were murdered by the Ustaše in the Independent State of Croatia.[37] There were approximately 40,000 Gypsies living within the borders of the Independent State of Croatia.[38]
Following the end of World War II, Pavelić hid in a Jesuit monastery near Napoli in Italy.[6] In the autumn of 1948 he met Krunoslav Draganović, a Roman Catholic priest, who helped him obtain a Red Cross passport in the Hungarian name of Pale Aranios. Draganović allegedly planned to deliver Pavelić to the Italian police, but Pavelić instead avoided capture and fled to Argentina.[6]
On arrival in Argentina on the Italian ship Sestriere on November 6, 1948,[6] Pavelić moved into a dilapidated old house with the writer Vinko Nikolić. They did not have much money and lived very cheaply.[39] In Buenos Aires Pavelić was greeted by his son Velimir and daughter Mirjana. Soon afterwards, his wife Maria and older daughter Višnja also arrived.[6] Pavelić took up employment as a security advisor to Argentinian president Juan Perón.[40] Pavelić's arrival documents show the assumed name of Pablo Aranyos [6] which he continued to use. In 1950 Pavelić was given amnesty and allowed to stay in Argentina along with 34,000 other Croats, including former Nazi collaborators and those who had fled from the Allied advance.[40] Following this, Pavelić reverted to his earlier pseudonym Antonio Serdar, and continued to live in Buenos Aires.
As for most others political immigrants in Argentina, life was hard and he had to work as a bricklayer.[6] His best contact with the Peróns was Branko Benzon who enjoyed good relations with Evita Perón, wife of the president. Benzon remains largely unknown to the public, but he was Croatian ambassador to Germany[41] during World War II and knew Hitler personally,[39] which benefited Croatian-German relations. Thanks to Benzon's friendship with Evita Perón, Pavelić became the owner of an influential building company. Not long after arriving he joined the organization Hrvatski domobran ("Croatian Home Guard"). He tried to expand the activities of this organization and in 1950 Pavelić founded the Croatian Statehood Party.[6] The party did not last long and in 1956 most Ustaše immigrants founded the Croatian Liberation Movement. This organization led all Croatian political statehood and combat organizations outside of the homeland which shared the same goal. All political immigrants agreed to the new organization on this on June 8, 1956.[6] At the end of 1940s, many Ustaše split from Pavelić because they believed that Croats, now under new circumstances, needed new political direction. Many others who split from Pavelić continued to call themselves Ustaše and sought revival of the Independent State of Croatia. The most well known of these separatists was former Ustaše officer, Vjekoslav Luburić who lived in Spain.[6] Pavelić declared his desire for the restoration of a Croatian state within what is now the Republic of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina along with Srem and Bay of Kotor.[6] In 1954 Pavelić met with former Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Stojadinović and together they made new a plan for the demarkation of Croatia and Serbia.[6] It is not known on what they agreed, but a map shown in some Argentinian newspapers at the time showed the border as the Drina river.[6] Pavelić often reported to Croats in exile and sent various propaganda messages. The Communist government in Yugoslavia demanded extradition of Pavelić from Argentina a few times, requests that, for various reasons, were always denied.[42]
With the fall of Perón, Pavelić along with the other Ustaše immigrants no longer had the protection of the Argentinian government and their security was threatened by increased activity on the part of Yugoslavian intelligence (UDBA). On April 10, 1957, the 16th anniversary of the founding of the Independent State of Croatia, Pavelić was shot in the back and seriously wounded when getting off a bus in El Palomar near Buenos Aires. Although the assailant remains unknown, the attempt is usually attributed to Yugoslavian intelligence.[43] Despite the bullet lodging in his spine, Pavelić elected not to be hospitalized. Two weeks after the shooting, the Argentine authorities agreed to grant the Yugoslav government's request to extradite Pavelić, but he went into hiding beforehand. At the end of 1957 Pavelić flew to Spain from Chile. Although reports circulated that Pavelić had fled to Paraguay to work for the Stroessner regime, his whereabouts remained unknown until late 1959, when it was learned that he had been granted asylum in Spain. He settled in Madrid from where he continued his contacts with supporters all over the world. In Spain, Pavelić lived secretly with his family, probably by agreement with the Spanish authorities, but he was not granted citizenship. Ante Pavelić died in Madrid on December 28, 1959 at the German hospital aged 70, reportedly from complications due to his wounds.[44] He is buried in the San Isidro Cemetery, the oldest private burial ground in Madrid.[45]
Croats continue to celebrate WWII Nazi leader.
A celebration of Pavelić was held in Melbourne, Australia in 2008. in Katarina Zrinski restaurant which is attached to Croatian Club. [46]
A mass was held [47] in a Catholic church in Zagreb, Croatia, in his memory, on 49th anniversary of his death.
A mass was held in the the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Zagreb in 2010. [48]
| Political offices | ||
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| New office | Poglavnik of the Independent State of Croatia 1941–1945 |
Succeeded by Nikola Mandić as Prime Minister |
| Preceded by Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta as King-designate |
Abolished | |
| Party political offices | ||
| New office | Poglavnik of the Ustaše movement 1929–1945 |
Abolished |
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