Jure Francetić (3 July 1912 — 27/28 December 1942) was an World War II Ustaše Commissioner of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[1] responsible for the massacre of Bosnian Serbs and Jews.[2]
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Francetić was born in Otočac on 3 July 1912.[3] After gymnasium (high school) he went to study law at the University of Zagreb, were he joined the Ustaša movement. Soon after, he was exiled from Zagreb for five years as a result of his anti-Yugoslav political activities. He stayed in Otočac for a short time before emigrating to Italy in March 1933. He took the Ustaša oath in the Borgotaro camp on 24 April 1933, and then spent the following four years in Austria, Italy and Hungary. In Hungary he joined the Ustashe terrorist group camp at Jankapuszta as "Laszlo".[4]
After the assassination of King Alexander, Francetić was interned on Sardinia by Mussolini at the request of the Yugoslav government. After a general declaration of amnesty in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Francetić returned to Croatia in November 1937,[5] but was immediately arrested and exiled to his hometown. The next year Francetić returned to Zagreb hoping to complete his study of law but was forced to complete his military service instead. In late 1940 he was arrested in Zagreb due to a congratulatory telegraph to Dr. Jozef Tiso, president of the newly formed Slovak Republic, signed by a number of Croat nationalists. He was again exiled to his native Otočac. After delivering an inflammatory nationalistic speech at a local school's New Year's celebration in Otočac on 12 January 1941, he escaped to Germany to avoid another arrest.
Francetić earned his only military education and officer rank while serving the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Army. He became a non-commissioned officer in the rank of sergeant.[6] Regarding Francetić's military experience and knowledge, Eugen Dido Kvaternik wrote: "He did not have basic military knowledge and military education, nor did he have any talent for basic military organization."[7] After establishment of the Independent State of Croatia in April 1941 he and 10 others organized the Black Legion (Croatian: Crna Legija). Francetić became the leader of the Black Legion and earned the rank of colonel in the Ustaša army. Kvaternik believed that Francetić "a born guerrilla and a son of our mountainous Hercegovina" which was sufficient reason to put him in the role of military leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[8]
He was named chief Ustasha delegate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and much of the party work in the province was put in the hands of Roman Catholic priests in order to consolidate the Ustashe party power, the most important of whom included Father Božidar Brekalo, a parish priest in Sarajevo, and Father Dragutin Kamber, a parish priest in Doboj, both proteges of then Archbishop Ivan Šarić.[9]Francetić's Ustashe took control over the local administration by dismissing all civil servants and teachers belonging to the category of "Srbijanci", as well as Jews. Killings, arrests, and deportation of Serbs and Jews was a regular duty of Francetić's henchmen—based and justified by the official Ustashe policy which demanded the total extermination of Jews and the murder (1/3) and/or expulsion (1/3) and/or forced conversion (1/3) to the Roman Catholicism of the ethnic Serbian Orthodox population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[10]
Francetić personally arrested and interrogated prominent Serbian and Jewish leaders (Miškina, Albahari)[11] and ordered the murders of some of these.[12] Francetić turned his own Sarajevo apartment into a prison kitchen/laundry room.[13] The Ustashe's savagery against Serbs and Jews reportedly prompted the German command to demand that Francetić, as the commander of the 1st Brigade Black Legion, be dismissed. Pavelić refused, promoting Francetić to commander of all Ustashe field formations.[14]
Francetić died on either 27/28 December 1942, aged 30. While flying to Gospić on 22 December, his plane was downed by Yugoslav Partisans near the village of Močile, near Slunj,[15] which was Partisan-held area. Both he and his pilot were immediately captured by Partisan villagers.[16] Severely wounded, he was taken to NOVJ General Staff Hospital where Partisan surgeons attempted to save his life in order to exchange him for inmates of Ustaše camps and prisons, but failed.[17]
A memorial plaque to Francetić was raised in Slunj in June 2000 by the Association of War Veterans ("Hrvatski domobran").[18][19] In late 2004 the Croatian government ordered the removal of the memorial plaque. In January 2005 in the outskirts of Split, unknown persons raised overnight another memorial to Francetić and Mile Budak.[20]
