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83-618: (Redirected from White Guards ) ( The ) White Guard ( s ) may refer to: Armed groups [ edit ] Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia , Italy, in Slovene Bela Garda , meaning "white guard" White Army or White Guard, the military arm of the Russian White movement White Guard (Finland) , part of the White Army during the 1918 Finnish Civil War White Guards,

166-526: A Greater Croatia that would include territories inhabited by Bosniaks , Serbs , and Slovenes , considering Bosniaks and Serbs to be Croats who had been converted to Islam and Orthodox Christianity , and considered the Slovenes "mountain Croats". Starčević argued that the large Serb presence in territories claimed by a Greater Croatia was the result of recent settlement, encouraged by Habsburg rulers, and

249-521: A Bulgarian revolutionary, Vlado Chernozemski , was killed by French police. Three Ustaše members who had been waiting at different locations for the king— Mijo Kralj , Zvonimir Pospišil and Milan Rajić—were captured and sentenced to life imprisonment by a French court. Following the German invasion of France , the men were released from prison. Ante Pavelić, along with Eugen Kvaternik and Ivan Perčević, were subsequently sentenced to death in absentia by

332-541: A French court, as the real organizers of the deed. The Ustaše believed that the assassination of King Alexander had effectively "broken the backbone of Yugoslavia" and that it was their "most important achievement." Soon after the assassination, all organizations related to the Ustaše as well as the Hrvatski Domobran , which continued as a civil organization, were banned throughout Europe. Under pressure from France,

415-705: A gendarme outpost at Brušani in the Lika / Velebit area, in an apparent attempt to intimidate the Yugoslav authorities. The incident has sometimes been termed the " Velebit uprising ". The Ustaše's most infamous terrorist act was carried out on 9 October 1934, when working with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), they assassinated King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in Marseille, France. The perpetrator,

498-524: A large following in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was praised by the Ustaše as the religion that "keeps true the blood of Croats." The Ustaše viewed the Bosniaks as " Muslim Croats ", and as a result, they were not persecuted on the basis of race. That being said, Muslims were not free from persecution and atrocities by the Ustaše, even if not on the basis of religion or ethnicity. The majority of Muslims preferred

581-489: A loss of the support they had gained by creating a Croatian national state. With the German surrender , end of World War II in Europe , and the establishment of socialist Yugoslavia in 1945, the Ustaše movement and their state totally collapsed. Many members of the Ustaše militia and Croatian Home Guard who subsequently fled the country were taken as prisoners of war and subjected to forced marches and executions during

664-460: A much lower educational level were viewed as violent, ignorant and fanatical by the "home" Ustaše while the "home" Ustaše were dismissed as "soft" by the "emigres" who saw themselves as a "warrior-elite". After March 1937, when Italy and Yugoslavia signed a pact of friendship, Ustaše and their activities had been banned, which attracted the attention of young Croats, especially university students, who would become sympathizers or members. In 1936,

747-490: A name applied to the Slovene Home Guard during World War II Arts and entertainment [ edit ] The White Guard , a 1925 novel by Mikhail Bulgakov about the Russian White movement The White Guard , a 2023 Canadian documentary film The White Guard (TV series) , a Russian TV series based on the novel by Bulgakov Other uses [ edit ] White Guard Volunteers (Kerala India) ,

830-462: A name it kept until World War II. In English, Ustasha, Ustashe, Ustashas and Ustashi are used for the movement or its members. One of the major ideological influences on the Croatian nationalism of the Ustaše was 19th century Croatian activist Ante Starčević , an advocate of Croatian unity and independence, who was both anti- Habsburg and anti-Serbian in outlook. He envisioned the creation of

913-673: A return to autonomy under Habsburg rule . Most Muslims were reportedly either neutral or opposed to the Ustaše regime. Despite Pavelić’s promises of equality between Catholics and Muslims, many Muslims became dissatisfied with Croat rule. Muslims (Bosniaks) comprised approximately 12% of the civil service and armed forces of the NDH. Economically, the Ustaše supported the creation of a corporatist economy. The movement believed that natural rights existed to private property and ownership over small-scale means of production free from state control. Armed struggle, revenge and terrorism were glorified by

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996-656: A single or uniform organization, the name MVAC was used to designate a set of often different groups with varying statuses. Certain armed groups incorporated into the MVAC who had formed relationships with Italian officers were classified as "legalized bands", whereas groups that maintained occasional and less formal ties with Italian forces were classified as "non-legalized bands". In northern Dalmatia for example, small groups of armed Serbian civilians and demobilized Yugoslav soldiers initially suspicious of invading Italian troops entered into discussions with Italian officials, who offered

1079-703: A volunteer flood rescue group in Kerala, India See also [ edit ] White Guardian , a fictional character in Doctor Who Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title White Guard . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=White_Guard&oldid=1239598317 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1162-821: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia Colloquially known as Bande or Bande VAC after the Italian military term for irregular forces normally composed of foreigners or natives, anti-communist MVAC formations in occupied Yugoslavia were composed mainly of anti-communist Slovenians , Serbs , Bosnian Muslims , Croats and Montenegrins , as well as some Italians . As auxiliaries to regular Italian military units, MVAC units participated in guerrilla actions against communist Yugoslav Partisan forces in Slovenia , Dalmatia , Lika , Montenegro , Bosnia , and Herzegovina . Employed by

1245-460: Is in Jewish hands. This became possible only through the support of the state, which thereby seeks, on one hand, to strengthen the pro-Serbian Jews, and on the other, to weaken Croat national strength. The Jews celebrated the establishment of the so-called Yugoslav state with great joy, because a national Croatia could never be as useful to them as a multi-national Yugoslavia; for in national chaos lies

1328-1080: The Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, invading Italian forces enlisted the assistance of local irregular forces to fight against the local resistance organizations in Slovenia and the Independent State of Croatia . Formally established by the Italian–Croatian Roatta – Pavelić agreement of 19 June 1942, the first MVAC units of "legalized" Chetnik bande were set up on the territory of Italian-annexed Dalmatia on 23 June 1942. That same month, approximately 4,500 "legalized" Chetniks were recognized in Montenegro. Between 1942 and 1943, MVAC groups in Italian-annexed parts of Dalmatia were equipped with arms, ammunition, and clothing by

1411-613: The Bay of Kotor . However, a few days after the declaration of independence, the Ustaše were forced to sign the Treaty of Rome where they surrendered part of Dalmatia and Krk , Rab , Korčula , Biograd , Šibenik , Split , Čiovo , Šolta , Mljet and part of Konavle and the Bay of Kotor to Italy . De facto control over this territory varied for the majority of the war, as the Yugoslav Partisans grew more successful, while

1494-607: The Bleiburg repatriations . Various underground and exile successor organisations created by former Ustaše members, such as the Crusaders and the Croatian Liberation Movement , tried to continue the movement to little success. The word ustaša (plural: ustaše ) is derived from the intransitive verb ustati (Croatian for rise up ). " Pučki-ustaša " ( German : Landsturm ) was a military rank in

1577-804: The Croatian Orthodox Church was founded, as a further means to destroy the Serbian Orthodox Church, but this new Church gained very few followers. While initial focus was against Serbs, as the Ustaše grew closer to the Nazis they adopted antisemitism. In 1936, in "The Croat Question", Ante Pavelić placed Jews third among "the Enemies of the Croats" (after Serbs and Freemasons , but before Communists): writing: ″Today, practically all finance and nearly all commerce in Croatia

1660-751: The Croatian Party of Rights contributed to the writing of the Domobran , until around Christmas 1928 when the newspaper was banned by authorities of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . In January 1929 the king banned all national parties, and the radical wing of the Party of Rights was exiled, including Pavelić, Jelić and Gustav Perčec. This group was later joined by several other Croatian exiles. On 22 March 1929, Zvonimir Pospišil , Mijo Babić , Marko Hranilović , and Matija Soldin murdered Toni Šlegel,

1743-531: The Domobran tried to engage with and radicalize moderate Croats, using Radić's assassination to stir up emotions within the divided country. By 1929 two divergent Croatian political streams had formed: those who supported Pavelić's view that only violence could secure Croatia's national interests, and the Croatian Peasant Party, led then by Vladko Maček , successor to Stjepan Radić, which had much greater support among Croats. Various members of

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1826-480: The Drina River and extend to the border of Belgrade . The movement advocated a racially "pure" Croatia and promoted genocide against Serbs—due to the Ustaše's anti-Serb sentiment —and Holocaust against Jews and Roma via Nazi racial theory , and persecution of anti-fascist or dissident Croats and Bosniaks. The Ustaše viewed the Bosniaks as " Muslim Croats ", and as a result, Bosniaks were not persecuted on

1909-543: The Imperial Croatian Home Guard (1868–1918). The same term was the name of Croatian third-class infantry regiments ( German : Landsturm regiments ) during World War I (1914–1918). Another variation of the word ustati is ustanik (plural: ustanici ) which means an insurgent , or a rebel. The name ustaša did not have fascist connotations during the early years of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as

1992-586: The Pure Party of Rights , which became the main pool of members of the subsequent Ustaše movement. Historian John Paul Newman stated that Austro-Hungarian officers' "unfaltering opposition to Yugoslavia provided a blueprint for the Croatian radical right, the Ustaše". The Ustaše promoted the theories of Milan Šufflay , who is believed to have claimed that Croatia had been "one of the strongest ramparts of Western civilization for many centuries", which he claimed had been lost through its union with Serbia when

2075-603: The "Legal Provision on the Nationalization of the Property of Jews and Jewish Companies", on 10 October 1941, and with it they confiscated all Jewish property. Already on their first day, 10–11 April 1941, Ustaše arrested a group of prominent Zagreb Jews and held them for ransom. On 13 April the same was done in Osijek , where Ustaše and Volksdeutscher mobs also destroyed the synagogue and Jewish graveyard. This process

2158-458: The "unwanted" being all Jews, Serbs and Yugoslav-oriented Croats who were all thrown out except for some deemed specifically needed by the government. This would leave a multitude of jobs to be filled by Ustašes and pro-Ustaše adherents and would lead to government jobs being filled by people with no professional qualifications. During the 1920s, Ante Pavelić, lawyer, politician and one of the followers of Josip Frank's Pure Party of Rights , became

2241-601: The 21-year-old Jelić into the organization as a junior member. A related movement, the Domobranski Pokret—which had been the name of the legal Croatian army in Austria-Hungary—began publication of Hrvatski Domobran , a newspaper dedicated to Croatian national matters. The Ustaše sent Hrvatski Domobran to the United States to garner support for them from Croatian-Americans . The organization around

2324-555: The Croatian People", and the "Legal Provision on Citizenship". These decrees defined who was a Jew, and took away the citizenship rights of all non-Aryans, i.e. Jews and Roma. By the end of April 1941, months before the Nazis implemented similar measures in Germany and over a year after they were implemented in occupied Poland, the Ustaše required all Jews to wear insignia, typically a yellow Star of David . The Ustaše declared

2407-611: The Croatian people always despised the Jews and felt towards them natural revulsion". In May 1941, the Ustaše rounded up 165 Jewish youth in Zagreb, members of the Jewish sports club Makabi, and sent them to the Danica concentration camp . All but three were later killed by the Ustaše. The Ustaše sent most Jews to Ustaše and Nazi concentration camps—including the notorious, Ustaše-run Jasenovac concentration camp —where nearly 32,000, or 80% of

2490-521: The Germans and Italians increasingly exercised direct control over areas of interest. The Germans and Italians split the NDH into two zones of influence, one in the southwest controlled by the Italians and the other in the northeast controlled by the Germans. As a result, the NDH has been described as "an Italian-German quasi-protectorate". In September 1943, after Italian capitulation, the NDH re-occupied

2573-581: The Independent State of Croatia and Montenegro. In May 1942, the clandestine organization of the first Slovene anti-communist forces began in the Slovene capital of Ljubljana . In order to gain Italian endorsement for anti-Partisan operations, Slovenian MVAC groups were initially recruited from the local Sokol and National Legion organisations, followed later by members from Karl Novak's Slovenian Chetniks and Legion of Death regiment. In

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2656-622: The Italian police arrested Pavelić and several Ustaše emigrants in October 1934. Pavelić was imprisoned in Turin and released in March 1936. After he met with Eugen Dido Kvaternik, he stated that assassination was "the only language Serbs understand". While in prison, Pavelić was informed of the 1935 election in Yugoslavia, when the coalition led by Croat Vladko Maček won. He stated that his victory

2739-566: The Italians directed that all existing and future Slovene anti-Partisan units would be incorporated into the MVAC. That same month, armed units in rural areas were formed into the Village Guards (Slovene: Vaške straže ) and were included in the MVAC, ultimately becoming the largest grouping among the Italian auxiliaries. By the end of September 1942, Slovenian MVAC units numbered some 2,219 armed men, with each unit having one or more Italian liaison officers attached to it. During 1942, at

2822-423: The Italians from 1941 to 1943, Yugoslav MVAC units were utilized for their fighting ability and as well for their knowledge of the local language and terrain. The MVAC lacked a clear conventional command and control structure and was to a greater extent a loose arrangement of disparate armed groups aligned in common interests to counter communist guerrillas in their respective areas of operations. Never technically

2905-414: The Italians. According to Italian General Giacomo Zanussi, "legalized" Chetnik bande of the MVAC which were supplied with 30,000 rifles, 500 machine guns, 100 mortars, 15 pieces of artillery, 250,000 hand grenades, 7 million small arms rounds, and 7,000 to 8,000 pairs of shoes. By 28 February 1943, approximately 20,514 anti-communist MVAC auxiliaries were recorded by Italian authorities on the territory of

2988-480: The Jews in the Independent State of Croatia, were killed. In October 1941, the Ustaše mayor of Zagreb ordered the demolition of the Zagreb Synagogue , which was completely demolished by April 1942. The Ustaše persecuted Jews who practiced Judaism but authorized Jewish converts to Catholicism to be recognized as Croatian citizens and be given honorary Aryan citizenship that allowed them to be reinstated at

3071-466: The Jews, as the Ustaše permitted Jews who converted to Catholicism to be recognized as "honorary Croats", thus putatively exempt from persecution. In 1932, an editorial in the first issue of the Ustaše newspaper, signed by the Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić, proclaimed that violence and terror would be the main means for the Ustaše to attain their goals: The KNIFE, REVOLVER, MACHINE GUN and TIME BOMB; these are

3154-742: The MVAC included some members of the Sokol organization and many former POWs, the dominant force within it was the Slovene Legion and, through it, the Slovene People's Party . By July 1943, the Slovenian MVAC numbered 6,134 men under it and some Italian officers, among them General Roatta, criticized their poor discipline. Observing that they "resembled goon-squads", Slovenian MVAC auxiliaries were viewed by their Italian sponsors as "insubordinate and rowdy". Speaking to Bishop Rožman in

3237-542: The Rhineland and with the rise of a quasi-fascist government in Yugoslavia under Milan Stojadinović , Mussolini abandoned support for the Ustaše from 1937 to 1939 and sought to improve relations with Yugoslavia, fearing that continued hostility towards Yugoslavia would result in Yugoslavia entering Germany's sphere of influence. The collapse of the quasi-fascist Stojadinović regime resulted in Italy restoring its support for

3320-544: The Serbian minority refuge from marauding Croatian fascist Ustaša death squads. In Slovenia, the establishment of MVAC units was spurred by Slovenian Roman Catholic Bishop Rožman , who sent a letter to Italian General Mario Robotti in September 1942 proposing the creation of a Slovene collaborationist army and police force under Italian command to help fight communist Partisans and track down their supporters. Following

3403-585: The Ustaše banned contraception and tightened laws against blasphemy . The Ustaše accepted that Croats are part of the Dinaric race , but rejected the idea that Croats are primarily Slavic, claiming they primarily come from Germanic roots with the Goths . The Ustaše believed that a government must naturally be strong and authoritarian. The movement opposed parliamentary democracy for being "corrupt" and Marxism and Bolshevism for interfering in family life and

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3486-413: The Ustaše for two aims. One, in order to weaken Yugoslavia, Little Entente , in order to ultimately regain some of its lost territories. The other, Hungary also wished to establish later in the future a strong alliance with the Independent State of Croatia and possibly enter a personal union. Nazi Germany initially didn't support an independent Croatia, nor did it support the Ustaše, with Hitler stressing

3569-467: The Ustaše went on to perpetrate the Holocaust and genocide against its Jewish , Serb and Roma populations, killing hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma, as well as Muslim and Croat political dissidents. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism , Roman Catholicism and Croatian ultranationalism . The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span

3652-624: The Ustaše were outlawed. The HSS was banned on 11 June 1941, in an attempt by the Ustaše to take their place as the primary representative of the Croatian peasantry. Vladko Maček was sent to the Jasenovac concentration camp, but later released to serve a house arrest sentence due to his popularity among the people. Maček was later again called upon by foreigners to take a stand and oppose the Pavelić government, but refused. In early 1941 Jews and Serbs were ordered to leave certain areas of Zagreb. In

3735-529: The Ustaše, whose aim was to create an independent Croatia in personal union with Italy. However, distrust of the Ustaše grew. Mussolini's son-in-law and Italian foreign minister Count Galeazzo Ciano noted in his diary that "The Duce is indignant with Pavelić, because he claims that the Croats are descendants of the Goths. This will have the effect of bringing them into the German orbit". Hungary strongly supported

3818-608: The Ustaše. The Ustaše introduced widespread measures, to which many Croats themselves fell victim. Jozo Tomasevich in his book War and Revolution in Yugoslavia: 1941–1945 , states that "never before in history had Croats been exposed to such legalized administrative, police and judicial brutality and abuse as during the Ustaša regime." Decrees enacted by the regime formed the basis that allowed it to get rid of all unwanted employees in state and local government and in state enterprises,

3901-676: The Yugoslav government offered amnesty to those Ustaše abroad provided they promised to renounce violence; many of the "emigres" accepted the amnesty.  In the late 1930s, the Ustaše started to infiltrate the para-military organizations of the Croat Peasant Party, the Croatian Defense Force and the Peasant Civil Party. At the University of Zagreb, an Ustaše -linked student group become

3984-826: The anti-communist Slovenian forces joined the German collaborationist guard known as Domobranci (Heimwehr) merging with formations already created in the German-annexed Slovenian territories of Carinthia and Carniola. At the end of the Second World War, many former MVAC fighters were captured and held captive by the Allies in Austria. Later many were handed over to Tito's army in the Bleiburg repatriations , and most were killed. Usta%C5%A1e The Ustaše ( pronounced [ûstaʃe] ), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe ,

4067-490: The autumn of 1942, Italian General Vittorio Ruggero warned Rožman: "I am not Slovenian, but this is how I see Slovenes and their struggle: the MVAC units help us Italians a lot ... but among you Slovenes they create such hatred that you will not be able to eliminate it for fifty years." At the time that the Italians surrendered in 1943, the Italian forces numbered approximately 50,000 troops in Slovenia, assisted by 6,049 Slovenian MVAC soldiers and 300–400 Slovene Chetniks. With

4150-506: The basis of race. The Ustaše espoused Roman Catholicism and Islam as the religions of the Croats and condemned Orthodox Christianity , which was the main religion of the Serbs. Roman Catholicism was identified with Croatian nationalism, while Islam, which had a large following in Bosnia and Herzegovina , was praised by the Ustaše as the religion that "keeps true the blood of Croats." It

4233-409: The central government used some 6,000 gendarmes and some 45,000 newly recruited members of regular "Domobranstvo" forces. Pavelić first met with Adolf Hitler on 6 June 1941. Mile Budak, then a minister in Pavelić's government, publicly proclaimed the violent racial policy of the state on 22 July 1941. Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić , a chief of the secret police, started building concentration camps in

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4316-411: The chief editor of newspaper Novosti from Zagreb and president of Jugoštampa , which was the beginning of the terrorist actions of Ustaše. Hranilović and Soldin were both arrested and executed for the murder. On 20 April 1929 Pavelić and others co-signed a declaration in Sofia, Bulgaria , with members of the Macedonian National Committee, asserting that they would pursue "their legal activities for

4399-452: The creation of a new economic system that would be neither capitalist nor communist and which would emphasize the importance of the Roman Catholic Church and the patriarchial family as means to maintain social order and morality. (The name given by modern historians to this particular aspect of Ustaše ideology varies; " national Catholicism ", " political Catholicism " and "Catholic Croatism" have been proposed among others.) In power,

4482-419: The economy and for their materialism . The Ustaše considered competing political parties and elected parliaments to be harmful to its own interests. The Ustaše recognized both Roman Catholicism and Islam as national religions of the Croatian people but initially rejected Orthodox Christianity as being incompatible with their objectives. Although the Ustaše emphasized religious themes, it stressed that duty to

4565-407: The end of Italian rule in Slovenia, on 19 September 1943 Yugoslav Partisans and newly surrendered Italian soldiers laid siege to Turjak Castle 20 km southeast of Ljubljana . Encircled National Legion and Village Guard MVAC units along with Slovenian Chetnik forces were beaten by communist forces thanks to heavy weapons that they had acquired from Italian forces. After the battle of Turjak Castle all

4648-803: The establishment of human and national rights, political freedom and complete independence for both Croatia and Macedonia". The Court for the Preservation of the State in Belgrade sentenced Pavelić and Perčec to death on 17 July 1929. The exiles started organizing support for their cause among the Croatian diaspora in Europe, as well as North and South America. In January 1932 they named their revolutionary organization " Ustaša" . The Ustaše carried out terrorist acts, to cause as much damage as possible to Yugoslavia. From their training camps in fascist Italy and Hungary, they planted time bombs on international trains bound for Yugoslavia, causing deaths and material damage. In November 1932 ten Ustaše, led by Andrija Artuković and supported by four local sympathizers, attacked

4731-403: The formation of a nationalist insurgency group. In October 1928, after the assassination of leading Croatian politician Stjepan Radić , ( Croatian Peasant Party President in the Yugoslav Assembly ) by radical Montenegrin politician Puniša Račić , a youth group named the Croat Youth Movement was founded by Branimir Jelić at the University of Zagreb . A year later Ante Pavelić was invited by

4814-527: The idols, these are bells that will announce the dawning and THE RESURRECTION OF THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA. In 1933, the Ustaše presented "The Seventeen Principles" that formed the official ideology of the movement. The Principles stated the uniqueness of the Croatian nation, promoted collective rights over individual rights and declared that people who were not Croat by " blood " would be excluded from political life. Those considered "undesirables" were subjected to mass murder. These principles called for

4897-433: The importance of a "strong and united Yugoslavia". Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring , wanted Yugoslavia stable and officially neutral during the war so Germany could continue to securely gain Yugoslavia's raw material exports. The Nazis grew irritated with the Ustaše, among them Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler , who was dissatisfied with the lack of full compliance by the NDH to the Nazis' agenda of extermination of

4980-680: The influx of groups like Vlachs who took up Orthodox Christianity and identified themselves as Serbs. Starčević admired Bosniaks because in his view they were Croats who had adopted Islam in order to preserve the economic and political autonomy of Bosnia and Croatia under the Ottoman occupation. The Ustaše used Starčević's theories to promote their own annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia and recognized Croatia as having two major ethnocultural components: Catholics and Muslims. The Ustaše sought to represent Starčević as being connected to their views. Josip Frank seceded his extreme fraction from Starčević's Party of Rights and formed his own,

5063-463: The jobs from which they had previously been separated. After they stripped Jews of their citizenship rights, the Ustaše allowed some to apply for Aryan rights via bribes and/or through connections to prominent Ustaše. The whole process was highly arbitrary. Only 2% of Zagreb's Jews were granted Aryan rights, for example. Also, Aryan rights did not guarantee permanent protection from being sent to concentration camps or other persecution. Islam, which had

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5146-436: The largest single student group by 1939. In February 1939 two returnees from detention, Mile Budak and Ivan Oršanić, became editors of the pro-Ustaše journal Hrvatski narod , known in English as The Croatian Nation . The Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941. Vladko Maček, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), which was the most influential party in Croatia at the time, rejected German offers to lead

5229-412: The leading advocate of Croatian independence. In 1927, he secretly contacted Benito Mussolini , dictator of Italy and founder of fascism , and presented his separatist ideas to him. Pavelić proposed an independent Greater Croatia that should cover the entire historical and ethnic area of the Croats. Historian Rory Yeomans claimed that as early as 1928, there were signs that Pavelić was considering

5312-405: The months after Independent State of Croatia has been established, most of Ustaše groups were not under centralized control: besides 4,500 regular Ustaše Corps troops, there was some 25,000–30,0000 "Wild Ustaše" (hrv. "divlje ustaše"), boosted by government-controlled press as "peasant Ustaše" "begging" to be sent to fight enemies of the regime. After mass crimes against Serb populace committed during

5395-518: The nation of Yugoslavia was formed in 1918. Šufflay was killed in Zagreb in 1931 by government supporters. The Ustaše accepted the 1935 thesis of Krunoslav Draganović , a Catholic priest who claimed that many Catholics in southern Herzegovina had been converted to Orthodox Christianity in the 16th and 17th centuries, in order to justify their own policy of forcible conversion of Orthodox Christians to Catholicism . The Ustaše were heavily influenced by Nazism and fascism. Its leader, Ante Pavelić, held

5478-446: The nation took precedence over religious custom. In power, the Ustaše banned the use of the term "Serbian Orthodox faith", requiring "Greek-Eastern faith" in its place. The Ustaše forcefully converted many Orthodox to Catholicism, murdered and expelled 85% of Orthodox priests, and plundered and burnt many Orthodox Christian churches. The Ustaše also persecuted Old Catholics who did not recognize papal infallibility . On 2 July 1942

5561-434: The new authorities. Meanwhile, Pavelić and several hundred Ustaše left their camps in Italy for Zagreb, where he declared a new government on 16 April 1941. He accorded himself the title of "Poglavnik"—a Croatian approximation to "Führer". The Independent State of Croatia was declared on Croatian "ethnic and historical territory", what is today Republic of Croatia (without Istria ), Bosnia and Herzegovina , Syrmia and

5644-425: The new government. On 10 April the most senior home-based Ustaše, Slavko Kvaternik , took control of the police in Zagreb and in a radio broadcast that day proclaimed the formation of the Independent State of Croatia ( Nezavisna Država Hrvatska , NDH). The name of the state was an attempt to capitalise on the Croat struggle for independence. Maček issued a statement that day, calling on all Croatians to cooperate with

5727-440: The new state. The Ustaše regime was militarily weak and failed to ever attain significant support among Croats. Therefore, terror was their means of controlling the "ethnically disparate" population. The Ustaše regime was initially backed by some parts of the Croat population that in the interwar period had felt oppressed by the Serb-led Yugoslavia, but their brutal policies quickly alienated many ordinary Croats and resulted in

5810-538: The position of Poglavnik , which was based on the similar positions of Duce held by Benito Mussolini and Führer held by Adolf Hitler. The Ustaše, like fascists, promoted a corporatist economy. Pavelić and the Ustaše were allowed sanctuary in Italy by Mussolini after being exiled from Yugoslavia. Pavelić had been in negotiations with Fascist Italy since 1927 that included advocating a territory-for-sovereignty swap in which he would tolerate Italy annexing its claimed territory in Dalmatia in exchange for Italy supporting

5893-399: The power of the Jews... In fact, as the Jews had foreseen, Yugoslavia became, in consequence of the corruption of official life in Serbia, a true Eldorado of Jewry." Once in power, the Ustaše immediately introduced a series of Nazi-style racial laws. On 30 April 1941, the Ustaše proclaimed the "Legal Decree on Racial Origins", the "Legal Decree on the Protection of Aryan Blood and the Honor of

5976-565: The second half of July 1942, units of the Slovenian Legion of Death joined Italian forces during a major offensive against the communist Partisans. With actions that continued until early November, the Italians were impressed with the potential of such units and, with the approval of Benito Mussolini , they decided to accept the offer of the Slovenian authorities to enrol the anti-Partisan units as auxiliaries. In early August 1942,

6059-564: The sovereignty of an independent Croatia. The Ustaše ideology has also been characterized as clerical fascism by several authors, who emphasize the importance the movement attached to Roman Catholicism. Mussolini's support of the Ustaše was based on pragmatic considerations, such as maximizing Italian influence in the Balkans and the Adriatic. After 1937, with the weakening of French influence in Europe following Germany's remilitarization of

6142-452: The summer months of 1941, the regime decided to blame all the atrocities to the irregular Ustaše—thoroughly undisciplined and paid for the service only with the booty; authorities even sentenced to death and executed publicly in August and September 1941 many of them for unauthorized use of extreme violence against Serbs and Gypsies. To put an end to Wild Ustaše uncontrolled looting and killing,

6225-812: The summer of the same year. Ustaše activities in villages across the Dinaric Alps led the Italians and the Germans to express their disquiet. According to writer/historian Srđa Trifković , as early as 10 July 1941 Wehrmacht Gen. Edmund Glaise von Horstenau reported the following to the German High Command, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW): 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

6308-581: The term "ustat" was itself used in Herzegovina to denote the insurgents from the Herzegovinian rebellion of 1875. The full original name of the organization appeared in April 1931 as the Ustaša – Hrvatska revolucionarna organizacija or UHRO (Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Organization). In 1933 it was renamed the Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret (Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement),

6391-575: The urging of the Slovene People's Party, around 600 former Royal Yugoslav Army prisoners-of-war (POWs) were released from Italian camps, returning to Slovenia and enlisting with MVAC auxiliaries. One of these former POWs was Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Peterlin , who upon his return to Slovenia was appointed to command the Ljubljana MVAC unit formed in October 1942. By November 1942, Slovenian MVAC units numbered 4,471 men under arms. While

6474-481: The whole territory which had been annexed by Italy according to Treaty of Rome. The decline in support for the Ustaše regime among ethnic Croats of those initially for the government began with the ceding of Dalmatia to Italy, considered as the heartland of the state and worsened with the internal lawlessness from Ustaše persecutions. The Army of the Independent State of Croatia was composed of enlistees who did not participate in Ustaše activities. The Ustaše Militia

6557-637: Was a Croatian , fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement ( Croatian : Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret ). From its inception and before the Second World War , the organization engaged in a series of terrorist activities against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , including collaborating with IMRO to assassinate King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in 1934. During World War II in Yugoslavia ,

6640-422: Was aided by the activity of Ustaše. By the mid-1930s, graffiti with the initials ŽAP meaning "Long live Ante Pavelić" ( Croatian : Živio Ante Pavelić ) had begun to appear on the streets of Zagreb. During the 1930s, a split developed between the "home" Ustaše members who stayed behind in Croatia and Bosnia to struggle against Yugoslavia and the "emigre" Ustaše who went abroad. The "emigre" Ustaše who had

6723-531: Was founded as a nationalist organization that sought to create an independent Croatian state . It functioned as a terrorist organization before World War II. After the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Ustaše came to power when they were appointed to rule a part of Axis -occupied Yugoslavia as the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a quasi - protectorate puppet state established by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany . The Ustaše Militia ( Croatian : Ustaška vojnica ) became its military wing in

6806-437: Was organised in 1941 into five (later 15) 700-man battalions, two railway security battalions and the elite Black Legion and Poglavnik Bodyguard Battalion (later Brigade). They were predominantly recruited among uneducated population and working class. On 27 April 1941 a newly formed unit of the Ustaše army killed members of the largely Serbian community of Gudovac, near Bjelovar . Eventually all who opposed and/or threatened

6889-432: Was repeated multiple times in 1941 with groups of Jews. Simultaneously, the Ustaše initiated extensive antisemitic propaganda, with Ustaše papers writing that Croatians must "be more alert than any other ethnic group to protect their racial purity, ... We need to keep our blood clean of the Jews". They also wrote that Jews are synonymous with "treachery, cheating, greed, immorality and foreigness", and therefore "wide swaths of

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