Independent State of Croatia

The Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) was a Nazi puppet state in World War II. It was set up in April 1941 on parts of the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after its occupation. It was ruled by the Ustaše. It ceased to exist in May 1945.

History

Following the attack of the Axis powers of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941, and the quick defeat of the royal army, the whole country was occupied by the Axis forces. The Croat populace supported the abolishment of Yugoslavia, but didn't realize what kind of a replacement was in store for them. Hitler and Mussolini installed the Croatian Ustaše into power, forming the so-called "Independent State of Croatia".

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Ante Pavelić

The establishment of NDH was proclaimed on April 10, 1941 by Slavko Kvaternik, deputy leader of the Ustaše. The leader of the state was Ante Pavelić. Officially it was a kingdom under one Tomislav II of the House of Savoy, but he had no real power and never even set foot on the territory of the NDH.

The state included all of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina and most of Croatia, with northern Dalmatia allocated to Italy, and Međimurje and southern Baranja annexed by Hungary. Its northern half was under the so-called German zone of influence (with the Wehrmacht making its presence), and the southern by the Italian Fascist army. After the capitulation of Italy in 1943, NDH acquired Northern Dalmatia (Split and Šibenik).

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Hitler meets Pavelic

Most of its population was not Croat, with significant populations of Serbs, Slavic Muslims, Germans, Hungarians and others. The puppet regime soon enacted racial laws, formed eight concentration camps and started a campaign of mass murder, deportation and forced religious conversion in an attempt to remove the undesirables: Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, dissenting Croats and others.

The anti-fascist movement emerged early in 1941, under the command of the Communist party, lead by Josip Broz Tito, as in other parts of Yugoslavia. With increasing attrocities by Ustaše, the Partisan guerillas gradually received support from an increasing amount of population and by the end of the Second World War Tito's Partisans expelled Nazi collaborators.

Later in the war Ustaše opened up a large complex of five concentration camps near Jasenovac in which up to a hundred thousand people were murdered (some estimate that this camp was the third largest camp of WWII). Overall Ustaša death count is estimated at over 400,000 people, but all written records were destroyed to cover it up. Serbian royalist guerilla Četnici were ostensibly formed in some parts of this puppet state by Serb villagers to protect themselves from the Ustaša, but in turn committed atrocities against Croats in retaliation. Both Ustaše and Četnici collaborated with the Axis powers and fought together against Partisans.

The Independent State of Croatia effectively ceased to exist in May 1945, near the end of the war. The advance of Tito's partisan forces, joined by the Soviet Red Army, caused mass retreat of the Ustase. A large group composed of anti-communists, Ustashi followers and of civilians was on a retreat from the partisan forces, heading west towards Italy and Austria. Ante Pavelić detached from the group and fled to Austria, Italy and finally Argentina. The rest of the group negotiated passage with the British forces on the Austrian-Slovenian border. After they refused to accept them (cf. Operation Keelhaul), Partisans are said to have executed up to 50,000 people, some of them in a field near the village of Bleiburg near that border, and many on a "death march" back into Yugoslavia.

The second Yugoslavia came into being later that year.

Independent State of Croatia

History

Military leaders of the Ustaše army

Political leaders of the NDH

See also