Pavelić (1889-1959), Ante

Born in Bradina na Ivan, a village in Herzegovina, Ante Pavelić completed his education in Zagreb, where he studied law. As a secondary-school pupil, he joined the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), of which he became one of the leaders in 1918. In 1921, he was elected a municipal councilor for Zagreb. In 1927, he was elected as a deputy in the Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on the list of the Croatian Bloc. He declared for the independence of Croatia. After the proclamation of the dictatorship by King Alexander on 6 January 1929, he went into exile abroad, in Vienna and then Sofia, where an agreement was signed with the Macedonian nationalists to destroy Yugoslavia. On 17 July 1929, he was condemned in absentia by the Tribunal for the Protection of the State. He then found refuge in Italy where, in late 1930, he founded a clandestine revolutionary nationalist organization: Ustaša, the Croatian Revolutionary Organization (UHRO).

From 1931, he set up training camps in Italy and Hungary. He organized the Marseille assassination of the King of Yugoslavia, for which he was once again condemned to death in absentia. Under French pressure, he was arrested in October 1934 and imprisoned in Turin until 1936. Following an agreement between Yugoslavia and Italy in April 1937, he closed the camps of the Ustaša organization and was kept in detention until 1939. He returned to Croatia on 15 April 1941 as head (poglavnik) of the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna država Hrvatska) and on 16 April appointed a government in which he held the posts of President of the Cabinet and Foreign Minister. He established a totalitarian regime in Croatia inspired by Nazi Germany that pursued a policy of terror – in particular, against Serbs, Jews and Roma. He fled Zagreb on 6 May 1945 and, via Austria and Italy, settled in Argentina. Following an attack on him on 10 April 1957, he left Argentina for Spain.

Source: 1997, Tko je tko u NDH: Hrvatska 1941.-1945., Zagreb: Minerva.