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Independent State of Croatia

"NDH" redirects here. For other uses, see NDH (disambiguation).
This article is about the puppet state during World War II. For the history of how Croatia gained independence in 1991, see independence of Croatia.

Independent State of Croatia
Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Croatian)
1941–1945
Motto: "Za dom spremni"[1]
"For the home—Ready!"
Anthem: Lijepa naša domovino
"Our Beautiful Homeland"[2]
The Independent State of Croatia in 1943
The Independent State of Croatia in 1943
StatusPuppet state of Germany
(1941–1945)
Protectorate of Italy
(1941–1943)
CapitalZagreb
Official languagesCroatian
Religion
Roman Catholicism
Demonym(s)Croatian
GovernmentFascist one-party
totalitarian dictatorship
(1941–1945) under a
constitutional monarchy
(1941–1943)[note 1]
King 
• 1941–1943
Tomislav II[3]
Poglavnik 
• 1941–1945
Ante Pavelić
Prime Minister 
• 1941–1943
Ante Pavelić
• 1943–1945
Nikola Mandić
Historical eraWorld War II
10 April 1941
18 May 1941
15 June 1941
10 September 1943
30 August 1944
8 May 1945
15 May
25 May 1945
Area
1941115,133[6] km2 (44,453 sq mi)
Population
• 1941
6,500,000[6]
CurrencyNDH Kuna
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
1941:
Kingdom of
Yugoslavia
1943:
Governorate
of Dalmatia
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia
Today part of

The Independent State of Croatia (Serbo-Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany[7][8] and Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, after the invasion by the Axis powers. Its territory consisted mostly of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as some parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia, but also excluded many Croat-populated areas in Dalmatia (until late 1943), Istria, and Međimurje regions (which today are part of Croatia).

During its entire existence, the NDH was governed as a one-party state by the fascist Ustaše organization. The Ustaše was led by the Poglavnik[note 2] The regime targeted Serbs, Jews and Roma as part of a large-scale campaign of genocide, as well as anti-fascist or dissident Croats and Bosnian Muslims.[9][10] According to Stanley G. Payne, "crimes in the NDH were proportionately surpassed only by Nazi Germany, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and several of the extremely genocidal African regimes."[11] In the territory controlled by the Independent State of Croatia, between 1941 and 1945, there existed 22 concentration camps. The largest camp was Jasenovac.[12][13] Two camps, Jastrebarsko and Sisak, held only children.[9][14]

The state was officially a monarchy after the signing of the Laws of the Crown of Zvonimir on 15 May 1941.[15][16] Appointed by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta initially refused to assume the crown in opposition to the Italian annexation of the Croat-majority populated region of Dalmatia, annexed as part of the Italian irredentist agenda of creating a Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea").[17] He later briefly accepted the throne due to pressure from Victor Emmanuel III and was titled Tomislav II of Croatia, but never moved from Italy to reside in Croatia.[3]

From the signing of the Treaties of Rome on 18 May 1941 until the Italian capitulation on 8 September 1943, the state was a territorial condominium of Germany and Italy.[18] "Thus on 15 April 1941, Pavelić came to power, albeit a very limited power, in the new Ustasha state under the umbrella of German and Italian forces. On the same day German Führer Adolf Hitler and Italian Duce Benito Mussolini granted recognition to the Croatian state and declared that their governments would be glad to participate with the Croatian government in determining its frontiers."[19][20][21] In its judgement in the Hostages Trial, the Nuremberg Military Tribunal concluded that NDH was not a sovereign state. According to the Tribunal, "Croatia was at all times here involved an occupied country".[22]

In 1942, Germany suggested Italy take military control of all of Croatia out of a desire to redirect German troops from Croatia to the Eastern Front. Italy, however, rejected the offer as it did not believe that it could on its own handle the unstable situation in the Balkans.[23] After the ousting of Mussolini and the Kingdom of Italy's armistice with the Allies, Tomislav II abdicated from his Croatian throne: the NDH on 10 September 1943 declared that the Treaties of Rome were null and void and annexed the portion of Dalmatia that had been ceded to Italy. The NDH attempted to annex Zara (modern-day Zadar, Croatia), which had been a recognized territory of Italy since 1920 and long an object of Croatian irredentism, but Germany did not allow it.[17][full citation needed][24]

  1. ^ Dragčević, Vitomir (9 January 2012). "'Za dom spremni' je isto što i 'Sieg Heil'!". danas.
  2. ^ Carmichael, Cathie (2015). A Concise History of Bosnia. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-1-10701-615-6.
  3. ^ a b c Rodogno, Davide; Fascism's European empire: Italian occupation during the Second World War; p. 95; Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-521-84515-7
  4. ^ Pavlowitch, 2008, p. 289
  5. ^ Massock, Richard G.; Italy from Within; p. 306; Seabrook Press, 2007; ISBN 1-4067-2097-6
  6. ^ a b Lohse, Alexandra (2018). "Croatia". In Megargee, Geoffrey P.; White, Joseph R. (eds.). Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. Vol. III. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-25302-386-5.
  7. ^ "Croatia" Archived 22 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia; retrieved 8 September 2009.
  8. ^ "Yugoslavia", Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; retrieved 8 September 2009. Archived 31 October 2009.
  9. ^ a b Fischer, Bernd J., ed. (2007). Balkan Strongmen: Dictators and Authoritarian Rulers of South-Eastern Europe. Purdue University Press. pp. 207–208, 210, 226. ISBN 978-1-55753-455-2.
  10. ^
  11. ^ Payne 2006, pp. 409–415.
  12. ^
  13. ^
  14. ^ Pavlowitch, Stevan K. (2017). Hitler's New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231700504.
  15. ^ Hrvatski Narod (newspaper)16.05.1941. no. 93. p. 1., Public proclamation of theZakonska odredba o kruni Zvonimirovoj (Decrees on the crown of Zvonimir), tri članka donesena 15.05.1941.
  16. ^ Die Krone Zvonimirs, Monatshefte fur Auswartige Politik, Heft 6 (1941) p. 434.
  17. ^ a b Tomasevich 2001, p. 300.
  18. ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 60.
  19. ^ Graubard, Stephen R. (1993). Exit from Communism. p. 153. Transaction Publishers; ISBN 1-56000-694-3
    "Mussolini and Hitler installed the Ustašas in power in Zagreb, making them the nucleus of a dependent regime of the newly created Independent State of Croatia, an Italo-German condominium predicated on the abolition of Yugoslavia."
  20. ^ Frucht, Richard C. (2005). Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture. p. 429. ABC-CLIO; ISBN 1-57607-800-0
    "The NDH was in fact an Italo-German condominium. Both Nazi Germany and fascist Italy had spheres of influence in the NDH and stationed their own troops there."
  21. ^ Banac, Ivo (1988). With Stalin Against Tito: Cominformist Splits in Yugoslav Communism. Cornell University Press, p. 4; ISBN 0-8014-2186-1
  22. ^ Deutschland Military Tribunal 1950, pp. 1302–1303.
  23. ^ Steinberg, Jonathan (2003). All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust 1941-43. Routledge. p. 44. ISBN 9781134436552.
  24. ^


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