Ante Pavelic
1889 – 1959 Croatian Poglavnik (leader) of the Independent State of Croatia
Ustashe dictator of wartime Croatia responsible for genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma.
- Religion
- A militant Catholic who wove Croatian Catholic identity into Ustashe ideology and pursued forced conversions of Orthodox Serbs; the regime cloaked genocide in religious-national terms.
- Affiliations
- Founder and leader of the Ustashe movement. No occult ties; the movement fused ultranationalism with a politicized Catholicism.
Pavelic led the fascist Ustashe and ruled the Nazi-sponsored Independent State of Croatia from 1941. His regime ran the Jasenovac camp and murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma, sometimes framing the killing in religious terms and forcing conversions. He escaped after the war and died in exile in 1959.
Connections
- ally of Adolf Hitler — His puppet state depended on Nazi Germany.
- ally of Benito Mussolini — Sheltered and backed by Fascist Italy before taking power.