Ante Pavelić - Hitler's Forgotten Ally

[Music] it's a place that few people could find on a map even today a corner of the former yugoslavia that ended up as one of hitler's staunchest allies croatia as germany swallowed up europe in 1939-41 the nazis sought allies from among the conquered peoples and it found many who shared its racial and anti-communist beliefs in every nation that hitler occupied there existed pre-war fascists or ultra-nationalist political parties that with german sponsorship came to the fore a series of puppet dictators were placed in control of conquered nations under strict german guidance such as vidcon quizling in norway whose name would become synonymous with collaboration and treason in all the occupied territories fascist-leaning citizens were recruited into foreign legions within the german army air force and waffen-ss danes norwegians frenchmen belgians walloons dutchmen estonians latvians lithuanians and so on the list is very long most of these units ended up on the eastern front fighting the soviets many won for themselves fearsome fighting reputations while others earned darker reputations for brutality and mass murder few people know that among the german units that were captured at stalingrad in 1943 was a regiment that wore german army uniforms but actually came from the balkans the 369th croatian reinforced infantry regiment its regimental badge a red and white checkerboard shield the unit was croatia's contribution to the crusade against bolshevism as the nazis called it sent east by the dictator of the independent state of croatia ante pavlich yugoslavia had been created in 1918 at the conclusion of world war one by the merging together of former ottoman turkish and austro-hungarian territories the problem with this idea was the religious and cultural differences between the different kingdoms and territories that made up yugoslavia though a nominally unified kingdom internal turmoil and political intrigue was relentless a dictatorship was established in 1929 by king alexander the first and croatian politician ante pavlich went into exile establishing a revolutionary organization called the ustashe that hoped one day to make croatia independent the unpopular king was assassinated in marseille in france in 1934 and due to the new king peter ii being an 11 year old boy a regency was formed led by the king's cousin prince paul the serbs and croats pushed for federalism of their regions and claimed territories in neighboring parts of yugoslavia with both claiming territory in what is today bosnia and herzegovina which also had bosnian muslim populations the rise of hitler and his late 1930s expansion fueled serb and croat demands no settlement however was made before yugoslavia faced a serious outside threat it seemed likely that germany and italy would invade yugoslavia and prince paul signed the tripartite pact in march 1941 joining hitler and mussolini in a vain attempt to stay independent however with king peter ii now 17 years old a coup was staged on the 27th of march and the regency was overthrown yugoslavia withdrew support from the pact with hitler but was careful not to formally withdraw from the axis itself nevertheless hitler couldn't risk having a potential allied power on his southern borders and germany invaded on the 6th of april 1941 crushing all resistance in a short campaign the royal family managed to escape to kenya in africa where the british held them under house arrest germany and italy now dismembered yugoslavia to suit themselves slovenia joined germany apart from a third of western slovenia which went to italy mussolini also gained control of dalmatia bits of macedonia and kosovo montenegro and the southern part of croatia croatia was expanded under german auspices and became an independent state and a kingdom the new king was thomas love ii in reality the retitled fourth duke of iosta an italian royal from the house of savoy what was left of serbia became a german-administered puppet led by milan nedic served firstly as prime minister of croatia from 1941 to 1943 and then dictator using the title poglavnik loosely translated as first or foremost he was an avowed fascist whose ustashe were set loose on what was perceived as croatia's enemies serbs jews romani and anti-fascists his policies resulted in the murder of over a hundred thousand jews and serbs in notorious concentration camps as well as many thousands from other groups as well as murdering his own citizens pavelge ensured good relations and military and economic assistance from germany by providing troops for hitler's campaign in the east the croatian army grew to 55 000 men equipped with former royal yugoslav army equipment and italian light tanks a sizable air force was also created with yugoslav german italian and french fighters and bombers from this pavelidge formed the croatian air force legion a german-trained air unit attached to the luftwaffe on the eastern front they flew the messerschmitt 109 fighter and the dornier 17 bomber croatian fighter pilots from this unit would claim 283 soviet aircraft shot down the croatian legion an army force for eastern front service was formed in 1941 its main component being the aforementioned 369th croatian reinforced infantry regiment attached to the german 100th jaeger division in friedrich paulus's sixth army uniformed and armed by the wehrmacht the 369th members wore distinctive croatian colours on their tunics and the men were either croats ukrainians or white russians one-third were also bosnian muslims the regiment saw considerable action suffering heavy casualties before its involvement in the disastrous stalingrad campaign fighting at the red october factory and mamiyev hill by december 1942 the regiment was reduced to a third of its original strength [Music] while the german command commended the 369th for its military bearing and discipline many officers and men were decorated by the germans including many who received the iron cross first and second class the 369th was frowned down to a shadow of its former self by the relentless battle as the axis forces were surrounded at stalingrad and surrendered with the germans in february 1943 the remaining 900 men being prisoners of war as part of the 100 000 german italian hungarian and romanian prisoners that the soviets took all that remained of the quarter of a million strong sixth army they were sent to labor camps in siberia from whence few returned about a thousand croatian legionnaires had been evacuated from the stalingrad pocket before the end and they were formed with new men into the 369th croatian infantry division in the german army he was used on anti-partisan operations in yugoslavia serving alongside the waffen ss's mountain division puenze eugen what remained of this division surrendered to british forces in austria in may 1945 german troops were taken prisoner by the british but the three thousand or so croat troops from the division were handed over to yugoslav pardesans and they were mostly executed as traitors as for ante pavlich he realized that the writing was on the wall when the croatian and german forces could not control yugoslav pardesan advances into his nation he moved with the croatian army into austria along with many civilians on the 8th of may german general alexander luer informed pavelich that germany had surrendered fearing for his life pavlich abandoned the croatian forces and drove to the u.s occupation zone of austria incredibly pavelice did not try to conceal his identity he reported himself to the u.s occupation authorities who took no action whatsoever however after several former croatian government ministers were arrested and executed in sagreb in 1945 pavillage decided to move on he next went to italy disguised as a catholic priest in rome he received help from elements of the vatican living in several vatican-owned properties the new president of yugoslavia tito accused the vatican of harbouring the war criminal pavilig it was believed that pavilig was useful to western intelligence like so many wanted nazis who also received shelter or help from allied intelligence organizations the wiley pavlich obtained a red cross passport via his vatican contacts and used this to obtain an argentine entry visa arriving in buenos aires on the 6th of november 1948 on an italian ship his family followed soon afterwards using the false name pablo aranos he stayed in contact with other former ustashe in the city life was hard and he had to work as a bricklayer to support his family and he later became the owner of a building company and also joined a croatian nationalist organization called the croatian home guard in april 1951 pavelich announced the croatian state government a government in exile gathering together many former ustashe living in argentina under his leadership however in april 1957 pavelich was shot and wounded by a serbian hotel owner without peron's protection pavelic was vulnerable and yugoslavia made an extradition request the argentine government granted the request but pavlich a bullet lodged in his spine fled to santiago in chile and then spain he found a friendly reception in madrid as spain was ruled by fascist dictator general francisco franco in madrid pavlich entered more political intrigue in secret but the wounds he received from the assassination attempt in buenos aires eventually caught up with him and he died in hospital on the 28th of december 1959 at the age of 70 never having been brought to justice for his appalling crimes thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 844,028

Keywords: Ante Pavelic, Croatia, Ustache, Tito, Yugoslavia, Stalingrad

Id: _RJarkQ9XnA

Length: 12min 26sec (746 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 25 2021

Reddit Comments

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[u/BurazengijaTebric]

Yes I do, he is one of most interesting "content creators" on YT on the subject , bringing forgotten and lesser known episodes of ww2 to wider audience.

[u/[deleted]]

Yes

[u/hellothere66420]

Pretty accurate and good pronounciations.

[u/gamer_master_lol]

DUDE i heard from my dad (hes very much a communist) that Ante escaped to Italy dresed as a woman not a preast, holy shit it was commie propaganda