Branko Benzon

Branko Benzon (born August 29, 1903 in Postira , † September 1, 1970 in Caracas ) was a diplomat of the Independent State of Croatia and a cardiologist .

Life

Branko Benzon studied human medicine at the University of Zagreb and received his doctorate. He then belonged to the leadership of the fascist Ustaše . He was discharged from the civil service of a Yugoslav hospital in 1932 for political reasons. 1940 migrated via Slovakia and into the German Reich . There he designed a Croatian propaganda radio program as a representative of the Ustaše. After the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia , he went to Adolf Hitler and asked to protect the Croats. Four days after the establishment of the state, the fascist dictatorship of Ante Pavelić was recognized by the Hitler cabinet .

Benzon was from March 31, 1941 to October 10, 1941 envoy of the Independent State of Croatia in Berlin . After that he fell out of favor with Joachim von Ribbentrop and he asked Ante Pavelić for a new envoy.

Branko Benzon was transferred to Bucharest , where he served as envoy from 1942 to 1944. From 1944 to 1945 he was ambassador to Budapest . According to a statement by Wilhelm Höttl, he is said to have obtained several dozen passports during the Margarethe operation and thus helped threatened Jews to escape.

On March 22, 1947, he escaped to Argentina via Spain . In addition to a passport issued by the Spanish authorities, he had a letter of recommendation from Francisco Franco to Juan Perón . In the Casa Rosada he received an audience with Perón together with Czesław Smolinski, Gino Monti de Valsassina and Horst Carlos Fuldner . Shortly after his arrival, he was hired as a technical candidate in the Argentine Ministry of Health. He worked in Buenos Aires and became a close friend of Eva Perón and cardiologist of Juan Perón. From the end of 1947 to 1949 he was a special candidate for migration from Yugoslavia, in this role Benzon made the final decision on applications to enter Argentina. In this function he was involved in a rat line that helped about 100 high-ranking Nazis, including probably Josef Mengele , to escape. Applications which he zuordnete Jews, he leaned under the symbol J. NO B. from. In the Sociedad Argentina de Recepción de Europeos founded on June 29, 1948 , he represented Croatia. When Ante Pavelić came to Buenos Aires in 1948, Benzon welcomed him as the leader of the Ustasha colony in Argentina.

In 1955, after Juan Perón was overthrown, he fled with him to Venezuela . There he worked in an American hospital in Caracas .

literature

• Slaven Ravlić: BENZON, Branko . In: Darko Stuparić (ed.): Tko je tko u NDH: Hrvatska 1941. – 1945. [Who is who in the NDH: Croatia 1941–1945] . Minerva, Zagreb 1997, p. 34 f . (Croatian).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Igor-Philip Matić, Edmund Veesenmayer: Agent und Diplomat, p. 152
2. ^ Statement by Wilhelm Höttl read out in the Eichmann trial after Goñi, p. 278
3. ↑ Uki Goñi: Odessa: The True Story. Escape aid for Nazi war criminals . Association A, ISBN 3-935936-40-0 , p. Chapter 21 ( labournet.de [PDF]).
4. ↑ Uki Goñi p. 124
5. ^ Klaus Wiegrefe : Hunt for Mengele . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , April 18, 2011, p. 32 ( spiegel.de ).
6. ↑ Hector Tobar: Nazi Smuggling Ring Is Back in Spotlight. Los Angeles Times , March 25, 2003, accessed August 16, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Uki Goñi, La auténtica Odessa: la fuga nazi a la Argentina de Perón, p. 149. p. 121, Ignacio Montes de Oca, Ustashas: El ejército nazi de Perón y el Vaticano, [1]
8. ↑ ^{a b} Glüsing: rat line or monastery route . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , April 21, 1997, pp. 176–178 ( spiegel.de ).
9. ↑ Uki Goñi p. 178
10. ^ Goñi p. 219
11. ↑ Uki Goñi p. 121, 124, 133, 178,181, 210,219, 277, archived copy ( memento of the original from July 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.