Karlo Petranović

This article needs a revision: It is possibly. to two different people. Is there a personal identity between the war criminal Dragutin / Dragan Petranović and the escape helper Karlo Petranović? (see discussion: Karlo Petranović # personal identity ).
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Karlo Petranović († 1948 ) was a Roman Catholic priest , war criminal and escape helper . The monsignor was initially a captain of the Ustasha and an employee of the Ustasha leader in Ogulin . After 1945 he helped numerous war criminals to flee to Argentina.

Ustasha and war crimes

Around 2,000 Serbs were murdered in Ogulin under the Ustaša regime. Petranović was involved in the organization of the murders and was therefore jointly responsible for this targeted action. In addition, "70 arrests and executions of prominent Serbs " took place on his instructions.

Escape in 1945

In 1945 he fled to Austria with the remaining leaders of the Ustaše. He later sought refuge in Italy with the priest Krunoslav Draganović . Yugoslavia applied for extradition to the British authorities in 1947. The application was not considered there. Nonetheless, the British secret service found that Petranović "is helping Croatian emigrants, and Ustaschers in particular, to flee to Argentina."

Escape aid for Nazi and Ustasha war criminals and collaborators

In Genoa , Petranović made sure there were vacancies on ships going overseas in order to enable Nazi war criminals, and in particular Ustasha war criminals, to travel specifically to South America. In helping people escape , he worked with the Catholic aid organizations around Archbishop Giuseppe Siri and the Catholic aid organization Auxilium , which represented Petranović, with Reinhard Kopps , the Peronist immigration office of DIAE , Franz Ruffinengo , the Croatian Caritas and Krunoslav Draganović.

One of the war criminals whom the churchman helped to flee to Argentina in early 1947 was "the group around Stjepan Hefer , Mile Starčević and Vjekoslav Vrančić ." All three were wanted high-ranking Croatian war criminals.

The Allies mostly did not intervene in the affairs of clergy. But Petranović seemed to be an exception in this regard. His attempt to ship the commander of the Ustaše Air Force Vladimir Kren to Buenos Aires failed at the last moment. Kren was arrested on March 4, 1947, shortly before the ship's departure, along with eight other criminals sponsored by Petranović. By collaborating with the Germans and passing on secret data, he had facilitated the Nazis' quick victory over the Yugoslav air force. Petranović campaigned with the Allies for the release of those arrested, but without success. Kren was one of the few wanted war criminals who gave London to Yugoslav jurisdiction. He was executed in Yugoslavia in 1948. Despite Yugoslav extradition requests, the crossing of a further 23 war criminals on the same ship that was also supposed to bring Kren to South America was not prevented.

The details of his involvement in helping war criminals to flee known today were published in 2002 by the Argentinian journalist Uki Goñi .

literature

• Uki Goñi : Odessa: The real story. Escape aid for Nazi war criminals . Association A, Berlin / Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-935936-40-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Uki Goñi: Odessa. The true story. Escape aid for Nazi war criminals. Berlin / Hamburg 2006, p. 227
2. ^ Uki Goñi: Odessa. The true story. Escape aid for Nazi war criminals. Berlin / Hamburg 2006, p. 227. Goñi quote: ibid
3. ^ Uki Goñi: Odessa. The true story. Escape aid for Nazi war criminals. Berlin / Hamburg 2006, p. 227. Quote from the British secret service : quoted from Goñi, ibid
4. ↑ on Franz Ruffinengo s. a. Theo Bruns: The Vatican and the Rat Line. How the Catholic Church smuggled Nazis and war criminals into South America [1]
5. ^ Uki Goñi: Odessa. The true story. Escape aid for Nazi war criminals. Berlin / Hamburg 2006, p. 227. Goñi quote: ibid. Hefer and Vrančić were ministers, see list of politicians in the Independent State of Croatia .