Slavko Kvaternik

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Slavko Kvaternik
Standard of Vojskovođa , Marshal of the Independent State of Croatia
Slavko Kvaternik in Marshal's Uniform, with an Iron Cross and an Iron Trefoil (portrait, after April 1941)

Slavko Kvaternik (born August 25, 1878 in Vučinić Selo , Vrbovsko district , † June 7, 1947 in Zagreb ) was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army , leading politician of the Ustasha and marshal ( vojskovođa ) of the Croatian armed forces in World War II . In the Independent State of Croatia , Kvaternik held the post of Minister of War from April 1941 to October 1942 and was the deputy of Poglavnik (leader) Ante Pavelić .

Life

Slavko Kvaternik was the son of Ljudevit Kvaternik and his wife Marija, née Frank. He served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War and was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class. In 1918 he joined the newly formed National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and became commander of the general staff . At the end of 1918, Kvaternik commanded Croatian units that drove Hungarian troops out of Međimurje .

After retiring in 1921, he went into politics, where he became involved in the Croatian Ustaše movement. After the invasion of the German Wehrmacht on April 6, 1941, he proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia on April 10 in Zagreb and, as commander of the Croatian armed forces , set up the Croatian Home Guard ( Hrvatsko domobranstvo ) on April 11 . The Ustaše formed a government under the leadership of Ante Pavelić . Kvaternik's son Eugen Dido became the head of the secret service. Besides this he had two other children. In October 1942, Kvaternik was deposed due to a dispute with Ante Pavelić and moved to Austria .

There he was captured by the Americans on July 12, 1945, after the Second World War , and extradited to Yugoslavia on September 9, 1946 . He was sentenced to death with six other defendants in a high treason and war crimes trial against "Slavko Kvaternik and others" and executed by shooting on June 7, 1947 in Zagreb .

Kvaternik in court (1947)

His last words , which he wrote down in a letter in prison during Holy Week 1947, were:

“ [...] Everything I did, I did in the belief that I was acting for the good of my Croatian comrades and our common fatherland. [...] My last greetings go to all my loved ones, to my children first of all, and then to my friends and co-workers, my brothers officers, and to all Croatian soldiers up to the youngest Croatian soldier who stand guard until his last drop of blood will be for eternal Croatia! God and the Croatians! "

Awards (selection)

literature

Handwritten letter from Kvaternik (1938)
  • Slaven Ravlić: KVATERNIK, Slavko . 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. 226 f . (Croatian).
  • Nada Kisić-Kolanović: Vojskovođa i politika: Sjećanja Slavka Kvaternika [Marshal and Politician: The Memories of Slavko Kvaternik] . Golden marketing, Zagreb 1997, ISBN 953-6168-30-8 (Croatian).
  • Rainer Egger :  Kvaternik Slavko. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1969, p. 383 f. (Direct links on p. 383 , p. 384 ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ladislaus Hory / Martin Broszat: The Croatian Ustasha State 1941-1945. 2nd Edition. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1965, p. 173, footnote 491 (with reference to Keesing's archive of the present ) and Ivo Omrčanin: Dramatis Personae and Finis of the Independent State of Croatia in American and British Documents . Dorrance & Company, Bryn Mawr 1983, p. 102. (Eng.)
  2. ↑ Hrvatski kalendar (Croatian calendar). Chicago 1950.
personal data
SURNAME Kvaternik, Slavko
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Croatian politician and officer
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Zagreb
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 1947
Place of death Zagreb