Andrija Artuković

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Andrija Artuković (19 November 1899 – 16 January 1988) was a Croatian lawyer and a senior member of the fascist Ustaše movement. During World War II, in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), he held several top posts: first Minister of Interior (April 1941–October 1942), then Minister of Justice (October 1942–April 1943), again Minister of Interior (April–October 1943), and finally State Secretary (November 1943–May 1945). He was a trusted ally of Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić and helped implement racial laws against Serbs, Jews and Roma, and oversaw concentration camps where civilians were tortured and killed.

Artuković was born near Ljubuški in what was then Austria-Hungary. He studied law at the University of Zagreb and became a lawyer. He joined the Ustaše in the 1930s and spent years abroad with the movement before returning to Croatia after the NDH was proclaimed in 1941.

In 1942 he announced harsher actions against Jews and, in a speech, spoke of measures to destroy Jewish communities in the NDH. His ministries helped build and run the regime’s terror apparatus, including the Directorate of Public Order and Security.

After the war, Artuković escaped to the United States. Yugoslav authorities sought his extradition for war crimes, but the United States delayed the process until 1986, when he was handed over to Yugoslavia. He was tried in Zagreb, found guilty of mass killings and other crimes, and sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out due to his age and health. He died in a Zagreb prison hospital in 1988. The fate of his burial remains unclear, and there has been later discussion about what happened to his remains.