Stanoje Mihaldžić

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Stanoje Mihaldžić (4 June 1892 – 3 June 1956) was a Yugoslav politician who held several high offices in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia just before World War II. He was born in Jasenovac to Croatian Serb parents and studied law at the University of Zagreb after schooling in Zagreb and Budapest. He fought in World War I with the Royal Serbian Army on the Macedonian front as a reserve lieutenant.

After the war, Mihaldžić headed police in Novi Sad and Subotica, then Zagreb. He became deputy Ban of the Sava Banovina and, after Ban Viktor Ružić retired, served as acting Ban. In August 1939, following the Cvetković–Maček agreement, he was appointed Minister of the Interior in Dragiša Cvetković’s government.

A Freemason and anglophile, in 1940 he used a Belgrade office as a cover to employ Slovenes who spied for Britain. Nazi Germany pressured the government about Freemasons, and Mihaldžić was removed as interior minister on 8 July 1940. On 10 July 1940 he was named Ban of the Drina Banovina (and acting Ban of the Sava Banovina), a position he held until the Yugoslav capitulation on 17 April 1941.

His fate after 1941 is unclear. Some sources say he was killed in 1941 in Sarajevo or by the Ustaše or Germans; others say he was captured and survived the war. After the war, he lived in Belgrade and died on 3 June 1956. He was buried at Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb.