Andrija Artuković was a Croatian politician and lawyer who served as a Minister of the Interior in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. He was most notable for his involvement in the Holocaust and is considered one of the most notorious war criminals in Croatia’s history.
Artuković was born in 1892 in the town of Bužim in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. He attended the University of Zagreb, where he studied law, and then worked as a lawyer in Croatia. In 1941, he joined the Ustaša, a Croatian fascist movement, and was appointed Minister of the Interior.
During his time in office, Artuković was responsible for the deportation of thousands of Jews and Serbs to concentration camps. He also had a hand in the establishment of the Jasenovac concentration camp, one of the most notorious concentration camps of World War II.
In 1945, Artuković fled Croatia and eventually settled in the United States, where he worked as a lawyer. In 1961, the Yugoslav government issued a request for his extradition to stand trial for crimes against humanity. He was arrested by US authorities and was ultimately extradited to Yugoslavia in 1986.
He was tried in Zagreb in 1988 and was found guilty of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to a life sentence, which he served until his death in 1988.
In death, Artuković has become a symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust in Croatia and a reminder of the atrocities committed by the Ustaša regime. Although his actions can never be undone, his life serves as a reminder of the importance of human rights and the need to hold those who commit such crimes accountable.
