Description

A detailed autobiographical reports in Croatian language were written by a Croatian nationalistic politician Vjekoslav Vrančić (1904 – 1990) and published in Buenos Aires in 1977.

They describe Vrančić’es imprisonment by the Allies in 1945, where he was sent by the leader of the Independent State of Croatia, Ante Pavelić, to make an official surrender. Vrančić describes the following 12 months in DP camps, before he immigrated with false papers, provided by members of the Vatican state, to Buenos Aires. The text bears a strong anti-Tito and anti-American note, claiming the American believed the false news receiving from Yugoslavia during WWII, and allied themselves with Tito.

The last part of the book describes the military formation of the Independent State of Croatia during WWII. It was first published in 1953.

The wrappers show a map of the Independent State of Croatia, embracing today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia.

Vrančić was a high-ranked Croatian Ustaše, a left-hand of Ante Pavelić, and later one of the leading ring-wing Croatian nationalist active politicians in Argentina. He was born in Ljubuški, what is today Bosnia and Herzegovina, and spent most of his childhood in Mostar. In 1929 he moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, and later to Buenos Aires for business. There he established close relations with the Croatian immigrants and became a respectable name in the community. He also established close connections with Croatian nationalists, including with Ante Pavelić, who at the time lived in Italy.

Vjekoslav Vrančić returned to Europe in 1931 and after finishing his PhD in Vienna, he moved to Croatia, where, during WWII, he held different positions in the Independent State of Croatia, as a close friend of Ante Pavelić. He was negotiating with the Serbian Chetnik representatives, and was the “body directly responsible for concentration camps and repressive political apparatus”, for which he was decorated by Hitler in honour of his planning skills at the work of mass deportation.

After his escape to Buenos Aires with false papers after WWII he became a vice president of the Croatian so-called “government in exile” in Argentina. The president was Ante Pavelić. He was also involved in terrorist activities with extreme right-wing Argentine political groups and was an author of several articles and books, trying to re- establish the Independent State of Croatia.

References: OCLC 630160324.