Krunoslav Draganović
| Krunoslav Draganović | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Krunoslav Stjepan Draganović 30 October 1903 Matići, Austro-Hungary (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) |
| Died | 3 June 1983 (aged 79) Sarajevo, Yugoslavia |
| Occupation | Roman Catholic priest and historian Headed the Confraternity of San Girolamo ratline |
Krunoslav Stjepan Draganović (30 October 1903 – 3 June 1983) was a Croatian Roman Catholic priest associated with the ratlines which aided the escape of Ustaše war criminals from Europe after World War II while he was living and working at the College of St. Jerome in Rome.
Draganović was born in Matići, Austro-Hungary (now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina). He attended secondary school in Travnik and studied theology and philosophy in Sarajevo. Draganović was ordained a priest on 1 July 1928.
From 1932–35 he studied at the Papal Oriental Institute and the Jesuit Gregorian University in Rome. In 1935 he submitted his German language doctoral dissertation, Massenübertritte von Katholiken zur Orthodoxie im kroatischen Sprachgebiet zur Zeit der Türkenherrschaft (Mass conversions of Catholics to Orthodoxy in the Croatian-speaking area during the Turkish rule).
In 1935 he returned to Bosnia, initially as secretary to Bishop Ivan Šarić. In August 1943 Draganović returned to Rome, where he became secretary of the Croatian 'Confraternity of San Girolamo', based at the monastery of San Girolamo degli Illirici in Via Tomacelli. This monastery became the centre of operations for the Croat ratline, as documented by CIA surveillance files. He is believed to have been instrumental in the escape to Argentina of the Croatian wartime dictator Ante Pavelić.
Asked by Klaus Barbie why he was going out of his way to help him escape to Juan Peron's Argentina, he responded: "We have to maintain a sort of moral reserve on which we can draw in the future."
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