Maks Luburić
| Vjekoslav Luburić | |
|---|---|
Vjekoslav Luburić in the 1940s
|
|
| Nickname(s) | Maks, General Drinjanin, El Polaco |
| Born |
6 March 1914 Humac, Ljubuški, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 20 April 1969 (aged 55) Carcaixent, Spain |
| Allegiance |
 Independent State of Croatia
|
| Service/branch | Ustaše militia Croatian Armed Forces |
| Years of service | 1929–1945 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held | III Office of the Ustaše Surveillance Service Ustaše Defence Brigades Crusaders |
| Battles/wars | World War II in Yugoslavia |
| Awards | Iron Trefoil 1st Class Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir Iron Cross 1st Class |
Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić (6 March 1914 – 20 April 1969) was an Ustaše Militia and Armed Forces general in the Independent State of Croatia, a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany. He was also the commander of the Jasenovac extermination camp. After the war, he first led the Crusaders fascist paramilitary, and then a radical terrorist and nationalist organization Croatian National Resistance.
Vjekoslav Luburić was born in the village of Humac, near Ljubuški, on 6 March 1914. to a Catholic family. He was a petty criminal in his youth, and was jailed for vagrancy in September 1929. He attended high school in Mostar, but dropped out in his senior year to work in the Mostar public stock exchange. In 1931, he joined the Ustaše, a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist movement committed to the destruction of Yugoslavia and the establishment of Greater Croatia. On 5 December 1931, the District Court in Mostar sentenced Luburić to five months in prison for embezzlement of funds belonging to the exchange. Some time after this conviction, he was again arrested for embezzlement. In 1932, he left Yugoslavia and went to Budapest, where he spent much of the period between 1932 and 1941.
Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Luburić travelled to the newly proclaimed Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on his own initiative, in order to join the Ustaše-led government, and became part of Poglavnik (leader) Ante Pavelić's inner circle. Groups of Ustaše Militia under his direct command were responsible for the first mass atrocities committed against Serbs in the NDH, namely the Gudovac, Veljun and Glina massacres. Luburić was appointed the commanding general for the area of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) around the Drina river, and consequently was sometimes referred to as General Drinjanin (General of the Drina). He was the founder and first commander of the concentration camps in the NDH, and from late 1941 also commanded the Ustaša Defence Brigades, which were part of the Ustaša Surveillance Service. The Defence Brigades were involved in operations against the Chetniks and Partisans, and also ran the concentration camps and engaged in mass terror. It was in this role that Luburić acquired a reputation as the most brutal of all Ustaše commanders.
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