Andrija Artuković, born on 19 November 1899 in Klobuk near Ljubuški in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a lawyer and politician. As the first Minister of Internal Affairs of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) [Nezavisna Država Hrvatska], he played a key role in the Ustaša persecution of Roma and other minorities.
Early Years, Emigration and Return
After receiving his doctorate in law, Artuković worked as an officer of the court in Zagreb (1924) and practised law in Gospić (1926). He was a supporter of the Croatian Party of Rights (‘Frankovci’) from its early years and followed the policies of Ante Pavelić (1889–1959) with great enthusiasm, later joining him in the Ustaša movement. Artuković became one of the most prominent proponents of Croatian nationalist politics and turned the city of Gospić and the wider Lika area into one of the centres of the Ustaša movement. He was involved in the preparations for the unsuccessful Ustaša military uprising (‘Velebit Uprising’) of September 1932, but fled to Venice in Italy a few days before it broke out in order to avoid arrest. There, Pavelić appointed him commander-in-chief of all Ustaša militias in Italy. As a result of conflicts within the Ustaša movement in Italy, especially with Mijo ‘Giovanni’ Babić (1903–1941), he went to Budapest at the end of 1933 and Vienna, where he was briefly detained before being expelled.
When the Yugoslav king Aleksandar I Karađorđević (1888–1934) was assassinated in Marseille on 9 October 1934, Artuković was staying in London. The British authorities arrested and extradited him to France as a suspect in the assassination. After three months in a Paris prison, the French authorities extradited him to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where he was imprisoned in Belgrade in 1935. In April 1936, he was released from prison and left the country, travelling to Germany via Austria.1Bulajić, Ustaški zločini genocida, Vol. 1, 109–124; Krizman, Ante Pavelić i ustaše, 94–98, 107, 113–115, 154–156, 173–181; Ličina, Dossier Artuković, 11–32; Ravlić, “Artuković,” 11–12. In Berlin, he was questioned several times by the Gestapo at the request of Yugoslav authorities. After several weeks in prison in 1937, which he served together with Mladen Lorković (1909–1945) and Branimir Jelić (1905–1972), Artuković left Germany for France and Hungary. Following the coup in Belgrade on 27 March 1941 by officers sympathetic to the Allies, he returned to Berlin. Together with other émigrés, he set up a ‘Croatian Office’, which was based at the famous ‘Kaiserhof’ Hotel. The office had its own radio station, on which Artuković delivered propaganda speeches intended to pave the way for a national uprising in Croatia.2Kisić-Kolanović, Mladen Lorković, 28; Krizman, Ante Pavelić i ustaše, 252–254, 258, 298, 310, 398, 403.
Political Role in the Independent State of Croatia and the Racial Policies
After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and the establishment of the ISC in April 1941, Artuković returned to Zagreb, where he was appointed as Minister of Internal Affairs. In this function, which he held until October 1942, he established a police system as an instrument for the repression and persecution of ‘undesirable elements’, including Jews, Serbs, Roma, communists and other opponents of the regime. He proposed a number of discriminatory laws, which he co-signed with Pavelić. These included all the key decrees and laws that paved the way for the Ustaša genocide of Roma in the ISC.
The so-called ‘Racial laws’ of 30 April 1941 (‘Legal provision on racial affiliation’; ‘Legal provision on citizenship’; ‘Legal provision on the protection of Aryan blood and honour of the Croatian people’) defined Jews and Roma as ‘non-Aryans’ and deprived them of their rights of citizenship and other civil rights, as well as excluding them from working in the civil service and a number of other professions. On 3 July 1941, Artuković ordered the registration of all Roma in the ISC, which he described as the ‘first step in measures against Gypsies’. The registration process and further measures were carried out in close cooperation with the ‘Department for Colonisation’.
Finally, Artuković’s Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared the systematic mass deportations of Roma to the Jasenovac concentration and extermination camp through a circular issued on 19 May 1942. The task was entrusted to the police and military units under the guidance of the Ustaša Surveillance Service and the State Directorate for Public Order and Security. All implementing measures were to be taken in consultation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs—that is, with Artuković.3Bulajić, Ustaški zločini genocida, Vol. 2, 82–174; Vojak, “Prva faza rješavanja ‘ciganskog pitanja’,” 251; Zakoni, 111, 113–114.
Following the formation of the new government on 10 October 1942, Artuković stepped down from his position and became Minister of Justice and Worship [Ministra pravosuđa i bogoštovlja]. From April to October 1943, he served as Minister of Internal Affairs for a second time. Afterwards, he left his ministerial position and acted as State Notary [Državni prabilježnik] and Guardian of the State Seal [Čuvar državnoga pečata] until May 1945.4Ravlić, “Artuković,” 12.
Escape to the United States of America, Extradition and the Zagreb Trial
Shortly before the final collapse of the ISC in May 1945, Artuković fled to Austria, where the British military authorities briefly held him in a camp. After his release, he went to Switzerland, where Catholic Church officials helped him obtain Swiss documents under the assumed name Alois Anich. In July 1947, Artuković travelled to Ireland, from where he was able to emigrate to California in the United States a year later, using Irish papers.5Barbier, Spies, 171–175; Feigin and Richard, The Office of Special Investigations, 239–258; Kennedy, “‘A Deed Agreeable to God,’” 187–201.
In post-war Yugoslavia, several of his former subordinates such as Viktor Gutić (1901–1947) or Franjo Truhar (1901–unknown) testified against Artuković, holding him responsible, among other things, for the forced labour and mass murder of Roma. In July 1945, the Croatian branch of the Yugoslav State Commission for Determining the Crimes of the Occupiers and their Collaborators declared him a war criminal, establishing a list of 21 crimes of which he was charged. One of these crimes was the deportation and killing of ‘approximately 40,000’ Roma in the Jasenovac camp between late spring and August 1942.6State Commission for Determining the Crimes of the Occupiers and their Collaborators of the Federal State of Croatia, Decision on the Determination of Crimes of Dr Andrija Artuković, issued in Zagreb on July 23, 1945. Printed in Bulajić, Ustaški zločini genocida, Vol. 1, 179–182, here 180.
The Zagreb District Public Prosecutor’s Office filed criminal charges against Artuković in absentia; the charges included crimes against Roma and were based on surviving Ustaša documents and witness testimonies. In the first indictment of 17 May 1951, it was stated that ‘nearly all Gypsies in the territory of the so-called Independent State of Croatia were exterminated in the most bestial manner.’ With regard to crimes against Roma, the extended version of the indictment of 4 September 1951 cited Artuković’s deportation order of May 1942 as its key piece of evidence. On the basis of this order, ‘around 30,000’ Roma—according to survivors’ estimates—were deported to the Jasenovac concentration camp and murdered there. The indictment deals in detail with several cases of such mass deportations.7Bulajić, Ustaški zločini genocida, Vol. 1, 183–197. Quotations from ibid., 184 and 193.
In August 1951, the Yugoslav authorities sent a request to the United States authorities for Artuković’s extradition, which was rejected in January 1959. Yugoslavia renewed its request in the late 1970s, and he was arrested in November 1984. Following a court case in New York, he was extradited to the Yugoslav authorities in Zagreb in February 1986.8Barbier, Spies, 175–183; Feigin and Richard, The Office of Special Investigations, 239–258; Olujić, Kako nisam obranio Andriju Artukovića, 10–36. Beginning on 14 April 1986, the Zagreb District Court held a one-month public trial, which attracted considerable media attention. In one of the hearings, Artuković denied his involvement in the Ustaša persecution of Roma, claiming that there had been, in any case, only an ‘insignificant extermination of Gypsies‘ [‘neznatnog istrebljivanja Cigana‘] in the ISC.9Minutes of the main hearing against the defendant Andrija Artuković before the Zagreb District Court on 17 April 1986. Printed in Popović, Suđenje Andriji Artukoviću, 89–100, here 91. The evidence presented in the trial proved the opposite. Apart from Artuković’s explicit ministerial instructions and orders, which were read out in court, witnesses directly charged him with crimes against the Roma population, and several surviving Roma Jasenovac prisoners, such as Štepan Nikolić (1918–unknown), also testified. In its verdict of 14 May 1986, the Zagreb District Court found Artuković guilty and sentenced him to death.10Bulajić, Ustaški zločini genocida, Vol. 2, 83–89; Ličina, Dossier Artuković, 116–182; Popović, Suđenje Andriji Artukoviću, 11–199; Stanojević, Ustaški ministar smrti, 189–255. The indictment issued by the Zagreb District Public Prosecutor’s Office on 14 March 1986 and the judgement of the Zagreb District Court of 14 May 1986 are printed in Olujić, Kako nisam obranio Andriju Artukovića, 193–251. The verdict was, however, not carried out due to his impaired health, and he died in a prison hospital in Zagreb on 16 January 1988.
