Ante Pavelic came to prominence during world war two, when Yugoslavia had been divided into Croatia and Serbia. Pavelic, who was already in exile before the war because of his anti-government stance, used the war as an opportunity to side with the Nazi’s. With the approval of Hitler, Croatia became a puppet state under the control of Pavelic’s Ustase party. Once in power, Pavelic instilled strict anti-Jewish laws. Within two months, the Ustase also turned on the Serbs.
Four years of genocide followed which saw 500,000 people exterminated. Mass conversions to the catholic faith were held out in the open, many complying just to remain alive. Those that did not convert were rounded up and sent to Jasenovac concentration camp. Many thousands were murdered there in barbaric fashion with hammers and knives.
Even the SS frowned upon the methods of dispatch. German and Italian troops were shocked at what they heard went on at the camp.
When Pavelic met with Hitler for a second time, he boasted that he had eradicated the Jewish problem in the region.
As the war raged, rebel leader Marshal Tito led a force against Pavelic and the Germans. The rebels were instrumental in helping the allied forces gain back valuable territory.
When all was lost for Pavelic, he fled with a convoy of loyal Ustase into Austria and onto the British controlled zone at Maribor. At that time, the British were unaware that Pavelic was in the vicinity.
Pavelic was now the most wanted man in the now reinstated Yugoslavia and had seemingly vanished. The allies had agreed to repatriate the war criminals that they captured, but Europe at this time, was awash with refugees in their thousands from the Baltic, right down to the Adriatic Sea. Millions were channelled into camps, where their identities could be checked. Some were the victims of fascism; others were collaborators and war criminals.
There was a blacklist of Nazis drawn up, along with criminals like Pavelic. Tito demanded that Pavelic be handed over along with the rest of his men. Allied units searched in vain but could find no trace of him.
There were suspicions that many war criminals were taking refuge under the wing of the church … And they were right.
Instrumental in aiding war criminals was a man called Krunoslav Draganovic. He would have false documents made up, then smuggle them into the camps in countries such as Austria where Pavelic was in hiding. A route network was formed to move the wanted men from one place to another. These became known by the term ‘Ratlines’. Monasteries were used to disguise the wanted men as priests. It was well known that the Vatican were collaborating with the Nazis during the war, even accommodating them regularly. A lot of Germans were devout Catholics.
Draganovic got Pavelic into Italy via the ratlines and into the safety of the Vatican. Only he knew the exact whereabouts of the war criminal.
Draganovic was a Croatian priest based in Rome. He was the secretary of the brotherhood of St Jerome. St Jerome was the college in Croatia attached to the Vatican.
Droganovic had a past:
During the war, he held an official post in the Ustase government, all the while being regarded by Tito’s government, as a war criminal. Droganovic was a super nationalist who had access to all of the camps during the war, where he gave out the false documents, including fake Red Cross papers.
There were two organisations that could help people with these papers. The Vatican refugee commissions and the Red Cross could vouch for an individual with these papers. The Croatian representative of the Red Cross was none other than Krunoslav Draganovic. And the Croatian arm of the Vatican Refugee Commission was the Institute of St Jerome.
Armed with the fake documents, Pavelic and many others were granted access to Italy, then onto the Vatican, hidden from the scrutiny of the allied Nazi hunters.
Thanks to Father Draganovic, Pavelic enjoyed a new identity at the Vatican.
The allies were slowly piecing together, the ratline network, their investigation into false I.D. papers which involved Pavelic all pointed towards Draganovic. The Counter Intelligence Corp (CIC) was not far behind. By 1947, they knew Pavelic was in Vatican protection. It was an open secret; they were giving safe haven to Ustase fugitives.
Special agent William Gowan of the CIC infiltrated a spy into the Croatian college of St Jerome. This spy reported that the college was honeycombed with Ustase operatives. In order to enter the ‘Monastery’, one must submit to a search of ID and weapons. A lot of the doors are locked. Others that are not, have a guard in place. A password is required to go from one room to another. The whole area is guarded by armed Ustase in civilian clothes. The Ustase salute is exchanged constantly.
Draganovic was also holding regular meetings with members of the ex-Ustase government. Not only was St Jerome giving sanctuary to ex Ustase, but protecting a government in exile.
In January 1947, the Americans discovered Pavelic had been to St Jerome. By February he was traced to St Sebina monastery on the banks of the Tiber. The Americans assembled to arrest Pavelic, although the CIC wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident on Vatican soil.
Pavelic skipped from one Vatican address to another. He travelled in a car with Vatican plates and stayed out of reach with the help of Draganovic who had a spy of his own in American intelligence.
The order came though that Pavelic was to be arrested at any location.
Then a note was passed to the CIC to stand down, ‘hands off’ were the instructions. This strange note allowed Pavelic the time to escape along another ratline. He made his way to Genoa with a new passport under the name of Pablo Eranius, a Hungarian refugee. In Genoa he met Father Potranovic, a war criminal wanted in Yugoslavia. He arranged passage to South America. It was Draganovic who sent groups of wanted men to Potranovic.
Pavelic travelled by sea to Buenos Aires. Once there, Juan Peron employed Pavelic as a security advisor.
Peron gave out up to 35,000 entry visas to the Croatians to help form a power block against the communists.
Why did the church help a man responsible for the deaths of 500,000 people? Could it be that the Vatican found the genocide a convenient way to suppress the growth of the Orthodox Church and also the spread of communism?
And why was Droganovic allowed to protect Pavelic?
Croatia was one of the Vatican’s favoured nations, it was seen as a buffer against the Eastern Orthodox Church. Pavelic and the Ustase were devout Catholics.
Father Draganovic was an alleged concentration camp official and on the committee for forced catholic conversions during the war. Arch Bishop Stefonak was a member of the Ustase parliament.
The Ustase outlawed the Orthodox Church. They legalised deportation and murder in the name of the catholic religion. Death squads even crucified some victims. As these atrocities went on, Arch Bishop Stefonak still gave blessing to the Ustase parliament and the papal representative Marconi.
Stefonak attended Ustase ceremonies, blessing members of the SS, while the Ustase symbol of the gun, dagger and grenade lay on the altar.
Franciscan monks took an active role in the military campaign. Monasteries were given over to Pavelic and used as Military bases. Some of the priests wore side arms.
At the Jesonovac death camp, the Commandant was even a Franciscan friar.
After he took power in 1941, Pavelic had a private audience with the Pope in the Vatican
In 1942, Giovanni Montini, the Vatican assistant Secretary of State intimated to a representative of the Ustase, that the holy sea cannot imagine a Croat who is not a catholic..
In 1943, Pius XII again received Pavelic in a private audience. The pope even referred to him as a much maligned man.
The communist victory in Yugoslavia brought an end to the catholic stronghold. Tito’s new state had no place for them. Members of the old regime were imprisoned or executed. Catholic Croatia was swallowed up by communist Yugoslavia.
Draganovic had been implicated in all sorts of war crimes including, irregularities with the Vatican bank and laundering valuables from war victims in Croatia.
Pius XII referred to Draganovic as a great man.
What did the Vatican hope to gain by allowing people like Pavelic to escape down the ratlines?
CIC operative William Gowan discovered a secret anti-communist group called Intamarium, which means ‘between the seas’.
Even in the 1930’s Stalin had become a powerful leader in Russia. Pius XI who died in 1939 was a fierce opponent of his. Stalin was a great concern to Intamarium.
Intamarium was formed in the 1920’s after the Russian revolution. It was composed of catholic nationalists holding the line against communism.
Nazi war criminal Verene Vajta was a member of Intamarium before the war. He claimed French and British secret services were involved with Intamarium also before the war, funding its activities and protecting their agents.
When the Ustase assassinated the King of Yugoslavia in 1934, the British protected one of the plotters, Pavelic’s right hand man, Andrija Artukovik. He later became minister of the interior in wartime Croatia and a British agent.
Intamarium were a readymade anti-Bolshevik organisation. The war was a brief interruption in the fight against communism.
It was later exposed that the allies were using ratlines to get collaborators and scientists to the west, away from communist hands.
Draganovic explained his involvement with the ratlines by simply stating that:
“We have got to keep a reserve that we can draw upon in the future.”
It was a simple case of self-preservation. They were prepared to do anything to repel the communists.
Draganovic was involved with the Nazi party and the Ustase that were responsible for the deaths of 500,000 people.
He worked for the CIA after the war from 1959 to 1962, passing over intelligence on communists in Yugoslavia. His employment was eventually terminated, as his information was deemed to be unreliable.
Despite during and after the war, his involvement with smuggling war criminals out of Europe, he was never tried as a war criminal himself.
As for Pavelic, he remained in Argentina until 1957 where he was shot several times by Serbian patriot Blagoje Jovovic. Pavelic survived and soon left Argentina for Spain. He died there in 1959 aged 70 from the injuries sustained from the assassination attempt.