# Julije Makanec

Julije Makanec (19 September 1904 – 7 June 1945) was a Croatian politician, teacher, philosopher and writer. During World War II in Yugoslavia, he was the Minister of Education of the Independent State of Croatia and a high-ranking member of the Ustaše.

## Early life

Makanec was born in Sarajevo. He was educated in Osijek and Bihać, and studied philosophy at the University of Zagreb, where he obtained a Ph.D. in 1927. Between 1929 and 1940 he served as a gymnasium professor in Koprivnica, Bjelovar and several other places in Croatia, as well as in Leskovac, Serbia. In November 1940, as a member of the Croatian Peasant Party, he became the mayor of Bjelovar. Here he played an important role in the Bjelovar rebellion of 8 April that year when, after the revolt by Croats in the Royal Yugoslav Army during the early days of invasion of Yugoslavia, he declared the "resurrection of the Croatian state".

## World War II

By his own account, Makanec swore the Ustaše oath in April 1941, days after the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, but historians believe Makanec may have joined the Ustaše much earlier, in late 1939 or early 1940. Shortly after the formation of the Ustaše government he served as adjutant in the Croatian army's Bilogora headquarters, in Bjelovar. From 1942 he was the chief of spiritual upbringing in the Ustaše Youth. In March 1943 he was named extraordinary professor of philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. In October 1943 he became the Independent State of Croatia's Minister of National Education. He also wrote books in his field as well as contributing to various periodicals and newspapers.
In a 1942 brochure titled Ustaše Virtues ( ‹See RfD› Ustaške vrline), Makanec openly advocated for genocide. He wrote: "[...] every community has the right to exterminate, destroy, or at least render harmless those individuals who weaken it and bring it to ruin due to their utter lack of virtue."
On 6 May 1945, shortly before Yugoslav Partisans entered Zagreb, Makanec fled the city in a group of sixteen government ministers. On 17 May, they surrendered to the British in Tamsweg, Austria, and were extradited to Yugoslav authorities. After a one-day trial before a military tribunal in Zagreb on 6 June he was sentenced to death for high treason and war crimes and executed by firing squad in the morning of the following day.

## Legacy

A street in Bjelovar bears Makanec's name. In 2016, a controversy erupted in Croatia when it was reported that the country's Minister of Science and Education, Pavo Barišić, had written a paper in 1992 praising Makanec's contributions to the field of philosophy without mentioning the war crimes with which he was associated. Barišić wrote that when Makanec was executed by the Partisans in 1945, he "joined the parade of Croatian martyrs", and described him as "a tragic hero and a victim". The paper prompted the philosophy professor Josip Talanga to resign from the editorial team of the journal that had published it. In 1993, Barišić edited a compilation of Makanec's lectures in which he again did not mention the atrocities committed by the NDH.

## Works

Books:
* Marksistička filozofija prirode (Zagreb, 1938)
* O podrijetlu i smislu države (Zagreb, 1939)
* Poglavnik o boljševizmu (Zagreb, 1942)
* ‹See RfD› Ustaške vrline (Zagreb, 1942)
* Veliko raskršće (Zagreb, 1942)
* Razvoj državne misli od Platona do Hegela (Zagreb, 1943)
* Hrvatski vidici (Zagreb, 1944)