In April 1941, Axis forces invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. The country was dismembered, with the extreme Croatian nationalist and fascist Ante Pavelić, who had been in exile in Benito Mussolini's Italy, being appointed "Poglavnik" (leader) of an Ustaše-led Croatian state – the Independent State of Croatia (often called the NDH, from the ). The NDH combined almost all of modern-day Croatia, all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of modern-day Serbia into an "Italian-German quasi-protectorate." NDH authorities, led by the Ustaše militia, subsequently implemented genocidal policies against the Serb, Jewish and Romani population living within the borders of the new state.