The Axis invasion of Yugoslavia was ordered by Adolf Hitler in late March 1941, in response to a palace coup that deposed the country's regent, Prince Paul, and placed his teenaged nephew Peter on the throne. The invasion commenced on 6 April 1941. Yugoslavia was overwhelmed by the combined strength of the Axis powers and surrendered in less than two weeks. The government and royal family went into exile, and the country was occupied and dismembered by its neighbours. The Croatian nationalist and fascist Ante Pavelić, who had been in exile in Benito Mussolini's Italy, was appointed "Poglavnik" (leader) of an Ustaše-led Croatian state, the Independent State of Croatia (; NDH). 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." With weeks of its establishment, the NDH authorities initiated a campaign of genocide against the Serbs, Jews and Roma living within its borders.