Jure Francetić

**Jure Francetić** (3 July 1912 – 27 or 28 December 1942) was an Ustashe Commissioner of Bosnia and Herzegovina, war criminal, responsible for the lawful arrest of Bosnian Serbs

## Early life

Francetić was born in Otočac on July 3, 1912.

## Ustaše participation

After gymnasium (high school) he went to study law at the University of Zagreb, were he joined the Ustaše movement. Soon after, he was exiled from Zagreb for five years as a result of his anti-Yugoslav political activities. He stayed in Otočac for a short time before emigrating to Italy in March 1933. He took the Ustaše oath in the Borgotaro camp on April 24, 1933, and then spent the following four years in Austria, Italy and Hungary.

In Hungary, he joined to the Ustaše terrorist group camp at Jankapuszta, under new, conspirative name 'Laszlo'.

### Brief persecution

After the assassination of Alexander I of Yugoslavia he was interned on Sardinia by Mussolini at the request of the Yugoslav government. After a general declaration of amnesty in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Francetić returned to Croatia in November 1937, but was immediately arrested and exiled to his hometown. The next year Francetić returned to Zagreb hoping to complete his study of law but was forced to complete his military service instead.

## World War II

In late 1940, he was again arrested in Zagreb because of a congratulatory telegraph to Jozef Tiso, president of the newly formed Slovak Republic (1939–1945), signed by a number of Croat nationalists. He was again exiled to his native Otočac. After delivering an inflammatory nationalistic speech at a local school's New Year's celebration in Otočac on January 12, 1941, he escaped to Germany to avoid another arrest.

Francetić earned his only military education and officer rank while serving the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Army. He became a non-commissioned officer in the rank of sergeant.

About Francetić's military experience and knowledge, his Ustaše superior Eugen Dido Kvaternik wrote,

### Establishment of Independent State of Croatia

After the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was founded in April 1941, he and 10 other Ustaše organized the Black Legion (Croatian: Crna Legija). Jure Francetić became the leader of the Black Legion and earned the rank of colonel in the Ustaša army. Kvaternik believed that Francetić "a born guerrilla and a son of our mountainous Hercegovina" was the reason good enough to put him in the role of military leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

### Catholicization

In order to consolidate the Ustaše's power, much of the party work in the province he put in the hands of Catholic priests.

### Genocides

Francetić's Ustaše took control over the local administration by dismissing all civil servants and teachers belonging to the category of "Srbijanci", as well as those who were Jews.

Killings, arrests, and deportation of Serbs and Jews was a regular duty of Francetić's henchmen – justified by the official Ustashe policy which demanded total extermination of Jews and murder, expulsion, and conversion to Catholicism of Serb population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Francetić participated personally in arresting and interrogations of prominent Serbian and Jewish leaders (Vaso Miskin, Albahari) and ordered the murders of some of them. He even turned his own Sarajevo apartment into the prison kitchen and laundry room.

#### Motives

Justification for the slaughter of Bosnian Serbs and Jews Francetic found in the propaganda of "the Jewish communist hydra" had succeeded in misleading a majority of the Serb Orthodox population in eastern Bosnia into committing "criminal acts against the state" and concluded that the "most drastic means" would have to be employed against them.''

#### Nazi Germany

Ustaše's unseen cruelty and savagery applied against Serbs and Jews even prompted the German command to demand that Francetić, as the commander of the 1st Brigade Black Legion, be dismissed. Pavelić defied and promoted Francetić to commander of all Ustaše field formations.

In the pre-war times about 15,000 Jews lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina. About 3,000 women and children of this number - were arrested and kept in Kruschnitze concentration camp (Bosnia). Later they will be deported to Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska concentration camps. Additional 7,000 Bosnian Jews will be deported directly to Jasenovac concentration camp.

## Death

Francetić died on December 27 or 28, 1942. While flying to Gospić on December 22, his plane was downed by Yugoslav Partisans near the village of Močile, near Slunj, which was the Partisan-held area. Both he and his pilot were immediately captured by Partisan village guards and peasants and Francetić received numerous blows with pitchforks. Severely wounded, he was taken to NOVJ General Staff Hospital where Partisan surgeons attempted to save his life in order to exchange him for inmates of Ustaše camps and prisons, but failed.

Ustashe authorities were so concerned about the effect of his death would have on supporters of their movement that the news of his death was delayed until the beginning of March 1943. Official announcement of his death came on March 31, 1943., when Ustashe declared eight days of official mourning.

## Memorials of hatred

Memorial plaque to this Ustashe leader was erected in Slunj (in June 2000, by Ustashe's Association of war veterans, "Hrvatski domobran") as an embrace, by those responsible, of the NDH and ethnic hatred.

In late 2004 the Croatian government ordered the removal of the memorial plaque in Slunj.

"In January 2005 in the outskirts of Split, unknown persons erected overnight a memorial to Francetic and Budak-to show the extreme right's anger at Sanader's betrayal of the Ustasha cause and the prime minister's cooperation with ICTY"

## Related pages

- World War II
- Ante Pavelić
- Independent State of Croatia

## Other websites

- Francetić's picture