Dinko Šakić Dinko Šakić ( 8 September 1921 – 20 July 2008 ) was a convicted Croatian war criminal , an army leader of the fascist Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) , established under Third Reich and Italian tutelage , and commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp during World War II . Biography . He was born in Studenci , in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( present - day Bosnia and Herzegovina ) on 8 September 1921 . He became a committed member of the nationalist organisation Ustaša from a very young age . Following the German - led invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 the new Independent State of Croatia set up detention facilities for Serbs , Jews , Roma and anti - fascist Croats . Šakić joined the concentration camp administration in 1941 . At the age of 21 Šakić came to Jasenovac , south - east of Zagreb , the biggest of the 20 - odd camps set up by the Ustaša regime , as an assistant commandant . In April 1944 he was promoted to commander and served for seven months . His rapid rise was the result not only of his enthusiastic and loyal support for the policies of Ante Pavelić ; in 1943 he had married Nada Luburić ( Sakic ) , the half - sister of Vjekoslav Luburić , a veteran Ustaša official , who had been a force behind the creation and oversight of Croatia ' s network of concentration camps . After the defeat of the Axis forces , he emigrated to Argentina . In 1994 , Šakić spoke with " Magazin " and stated that " I ’ d do it all again " . He said that he hoped more Serbs had died at Jasenovac and that " I sleep like a baby . " Having been tracked down by the Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff , the District Attorney in Zagreb brought charges against Šakić on 20 April 1998 for war crimes during World War II when he was the chief of the Jasenovac concentration camp . Trial . Dinko Šakić was a part of the panel of the " mobile martial - court " that committed investigations under means of torture at Jasenovac . Šakić took part in the torture of Remzija Rebac , who led , along with Dr . Milan Boskovic , a group of 20 internees that organized an uprising and stole corn . Rebac was tortured with a flamethrower . Šakić ordered the group executed by hanging during a camp " public performance " ( general muster ) on 21 September 1944 . Primorac Silvestar asked one of the inmates , Hadzija , whether he forgave him . Hadzija said he never will , and Silvestar answered : " until we meet again in the other world " . Dr . Milan Boskovic asked to be shot in the head , facing his death , instead of being hanged . Šakić also ordered the hanging of Dr . Marin Jurcev , the manager of the Ustaše hospital , which aided a defected Ustase to smuggle information of Jasenovac to the partisans , his wife and three internees held in the village of Jasenovac were hanged . Mrs . Jurcev had to be pulled to the scaffold by her hair since she fell off three times . Šakić set and watched the hanged bodies with interior minister of the NDH , Andrija Artuković . Food quality became worse after these executions . Šakić also ordered the reprisal against inmates in June 1944 , in light of the escape of Ivan Wollner , who played the orchestra for the red - cross delegation , and feared for his life . He then fled ( or , alternatively , was taken by the Ustase ) to Dubica , where the Ustase garrison caught him and beat him to death . After the retrieval of his body to the camp , a muster of the Jewish inmates was held in front of a machine - gun , during which 100 Jews , who lived in the same barracks with Wollner or played in the orchestra with him , were selected . By utilizing a record called " the directory " , Šakić himself selected 25 inmates to be taken to the " Zvonara " , where they were put in solitary , starved and tortured . During his trial , he was found laughing at certain testimony , and had to be told to refrain from laughing . Šakić was extradited from Argentina , found guilty by a Croatian court and sentenced to twenty years in prison , which was the maximum penalty under Croatian law at the time . Death . On 20 July 2008 , Dinko Šakić died in hospital at the Remetinec prison in Novi Zagreb at the age of 86 . He was buried at Zagreb crematory on 25 July 2008 . His funeral was attended by some Croatian right wing politicians , including Anto Kovačević . Simon Wiesenthal Center director Efraim Zuroff complained to the Croatian president Stjepan Mesić about Šakić ' s funeral . At that funeral , Croatian Dominican priest pater Vjekoslav Lasić held a speech in which he said that " the court that indicted Dinko Šakić indicted Croatia and Croatians " and that " every Croat should be proud of Šakić ' s name " . He also claimed that the Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) formed a ground for establishing the modern state of Croatia .