Vjekoslav Luburić Vjekoslav " Maks " Luburić ( 20 June 1913 – 20 April 1969 ) was a Croatian Ustaša and Croatian Armed Forces general , commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp , commander of the guerrilla army Crusaders and post - war Croatian activist . Biography . He was born in Humac village ( part of Ljubuški ) , Austria - Hungary . In his youth , he was involved with petty crime . On one occasion he was charged with vagrancy and got sentenced to two days in prison on 7 September 1929 . Two years later on 5 December 1931 , the District Court in Mostar sentenced him to five months in prison for embezzlement of funds belonging to the public stock exchange in Mostar . He was arrested for embezzlement once more after that . Luburić went abroad after Pavelić and was trained in brutality in various Ustase camps in Italy and Hungary . Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 , Luburić travelled to the newly proclaimed Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) on his own initiative , in order to join the Ustaša regime , and became part of Pavelić ' s inner circle . Groups of Ustaše militia under his direct command were responsible for the first mass atrocities committed against Serbs in the NDH , namely the Gudovac , Veljun and Glina massacre s . Luburić was appointed the commanding general for the area of the Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) around the Drina river , which is why he is sometimes referred to as " General Drinjanin " ( General of the Drina ) . He was the founder and first commander of the concentration camps in the NDH , and from late 1941 also commanded the Ustaša Defence Brigades , which were part of the Ustaša Surveillance Service . The Defence Brigades were involved in operations against the Chetniks and Partisans , and also ran the concentration camps and engaged in mass terror . It was in this role that Luburić acquired a reputation for being the most bloodthirsty and brutal of all Ustaša commanders . Vjekoslav Luburić , as the commander - in - chief of all the NDH concentration camps , announced the great " efficiency " of his Jasenovac concentration camp at a ceremony on October 9 , 1942 . Vjekoslav Luburić gave gold and silver medals to Ante Pavelić and Andrija Artuković because they were the most efficient soldiers . He enjoyed unlimited Pavelić ' s trust and had had instructions for extermination of the Serbs from Pavelic himself . Besides running the camp , Luburić would come to Jasenovac to participate in the executions in person . It is estimated that 100 , 000 people were killed at Jasenovac during World War II . Those who were without papers were , without trial , interned into the camp , providing that they were able to work and with a profession that suited the Ustaša ' s needs . Those who had permits to remain three years were immediately taken to liquidation , and those who had special permits were dealt with according to what the permits were for . Mladen Lorković and Ante Vokić who were planning a coup against Pavelić in 1944 when their machinations were discovered , were arrested and sent to the camp at Lepoglava , where they were tried & sentenced to death on Maks Luburić ' s orders in May 1945 . In February 1945 Pavelić sent Luburić to Sarajevo with instructions to destroy the resistance movement . The postwar commission on war crimes identified 323 victims of Luburić ' s reign of terror in Sarajevo . The results of this brutality were witnessed by Landrum Bolling , an American journalist " . . . who arrived in the city on April 7 after its liberation by Partizan forces . He was shown a room containing bodies " stacked like cordwood on top of one another . We were told these Serbs whom the Ustashs had hanged by barbed wire from lampposts in Sarajevo , " he said , " Luburic ' s brief reign of terror constituted the Ustasha ' s final gruesome legacy in Sarajevo . As his last sadistic acts were being carried out , Sarajevo ' s destiny was being decided on the field of battle in the hills around the city . " Near the end of the war , after the NDH was defeated , Luburić led the Crusaders ( " Križari " ) paramilitary until November 1945 but was unsuccessful , escaped to Hungary and later in Spain . He helped form a terrorist organization called the " Croatian National Resistance " ( " Hrvatski narodni odpor " , HNO ) . It became the most violent of the Ustashe organizations which were born after the World War II . Luburić commanded the organization for twenty five years from his refugee in Spain He frequently traveled to Croatia and it was said he had two wives , one in Croatia and another in Spain . His organization was heavily involved in racketeering , attempted murder , extortion , hijacking , terrorist bombing , and other violent crimes . After his death , his successors on the organization commanding post , sought out criminal organization ties with La Cosa Nostra , the Provisional IRA , and the Croatian Mafia in San Pedro . Luburić was killed by Ilija Stanić on April 20 , 1969 , in Carcaixent , Spain , after Stanić infiltrated Luburić ' s organisation . Ilija Stanić was Luburić ' s godson , and the son of Luburić ' s comrade - in - arms Vinko Stanić . However , Stanić claims ( in the Globus newspaper as per Jutarnji list , a Zagreb newspaper ) that he killed Luburić because Luburić abandoned Pavelić . At the time of the assassination , Stanić was not an agent of Yugoslav secret police .