Ustaše

The Croatian word Ustaše (pronounced 'oo-STAH-she', IPA: /u: ˈsta ʃɪ/) is the name of a Croatian political party known for its fascistic nationalist policies and its violent methods. It governed the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during the Axis occupation of Yugoslabia from 1941 to 1944. Variants of the representation of the name in English include: Ustashe, Ustashi, Ustahis, Ustasha, Ustashas, Ustachi, Ustaci, Ustaša, and Ustasi; the associated adjective sometimes being Ustashe or Ustasha, apart from Ustaše.

• Founded in 1929 to defend the interests of Croats within Yugoslavia, the prime objective of the Ustaše soon became an independent state of Croatia. Its methods were essentially covert and extra-legal: they included terrorism, which inter alia achieved the assassination of King Alexander I in 1934. It remained an underground organization until the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941, when the Germans permitted - and later encouraged - the Ustaše to set up the Independent State of Croatia (NDH, initials of the Serbo-Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska), nominally a kingdom under the Italian puppet Tomislav II, the regnal name of Aimone the 4th Duke of Aosta. Tomislav II never intervened in the affairs of his 'kingdom', which was ruled by Ante Pavelić, leader of the Ustaše. Its main aim was the genocide of the Serbians, as well as the Jews, Roma and others seen by fascist ideology as inferior races.
• Much of the genocide was carried out in concentration/extermination camps, of which the biggest was Jasenovac, with five sub-camps. Wikipedia (2020) says it was "one of the ten largest [concentration camps] in Europe" [during World War II]. Execution was barbaric, being carried out often by hand-to-hand murder, about which the Ustaše guards used to bet and boast.