Independent State of Croatia, 1941

Since 1929 a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organisation, Ustaša, had advocated an ethnic pure “Greater Croatia”. When Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, they proclaimed the “Independent State of Croatia” (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) on 16 April 1941, with Ante Pavelić as their leader (“Poglavnik”). Their flag was the Croatian flag of 1939, with the addition of the Ustaša symbol, a “U” in an ornamental border at the upper hoist. The Ustaša cooperated with the Nazi occupiers and committed bestial atrocities against Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and anyone not considered “pure Croat”. In 1945 Tito’s Partisans defeated the Armed Forces of the NDH and the Wehrmacht; the leadership fled.