His funeral service was jointly conducted by Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović and Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Gavrilo Dožić, whose release from the Dachau concentration camp Ljotić had secured the previous December.

[6] Maurras was a French counter-revolutionary who founded the far-right political movement known as Action Française and whose writings went on to influence European fascists and the ideologues of the Vichy Regime during World War II.

[21] He subsequently founded the Yugoslav National Movement (Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslovenski narodni pokret), which was also known as the United Active Labour Organization (Združena borbena organizacija rada, or Zbor).

Through these connections, Ljotić developed strong relations with bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, under whose influence some members of his clerical organization Bogomoljci became part of the Zbor movement.

[31] Zbor never had more than 10,000 active members at any given time, with most of its support coming from Smederevo and from the ethnic German (Volksdeutsche) minority in Vojvodina that had been exposed to Nazi propaganda since 1933.

Fifty-eight issues of Bilten were published from March 1939 until October 1940, in which Ljotić advocated a pro-Axis Yugoslav foreign policy and criticized Belgrade's tolerance of Jews.

[44] With the outbreak of World War II, Ljotić supported Yugoslavia's policy of neutrality in the conflict while promoting the position that Yugoslav diplomacy should focus on relations with Berlin.

[26] In July 1940, Ljotić expressed his bitter opposition to the diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union by Belgrade, which was meant to strengthen Yugoslavia internally in the case of war.

[48] The White Eagles members then threatened faculty and students with pistols and knives, stabbed some of them, hailed Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini as their heroes and shouted "down with the Jews!

"[49] Members of Slovenski Jug (Slavic South), a Serbian nationalist movement, participated in the riots, which were orchestrated by Ljotić to provoke martial law and bring about a more centralized system of control in the university.

[26] One of the only public figures in Serbia to speak in favour of Ljotić during this period was Serbian Orthodox Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, who praised his "faith in God" and "good character".

[51] He resorted to indirectly exerting his influence over the Serbian puppet government through two of his closest associates, Stevan Ivanić and Miloslav Vasiljević, whom the Germans had selected as commissioners.

[58] In July and August, the Germans gave Ljotić permission to broadcast three of his speeches over Radio Belgrade and consulted him prior to appointing Nedić as leader of the Government of National Salvation in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia.

"[30] In response to the Communist uprising that had erupted in the aftermath of the German occupation of Serbia, hundreds of prominent and influential Serbs signed an "Appeal to the Serbian Nation" which was published in major Belgrade newspapers on 11 August.

The SDO initially launched public appeals calling for volunteers "in the struggle against the Communist danger" and eventually grew to consist of 3,500 armed men.

[63] According to eyewitnesses, SDO commander Marisav Petrović and his men entered barracks in which hostages were being held and, with German approval, freed those whom they recognized as supporters of Ljotić and Nedić, as well as those whose political attitudes they considered to be "nationally correct".

According to the post-war testimony of Kosta Mušicki, another high-ranking SDO commander, Petrović also ordered the arrests of countless Romani civilians from surrounding villages and handed them over to the Germans for execution.

[79] On 15 July 1942, Mihailović sent a telegram to the Yugoslav government-in-exile asking them to publicly denounce Ljotić, Nedić and the openly collaborationist Chetnik leader Kosta Pećanac as traitors.

[80] In October, Ljotić was forced to withdraw his two representatives in the Serbian puppet government in order to avoid being held responsible for the unpopular and difficult economic measures and food policies enacted by Nedić that month.

[85] In early October, the SDK was tasked to defend the Šabac bridgehead on the Sava River against the Partisans, together with some German units under the command of Colonel Jungenfeld, head of the 5th Police Regiment.

The battle for Belgrade commenced on 14 October, and the Germans decided to evacuate the SDK to a location where it could be used in guarding duties and anti-Partisan actions, since it was considered unsuitable for conventional operations.

Hitler ordered that the SDK be moved to the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, and placed it under the command of the Higher SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik.

[89] Ljotić and Nedić petitioned Neubacher so that the forces of Chetnik commander Momčilo Đujić could be allowed passage to Slovenia, as did Slovene collaborationist General Leon Rupnik.

[89] In early 1945, Đurišić decided to move to the Ljubljana Gap independent of Mihailović, and arranged for Ljotić's forces already in Slovenia to meet him near Bihać in western Bosnia to assist his movement.

In order to get to Bihać, Đurišić had to make a safe-conduct agreement with elements of the Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia and with Montenegrin separatist Sekula Drljević.

[92] In mid-April, at Ljotić's request, Dožić and Velimirović blessed approximately 25,000 members of the SDS, SUK, Serbian Border Guard, and the Special Police, as well as Đujić's and Dobroslav Jevđević's Chetniks and Slovene collaborators, who had gathered on the Slovenian coast.

His chauffeur, Ratko Živadinović, had very poor eyesight and, on approaching a bridge on the Hubelj River, failed to notice that it had been partially destroyed by Partisan saboteurs.

[32] Despite Ljotić's efforts and those of Zbor, antisemitism in Serbia did not reach the levels seen in other regions of Europe and the Jewish community there was largely spared from harassment and violence until the arrival of German troops in April 1941.

Despite the ensuing controversy, the councillors defended Ljotić's wartime record and justified the initiative by stating that "[collaboration] ... is what the biological survival of the Serbian people demanded" during World War II.

[107] Seeking to promote a romantic and nationalist picture of anti-Communism, Koštunica and his Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska stranka Srbije, DSS) actively campaigned to rehabilitate figures such as Ljotić and Nedić following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević and his socialist government in October 2000.