In practice, this issue came down to camp leaders and the recruitment drive in 1941 failed to achieve mass enrollment, after which the organization developed an elitist character.

Many short-lived militant youth organizations were formed in the 1920s, most of which disappeared quickly or were banned by the authorities because of their violent actions.

[1] The Ustaše movement was established in 1930 by Ante Pavelić as an organization dedicated to achieving an independent Croatian state by all means, including terror.

By the late 1930s, the Ustaše adopted the fascist principles of the Italian government, which gave it financial support and protection.

During the 1930s, the Ustaše conducted several terrorist attacks, most notably the assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in Marseilles in October 1934.

[3] In April 1941, when Yugoslavia was invaded and dismembered by the Axis powers, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was established as an Italian-German quasi-protectorate under the leadership of the Ustaše.

[5] In September 1941, the Minister of Education of the NDH, Mile Budak, discussed introducing radical changes to the puppet state's school system.

Leader of the male part was Zdenko Blažeković, who was previously the commander of the Ustaše University Headquarters (Croatian: Ustaški sveučilišni stožer).

[16] The first leader of the female part was Mira Vrljičak-Dugački, a high-ranking official in Great Crusaders' Brotherhood (Croatian: Veliko križarsko bratstvo), a radical Catholic youth organization.

[17][18] In 1942, Vrljičak-Dugački was replaced by a leader of the female Ustaše Youth in Dubrovnik, Dolores Bracanović, who held this position until the end of the war.

Some, like Vinko Sablić in Dubrovnik, issued an order that all schoolchildren were required to join the Ustaše Youth and the only ones excluded would be "non-Aryans" and "Greek-Easterners".

"[22] Financial penalties were imposed on parents who forbade their children from attending lessons at Ustaše Youth camps.

[10] Thousands initially joined the Ustaše Youth, drawn by the athletic, intellectual, and artistic training the organization provided.

After its mass recruiting drive failed, the Ustaše Youth assumed an increasingly selective and elitist character.

[24] Survivors of the mass murders in Križevci and Karlovac testified that many armed youths participated in the killing and torture of Serbs and Jews.

[24] Members of the Ustaše Youth, together with the Student Militia of the Poglavnik's Bodyguard Brigade, perpetrated many of the first massacres in the NDH.

[25] On one occasion, Blažeković boasted about the large numbers of Serbs he had killed and claimed to have collected his victims' ears on his necklace.

The purpose of camping was to teach the youth the values of comradeship, sacrifice, duty, discipline, responsibility, and order.

Various punishments were established to achieve discipline in the camps, and some Ustaše Youth members were expelled for violating the rules.

The camps provided an opportunity for social mobility, as youths of modest backgrounds could become noticed and appointed to important positions.

[35] Many members of Ustaše Youth camps developed a regional identity and an independent spirit, which was a cause of anxiety for the central leadership.

Rebellious behavior of the youth ranged from relatively harmless, such as watching banned or adult films, to the more serious, such as resistance to an initiative to admit Serbs in the camps.

Regional independence combined with ideological militancy also created a fierce rivalry between local camps, which often resulted in what Yeomans describes as "a state of near civil war".

[7] In August 1941, Ustaše Youth sent their representatives led by Ivan Orašnić to summer sports games held in Breslau.

[38] Between 1941 and 1943, Ustaše Youth delegations regularly visited Italy to attend sporting competitions, cultural festivals, and ideological training courses.

On this occasion, they were welcomed by high-ranking Slovak officials, such as Prime Minister Vojtech Tuka, and received HM medals.

Malvić replied that he had spoken with Macek, who said that HM could not afford to dispatch an envoy and that it lacked qualified members who could fill this position.

Ustaše Youth in Koprivnica reportedly received cloth, linen, ties, trefoils, and buttons instead of uniforms.

[52] Clearer rules were established in March 1942 with the dissemination of the Rulebook on Distribution of Uniforms across the Independent State of Croatia.

[55] Leaders in the Ustaše Youth had an insignia above their left pocket to indicate their belonging to the local county, commune, or district.