Zagreb in World War II

In August 1939, a week before the start of World War II, the autonomous Banovina of Croatia within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed, with Zagreb as its capital.

The formation of the Banovina of Croatia was negotiated under the Cvetković–Maček Agreement between Vladko Maček, leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), and Dragiša Cvetković, the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.

In July 1938, Mile Budak, the second most influential member of the movement, arrived in Zagreb and started the pro-Ustaše Hrvatski narod (Croatian people) newspaper.

[13] The Germans tried to persuade Maček to proclaim the independence of Croatia under the patronage of Germany, but he refused it, so they decided to support the Ustaše instead.

[14] On 8 April, a meeting of the Central Committee of the KPJ was held in Zagreb, chaired by General Secretary Josip Broz Tito.

[22] These included Rade Končar, Vladimir Bakarić, Jakov Blažević, Andrija Hebrang, Josip Kraš, Marko Orešković and others.

[24][better source needed] In early May 1941 Dumančić was replaced with Ivan Werner as Mayor of Zagreb, who stayed on that position until his death in June 1944.

[33] After NDH was proclaimed, the main armed forces were stationed in Zagreb, where three units were formed: The Poglavnik Bodyguard Battalion, First Ustaše Regiment and a Company of university students.

Ustaše reign of terror commonly included publicly announced death penalties for anti-fascists, sympathizers, or just civilians in mass retribution for Partisan activities.

[40] The Ustaša regime also enforced racial laws that put thousands of Zagreb's Serb, Jewish and Roma inhabitants at risk of death.

The executions of prisoners were made at the aforementioned execution sites in and near Zagreb, but as it became clear that the Axis were eventually going to lose the war, the Ustaše government escalated into public killings of prisoners, so on 20 December 1943 they hanged a group of 16 antifascists on butcher hooks on a public street at the western end of Dubrava.

At the beginning of May 1941, so-called May consultations of Communist Party officials from across the country, who sought to organize the resistance against the occupiers, were held in Zagreb.

In proclamation, all people were invited to the armed resistance, while all patriots were called into a united front for the expulsion of the invaders from the country.

In addition, there was a strong Youth organisation, the "SKOJ", which, in the first half of 1942, had close to 900 members and about 500 supporters gathered in the boards of the League of the Young Generation.

Ustaše tended to respond by carrying out acts of repression against prisoners in the case of anti-fascist sabotage or assassinations of German or Ustaša officials.

Upon coming to power, the Ustaše took over control of the prison, which had previously housed many communist intellectuals, among others August Cesarec, Božidar Adžija, Ognjen Prica, Otokar Keršovani, and Divko Budak [hr].

A few days later, SKOJ members set fire to wooden parts of Maksimir Stadium, whose panels the Ustaše had intended to use for the construction of concentration camp barracks.

The first major armed action prepared by the KPJ, SKOJ, students and workers, was the one conducted near Zagreb Botanical Garden.

"In addition, 98 Jews and Communists were sentenced to death by the Senate of the Court Martial as accomplices and intellectual pioneers of the attack.

By the end of 1941, the main focus of the Zagreb resistance switched from diversions to the recruitment and extraction of volunteers from the city to Partisan-held territories.

In August 1941, a group of fighters from Zagreb traveled to Žumberak where they formed a partisan unit "Matija Gubec", which had 37 members, but after it was attacked by the much stronger enemy forces it was dissolved.

The first partisan unit in the nearby Hrvatsko Zagorje was formed in March 1942 near the village Brdovec, roughly 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) northwest of Zagreb.

In April 1942, a tenth of fighters was sent from Zagreb to Žumberak where they merged with the First Zagorje unit, after which they grew into the "Josip Kraš" Battalion.

On 12 June 1942 a Wehrmacht gas depot on the Savska Road was set ablaze, destroying around 60,000 kilograms of fuel, several tank engines and machine shops.

At the end of November 1942, the "Pokupsko-Žumberak unit" and the "First Battalion of the Croatian proletarian" merged into the 13th strike brigade "Josip Kraš" (later named "Rade Končar").

In July and October 1943, the Partisans entered Gornje Vrapče neighborhood, in what was then the immediate vicinity of Zagreb, and also penetrated the Sljeme mountain.

The objectives of the bombing campaigns were railroads, railway stations and nearby airports, but the city did not sustain major damage, except for a smaller number of residential buildings in the suburbs.

[63] The pursuit of the Ustaše-led column continued through Slovenia, and ended at the border with Austria, resulting in the Bleiburg repatriations, and a death march back.

[67] According to Tito more than 50,000 of citizens participated in the Partisan struggle during which over 20,000 of them were killed, half of them as active fighters including more than 4,000 members of the Communist Party and SKOJ.

[69] While presenting the Order of the People's Hero to Zagreb on 16 September 1975, marshal Josip Broz Tito stated:[69] "Order of the People's Hero which I am presenting today to Zagreb symbolizes the recognition of all the participants of revolutionary events, to all of those who contributed to our victory and the construction of socialism, and especially those who bravely and unselfishly gave their lives in that fight.