Independent State of Croatia – Passport Types
Nazi Germany established the Independent State of Croatia, or NDH, during World War II as a puppet state for Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The state was founded on 10 April 1941, following the Axis powers’ invasion of Yugoslavia. It consisted of most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with some parts of modern-day Serbia.
Genocide Campaigns
The regime targeted Serbs, Jews, and Roma people, as part of large-scale genocide campaigns conducted in places such as the Jasenovac concentration camp.
Coup d’état
In August 1944, there was an attempt by the NDH Foreign Minister Mladen Lorković and Minister of War Ante Vokić to execute a coup d’état against Ante Pavelić. The Lorković-Vokić coup failed, and its conspirators were executed.
By early 1945, the NDH army withdrew toward Zagreb with German and Cossack troops. They were overpowered, and Tito’s Partisan forces, backed by the Soviet Red Army, forced a mass retreat of the Ustaše towards Austria. This effectively ended the Independent State of Croatia. In May 1945, a sizable column, including NDH Home Guard troops, Ustaša, Cossacks, some Chetniks, the Slovene Home Guard, and many civilians, retreated from Partisan forces. They headed northwest towards Italy and Austria.
Continuous fights after surrender Independent state of Croatia
The German Instrument of Surrender was signed on 8 May. Still, the Germans put Pavelić in sole command of NDH forces. They ordered them to continue fighting as the columns tried to reach the British forces to negotiate passage into Allied-occupied Austria. The British Army, however, refused them entry and turned them over to the Partisan forces, starting the Bleiburg repatriations.
Ante Pavelić, breaking away, escaped to Austria, Italy, Argentina, and ultimately Spain, where he died in 1959. In May and June 1945, various NDH government members were captured and later sentenced to death or long-term imprisonment in the Trial of Mile Budak.
The end of the war led to the creation of the Democratic Republic of Yugoslavia. Later, it became the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Constitution of 1946 formally designated the People’s Republic of Croatia. It also recognized the People’s Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both were among the six constituent republics within the new state. Independent state of Croatia
I know a fellow collector whose collection focuses on passports of the Axis powers. NDH is just one part of several such countries. Another fellow collector from the US now has the set complete and kindly supported me with pictures.
The passport types are: 1) blue regular passport, 2) blue-green regular passport, 3) blue service passport, 4) blue-green emigrant’s passport, 5) brown emigrant’s passport, and 6) brown leather diplomatic passport.
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