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{{Short description|Croatian politician (1889–1945)}}
{{Infobox officeholder {{Infobox officeholder
|name = Mile Budak | name = Mile Budak
|image = Milebudak.gif | image = Milebudak.gif
|caption = Mile Budak | caption = Mile Budak
|order = 3rd | order = 3rd
|office = Foreign Minister of the Independent State of Croatia | office = Foreign Minister of the Independent State of Croatia
|term_start = 23 April 1943 | term_start = 23 April 1943
|term_end = 5 November 1943 | term_end = 5 November 1943
|leader = ] | leader = ]
|predecessor = ] | predecessor = ]
|successor = ] | successor = ]
|office2 = Ambassador to ] | office2 = Ambassador to ]
|term_start2 = 2 November 1941 | term_start2 = 2 November 1941
|term_end2 = 23 April 1943 | term_end2 = 23 April 1943
|predecessor2 = | order3 = 1st
| office3 = Minister of Education of the Independent State of Croatia
|successor2 =
|order3 = 1st | term_start3 = 16 April 1941
| term_end3 = 2 November 1941
|office3 = Minister of Education of the Independent State of Croatia
|term_start3 = 16 April 1941 | leader3 = ]
|term_end3 = 2 November 1941 | predecessor3 = ''Office established''
|leader3 = ] | successor3 = ]
| office4 = ]
|predecessor3 = ''Office established''
|successor3 = ] | term_start4 = 12 April 1941
| term_end4 = 16 April 1941
|office4 = ]
|term_start4 = 12 April 1941 | predecessor4 = ''Office established''
|term_end4 = 16 April 1941 | successor4 = ''Office abolished''
|predecessor4 = ''Office established'' | birth_date = {{Birth date|1889|08|30|df=y}}
| birth_place = ], ], ]
|successor4 = ''Office abolished''
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1889|08|30|df=y}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1945|06|07|1889|08|30|df=y}}
| death_place = ], ] {{Infobox person | child = yes | death_cause= ]}}
|birth_place = ], ]
| party = ]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1945|06|07|1889|08|30|df=y}}
| spouse =
|death_place = ], ]
|constituency = | children =
|party = ] | occupation = Politician, writer
|spouse = | profession = Lawyer
|children =
|occupation = Politician, writer
|profession = Lawyer
|relations =
|alma_mater =
|religion = ]
|signature =
|footnotes =
}} }}

'''Mile Budak''' (30 August 1889 - June 7, 1945) was a ] politician and writer best known as one of the chief ideologists of the Croatian ] movement, which ruled the ] from 1941–45 and waged a genocidal campaign of extermination against jewish population, and of extermination, expulsion and religious conversion against ] population.
'''Mile Budak''' (30 August 1889 – 7 June 1945) was a ] politician and writer best known as one of the chief ideologists of the Croatian fascist ] movement, which ruled the ] during ] from 1941 to 1945 and waged a genocidal campaign of extermination against its ] and ]ish population, and of extermination, expulsion and religious conversion against its ] population. He was sentenced to death in 1945 by the post-war Communist authorities in Yugoslavia over ] and ].


==Youth and early political activities== ==Youth and early political activities==
Mile Budak was born in ], in ], which was then a part of the ].<ref name="jasenovac-info.com">http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/pavelicpapers</ref> He attended school in ] and studied law at the ].<ref>Contemporary Croatian literature by Ante Kadić, published by Mouton, 1960 (page 50)</ref> In 1912, he was arrested by Austro-Hungarian authorities over his alleged role in the attempted assassination of Croatian ban (vice-roy) ]. In 1914, after the start of ], he was drafted into the ] where he received the rank of non-commissioned officer. In 1915, he was captured by the Serbian Army and witnessed the Serbian retreat through ] in 1915-16. Mile Budak was born in ], in ], which was then a part of the ].<ref name="jasenovac-info.com"> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090702234716/http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/pavelicpapers |date=2009-07-02 }}, jasenovac-info.com; accessed 8 August 2014.</ref> He attended school in ] and studied law at the ].<ref name="kadic">Contemporary Croatian literature by Ante Kadić, published by Mouton, 1960 (page 50)</ref>


In 1912, he was arrested by Austro-Hungarian authorities over his alleged role in the attempted assassination of ], the ].
At the end of the war, Budak returned to Zagreb. In 1920, he received a law degree at the University of Zagreb and became a clerk in the office of ]. He became active in ] (HSP) and was elected a seat in the Zagreb City Assembly. In the 1920s, he was the editor of the political magazines that were close to the HSP.


==Kingdom of Yugoslavia==
==Ustaše period==
] ]
Budak and ] served as lawyers representing ] and Matija Soldin in a highly publicized trial amidst the ]. On 7 June 1932, he survived an assassination attempt from men close to the ]. Afterwards, he emigrated to Italy, in order to join the Ustaše and to become the commander of an Ustaše training camp.<ref name="jasenovac-info.com"/> In 1938, he returned to Zagreb where he began publishing the weekly newspaper ''Hrvatski narod''. In 1940, the authorities banned the newspaper and Budak was arrested.<ref>Review of International Affairs: Politics, Economics, Law, Science, Culture by Federation of Yugoslavic Journalists, Savez novinara Jugoslavije, Socijalistički savez radnog naroda Jugoslavije, published by The Federation, 1953 (page 25) <br> On 4 March 1940, Stepinac intervened with Šubašić, at the request of Prof. Lukas and Starčević, in favour of arrested Budak, who was sentenced to death by hanging after the war, as a war criminal (Book II, page 440)</ref> On March 31, 1941 - in a joint letter to Hitler, Pavelić and Budak asked him "to help Croatian people establish an independent Croatian state that would encompass the old Croatian regions, among them Bosnia and Herzegovina."<ref>Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War by Enver Redžić, published by Routledge, 2005 ISBN 0-7146-5625-9, ISBN 978-0-7146-5625-0, page 68</ref>


Budak and ] served as lawyers representing ] and Matija Soldin at trial amid the ]. On 7 June 1932, he survived an assassination attempt by operatives close to the ]. Afterwards, he migrated to Italy to join the ] and become the commander of an Ustaše training camp.<ref name="jasenovac-info.com"/>
When the Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed, Budak became the state's chief propagandist<ref>Yugoslavia as History: Twice There was a Country by John R. Lampe, published by Cambridge University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-521-77401-2, ISBN 978-0-521-77401-7 (page 208)</ref> and Minister of Education and Faith.<ref>This is Artukovic by Devon Gaffney, B. A. Starcevic, published by s.n., 1958 (page 51)</ref> As such, he publicly stated that forcible expulsion and religious conversion of the ethnic Serb minority was the official national policy. Croatian novelist ] described Budak as "a minister of culture with a machine gun".<ref name="jasenovac-info.com"/> In a speech in Gospić on 22 July 1941, he declared: "The movement of the Ustashi is based on faith. For the minorities we have three million bullets. We shall kill one part of the Serbs, expell the second part, and convert to Catholicism the third part of them"<ref>Ustaše: Croatian Separatism and European Politics, 1929-1945 by Srdja Trifkovic, London 1998 (page 141)</ref><ref>] by Viktor Novak, Zagreb 1948 (page 605)</ref> This exposition of Ustaše policy is attributed to Budak.<ref>Triple Myth by Stella Alexander, Columbia University Press 1987</ref>


Budak was known for his literary work, especially novels and plays in which he had glorified Croatian peasantry. His works included the 1938 ''Ognjište'' (''The Hearth''),<ref>Herdfeuer. Roman. by Mile Budak, published by K. H. Bischoff Verl. (1943).</ref> the 1933 ''Opanci dida Vidurine'' (''Grandpa Vidurina's Shoes''),<ref>''Opanci dida Vidurine'' by Mile Budak, Sandra Belčić, Zagrebačka stvarnost, 2001; {{ISBN|953-192-071-0}}, {{ISBN|978-953-192-071-1}}</ref> and the 1939 ''Rascvjetana trešnja'' (''The Blossoming Cherry Tree''). About Budak's writing, contemporary E.E. Noth wrote: ''"Here we find the stubborn, spiritual-realistic conception of man and his relation to the soil on which he lives and which Mile Budak symbolizes as 'the hearth'"''.<ref>''Books Abroad: A Quarterly Publication Devoted to Comments on Foreign Books'' by Roy Temple House, Ernst Erich Noth, University of Oklahoma, 1940 (p. 329)</ref>
He later became Croatian envoy to ] (November 1941 - April 1943) and foreign minister (May 1943–November 1943).<ref>The war we lost: Yugoslavia's Tragedy and the Failure of the West by Constantin Fotitch, published by Viking Press, 1948 (page 122)</ref><ref>War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration by Jozo Tomasevich, published by Stanford University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-8047-3615-4, ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2 (page 317)</ref> When the Independent State of Croatia collapsed, Budak was captured by English military authorities and handed over to ]'s ] on 18 May 1945. He was court-martialled (before the military court of the 2nd Yugoslav army) in Zagreb on 6 June 1945 and was sentenced to death by hanging the same day and executed the next.<ref>Politička i ekonomska osnova narodne vlasti u Jugoslaviji za vreme obnove by Branko Petranović, published by Institut za savremenu istoriju, Beograd 1969 (page 201)</ref><ref></ref> During the trial, Budak claimed that he was not guilty of anything.<ref>Hrvatska 1945 by Bogdan Radica, published by Knjižnica Hrvatske revije, 1974 (page 185)<br>Svojim ravnodušnim, da ne kažem ciničkim glasom, kaže mi da se na procesu najsramotnije i najkukavičkije držao Mile Budak. Neprestano je plakao govoreći da on nije ni za što kriv.</ref>


In 1938, he returned to Zagreb where he began publishing the weekly newspaper ''Hrvatski narod''. The newspaper was vocal in its criticism of the ] (HSS) and opposed the ], by which the autonomous ] was created. In 1940, the authorities of the Banovina of Croatia banned the newspaper and had Budak arrested, along with 50 other Ustaše members.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jelić-Butić|first=Fikreta|url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/164929?lang=en|language=Serbo-Croatian|title=Prilog proučavanju djelatnosti ustaša do 1941.|pages=55–90|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=1|number=1–2|date=1969}}</ref> They were first interned in a prison in ], and were later transferred to Kruščica near ].<ref>{{cite book | last = Matković | first = Hrvoje | year = 2002 | language = Croatian | title = Povijest Nezavisne Države Hrvatske | publisher = Naklada Pavičić | isbn = 978-953-6308-39-2 | page = 50}}</ref> On 31 March 1941, in a joint letter to Hitler, Pavelić and Budak asked him "to help Croatian people establish an independent Croatian state that would encompass the old Croatian regions, among them Bosnia and Herzegovina".<ref>Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War by Enver Redžić, Routledge, 2005; {{ISBN|0-7146-5625-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7146-5625-0}}, page 68</ref>
==Literary work==
Budak was also known for his literary work, especially novels and plays in which he had glorified Croatian peasantry. The best known of his work are: "Ognjište" (The Hearth),<ref>Herdfeuer. Roman. by Mile Budak, published by K. H. Bischoff Verl., 1943</ref> "Opanci dida Vidurine" (Granpa Vidurina's Shoes),<ref>Opanci dida Vidurine by Mile Budak, Sandra Belčić, published by Zagrebačka stvarnost, 2001 ISBN 953-192-071-0, ISBN 978-953-192-071-1</ref> "Rascvjetana trešnja" (The Blossoming Cherry Tree). About his writing, E. E. Noth wrote: ''Here we find the stubborn, spiritual-realistic conception of man and his relation to the soil on which he lives and which Mile Budak symbolizes as "the hearth"''.<ref>Books Abroad: A Quarterly Publication Devoted to Comments on Foreign Books by Roy Temple House, Ernst Erich Noth, published by University of Oklahoma, 1940 (page 329)</ref>


==World War II==
After the war his books were banned by ] ] authorities. Because of that, many Croatian nationalists viewed Mile Budak as great figure of ], equal, if not superior to left-wing ].<ref>ibidem: Contemporary Croatian literature by Ante Kadić</ref> Following Croatian independence in early 1990s, in Croatia, where the ruling Croatian Democratic Union badly wanted to reinterpret the fascist Ustasha quislings of World War II as a Croatian patriotic force. ''Hence, the reissue in early 1993 of the collected works of Mile Budak,the second-in-command in the Ustasha regime. Commenting, at the time of this reissue, Croatian writer Giancarlo Kravar wrote: "... Ustashism, in its history, was undoubtly also a positive political movement for the state-building affirmation of Croatianism, the expression of the centuries-long aspiration of the Croatian people"<ref>Social Currents in Eastern Europe: The Sources and Consequences of the Great Transformation by Sabrina P. Ramet, Edition: 2, published by Duke University Press, 1995 ISBN 0-8223-1548-3, ISBN 978-0-8223-1548-3 (page 418)</ref>

When the Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed, Budak became the state's chief propagandist<ref>Yugoslavia as History: Twice There was a Country by John R. Lampe, Cambridge University Press, 2000; {{ISBN|0-521-77401-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-521-77401-7}} (p. 208)</ref> and Minister of Education and Faith.<ref>''This is Artukovic'' by Devon Gaffney, B.A. Starcevic, published by s.n., 1958 (p. 51)</ref> As such, he publicly stated that forcible expulsion and religious conversion of the ethnic Serb minority was the official national policy. Budak signed the Ustashe regime's racial laws against Serbs, Jews, and Roma.<ref>To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia by Michael Parenti, Verso, 2002 p. 45<br/>The full text of the racist law was published in Narodne novine from 4 June 1941. with and titled as "Zakonske odredbe o zaštiti narodne i arijske kulture hrvatskog naroda"</ref> Croatian novelist ] described Budak as "a minister of culture with a machine gun".<ref name="jasenovac-info.com"/>

Budak pursued in his positions virulent anti-Serb agitation. Thus, he remarked on 6 June 1941 in ]:

{{Blockquote|''The Serbs came to our territories, because they were persecuted by the Turkish gangs, they came as plunderers and the filth from the Balkans. We can not allow our national state to be ruled by two nations. There is only one God, and there is only one nation, that is ruling: and this is the Croat nation. These ones, who arrived here 200, 300 years ago, might go back to whence they came. One has to know, that we are a state that has two religions: the Catholic, and the Mohammedan.''<ref>Carlo Falconi: ''Das Schweigen des Papstes : Eine Dokumentation''. Kindler Verlag, München 1966, S. 334–335.</ref>}}

According to an alleged statement, reportedly said by Budak, the Ustaše plan was to "kill one part of the Serbs, evacuate another and lead over one part to Catholicism and thus transform them into Croats." The origins of this statement are unclear. According to ], the statement originates from a speech in ] on 22 July 1941. Other authors claim that it came in a radio broadcast, while some attribute it to ]. In a report to the ], the statement was attributed to ]. There are various versions of the quote that differ in wording. The historian Tomislav Dulić said that he "tried to find a primary source that could confirm the existence and exact wording of this statement", but was "not been able to ascertain whether such a statement actually exists".<ref>{{cite book|last=Dulić|first=Tomislav|year=2005|title=Utopias of Nation: Local Mass Killing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1941–42|publisher=Uppsala University Library|location=Uppsala, Sweden|isbn=978-9-1554-6302-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RH9lAAAAIAAJ|pages=100–101}}</ref>

] and Mile Budak meeting in occupied Sarajevo, 1943.]]

He later became Croatian envoy to ] (November 1941 – April 1943) and foreign minister (May 1943 – November 1943).<ref>The war we lost: Yugoslavia's Tragedy and the Failure of the West by Constantin Fotitch, published by Viking Press, 1948 (page 122)</ref><ref>War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration by Jozo Tomasevich, published by Stanford University Press, 2001 {{ISBN|0-8047-3615-4}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8047-3615-2}} (page 317)</ref> Following the ], Budak was captured by British military authorities and handed over to ]'s ] on 18 May 1945. He was court-martialled (before the military court of the 2nd Yugoslav army) in Zagreb on 6 June 1945 and was sentenced to death by hanging the same day. His execution the following day took place exactly 13 years after the assassination attempt on his life.<ref>Politička i ekonomska osnova narodne vlasti u Jugoslaviji za vreme obnove by ], published by Institut za savremenu istoriju, Beograd 1969 (page 201)</ref> During the trial, Budak was described to behave "cowardly, constantly weeping, and claiming he was not guilty of anything".<ref>Hrvatska 1945 by Bogdan Radica, published by Knjižnica Hrvatske revije, 1974 (page 185)<br>Svojim ravnodušnim, da ne kažem ciničkim glasom, kaže mi da se na procesu najsramotnije i najkukavičkije držao Mile Budak. Neprestano je plakao govoreći da on nije ni za što kriv.</ref>


==Legacy== ==Legacy==
{{see also|Far-right politics in Croatia}}
As of August 2004, there were seventeen cities in Croatia which had streets named after Budak. <ref>To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia by Michael Parenti, published by Verso, 2002 ISBN 1-85984-366-2, ISBN 978-1-85984-366-6 (page 45)</ref> As of August 2012, at least one street in Bosnia and Herzegovina is named after Mile Budak (in ]). The Archbishopship of Zagreb declared at one point that it had no objection to the erection of a monument dedicated to the dead ] leader.<ref>Democratic Transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education & Media By Sabrina P. Ramet, Davorka Matić, published by Texas A&M University Press, 2007 (page 17)</ref> ] aired a dramatization of Budak's autobiographical account of the 1915-16 Serb retreat through Albania. The official line was that Budak should be viewed as an important literary figure, despite the controversial role that he played during ]. This caused reaction from the left-wing, liberal minority of the Croatian public, most notably '']'', which launched a year-long campaign to have Budak-named streets renamed.


After the war, his books were banned by ] ] authorities. Thus, many Croatian nationalists viewed Budak as a great figure of ], equal, if not superior to the leftist ].<ref name="kadic"/> Following Croatian independence in the early 1990s, the ] aimed to reinterpret the Ustasha as a Croatian patriotic force.
In 2003, ]'s government decided to finally deal with the issue which resulted in renaming all the streets bearing Budak's name save one; the Mile Budak street in ].<ref>Meter: Pa Budakov je vozač bio Židov! Novi List September 19, 2004 Rijeka </ref>
In early 1993, the collected works of Mile Budak were republished, and Croatian writer Giancarlo Kravar at the time wrote: "... Ustashism, in its history, was undoubtly also a positive political movement for the state-building affirmation of Croatianism, the expression of the centuries-long aspiration of the Croatian people".<ref>''Social Currents in Eastern Europe: The Sources and Consequences of the Great Transformation'' by Sabrina P. Ramet, 2nd edition, Duke University Press, 1995; {{ISBN|0-8223-1548-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8223-1548-3}} (p. 418)</ref>


Elsewhere and more recently, Budak was described as "a mediocre Croatian author",<ref>B. Helleland, C.-E. Ore & S. Wikstrøm (eds.) Names and Identities, Oslo Studies in Language 4(2), 2012. (ISSN 1890-9639) p. 213</ref> "a mediocre writer at best",<ref>''Croats Face The Past'' in Balkan Report: May 12, 2000, Volume 4, Number 35</ref> "a writer of middling originality and imagination"<ref></ref> or a writer which literary work is "average and without lasting value".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918-2005|last=Ramet|first=Sabrina P.|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2006|pages=742}}</ref>
==See also==

* ]
Following ] the ] government renamed streets after Budak.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ramet |first1=Sabrina P. |title=The Three Yugoslavias State-Building and Legitimation, 1918-2005 |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=389}}</ref> As of August 2004, there were seventeen cities in Croatia which had streets named after Budak.<ref>''To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia'' by Michael Parenti, Verso, 2002; {{ISBN|1-85984-366-2}}, {{ISBN|978-1-85984-366-6}} (p. 45)</ref> Alekse Šantića street in ], Bosnia and Herzegovina was named after Budak between 1995 and 2022.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/mostar-izmijenjeni-nazivi-ulica-po-ustasama/31941894.html | title=U Mostaru ukinuti nazivi ulica po ustaškim zvaničnicima | newspaper=Radio Slobodna Evropa | publisher=] | date=14 July 2022 | accessdate=7 December 2022}}</ref> The ] declared at one point {{When|date=June 2014}} that it had no objection to the erection of a monument dedicated to the dead ] leader.<ref>''Democratic Transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education & Media'' By Sabrina P. Ramet, Davorka Matić, Texas A&M University Press, 2007 (p. 17)<!-- ISBN/ISSN needed --></ref> In 2013, the Ministry of public administration announced plans to rename all those streets as they were unconstitutional.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.glas-slavonije.hr/192381/1/Bauk-uklanja-ulice-10-travnja-i-Mile-Budaka | title = Usklađenje naziva s Ustavom - Bauk uklanja ulice 10. travnja i Mile Budaka | language = hr | newspaper = ] | date = 11 March 2013 | access-date = 29 December 2021}}</ref>
*]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


==References== ==References==
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{{Croatian State Government}} {{Croatian State Government}}
{{Main Ustaša Headquarters}}
{{Genocide of Serbs}}

{{Authority control}}


{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see ]. -->
| NAME = Budak, Mile
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Croatian politician and writer
| DATE OF BIRTH = 30 August 1889
| PLACE OF BIRTH = ], ]
| DATE OF DEATH = June 7, 1945
| PLACE OF DEATH = ], ]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Budak, Mile}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Budak, Mile}}
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Latest revision as of 19:37, 4 January 2025

Croatian politician (1889–1945)
Mile Budak
Mile Budak
3rd Foreign Minister of the Independent State of Croatia
In office
23 April 1943 – 5 November 1943
LeaderAnte Pavelić
Preceded byMladen Lorković
Succeeded byStijepo Perić
Ambassador to Nazi Germany
In office
2 November 1941 – 23 April 1943
1st Minister of Education of the Independent State of Croatia
In office
16 April 1941 – 2 November 1941
LeaderAnte Pavelić
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byStjepan Ratković
President of the Croatian State Leadership
In office
12 April 1941 – 16 April 1941
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Personal details
Born(1889-08-30)30 August 1889
Sveti Rok, Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary
Died7 June 1945(1945-06-07) (aged 55)
Zagreb, DF Yugoslavia
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
Political partyUstaše
OccupationPolitician, writer
ProfessionLawyer

Mile Budak (30 August 1889 – 7 June 1945) was a Croatian politician and writer best known as one of the chief ideologists of the Croatian fascist Ustaša movement, which ruled the Independent State of Croatia during World War II in Yugoslavia from 1941 to 1945 and waged a genocidal campaign of extermination against its Roma and Jewish population, and of extermination, expulsion and religious conversion against its Serb population. He was sentenced to death in 1945 by the post-war Communist authorities in Yugoslavia over war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Youth and early political activities

Mile Budak was born in Sveti Rok, in Lika, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He attended school in Sarajevo and studied law at the University of Zagreb.

In 1912, he was arrested by Austro-Hungarian authorities over his alleged role in the attempted assassination of Slavko Cuvaj, the ban of Croatia.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

Budak after the assassination attempt, 1932

Budak and Vladko Maček served as lawyers representing Marko Hranilović and Matija Soldin at trial amid the January 6th Dictatorship. On 7 June 1932, he survived an assassination attempt by operatives close to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Afterwards, he migrated to Italy to join the Ustaše and become the commander of an Ustaše training camp.

Budak was known for his literary work, especially novels and plays in which he had glorified Croatian peasantry. His works included the 1938 Ognjište (The Hearth), the 1933 Opanci dida Vidurine (Grandpa Vidurina's Shoes), and the 1939 Rascvjetana trešnja (The Blossoming Cherry Tree). About Budak's writing, contemporary E.E. Noth wrote: "Here we find the stubborn, spiritual-realistic conception of man and his relation to the soil on which he lives and which Mile Budak symbolizes as 'the hearth'".

In 1938, he returned to Zagreb where he began publishing the weekly newspaper Hrvatski narod. The newspaper was vocal in its criticism of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) and opposed the Cvetković–Maček Agreement, by which the autonomous Banovina of Croatia was created. In 1940, the authorities of the Banovina of Croatia banned the newspaper and had Budak arrested, along with 50 other Ustaše members. They were first interned in a prison in Lepoglava, and were later transferred to Kruščica near Travnik. On 31 March 1941, in a joint letter to Hitler, Pavelić and Budak asked him "to help Croatian people establish an independent Croatian state that would encompass the old Croatian regions, among them Bosnia and Herzegovina".

World War II

When the Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed, Budak became the state's chief propagandist and Minister of Education and Faith. As such, he publicly stated that forcible expulsion and religious conversion of the ethnic Serb minority was the official national policy. Budak signed the Ustashe regime's racial laws against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Croatian novelist Miroslav Krleža described Budak as "a minister of culture with a machine gun".

Budak pursued in his positions virulent anti-Serb agitation. Thus, he remarked on 6 June 1941 in Križevci:

The Serbs came to our territories, because they were persecuted by the Turkish gangs, they came as plunderers and the filth from the Balkans. We can not allow our national state to be ruled by two nations. There is only one God, and there is only one nation, that is ruling: and this is the Croat nation. These ones, who arrived here 200, 300 years ago, might go back to whence they came. One has to know, that we are a state that has two religions: the Catholic, and the Mohammedan.

According to an alleged statement, reportedly said by Budak, the Ustaše plan was to "kill one part of the Serbs, evacuate another and lead over one part to Catholicism and thus transform them into Croats." The origins of this statement are unclear. According to Veljko Bulajić, the statement originates from a speech in Gospić on 22 July 1941. Other authors claim that it came in a radio broadcast, while some attribute it to Dido Kvaternik. In a report to the Yugoslav government-in-exile, the statement was attributed to Andrija Artuković. There are various versions of the quote that differ in wording. The historian Tomislav Dulić said that he "tried to find a primary source that could confirm the existence and exact wording of this statement", but was "not been able to ascertain whether such a statement actually exists".

Nazi collaborator Haj Amin al-Husseini and Mile Budak meeting in occupied Sarajevo, 1943.

He later became Croatian envoy to Nazi Germany (November 1941 – April 1943) and foreign minister (May 1943 – November 1943). Following the Independent State of Croatia evacuation to Austria, Budak was captured by British military authorities and handed over to Tito's Partisans on 18 May 1945. He was court-martialled (before the military court of the 2nd Yugoslav army) in Zagreb on 6 June 1945 and was sentenced to death by hanging the same day. His execution the following day took place exactly 13 years after the assassination attempt on his life. During the trial, Budak was described to behave "cowardly, constantly weeping, and claiming he was not guilty of anything".

Legacy

See also: Far-right politics in Croatia

After the war, his books were banned by Yugoslav Communist authorities. Thus, many Croatian nationalists viewed Budak as a great figure of Croatian literature, equal, if not superior to the leftist Miroslav Krleža. Following Croatian independence in the early 1990s, the Croatian Democratic Union aimed to reinterpret the Ustasha as a Croatian patriotic force. In early 1993, the collected works of Mile Budak were republished, and Croatian writer Giancarlo Kravar at the time wrote: "... Ustashism, in its history, was undoubtly also a positive political movement for the state-building affirmation of Croatianism, the expression of the centuries-long aspiration of the Croatian people".

Elsewhere and more recently, Budak was described as "a mediocre Croatian author", "a mediocre writer at best", "a writer of middling originality and imagination" or a writer which literary work is "average and without lasting value".

Following Croatian independence the Franjo Tudjman government renamed streets after Budak. As of August 2004, there were seventeen cities in Croatia which had streets named after Budak. Alekse Šantića street in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina was named after Budak between 1995 and 2022. The Archdiocese of Zagreb declared at one point that it had no objection to the erection of a monument dedicated to the dead Ustaša leader. In 2013, the Ministry of public administration announced plans to rename all those streets as they were unconstitutional.

References

  1. ^ Profile Archived 2009-07-02 at the Wayback Machine, jasenovac-info.com; accessed 8 August 2014.
  2. ^ Contemporary Croatian literature by Ante Kadić, published by Mouton, 1960 (page 50)
  3. Herdfeuer. Roman. by Mile Budak, published by K. H. Bischoff Verl. (1943).
  4. Opanci dida Vidurine by Mile Budak, Sandra Belčić, Zagrebačka stvarnost, 2001; ISBN 953-192-071-0, ISBN 978-953-192-071-1
  5. Books Abroad: A Quarterly Publication Devoted to Comments on Foreign Books by Roy Temple House, Ernst Erich Noth, University of Oklahoma, 1940 (p. 329)
  6. Jelić-Butić, Fikreta (1969). "Prilog proučavanju djelatnosti ustaša do 1941". Journal of Contemporary History (in Serbo-Croatian). 1 (1–2): 55–90.
  7. Matković, Hrvoje (2002). Povijest Nezavisne Države Hrvatske (in Croatian). Naklada Pavičić. p. 50. ISBN 978-953-6308-39-2.
  8. Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War by Enver Redžić, Routledge, 2005; ISBN 0-7146-5625-9, ISBN 978-0-7146-5625-0, page 68
  9. Yugoslavia as History: Twice There was a Country by John R. Lampe, Cambridge University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-521-77401-2, ISBN 978-0-521-77401-7 (p. 208)
  10. This is Artukovic by Devon Gaffney, B.A. Starcevic, published by s.n., 1958 (p. 51)
  11. To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia by Michael Parenti, Verso, 2002 p. 45
    The full text of the racist law was published in Narodne novine from 4 June 1941. with and titled as "Zakonske odredbe o zaštiti narodne i arijske kulture hrvatskog naroda"
  12. Carlo Falconi: Das Schweigen des Papstes : Eine Dokumentation. Kindler Verlag, München 1966, S. 334–335.
  13. Dulić, Tomislav (2005). Utopias of Nation: Local Mass Killing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1941–42. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University Library. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-9-1554-6302-1.
  14. The war we lost: Yugoslavia's Tragedy and the Failure of the West by Constantin Fotitch, published by Viking Press, 1948 (page 122)
  15. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration by Jozo Tomasevich, published by Stanford University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-8047-3615-4, ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2 (page 317)
  16. Politička i ekonomska osnova narodne vlasti u Jugoslaviji za vreme obnove by Branko Petranović, published by Institut za savremenu istoriju, Beograd 1969 (page 201)
  17. Hrvatska 1945 by Bogdan Radica, published by Knjižnica Hrvatske revije, 1974 (page 185)
    Svojim ravnodušnim, da ne kažem ciničkim glasom, kaže mi da se na procesu najsramotnije i najkukavičkije držao Mile Budak. Neprestano je plakao govoreći da on nije ni za što kriv.
  18. Social Currents in Eastern Europe: The Sources and Consequences of the Great Transformation by Sabrina P. Ramet, 2nd edition, Duke University Press, 1995; ISBN 0-8223-1548-3, ISBN 978-0-8223-1548-3 (p. 418)
  19. B. Helleland, C.-E. Ore & S. Wikstrøm (eds.) Names and Identities, Oslo Studies in Language 4(2), 2012. (ISSN 1890-9639) p. 213
  20. Croats Face The Past in Balkan Report: May 12, 2000, Volume 4, Number 35
  21. Jasenovac and Holocaust Memorial Foundation, Mile Budak entry
  22. Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918-2005. Indiana University Press. p. 742.
  23. Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias State-Building and Legitimation, 1918-2005. Indiana University Press. p. 389.
  24. To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia by Michael Parenti, Verso, 2002; ISBN 1-85984-366-2, ISBN 978-1-85984-366-6 (p. 45)
  25. "U Mostaru ukinuti nazivi ulica po ustaškim zvaničnicima". Radio Slobodna Evropa. Radio Free Europe. 14 July 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  26. Democratic Transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education & Media By Sabrina P. Ramet, Davorka Matić, Texas A&M University Press, 2007 (p. 17)
  27. "Usklađenje naziva s Ustavom - Bauk uklanja ulice 10. travnja i Mile Budaka". Glas Slavonije (in Croatian). 11 March 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
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