ABOVE 

Pavelić and Mussolini inspect Ustaše troops

First the background story, the Italians were funding him and his Ustaše in the pre-war
years. As Yugoslavia entered WW2 in 1941 the Italians lobbied the Germans to put him in
power. In return, as had been agreed Pavelić handed over Dalmatia and most of her islands
over to Italy. Ultimately, this is why Mussolini had been funding the Ustaše to begin with. It
was a classic land grab. He was expanding his new “Roman Empire" and wanted Dalmatia to
be part of Italy major. Pavelić, in persuit of power and without batting an eye, made that a
reality. He threw away the region of Croatia, where Croatia as a concept, began.

Croatia had been founded in Dalmatia, and now in turn the “Slavs" (as the Italians refered to
us) in Dalmatia, went from a majority ethnic group inside the Banovina of Croatia
(Monarchical Yugoslavia), to becoming an oppressed minority inside Fascist Italy, overnight,
with a signature of the pen.

Pavelić had Serbs butchered without constraint which many people already know, but he
also had no qualms about killing his own as well. I must reiterate this point, the Ustaše were
never elected, they were an Italian funded paramilitary/terrorist organisation, that was
placed in the leadership role by two invading armies, both who made claims to our land.
The Ustaše weren't even the Germans preferred choice. Vlatko Maček (an understudy to the
great Stjepan Radić) a true Croatian patriot and the pre-war most powerful Croatian
politician, refused both the Nazis and Italian Fascists offers to make him the head of an
“Independent” Croatia, knowing it was a trap that would result in the servitude of our
people.

ABOVE Pavelić meeting Hitler

When the Ustaše were placed in power, they had no qualms about imprisoning Maček in
the infamous Jasenovac concentration camp. He got off lightly, most political dissent or
public criticism was usually met by a brutal crackdown and public excecution, where
enemies of the state were left out to rot in public, just to send a message. Often this tactic
had the reverse effect of driving up the membership of the Partisan movent.

Everyday people, tens of thousands of Croatian Dalmatians civilians died at the hands of the
Italian and German fascists all with the assistance and sometimes collaboration of Pavelić's
Ustaše. Furthermore many more would have died IF not for the Western Allies humanitarian
aid efforts. For example look up “El-Shatt" refugee camp.

Many tens of thousands of Dalmatians, mainly women, children and the elderly escaped to
temporary “safe zones" like Korčula, where subsequently they were rescued by the Western
Allies. Refugees came from all over Dalmatia (and her islands) and were then shipped across
the Mediterranean (mainly from Korčula itself) to a refugee camp in Egypt called El-Shatt.
There, they remained in really rough conditions with other refugees (mainly from Greece) for
many years, even after the Second World War had finished. My family (on my mum's side)
and even Oliver Dragojević’s family's were among the tens of thousands who were saved
because of this mercy mission, and yet today many Croatians have no idea about this part
of our history.