One of the most violent Ustase leaders, characterized as an "extreme sadist" and "mentally ill" by a German observer, and the link between the Ustase of the Independent State of Croatia and the rebirth of the Ustase in the post-war era as a militant terrorist movement.

Designed the framework of the Jasenovac concentration camp by his own hand while in exile, then carried out his plan in September 1941. Was first commandant. Nada Tanic-Luburic, his half-sister, was placed in charge of the women's facility in Nova Gradiska and later married Luburic's protege Dinko Sakic. Led Ustase attacks on Serb villages in Slavonia and the Krajina in April and May of 1941, precipitating the massive bloodletting which led to Italian and later German intervention on behalf of civilians. During the retreat from Zagreb in April 1945, was in charge of rear-guard activities against Partizans in pursuit. Escaped Croatia via Austria, ending up in Spain. Rumored to have coordinated Krizari (Crusader) terrorist incursions into Communist Yugoslavia immediately after the war.

Formed Ustase successor organization, Croatian National Resistance (Hrvatski Narodni Odpor, aka Croatian People's Resistance or simply Odpor or Otpor. Coordinated terrorist attacks across Europe, with cells in Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Spain and Italy, and several mysterious incursions into Yugoslavia itself. Found murdered in his villa in Spain on April 20, 1969, his skull fractured from repeated blows from a crowbar and dozens of stab wounds in his chest. Odpor evolved into the HDP, or Croatian Statehood Movement, to which Miro Baresic among others belonged.

The Efficiency of Mass Slaughter
Maks Luburic on the effectiveness of the system of Croatian concentration camps

Encyclopedia of the Holocaust
"Maks Luburic... was personally responsible for everything that happened there."

Hercegovina in 1941
July 1941: Milovan Djilas' description of a country ripped apart by Maks Luburic's henchmen

Order: Maks Luburic's Proclamation
August 9, 1950: The order from General Drinyanin (aka Maks Luburic) ordering Croats to cease enlisting in the armies of foreign nations

US Army File: Unknown Document
1950s: Index card-type file, undated, from some larger file on the Croatian Resistance Movement

MUNICH REPORT: Croatian Emigrant Movement (2)
c. October 1954: Second report sent from Munich, Germany to the US State Department, including reference to Luburic as an even more radical alternative to Ustase leader Ante Pavelic

Judicial Decision: The First Otpor RICO Trial in New York City
January 25, 1983: 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision reaffirming all but one charge against four Otpor members, including conspiracy to kill a prominent Croatian-American leader while he walked his daughter to school

 

Essay: The Poglavnik's Family Tree
Unraveling the Ustase Successor Organizations

Crimes in the Jasenovac Camp
A new translation of the official state report on the largest concentration camp in Southeast Europe, including statements from the handful of inmates who survived Jasenovac

 

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