Anton Vratuša (born Vratussa Antal; 21 February 1915 – 30 July 2017) was a Slovenian politician and diplomat who was

Prime Minister of Slovenia The prime minister of Slovenia, officially the president of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Predsednik Vlade Republike Slovenije), is the head of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. There have been nine officeholders sinc ...

from 1978 to 1980, and

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

's ambassador to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

.http://www.sazu.si/en/members/anton-vratusa

Life

Vratuša was born in Alsócsalogány,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, today Dolnji Slaveči,

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. His parents were Vratussa Antal and Anna Bokán. He passed the exam for becoming a teacher of stenography. He defended his Doctorate Thesis in the field of Slavistics at the Faculty of philosophy in Ljubljana in the year 1941. After the outbreak of the

World War II in Yugoslavia World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was swiftly conquered by Axis forces and partitioned between Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and their client regimes. Shortly after Germany attacked the US ...

, Vratuša joined the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод� ...

, but was interned in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

concentration camps of Gonars, of

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and '' comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Ven ...

, of

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

and of

Rab Rab �âːb( dlm, Arba, la, Arba, it, Arbe, german: Arbey) is an island in the northern Dalmatia region in Croatia, located just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea. The island is long, has an area of and 9,328 inhabitants (2 ...

from February 1942 to September 1943.Vratuša, Anton – Slovenska Akademija Znanosti in Umetnosti
sazu.si] After the concentration camp at Rab was liberated by the Partisans, Vratuša was named Deputy Commander of their Rab battalion, made up of camp survivors. He was also the head of the Yugoslav Partisans' delegation at the

National Liberation Committee The National Liberation Committee ( it, Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, CLN) was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against Nazi Germany’s forces during the German occup ...

, the

Italian Partisans The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

' underground political entity during the German occupation of Italy in the last years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After the war, he pursued an academic and diplomatic career. He was Chief of Staff to

Edvard Kardelj Edvard Kardelj (; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II ...

(1953–65) and

's ambassador to the

(1967–69). From April 1978 to July 1980, he was the Prime Minister of the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Slovenia. He was also a member of the

Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( sl, Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti (SAZU)) is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members ...

. He helped to found the International Center for Promotion of Enterprises, formerly known as the International Center for Public Enterprises in Developing Countries, and later served as the Honorary President of its Council.

Publications

Vratuša's published works include ''The Commune in Yugoslavia'' (1965) and ''Prospects of the Non-Aligned Movement'' (1981). From 1985 until 1988, he wrote various UN publications, especially in the fields of the law of the sea and politics in developing countries.

Death

Vratuša died on 30 July 2017 at the age of 102.

References

External links

*
"Survivors of war camp lament Italy's amnesia"

Biography at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
(in Slovene) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vratusa, Anton 1915 births 2017 deaths People from the Municipality of Grad League of Communists of Slovenia politicians Presidents of the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia Permanent Representatives of Yugoslavia to the United Nations Slovenian people of World War II Yugoslav Partisans members Slovenian communists Ethnic Slovene people Rab concentration camp survivors Slovenian centenarians Men centenarians Slovenian people of Hungarian descent