Mehmed Alajbegović (7 May 1906 – 7 June 1947) was a

Bosnian Muslim The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...

politician, lawyer and a government minister of the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist It ...

, an

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

puppet state. He was executed for war crimes by Yugoslav authorities following the war.

Early life

Mehmed Alajbegović was born in

Bihać Bihać ( cyrl, Бихаћ) is a city and the administrative centre of Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of river Una in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina ...

on 7 May 1906, into a

family. Both his father and grandfather had been mayors of Bihać. Alajbegović finished

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

and

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in the town and moved to

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

in 1928, where he studied law at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

. He received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1934. During his studies, he visited many foreign cities and spent a great deal of time in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where he worked as a Croatian-language teacher. After receiving his doctorate, Alajbegović was named judge at the district court of Prozor. He went on to study

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

law at the

University of Algiers The University of Algiers (Arabic language, Arabic:جامعة الجزائر – بن يوسف بن خـدة ), commonly called the Algiers 1 University, is a public university, public research university located in Algiers, Algeria. It is the ...

, from which he graduated in 1940. Beginning in 1938, he was also a judge and secretary at the Administrative Court of Zagreb. Alajbegović was one of the participants in establishment, member and a committeeman, of ''Društvo bosansko-hercegovačkih Hrvata u Zagrebu'' (Society of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats in Zagreb) which was established in March 1939.Zlatko Hasanbegović, ''Muslimani u Zagrebu 1878.-1945. Doba utemeljenja'', Medžlis Islamske zajednice u Zagrebu-Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, 2007, pp. 175 and note 336:

World War II

Following the establishment of the

( hr, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) in April 1941, Alajbegović left his role as professor of

Islamic studies Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...

at the University of Zagreb and became a diplomat. In August 1941, he became a secretary in the NDH

Foreign Ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

. On 27 January 1942, Alajbegović was named Consul to the German Reich in Munich. He held this position until 11 October 1943, when ''

Poglavnik () was the title used by Ante Pavelić, leader of the World War II Croatian movement Ustaše and of the Independent State of Croatia between 1941 and 1945. Etymology and usage The word was first recorded in a 16th-century dictionary compiled ...

Ante Pavelić Ante Pavelić (; 14 July 1889 – 28 December 1959) was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the fascist ultranationalist organization known as the Ustaše in 1929 and served as dictator of the Independent State of Croatia ( hr, l ...

made him Minister of Welfare for Perished Lands. In this position, he was responsible for securing more than 300,000 mostly Muslim refugees from various parts of the NDH in eastern

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

Herzegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia. It has never had strictly defined geogra ...

and

Sandžak Sandžak (; sh, / , ; sq, Sanxhaku; ota, سنجاق, Sancak), also known as Sanjak, is a historical geo-political region in Serbia and Montenegro. The name Sandžak derives from the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, a former Ottoman administrative dis ...

; most of these were fleeing the

Chetnik The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...

s. On 5 May 1944, Alajbegović was named Foreign Minister. The Germans interpreted this as an attempt to appease Muslims in the NDH. On 18 and 19 September 1944, Alajbegović accompanied Pavelić on a diplomatic visit to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and met with German leader

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. In the last months 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 opposin ...

, he attempted to reconcile nationalist factions fighting in occupied Yugoslavia, such as the Montenegrin separatist leader

Sekula Drljević Sekula Drljević (; 7 September 1884 – 10 November 1945) was a Montenegrin nationalist, Yugoslav jurist, politician, orator, and theoretician. During World War II, he was a collaborator with the Ustaše in the German puppet state of t ...

, Slovene collaborationist leader

Leon Rupnik Leon Rupnik, also known as Lav Rupnik or Lev Rupnik (August 10, 1880 – September 4, 1946) was a Slovene general in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia who collaborated with the Fascist Italian and Nazi German occupation forces during World War II. Rup ...

and Chetnik leader

Draža Mihailović Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović ( sr-Cyrl, Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић; 27 April 1893 – 17 July 1946) was a Yugoslavs, Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetniks, Chetnik Detachments ...

, in order to form an

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

coalition to combat the powerful

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 ...

and the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

. Alajbegović remained Foreign Minister until 6 May 1945, when he fled Zagreb together with other high-ranking NDH officials. He fled Yugoslavia and sought sanctuary in

Krumpendorf Krumpendorf am Wörthersee ( sl, Kriva Vrba) is a municipality in Klagenfurt-Land District, in Carinthia, Austria. It is situated on the Wörthersee. Geography Krumpendorf stretches along the northern shore of Wörthersee, Carinthia's largest ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He then moved to

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

, where he was arrested by

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

forces on 6 September 1945. He was briefly detained in a prisoner-of-war camp in Glasenbach. Alajbegović was extradited to Yugoslavia three days later, on 9 September. While being interrogated by Yugoslav intelligence agents, he was asked why he joined the Ustaše. He responded, "the main motive that led me to join them was that they had an idea for a Croatian state. A great influence on me was made by cognition about the right of the Croatian people to have a state, and other motives were ignored." Alajbegović was charged with various crimes and tried by the Supreme Court of the People's Republic of Croatia in May 1947. He was found guilty of collaboration and sentenced to death on 7 June 1947 and executed the same day.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alajbegovic, Mehmed 1906 births 1947 deaths People from Bihać Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina People from the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatian Muslims Ustaše Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb alumni Yugoslav anti-communists Bosnian Muslim collaborators with Nazi Germany Bosnian Muslim collaborators with Fascist Italy Bosnia and Herzegovina collaborators with Nazi Germany Bosnia and Herzegovina collaborators with Fascist Italy Croatian collaborators with Nazi Germany Croatian collaborators with Fascist Italy Executed Yugoslav collaborators with Nazi Germany Executed Bosnia and Herzegovina people Executed Croatian people Politicians from Zagreb Bosnia and Herzegovina politicians Government ministers of the Independent State of Croatia Lawyers from Zagreb Yugoslav lawyers Bosniaks of Croatia