Branko Benzon (29 August 1903 – September 1970) was a Croatian physician, diplomat and politician.

Pre-war life

Benzon was born in

Postira Postira is a village and a municipality in Croatia in the Split-Dalmatia County on the island of Brač. Geography The village of Postira is located on the northern coast of the island of Brač, eight kilometers from the island's port of Supetar. ...

, on the island

Brač Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of , making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is wide. The island's talle ...

in 1903. He attended medical school at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Medicine where he specialized in cardiology. He published a number of works dealing with

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

and the treatment of heart disease. Soon he became primarius of the section for heart diseases in Merkur's Sanatorium in

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 ...

. Even though he was a respectable doctor, he was fired in 1932 for his political attitudes. He was member of the

Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croats, Croatian Fascism, fascist and ultranationalism, ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaš ...

branch in Croatia with a pro-German orientation. When

Vladko Maček Vladimir Maček (20 June 1879 – 15 May 1964) was a politician in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As a leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) following the 1928 assassination of Stjepan Radić, Maček had been a leading Croatian political fig ...

filed a complaint against him to the court, Benzon fled to

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. Soon he emigrated to Germany where he led the radio-station, "Velebit". He represented Ustaše for Germany at the time. In the name of

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 ...

and

Mile Budak 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 ...

on 31 March 1940, he transmitted a memorandum to the Foreign Minister of Germany,

Joachim von Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...

in which he asked for German support in the creation of Croatian state within its historical boundaries.

Diplomatic career and emigration

With the proclamation 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 ...

, he returned to

and joined the political leadership. He was named Croatian Ambassador to Germany in April 1941, but because of diplomatic misbehaviour, was forced to resign on 10 October 1941. In 1942, he became Croatian Ambassador to Romania, and from 1944 until 1945, was Ambassador to Hungary. His involvement in the Lorković-Vokić coup put him in disagreement with Croatian leadership and did not return to Zagreb. After the war he went to Spain and then emigrated to Argentina where he worked in Direction for Immigrants. After the fall of his friend President

Juan Domingo Perón ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

in 1955, he went to

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and became chief of section in the American hospital in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

. While in Central America, he established a smuggling ring for getting Nazi war criminals out of Europe. Benzon was responsible for bringing over 100 former officers overseas, including

Josef Mengele , allegiance = , branch = Schutzstaffel , serviceyears = 1938–1945 , rank = ''Schutzstaffel, SS''-''Hauptsturmführer'' (Captain) , servicenumber = , battles = , unit = , awards = , command ...

, the infamous doctor from

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

known for his human experiments. The war criminals came from cities around the globe where they contacted Argentinian spies and Italian sympathisers, receiving new identities and papers classifying them as technicians.

Pre-war life

Diplomatic career and emigration

Notes

References

Further reading