Mehmed Alajbegović (7 May 1906 – 7 June 1947) was a Bosnian Muslim 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 puppet state. He was executed for war crimes by Yugoslav authorities following the war.

Early life

Mehmed Alajbegović was born in Bihać on 7 May 1906, into a Bosnian Muslim 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. 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

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, 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, 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. 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 compile ...

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 Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...

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

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and met with German leader

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he attempted to reconcile nationalist factions fighting in occupied Yugoslavia, such as the Montenegrin separatist leader Sekula Drljević, 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 Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Ar ...

, in order to form an

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and 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, when the United States and the ...

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 language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

. 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,

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=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

, where he was arrested by Allied 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