Mile Budak

• Name — Mile Budak • Order — 3rd • Office — Foreign Minister of the Independent State of Croatia • Term Start — 23 April 1943 • Term End — 5 November 1943 • Leader — Ante Pavelić • Predecessor — Mladen Lorković • Successor — Stijepo Perić • Office2 — Ambassador to Nazi Germany • Term Start2 — 2 November 1941 • Term End2 — 23 April 1943 • Order3 — 1st • Office3 — Minister of Education of the Independent State of Croatia • Term Start3 — 16 April 1941 • Term End3 — 2 November 1941 • Leader3 — Ante Pavelić • Predecessor3 — Office established • Successor3 — Stjepan Ratković • Office4 — President of the Croatian State Leadership • Term Start4 — 12 April 1941 • Term End4 — 16 April 1941 • Predecessor4 — Office established • Successor4 — Office abolished • Born — 30 August 1889 • Birthplace — Sveti Rok, Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary • Died — 7 June 1945 • Place of death — Zagreb, SR Croatia, Democratic Federal Yugoslavia • Death Cause — Execution by hanging • Party — Ustaše • Occupation — * Politician • writer • Occupation — Lawyer

Mile Budak was born in Sveti Rok, in Lika, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He attended school in Sarajevo and studied law at the University of Zagreb. In 1912, he was arrested by Austro-Hungarian authorities over his alleged role in the attempted assassination of Slavko Cuvaj, the ban of Croatia.

• Illustration — Budak after the assassination attempt, 1932 Budak and Vladko Maček served as lawyers representing Marko Hranilović and Matija Soldin at trial amid the 6 January Dictatorship. On 7 June 1932, he survived an assassination attempt by operatives close to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Afterwards, he migrated to Italy to join the Ustashas and become the commander of an Ustasha training camp. Budak was known for his literary work, especially novels and plays in which he had glorified Croatian peasantry. His works included the 1938 Ognjište (The Hearth), the 1933 Opanci dida Vidurine (Grandpa Vidurina's Opanci), and the 1939 Rascvjetana trešnja (The Blossoming Cherry Tree). About Budak's writing, his contemporary Ernst Erich Noth wrote: "Here we find the stubborn, spiritual-realistic conception of man and his relation to the soil on which he lives and which Mile Budak symbolizes as 'the hearth'". In 1938, he returned to Zagreb where he began publishing the weekly newspaper Hrvatski narod. The newspaper was vocal in its criticism of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) and opposed the Cvetković–Maček Agreement, by which the autonomous Banovina of Croatia was created. In 1940, the authorities of the Banovina of Croatia banned the newspaper and had Budak arrested, along with 50 other Ustaše members. They were first interned in the Lepoglava prison, and were later transferred to Kruščica near Travnik. On 31 March 1941, in a joint letter to Adolf Hitler, Ante Pavelić and Budak asked him "to help Croatian people establish an independent Croatian state that would encompass the old Croatian regions, among them Bosnia and Herzegovina".

Upon the proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on 10 April 1941, Budak became the state's chief propagandist and Minister of Education and Faith. As such, he publicly stated that forcible expulsion and religious conversion of the ethnic Serb minority was the official national policy. Budak signed the Ustashe regime's racial laws against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Croatian novelist Miroslav Krleža described Budak as "a minister of culture with a machine gun". Budak pursued in his positions virulent anti-Serb agitation. Thus, he remarked on 6 June 1941 in Križevci: According to an alleged statement, reportedly said by Budak, the Ustaše plan was to "kill one part of the Serbs, evacuate another and lead over one part to Catholicism and thus transform them into Croats." The origins of this statement are unclear. According to Veljko Bulajić, the statement originates from a speech in Gospić on 22 July 1941. Other authors claim that it came in a radio broadcast, while some attribute it to Dido Kvaternik. In a report to the Yugoslav government-in-exile, the statement was attributed to Andrija Artuković. There are various versions of the quote that differ in wording. The historian Tomislav Dulić said that he "tried to find a primary source that could confirm the existence and exact wording of this statement", but was "not been able to ascertain whether such a statement actually exists". • Illustration — Nazi collaborator Haj Amin al-Husseini and Mile Budak meeting in occupied Sarajevo, 1943. He later became a Croatian envoy to Nazi Germany (November 1941 – April 1943) and the Foreign Minister (May 1943 – November 1943). Following the Independent State of Croatia evacuation to Austria, Budak was captured by British military authorities and handed over to Josip Broz Tito's Partisans on 18 May 1945. He was court-martialled (before the military court of the 2nd Yugoslav army) in Zagreb on 6 June 1945 and was sentenced to death by hanging the same day. His execution the following day took place exactly 13 years after the assassination attempt on his life. During the trial, Budak was described to behave "cowardly, constantly weeping, and claiming he was not guilty of anything".

Mile Budak is recorded with the occupation Holocaust perpetrator. Recorded with the occupation poet lawyer. Recorded as politician, writer, playwright, poet lawyer and minister.