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Vjekoslav Luburić

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Vjekoslav Luburić, aka Maks Luburić (1914-1969), was a member of the Croatian World War II regime the Ustaše, best known as the commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp.

File:Max Luburić.jpg
Max Luburić (second from the right)

In the beginning of the Second World War, Luburić was the commanding general for the area of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) around the Drina river, which is why he is sometimes referred to as General Drinjanin (General of the Drina).

Near the end of the war, after the NDH was defeated, Luburić led the so-called Crusaders (Križari) paramilitary for a brief time but was unsuccessful.

In May 1945, Luburić, together with Ante Pavelić, led the defeated army of the NDH to the Austrian border to surrender to Great Britain. The subsequent refusal of the British to accept them allowed for the Bleiburg massacre to happen, but Luburić himself managed to flee.

After the end of World War II, he surfaced in the West and participated in various activities of the Croatian emigrant organizations, in Spain, Sweden, Germany, Canada and elsewhere. He founded an organization called the "Croatian National Resistance" (Hrvatski narodni odpor, HNO).

Luburić was killed by an agent of UDBA, the Yugoslav secret service, Ilija Stanić on April 20, 1969, after Stanić posed as a freedom fighter and infiltrated Luburić's organisation.

He was affectionately given the name 'Maks' by lifetime friend Jure Francetić while at the Ustaša training camp 'Janka Pusta'.