Ivo Herenčić

Ivan "Ivo" Herenčić (28 February 1910 – 8 December 1978) was a general in the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH), a fascist puppet state.

Ivo Herenčić was born on 28 February 1910 in Bjelovar, a city in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

He attended high school in Zagreb after which he attended a business college in the same city.

From 1930 to 1931, he attended the school for reserve officers of the Royal Yugoslav Army in Sarajevo.

In the early 1930s, Herenčić was a member of the security detail for the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, Vladko Maček.

In 1933, he left Yugoslavia to join the fascist and ultranationalist Croatian Ustaše movement in Italy.

Late that year, Herenčić participated in an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander.

In 1933, Herenčić left Yugoslavia and on 9 September he joined a camp for members of the ultra-nationalist and fascist Ustaše organisation in Borgo Val di Taro, Italy.

While in Italy, he adopted pseudonym Hetman.

this being a historical military title used in the Polish–Lithuanian state.

Herenčić was a leader of an Ustaše plot to assassinate Alexander, King of Yugoslavia, in Zagreb.

The King was visiting the city to celebrate his and his wife Maria's birthday and the anniversary of the creation of Yugoslavia.

In Piacenza, on 9 December 1933, Herenčić met with another Ustaša, Petar Oreb, who was meant to assassinate the King.

Oreb and Herenčić traveled to Klagenfurt in Austria using fake passports in the names of Emil Benedikt and Janoš Kren respectively.

They illegally crossed the Austrian–Yugoslav border and spent a night in Celje.

They arrived in Zagreb on 11 December and were welcomed into the home of Josip Begović, a student.

On 16 December, the King arrived in Zagreb and was welcomed by a crowd at Jelačić Square.

Oreb was in the crowd and had two hand grenades in his pockets which he had been taught how to throw in a training camp in.

Herenčić and Begović were also nearby.

Oreb was tasked with assassinating the King while Begović was to throw another grenade into the crowd immediately after Oreb's attack, in order to cause panic which would allow them to escape apprehension.

When the King's car arrived at the center of the square, a group of children ran towards Alexander.

Oreb was petrified after seeing the children, and Begović suggested that he throw a grenade at the military band behind the car, but Oreb refused.

They left the square and started making new plans for the King's assassination.

On the same day, Herenčić left Zagreb while Oreb and Begović were joined by another Ustaša, Anton Podgorelac.

During the night police found out where the three Ustašas were, and, at dawn, broke into Begović's apartment.

Oreb fired two shots, killing one policeman and injuring another, after which he managed to escape.

Podgorelac and Begović were taken into custody where they gave a detailed description of Oreb, who was caught by the police the same day, in Velika Gorica.

After the interrogation of the three imprisoned Ustašas, Herenčić was implicated.

Klagenfurt police attempted to determine whether Herenčić and other Ustaše were in Klagenfurt and were involved in the assassination plot.

They managed to find out that Herenčić had met with Begović and Vladimir Singer in the autumn of 1933, and also that Herenčić was in Klagenfurt just before and after the assassination attempt.

In 1941, he commanded a battalion of Ustaše Militia that committed many war crimes and atrocities on civilians during the Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia.

Born in Bjelovar in Austria-Hungary, he completed his secondary and tertiary education in Zagreb and Sarajevo in what was by then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Herenčić returned to his homeland when the NDH was established following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941.

He was sent to the Herzegovina region where he formed and commanded the Mostar Battalion which committed war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Herenčić also served in the surveillance departments of the NDH, and committed atrocities that made him much feared.

After being involved in an assassination attempt on Home Guard general Ivan Prpić in 1943, Herenčić had to emigrate to Hungary.

Several months later he was brought back to Croatia to help uncover the Lorković–Vokić plot against the NDH government.

In March 1945 he was appointed commander of 5th Ustaše Corps of the Croatian Armed Forces (Hrvatske oružane snage, HOS) and in the same month Herenčić was one of the leaders of the withdrawal of the HOS towards Austria.

He participated in negotiations with the British, who decided that members of the NDH armed forces and accompanying civilians would not be allowed to proceed further and would have to surrender their arms to the Yugoslav Partisans.

Herenčić evaded the Yugoslav pursuit of Nazi collaborators and was able to escape to Italy and later to Argentina where he died in 1978.