Herenčić returned to his homeland when the NDH was established following the Axisinvasion 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 (Croatian: 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.
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.[5] 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.[6] On 16 December,[b] 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 Vischetto [sh]. 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.[5]
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.[8] After the interrogation of the three imprisoned Ustašas, Herenčić was implicated.[9] 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. However, this was not enough to prove that Herečić had been involved.[10]
Upon returning to Italy Herenčić continued to live and work in various Ustaše camps.[1] He also continued to occasionally travel to Austria in order to complete different Ustaše missions, such as recruiting new members into the Ustaše, which gained him the nickname Konzul (English: Consul).[11][12] In 1935, he became the commander of the 1st Ustaše Company, a paramilitary unit with a strength of 74 men, stationed on the Italian island of Lipari.[13]
World War II
Herenčić participated in a meeting in Pistoia on 10 April 1941, organized by the Ustaše leader (Poglavnik), Ante Pavelić, after the Ustaše received uniforms and weapons from the Italians following the news of initial German success in the invasion of Yugoslavia.[14] On 11 April, while the invasion was still underway, Herenčić traveled together with Pavelić and other Ustašas to Trieste. The following morning Pavelić tasked Herenčić with traveling to Zagreb where he was supposed to meet with the Ustaše deputy leader, Slavko Kvaternik. Herenčić's mission to Zagreb was canceled after the Italian general Vittorio Ambrosio told Pavelić that the Ustašas could travel to Zagreb that day, as the Italian Army had reached Karlovac.[15] After being provided with buses and automobiles in Trieste on the same day, Ustašas traveled towards Zagreb and they entered the city on 15 April.[16]
After Pavelić arrived in Zagreb, he sent Herenčić along with Jure Francetić and Mijo Babić to Bosnia and Herzegovina to form Ustaše units and organizations.[17] Herenčić participated in the suppression of the Serb uprising in eastern Herzegovina in June and early July 1941. Main Ustaša Headquarters sent Herenčić to Mostar in mid-July. A few days after he arrived, arrests and killings of Serbs and Jews began in the city. Between 19 July and 4 August 750 people were arrested in Mostar and sent to various concentration camps in the NDH.[7] On 2 August, Herenčić ordered the establishment of the Jablanicaconcentration camp where, according to one witness, around 400 Serbs were detained.[18] During the summer of 1941, Herenčić formed the Ustaše Mostar Battalion and became its first commander.[1] His battalion committed various war crimes in the Mostar area, where it operated until 7 September when Italy took full control of the area. After this, the battalion traveled to the German occupation zone, where it continued to commit atrocities that disgusted even the high-ranking officials of the NDH.[19] In November, Herenčić was promoted to the rank of major and soon after to lieutenant colonel. Later he was wounded while participating in fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[1]
In April 1941, Herenčić was appointed as a commissioner in RAVSIGUR, a supervisory department in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.[1][20] In April 1942, the Chief Surveillance Department[c] was created and tasked with overseeing the work of the Ustaše Surveillance Service (UNS)[d] and of the police. Herenčić was appointed its leader with LieutenantMirko Vutuc as his deputy.[21] Herenčić remained in this position until August 1943, when he ordered the assassination of the Chief of Staff of the Croatian Home Guard, General Ivan Prpić, as he feared Prpić might reveal compromising information about him and other Ustaše Militia officers. The assassination failed and Herenčić had to flee to Hungary.[22] He was brought back to Zagreb by RAVSIGUR in the spring of 1944 when he was tasked with uncovering the Lorković–Vokić plot against the NDH government.[23] Herenčić was one of the most feared UNS and RAVSIGUR officers because of the atrocities previously committed by units under his command.[24]
In mid-December 1944, Herenčić was promoted to the rank of general[25] and in mid-March 1945, he was appointed commander of the newly formed 5th Ustaše Corps.[26] Herenčić, along with two other generals, Vladimir Metikoš and Vjekoslav Servatzy, led the withdrawal of the Croatian Armed Forces towards Austria with the goal of surrendering to the advancing British.[27] Once the lead elements of the fleeing columns reached Bleiburg just across the Austrian border on 14 May 1945 they were stopped by the British 38th (Irish) Brigade, commanded by BrigadierPatrick T.D. Scott. Herenčić, together with Metikoš, Servatzy and Danijel Crljen met with Scott on the same day. Scott decided that the NDH troops and the civilians accompanying them should not withdraw any further. On 15 May, Herenčić, Metikoš, Servatzy and Crljen, representing the retreating NDH forces, met with Scott and the Partisan representatives, Milan Basta and Ivan Kovačić-Efenka. During this meeting, it was decided that the NDH forces would have to surrender to the Partisans.[28][29]
Post-war life and death
Although he was not able to negotiate passage for the NDH forces and the accompanying civilians into Austria, Herenčić himself was able to escape into the countryside and make his way to Italy.[30] He lived for a time in Rome near Porta Pia, working as an art dealer.[31] Later he traveled to Argentina, where he died on 8 December 1978 in Buenos Aires, aged 68.[32]
Personal life
During World War II, Herenčić married Vera Javor, Ante Pavelić's secretary; she fled to Argentina with Herenčić. She died in Buenos Aires on 19 August 1991.[33]
^Sources contradict on the date the King arrived in Zagreb. Adriano and Cingolani give the date as 11 December[5] while Krizman and Skoko give that date as 16 December.[6][7]
Blažeković, Milan (1997). "Herenčić, Vera". In Dizdar, Zdravko; Grčić, Marko; Ravlić, Slaven; Stuparić, Darko (eds.). Tko je tko u NDH [Who Was Who in the NDH] (in Croatian). Zagreb, Croatia: Minerva. ISBN978-953-6377-03-9.
Geiger, Vladimir (2003). "Osvrt na važniju literaturu o Bleiburgu 1945" [Important literature on Bleiburg events in May 1945] (PDF). Journal of Contemporary History (in Croatian). 35 (1). Croatian Institute of History: 189–216. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
Jelinović, Zvonimir (1995). "Hrvatska vojska (domobranstvo) i obrana"(PDF). Časopis za suvremenu povijest (in Croatian). 27 (3). Zagreb: Croatian Institute of History: 569–583. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
Kovačić, Davor (2009). Redarstveno—obavještatjni sustav Nezavisne Državne Hrvatske od 1941. do 1945 godine (in Croatian). Hrvatski institut za povijest. ISBN978-953-6324-74-3.
Krizman, Bogdan (1978). Ante Pavelić i ustaše [Ante Pavelić and Ustaše]. Zagreb, Croatia: Globus.
Rupić, Mato; Aljinović, Rudi (1997). "Herenčić, Ivo". In Dizdar, Zdravko; Grčić, Marko; Ravlić, Slaven; Stuparić, Darko (eds.). Tko je tko u NDH [Who Was Who in the NDH] (in Croatian). Zagreb, Croatia: Minerva. ISBN978-953-6377-03-9.
