Vjekoslav Vrančić

Vjekoslav Vrančić (25 March 1904 - 25 September 1990) was a high ranked Croatian Ustaše official who held different positions in the Independent State of Croatia. After the proclamation, he served as the Under Secretary of the Ustaše Foreign Affairs Ministry. In 1942, he was Pavelić's envoy to the Italian Second Army. In this role he entered into negotiations with Chetnik representatives Jevđeviċ, Grđiċ and Kraljeviċ. Then he served as Under Secretary in the Ustaše Interior Ministry, the "body directly responsible for concentration camps and repressive political apparatus". Vrančić was "decorated by Hitler in honor of his planning skills at the work of mass deportation".

He was a Pavelić's man of greatest confidence and delegate to important political and military events in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Vrančić was an Ustaša who wrote directives denying Muslims as a nation and claiming that Bosnian Muslims were Croats of Islamic faith

Contrary to the Pavelić's confidence in Vrančić, Eugen Dido Kvaternik, a high ranked Ustaša, wrote that Vrančić was "a blind instrument of Pavelić's personal intrigues" and a servant of some Kingdom of Yugoslavia Police attache

Vrančić, as Pavelić's representative, was in charge to facilitate the establishment of the "Kroatische Waffen-SS Freiwilligen Division" with the SS high-ranked officers in Zagreb on May 5, 1943.

He reached the rank of Major in the Ustaša forces. More significantly, he held the government posts of Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and later Minister of Labour of the Independent State of Croatia.

In order to facilitateUstaše regime surrender to the Western Allies, Pavelić sent Vrančić (with Andrija Vrkljan as interpreter) to the Allied supreme commander in Italy. Vrančić and Vrkljan were put there in a prisoner-of-war camp.

He was allowed to escape there into a protective custody of Vatican with the help of United States Intelligence. Vrančić left Italy to Argentina under false papers obtained with the help of Krunoslav Draganovic. He lived the rest of his life there until his death in Buenos Aires in 1990. He was active in the Croatian community of Argentina, and became vice-president of the Croatian so-called "government in exile" under Ante Pavelić. Vrančić was also involved in terrorist activities with extreme right-wing Argentine political groups. Fof his activities among exiled Ustaše, Vrančić was barred from entering Australia in 1974. In Argentina, he formed the weekly paper Hrvatski narod ("Croatian People').

At the Croatian National Council's parliament in 1980, Vrančić stated that the new Croatian nation could not rely on the tradition of the Independent State of Croatia, and would have to minimize that tradition as much as possible.

Vrančić was awarded the honorary title Vitez ("knight") and as such the title is often included with his name.

His father was buried in Gacko, Eastern Herzegowina (https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/69162_10151191640433656_421821577_n.jpg)