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Subject: Dr. Krunoslav DRAGANOVIC
Place Acquired: [censored] Evaluation: [censored] Source: [censored] |
Report No: [censored]
Date of Info: 1945-1952
Date Acquired: July 1952
Date of Report: 24 July 1952 | |
1. The College of S. Girolamo degli Illirici (St. Jerome of the Illyrians), located at 132 Via Tomacelli, Rome, is Vatican property under the protection of (Cardinal) Pietro FUMASONI-BIONDI, where young Croatian priests studying in the various Vatican Universities in Rome were lodged before the war.
2. The Rector of the College (Monsignor) Dr. Juraj MADJEREC, was appointed on the recommendation of the Archbishop of Zagreb who was acting at the behest of the late King Alexander I of Jugoslavia, who was a patron of Mons. MADJEREC.
3. In 1941, immediately after the occupation of Jugoslavia and the resulting creation of the independent state of Croatia, Dr. MADJEREC changed his political orientation and became a Ustasha. Since that time, however, the true master of the college was Dr. Krunoslav DRAGANOVIC, a man in the trust of Ante PAVELIC who appointed him professor of the University of Zagreb "for special merit". In 1943, when the Croatian legation transferred to the North of Italy (edit. comment: at the time of the formation of the puppet Fascist Republic after the liberation of Mussolini) part of the archives of that legation was moved to the College of S. Girolamo by DRAGANOVIC himself, who was considered the Ustasha "charge d'affaired" [sic] in Rome.
4. At the end of the war, many Ustasha priests and officials began to flock to Rome, thus transforming the College into a veritable Ustasha nerve center. MADJEREC and DRAGANOVIC set up the "Bratovatina" Relief Association, of which the former became president and the latter secretary, in order to obtain from the Pontifical Commission of Assistance and from other organizations, funds for the relief of Ustasha, a category of refugees which was not included in Allied organized relief. In fact, the relief work carried out through the "Bratovatina" was only in favor of Ustasha war criminals.
5. DRAGANOVIC's work was, and still is, decisively oriented in favor of the Ustashi and hating all other political tendencies. This antipathy of his for all non-Ustashi did not even spare his fellow priests, with whom he is in open and constant discord. He is an extremely ambitious man, materialistic and without love for that segment of his fellow man who does not nourish Ustasha ideology, in short, an uncompromising and dangerous extremist.
6. Cardinal FUMASONI-BIONDI did not give his consent to the functioning of the "Bratovatima", nor did the Italian CS authorities. In spite of this, the Association is still carrying on its activity despite the prohibition, to issue identity cards, under false names, to Ustasha refugees in Italy.
7. It is learned [censored] that through DRAGANOVIC's efforts, all Ustasha refugees in Italy, including Dr. Ante PAVELIC, have absconded in transatlantic countries expatriated, primarily to Argentina. The majority of these, registered by Subject under false names, were able to get a free trip at the expense of the Allied authorities (IRO; International Red Cross, etc.) He also organized the escape of Ustasha criminals from Allied concentration camps at Afragola and Ferto di Pietralata, later arranging their emigration to Argentina. Among these are the ex-Ustasha ministers PERIC and VRANCIC, the latter a bitter anti-Italian whose book against Italy is well known.
8. Subject also aided many ex-Nazis whom he registered with IRO as Croat refugees. It is alleged that for this work, Subject received large compensation from (Monsignor) Alois HUDAL and from an unidentified Protestant clergyman. It should be borne in mind however, that Subject took no interest in business which did not concern Ustashi and Nazis and, which did not yield him a particular financial benefit.
9. It is known in all Jugoslav emigre circles that Subject became head of the Ustashi in Italy, also creating an intelligence service in Rome and in Trieste. Information collected either through agents or through the direct interrogation of refugees in camps for foreigners, were, and still are, sent to the Central Direction of the Ustasha in Buenos Aires and also published in Ustasha newspaper "Croatia" put out in Argentina.
10. Subject spends a great deal, lives a comfortable life, travels considerably and lives in a private apartment at 28 Via Oslavia, Apt. 9, telephone No. 20284. All this is well known in Croat emigre circles, who have a poor opinion of him. His work is well known to the Vatican Secretariat of State, in an unfavorable light.
11. The Croat Center of the NCWC (the American National Catholic Welfare Committee) also has its headquarters, presided over in Italy by (Monsignor) Andrea LANDI and directed by the priest Josip LONCARIC who until 1951 was in charge of distributing IRO subsidies to refugees living outside of camps. For this work, LONCARIC comes under Mons. LANDI and not under Mons. MADJEREC, and is only lodged in that College as a refugee.
