Editing Axis powers (section)

=== Independent State of Croatia ===
{{Main|Independent State of Croatia}}
[[File:Adolf Hitler meets Ante Pavelić.1941.jpg|thumb|[[Adolf Hitler]] meeting with NDH leader [[Ante Pavelić]]]]

On 10 April 1941, the so-called [[Independent State of Croatia]] (''Nezavisna Država Hrvatska'', or NDH), an installed German–Italian puppet state, co-signed the Tripartite Pact. The NDH remained a member of the Axis until the end of Second World War, its forces fighting for Germany even after its territory had been overrun by [[Yugoslav Partisans]]. On 16 April 1941, [[Ante Pavelić]], a Croatian nationalist and one of the founders of the [[Ustaše]] (''"Croatian Liberation Movement"''), was proclaimed ''[[Poglavnik]]'' (leader) of the new regime.

Initially the Ustaše had been heavily influenced by Italy. They were actively supported by Mussolini's [[National Fascist Party]] regime in Italy, which gave the movement training grounds to prepare for war against Yugoslavia, as well as accepting Pavelić as an exile and allowing him to reside in Rome. In 1941 during the Italian invasion of Greece, Mussolini requested that Germany invade Yugoslavia to save the Italian forces in Greece. Hitler reluctantly agreed; Yugoslavia was invaded and the NDH was created. Pavelić led a delegation to Rome and offered the crown of the NDH to an Italian prince of the [[House of Savoy]], who was crowned [[Tomislav II]]. The next day, Pavelić signed the Contracts of Rome with Mussolini, ceding [[Dalmatia]] to Italy and fixing the permanent borders between the NDH and Italy. Italian armed forces were allowed to control all of the coastline of the NDH, effectively giving Italy total control of the Adriatic coastline. When the King of Italy ousted Mussolini from power and Italy capitulated, the NDH became completely under German influence.

The platform of the Ustaše movement proclaimed that Croatians had been oppressed by the Serb-dominated Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and that Croatians deserved to have an independent nation after years of domination by foreign empires. The Ustaše perceived Serbs to be racially inferior to Croats and saw them as infiltrators who were occupying Croatian lands. They saw the extermination and expulsion or deportation of Serbs as necessary to racially purify Croatia. While part of Yugoslavia, many [[Croatian nationalism|Croatian nationalists]] violently opposed the Serb-dominated Yugoslav monarchy, and assassinated [[Alexander I of Yugoslavia]], together with the [[Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization]]. Ustashe forces fought against communist [[Yugoslav Partisans|Yugoslav Partisan]] guerrilla throughout the war.

The Ustaše regime lacked general support among Croats and never accrued any significant support among the populace.{{sfn|Shepherd|2012|p=78}}<ref name="Israeli">{{cite book |last1=Israeli |first1=Raphael |title=The Death Camps of Croatia: Visions and Revisions, 1941–1945 |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-35148-403-9 |page=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uxwuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45}}</ref> The Ustaše regime was backed by parts of the Croat population that during the [[interwar period]] had felt oppressed in the Serb-led [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. Most of the support it had initially gained by creating a Croatian national state was lost because of the brutal practices it used.<ref name="Sindbaek2002">{{cite book|last=Sindbaek|first=Tina|title=Usable History?: Representations of Yugoslavia's Difficult Past from 1945 to 2002|year=2002|publisher=Aarhus University Press|page=27}}</ref>

Upon coming to power, Pavelić formed the [[Croatian Home Guard (World War II)|Croatian Home Guard]] (''Hrvatsko domobranstvo'') as the official military force of the NDH. Originally authorized at 16,000 men, it grew to a peak fighting force of 130,000. The Croatian Home Guard included an air force and navy, although its navy was restricted in size by the Contracts of Rome. In addition to the Croatian Home Guard, Pavelić was also the supreme commander of the [[Ustaše militia]], although all NDH military units were generally under the command of the German or Italian formations in their area of operations.

The Ustaše government declared war on the Soviet Union, signed the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1941, and sent troops to Germany's Eastern Front. Ustaše militia were garrisoned in the Balkans, battling the communist partisans.

The Ustaše government applied racial laws on Serbs, Jews, and [[Romani people]], as well as targeting those opposed to the fascist regime, and after June 1941 deported them to the [[Jasenovac concentration camp]] or to [[Nazi concentration camps]] in Poland. The racial laws were enforced by the Ustaše militia. The exact number of victims of the Ustaše regime is uncertain due to the destruction of documents and varying numbers given by historians. According to the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] in Washington, D.C., between [[Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|320,000 and 340,000 Serbs were killed in the NDH]].<ref name="US Holocaust Memorial Museum">[https://web.archive.org/web/20030711191159/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005449 Jasenovac] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum web site</ref>