Independent State of Croatia

The Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) was a World War II–era quasi-protectorate of Fascist Italy (1941–1943) and puppet state of Nazi Germany (1941–1945). It was established in parts of occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, after the invasion by the Axis powers. Its territory consisted mostly of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as some parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia, but also excluded many Croat-populated areas in Dalmatia, Istria, and Međimurje regions.

During its entire existence, the NDH was governed as a one-party state by the fascist Ustaše organization under its Poglavnik, Ante Pavelić. The regime targeted Serbs, Jews and Roma as part of a large-scale campaign of genocide, as well as anti-fascist or dissident Croats and Bosnian Muslims. According to Stanley G. Payne, "crimes in the NDH were proportionately surpassed only by Nazi Germany, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and several of the extremely genocidal African regimes." Out of 22 concentration camps in NDH-controlled territory, Jasenovac was the largest while Jastrebarsko and Sisak held only children.

From the signing of the Treaties of Rome on 18 May 1941 until the Italian capitulation on 8 September 1943, the state was a territorial condominium of Germany and Italy. As Pavelić came to power, alongside the Ustaše, German Führer Adolf Hitler and Italian Duce Benito Mussolini resourced and gave political power to the NDH as it determined its frontiers. In its judgement in the Hostages Trial, the Nuremberg Military Tribunal concluded that NDH was not a sovereign state. According to the Tribunal, "Croatia was at all times here involved an occupied country".