Dinko Šakić, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Dinko Šakić

Croatian war criminal

Date of Birth: 08-Sep-1921

Place of Birth: Imotski, Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia

Date of Death: 20-Jul-2008

Profession: criminal, concentration camp guard

Zodiac Sign: Virgo


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About Dinko Šakić

  • Dinko Šakic (8 September 1921 – 20 July 2008) was a Croatian fascist leader and war criminal who commanded the Jasenovac concentration camp in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) from April to November 1944, during World War II.
  • Born in the village of Studenci, near the town of Imotski in what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, he became a member of the fascist Ustaše at a young age.
  • When the Axis powers occupied the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Šakic, aged 19, joined the administration in Jasenovac.
  • He became the camp's assistant commander the following year, and married Nada Luburic, the half-sister of concentration camp commander Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburic, in 1943.
  • This marriage, as well as his fanatic support for Ustaše leader Ante Pavelic, led to Šakic's appointment as commander of Jasenovac in April 1944.
  • He was charged in the deaths of an estimated 2,000 people who died during his six months of command at the concentration camp. In 1945, Šakic and his wife fled the Independent State of Croatia alongside other Ustaše officials following the collapse of the NDH and Nazi Germany.
  • They emigrated to Argentina in 1947, where Šakic started a textile business, was an active member of the country's 10,000-strong Croat community, and became friends with Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner. He lived an otherwise quiet life and made no effort to hide his identity.
  • In 1990, the Feral Tribune interviewed Šakic for a magazine article and published his picture.
  • Šakic met Croatian President Franjo Tudman at a reception in Buenos Aires during the latter's visit to Argentina in 1994 and was interviewed by a Croatian publication called Magazin soon afterwards.
  • He stated in the interview that he wished more Serbs had been killed in Jasenovac, saying that he would "do it all again" and added that he "slept like a baby". In March 1998, Šakic was interviewed by Argentine national television.
  • He admitted to having been in a leadership position at Jasenovac but denied that anyone had been killed there during this time, claiming that all of those who perished had died from disease.
  • The interview was broadcast across the nation the following month.
  • It caused an uproar and caused Argentine president Carlos Menem to call for Šakic's arrest.
  • Šakic disappeared soon after and was not arrested until May 1998.
  • He was extradited to Croatia, where he was tried, found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in October 1998 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
  • He called the charges politically motivated and described himself as a Croatian patriot who only wanted to defend his country. Šakic was imprisoned in Lepoglava prison and kept in a cell that came equipped with a television set and a computer for him to write his memoirs.
  • He was allowed to visit his wife, who had been placed in a home for the elderly, several times a month.
  • He died of heart problems in a Zagreb hospital on 20 July 2008 and was later cremated in full Ustaše uniform, as per his wishes.
  • He was survived by his wife and three children.

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