Rafael Boban

Rafael "Ranko" Boban (22 December 1907 – disappearance in 1945) was a Croatian military commander who served in the Ustaše Militia and Croatian Armed Forces during World War II. Having participated in the Velebit uprising in 1932, he joined the Royal Italian Army and returned to Croatia following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. He fought with the Ustaše until the end of the war, when he is reported to have evaded the Yugoslav Partisans and reached the Austrian town of Bleiburg. Nothing is known of what happened to him afterwards, and it was rumoured that he was either killed in Podravina in 1945, died fighting with the Crusaders in Herzegovina in 1947, or, less likely, emigrated to the United States via Argentina, joined the United States Army and fought Communist forces in the Korean War. In 1951, he was named the Croatian Minister of Defence in-exile by Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić.

Rafael Boban
Birth name	Rafael Boban
Nickname(s)	Ranko
Born	(1907-12-22)22 December 1907 Sovići, Grude, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary
Disappeared	May 1945
Allegiance	Yugoslavia (–1932) Ustaše (1932–1945)  Independent State of Croatia (1941–1945)
Service/branch	Ustaše Militia Croatian Armed Forces
Rank	General (Croatian Armed Forces) Colonel (Ustaše Militia)
Commands	Black Legion
Battles/wars	Velebit uprising World War II Eastern Herzegovina Uprising

Early life

Rafael Boban was born on 22 December 1907 in the village of Sovići, near the town of Grude, Austria-Hungary.^[1] He was a Roman Catholic Herzegovinian Croat.^[2][3] He served as an officer in the Royal Yugoslav Army prior to joining Ustaše units based in Italy in the summer of 1932. In September 1932, he returned to Croatia and participated in the Ustaše-led Velebit uprising against Yugoslav rule. Afterwards, he traveled to Italian-controlled Zadar to request Italian citizenship and protection. In May 1934, Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić promoted Boban to the rank of sergeant in the Ustaše and he became a member of Pavelić's inner circle. The following year, Boban became a deputy commander of a Royal Italian Army company based in Lipari before being transferred to Calabria. At the beginning of December 1937, Italian authorities arrested him and other members of the Ustaše on suspicion that they were planning to assassinate Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Stojadinović. They were all quickly released.^[1]

World War II

With the creation of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) in April 1941, Boban returned to Croatia and joined the Ustaše Militia. He went to Kupres with 250 Ustaše under his command^[4] and organized mass murder of local Serbs.^[5]

During the June 1941 uprising in eastern Herzegovina Boban was member of group of Ustaše officers led by Mijo Babić which reinforced Ustaše troops attacking the Serb rebels.^[6] Their aim was to suppress the uprising and completely destroy Serb population.^[7] On 3 July 1941 Boban commanded one of three main groups of Ustaše forces that attacked the rebels along the line: Vranjkuk - Rupari - Trusina - Šušnjatica.^[8] On 24 July 1941 Boban commanded a group of Ustaše from Međugorje and Čitluk that imprisoned 20 Serb villagers from village Baćevići and killed them in Međugorje, disposing their bodies in a nearby pit.^[9]

He was promoted to the rank of captain in November^[1] and later became commander of the Black Legion alongside Jure Francetić. Boban assumed full command of the legion following Francetić's death in December 1942.^[10] Ustaše propaganda declared him Francetić's natural successor.^[11] The legion operated in various parts of the NDH under his command.^[10]

Boban was promoted to the rank of general in December 1944 and became the head of the Podravina-based Fifth Ustaše Active Brigade of the Croatian Armed Forces that month.^[12] That autumn, he was responsible for guarding the imprisoned politicians Mladen Lorković and Ante Vokić in the town of Koprivnica. He held the rank of colonel within the Ustaše Militia by April 1945. In May, he withdrew with the Ustaše towards Austria and is reported to have successfully reached the town of Bleiburg,^[1] alongside Pavelić and Vjekoslav Luburić.^[13]

Many theories exist about what happened to him. One theory states that he was killed in Podravina in 1945, while another states that he either died fighting with the Crusaders in Herzegovina in 1947 or that he emigrated to the United States via Argentina, joined the United States Army and fought Communist forces in the Korean War.^[1]

Legacy

In 1951, Boban was named the Croatian Minister of Defence in-exile by Pavelić.^[1] During the Bosnian War, a brigade of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) was named after him.^[14] The Roman Catholic church in the Herzegovinian village of Bobani is decorated with his pictures.^[15] In July 2022, twenty-five of the Mostar city council's thirty-five members voted to remove street names named after figures linked to the World War II fascist and genocidal Ustaše movement, among them Boban, Mile Budak, Mladen Lorković, Ante Vokić, Đuro Spužević, Jure Francetić and Ivo Zelenek. This decision was welcomed by the United States Embassy in Sarajevo and Christian Schmidt, then High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[16]

Notes

1. Dizdar 1997, p. 42.
2. Tomasevich 2001, pp. 378–379.
3. Banac 1996, p. 142.
4. (Damjanović, Tomić & Ćosić 2000, p. 316):"У јуну 1941. године, одред од двеста педесет усташа под командом Рафаела Бобана и Авде Волудера, дошло је у Купрес.
5. (Despot 2007, p. 162)
6. (Strugar 1997, p. 709):"пристигла је у помоћ група усташких официра са "поглавним побочником" Мијом Бабићем. У тој групи налазилу су се још и Антон Подгорелац, „почасни припадник" поглавникове бојпе и поручник Рафаел Бобан, натпоручник Анте Перковић, Крешо Тоногал итд...
7. (Мирковић 2005, p. 196):" У Столац и Берковиће дошли су најближи сарадници Павелића: Мијо Бабић, Рафаел Бобан, Антун Зличарић и Херман Тогонал да се договоре о гушењу устанка у источној Херцеговини и потпуном уништењу српског становништва"
8. (Skoko 1991, p. 175)
9. (Skoko 1991, p. 244):"Dvadeset četvrtog jula stradali su odrasli muškarci sela Baćevića. Toga dana pred veče, ovo selo je blokirala grupa ustaša iz Međugorja i Čitluka, kojom je komandovao jedan od najistaknutijih ustaških rasova - Rafael Boban, .... Bobanova grupa je uhvatila 20 ljudi srpske nacionalnosti iz sela Baćevića...Docnije se saznalo da su odvezeni do jame u Međugorju i tamo, »na razne načine«, poubijani i bačeni u mračni ponor provalije. "
10. Tomasevich 2001, p. 422.
11. Yeomans 2011, p. 202.
12. See:

    • Dizdar 1997, p. 42;
    • Tomasevich 2001, p. 422.
13. Dorril 2002, p. 336.
14. Žanić 2007, p. 489.
15. Sells 1998, p. 106.
16. Kurtic 15 July 2022.

References

• Banac, Ivo (1996). "From Religious Community to Socialist Nationhood and Post-Communist Statehood, 1918–1992". In Pinson, Mark (ed.). The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Their Historic Development from the Middle Ages to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 129–154. ISBN 978-0-932885-12-8.
• Damjanović, Ratomir Rale; Tomić, Novo; Ćosić, Sanja (2000). Serbia--srpski narod, srpska zemlja, srpska duhovnost u delima stranih autora : pesme i poeme, pripovetke, romani, drame, putopisi, besede, dnevnici, memoari, eseji, pisma, zapisi. Itaka. ISBN 9788681635193.
• Despot, Zvonimir (2007). Vrijeme zločina: novi prilozi za povijest koprivničke Podravine 1941. - 1948. Hrvatski institut za povijest. ISBN 9789536324576.
• Dizdar, Zdravko (1997). "Boban, Rafael". In Dizdar, Zdravko; Grčić, Marko; Ravlić, Slaven; Stuparić, Darko (eds.). Tko je tko u NDH (in Croatian). Zagreb, Croatia: Minerva. ISBN 978-953-6377-03-9.
• Dorril, Stephen (2002). MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0379-8.
• Kurtic, Azem (15 July 2022). "International Community Welcomes Street Names Changes in Bosnia's Mostar". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
• Sells, Michael A. (1998). The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-92209-9.
• Skoko, Savo (1991). Pokolji hercegovačkih Srba '41. Stručna knjiga. ISBN 9788641900996.
• Strugar, Vlado (1997). Drugi svjetski rat--50 godina kasnije: radovi sa naučnog skupa, Podgorica, 20-22. septembar 1996. Crnogorska akademija nauka i umjetnosti. ISBN 978-86-7215-089-6.
• Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2.
• Yeomans, Rory (2011). "'For us, beloved commander, you will never die!': Mourning Jure Francetić, Ustasha Death Squad Leader". In Haynes, Rebecca; Rady, Martyn (eds.). In the Shadow of Hitler: Personalities of the Right in Central and Eastern Europe. London, England: I.B. Tauris. pp. 188–205. ISBN 978-1-84511-697-2.
• Žanić, Ivo (2007). Flag on the Mountain: A Political Anthropology of War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1990–1995. London, England: Saqi. ISBN 978-0-86356-815-2.
• Мирковић, Јован (2005). Genocid u 20. veku na prostorima jugoslovenskih zemalja: zbornik radova sa naučnog skupa, Beograd, 22-23. april 2003. Музеј жртава геноцида. ISBN 978-86-906329-1-6.