Draza Mihailovic (26 April 1893-17 July 1946) was the leader of the Chetniks, a monarchist movement in the Balkans during World War II. The resistance group originally fought against the Axis Powers, but it later complied with them in war crimes and allied with Nazi Germany against Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslav partisans, leading to Mihailovic's execution in 1946 for war crimes.
Biography[]
Draza Mihailovic was born on 26 April 1893 in Ivanjica, Kingdom of Serbia to a family of Orthodox Christian Serbs, and he fought in the Serbian Army in the Balkan Wars and World War I. When Nazi Germany and Italy invaded and occupied Yugoslavia in 1941 during World War II and set up the Independent State of Croatia puppet government, Mihailovic formed the Chetniks to resist the Axis Powers and restore Yugoslavia to a monarchy. Mihailovic was supported by the United Kingdom and the Western Allies at first, but Josip Broz Tito's communist Yugoslav Partisans were later supported instead of the Chetniks, and Mihailovic allied with the Axis to fight against Tito. During his insurgency, he committed atrocities against Croats and Muslims in ethnic cleansing, as he toyed with the idea of Greater Serbia. Mihailovic was abandoned by the Allies, and the Chetniks openly cooperated with the Ustace of Croatia as well as the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany. On 13 March 1946 he was captured by Tito's partisans and was sentenced to death for war crimes, and he was executed by hanging on 17 July 1946.