[Verginius Rufus]

I think Pavelic's connections before 1941 were entirely with Mussolini's Italy. The German decision to invade Yugoslavia was made on the spur of the moment and when Hitler decided to create a Croatian puppet state in part of the country he tried to get the leader of the main Croatian political party, the Peasant Party, to be head of that state, but that man (Vlatko Macek) refused, so Hitler turned to Pavelic, who was in exile and head of a much smaller party.

Pavelic and his supporters killed a lot of innocent people but if you added up the numbers I think you'd find that Tito killed more people during and after the war.

[vladimir998]

I think you’re right.

By the way, about Tito: he and the Ustasha were allies in the mid-to-late 30s!

[kearnyirish2]

The larger issue (communism versus monarchies/democracies) aren’t even discussed when these people born over a century ago are judged by today’s standards; the crimes perpetrated by the victors (in eastern Europe, the communists) are completely swept under the carpet.

I grew up around plenty of eastern Europeans, and their take on events back then are much more informed than what we are fed. They don’t defend either side, but present the other half of the equation that is hidden from us.