Soldier-diplomat who pushed for the German alliance in Berlin and, as prime minister under occupation, sped up the Jewish deportations
Born Dimitrije Stojaković into a Serb family in Versec (Vršac), he served in the First World War as an intelligence officer of the Austro-Hungarian general staff. After the war he specialised in counter-espionage in Horthy’s counter-revolutionary army, was military attaché in Berlin from 1927 to 1933 and, from 1935 to 1944, Hungary’s minister in Berlin, where he pressed for alliance with Germany. Prime minister and foreign minister after the German occupation of March 1944, he legalised the Arrow Cross, dissolved the trade unions, jailed opponents and sharply accelerated the deportation of Jews. Forced out by Horthy’s pressure in August, he was captured by American troops after the war, handed over to Hungary, sentenced to death by a People’s Tribunal and shot in 1946.
Career timeline
- 1917–1918Intelligence officer, Austro-Hungarian general staff
- 1919–1925Intelligence and counter-espionage officer, National Army
- 1927–1933Military attaché in Berlin
- 1935–1944Minister in Berlin
- 1944Prime minister and foreign minister
- 1946Sentenced by a People’s Tribunal and executed
Yugoslav partisan-diplomat whom Stalin named a British spy to break off correspondence
Stalin wrote in his March 27, 1948 letter: 'We do not understand why the British spy Velebit continues to remain in the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the First Deputy Minister.'
A Yugoslav lawyer turned Partisan general and diplomat who served as the Partisans' liaison to Allied military missions during the war and as First Deputy Foreign Minister afterward, negotiating with the Western powers. In his March 27, 1948 letter Stalin singled out Velebit as a 'British spy' and used his continued presence in the foreign ministry as justification for breaking off frank diplomatic correspondence, making the accusation one of the triggers of the Tito-Stalin split. Forced to resign, he was later rehabilitated, serving as ambassador to Rome and London and as Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, embodying Yugoslavia's independent course through the Cold War.
Career timeline
- 1933PhD in law, University of Zagreb
- 1939Met Tito in Istanbul, joined the KPJ
- 1942–1943Liaison to Allied military missions, Partisan Supreme Command
- 1945–1948First Deputy Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia
- 1951–1952Yugoslav Ambassador to Italy
- 1952–1956Yugoslav Ambassador to the United Kingdom
- 1960–1967Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Europe
