Antun Bonifačić (Croatian pronunciation: [ǎntuːn bonifǎt͡ʃit͡ɕ]; 8 October 1901 – 24 April 1986)[1] was a Croatian Ustaša politician, professor, and writer.[1] He served as the head of the Department of Cultural Relations for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Independent State of Croatia,[1][2] a fascist puppet-state of Nazi Germany.
Antun Bonifačić | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 8 October 1901 |
| Died | 24 April 1986 (aged 84) Chicago, United States |
Biography
editBonifačić was born in Punat on the island of Krk on 8 October 1901.[1][2] He went to gymnasium in Pazin and Sušak.[2] In Zagreb, he studied Slavistics and the Romance languages, specializing in Croatian and French, respectively.[2] He received his doctorate with the thesis Les éléments romantiques under the tutelage Gustave Flaubert in 1924.[1][2] He then left Yugoslavia to study French literature at Sorbonne University for three years. He later returned as a teacher in Sušak, Sombor, Krk, and Zagreb, where he taught French at the University of Zagreb.[2] During World War II, he worked as the head[1] the Department for Cultural Relations at the Foreign Ministry of the Independent State of Croatia[1][2] and served as the president of the Croatian Writers' Association.[2] He was also a member of the European Writers' League (Europäische Schriftstellervereinigung), which was founded by Joseph Goebbels in 1941/42.[3]
After the Axis powers lost, he escaped to Rome,[1] then lived in Argentina and Brazil for sometime before immigrating to the United States in 1954.[1][2] Between 1975 and 1981, he was the president of the Croatian Liberation Movement,[1] a far-right political party founded by Ante Pavelić, the former dictator of the Independent State of Croatia.
Bonifačić died in Chicago on 24 April 1986.[1]
Selected works
edit- People of the West: Essays on André Gide and Henry de Montherlant (Croatian: Ljudi zapada. Eseji o André Gideu i Henry de Montherlantu, 1929)
- The Blood of Mother Earth (Croatian: Krv majke zemlje, 1935)
- Sprouts (Croatian: Mladice, 1938)
- Between Jupiter and Mars: Croatia and Europe (French: Entre Jupiter et Mars. La Croatie et l'Europe, 1944)
- You Will Be Like Gods (Croatian: Bit ćete kao bogovi, 1950)
- Let There Be Light (Croatian: Neka bude svjetlost, 1950)
- Eternal Croatia (Croatian: Vječna Hrvatska, 1953)
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Bonifačić, Antun". Hrvatska enciklopedija, mrežno izdanje (in Croatian). Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža. 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Kaminski, Martin (1989). "BONIFAČIĆ, Antun". lzmk.hr. Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
- ^ Ed. Hellmut Th. Seemann, Angela Jahn, Thorsten Valk: Europa in Weimar - Visionen eines Kontinents. Yearbook of the Classics Foundation Weimar, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0281-5. Pages 401, 402.