Vlado Singer

Vlado Singer (21 October 1908 – October 1943) was a Kingdom of Yugoslavia politician and a prominent member of the Croatian Ustaše movement.

Biography Singer was born in Virovitica on 21 October 1908 to a Croatian Jewish family. Later in life he converted to the Catholic faith. He believed that for Jews in Croatia the only right way is total assimilation or identification with the Croatian national identity.

On 6 March 1932 Singer organized a demonstration at the University of Zagreb against the dictatorship of Alexander I of Yugoslavia. In March 1933 he started and edited nationalist paper "Naša gruda" (Our land). After six months he was released and moved to Italy. In Italy he resided in the Ustaša camps. Singer was again arrested after the assassination of Alexander I of Yugoslavia in Marseille, France. He was a commissioner of the supreme organ of Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement called Main Ustaša Headquarters and was described as a skilled organizer. While in Italy, according to Eugen Dido Kvaternik, only Singer critically looked at Ante Pavelić's way of life, but remained loyal.

In April 1941, Singer returned to Zagreb with Pavelić and other Ustaše leaders and was shortly after put in charge of the Special department of the Main Ustaša Headquarters. In mid-June 1941, he was put in charge of the Ustaše Surveillance Service (UNS) office.

On 14 September 1941 members of the communist movement performed a sabotage at the General Post Office in Zagreb. At the Nazis' request Singer was arrested in connection with this incident and he was imprisoned in Jasenovac concentration camp. While there, he was detained with Vladko Maček. In October 1943, after two year imprisonment, Singer was executed in the Stara Gradiška concentration camp. Historians, writers and associates relate Singer's arrest and liquidation with his Jewish background and Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić's personal antipathy towards him.