Marko Natlačen was a Slovenian politician and jurist, who also served as the last ban of the Drava Banovina in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He played His assassination at the hands of the Slovenian Communist secret police during World War II was an important event in the escalation of the armed conflict between the Slovenian partisans and the Slovenian anti-revolutionary forces in the Province of Ljubljana. The role of Natlačen during World War II and the extent to which he collaborated with the Fascist Italian forces has been disputed.
Biography
Natlačen was born in the village of Manče in the upper Vipava Valley, in what was then the Duchy of Carniola within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Natlačen finished his law studies in Vienna and then moved to Ljubljana, where he worked in a law firm. He was a member of the Slovene People's Party and an anticommunist. During the Second World War he founded the National Council of Slovenia together with the leaders of other political parties. On May 4, 1941, the day after the Italians annexed the Province of Ljubljana to Italy, Natlačen and a number of other Slovene politicians wrote a letter to Mussolini, congratulating him on the act. He initially accepted a position on the Italian-establish advisory council for the Province of Ljubljana, and on June 8 led a delegation to meet with Mussolini in Rome, after which he wrote Mussolini another letter expressing "complete loyalty". But he resigned later that year since he saw the Italians were not interested even in any advice from the council and his opposition to the Italian authorities and their unlawful treatment of people in the Province of Ljubljana. Together with the Albert Kramer of the Liberal Party, he helped draft the London Points on October 1941, which stated that the goals of Slovene prewar parties was the renewal of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and designed that Chetnik army of Draža Mihailović as the only legal force, while all others, including the Partisans, were declared treasonous In 1942 Natlačen played a key role in establishing the MVAC, a Slovene collaborationist militia that fought under the command of the Italian forces, having written in May 1942 a memorandum to the Italians suggesting the creation of such units. Natlačen was still the internal leader of the Slovene People's Party, when the party's army, the Slovene Legion, joined the Italian MVAC forces, to jointly fight against the Partisans He was assassinated by the communist secret police at the order of the Communist Party of Slovenia. Reflecting his importance to the collaborationist cause, the Fascist authorities in retaliation for Natlačen shot 24 Slovene hostages, suspected supporters of the Liberation Front. After the war the communist authorities desecrated his grave, exhumed his remains, and disposed of them at an unknown location.
