Was he conscripted? Did he actually have fascist politics or was he literally defending his homeland?
Tough to say at this point, as I say in the other comment. He was likely conscripted (he was around 18 near the end of the war), but defending his fascist homeland wasn’t the ideal choice, there was a massive antifascist resistance at the time that many had run away to join instead, that was the proper “defend your homeland” movement as far as history is concerned.
For context, we’re from Croatia, i.e. Independent State of Croatia (Nazi puppet state) during 1941-1945, and then a part of socialist(ish) Yugoslavia 1945-1991.
Tough to say at this point, as I say in the other comment. He was likely conscripted (he was around 18 near the end of the war), but defending his fascist homeland wasn’t the ideal choice, there was a massive antifascist resistance at the time that many had run away to join instead, that was the proper “defend your homeland” movement as far as history is concerned.
For context, we’re from Croatia, i.e. Independent State of Croatia (Nazi puppet state) during 1941-1945, and then a part of socialist(ish) Yugoslavia 1945-1991.
Dang.
I can’t imagine having to make that choice as an 18 year-old kid. That’s huge, heavy stuff.