Josip Torbar (politician, born 1889)

Josip Torbar (12 April 1889 – 5 January 1963) was a Croatian politician and lawyer. He was a member of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) involved in leading of the party in the interwar period during the tenure of Vladko Maček and during the World War II. He was a member of the parliament of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and a minister in the governments of Dragiša Cvetković and Dušan Simović. During the World War II, Torbar met several times with Ante Pavelić, the head of the puppet regime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) ruled by Ustaše. In the meetings, Torbar attempted to secure a more favourable position for the HSS which was formally banned by Ustaše. Alternatively, Torbar tried to persuade Pavelić to change specific policies, remove certain officials from power, release arrested HSS members or hand over power to the HSS if the Western Allies prevail over the Nazi Germany.

In late 1943 and in 1944, Torbar was involved in planning of the Lorković–Vokić plot designed to remove Pavelić from power in the NDH, invite the Western Allies, disarm German troops and install the HSS in power. The plan failed and the conspirators, including Torbar were arrested and imprisoned. Torbar was released in May 1945 and he fled the country to Italy, and then to Argentina, Canada, and finally to the United States.

Early years
Josip Torbar was born in the hamlet of Hrženik near the village of Krašić south of Zagreb on 12 April 1889. He had a brother and two sisters. His paternal uncle was Josip Torbar – the president of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts and one of its founders. Torbar attended the secondary education in Požega Gymnasium and the I Gymnasium of Zagreb before studying law at the University of Zagreb. After graduation, he worked in law firms in Slavonski Brod and Zagreb. He opened his own law office in Zagreb in 1919 and became a notary public in 1925. Two years later, he opened a law firm together with his brother-in-law Ivan Pernar. Pernar was a member of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia) elected on the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) ticket, and shot in the parliament on 28 June 1928. Several HSS members were killed or died of wounds, but Pernar recovered. The fatalities included the HSS leader Stjepan Radić.

Torbar was married to Jelka until her death on 2 May 1937. He had two sons with her – Josip, nicknamed "Mirko", and Stjepan, nicknamed "Braco".

Interwar period
Torbar initially supported the Party of Rights, but switched allegiance to the HSS after the World War I. In 1925, he was first appointed a member of an HSS local organisation in Zagreb, and elected deputy HSS member of the Zagreb district assembly on Radić's initiative. Torbar was not a part of the HSS leadership until after introduction of the 6 January Dictatorship in 1929. Shortly thereafter, Torbar hosted the covert meeting of the HSS leadership consisting of Vladko Maček (Radić's successor as the head of the HSS), Josip Predavec, Juraj Krnjević, August Košutić, Ante Trumbić, and Pernar with Većeslav Wilder and Juraj Demetrović (of the Independent Democratic Party where further political activities under the dictatorship were discussed. By 1934, Torbar was included among Maček's closest associates along with Trumbić, Ivan Šubašić, and Vilko Begić. His political rise was aided by his relationship with Pernar as well as friendship with Aloysius Stepinac. (The latter was appointed the coadjutor bishop to Archbishop Antun Bauer in 1934.)

Torbar became more active politically in 1935. He was elected on the United Opposition ticket led by Maček in the Zlatar district in the 1935 Yugoslavian parliamentary election. He became a part of the top leadership of the HSS which included Maček as the president, Košutić as his deputy and Krnjević as the party secretary, as well as Ljudevit Tomašić, Juraj Šutej, Bariša Smoljan, Ivan Andres, Đuka Kemfelja, Josip Reberski, Tomo Jančiković, Šubašić, and Torbar. In this period, Torbar became the first deputy president of Hrvatski radiša – an organisation established for the purpose of placement of apprentices in workshops and retail stores. He held that position until 1940. Torbar was also the president of the HŠK Građanski Zagreb from 1937 to 1941 and the president of the Croatian Mountaineering Association between 1939 and 1941. Following the 1939 Cvetković–Maček Agreement, Torbar was appointed the Minister of Posts, Telegraph, and Telephone in the government of Dragiša Cvetković.

Negotiations with Pavelić
Torbar remained in the ministerial position in the government of General Dušan Simović following the 1941 Yugoslav coup d'état. He left the government following subsequent Axis powers Invasion of Yugoslavia. He retreated with the rest of the government from Belgrade to the town of Pale near Sarajevo. There he attended his final government meeting on 13 April before making his way to Zagreb. The Axis powers enabled establishment of the puppet regime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) ruled by Ustaše led by Ante Pavelić in large parts of pre-war Yugoslavia. Some of the HSS members joined Ustaše, but none of the top leadership members (Maček, Košutić and Krnjević). Torbar remained loyal to Maček.

The NDH banned the HSS in June 1941 and detained Maček in the village of Kupinec under house arrest. In summer of 1941, Torbar met Pavelić and informed him that the HSS would not object to Ustaše holding on to power as long as the Axis powers have the upper hand, provided that there are "smart politics" in place and "compromised Ustaše are removed". In return, Pavelić promised reforms and the role of "tolerated opposition" for the HSS, but none of the promises were kept. Instead, in late summer or early autumn of 1941, after an envoy of the Nazi Germany Plenipotentiary General to the NDH Edmund Glaise-Horstenau visited Maček in Kupinec to see if Maček would replace Pavelić, the situation deteriorated for the HSS. Afraid that Germany or Italy would install Maček as head of the NDH or, the Ustaše ordered that Maček be taken to the Jasenovac concentration camp on 15 October. He was returned to house arrest in Kupinec in March 1942.

In summer of 1942, Torbar met with the NDH Minister of Interior Ante Nikšić and the two discussed the possibility of addition of the HSS to the Government of the NDH and gradual elimination of Ustaše from power. According to Pavelić's close ally Vjekoslav Vrančić, the meeting was not authorised by Pavelić, but was supported by Germans who sought to replace Pavelić. Torbar met Pavelić again in late 1942 when the Ustaše leader explained that the HSS would not be legalised while Germans were there, adding that the "HSS is to be kept in reserve for the English". Torbar urged Pavelić to change its policies of persecution of Serbs and Jews because that reinforced popular discontent and led to increased support of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia-led Partisans. In 1942, Torbar met Pavelić few more times to request release of arrested HSS members.

Lorković–Vokić plot
Contacts between Ustaše and the HSS resumed in summer and autumn 1943. The NDH Interior Minister Mladen Lorković and Prime Minister Nikola Mandić met a group of HSS members, including Torbar, led by Košutić. Mandić and Lorković offered to form a coalition government, but Košutić declined and proposed to form a government independent of either party with the task of restoring order and turning the power over to the HSS. Torbar was tasked with enlisting the support of (by then Archbishop) Stepinac in persuading Pavelić to concede power. The HSS felt this was possible first due to the news of the Allied invasion of Sicily, followed by Armistice of Cassibile, and finally by expected support of officers in the Croatian Armed Forces. In November 1943, Torbar received a letter from the former NDH Minister of Armed Forces Slavko Kvaternik urging the HSS to take over power in the NDH.

In spring 1944, another Pavelić's offer to the HSS leaders for establishment of a coalition government was rejected. In March 1944, Lorković conspired with the NDH Minister of Armed Forces General Ante Vokić to devise a plan involving leading HSS members and Croatian Home Guard officers loyal to them to seize power in the NDH, disarm German forces stationed there, remove Pavelić from power, and invite the Western Allies to land on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Torbar was mentioned as a potential contact person between the HSS leadership and the Western Allies in Italy. The Lorković–Vokić plot failed and the conspirators, including Torbar and several other HSS members were taken to the Lepoglava prison in September 1944. Torbar was released shortly before the defeat of the NDH in May 1945, probably in response to a request by Stepinac.

Exile and death
Torbar left the country with his sons in early May 1945. They first went to Austria and then to Rome where he helped run the local HSS office. Torbar later went from Rome to Buenos Aires and then to Montreal before finally moving to the New York City in 1953. In the United States, Torbar stayed in Pernar's new home, taking up speaking engagements at Croatian diaspora venues. Torbar died in the New York City on 5 January 1963. He was buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery, but his remains were transferred to Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb on 18 April 1995.